Master of Nine Stars

The daytime clamor faded away, and night fell upon the quiet north side of the Martial Arts Arena.

Under the faint glow of the lights from inside the hall, a figure was earnestly writing something in the snow with a Heaven-piercing Halberd in hand.

This was the north side of the Martial Arts Hall, right next to a pine forest. Under normal circumstances, no one ever came here.

But evidently, Rong Taotao had found a suitable spot to ”practice his calligraphy.”

After all, the south side of the Martial Arts Hall was the outdoor Martial Arts Arena, where too many people trained. Besides, the concrete ground there was swept daily, making it hard for Rong Taotao to find an untouched patch of snow.

Besides, he didn’t want anyone else to see this particular trick of his.

After who knows how long, once Rong Taotao had ruined patch after patch of smooth snow, a figure rounded the corner of the Martial Arts Hall.

It was Gao Lingwei, fresh from a shower. Her long hair was down, clearly just blow-dried. Her normally fair cheeks were flushed a rosy color in the cold winter night, and in the faint light from the hall, she looked exceptionally alluring.

She was a natural-born model, dressed in black trousers and leather boots, with a black woolen overcoat draped over her shoulders.

Dressed like this, she clearly had no intention of training further. Instead, she was ready to teach Rong Taotao how to write.

Unfortunately, this beautiful sight went unnoticed at first.

Standing at the edge of the Pine Forest, Rong Taotao was focused on diligently ruining the pristine snow.

As he wrote with his halberd, Rong Taotao was also working hard to absorb Soul Power. He had a feeling he could advance a Minor Rank at any moment. ’If I could level up while practicing my calligraphy... Hmm, that would be so cool!’

Gao Lingwei strode forward. She stepped onto the thick snow without leaving the slightest footprint and quietly approached Rong Taotao from behind. Bathed in the faint light, she looked down at the characters at his feet.

Gao Lingwei couldn’t help but make an odd expression.

’These characters... Well, you can’t say they’re ugly, but they have absolutely nothing to do with being attractive.’

Gao Lingwei spoke up. ”They say one’s handwriting reflects their personality.”

”Holy crap!” Rong Taotao jumped in fright. He spun around, and only relaxed when he saw Gao Lingwei standing behind him. ”You don’t make a sound when you walk.”

Gao Lingwei smiled. ”It’s just that you were too focused.”

Gao Lingwei glanced at the crooked characters on the ground. ’To be able to write this atrociously and still be so focused... I have to give Rong Taotao some credit...’

”Tsk.” Rong Taotao clicked his tongue, looking Gao Lingwei up and down. He was so used to seeing her in training camos that he wasn’t quite adjusted to her sudden switch to a chic, feminine style.

Gao Lingwei, however, pulled her phone from her pocket and waved it at Rong Taotao.

”What’s this?” Rong Taotao took it from her and saw a photo on the screen.

Gao Lingwei explained, ”Xingyu took it for us this afternoon, during our curtain call at the arena.”

Rong Taotao raised an eyebrow. It definitely looked like something Sun Xingyu would shoot. Only someone with her short legs could get an angle like this.

The picture showed a sea of blurry figures and a forest of cheering, waving arms held high.

Through the shifting crowd and arms, in the center of the distant green field, the figures of Rong Taotao and Gao Lingwei were small but still reasonably clear.

In the shot, Gao Lingwei was holding Rong Taotao’s wrist, raising it high as she gazed out at the jubilant crowd, acknowledging the spectators.

But Rong Taotao... had his head turned, silently gazing at her profile.

Gao Lingwei said softly, ”If she hadn’t taken this photo, I never would have known you were looking at me during the curtain call.”

”Ah, haha,” Rong Taotao chuckled, handing the phone back. ”Case closed.”

Gao Lingwei raised an eyebrow slightly. ”What case?”

Rong Taotao shrugged. ”The case of which one of us likes the other more.”

”Oh, please.” Gao Lingwei scoffed playfully at Rong Taotao. Looking at the picture on her phone, she said, ”I posted it on my social media.”

”Haha, you think I’m not catching enough flak as it is?” Rong Taotao laughed.

”Hmm...” At his words, Gao Lingwei’s finger hovered over the screen, and she did seem to hesitate.

