Naked Sword Art

Early in the morning when the sun was up, a beautiful young woman was exiting her house as she was tying her hair back into a ponytail. Waiting outside for her was her personal instructor who greeted her as soon as he saw her.

"Good morning, Xiao Jing. Did you sleep well?" The man said.

Xiao Jing paused before looking up at the man in confusion. Her father, Xiao Jianhong, had told her that her instructor would be here to meet her early in the morning, but the man standing in front of her was a mere Core Court disciple, and he looked like he couldn't have been more than 25 years old.

"Aren't you too young to be my instructor?" Xiao Jing asked.

"Truthfully, I still have a lot to learn, but if the Patriarch thinks I am ready, then I'll do my best to guide you," the man said.

After Xiao Jing had rejected all the other instructors, Xiao Jianhong thought she might have an easier time learning from someone closer to her age.

Xiao Jing sighed then asked,

"What is your name?"

"My name is Chu Piao, but I'd prefer it if you called me Instructor Chu," he replied.

"So you're Chu Piao. My previous instructors had always compared me to you. To be as successful as you are, you must have a lot of secrets," Xiao Jing said with a mysterious look in her eyes.

"Ah, how embarrassing," Chu Piao said with an awkward smile as he scratched the back of his neck.

Although it was true that she heard a bit about Chu Piao, it was because he had quite the reputation in the sect. As for the person her previous instructors had always compared her to, she would rather not say his name.

"We should get started," Chu Piao said.

"Ah, do we have to start training right now? My body is still sore after training so hard last night," Xiao Jing complained unconvincingly.

After making all her previous instructors give up, Chu Piao expected her to be difficult, so he had arranged something else for her to do today.

"Don't worry, I won't be training you today. I actually have something else planned instead."

"What do you have planned?" Xiao Jing asked.

"It's a surprise. Just follow me," Chu Piao said with a light smile.

Xiao Jing was a bit reluctant to go, but she was curious to see what he had planned for her.

...

Leaving the Core Court part of the sect, Xiao Jing followed Chu Piao to the shopping district where there were several stores, restaurants, and other attractions in the sect. Ever since Xiao Fang had left, Wu Yue had gotten the Elders to renovate the sect in the way Xiao Fang and her planned.

Although there were a bit more tourist sites still under construction, the Divine Sword sect was no longer the boring shit-hole it once was.

After taking Xiao Jing into a specific high end restaurant, many eyes fell on them the moment they walked in. It was rare to see a Core Court disciple or the Future Matriarch of the sect make an appearance, so it was no surprise that many of them were excited to see them come in together.

Chu Piao took her upstairs to a private room then signaled a waiter to go bring them their food.

"Was this what you had planned for me?" Xiao Jing asked, sounding unimpressed.

"You don't like it? I heard your grandmother made this place as soon as she heard you were coming," Chu Piao said.

"I've never even met my grandmother. If she wanted to leave a good impression on me, she shouldn't have left as soon as I arrived," Xiao Jing replied as she rolled a chopstick back and forth on the table.

Despite how she always acted, Chu Piao could tell that she wasn't really a cold person. Not just Chu Piao, but many of the elders, and even her father, Xiao Jianhong, could tell as well.

'She must've had a hard time in the Chaos sect, and now she probably feels like she doesn't fit in. If I can get her to feel comfortable around me, then teaching her how to use the sword wouldn't be too hard,' Chu Piao thought.

Although he really liked this idea, it wasn't originally his.

Xiao Jing originally didn't want to play along with Chu Piao, but since she had been planning to eventually come to this restaurant, she thought it wouldn't hurt to stay.

'At least this beats sword training,'

she thought.

"Isn't this a restaurant? Where is the menu?" She frowned.

As soon as those words came out of her mouth, 2 servers suddenly walked in with their food.

"I went ahead and ordered before I picked you up. I hope you don't mind," Chu Piao said.

Xiao Jing wasn't too happy that he ordered for her, but she didn't say anything because she assumed it was part of the surprise. However, when she looked over her shoulder to see the food, her eyes lit up when she saw what it was.

"Golden Lobsters? I didn't even know you could find them in this province," Xiao Jing said.

It was true that golden lobsters couldn't be found naturally in the wild, but the Chu family clan had a reputation for containing and breeding all kinds of exotic animals from several other provinces, and it wasn't just animals, but also tamed tiered beasts as well.

"Try it first and let me know if it's as good as you remember," Chu Piao said.

Xiao Jing put a small piece in her mouth then began to chew. She started by chewing it slowly but quickly picked up the pace. Even without her saying anything Chu Piao could tell that she liked it.

"How is it?" He asked.

"It's not the same, but it's not bad either," she acted like it wasn't one of her favorite dishes from the Chaos sect.

...

Seeing that she enjoyed his surprise, Chu Piao asked her a few questions to get to know her a bit. She was usually pretty reserved about talking about herself, but since he satisfied her stomach today, she didn't mind answering a few of his questions.

What Chu Piao learned about Xiao Jing was that she was only 15 years old, but already in the 5th stage of the Body Refinement realm. To put that into perspective, Xiao Fang was only at the 2nd stage when he was 15 years old.

However, because he was practicing the Divine Sword method, not only was his body cultivation in the 2nd stage of the Refinement realm, but his [ Divine Sword ] method was as well, making his overall battle-power around the 2nd stage of the Body Core realm.

Being as talented as she was, many Elders believed that Xiao Jing was already stronger than Xiao Fang at the same age, and could one day even catch up to the realm Xiao Fang practiced the [ Divine Sword ] method to, but only if she trained tirelessly with the sword every day. However, the chances of that seemed slim because she would always make her instructors quit.

...

When she finally finished eating. Chu Piao and Xiao Jing eventually left the restaurant, but as soon as they did they immediately noticed that many of the disciples were excited about something.

"What's going on?" Xiao Jing asked.

Chu Piao stayed silent for a moment as he listened closely to the people talking around them. Once he finally understood what was going on, a smirk appeared on his face before he explained it to Xiao Jing,

"It appears someone has returned to the sect."

"Who?" Xiao Jing asked.

"Your brother, Xiao Fang has returned."