Chapter 0023: From Now On, I'll Teach You the Sword

Piercing through Chen Wu's arm was already the limit of what Ning Fan could do.

Experience. Strength.

There wasn't a single area where he surpassed Chen Wu.

And on top of that, he still had no Spirit Servant.

Yet the fact that he had fought this far was enough to change how even Qiao Fei and Huizi saw him.

Others might not know, but they understood clearly.

This kid...

By all accounts, he had been outside the zone for less than a single day!

And Chen Wu? The captain of the [Hunt Squad] — even if that team sat in the lower-middle tier of Zone F32, they had still been operating for four years.

A rookie with no Spirit Servant, and yet he had made Chen Wu — a seasoned veteran of the outside world — take hit after hit...

Qiao Fei and Huizi asked themselves honestly: when they were newcomers, they couldn't have done the same.

No wonder Brother Chuan had taken a liking to him.

But right now, what shocked the two of them most wasn't Ning Fan's tenacity.

It was the ethereal figure that had appeared behind him.

White robes, long hair, refined features, eyes half-closed — and hanging from his left ear, a small bell.

The spirit wrapped its arms around Ning Fan from behind, both hands clasped over his wrists.

As if guiding his every movement.

Ning Fan could feel it too — a force gently directing his wrists.

Then, suddenly, the ethereal figure opened its eyes.

And a weathered, ancient voice echoed through Ning Fan's mind.

"From now on, I'll teach you the sword."

Ning Fan's heart hammered with excitement.

Only now, in this moment, could he fully confirm it — he had a Spirit Servant.

But how to communicate with it, how to actually use it — that, he had no idea.

"What should I do?"

Ning Fan chose the most direct approach.

He simply asked.

Jian Wuchou's answer was equally direct.

"Cut him down."

Without a moment's hesitation, Ning Fan swung the broken blade straight at Chen Wu.

Chen Wu had seen the figure behind Ning Fan as well.

He was stunned.

But when the sword came for him, his instincts kicked in — he activated his Spirit Servant and retreated at full speed.

Just as he thought he had escaped...

The broken blade in Ning Fan's hand carved out a full black moon.

Darkness swallowed Chen Wu's vision.

Slash!

When Chen Wu came back to his senses, a mist of blood had already erupted before his eyes.

Then he saw it — an arm, tumbling through the air.

"This... Aah!!"

The agonizing pain reached his brain only now, and with it the realization that the arm spinning through the air was his own.

Ning Fan stared at Chen Wu kneeling on the ground, clutching the wound and howling — and felt a flicker of disbelief himself.

He did that?

He looked down at the broken blade in his hand, replaying the feeling of that swing in his mind.

On the other side, the members of the [Hunt Squad] watched their leader Chen Wu lose an arm to a single stroke from Ning Fan — and their will to fight shattered instantly.

The ethereal figure behind Ning Fan had already put enormous pressure on them.

"We're done fighting!"

One of them threw his weapon to the ground and raised both hands. "We... surrender!"

"You're surrendering?"

Huizi let out a cold snort. His dagger didn't slow for even a heartbeat — it slid across the man's throat.

"Did I say you could?"

Qiao Fei was equally swift and decisive. In what felt like an instant, five more bodies hit the ground.

The [Hunt Squad], apart from Chen Wu still writhing on the ground...

Wiped out.

"All that screaming is giving me a headache."

Huizi twirled his dagger idly and walked toward Chen Wu. "Sounds like a pig at the slaughterhouse."

But Qiao Fei held out a hand to stop him.

"Wait — looks like he's getting a feel for his Spirit Servant."

Huizi looked over at Ning Fan.

Ning Fan stood with his head bowed, eyes fixed on the broken blade.

Then, something seemed to click.

He straightened up, reversed his grip on the sword, blade aligned with his forearm.

"So that's how you use a sword," he murmured quietly to himself.

Whoosh!

The broken blade cut through the air with a sharp hiss.

"No — don't — I was wrong—"

Slash!

Chen Wu's head hit the ground.

This strike didn't carry the black moon like before — but it was far more lethal.

Fast. Ruthless. Precise.

