"Did you take a good look at the beggar we talked to?" Luo Si questioned her student as they were stepping back on the main road.
"Uh… Yeah." He answered somewhat uncertain.
"Good. Because this would have been your future, if you did not." Luo Si's statement shock her students very soul. "Now come. I need some fresh air." Although she was different from all the other woman her body's age, she was still a female in nature. In front of the pungent smell even her nose cloaged up.
Wuying unconditionally agreed while feeling cold sweat running down his back from hearing Luo Si's feedback.
Thoughts about the drunkard popped up in his head. Not just what he looked like but also what he had maundered out together with the disgusting breath.
He would not have believed his idol to be disliked so much. The bartender did not even deny the shadowed man's words one bit and only jumped in when the topic about the massacre was brought up. He himself did not know too much about it either and wanted to hear some more about it. But since his teacher did not seem to care that much he did not get involved.
A sense of depression spread inside his mind. He definitely did not want to end up like Tsing Tao.
Wuying's steps became heavier with every passing second. Unbeknown to him they were distancing themselves from the villages center.
Absent-minded Wuying followed his teacher until he bumped into her as she stopped. To his surprise they had gone on top of the city wall erected next to a moat. Its origin still visible miles away.
After looking around for a bit Luo Si decided that the spot atop of the village wall should be their final destination of her guidance.
Standing mere inches away from the 3-meter-deep steep, both watched a cloud-clear panorama of mother nature. The somewhat peaceful view elevated Wuying's mood a bit by distracting him from his earlier thoughts. But that was not part of Luo Si's plan as she lowered her eyes.
She pointed at the water and asked. "Tell me what do you see?"
Her student's eyes followed suit. Inspecting the water. It was very clear and still. Some fishes could be spotted around swimming against the nearly unperceivable current.
"What I see?" Wuying thought for a while. His teachers teaching, although rather plain and direct, always had a deeper meaning.
At the first lesson, although he had been brought to tears, it had helped him get rid of his ignorant arrogance.
And when the second lesson ended, a spirit and passion was born.
He looked at the water in a less detailed perspective. Even though the sun was nearly reaching its apex a shadow was casted nonetheless. Like a cut line overshadowing a sixth of the river's width. The cut was not perfect, as two small bulges intercepted the line, but were still part of the bigger shadow.
After half an incense of time passed, he broke the silence. "Do you want to tell me that regardless of the fact that we can poke out our heads to see the truth, we are all just tiny ants under the king?"
It was reasonable to assume that this lesson would be teaching him to stay humble.
Yet contrary to his believe, Luo Si was dumbfounded by how far this little toddler had reached out. 'Tiny ant? This tiny ant could have eradicated your king with a simple thought not much longer than a week ago!'
She did not know whether to laugh or cry. Had she messed up his mind too much? His inner world had been destroyed not too long ago. Who else would be more understanding than the perpetrator herself?
Was it her fault? Was she not a good educator? She quickly doubted her assumptions the next second. Afterall, she had learned from one of the best.
Nevertheless, since she was his teacher, she would help him out this once.
"I truly worry." With that said she patted his back.
"Don't worry. Since you are my teacher the Fu clan will naturally support you-." Feeling his teachers' pain Wuying consoled her.
"Look again." However, before he could finish the back-pad shoved him of the edge in one swoop motion. All he could hear were two plain words.
Splash*
Before the falling toddle could react to Luo Si's negation, he hit the water.
The water was not very deep at the shores. Only half up to the knees.
"What was that for!?" Tears formed on his lower eyelids. He felt cheated. Was all of this prepared just to repay the humiliation?
"I said: look again." Luo Si waited until her discipline lowered his head, this time seeing his reflection clearly. Pushing her discipline into the water was not out of humiliation. Well, it was also payback for declaring a bounty on her. "Are those the eyes deserving of the kings' position? Do these eyes contain any drive worth cultivating?"
