Reborn in another world as a Hermaphrodite

"Hey, it's not my fault I mixed it up. I told you I had never cooked before... Besides, it can't be that bad."

As soon as Meiya picked up a piece of the food and ate it, her eyes suddenly started to widen.

"This is actually so good! Alex, you should try some."

Seeing Meiya say it out loud, Alex became curious and decided to try one out as well.

To his surprise, the sweetness didn't make the potato beef stew taste bad. It actually tastes much better than he ever imagined.

"Hey Luqing, don't eat all of it to yourself."

Luqing's face blushed a little as she ate almost a third of it while the two were still just having a taste.

"It's fine, I can cook more..."

---

As lunch quickly ended, Luqing brought the two back to their house for the sword training.

After a short warmup with the dummy training, Meiya finally started with the real training.

"I have to say, Alex, you're really talented in sword fighting." Meiya complimented.

"That's because you taught me well," Alex replied.

"No need to lower yourself like this. You will be a generational talent if you're born on my continent."

Alex didn't say anything as he raised his sword against Luqing, who also raised her sword as well.

"You two ready?"

Both Luqing and Alex turned towards Meiya, with their eyes staring right at her as they stood together.

Within a blink of an eye, Luqing struck first as she dashed forward from the left, aiming her sword right for Meiya's neck.

But it was easily deflected to the side as Meiya picked up a nearby tree branch as a sword.

Meanwhile, Alex went much further right, trying to flank her as he slashed forward.

Just like earlier, Meiya instantly deflected off, not even needing to move a single step the whole time.

The two didn't waste any time as they struck forward again, aiming from two different directions right at where she stood.

Meiya quickly blocked off Luqing's attack first, leaving her with a single second to block Alex's attack as it got closer and closer.

But once again, she somehow turned faster than any normal human reaction as she deflected Alex's attack to the side.

However, it wasn't without a cost.

Meiyia's tree branch had completely snapped in half, leaving her weaponless as the two didn't stop there.

Yet, just as they were about to get her, an almost invisible sword appeared in her hand, blocking both of their attacks with it.

No matter what angles the two used, Meiya blocked every single one without needing to move a single time.

Suddenly, Luqing's sword went much faster, with a slight wind blowing to both Alex and Meiya as she stabbed forward.

Within a millisecond, Meiya finally moved this time, taking one small step to the side as she deflected the stab.

A loud clank sound could be heard as their sword hit, but Meiya didn't stop as she turned towards Alex.

Even though Alex was nowhere near Meiya, she raised her sword as a woosh sound could be heard traveling.

Another loud clank sound was heard as the woosh sound hit her sword, revealing Alex's invisible Qi blade.

"My turn."

As Meiya finished talking, Luqing quickly stood her ground, holding a defensive position as she waited for her to strike.

Within a blink, Meiya was already right in front of Luqing, slashing downward just as Luqing raised her sword.

Alex quickly rushed forward in an attempt to help, but he was caught off guard as Luqing instantly dashed towards him with a stab.

Given the positioning, Alex turned his stab rush into a block as Meiya's slash appeared right before him.

His hand instantly felt a little numb as their sword reached contact, but he remained firm as he quickly took a step back.

Just as Meiya was about to strike again, she suddenly turned to the side and raised her sword.

Several loud clanks appeared in a row, with two cuts appearing on the tree in the distance.

"Nice angles. Just needed to be more on the right——"

Before Meiya could finish talking, Luqing had dashed forward herself as she went for a slash.

With plenty of time for a defense, Meiya chose to raise her sword to get ready to block it.

The loud clank sound didn't appear this time, as Luqing went for a risky low slash towards Meiya's leg instead.

To Alex's surprise, Meiya suddenly jumped at the very last second, narrowingly dodging the slash as she stepped right onto her sword.

"I lost," Luqing murmured as she quickly let go of her sword.

As Meiya turned over to Alex and looked at him for a second, he lowered his sword and admitted defeat.

"You two need a more coordinated strike. The first three strikes should have forced me to move.

But there was a second delay in between your attacks, giving me time to turn around to block it."

"How are we supposed to coordinate that? We can't read each other like a twin or anything."

Alex complained as he had already tried his hardest to match Luqing's speed in attack.

"That's not my problem. If you two ever want to have a chance at beating me, you're going to need to meet that goal."

Alex rolled his eyes, ignoring Meiya's comment as there wasn't really a point in beating someone as two swordsmen.

Not to mention, Meiya barely used her Qi with her movement, only using her physical body besides the sword made out of Qi.

"Ahem, let's resume back to training where we left off last time... Luqing, you're going to be Alex's training partner."

Luqing didn't say anything, but she nodded as Meiya handed her swords back to her hand.

With the two of them having their swords raised, they were now just waiting for Meiya's signal.

"Actually, Alex, I want you to use all of your sword's Qi... And Luqing, I want you only to use your physical body and dodge everything."

Luqing gently rested her sword on the ground as a gentle wind blew across the two of them.

"Get ready, set... Go!"

Alex immediately started slashing his sword towards Luqing, causing several woosh sounds as Luqing started dashing to the side.

Even though Luqing couldn't see the Qi blade exactly, her movement narrowly dodges all the attacks thrown at her.

With more and more slashes, the Qi blade began to expand exponentially, covering almost every angle.

However, his slash was not fast enough to eliminate all the gaps that allowed Luqing to dash left and right.

After keeping up the pace for less than fifteen seconds, Alex's hand started to feel tired.

The slowness began to rear its ugly head as Luqing was finally able to advance towards him.

Just as she reached halfway, she was forced to dash around again as the Qi blade was now much faster with the closer distance.

"I can't do it anymore."

Alex quickly lowered his sword down, with his arm beyond exhausted from the amount of swings.

"Tsk, that wasn't even a minute," Meiya murmured as she looked a little disappointed by Alex's performance.

"I'm only ten, okay? How am I supposed to swing this sword when it's half my size?" Alex argued back.

"Ahem. I had seen young prodigies who could lift that sword even without Qi helping them."

Meiya awkwardly swirled her hair, trying to change the conversation. She had once again completely forgotten how young Alex still was.

"But I don't even have Qi on my body to use in the first place. How can I train my body to be stronger without Qi?"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Mom... Isn't there physical cultivation? Could Alex try that?"

Luqing suddenly brought it up as she walked back to the two of them with her sword.

"Not possible. All three of the cultivation methods aren't compatible with Mana." Meiya pointed out.

"What is the other cultivation method?" Alex curiously asked.

"You don't need to know about it... It's pretty much irrelevant on this continent."

Meiya's answer made Alex even more curious as she began to pack everything away in the storage room.

"Luqing, Luqing, what are the three cultivation methods?" Alex curiously asked as he grabbed her arms.

After a short hesitation, Luqing folded to Alex's plead.

"The three cultivation methods are... Xiandao, Physical Cultivation, and Shendao."

"What's Xiandao and Shendao?"

Alex curiously asked as the name sounded a little familiar and mysterious at the same time.

"Xiandao is the normal cultivation, like Mom and I are both Xiandao. And Shendao is..."

Luqing paused for a second as if she was trying to recall her memories.

"It's like making people believe in you and then gathering their beliefs to ascend to God."

"Huh... How would that even work?"

The thought of having other people's beliefs would make someone stronger just didn't make any sense to Alex's brain.

"I'm pretty sure mages have this too. Don't you guys have a mage goddess?"

Meiya finally chimed in as she finished carrying all the equipment into the storage room.