Worlds apart from the performative swordsmanship he had drilled at the Academy.

This was a sword meant to kill.

Ning Fan's eyes gleamed, lit up by the strike he had just delivered.

"Sister Fei, Brother Huizi — I told you I had a Spirit Servant, didn't I?"

Just a short while ago, no matter how hard he tried, he had failed to summon it in front of them — which had been more than a little embarrassing.

"Not bad, kid!"

Huizi laughed and clapped Ning Fan on the back. "So you really do have one?"

The slap, given Ning Fan's injuries, nearly knocked him off his feet.

But he grinned through it. "I'm just not very familiar with how to use it yet!"

"Take your time."

Huizi's curiosity got the better of him. "What tier is your Spirit Servant?"

Seeing that Ning Fan didn't know how to gauge its level, Huizi clarified: "When you summon it, how many soul presences can you sense?"

The rank of a Spirit depended on the number of Wraiths gathered within it.

The Spirit Servant in Qiao Fei's Tang Blade had seventeen souls fused into it — making it [Ten-Soul Tier].

Of course, within the same tier, there were still differences in strength.

Ten souls was [Ten-Soul Tier].

Ninety-nine souls was also [Ten-Soul Tier].

That gap in number was the difference.

"How many souls?"

Ning Fan thought back to what he had just felt, then held up one finger. "I think... just one."

"One?"

Huizi blinked. "A [Single-Soul Tier] with just one Wraith?"

The disappointment on his face was plain to see.

Huizi himself was also [Single-Soul Tier] — but his Spirit Servant held nine Wraiths within it.

Simply put, a Spirit Servant with only a single Wraith...

Was the weakest kind there was.

"It's alright. Spirit Servants can grow."

Huizi forced a laugh and tossed out a word of encouragement.

Even a fool could tell it was hollow comfort.

But Ning Fan found himself a little puzzled.

Jian Wuchou...

Didn't feel weak at all.

He could sense it clearly — the moment Jian Wuchou was released, the surge it gave to his own strength was real.

"Alright, you two get some rest. I'll go deal with those bastards' bodies."

Huizi wasn't sure how to comfort Ning Fan, and honestly felt a little sorry for the kid, so he used the task as an excuse to slip away.

After he left, Qiao Fei made no move to offer comfort either. She led Ning Fan back into the cave and immediately turned serious.

"Tell me — you said you sensed the Spirit Servant while you were still in the inner district?"

"Yeah. I felt it when I killed Yang Beihai. But if I hadn't actually used it just now, I'd have almost convinced myself it was just my imagination."

"So the reason you went all-out against Chen Wu — was to confirm whether or not you actually had a Spirit Servant?"

"Right."

"Weren't you afraid of dying?"

Qiao Fei's tone was firm. "Chen Wu wasn't strong, but killing you... would've been easy enough."

Ning Fan understood — she was worried about him. "Sister Fei, I'm a member of the Hound Shelter too."

Qiao Fei said nothing.

"Watching you and Brother Huizi fight for your lives — I couldn't just stand there doing nothing."

Ning Fan looked her in the eye. "And I could tell — if you weren't worried about me, you wouldn't have fought so recklessly."

He was right.

With Qiao Fei and Huizi's actual strength, taking down the [Hunt Squad] wouldn't have been easy, but it wasn't impossibly hard either.

That fool Chen Wu never knew — to the very end — that the real gap between the [Hunt Squad] and the Hound Shelter wasn't just strength. It was conviction.

Huizi had mentioned it once: Chen Wu had once knelt before him and begged for his life, calling him "Dad."

Ning Fan was certain — there wasn't a single person in the Hound Shelter who would ever bow so low, snapping their own spine for the sake of survival.

"I know you both think I'm young and new, and you've been doing your best to protect me."

Ning Fan looked down at the coal-black broken blade. "But... I can't just keep accepting your protection without a care in the world, can I?"

Qiao Fei opened her mouth to speak, but Ning Fan got there first.

"We're strays, aren't we?"

There was a trace of bitterness in his smile. "Gambling our lives to survive — isn't that just... how we live?"

"Every single one of you bets with your life. So why... why can't I do the same?"