All Chapters of Rebirth of the Weakest: Chapter 71
- Chapter 80
102 chapters
71: The Rumor Begins
By sunrise, Ken had already become the subject of a rumor.He just didn't know it yet.The outer disciple courtyard was unusually noisy that morning, clusters of disciples huddled together, voices dropped to that particular pitch reserved for gossip too good to shout."Did you hear?""Heard what?""Something happened yesterday.""About the new disciples?""No. About Ken."Ken, walking toward the dining hall with Seven at his side, felt his stride hitch for half a step before he caught himself.Seven noticed immediately. He noticed everything immediately — it was, as far as Ken could tell, his one true skill."What?""Nothing." Ken kept walking, eyes forward, doing his best impression of a man who had nothing at all to hide.Behind them, two disciples lowered their voices, which only made Ken's hearing sharpen out of spite."I heard something red appeared around his Thunder yesterday.""Red? Thunder's not red. It's blue, purple, silver, maybe white if you're unlucky enough to cultivate
72: The Building and the Girl Who Noticed
Ken and Seven left the dining hall not long after, the rumor trailing them like smoke that refused to disperse."You're being unusually quiet," Seven said, matching his pace."I'm thinking.""That's never good. Last time you got that look, you nearly got both of us killed in a forest.""I got both of us a fortune in loot in that forest.""After nearly getting us killed. I stand by my statement."They crossed into the outer disciple district, and Ken's attention snagged on a row of buildings lining one side of the road — old, mostly abandoned, weeds pushing up through cracked stone paths.Seven followed his gaze. "Storage and activity buildings. Outer disciples can apply to use them.""Activity buildings," Ken repeated, turning the phrase over."For different purposes, yeah. Training, storage, whatever you can justify to the elders in charge of approvals."Ken's eyes drifted along the row until they landed on one structure in particular — small, weathered, dust thick on every surface,
73: The Alchemist's Opportunity - Part One
Ken sat beneath a large tree outside the outer disciple dining hall, turning a small wooden token over and over in his fingers, as if enough repetition might reveal some trick to making it multiply.Seven sat beside him, watching the token with mild suspicion, like it had personally wronged him.Across from them, Suzuki and Lila sat with their legs folded, sharing a bun between them. Senior Lu leaned against the tree trunk, arms crossed, eyes closed, looking like a man who had opinions and intended to withhold every single one of them for as long as possible."There has to be a better way," Ken muttered.Seven glanced at him. "A better way to what? Complain?""Earn sect points."Lu chuckled without opening his eyes. "Now you're thinking like an outer disciple.""You mean I wasn't before?""You were thinking like someone who still believed the sect owed him something." Lu cracked one eye open. "Give it time. That belief dies fast."Ken shot him a look. "Comforting.""I try."Suzuki smi
74: The Alchemist's Opportunity - Part Two
A young disciple approached almost the instant they crossed the threshold, his robe crisp, his expression carefully neutral in the way of someone trained to greet strangers without revealing anything useful. "Do you need anything?" Ken glanced around the vast hall, unhurried. "I heard the Pill Pavilion is having trouble refining a particular pill." The disciple's composure cracked, just slightly. "Who told you that?" Ken shrugged, easy and unbothered. "People talk." "This isn't something outer disciples should concern themselves with," the young man said, voice tightening with the specific nervousness of someone worried about being blamed for a leak he had nothing to do with. Ken didn't push. He didn't need to. His attention had already drifted past the disciple's shoulder toward a small crowd gathered near an inner chamber, several alchemists clustered around a table with the particular, brittle tension of people who had failed at the same thing multiple times and were rap
75: The Furnace Test
The room fell completely silent the moment Ken stepped up to the furnace.Several experienced alchemists lined the walls, arms folded, watching with the particular skepticism reserved for outer disciples who talked too big. Elder Mo stood closest, his presence alone enough to make the air feel heavier."Begin," Elder Mo said, and the single word carried the weight of a challenge.Ken looked over the ingredients laid across the table. Seven-Leaf Grass. Blood Lotus. Three supporting herbs, unremarkable on their own. Nothing here would trouble a Tier 5 Alchemist under normal circumstances.But normal circumstances didn't involve Elder Mo standing three feet away, waiting for him to fail.Behind him, Seven leaned toward Lila and muttered just loud enough for Ken to hear, "If he messes this up, everyone's going to say he got lucky earlier.""He's not going to mess it up," Lila whispered back, though her tone wasn't entirely convinced.Suzuki said nothing. He simply watched, eyes narrowed,
