Chapter 20 20 – Face Slapping

"Kenny, Soon… you'll have a little brother or a little sister."

Ken gaped in surprise when he heard his mom's news. Although he thought of the possibility of having a sibling since he was born, he didn't think about it much.

"When?"

"In 7 months or so, one month after your fifth birthday. You must take care of the baby and keep the baby safe as the big brother, do you understand?"

"Yes."

Ken nodded in response and thought of his siblings in his former life. They took part in abusing him directly when they were younger, and as they grew older, they just pretended he never existed.

'I guess this little thing won't be able to do the same.'

He quickly put the matter aside and chose not to overthink it. He didn't even know the gender of the baby, and he didn't even care much about it. He only developed feelings toward his parents for the support and love they've shown him over those years.

His parents smiled and relaxed after seeing Ken take the news well without any complaints. They were nervous about telling their son that their family was about to expand and weren't sure how to do it.

"I plan to go outside and see the sect. I've only been around our house and at the alchemy division's building."

He told his parents his plans for the next day in case he needed to know something before going out. He wasn't knowledgeable about the customs of the sect outside his house, and his parents might want to give him a warning.

"It's fine, just take Sol with you and don't get into fights. Take this, you can show my token if you get into trouble with someone and say you're our son."

Mei gave him a token with her personal signature. It was written with her Qi, so it was nearly impossible to fake, at least for the sect's members. Maybe much stronger cultivators had their methods, but they had no reason to do it.

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"Young Master, where would you like to go?"

The next day Sol came wearing prettier clothes than normal as she knew they were going outside. She wore a white robe with a phoenix inscribed on it, while Ken wore a plain black robe. He took his preference for black clothes with him from his previous world despite the color's unpopularity in the sect.

"I don't know anything about the sect, so it's hard to say. What do you recommend seeing?"

"Well, there are the training grounds, the battle arena, and the market. We can visit one of them or all three, up to you."

"Are there battles in the arena all the time?"

"Not really, but there are some fights every day. In fact, at least one person dies there on daily basis. There's an unwritten rule to set the battles to the afternoon to make it easier for the other disciples to watch the battles, but there are some battles set in the heat of the moment and the opponents go to battle it out immediately."

"Since It's still morning, let's go to the market."

Although he didn't know if novels' clichés were true, he didn't want to go to the training ground and meet a spoiled young master, especially when the other cliché available was to go to the market and pick up a godly sword that nobody wanted for its rusty appearance.

'Wait, I'm the spoiled young master here, right?'

He just shrugged this thought off and followed Sol outside. He looked around him as they traveled down the path to the market until they were out of the living grounds. The living grounds mainly had everyone's houses and were separated into the disciples' area and the elders' area.

Further was the outsiders' area, where people who didn't belong to the inner sect but worked or served there lived. Sol was living in that area, but she could easily get into the inner sect with her newfound strength. She didn't do it because Ken told her not to, and because she would lose her job as his nanny with the new status.

The market was on a large flat ground, and there were stalls everywhere the eye could see. Ken and Sol looked around at the stalls with curiosity and checked the merchandise.

"Swords, sabers, rapiers, anything related to the sword! Best quality with the best price!"

"Spears, pikes, bo staves, and more!"

Stall owners shouted their specialties including weapons, food, pills, and ingredients such as metals and herbs. The market was organized by categories and sub-categories, so he could easily see all the swords stalls first, then move to the next ones.

He first went to the closest area which had 3 different stalls of bows. Those stalls had many types of bows as well as ammo and some support items like short knives, strings, and quivers.

"Shoo, shoo, kid. You can't play with the merchandise."

One of the owners waved his hand at Ken and tried to send him away. He was working and didn't feel like entertaining a bored kid who walked around the market for window shopping.

"Huh? Do you know who-"

Sol was starting to talk like a local goon when Ken touched her thigh with his hand to hint to her to stop talking.

'Yeah, I'm definitely the spoiled young master. But since I'm in a cultivation world, the least I could do is experience a face-slapping scene at least once. Otherwise, I'd be wasting God's gift to me.'

"Let's go, Sol, we're unwelcome here."

He made a sad face and pulled her sleeve to follow him. He waited for something to happen as he passed by another bow stall, and he wasn't disappointed.

"Hey kid, if you like the bows, you can look at mine. Just don't break anything or you'll have to pay for it."

When the seller scolded him earlier, he checked the reactions of the other two sellers to see if they cared. While one seller had an indifferent expression that could only mean he would do the same, the third had a frown on her face. It was the same seller who just called him to check out her bows.

"Thank you, Aunty, I will not break anything."

He gave her a bright smile and went to the bows to examine them.

'Could he really be shy of strangers when he bullies me all the time?'

Sol wondered to herself as she followed her young master around. She never heard of the classics that must be done in the cultivation world, so she couldn't know what Ken was planning.

Ken touched the bows with his hands and sensed the Qi inside. He could see the formations inscribed on them and sense the wood's properties.

At first, he didn't know what each formation meant, but as he asked the seller questions about her bows and she answered, he started noticing similarities and inferring the meaning behind the formations.

'So this bow has a speed formation to make the arrow fly faster, a rotation formation to make the arrow rotate when it leaves its string to increase the arrow's penetration power, flexibility formation to help the wood bend without breaking, which would also allow the user to pull the string further, and one more formation I can't recognize.'

Ken thought to himself as he sensed one more bow and tried to recognize the formations from what he just learned.

"Aunty, what about this bow?"

"Haha, kid, I also need to work, ya'know? You can play around but this will be the last bow I explain to you about. There are rotation and speed formations to help the arrow hit the target faster and stronger, and flexibility and durability formations to prevent the bow from breaking when the user pulls the string too strong."

'I missed the durability formation then.'

"Thank you!"

He stopped browsing the bows after it and instead looked at the knives. They could be used for both close-range fighting for archers and for skinning beasts in case he hunted some. It'd be a nice thing to have, so he chose a knife he liked with some inscriptions like dirt repelling, sharpness, anti-reflection, and durability.

·ƈθm He was interested in learning to use a bow, but he decided against buying one because even the short bow was slightly larger than him, so he'd have to grow up first.

He chose a fancy scabbard for his new knife and handed them both to the seller while signaling Sol to come closer. He said his next words loud enough for the other two sellers who were still waiting for customers to hear.

"Aunty, I'd like to buy those two items."

The seller looked at Sol with an uncertain face; she thought the young boy was just acting like a kid placing snacks in his parent's shopping cart in the supermarket only for them to put the snacks back on the shelves.

However, Sol just nodded at her to indicate to listen to Ken's demands and came closer to pay the bill after the seller named her price.