The predecessor of Miaomiao Road

Su Qing clenched the paper in her fingers, looking at the page filled with “meow” characters, and remained strangely silent for a moment.

Looking on the bright side, at least it rhymed, didn’t it?

Yet, the Orange King clearly cared deeply, but still pretended to be nonchalant, turning its side to her, and asking, as if unintentionally, “How is it?”

If not for its little white tail tip restlessly thumping the ground, Su Qing would have truly believed it didn’t care.

She hesitated, “This poem is profound yet simple. I can’t quite grasp its meaning for a moment. Why don’t you recite it, so I can better appreciate its deeper meaning?”

The Orange King, hearing this, squatted slightly, quite pleased.

It confidently “meowed” a series of sounds, and though they were all repetitive “meows,” the rhythm was full of rises and falls, and the emotion was rich. It was, indeed, a good poem.

“Excellent.” Su Qing immediately began to appraise it. “It has a cohesive beginning and end, develops smoothly, clearly structured, and uses vivid, catchy language. It’s both descriptive and lyrical, expressing the author cat’s feelings…”

What about it?

If the child loved writing poetry, let it write. Even a little cat could be inspired by poetry, which also indicated that it was quite satisfied with its current life.

Besides, if it made those who read the poem smile, how could it not be a good poem?

The Orange King nodded repeatedly. It then boasted to Xiaocao, who was clapping with perceptive enthusiasm, “Did you hear that? I am a heaven-sent genius. You still have much to learn.”

Xiaocao nodded obediently. “Senior is right.”

Su Qing couldn’t help but laugh. Her heart stirred.

The wooden sword dropped into her hand.

She looked towards a large stone standing in the bamboo forest.

It was just a stone commonly seen anywhere in the forest, about two meters tall, its surface very smooth and rounded.

It wasn’t worn down by time and sandstorms, but by unscrupulous students who sharpened their swords on it every day.

Since it had some natural cracks in the middle, it was a good place for sharpening swords.

Over time, only the middle part became increasingly concave, while the two sides remained convex as usual.

From afar, it looked like an abstract cat’s head had appeared out of nowhere in the bamboo forest.

Su Qing closed her eyes.

The Orange King’s mischievous handwriting floated in her mind.

She smiled knowingly, taking the wooden sword as a brush and the stone wall as paper.

The sword tip was a bit stiff at first touch against the stone wall, but slowly, as bits of sword intent condensed, it became as easy and fluid as a branch stroking water.

Stone chips flew, then were swept away by the mountain wind passing through the forest.

The characters on the stone wall appeared, precisely the “Meow” poem created by the Orange King. Su Qing transcribed this poem onto the wall exactly, which made the Orange King’s eyes widen.

Interesting.

She never expected Su Qing to like its masterpiece so much.

Its thoughts were quick, and it could even instantly compose several seven-character quatrains and many regulated verses.

If any passing teachers or students noticed it carefully, they would always smile knowingly.

“Hahaha, who composed this poem, so simple and unadorned? Look closely, traces of sword intent still linger in the characters, piercing through the stone wall, quite intriguing.”

“Let me see.” A sword cultivator elder stepped forward, his sword-callused fingers touching the carved characters on the stone wall, tracing them one by one.

He suddenly relaxed his brows and said, “One must know that sword intent should be intimately related to one’s temperament. Those with strong and tyrannical temperaments cannot cultivate a long and gentle sword intent, nor can those with gentle temperaments comprehend the sharp power of a single sword strike that breaks all techniques.”

“Of course, there are exceptions. Besides temperament, circumstances can also create capable individuals. The sword intent of cultivators who have experienced life-and-death battles, who have walked through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, is vastly different from the sword intent of those who merely immerse themselves in seclusion, detached from worldly affairs.”

“In short, sword intent is a manifestation of one’s realm and heart, unique to every individual, and can never be generalized.”

A friend quipped, “You’re even lecturing me now. It’s rare for you to speak at such length. Tell me, what’s different about this sword intent?”

“I am lecturing now, and you haven’t been listening carefully. I already said that sword intent is inherently unique; there have never been two completely identical sword intents in the world.” That person shook his head and smiled, pointing to the large stone. “Although this sword intent is only in its nascent form and has not yet condensed into a complete Dao tradition, it’s just the beginning of the sword dao. But if you savor it—”

“Wherever the sword light reaches, spring breezes caress the face, all things rejoice. Broad and benevolent, gentle yet firm—it is a rare and protective sword intent.”

For sword cultivators who had witnessed countless decisive and murderous sword intents, to stroll through this bamboo forest, read such a naive and lovely poem, and feel the warm and joyful sword intent preserved within the verses, how could it not make them relax their brows, open their eyes, and feel refreshed?

After the explanation, his friend also understood this charm, and both couldn’t help but smile faintly.

This large stone stood at an unnamed intersection.

Only because this path offered a shortcut from the Sword-Testing Forest to the cafeteria, people would occasionally take it. The grass had been worn bare and never fully recovered.

Later, with this large stone inscribed with the “Meow” poem, and the stone itself resembling a cat’s head, it became known as the “Cat Head Stone.” This small path was playfully dubbed the “Meow Meow Path.” No one knows how the name spread, but in the mouths of later generations of students, it became “Boundless Path.” Students speculated it was named this to reflect the boundless nature of the immortal path, yet they never knew that it all originated from a poetry-inspired cat and its doting cat s*ave.