”Post it. I was just kidding. I’m not afraid of a little gossip,” Rong Taotao said, waving his hand dismissively.

After thinking it over, Gao Lingwei put her phone back in her pocket anyway. ”I’ll teach you how to write.”

Rong Taotao nodded immediately. ”Great! How do we start?”

Gao Lingwei said, ”As for how you hold the halberd, just do whatever feels comfortable. We’re not using pens, after all.”

Rong Taotao: ”Alright.”

Gao Lingwei: ”Trace my writing.”

”Huh?”

Gao Lingwei waved her left hand above her head, and a swath of White Lantern Paper Cages drifted out, spreading like specks of starlight above them.

She casually drew out a Heaven-piercing Halberd and carefully wrote two large words in the snow: Rong Taotao.

Rong Taotao pursed his lips. The moment he saw the first character, ”Rong,” he took his Heaven-piercing Halberd and stealthily erased all the characters he had previously written in the snow.

’Comparisons are odious,’ he thought. ’Some things are best not compared.’

Gao Lingwei saw Rong Taotao secretly erasing his previous work. She shot him a smiling glance but didn’t say anything, simply tilting her head in a gesture. ”Go on.”

”Oh.” Rong Taotao planted his halberd in the snow, its tip landing on the first horizontal stroke of the character. He followed the grooves Gao Lingwei had left, dragging the weapon to the right.

’It’s all just writing. The same basic strokes. Why does it look so different when different people write it?’

Following the outline Gao Lingwei had provided, Rong Taotao felt like a fish in water. ’Who can’t trace something?’

Feeling it wasn’t difficult at all, Rong Taotao asked, ”Is this all there is to it? Just trace your strokes?”

Gao Lingwei tossed her Heaven-piercing Halberd aside, took a few steps back, and leaned against the wall of the Martial Arts Hall. She casually pulled out her phone and, while fiddling with it, said softly, ”Mhm. Trace it a thousand times. If a thousand isn’t enough, then do it two thousand times. Once you’ve traced it enough, it’ll come naturally.”

”Jeez.” Rong Taotao scratched his head. ”Maybe you shouldn’t be my teacher. With an attitude like that, it’s like you’re a completely different person.”

”Didn’t you want to practice your signature without using a pen?” Gao Lingwei looked up and gave Rong Taotao a playful glare. ”Stop talking nonsense and trace. I’ll keep you company.”

”Go on, keep spoiling him,” a lazy voice suddenly drifted down from the floor above.

They both turned their heads to look up and saw Si Huan Nian leaning out of a window, holding a bag of crispy noodle snacks and chewing loudly. CRUNCH, CRUNCH.

Rong Taotao’s eyes lit up. ”What flavor is it? Let me have a bag, too.”

Si Huan Nian’s eyebrows shot up as she barked, ”Practice your writing! All you think about is food! CRUNCH, CRUNCH...”

”Fine...” Rong Taotao pouted, turned back around, and thrust his halberd toward the next part of the character, beginning to trace it seriously.

Si Huan Nian leaned farther out, looking down at Gao Lingwei by the wall. ”You’re fighting the Bai Brothers in the finals tomorrow. Are you confident?”

Gao Lingwei sighed. ”We’re not allowed to summon Soul Pets, which is a shame. Otherwise, the blizzard they’d summon wouldn’t affect my vision and would actually be more of an advantage for me.”

”They use short blades. Should I give you some last-minute training in knife... hm?” Si Huan Nian trailed off mid-sentence, her gaze shifting to Rong Taotao, who was diligently writing at the edge of the Pine Forest.

A faint fluctuation of energy was emanating from him...

’Is this kid about to advance?’

CRUNCH. Si Huan Nian chewed her snack subconsciously, then immediately pulled her head back inside and gently closed the window to avoid disturbing Rong Taotao’s advancement.

Gao Lingwei silently put down her phone and watched Rong Taotao, keeping him company without making a sound.

In the snowy field, Rong Taotao’s posture was peculiar. He held the halberd with both hands, its tip still resting in the groove of Gao Lingwei’s writing, completely motionless, like a statue.

Finally, he got what he wanted.

The perfect moment to break through, the posture of writing, and the person silently keeping him company.

...

「At 9:30 PM」

Rong Taotao returned to his dorm room right on time. Si Huan Nian had just finished washing up and was walking out of the bathroom. Seeing his jubilant expression, she asked, ”Success?”

