Naked Sword Art

"This is Long Wang, he's a close friend of mine."

Xiao Fang told Xiao Hei to refer to him as Long Wang from now on and to introduce him as such.

"Long Wang, huh..."

"Xiao Fei Lin, aren't you going to introduce her to me?" Xiao Fang said.

"Ah right, this is Li Xiang, Patriarch's daughter of the Li Family clan."

"I see, so it's another Li family clansmen," Xiao Fang said. He finally realized why Xiao Hei was being friendly with her.

"Another Li family clansmen?" Li Xiang replied.

"We know someone else with the surname Li. Well, more than know actually, she is my fiancée," Xiao Fang replied.

"You're fiancée! Who is it?"

"Perhaps another time. We should get back to doing the exam," Xiao Fang suggested.

Xiao Fang didn't like revealing too much about himself to strangers, and he preferred to keep certain things about himself a mystery so that people would be curious about him.

What Xiao Fang didn't realize was just how effective it was on her. She was the Patriarch's only daughter in the Li family clan, so she felt it was her responsibility to know everything about her people. However, this was the first time she was hearing about Long Wang.

"Hey, Fei Lin. Do you know who his fiancée is?" Li Xiang whisperer.

Xiao Hei smiled as she nodded.

"Can you tell me who it is?"

"It's Li Lian."

Xiao Fang felt like he was suddenly hit by a massive boulder. He didn't expect Xiao Hei to reveal a secret like that so easily. Although the secret wasn't big, it was still something Li Lian didn't want people to know yet.

'She must really trust Li Xiang,' Xiao Fang thought.

Despite learning who his fiancée was, Li Xiang was curious about him now, more than ever. Even if Li Lian was born into a noble family, she still had a fairly poor reputation. She wasn't given the nickname Crazy Lian for nothing.

"Long Wang, is your fiancée really Li Lian?" she asked for him to confirm.

"It is," Xiao Fang admitted. "Li Lian wants to keep this a secret, can I trust you not to share this information with anyone?"

"... Sure, I won't tell anyone about this." Li Xiang replied almost unconvincingly. Truth was, she was fairly bad at keeping secrets.

Xiao Fang sighed, but there was nothing he could do about it now. What was done was done, all he could do now was move on and pretend nothing happened.

Li Xiang wanted to learn more about him, but he didn't seem too interested in talking. Without even realizing it, she was now following him through the maze, and so was Xiao Hei.

Xiao Hei seemed content to follow Xiao Fang without question, but Li Xiang wanted to work on it together. Every time she wanted to share her input on which path to take it seemed that they had already made up their mind.

"Shouldn't we think about this first? How do we know that we're not just walking around in circles," Li Xiang said.

"Don't worry about that, Long Wang is really good with this sort of stuff. We should trust him," Xiao Hei reaffirmed her.

Li Xiang was reluctant to follow him, but she did so anyway. The terrain gradually began to change, signifying that they were reaching the end. However, they eventually encountered a problem.

The path they were walking on eventually ended. There wasn't a wall blocking their path, but a large abyss.

"Long Wang, wait!!" Li Xiang screamed.

She then jumped in front of him, stopping him before he could fall over the cliff.

Despite being blindfolded, Xiao Fang was easily able to navigate through the maze without any problems, so why was Xiao Fang not able to see the cliff in front of him.

'Could it be another illusion,' Li Xiang thought.

If it was really an illusion, then she feared that she had made a fool of herself. However, no matter how she looked at it, she couldn't see through the illusion. Eventually she was completely convinced that it wasn't an illusion. If she didn't stop him, he definitely would have fallen.

Xiao Hei was also confused. The reason she didn't stop him was because she trusted him wholeheartedly. She wanted to confirm it by tossing a stone into the abyss, so she picked up a stone then tossed it down.

Li Xiang saw what Xiao Hei was doing and thought it was a clever idea.

Xiao Hei released the stone then watched the stone fall. The most frightening thing was that they never heard the rock hitting the bottom. Just how deep is this hole.

A slight chill ran down Xiao Hei's spine as she looked up at Xiao Fang. She didn't realize it before, but it really seemed as if Li Xiang had saved his life.

"How do we get past it?" Li Xiang wondered.

["Xiao Fang, can't we just jump over it?"] Xiao Hei asked Xiao Fang via spirit transmission.

The door was actually only a few dozen meters away, so the easiest way for them to get to the other side was if they simply jumped over it. However, Xiao Fang rejected that idea. He had no intentions of revealing his body cultivation realm to Li Xiang, they had only just met.

Li Xiang suddenly pointed out to the right. It seemed that there was a rope connecting one of the paths to the exit.

"We need to find the path that leads to that exit and walk across that rope to get to the other side," Li Xiang suggested.

She wasn't excited about going back to find the correct path, but it seemed like it was their only option.

"There are no other paths. All of them lead to this one. An interesting concept fitting for us cultivators."

Xiao Fang began to read the words carved above the exit door in large characters.

[ There are no shortcuts. A path of a cultivator is a path against the Heavens ]

"What does that even mean?" Li Xiang said.

"There are many paths a cultivator can take, but there is only one dao; one way. A way against the natural order, a way against all odds and reason, a way against the heavens."

"What does that mean? You're not making any sense," Li Xiang complained.

However, Xiao Hei's eyes were sparkling in admiration. She understood exactly what he was saying and agreed wholeheartedly. Nothing about being a cultivator was easy, you must abandon the luxury of comfort and push past your limits everyday. That was what separated a great cultivator from a mediocre one.

Xiao Fang then turned his head slightly towards Xiao Hei's direction.

"How are you with water."

"I hate it," Xiao Hei replied bluntly.

"In that case you better stick the landing."

Li Xiang couldn't follow their conversation, but she was getting a bad feeling from it.

"What are you 2 planning?" Li Xiang asked nervously.

"There's only one way to pass this exam. If you want to pass, then I suggest you hold on."

"Hold on to what?"

Xiao Fang suddenly grabbed Li Xiang then jumped into the bottomless pit. Xiao Hei, with a smirk on her face, followed Xiao Fang down.

"Aghhhhhh!!!! You crazy bastard!!"