"Were you looking for us?"

Xu Xiaoshou pointed at his nose and met eyes with the three swordsmen who had already walked in front of him.

​​

Gu Qingyi frowned.

He thought, 'Was this rascal....' He was the rascal whom he had bumped into at the door of Plenty Gold Company on that particular day. This was the rascal who did not know his own depth.

He checked Xu Xiaoshou before and had confirmed that he was incapable of sword cognition. Somehow, he had managed to come into contact with ghost beasts too.

From a logical standpoint, he did not want to engage with this man for long.

Somehow, his subconscious had drawn himself to this man, and he had found himself in front of Xu Xiaoshou.

Gu Qingyi hesitated but asked his questions regardless. "Was there anyone else around before you?"

"Anyone?"

Xu Xiaoshou had known their intention before they arrived. In terms of sword cognition, they must have been attracted by his Sword Observation Manual to have congregated there.

However, with that knowledge, these guys had instantly removed Xu Xiaoshou from the list of potential destructors.

This was a rare sight.

"There are many people who have passed by here. Who are you looking for?"

He fixed his gaze on the leader of the three men. However, his Perception had locked on the sword that was held in the man's arm.

The sword was none other than a famed sword.

Back then, he had been in a rush. He had to deal with Jiao Tangtang, which left him little time to observe the man's famed sword.

Now, he was able to inspect the sword in detail. Xu Xiaoshou was blown away by how spectacular the sword of the 21 Famed Swords was.

The sword was an ancient sword with a greyish white body. It was a sword of with a cold nature. Using Perception, Xu Xiaoshou was able to tell the temperature of the sword.

If the grey sheath was removed, it would unveil the true blade of the famed sword. The sight of the sheath alone brought Xu Xiaoshou an unexplainable chill of evil.

He was certain about the feeling. There was no doubt that the feeling was evil. It was indeed a peculiar feeling and one that Xu Xiaoshou could not describe with clarity.

This was all that he could think of as he observed the sword from where he was. The word evil replayed constantly in his mind.

One was able to feel an eerie sense of unease in the deepest part of the heart simply by observing the scabbard of the greyish white and icy ancient sword.

To prevent himself from falling deeper into the spiral of the famed sword, Xu Xiaoshou turned away from it.

"Are you done looking?"

Gu Qingyi stared into Xu Xiaoshou's eyes and waited for him to regain his awareness before he spoke.

Xu Xiaoshou was stunned.

The leader of the three was more powerful than he had initially thought.

No one had caught him in the act of using Perception to spy and pry on other's items or abilities.

The young man before him had senses that were very sharp and sensitive. He had been able to pick up his ability to pry.

"Ha-ha." Xu Xiaoshou was not intimidated by him just yet.

After all, he was a swordsman in training. Seeing a famed sword was akin to a man spotting a beautiful woman. It was hard to avert his gaze from it.

Gu Qingsan, who stood at the back, sighed. He was not carrying a sword with him. "Again?" He walked toward Xu Xiaoshou. "Don't bother hiding. Just draw your sword."

"Draw?" Xu Xiaoshou was surprised. Why?"

"Ha, you fraud. You've been staring so hard. Aren't you planning to steal it?" Gu Qingsan sneered.

"Steal the sword?"

Xu Xiaoshou was amused by their words. He was no thief or a womanizer. He would never do anything like that.

"You must have persecutory delusion illness. When did I say I was taking your sword?"

Gu Qingsan stared at Xu Xiaoshou blankly. After a period of silence, he still did not understand what Xu Xiaoshou meant.

"Second brother, what is this illness he's talking about. What does it mean?"

The second brother bowed his head and furrowed his brow in thought. He was pondering about that just now as well.

After a while, Gu Qinger sighed.

"Eldest brother, what is he talking about? I'm a little slow and did not understand a single thing!"

"Yeah, same here. Please explain eldest brother." Gu Qingsan's eyes were shimmering with expectation.

He had always seen his eldest brother as an individual capable of anything and loved to watch the eldest brother offer explanations in a cool and composed manner.

Gu Qingyi paused dramatically and fell into deep thought. After a moment, his face had darkened.

"You guys!"

He held in his anger as he remembered the presence of an outsider and stop his curses in time.

The two of them had totally gone off on a tangent from what they were there to discuss.

The important part of the man's words was the illness, yet the two were relentlessly hung up on it.

Xu Xiaoshou watched the three fools engage in their talk and fell silent.