76: The Pavilion
Elder Mo's gaze sharpened with open interest. "Young enough to still be an outer disciple, and already Tier 5." He turned the pill over once more in his fingers. "And capable of catching a flaw in a process I've used for thirty years.""I wasn't saying your method was bad," Ken said quickly."I know you weren't." Elder Mo actually smiled at that, which was somehow more unsettling than his earlier scrutiny. "Every alchemist makes mistakes, boy. The ones worth anything are the ones who can recognize them when someone points them out — instead of getting defensive about it."Ken nodded, unsure if that counted as praise or a warning.Elder Mo held the pill back out to him. "Keep it."Ken blinked. "Me?""You're the one who refined it."Ken took it slowly, like it might vanish if he moved too fast. "Thank you."Elder Mo turned to the row of alchemists still standing frozen along the wall. "Change the refining process to match his method going forward."They snapped into motion immediately,
77: The Price of Territory
Ken stood in front of the abandoned building with his hands on his waist, studying it the way a buyer studies a horse with three good legs.Dust caked the entrance. One window had been broken so long ago the edges of the glass had gone soft and grey. The sign above the door had rotted through, half its characters missing, so that whatever the place used to be called was now just a guess.Seven stared at it, arms folded, unimpressed. "You really want to use this place?""It has potential," Ken said."It looks like it was abandoned twenty years ago.""Exactly."Seven frowned at him like he'd just watched Ken eat something spoiled on purpose. "How does that make it good?""It means nobody wants it.""Or it means everyone who tried already gave up. Did that possibility cross your mind, or did it get lost somewhere between here and your confidence?"Ken pushed the door open anyway. It groaned on its hinges, a long, tired creak that seemed to agree with Seven more than with him."Perfect,"
78: What Elder Mo Wants
Seven let out a low whistle into the quiet. "That went well."Ken exhaled slowly. "No. It really didn't."Suzuki nodded, arms crossed, already thinking three steps ahead. "He'll come back. Men like that don't walk away and forget it happened. They walk away and start planning.""I know," Ken said. "No, I don't think you do," Suzuki pressed, not unkindly, but firm. "You embarrassed him in front of his own people. That's not the kind of thing someone like Huo Ren just lets go. He's going to need to fix his reputation, and the fastest way to do that is to come back with more people and make sure it doesn't go the same way twice."Lila looked toward the battered entrance, worry creasing her brow. "Then what do we do? Wait for him to show up with an army of outer disciples and hope Ken can dodge all of them too?""We continue," Ken said, already walking back inside, stepping over the debris like it was simply the next problem on a list rather than a threat hanging over his head.Seven foll
79: The First Customer
Ken returned to the abandoned building before sunrise.The argument with Huo Ren hadn't changed his mind. If anything, it had sharpened it into something harder, something closer to resolve. He pushed open the door and looked around at the dust, the broken shelves, the years of neglect settled over everything like a second skin."We need to clean this place."Seven stood behind him, already holding a broom like it had been thrust into his hands against his will — which, Ken supposed, it had."You said we.""Yes.""Why am I the one holding this?""Because you're my friend."Seven stared at him for a long moment. "That logic is terrible.""It's excellent logic. You just don't appreciate it.""I appreciate a lot of things. Sleep. Free time. Not sweeping floors before the sun's even up."Suzuki's laugh cut through the dust motes drifting in the pale light as she stepped through the door with Lila close behind, arms full of cloth and cleaning supplies."I brought everything," she said, set
80: The Watcher Across the Street
By evening, something Ken hadn't quite prepared for began to happen.The first sign was small — a shadow crossing the threshold, hesitating, then stepping fully inside. Then another. Three more outer disciples arrived at the door in quick succession, murmuring among themselves, glancing at the half-finished shelves and the dust still settling from the day's cleaning. Two more trailed in behind them a few minutes later, drawn by whatever version of the story had already made its way through the sect's gossip channels — a version that had, no doubt, grown a little taller and a little stranger with every retelling.Ken wiped his hands on a cloth and looked at Seven. Seven looked back at him with the particular flatness of a man who already knew exactly what was coming and had decided, in advance, not to enjoy it."Don't look at me," Seven said."I didn't say anything.""You were about to.""I was going to say you look tired. That's all.""That's a lie and we both know it."Ken laughed, s