I Can See Your Combat Power

The next morning

“I don’t think it’s good for you to do this!” Xu Lao-Ying frowned, speaking seriously to Tang Luo.

“What’s wrong with it?” Tang Luo asked casually, his head bowed and a large food box in his hand.

Xu Lao-Ying pointed to another large food box on the ground and spoke earnestly, “Even if you can’t stand the taste of Lao Bai’s cooking, you can eat less. You are a martial artist of the Mortal Realm, what does it matter if you have one less meal? But isn’t it insulting to him if you bring such a large food box?”

He regards Mi Bai as a friend and Tang Luo as a brother. He certainly doesn’t want a small matter like eating to cause their relationship to grow cold. Holding two food boxes that were half a person’s height, Tang Luo carefully scrutinized Xu Lao-Ying, as if trying to see right through him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You consider him your brother.” Tang Luo sighed, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.

Upon hearing these words, Xu Lao-Ying thought that Tang Luo was lamenting about the difference in status and waved his hands, “In this life, we don’t always have a choice. If Lao Bai were born into a wealthy family, I believe his achievements would not be less than mine. Even now, his plain yet staunch character is admirable. Being friends with such a person is a blessing. Furthermore, I believe that Lao Bai will one day become a well-known scholar in Longzhou!”

Is friendship based on one’s family background and abilities? Most people think so, but the essence of this is that they are not strong enough. Cattle and sheep flock together while predators walk alone.

Most people want to befriend those in power, ultimately because they have requests to make. Such a purposeful relationship makes Xu Lao-Ying, who possesses the Tongming Sword Body, feel uncomfortable.

For Xu Lao-Ying, he doesn’t care whether the friends he makes can help him or whether they come from a good family, because he knows that no matter how strong others are, they will never be stronger than him, and no matter how good their family background is, it will never be better than his.

He has traveled 30,000 miles and saved countless civilians from bandits.

These people were filled with gratitude and exhilaration when they were saved. Xu Lao-Ying enjoyed these emotions. Yet afterwards, he could always sense greed and desire from those he had saved. Even those who only showed emotional gratitude would inevitably try to get close to him, hoping for his long-term protection.

Every time this happened, he would remember a saying from an ancestor of the Xu Clam The reason why some civilians are bullied for a lifetime is not because of rampant evildoers, but because they do not understand the meaning of’self-strengthening’.

At first, he didn’t understand this. After all, Xu Sheng has inscribed his works on the monument of the South Heaven, let alone the imitation of many holy families that have opened up the world of martial arts. If someone has the heart to do so, it is not difficult to train to the peak of the Mortal Realm in a few years and learn a shallow martial art.

He didn’t understand why a person could be bullied by a group of thugs who weren’t even at the peak of the Mortal Realm. But now he understood – those who looked pitiful could endure all sorts of hardships, but they simply couldn’t endure the hardships of practicing martial arts.

People who are pitiful always have a hateful side. Having seen this so many times, he became numb.

That was until he saw Mi Bai outside Xiling City. The characteristic of the Tongming Sword Body is its ability to perceive the subtle, his senses enhanced by this supreme sword body are astoundingly sharp. To put it simply, in a quiet night with no one around, he could clearly hear the sounds from ten miles away.

So he heard the conversation between Mi Bai’s group and the thugs from the Righteous Gang early on. He took action urgently, not only for the sake of Xu Lao-Ying, but also for the sake of the young boy who had hidden a wooden spike in his hand.

If he let such an excellent child die at the hands of these thugs, Xu Lao-Ying wouldn’t agree to it.

However, after driving away the members of the Righteous Gang, one of his sword qi unintentionally injured a child. This made him remorseful. He thought he would be blamed by the scholar and the child.

To his surprise, the only emotions he could perceive were gratitude and worry, everyone felt this way.

They were grateful to him for saving them and they were worried for their injured companion. Not only did the children feel this way, even the scholar did.

This was the real reason why he was willing to give out a spiritual medicine and help them leave Xiling.

Mi Bai, however, turned out to be an even more extraordinary scholar. After learning that the Righteous Gang had malicious intentions because of his calligraphy, he asked to see his work. Initially, he intended to offer some advice. He felt that as a commoner, Mi Bai wouldn’t have too much time to study calligraphy, and a few suggestions from him would be of great benefit. But after seeing Mi Bai’s calligraphy, Xu Lao-Ying realized that the person in front of him was an extraordinary genius in calligraphy, and he immediately wanted to befriend him.

What followed were Mi Bai’s repeated abductions and their clashes with the Four Small Families.

Throughout it all, the emotions Mi Bai showed him were gratitude and kindness, along with a peace of mind, as refreshing as a spring breeze.

Later, Mi Bai took the children back to Xiling, and Xu Lao-Ying started to have more frequent contacts with him.

Mi Bai, who was raising many children, didn’t even have a place to stay, living in an abandoned courtyard.

He subtly mentioned several times that he came from an extraordinary family and could help him a lot.

Although he genuinely wanted to help Mi Bai, he also wanted to see if Mi Bai was really as detached and peaceful as he appeared to be.

The result was clear, Mi Bai rejected all of Xu Lao-Ying’s offers of help, even though he was someone who truly needed help.

From this moment on, Xu Lao-Ying confirmed that this was indeed a modest and gentle person who was consistent inside and out. It was then that he officially accepted him as a friend and began to refer to him as Lao Bai.

In life, we don’t get to choose our relatives. They exist from the day we were born and will continue to do so. Because of this rule, you can’t guarantee that there won’t be some idiots among your relatives, or people you really dislike.

But friends are different. For someone like Xu Lao-Ying, his standards for choosing friends are pure and strict. In a way, the friends he acknowledges are his chosen family, so he is willing to consider things from their perspectives. Upon hearing Tang Luo’s question, he answered seriously, “Lao Bai is of course my friend, so for the sake of your cousin, stop bringing such large boxes of dessert and dim sum.”

‘Since you said that, I have to tell you something about Lao Bai.” Tang Luo didn’t pick up on the topic of the food boxes, but changed the subject instead.

Xu Lao-Ying was startled and asked, “What is it?”

“Do you know about Mi Bai’s birth?”

Xu Lao-Ying paused to think, “I don’t know about that, but I do know that he’s an orphan, so whenever he sees beggars on the street, he’ll bring them back to the abandoned courtyard.”

“Do you know how Mi Bai became an orphan?”

Xu Lao-Ying shook his head, looking confused.

“Ten years ago, the entrance to a small illusionary realm opened near the village of the Mi family. The Tang and Mi families rushed to investigate, but found that the warriors of the village had surrounded the illusionary realm. When the two major families arrived at the entrance, the warriors blackmailed them, asking for half of the realm’s yield..” Tang Luo looked into Xu Lao-Ying’s eyes, asking, “What do you think the two great families would do when faced with the extortion of a group of warriors who don’t even possess the Fierce Realm?”