What are the swordsages? Xu Qing thought.3

In the past, he didn’t really understand. In fact, the reason he originally wanted to join the swordsages had nothing to do with some grand aspiration to defending humankind. There was no way someone with a childhood as bitter as his could naturally develop patriotic feelings for humanity.0

Xu Qing’s main goals in life were: to try to stay alive; to improve his life a bit if possible; to live long enough to kill the crow and the eagle.13

And there were three reasons why he had become a swordsage: because the Captain wanted to be a swordsage; because becoming a swordsage would provide him with a measure of safety; because his authority as a swordsage would aid in his search for the crow. Most important was how his status as a swordsage became a weapon in his toolbox against the crow.7

All of those reasons were ultimately selfish in nature. That said, it wasn’t as if Xu Qing was the only person with such motives. In reality, new swordsages from prefectures far and wide generally started out thinking that way. Other than people who were raised in the Swordsage Palace hearing stories about the swordsages and their mission, there were very few cultivators in the outside prefectures who cared at all about the goal of defending humankind.1

For Xu Qing, the ceremony in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture,...4