Chapter 26 Leisure Time

Leisure Time

Xue Bai and Huo Siyan waved goodbye to the protagonist and then followed Li Rou toward the core region of the estate.

"Mother, has Father returned yet?" Xue Bai asked. He could not wait to start using the sword.

"Yes, he has returned. He's not in the office, though. He's in our courtyard right now cultivating." Ever since Xue Bai gave them the Yggradasil Fruit, they had spent every moment they could cultivating. Before, because they had almost reached the limit of their potential, they would rarely cultivate, but now they were almost as addicted as the Wang Twins.

"Alright, I'll go find him. Huo Siyan, my mother, is a very good cultivator. Be sure to learn well from her."

"Yes, Young Duke!" Huo Siyan replied. Li Rou was almost as legendary as Xue Feng in the kingdom. And being able to learn under her was a dream come true for the young girl.

After saying goodbye to his mother, Xue Bai ran off to go see his father in his courtyard. His parent's courtyard was right door to his, so it was relatively easy to find.

Entering the courtyard, he could see his parents contrasting tastes affecting the environment. One half of the courtyard was a garden filled with beautiful shrubbery. In contrast, the other half was barren and built like a training field.

In the training field side, Xue Feng sat in the middle, cross-legged cultivating. However, Xue Feng opened his eyes after Xue Bai entered the courtyard, apparently sensing his son.

In truth, Xue Feng had only sensed Xue Bai as his courtyard had a simple sensing array that would notify him of any intruders. And only Xue Bai and Li Rou could get through without any resistance.

"Bai'er, you've returned. How was your trip out to Frontier City?" Then, seeing his son, Xue Feng asked gently.

Xue Feng was quite confused when he returned and learned that his shut-in son had taken the initiative to leave home. But he knew that at one point, his son had to leave him and go out on his own.

"It was great. I brought over some talented youngsters from the Huo Clan." Xue Bai explained his time over at the clan.

"That's nice and all, but I heard that you took some things from our treasury before you left. Why did you do that?" Xue Feng questioned.

Xue Bai knew that he couldn't hide this, so he answered with the response he had prepared earlier.

"I had taken only some low-tier things to help the poor Huo Clan. They were things that are easily replaceable, so nothing important was lost." Xue Bai then told his father all the things he brought over.

Xue Feng nodded approvingly at this. His son had only given the Huo Clan nonessential and replaceable things and fixed the clans' poor relationship.

After explaining the rest of his trip to his father, Xue Bai finally revealed what he came for. "Father, I'm pretty sure that mother told you. So when are we going to start training?"

"We can start tomorrow. You must be tired from your trip here. Go and check on the kids you brought over and make sure they are adjusting well today." Xue Feng told his son.

Though Xue Bai was a little disappointed at not starting today, what his father said was reasonable, so after nodding, he left the courtyard.

After leaving, he first went to his own courtyard. Though his father told him to check on the Huo Clan members, he wanted to go and practice some archery. He and the Huo Clan members just separated, so it would be weird if he went and met up with them again. So he planned to change into some practice clothes and train for a while before meeting them again.

When he first started to learn archery, he only thought of it as a small side skill he'd only use occasionally. But the better he got at it, the more he enjoyed it. At first, though he shot very accurately, it wasn't very fun. But after his mother introduced running, sliding, and jumping shots was when he started to actually enjoy archery.

Since it was close by, it didn't take long for him to reach his courtyard. And when he entered, he saw his cheerful maid sweeping the ground outside.

"Young Master, you're back!" Xiao'er spoke excitedly.

Most of her day was spent with Xue Bai, and when he left, her days became very dull. So his return excited the young maid.

"Yes, I have returned. But I'm not staying in my courtyard yet. I'm just here to get a quick change of clothes. I'm going to the archery range now." Xue Bai explained as he went into his room.

"Oh, let me help you change, Young Master."

"No, Xiao'er! I don't like your eyes when you watch me change. So you stay outside my room while I do so." Xue Bai quickly ordered.

Xiao'er was like his mother in the aspect that she loved to change and dress him up.

Hearing that, Xiao'er backed away with her head down like a sad puppy. He was right. She had gotten that habit from Li Rou. But how could she not? The Young Duke was too cute. He looked just like a real doll.

In the room, Xue Bai quickly changed out of his robes and went into his training outfit. His normal robe attire was like the Earth Hanfu. They were light blue colored with snowflakes dotted over them. Xue Bai loved the aesthetic look of it, but it was way too baggy to do any physical activity in it, so he had to take it off.

His usual training wear was a tight black shirt along with some slightly loose pants that resembled Earth's sweatpants. He had told the seamstress how to make sweatpants from his memory, and after the third attempt, it came out just fine. So he told her to make a few more for him in different colors for different outfits.

After he changed, he picked up his bow and a few arrows and left the courtyard. His walk to the archery field was uneventful, as the core region was rather empty.

When Xue Bai first started archery with his mother, the field was barren except for the wooden pillars made for his stability training. But after Xue Bai would get better at archery, Li Rou would implement more obstacles for Xue Bai to navigate around to get to the target.

First, it was the unbalanced wooden pillars that he would have to stand on and shoot. Then it moved onto tall trees and thick shrubbery. Eventually, it slowly turned into a miniature forest that Xue Bai could parkour through while taking shots whenever he felt like it.

After gaining a new healthy body after four years of lying in a bed and crippled, doing all these flashy and fun exercises made Xue Bai thrilled.

So after playing around for two hours, a surprise guest entered the field. Li Rou had came in with Huo Siyan.