And with so, she continued living her daily life on the floating island...
Every single day, Xu Meihua would wake up very early in the morning and do her daily routines before setting off into the field. She would only get about four to five hours of sleep every single day.
At the break of dawn, she would do extreme physical exercises. At noon, she would spar and train her techniques while being guided by her Master to the point of exhaustion. And lastly, at night, she would cultivate and read technique manuals to slowly comprehend them.
At the same time, Su Lan would also constantly take her condition into consideration, thus she would let Xu Meihua take some days off if she was not feeling too well.
However, that does not mean Su Lan would go easier on her...
Each time Xu Meihua completed a technique book, Su Lan would constantly add more and more. Thus, even after obtaining the ability to read faster, it still didn't make Xu Meihua's routines any easier.
Xu Meihua was quite fed up with this sometime later.
Sometimes, she would sneakily throw some technique manuals out of the island, hoping that she would no longer have to learn them. Xu Meihua didn't feel any sense of loss towards these precious books since her master seems to have an unlimited amount of them.
However, Su Lan soon noticed this and 'gently' beat her to a pulp.
Well, at least she obtained a new passive skill called 'Appraisal' after reading a lot of books. The skill didn't do much though since it could only give her basic information at level one.
By basic information, she meant that quite literally. She had once used it on one of the herbs in her inventory and it only gave her one sentence, 'It's a leaf'.
Well, good to know.
And now thirty days has passed, and it was finally her last day of training.
Xu Meihua stood in the training field in front of Su Lan with determined eyes. Today was the last day of training and her Master decided to end them with a spar. Her heart was tense as her feelings were a mixture of excitement and fear.
She was excited that she could finally show the results of her training but at the same time, she was having doubts about whether or not her master would be happy with the results.
'But nevertheless, it is now or never... I must show Master my strong moves before she would beat me up right after!' Xu Meihua steeled her resolve in her heart.
A quest panel suddenly showed up in front of her when she was warming up.
[-----------------------QUEST-------------------------]
LAST DAY
After two months of arduous training, you have grown stronger both physically and mentally, far surpassing your past self. Now it's time to show the results to your master!
type: Main Quest
Difficulty: Hard
Objective: Win against your master!
On Success:
> Your master likes you better
> New skill: Footwork Basics (Passive)
On Failure:
> Your master will be slightly disappointed
[----------------------------------------------------------]
'Oh, a quest? I haven't seen them in a while...' she thought curiously as she saw the system panel.
After reading the objective, her brows furrowed as she became furious. How in the world would she be able to beat her master!? That is simply the same as asking a chicken to fly high in the sky. It was simply impossible.
However, after reading the penalty, she quickly calmed down. It seems like the penalty was not too severe, so it won't hurt to at least try, right? Her master was always disappointed in her anyways.
'Well, alright... I should put everything I learned on the line then!' she quickly resolved herself.
Xu Meihua quickly got into a battle position with one hand in front and the other drawn at her side. Both feet were planted lightly on the ground like a cat, matching her small, graceful build. Her jade-green eyes shone as her white hair blew with the wind.
At this moment, she was ready to take a beating!
Seeing her battle posture, Su Lan smiled and simply stood still fifty meters in front of her. Her posture was still very casual with both hands on her back, like an old man.
"Meihua, remember what I said earlier. All you need to do is land an attack on me and you win. I won't use any technique and I'll even lower my cultivation into the first stage of Qi Gathering, lower than you..." Su Lan says with a smile.
'Huh? What's that? Only the first stage of Qi Gathering? And no technique?' Xu Meihua's eyes gleamed as her ears perked out.
Just a few days ago, Xu Meihua has broken through the third stage of Qi Gathering after numerous hours of cultivation every night. Her stats rose considerably and she was now a couple of times stronger than when she first learned techniques.
And now her master said that she won't use any techniques while her power is suppressed to the first stage of Qi Gathering realm?
'This should be an easy cake!!'
Boom!
A loud sound was heard as the ground beneath her cracked. With a dash, Xu Meihua closed the distance between her and her master and attacked her aggressively with a torrent of attacks!
Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh!
Hundreds of fist and palm attacks approached Su Lan at high speed as the surrounding winds blew furiously.
However, Su Lan was still calm as she side-stepped and evaded them with ease. A gentle smile was still plastered on her face as she kept on dodging Xu Meihua's attacks easily. The more she dodged the more confused Xu Meihua became.