”Mid-tier Soul Warrior!” Rong Taotao nodded eagerly. ”And it’s not just my Soul Power level! I feel like my Soul Technique level is about to break through, too!”

”Hm, not bad.” Si Huan Nian sighed softly and walked toward her bed. ”This growth rate is certainly ideal. By the way, Principal Mei wanted me to tell you that you can apply for rewards like Soul Pearls and Soul Pets. Just tell me what you want.”

”Soul Pearls and Soul Pets?” Rong Taotao froze for a second. ”But I haven’t won the tournament yet. The finals are tomorrow, right?”

Si Huan Nian said, ”It’s a reward from the school for developing a New Soul Skill. You can be greedy. Don’t be too polite.”

Rong Taotao’s heart leaped with joy. ”An elite-grade Chest Soul Slot Soul Bead!”

As she spread her quilt, Si Huan Nian said, ”I told you to be greedy! Don’t worry about Gao Lingwei. Once you two win the school tournament, you can apply for an elite-grade Soul Pearl like that as your reward.”

Rong Taotao: ”Huh?”

Si Huan Nian plopped down on her bed and chided with a laugh, ”Greedy! Don’t you get it? After all this time, you still don’t understand how significant creating a new Soul Skill is to our society?”

Rong Taotao thought for a moment, then asked tentatively, ”Could I get the opportunity to go train at Cloud Peak?”

”Hm?” That request clearly caught Si Huan Nian by surprise. After thinking it over, she said, ”Taotao, the Arctic Circle is a lawless land. It’s chaotic, with all kinds of factions mixed together. I know you probably want to learn a few Cloud Peak Soul Skills temporarily, just like you did with the Starfield techniques.

”But you know you have the Snow Realm Treasure, the Nine-Petaled Lotus, inside you. You can’t go into such a dangerous place right now. You have to at least wait until you have some ability to protect yourself, or until you can use the Lotus Petals skillfully, before you go to the homeland of the Cloud Dogs.”

”Okay.” Rong Taotao nodded with a helpless look on his face. ”Then how am I supposed to be greedy? I’d love a Snowball Cat for a Soul Pet, but there’s no way the school can get one of those. Even the Snow Burning Army doesn’t have a single one of those strategically valuable Soul Pets.”

Si Huan Nian asked, ”You want a Soul Pet?”

Rong Taotao thought for a moment, then steeled himself. ”An Ice Soul Guide, a Snow Monk, a Frost Beauty... any of those will do. Just get me one.”

Si Huan Nian’s expression grew more and more priceless. Talk about asking for the moon!

’Is he really asking for top-tier Epic and Mythical grade creatures right off the bat?’

’And the ones he mentioned are all Humanoid Soul Beasts with extremely high intelligence. To have one as a Soul Pet, you’d have to raise it from infancy.’

’What is he trying to do?’

’Is dating not enough to satisfy you anymore? Are you planning to start raising a kid for fun?’

”What you’re asking for is unrealistic. Those species don’t exist within the Three-Wall Area,” Si Huan Nian said, slipping under her covers. ”Forget it. After you advance to Soul Captain, you’ll have three empty Soul Slots. I’ll discuss it with Chunxi tomorrow and see how we can buff you up.

”Since your Soul Technique improves so quickly anyway, we’ll use this chance to get you a set of master-level Soul Pearls.”

’Oh-ho?’

’Weren’t you acting all high and mighty just a second ago? Weren’t you the one who told me to be greedy?’

Rong Taotao chuckled mischievously. ”I don’t want those. I want a Snow Monk! I want a Frost Beauty!”

Si Huan Nian pulled the covers over her head and turned to face the wall. ”Lights out. Go to sleep.”

Rong Taotao protested, ”It’s not even ten yet!”

”Sleep!”

”Can I at least wash up first? Are you done brushing your teeth?”

”I’m done. Just be quick about it.”

”Okay, got it. Hey, Coach Si, are you hungry?”

’Hungry?’

’When am I ever *not* hungry?’

’I JUST BRUSHED MY TEETH!’

Si Huan Nian violently threw back her covers, vaulted out of bed, and charged furiously toward Rong Taotao. ”I’ll teach you to mess with me!”