Huǒ Shuchang was a man of many eccentricities. He was currently on a pilgrimage to acquire strength, though he wouldn’t say why. He was also looking for something, but he wouldn’t tell Wu Jian what. All he said was that both of his reasons for leaving his homeland were important and that he couldn’t fail in either task.

As a man who couldn’t have been much older than twenty, Huǒ Shuchang was taller than Wu Jian by about two heads. He had long hair that descended from his back. His hair was a strange orange color, a byproduct of his cultivation method. Likewise, his eyes were a golden orange. He had sharp brows, a defined chin, and while his body was quite lithe, the definition of his muscles showed Wu Jian that this young man hadn’t been born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Wu Jian still found the man annoying.

“What in the heck kinda exercise is this?! You some kind of freak of nature?! Who does handstands with boulders on their feet?!”

Wu Jian ignored Huǒ Shuchang as best he could and continued to do handstand pushups. He did indeed have a pair of boulders balanced on his feet. They had been a pain to lift. Wu Meiying normally helped him, but she wasn’t here now. The only person he could rely on right now was himself.

Huǒ Shuchang had woken up just a few minutes ago. The man liked his sleep. The sun had risen several hours ago and Huǒ Shuchang had simply dozed that time away. Was he really trying to get stronger? It didn’t seem that way to Wu Jian.

Wu Jian trained every day, pushed his body to the brink, and made sure to have a balanced diet and get enough rest to let his muscles recover. Huǒ Shuchang did nothing. He slept for over ten hours, sat around like a lazy bum, and occasionally hunted magical beasts for their meat.

“Heeeeeey! Are you listening to me? Heeeeeey! Hello! Hey! Listen! Pay attention to me!”

Wu Jian gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore the man, but it wasn’t easy. It became especially difficult when Huǒ Shuchang got right in his face. He stared at the grinning bastard who continued to annoy him.

“What do you want? Can’t you see I’m trying to train?”

“I can see that you’re doing something crazy. Does this really help you train?”

“Of course it does. I’m at the Body Forging Realm. Strengthening myself is all I can do right now.”

“And have you gotten any stronger?”

“Who knows. Anyway, why don’t you go train too. That’s why you’re traveling at the behest of your father, right? You can’t just afford to slack off like this.”

“Who says I haven’t been training?”

“I haven’t seen you do any training.”

“Rude! I’ll have you know that I train every single day! You just don’t understand how!”

Wu Jian grunted but didn’t bother arguing with the man. He instead focused on finishing his one thousand pushups before moving onto his other exercises.

Huǒ Shuchang observed him for several more minutes before sighing and leaving. Wu Jian didn’t know what he was going to do, probably hunt for some magical beasts or something. He didn’t understand how the young man could say he was cultivating when he barely did anything all day. It was a complete mystery.

Wu Jian eventually finished his exercises just as Huǒ Shuchang returned from wherever he’d gone off to. He was dragging the carcass of a massive wolf magical beast behind him. It seemed the man had actually been hunting.

“Hey, Wu! Help me get bleed this magical beast, will ya?”

“Don’t speak to me as if we’re friends,” Wu Jian muttered with a groan, though he wandered over to Huǒ Shuchang and helped the man with his task.

Right now, Wu Jian was going by the psuedonym, Jian Wu, so this man was basically calling him by his individual name rather than his family name.

“Are we not friends?”

“We’re not.”

“But I saved you!”

“And I’m grateful. That doesn’t make us friends.”

“Then what would make us friends?”

Wu Jian had to really think about that. At present, he wasn’t looking for friends at all. The only thing he wanted to do was get stronger. Attaining strength was all he cared about.

“I suppose… someone who is willing to help me get stronger would be someone I’d consider a friend,” Wu Jian said at last.

“Then I can help you!”

“How so?”

Huǒ Shuchang grinned as he hitched a thumb at himself. “I’m pretty strong, you know, so I can naturally help you become stronger.”

Wu Jian said nothing at first as he carried the wolf to a nearby tree. Huǒ Shuchang helped him tie the beast to the tree by its legs, then used an extravagant knife with a phoenix etched into the blade to cut the wolf’s carotid artery and jugular vein. Wu Jian had already placed a bowl underneath the monster to gather its blood.

While the monster core was the most important part of a magical beast, every part was valuable. Magical beast blood was used in many alchemy pills and there were some cultivation methods that required a cultivator to absorb the chi flowing within the blood. Wu Jian didn’t know what those methods were, but Huǒ Shuchang assured him they existed.

“So what you’re saying is that you’re willing to be my sparring partner?” asked Wu Jian.

“That’s right,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

He thought for a moment longer, then nodded. “Very well. Let’s spar while we wait for the blood to drain from this wolf.”

“Wait. You wanna spar now? Don’t you want to take a moment to rest?”

“No need. I’m good. Now, come on.”

Huǒ Shuchang protested a bit that it was too soon, or that he wasn’t mentally prepared yet, but Wu Jian didn’t care. He dragged the man into a clearing that was big enough for them to spar, then set himself in his free-flowing fighting stance.

“Are you ready?” asked Wu Jian.

“No!” Huǒ Shuchang shouted.

“Too bad. Here I come!”

“Wait! Dammit! Just wait!”

But Wu Jian didn’t wait at all. He wanted to see how strong this man really was, so he attacked with a quick series of successive punches and kicks.