'H-How is she dodging my attacks?! Isn't her power in the first stage of Qi Gathering!?' Xu Meihua screamed in her head.
"Master, stop dodging!" she cried as she desperately tried to attack her, only for her attacks to hit the empty air.
"Stop dodging? Why don't you stop attacking, then?" Su Lan taunted her once again.
Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh!
...
...
...
After ten minutes of relentlessly attacking, Xu Meihua leaped away while panting furiously.
Huff... Huff... Huff...
Not a single one of her attacks managed to land on her master as Su Lan dodged them effortlessly throughout the battle. All Xu Meihua has been doing was simply exhausting herself.
'I-I can't keep on going, I'm running out of Qi...' she figured quickly.
She could feel it in her dantian. Her Qi reserves had dropped by a third after that barrage of attacks.
'I should try using some strong techniques and end this spar as fast as possible! If this goes on, I will end up running out of Qi first before Master even make her first move!' she concluded.
After standing still for a few seconds, Xu Meihua finally made a move again.
She then leaped back to close the distance between her and her master as she started attacking once again. Su Lan sighs as she was starting to get a little bored with this barrage of attacks. It was basically the same attack pattern with an endless barrage of fists and palms. But this time, it was a little different...
Bam!
She kicked the ground hard enough to spatter some dirt into her master's face in hopes it would hinder her vision. Of course, it did not work on Su Lan since she quickly blocked them, but Xu Meihua was not done yet.
Tap!
Just when her master got slightly distracted, Xu Meihua suddenly jumped five meters high in the air, taking Su Lan by surprise. Her body got into a strange posture, drawing her palm deeply into the back.
"Take this!"
Heaven's Palm Technique!
She then pushed her palm as strong as she could. Winds surge around her palm as a big palm made of energy was shot out at an extremely high speed!
Su Lan saw this and her boredom disappeared, displaced with a gentle smile.
'Such a proficiency... She must have trained in this technique a lot during the past few months!' Su Lan thought.
However, she won't let her disciple win just because of this. She dodged the attack easily once again as Xu Meihua's palm of energy hit a nearby boulder.
BOOM!
A massive palm mark was deeply printed on its surface. It was about three meters deep and white smoke was constantly coming out of it. Su Lan saw its power and nodded with a satisfied expression on her face.
'Her power is also way beyond others in the same realm as her. I know she had just hit the third stage of Qi Gathering quite recently, yet her power matches those in the fourth stage...'
Xu Meihua then landed quickly before getting back into her battle posture. Seeing that her attack failed, she frowned greatly as her mind started to become agitated. That technique alone had consumed about half of her Qi.
'This is bad... this is bad...! What is up with her!? Did she even suppress her power at all!?' she panicked seeing her Master still standing casually.
Well, the truth was Su Lan only suppressed her power to the fifth stage of Qi Gathering. She simply said that she was going to make her power lower than Xu Meihua only to mess with her. But that doesn't matter right now...
Tap... tap... tap...
Su Lan then slowly approached Meihua menacingly, getting closer to her step by step...
"Now, it should be my turn to start attacking, right?" Su Lan said with a sinister smile.
Xu Meihua's face turned ashen when she heard those words. Her senses started flaring up, sending messages to her brain of the incoming danger that she was about to face. She was suddenly reminded of her previous spars with Su Lan and how it always ended with her getting beaten up in the end. Those traumatic experiences would stick like glue in her brain.
Without even a single thought, she immediately flee the training ground and ran with all her might.
'M-Master is a demon! She's a true demon! I swear I won't come back here after leaving this island!' she thought as she kept on running.
"Don't run away on me~ A true righteous disciple of the Flowing Sword Sect wouldn't back down so cowardly after failing, right?" Su Lan said as she suddenly appeared beside Xu Meihua.
"Hiieeek! This is bullying, Master!"
"How misleading! This is simply a spar~"
"A-AAAAH!"
Cloud Steps!
Xu Meihua suddenly disappeared as her figure suddenly turned blurry. She suddenly turned left and dashed as fast as she could into the forest while leaving some trails of cloudy mist behind her.
Su Lan saw this and was slightly stunned, but she immediately recovered her composure.
'The more I observed her, the more amazing she turned out to be...' she thought quietly.
Xu Meihua had used the Cloud Steps Movement Technique that Su Lan had given her some time ago. Su Lan could easily recognize it because it was the only movement technique that her disciple has truly learned, as the other four movement technique manuals were thrown out of the island. While Xu Meihua's execution of the technique was flawless, it wasn't necessarily the best choice for the current situation...
