"I mean really, what is your sleep schedule like? You say you sleep every night, but I also see you take hour-long naps almost every single day!" Liu Mei asked, taking a bite out of the bowl of noodles she was given.
Yan Mo, meanwhile, was already halfway through his second bowl, answering her in his mind. Cause I can recover my Qi while still practicing techniques in my dream? Duh. He choked a little bit on the noodles as he thought.
"Ai ai, slow down, you're going to kill yourself at this rate," Liu Mei had already accepted that she would be pulling all the conversations between the two. She gave a small piece of fruit to the bird, who picked it up and hid from Yan Mo behind the bowl before it ate. Peculiar, but probably just because it was wary of Yan Mo, sensing his power or whatever.
The bird seemed to be becoming more acclimated with Yan Mo's presence over time anyway, so Liu Mei wasn't too worried. She pat it's head before looking at Yan Mo, who finally stopped his gluttonous eating after his third bowl.
"You're going to eat through my money at this rate," She sighed and chuckled after, "You're lucky I found so many herbs that we actually managed to complete a dozen missions at once," She felt a small peck on her hand, "Sorry, we found so many herbs," She corrected herself, smiling at the little bird.
Yan Mo could only smile in return, "Guess I''ll have to get in more scraps, give you more practice, yeah?" He pushed the three empty bowls away from him, he was trying his best to not out stretch his robe and have to order a new one.
"Well, if you want to do some real fighting, you might need a real weapon, won't you?" Liu Mei asked, "It's time for a shopping spree!"
Yan Mo nodded, in any other case, he would make any excuse he could think of to go and continue his formation of the Fire-Mohawk Bear and the powerful swordsman, but a new sword? That was a premise almost as exciting as fighting.
Liu Mei didn't stall any longer, clearly feeling his excitement, she hadn't known him for long, but she already knew all the things to get him excited and all the things to make him tired.
This time, it was her and the bird that followed Yan Mo like he was a kid in a candy shop. He was walking intently through every single smithy and didn't seem to mind the burning daylight. They had finished eating around midday, and it was clear the sun would be soon to begin setting.
Finally, Yan Mo found and walked into the biggest and most fancy looking blacksmith's, Liu Mei could already feel the money in her pocket being floating over to the smith's.
The heat was the first thing all of them felt, a large wave of heat washed over them in waves and the air was ringing with the sound of hammering.
"This is Master Smith Wu's smithy," Liu Mei said, "He's renowned for his craftsmanship and ability to create a partner within a sword. If you're to have a proper weapon, it should be from a master."
Yan Mo nodded, his eyes roving over the displays of gleaming swords, spears, and other weaponry. The smith, a powerfully built man who was surprisingly short was fiddling with his singed beard as he noticed the newcomers and a familiar face, "Ah, Liu Mei," He nodded, putting down his hammer, "Come here for some new custom items? Or perhaps something for your companion here?"
Liu Mei nodded, "Indeed, Master Wu. Yan Mo here requires a sword suited to his skills, he's been using a practice sword, but it's time for something more substantial."
Master Wu observed Yan Mo, who was looking through the array of swords with a gleam in his eyes, especially a shiny, golden one that caught his eye, "This one, can I have this one?"
The smith stopped, looking from Yan Mo to the sword, then back, a frown creased his brow, "That's a beautiful blade, and I cannot stop you from picking it. However, it's a weapon for a lifetime, not based on a fleeting emotion," The smith said, his gaze directly meeting Mo's, "You have a hunger for battle, I can see it. But a true swordmaster does not simply acquire a sword, he earns it."
The smith said, pausing to make sure Yan Mo was following along, "He grows with it. If you constantly seek the 'next best thing', switching blades as soon as you feel a slight edge, then you are not seeking mastery. You're just seeking for a crutch."
He laughed, breaking the seriousness slightly, "Atleast, that's what I've heard from the Sword Saint, the ancestor of this sect," He tapped a nearby sword, it was normal, in fact Yan Mo could not feel a sense of masterwork within it, it just felt average, "This blade is designed to be tempered by the wielder's journey. It will respond to your growth, but it doesn't reward those who chase an advantage without understanding the commitment. You may have a sword, yes, but it should be one designed to grow with you, not one to simply discard when you find a better one."
