Dance of the blades

Chapter 49 Instructor Zi

The noise behind him caused Ouyang Zizhen to jump in fright. He had not expected the old lady to appear behind him, breathing down his neck like a ghost from old folk tales.

'The old lady' as Ouyang Zizhen would call her was the caretaker of the manor. She was a frail and grey-haired  old woman with a hunched back. With a sickly figure such as hers one would not think that she was a former demon slayer in her prime.

The Zi family running the wisteria manors had always had a strong admiration for demon slayers. Thus it was not surprising when a large number of their family members strived themselves to join the demon slayer corps. However with a large portion their lives living as young masters or mistresses of a rich family, most succumb to the pressure and the stubborn few who pushed through usually end up dying in their line of work.

Old lady Zi, Zi Jing was one of the rare few that made it through and had many accomplishments under her belt prior to her retirement. Ouyang Zizhen both admired and feared old lady Zi as her many achievements had made her the first pick as their instructor.

"Is something the matter Ouyang gongzi? You look like you've seen a ghost" old lady Zi inquired the boy. His face was a stark pale in fright as he hurried to reply to her.

"Its nothing Zi Guniang. I was just surprised by your sudden arrival!" Ouyang Zizhen said while trying to sound as polite as possible. Old lady Zi was a hard to please but easy to anger type of woman. Ouyang Zizhen didn't dare to even breath in the wrong way in fear that she would find something to nitpick about.

" A sharp blade should have sharp senses. If you get surprise by the tiniest of things, how can you face slyer and more sneaker foes" the old lady grumbled and shook her head in displeasure. Ultimately deciding to spare the boy from a lecture, she turned her attention to the three boys  in front of her.

"Oi you kids! What's all the hustle and bustle all about? Did you not have enough training in the morning! Get in here!" old lady Zi called out to get the boys' attention. Naturally hearing their instructor's voice, Lan Jingyi and Jin Ling who were glaring at each other's throats instantly shut up and silently ran to her direction. In their rush they left Lan Sizhui behind, who in the end decided to silently trail after them.

Lan Jingyi and Jin Ling in a rush to reach old lady Zi, ignored the dangerous closeness of their proximity and collided into each other with a thud! Old lady Zi looked on at the scene with a sigh.

Both Lan Jingyi and Jin Ling had been causing all sorts of trouble in the wisteria manor ever since the first day they set foot. It was not that they were purposely trying to be a hindrance. No, old lady Zi already had a taste of the true unrestrained mischievous of youth in her prime by a certain ponytail wearing boy.

Instead the problem was that the two boys would not stop getting into petty 'fights'.  'Fights' as in they were hardly worthy of calling it that. At best it would be the two boys blasting off into a screaming match and at worst fists would be thrown.

The two rascals had already manage to tumble into a few sword stands and disrupt sleep everyone's sleep. It was a miracle that a bad tempered person as old lady Zi hadn't went into a rage and still kept a nonchalant expression on her face. She truly was worthy of being called a teacher!

Unaffected by the boys' glaring match, old lady Zi started her lesson as planned. Today's agenda was for the juniors to learn the 'total concentration breathing technique' first hand. 

Originally this duty fell in the hands of  masters that cultivated demon slayers. However as the number of demons grew so did demand for more demon slayers. The number of disciple which were around one to five turned to tenth of the original number. This led to them cutting their lessons short and send in half baked ducklings into battle.

Of course these sets of actions led to obvious repercussions down the line. One of them was the breathing technique 'total concentration breathing' that was essential for demon slayers to boost vitality to be glimpsed over. As a result the demon slayer corps organized these hastily put together lessons in hopes of further educating their  demon slayers.

With all that's said although Lan Sizhui had the advantage of being singly taught by his master, the others were not so lucky. In fact it took them a few tries and failures until they succeeded in grasping the technique. 

"Alright that's enough for today! We'll rap up everything else tomorrow." old lady Zi solemnly clapped her hands, dismissing them for dinner.  

Those few words that were spoken nonchalantly by old lady Zi were the combination to relief for the rest of the boys. Their bodies immediately slumped to the ground, exhausted from the strain on their lungs and muscles. 

"Ugh finally! I thought that the old hag was going to drag it until the sun dropped!" Jin Ling groaned out while stretching his arms. The salty taste of sweat almost even feel like sweet water with how relieved he felt.

"Shh! Not so loud! Do you want Zi Loushi to hear you!?" Lan Jingyi quickly covered Jin Ling's mouth as he anxiously glanced at old lady Zi in the distance. Although Lan Jingyi also agreed with Jin Ling's sentiment he was still a disciple from the prestigious Lan clan. The rule of respecting elders was ruthlessly ingrained into him thus he still referred to a respectable title when calling old lady Zi even out of her ear shot.

Jin Ling who studied with Lan Jingyi during his teens knew well of this fact and so decided against arguing back at him. Instead he resigned to his fate and waited until their instructor's back completely vanished before dragging his friend to the dinner hall with him.