"Haven't I taught you this before? Although Cloud Steps could give you a massive boost of speed for two hours and consumes little stamina, it also leaves a trail behind for pursuers to catch you!" she said as she followed Xu Meihua into the deep forest.
Rustle rustle...
Thick vines and tall bushes were present everywhere around her while the trees got bigger and bigger. The longer Su Lan chased after her disciple, the fewer trails of cloudy mist were present in her view.
Su Lan couldn't help but sense that something was amiss, but she continued to press on regardless, following the trail of cloudy mist. She understood that this was her only lead toward her disciple.
After another hour of continuous chase, Su Lan stopped in her tracks.
The cloudy trail has completely disappeared and she was now left alone in the forest. Every direction looks identical to one another and Xu Meihua was still nowhere to be seen.
'Huh, weird. Did she actually manage to outrun me? I'm sure my speed was faster than hers. Did she become proficient in her movement technique too? Or maybe she hid in a nearby bush... Although I could immediately detect her if I use my Qi sense, I should play along for now.' Su Lan thought to herself.
Seeing that her disciple had hidden herself quite well, Su Lan decided to taunt her slightly.
"Good one, Meihua. I shall give you a chance, if you come out now and surrender, then you will be spared from getting beaten up. It's alright to lose once in a while, right~?" She shouted as she hums playfully.
"..."
"..."
"..."
However, there were no replies and all Su Lan could hear were crickets in the background. She lifted her eyebrow as she was filled with confusion.
'Did she really outrun me after all?'
She kept on taunting for a while longer and sure enough, there was still no response. At this point, Su Lan sighs as she realized her disciple may have outran her.
'Well, it seems like she wasn't here... I should take my leave and give her the victory...' she thought as she turned around to leave.
Tap... tap... crack!
A cracking sound was suddenly heard when Su Lan stepped on a random spot.
'Huh? What's this?' she perked up at the sudden cracking noise and took a closer look.
The spot has a normal appearance, with it being a simple pile of dirt with a scattered pile of leaves around it. Su Lan examined the seemingly random spot as her mind worked with lightning speed. The spot appeared indistinguishable from any other place in the vicinity. But... Why are her senses started tingling all of a sudden?
'No, something is wrong.' she furrowed her brows.
She then kicked the spot as the dirt and leaves went flying all around the forest, revealing a small cracked stone slab. This stone slab seems to be the one that made the cracking noises just earlier.
'I have never made nor brought stone slabs anywhere around the island. Did someone manage to infiltrate my territory?' Su Lan thought with suspicion as she crouched slightly to touch the stone slab...
But then all of a sudden, the crack on the stone slab expanded quickly before covering all of its surface. In just a moment, the heavy and thick stone slab turned into fragments of rocks. Without anything weighing the spot down, something big suddenly came out at the bottom of the fragments of rocks!
Dozens of thick vines shot out at an extremely high speed. Before Su Lan could react, those thick vines ensnared all four of her limbs, lifting her into the air!
"!"
Her entire body was tightly bound by thick vines, wrapping around her arms, legs, stomach, and even her head. Each of these vines was connected to the nearby trees, thus she couldn't break out easily with her suppressed power.
Thankfully, she didn't suppress her power too much, as this contraption could twist an ordinary cultivator's limbs and break their bones.
'That fragile stone slab must have been holding down these vines below my feet with its weight. When I cracked it, the weight disappeared and these vines were shot into my limbs like rubber before binding me completely!' she realized quickly.
At this moment, Su Lan had a small hunch. This was a trap set up by her disciple, Xu Meihua.
'To think that she managed to set up a trap like this in such a short period of time, I'm really impressed. Not only did her trap land on me, but it also managed to bind me tightly. She deserves this victory...' Su Lan thought with a nod.
Though... these thick vines were binding her in a very inappropriate pose.
"Ugh..."
Two vines were bound to her upper thigh and slithered down to her knees. Some were binding her arms too, while two of the thickest ones bound her chest tightly as the outline of her massive bosom could be seen. Each of these vines were still wet and sticky from the groundwater, staining her clothes.
She was starting to get bothered as the vines were squeezing her body.
'This brat, I'll make sure to discipline you after you come back here! Since she probably heard the trap went off, she would probably come back here to check. At that moment, I will take her by surprise and scold her...'