Flowing Sword art

Huang Yang had a weird look on his face as he looked at the servant girl, who was, in reality, older than him by about three years. He had no idea that Huang Hao had gotten a servant for Huang Mei. It honestly didn't seem like them.

In the current day of age, a servant was almost seen as a slave, just as Huang Yao had said. It wasn't illegal to beat, torture, or kill a servant. Some might think ill of you, but what could they do about it?

"Tell me about yourself", Huang Yang said, hoping to find an understanding.

Zhou Ru still had a red glow on her cheeks. Tonight had likely been a bit too much for her. An older girl had tried to kill her but was stopped by a younger boy, who had a cold face.

She tried to focus on his question while cleaning out her black hair. Her blue eyes soon became dazed, as she looked back at how she got here.

"I haven't worked for the family that long, only a couple of months", said Zhou Ru as she began her explanation.

It turned out she came from Bright City, governed by the Huang family. She found out that she possessed talent in cultivation, and even advanced to the opening realm at the age of 10.

From then, she tried to get accepted into the Huang family, wanting to continue this path. Unfortunately, she hadn't been lucky when trying to join. Family members and hired soldiers had held her back.

For some time, all she could do was clean the different houses, without even getting a chance to practice martial arts. One had to know that a manual was the way to advance. It could teach a person how to move their qi and gather strength.

The fighting method Huang Yang had learned, Scorched Steel, had taught him how to move his qi within the body, creating connections with the elements and driving his qi into another level.

Apparently, a lot of young talent, from mortal families and cities never advanced, since all they could do was help clean or maybe cook. Many choose to return home with nothing to show, while others would lose the golden years of their youth, doing nothing but cleaning.

Huang Yang felt like he had discovered a new world. He had been sheltered in too many ways. Now that he thought about it, he had never really met any servant. The only people outside his family, that he knew of, were Pen Min and Lei Nianzu.

Both of them had high positions, while also having personal relationships with their parents or grandfather. He really didn't know what else was going on around the Huang family estate.

Thinking about it, he actually thought, that Huang Hao taking her in, was far better for her. She could help around the house, and even begin to cultivate. Huang Yang had seen the Flowing Sword Dance scroll held in her hands.

Huang Yang may have gotten more closed off from his family, but he still held a tremendous interest in martial arts. The interest had honestly reached new heights.

Looking at the scroll in the girl's hand, his eyes sparkled a bit. "Mind showing me your technique?", he asked Zhou Ru.

She shook in surprise, but couldn't help but smile happily. She always wanted to train and advance, but who would teach her. This boy may seem younger than her, but she couldn't help herself from thinking that he may be able to help her.

She hurriedly bowed before realizing that she had forgotten her sword as she ran away from Huang Yao. She had simply been too scared, fully forgetting everything except the manual.

With an awkward face, she explains how she had forgotten it when running. Huang Yang gave a slight chuckle, as it reminded him about how he had done the same this evening, yet he hadn't forgotten it due to fear.

Seeing that a slight smile had appeared on the boy's lips, she let out a sigh of relief. This boy didn't want to punish her for it, he even found it a bit funny.

"Come on, I'll go with you to uncle Hao's house", Huang Yang said, before turning around and walking towards the direction Huang Yao had run off to. She was likely already home, and wouldn't be more of an annoyance tonight.

Zhou Ru almost tripped as she followed the young boy, who was walking with a steady pace deep within the forest. Snow still fell from high in the sky, as if trying to turn her black hair white.

Due to the branches blocking out the moonlight, she had a hard time seeing. Most of the time all she heard was the boy's footsteps, as his feet landed on the snow. While the night was dark, she felt safe.

The forest soon came to a close, as the moon illuminated a white field just outside the walls surrounding a house. The darkness began to escape from the light, quietly revealing Huang Yang with his cold face.

Zhou Ru looked at the small back from behind. Respect and admiration were within her eyes as she looked at the small back of his. She was older and naturally taller, yet his back seemed strong and broad in the night. "Who are you?", she mumbled.

"Looks like you can show me your martial arts now", Huang Yang said as he pointed to a sword in the middle of the snow. She would normally train outside the walls of Huang Hao's house.

Zhou Ru awakened from her dazed state, before moving towards the sword. It was a small straight sword, with a blue grip. Nothing seemed special about it, yet she cared for it. As a young girl from the mortal world, she had never gotten permission to use a sword, before becoming a servant of Huang Hao.

She held the sword to her side with closed eyes. She was slowly driving her qi within her body. Compared to how Huang Yang normally did it, she had a smoother flow now.

She slowly raised her sword along with her small body. Her sword pointed towards the sky, as she was balancing her entire weight on her toes.

With a swift motion, she brought down her sword while twisting her hips. Her body began to spin as she jumped atop the snow. Her every step seemed graceful, while her body rotated in the air.

Huang Yang could clearly see that a person would have a hard time getting close to her. She could easily evade attacks with her dance, while delivering unseen strikes, as her person couldn't be sure, about the moves. Some seemed to hold power, while others were simply part of a dance.

As her qi began to move faster, snow began gathering at her sword instead of landing on the ground. This was the purpose of the technique. Nearby water would gather around the sword as the dance continued.

Her eyes were still closed as her power intensified. More and more snow began to follow her blade. With a push of power, she aimed at the ground. A white gale of snow followed her sword. She felt a pop in her body as her power grew.

More snow followed as her sword struck the ground, followed by a boom from the gathered water element.

On the ground in front of her, the snow had vanished as a small crater appeared. Her strike seemed to have dug into the ground to a certain extent.

Her power was quite astonishing. Huang Yang could clearly see why Huang Yao saw this girl as a threat. There was a clear difference in talent. Huang Yao had advance due to the power of Huang Hong, as he could no longer help Huang Zhilan.

Zhou Ru, however, had never gotten help when it came to martial arts. Her family likely had other children, all of them being common mortals. It was actually not that uncommon for a mortal to be born with talent, but they were mostly never discovered.

Only very few groups would accept mortals since they had no prior knowledge. They were actually seen more as resources than people in the eyes of cultivators. Some even killed them and absorbed their blood, as if they were some kind of medicine, only used to advance in their own cultivation.

Huang Yang gave Zhou Ru a deep look. He had a feeling that she had broken through, due to the boost in power at the end. Her day really had turned out better than expected.

"Congratulation, if you ever want to train, then my name is Huang Yang", he said before turning around. He thought that it might be time for him to return home, as he couldn't really train without his sword.

Zhou Ru seemed lost in thought as she heard the boy's name, yet she couldn't remember anything regarding it. She wasn't really part of the family, only a servant, so she didn't get that much news.

She bowed to the young boy, before turning around and almost shouting in the middle of the night, "Sister Mei, I have broken through!".

He honestly didn't really help her...