He always met competition in the most unexpected way possible.

These people were not exactly the brightest or the fastest when it came to responding and retorting to arguments or coming up with comebacks.

He had almost not reacted in time and gave the two an explanation about the illness.

If he attempted to join in the explanation, he would be roped into talking with these simpletons as well. He would become the fourth fool.

'After all, I'm Xu Xiaoshou,' he thought. 'I am above quarreling with these three fools.'

Stopping his train of thoughts there, Xu Xiaoshou inhaled deeply and turned back into his room. He closed his door with a slam.

Bang!

The room door that lacked barrier protection was destroyed by a push.

Shocked, Xu Xiaoshou turned around and locked eyes with Gu Qingsan. His hands were still stretched out. The door panel was in his hands.

The atmosphere tensed immediately.

Xu Xiaoshou's face fell.

He had tried hard to save the door panel, but who would have thought it would be removed like him just like that?

He was at his limit.

Xu Xiaoshou's expressions twisted as he frowned so hard that his eyebrows were fully straightened. He exhaled heavily.

"Hm?"

'What are you trying to do by pushing open my door?' he thought. 'You are strangers.'

Even if the protective barrier on the door was broken, it was still rude to directly open someone's door in an inn."

Gu Qingsan understood the meaning of Xu Xiaoshou's response. Immediately, his face flushed red.

"Um, I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't think that the door did not have barrier protections..."

Xu Xiaoshou laughed sarcastically. "Not on purpose? So was it with intention then?"

"Right, I did do it with intent– Wait, intention?" Gu Qingsan paused and hurriedly corrected his words. "No, no, not with intention. It was just a..."

"An accident?"

"Yes! An accident?"

"I don't care what you did, we don't even know each other. How dare you tear my door down like this!"

Xu Xiaoshou yelled with rage, "Just because I didn't answer your question and you are the owner of two famed swords and have more in numbers, do you think you can just take my door down and do whatever you want to me?"

"Gulp!"

Gu Qingsan's face froze. Almost as if a cat got his tongue, he stood there with his face red and his ears smoking in embarrassment. He mumbled something under his breath.

He struggled with his words before deciding to give up. Gu Qingsan turned toward his second elder brother.

Gu Qinger inhaled deeply and was about to speak when Xu Xiaoshou stepped up and spoke before he could.

"Explain what?"

"You didn't break this door, right?"

"If you didn't do it, why are you talking? Just because your friend could not answer, do you need to do it for him?"

"Is this a round-robin? Are all of you planning to torture me with your argument?"

Gu Qinger looked at Xu Xiaoshou with disdain. This was only a door panel. The young man's anger seemed severely inappropriate and misplaced.

In fact, he was so angry at Xu Xiaoshou's explosion that he could not swallow his words down and opened his mouth to retaliate.

"Cough, cough."

The sword-bearer sighed deeply. "Our apologies brethren, we entered too abruptly..."

"Abrupt?" Xu Xiaoshou raised his voice and pointed to the door panel in Gu Qingsan's hands.

"Is this an abrupt visit?"

"If I rammed into your room while you were sleeping at night and then said sorry for the sudden visit, would you accept it?"

Gu Qingyi watched his rage rise in silence.

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

"Brethren you are not wrong, but…"

"But?" Xu Xiaoshou was amused by his own display of rage. "But what?"

"Of course, I'm not wrong. Out of nowhere, someone knocked my door panel off. Do you think I can just accept this with a few words?"

Gu Qingyi, on the other hand, had suddenly realized what Xu Xiaoshou wanted and spoke immediately. "If brethren would like any reparations, please let us know. We will pay and go, and we promise we will never show up in front of you again."

Gu Qinger and Gu Qingsan were shocked.

It was the first time they had seen their brother, who had always been calm and composed, use such an inferior tone to say those words.

The two were truly disgusted by the man in front of them.

Xu Xiaoshou paused and took the door panel from Gu Qingsan's hands. He threw the door panel on the ground and hit his shoulders lightly.

"Actually, I'm not that selfish. It's just a door panel."

He smiled warmly and said, "You know what they say, only brothers go into the same house."

"Since you are in my house, you are therefore my brothers."

"It was too harsh of me to ask for any reparations."

"As your brother, I feel bad asking anything from you. How about this…"

He turned toward Gu Qingyi with a polite smile. "Just let me see your sword, and this will be behind us."