"Even the softest cut can leave a scar when no one sees it coming."
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Part 1: The Weight of Routine
The passage of time settled like dust. One week slipped into the next, and Stone Lantern Town resumed its rhythm. Li Wei, ever silent, ever steady, trained without fanfare.
Morning cuts at the butcher stall. Evening drills in the backyard.
No one asked where he went when the sun fell. No one watched too long when he returned with sweat-soaked robes and slightly cracked knuckles.
Only the blade kept track.
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The Bone-Cleaving Form began to shift.
Not by invention, but by necessity.
A wider step here. A tighter arc there.
His cleaver experience bled into the sword. He learned to lean just a fraction before turning. To pivot not after a strike, but during.
He wasn't changing the form yet. He was refining it.
> Bone-Cleaving Form – Proficiency: (46/100) – Beginner
Every motion shaved off waste.
Every correction whispered clarity.
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At night, beneath flickering lamplight, he began sketching diagrams in charcoal. Not of beasts, but of arcs. Not of flesh, but of momentum.
A vertical cut was a downstroke. A draw-cut was a lift.
Muscle memory translated into movement maps. Before he realized it, he had begun designing contingencies within the form. If a strike missed, how to recover. If a foe blocked, how to counter.
He didn't yet call it a second form. But the seeds were taking root.
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> Swordsmanship – Proficiency: (52/200) – Minor Success Butchering – Proficiency: (86/200) – Minor Success
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Part 2: Blood in the Dust
The traveler arrived at noon, bleeding.
Li Wei heard the commotion outside the market square while trimming ribs. A small crowd had formed. Murmurs, gasps.
He didn't step out immediately. But when someone cried, "He's still breathing!" his feet moved.
A man in travel leathers, mid-thirties, half-conscious, lay on the stone path. Blood soaked his back. A blade wound. Deep.
The town guards hesitated—uncertain whether to treat him or question him.
Someone mentioned bandits. Someone else, a failed sect mission.
Li Wei remained at the edge.
He didn't speak. Didn't approach.
But he memorized the pattern of the wound. A curved slice. Not from a common sword.
And in the man's half-open hand? A pale jade token.
One hour later, the traveler was taken to Old He, the town's best bonesetter.
By sundown, someone tried to kill him.
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Part 3: Rooftop Shadows
Li Wei was practicing the Bone-Cleaving Form when he sensed the change.
The air shifted. Not wind. Weight.
He stood still.
From the rooftop beyond the fence, a shadow passed. Silent. Intentional.
The blade in his hand no longer felt like training.
It felt necessary.
---
He followed the rooftops with his eyes. The figure moved too quickly to be a thug, but not cleanly enough to be elite.
A rogue martial artist. Possibly Postnatal.
The man landed lightly outside Old He's hut.
A dagger drawn.
Li Wei didn't move until he saw the healer's apprentice step outside, unaware.
Then, he acted.
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He leapt the fence, blade drawn. One step. Then another. A blur of soft leather and steel.
The attacker turned, caught the motion—
Too late.
Li Wei's first strike tore through cloth and skin, not deeply, but enough to make the man hiss.
The rogue retaliated with a wild slash.
Li Wei ducked under, rose with a vertical cleave—Bone-Cleaving Form, third strike.
It struck shoulder. Not fatal. But hard.
The rogue staggered, swore, and vanished into the dark.
The apprentice never saw Li Wei's face. Only the flash of a blade.
And then nothing.
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That night, Li Wei found a folded slip tucked inside his window frame.
Handwritten.
> "If you cannot hide your edge, at least learn to sheath it."
No name. No seal. But the message was clear.
He burned it.
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Part 4: An Invitation Unaccepted
Three days later, town criers announced the Regional Martial Gathering.
Outer disciples, rogue cultivators, hired guards—all welcome to test their skill for prizes, positions, and recognition.
Li Wei paid no attention.
Until he found the token.
Under his chopping board. Wrapped in waxed cloth.
It bore no name. Just three words:
> "Come. If ready."
He stared at it a long time.
And then placed it with the other one—the Three Moons token—beneath the floorboards.
He had no need to measure himself.
Not yet.
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> [Experience Panel]
Name: Li Wei
Age: 22
Cultivation: Martial Dao – Acquired Realm (Middle Stage)
Skills:
• Longevity Technique – Proficiency: (97/100) – Beginner
• Butchering – Proficiency: (86/200) – Minor Success
• Swordsmanship – Proficiency: (52/200) – Minor Success
• Bone-Cleaving Form – Proficiency: (46/100) – Beginner
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