Yan Mo blinked, taking it all in. He was slightly taken aback, he hadn't expected this, a sudden teaching moment, a revelation that he partially should've already realized. A true swordsman uses the sword as an extension of their body, how can one do so well if they constantly change the blade?
"Master Wu speaks wisdom," Yan Mo said, "Then, I believe I shall take the sword next to you. The one that seems normal, even below average for his surroundings, if one dare say it. But as I've analyzed it, I believe it has something deeper within, something that reminded it of me."
The smith smiled, grabbing the sword without hesitation and tossing it to him, "Take it on the house, I hate to admit it, but I haven't made that one myself. It's the only sword in this entire smithy that I haven't, no, I found it in a desolate plain while in my adventuring days, and figured a good master for it would come soon enough."
Yan Mo smiled back, catching the sword and lightly swung it, infusing some Qi into it and felt a familiar...concept inside it. He nodded, "Thank you, Master Wu, I was given an enlightenment I will take to heart."
He turned and found Liu Mei, who had just been playing with the bird the whole time, "Mei! I have found my sword, I shall head back to the sect to test it!" He was pretty blunt, and appeared even bolder when he rushed out of the smithy, ecstasy in his eyes.
Liu Mei chuckled, looking at the master smith, Liu Wu, her uncle of course.
Yan Mo swung his sword wildly as he ran back to the sect, trying to multitask as best he could. The better he understood this sword the better he would be able to use it in both real life and the dreamscape!
He felt something weird in it. Whenever he infused it with Qi, he felt unusual. Like the blade was not meant to be used with Qi? No, that can't be right, it must be something else...
But no matter how excited he was at a mysterious sword, he was significantly more interested in the duel he had seen happen in the forest. So when he got to his dorm room and bed, he slumped over nearly instantly.
It was a sudden transition, but he was within the void of his dreamscape. He looked at the two half-formed figures infront of him, one was a warrior in black and white robes, and the other a giant brown bear with a mohawk of fire down it's back.
He smiled and focused first on the swordsman, he remembered the man was wearing a modified outer disciple robe, so chances are when Yan Mo starts rising up the ranks, he'll meet him sooner rather than later.
Yan Mo stood with his hands out, mist seeping out of his hands and being vacuumed in by the form of the swordsman. He focused on his memories of the fight as he did so. He focused on the swordsman's footwork especially, it was a work of art that would enhance Yan Mo's own just by reminiscing on it.
His sidestep, for example, it wasn't just a dodge, it was a shift in weight, subtle rotation of the hips, all in a fraction of a second, that then let him set up a flawless counter-attack. He tried recreating it as he worked on forming the swordsman's legs, but it felt clumsy.
He felt like a puppeteer who managed to tangle up all his strings.
At the same time, he constantly had a rough focus of the fight happening in his head at all times. What did he see? Hear? Fell? The way the sword cut through the thick hide or the way his skin reacted after being cut by a claw.
In addition, the pressure Yan Mo was recreating didn't help either. The silent presence of the swordsman figure offered a constant, quiet critique. He knew it wasn't real, it was literally a figment of his imagination, yet he swore he could still feel it. He couldn't WAIT to fight him.
And the time came fast, the figure was created. Not to all of it's strength, Yan Mo was sure of it, but he recreated it up to the 6th Layer of Body Tempering, exactly where Yan Mo was as well.
Their gaze never broke as their swords formed within their hands. A simple, steel sword for both of them. Both his new sword and the mysterious man's sword were a riddle he couldn't clearly replicate just yet.
The stand-off continued for a few more minutes before they moved simultaneously, rushing towards each other.
"Have you heard of my little nephew yet?" The master smith asked, not caring to clean up the steel dust all over his hands as he drank from a cup of tea.
Liu Mei shook her head, sitting on a small stool she found in the smithy, "He hasn't come back still, and if I remember right, he still has one more task left even if he comes back from his hunting trip."
The smith's eyebrow raised, "Is that so? Would you remind this old man what the last task is?"
"Escort a caravan to the Snow Peak Fortress."