To his surprise, the man dodged them all. He moved so quickly that he seemed to leave shadows in his wake. Whenever Wu Jian’s fist struck one of those strange shadows, whisps of orange vapor erupted from them. Was this some kind of technique?

“You’re really impatient, aren’t you?”

“I just want to keep my skills sharp. Since you so kindly offered to be my sparring partner, it would be rude if I acted stingy.”

“You’re such a brat.”

Despite his words, Huǒ Shuchang grinned as he began launching his own offensive. Wu Jian found himself forced to retreat as the man’s left fist came flying at him. It wasn’t fast, but the attack was sharp, and it contained explosive power. Wu Jian tried to block one of his attacks and grimaced when the blow was strong enough to knock him back several steps.

“Being able to block my attacks without suffering a serious injury is impressive. Actually, I think my hand is what got hurt in that exchange. Just what is your body made of?”

Wu Jian didn’t answer as he went on the offensive once more. His high kick was dodged, his straight punch was diverted, and when he spun around to heel kick the man’s knee, Huǒ Shuchang simply jumped over it.

Something that Wu Jian noticed was Huǒ Shuchang didn’t try to compete with him in strength. Did that mean he was physically stronger than Huǒ Shuchang? He didn’t know, but he decided it would be a good idea to find out.

“Are you holding back on me? If so, then stop. I want to fight you when you’re at full strength!”

“Kid, don’t ask for something like that. If I fought you without holding back, you wouldn’t survive.”

“We won’t know unless I try!”

“Tch! All right. Since you asked, I’ll show you a bit of my power.”

Wu Jian didn’t get the chance to say anything as power erupted from Huǒ Shuchang’s body like ardent flames. The bright red fire spread out with Huǒ Shuchang in the center. A blazing heat that ignited the ground surrounded him. Sweat broke out on Wu Jian’s skin as he backed away, yet the heat searing his skin didn’t lessen. If anything, the temperature seemed to be rising even more.

“I hope you don’t regret this,” Huǒ Shuchang said as he spread his feet apart. The grass underneath him ignited. “Get ready, because here I come!”

Wu Jian’s eyes bulged as the man exploded forward like the flames under his feet were propelling him. He just barely got away as the man struck the ground. Flames billowed out in all directions. Wu Jian hissed as several flames licked at his skin, leaving burn marks along his bare arms.

Huǒ Shuchang didn’t stand around. He leapt into the air, spinning around like a corkscrew as his leg caught flames. The man soon descended toward Wu Jian with the clear intention of slamming that flaming heel into his head.

Wu Jian jumped backward. The heel struck the ground. More fire exploded in all directions and the sound of a bird cry seemed to echo from the flames.

What was this? These incredible flames were far stronger than anything Wu Jian had ever encountered before.

Sadly, he didn’t have time to admire those flames, for Huǒ Shuchang was already reinitiating his assault.

Wu Jian soon realized that Huǒ Shuchang was no soft persimmon. This man had strength in spades. The power of his flames was unlock anything Wu Jian had encountered before. It was all Wu Jian could do to keep himself alive. He had a strong feeling that if he took a direct hit from this man, he would die, and not even his corpse would be left behind.

Barely an hour had passed before Wu Jian collapsed to the ground, exhausted. He sucked in deep breaths of air as he lay in the clearing, burnt and blackened from Huǒ Shuchang’s flames. His chest hurt. Sharp pain stung his lungs. Several burn marks covered his body.

As he lay there, a shadow appeared above him. Huǒ Shuchang looked down at him with a grin.

“How about it? Still think I’m weak?” asked the man.

Wu Jian shook his head. He would have said something, but he still couldn’t quite find his breath.

It took several long minutes before Wu Jian was able to regulate his breathing. He sat up with much difficulty and looked at the clearing, which appeared reminiscent to a warzone. Charred earth covered every chih of space. It was a miracle the trees hadn’t been burned. He had expected those flames to start a massive forest fire.

“Do you really think I’d let my flames go out of control like that? Give me some credit,” Huǒ Shuchang said after Wu Jian asked him about it.

“I’ve never heard of a cultivator who had such powerful flames. What kind of cultivation method do you use?” asked Wu Jian.

“A very special kind. Sorry, but I can’t tell you. This cultivation method is a family secret,” Huǒ Shuchang said.

Wu Jian furrowed his brow but didn’t question the man any further. Clans and sects always had their own secret cultivation methods, which only their most promising members could use. It was obvious to Wu Jian now that Huǒ Shuchang was someone who either hailed from a very powerful family or a sect.

He might even belong to one of the Three Great Powers--Heavenly Sword Sect, Supreme Ocean Palace, or Divine Moon Hall. Wu Jian didn’t know enough about the three most powerful sects on the Xiao continent to say if this man belonged to one of them. The only thing he knew about them was that Zhou Lihua’s family was a part of Divine Moon Hall, which was based out of the Ten Kingdom’s Alliance.

“Whatever. You can keep your secrets. Anyway, from now on, I’ll be counting on you to spar with me everyday.”

“Wait. What?”

“I expect you to not hold back at all. Fight me like you did today.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Did you just say you wanna fight me every day?! Are you crazy?!”

“In return for being my sparring partner, I’ll help you with any tasks you need.”

“Don’t just decide these things for yourself!”

“Thank you in advance for your help, Senior.”

“You’re not even listening! And don’t call me ‘Senior!’ Do I look like some old hermit to you?!”

Wu Jian and Huǒ Shuchang’s bickering echoed around the Magical Beast Forest.