As for whether the Orange King liked this colossal stone inscribed with its masterpiece, Su Qing couldn’t say.

She only knew that it would lie on the Cat Head Stone for months on end.

Whenever someone passed by, it would ostensibly casually sweep the stone wall with its dangling tail, as if deliberately drawing attention to that spot.

In those days, even the victims whose shoes and pant legs were torn by the Orange King for failing to beg successfully were significantly fewer.

The Sword School had an unwritten rule: Spirit stones in the storage bag are not yours; only those spent on yourself truly belong to you.

Among the six major sects, only Body Cultivators perfectly adhered to this principle.

They truly spent every last spirit seed on themselves. Su Qing, as a member of the Body School, also found this principle very reasonable and implemented it thoroughly.

Aside from the latest rewards she hadn’t yet had time to spend, half of the spirit stones she earned over the years were spent on Man Qing Sword, and the other half on her own physical body.

Compared to her fellow disciples who were so poor their kneecaps needed patching due to lack of income, she earned a considerable amount.

She was quite stingy with her other material desires, but extremely generous when it came to cultivation.

Thus, the spirit stones, which were more than enough to support a small family, were all spent on Su Qing herself.

This led to her never lacking resources after her initial period of extreme poverty.

Her cultivation also rose quickly, far surpassing ordinary first-year students, comparable to second-year students, and even ranking as upper-middle among second-year students.

Therefore, the strong winds emanating from the Body School’s mountain peak gradually became insufficient for Su Qing.

She began attempting to explore the underground karst cave.

The Body School’s underground karst cave was truly a wondrous place.

As Su Qing walked, she discovered that second and third-year students were all using the strong winds in the karst cave to temper their bodies.

It was said that only the fourth-year students hadn’t returned to campus yet; otherwise, they too could have utilized these strong winds.

In addition, some inner sect senior sisters, and even teachers both inside and outside the sect, would occasionally come here to borrow the strong winds for body tempering.

This was truly food for thought. The strong winds in the karst cave could be used for cultivation by Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and even higher-level cultivators.

This indicated that this place was of an extremely high grade, perhaps not inferior to the Pill School’s Tier 9 Earth Fire.

Su Qing suddenly realized, ‘Unexpectedly, their Body School was actually quite wealthy.’

It was just that these resources were not as easily exchangeable as the Pill School’s Tier 9 Earth Fire; they could only be used on oneself.

Other sects also came here to borrow the strong winds for body tempering, and a fair number of Beast School students brought their spirit beasts.

Body School members were mostly straightforward by nature and had never charged extra spirit stones.

Su Qing recalled when she first joined the Sword School and delivered meals to Senior Sister Xu Jiuxing and other second-year seniors, Xu Jiuxing had mentioned that the underground karst cave outwardly appeared to be an ordinary cave, but the deeper and further down one went, the more it extended into the mountain’s interior.

The so-called “strong winds,” though appearing as wind, were actually violent air currents generated by the collision of spiritual energy.

This meant that beneath the Body School’s mountain, there must be a high-grade spiritual vein or some kind of treasure, which produced these violent spiritual energies, causing them to howl through winding tunnels and form the extremely powerful strong winds.

As for what truly lay beneath, those capable of entering the mountain’s interior could naturally investigate.

Su Qing deeply understood the difficulty of this matter, for even Xu Jiuxing, a second-year student, had only managed to descend four hundred meters at most back then.

Zhu Xu, with higher cultivation, could go six hundred meters.

In fact, according to current Body School historical records, since the emergence of the strong winds, no one has ever ventured deep enough into the underground to see what lies within.

Trying to do too much at once leads to failure.

Even if Su Qing aspired to be the first, it was not the right time, especially with a host of formidable seniors standing before her.

If she openly declared her intention, this fresh new first-year, wanting to surpass her senior sisters and brothers to be the first, would surely be patted on the head and pinched on the face, given a good lecture.

Therefore, Su Qing chose to slowly and honestly explore.

When she arrived at the entrance of the karst cave, she discovered that the upright broken bed had been replaced with a new one at some unknown time.

According to the friendly senior brother Zhang Mingliang, the original one was too broken and couldn’t bear the weight, causing several Body School students to fall through the bed one after another, crashing into the Beast School mountain peak directly opposite.

Coincidentally, they landed in the nursery, smashing their heads on the ground and bleeding profusely, terrifying the little spirit beasts who cried day and night, saying Body School cultivators would capture them for body tempering.

The Beast School students, unable to endure it, pooled money to have a new bed made by the Artifact School to replace the old one.

The poor Body School cultivators were overjoyed.

They then, with a grand gesture, used the spirit stones collectively raised to buy the bed, and commissioned a leaderboard from the Artifact School.

It was erected at the cave entrance, drawing the attention of all who passed by.

Su Qing generally observed that the function of this leaderboard was similar to the step counter leaderboard on a certain green chat software.

Who, when, and how many meters they had traversed into the underground karst cave were all clearly listed.

Every season, a step champion would be selected, and if a record was broken, an additional notification would be given, announcing it to everyone on the leaderboard.

With the appearance of this leaderboard, the enthusiasm for body tempering in the Body School reached an unprecedented height.

It was said that the number of robes damaged because of this was not in the thousands, but in the tens of thousands.

The owner of the second cafeteria’s clothing store had been beaming with smiles these days.

Su Qing was amazed: ‘We Body School cultivators have our own social circle.’