Kate turns nine

On the day of Kate's birthday, Shui went to her house early in the morning. Unlike last time, Shui was fine with being there for the morning session. Kate was wondering if she should pick him up, so she was glad that he came of his own volition.

When the guests started coming in, Kate walked out of her room with Lilia.

"What do you think?" Kate asked in her ocean blue dress with her hair done in twin hair buns.

"Looks good."

"Of course."

"What-, you're rather confident."

Shui chuckled as he looked at the proud smirk on Kate's face. Lilia looked fondly at the two, who she hoped would stay together for much longer.

This birthday gathering was a bit different from last time. The main difference being the clan's view of Shui. They no longer saw him as just a bastard cripple, they couldn't. He was now one of the most talented geniuses in the clan so very few openly showed their dissatisfaction when he stayed beside Kate. Of these few, there were a set of ladies who had fantasies of getting closer to the cute new genius.

Besides them, Olly looked at Shui with obvious envy and hatred in his eyes. Ever since Shui's appearance, even his own parents became disappointed by him.

'It's all his fault! If only he stayed a cripple.'

Looking at his little brother fuming with rage, Rodrick raised an eyebrow.

"What's up with you?" He asked.

"Uh, oh, um, nothing." Olly nervously responded. Though he was more talented than his brother who was four years older than him, due to his age, his brother was always stronger than him and always reminded him of that fact. A little brotherly bonding as he called it.

Olly's refute was obviously not fooling Rodrick, so he looked at the place where Olly was previously sending his furious gaze. It was the sight of Kate and Shui standing side by side while talking cheerfully.

'Oh, so that's it.'

"Lil' bro, you got a few spirit gems from dad right?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"

Spirit gems were the standard currency for sect disciples. This was especially because they could be used to cultivate since they contained concentrated nature energy. Selling one of the lowest purity that was the size of a baby's fist, would bring in about one gold. It was a tiny amount to Shui, but to someone who didn't work like Rodrick, it was something to kill for.

"If you give them to me, I'll teach that kid a lesson."

"What?! But, won't the elders punish you?"

"Tsk tsk, stupid brother. The elders haven't decided on how to treat him yet. If they did, they would have given him some treasures or position to make him more loyal to the clan. Since they haven't, even if I beat him black and blue, they won't interfere as long as there's no permanent injury."

"Uh, well."

Olly was honestly tempted by his brother's deal. He had always been suppressed by Shui's talent and strength, never able to make him suffer a loss. He was now in the fourth level in the Mortal Realm, but Shui was in the fifth level a couple months ago so there was no way he was his match. However, Rodrick was at the peak of the Mortal Realm. Surely this would be enough to teach the bastard his place. Even so, spirit gems were also very beneficial to Olly's cultivation. Some said that absorbing nature energy from the atmosphere was the best option in the Mortal Realm, but Olly believed that was only the ranting of the poor. With spirit gems his cultivation would improve much quicker so it was obviously the better method.

Seeing that his little brother was still hesitating, Rodrick pushed a bit further.

"I won't force you. If you're okay with always being inferior to that guy, then that's your choice."

"Urgh, fine! It's a deal."

With Rodrick's final push, Olly accepted his offer and looked at Shui with anger in his eyes, but a smirk on his face.

When Shui and Kate saw Olly and his brother approach them, Shui raised an eyebrow while Kate merely sent them a glance. The two stopped in front of them, both wearing arrogant smirks.

"It's been a while," said Olly.

"I guess."

Shui didn't see the point of this conversation so he replied halfheartedly. Normally, Olly would get upset, but since he knew Shui wouldn't so indifferent for long he kept his smirk.

"My name's Rodrick. I'm his older brother." Rodrick stretched his hand out to Shui.

Shui saw this but intentionally ignored the hand and looked at Rodrick.

"I see, can I help you?"

"I just wanted to get some pointers from the newest genius of our clan."

Even Kate had to scoff at this response. Not only was he older than them but she knew that his cultivation was stuck at the peak of the Mortal Realm. And yet he was asking for pointers? Shameless!

Shui had the same opinion of Rodrick.

"No, I don't want to." Shui said this before he turned around to leave with Kate. However, at this moment Rodrick launched a punch from behind.

'Hmph, this'll teach you.'

Obviously, Shui reacted to it and caught the fist in his hand.

"Hah..., I didn't plan on fighting today," Shui sighed and then looked at Kate,"Do you mind?"

"It's fine. I was missing some entertainment anyways." Kate replied with a devious smile.

While their conversation went on, Rodrick tried to withdraw his fist but he couldn't overcome the strength of Shui's grip.

'What the hell! How is this kid so strong!?'

Only after getting confirmation from Kate, did Shui release his fist and turn to him. By this time, everyone had noticed what was going on here, but none interfered. The onlookers could be broadly split into two groups, those who wanted to watch for the fun of it, and those who were curious about Shui's strength.

Once his fist was freed, Rodrick took five steps back and stared at Shui with shock and apprenhension in his heart. No one could get an accurate read on Shui's cultivation since his aura was always hard to detect, but since Kate was in the seventh level in the Mortal Realm, most thought that he was about the same level. However, Rodrick didn't think he was weak enough for even a fellow ninth level cultivator to stop his fist so nonchalantly, much less the boy in front of him. He had no idea what sort of monster he was dealing with, but he had to convince himself that there was some trick involved. He couldn't back down anymore, so he had to raise his fists.

Shui looked at Rodrick's movements, from the motion of his arms, to the oscillations of his chest from breathing. This was a foe he could easily overpower with just his body, but he didn't find any reason to show off on this day.

'I guess I'll just use technique.'

Since fighting against beasts was different from fighting humans, Shui thought he should use this oppurtunity to get some sparring practice against someone other than Kate.

"Ahhh!" Rodrick shouted in order to psych himself up and charged at Shui.

He initiated a kick to Shui's right temple but Shui dodged by ducking and then swept Rodrick's other leg. Before reaching the ground, Rodrick used his hands to stop his head from crashing, and then quickly stood up once more. He looked at Shui, who showed no expression, but he believed he was being looked down on. He imagined everyone at the scene laughing at him, and that worked him up even more.

This time, Rodrick threw two punches at Shui, both easily evaded. He then struck with his knee, or tried to. Before he could fully raise his knee, Shui stopped it with his foot. Being stuck in the shameful position of Shui stepping on his knee had him fuming, but he was too weak to do anything. To make it even worse, Shui then used his knee as a stepping stone and delivered a jumping kick to his chin, knocking him off balance.

"You done yet?" Shui asked while looking at Rodrick who crouched with one knee on the ground.

Indignation and fury corrupted Rodrick's brain so much that he ignored the fact that he was facing a child and pulled out a knife from his waist.

"I'll kill you!"

Of the spectators watching this, some attempted to intervene but were too slow, some were indifferent, and some hoped to see Shui suffer. Overall, no one interfered. They only do watched as Shui caught the wrist of the hand holding the knife and flipped over Rodrick. If he hadn't pulled out a knife, the matter would have ended there.

"Ahh!!!" Rodrick screamed as he felt the pain from having his wrist snapped too far back.

"You cruel child! How could you-?" A spectator shouted out against Shui for this, but including the cold stares of those who had just seen Rodrick pull a knife on a child, Shui's mere glance at this person nearly stopped his heart. This was someone in the third level of the Soul Realm, but they still couldn't handle the pressure Shui could dish out as someone who killed a beast spirit.

"Let's go Kate."

After settling this business, Shui walked to Kate and the two went away from the scene.