Without delay she answered her own question. "I will tell you what I see. I see a child with a drive so fragile and weak that it crumbled from the tiniest blow. If you want to call yourself a cultivator then you need a drive that cannot perish even if the heavens want you dead!"
This lesson was not dedicated towards humbleness at all. Luo Si had spent 2 days creating a garden out of ashes. Why would she wast it by drawing a fence around it. 'Might as well errect a fortress.'
Together with the updrifting wind, Wuying looked up the wall, his eyes travelling all the way up until they met his teachers' wicked expression. Her eyes exuding an uncrushable aura, he had the impression that his previous believe of the king was not even a grain of dust in front of this behemoth.
"If you want change, be the change. But know that you are not the king. You are you and whatever you make out of it is up to yourself. This is true cultivation." With that said Luo Si vanished. Leaving behind a helmet wearing boy looking at his reflection.
---
*Pack
A small sack full of silver coins dropped on a table. The table was labelled with a sign saying "Registration" with a disinterested face sitting behind it. The situation lightly resembled the first scene inside Guilin's hospital. But instead of a Tetris game the receptionist just dazed of. The irregular shouts from behind the training camp walls kept him awake. He was only attentive when it came to counting the remuneration.
Cling*
After going through the coins twice he put a just dipped pen on a piece of paper with numbers and names written on. The tinted names with the highest numbers next to them still looked and smelled fresh.
"Alright, you are number 212. What's your name?" He heedlessly blurted out to a long-legged European student.
"The Lightning… no, the flash. Yes, the flash. You see I am quite fast and…" The student started to talk about why he had chosen his gamer tag. Yet his explanation fell on deaf ears
"Urgh, not another one of these anomalies. Next!" The receptionist grumbled as he wrote down 'Flush'.
The explanation went on until the youth was pushed aside by the person standing behind him. Of course, the young man didn't like that. He had his crew of followers who helped him gather the tournament fee. Being a popular figure he could not just be looked down on.
"Hey!" Disrupted in his moment he shouted, but it turned into a sneer after taking a glance at whom had shoved him away.
"Hah. If it isn't Miss punching bag. Where is your master so I can beat you up?" Luo Si ignored him and pulled out her fee.
The receptionist was about to cash in the tournament remittance when his eyes squinted together feeling humiliated at the sight of dozens of dozens muddy marble-sized stones.
"Impudent!" He could tolerate the names and demeanor of most anormal participants but when it came to money, he knew no pardon.
The martial learners were attracted by the sudden commotion. They were somewhat used to the players abrupt explosions but the uncaring receptionist flaring up in rage was something new.
Their gazes quickly turned into mockery. Memories of yesterdays fight still lingered in their heads. The experience of witnessing a master aka Wuying's teacher fend off a horde of martial learner with nothing but basic martial arts had left everyone amazed.
Luo Si did not take it to heart, although, the morning lesson had gotten quite on her nerves. She picked up a pebble and crushed it back on the table. The table cracked under her force, proving the required strength. "Tsk, here is your silver." After the dirt was driven off the outlining of the coin became visible. As well as the silver hue.
Since there was no game-like inventory, the players had to become creative. Some gave it in care of friends while others directly traded money directly. As for Luo Si, since she had no friends, she had split and buried the money in different hard to find places.
At first the man behind the desk didn't want to take it, but he got ahold of himself seeing the branded coin on her hand. With someone like Wuying swagging through the streets, who didn't know what this symbol represented.
"Hmph, since you wanna play like this, you aren't having no name. You will just be 213." The receptionist nearly spit fire as he greedily washed of the dirt from the coins.
"So be it." Luo Si had a surprisingly off burdened expression. It made things even easier on her end. She had a slight impression identifying that at least a handful of tycoons were enlisted.
In the end she could only shake her head. Even though the tournament was filled with amazing prizes, one had to reach the second round in order to profit from the share.
And with her at the starting line they should just invest majorly into learning martial arts at the library and resources to get stronger.