'Ugh' Shu He's conscious began to awaken.
'What happened?' His mind felt fuzzy like he had been struck with a static shock.
He couldn't move his body well either, he tried but it wouldn't respond only twitch.
He heard some people talking near him, at first he couldn't hear more than disjoint pieces through static but after a minute or two he began to regain his hearing.
"Weren't you going to hold back?" He could hear a woman's voice which he assumed was Yun Hua off to the side from where he was lying.
"I did" A unremorseful response replied to her.
"You did, my ass! You knocked him clean out!" She shouted back.
"Come on now, no need to talk like that; Shu He will be fine Bai Shun held back enough" Chao Shi's voice could be heard also trying to break up the argument.
"See? Even Senior Shi says he'll be fine so leave it, I only used a bit of Qi to test him".
"It's clear he doesn't know how to defend himself so you shouldn't have done that!" She kept on.
At this point, Shu He's eyes managed to open, and he saw the three together bickering between one another hazily, he tried to move once more and managed to shift his body slightly, letting out a grunt.
"Look, he's awake and fine" He could see Bai Shun pointing over to his limp body as he began to walk over "Besides, why are you so worried about him?" He asked.
"Chao Shi said he had potential, so it'd be bad if you hurt him" she said with a straight face.
"Of course…" Bai Shun sighed, realising he didn't even need to ask the question.
He knelt down and placed his hand on to Shu He's wrist.
Suddenly, Shu He felt the static that was 'blocking' his body and senses receding at a faster pace, after a few tens of seconds it was gone, and the only thing left was an incredibly sore abdomen.
He sat up and placed his hand on his abdomen, squinting as a sharp pain emanated from there.
'I feel like I've been hit by a truck… or a large stone' He wiped his mouth with his sleeve as he felt some liquid remaining on the side of his mouth.
'Blood?!' He quickly hopped up and removed his upper clothes, staring at the skin on his abdomen, there was a large bruise forming there in the shape of a palm.
'No wonder, hold back my ass indeed!' He cursed Bai Shun; this would take a while to heal.
"Hm, looks fine to me, nothing that won't be fine in a bit" Shu He was caught off guard as Chao Shi suddenly appeared out of nowhere, staring closely at his 'wound'.
'A bit he says… It'll take weeks, I'm just hoping there won't be any aftereffects' Shu He thought, in the end he still had a body of a human, he hadn't learned any sort of regeneration or advanced healing to help if they existed.
"Here" Just as he thought that Chao Shi held his hand out and in it was a small round white pill.
Shu He raised his brow as he observed it, his heart skipping a beat "This is..?"
"I mentioned to you before about pills right? This is one, it's a low tier but it'll help heal you" He explained.
Shu He's eyes widened as they snapped back to the small white sphere.
'Is it really that kind of thing? Those miraculous medicines?! To think they exist in this world!'
He picked it out of Chao Shi's hand and observed it, it had a slight herbal scent that drifted in his nose making him feel slightly refreshed, its surface a marble like texture of pure white with little to no other colour.
Out of curiosity he activated his Keen Sight.
'White!'
Another colour of 'Qi' he hadn't seen yet, inside the small sphere was a tiny ball of white mist circulating slowly.
'There's so much I don't know…' He looked forward to learning all about pills and this different coloured 'qi'.
"Stop staring at it, it won't do much less unless you eat it" Bai Shun said, feeling impatient as he watched Shu He stare dumbly at the pill.
Shu He did as he was told, keeping his keen sight activated he placed it on his tongue before swallowing the pill with slight nervousness, the mere action of swallowing hurt his abdomen, so he hoped it worked well.
He watched his own body with his 'Sight', the small bundle of white fell down his digestive tract before landing in his stomach, there its form quickly changed breaking up almost immediately, the white Qi spread and it seemed to sense and intwine with his own Qi, it followed the channels around his body as it spread itself thinly, not doing much yet, however the moment it touched upon the area he was wounded, it was like a rally where all the white mist shot through his body and gathered on that zone, the remnants of the pill still in his stomach were also attacked by the white mist, broken up and brought over.
He felt a strange tingling sensation, like hundreds of ants moving about his body, as he watched suddenly he could visibly see the bruising on his abdomen receding and the pain being reduced, it took a minute or so but after that it was gone entirely, and the white mist had dissipated into nothing by the time it was over.
"Amazing! This is amazing!" He was breathless, what he just saw was pretty much a miracle.
"You think so? There are far more amazing pills you know, like ones that could even restore lost limbs" Yun Hua said, feeling his reaction was a little over the top.
"Seriously?!!" Shu He couldn't help but leave his jaw hanging.
It should be noted once more that Shu He was from a world where medicine had advanced quite far, yet instantly healing a wound or even growing a limb just from consuming an unsuspecting pill were things still far ahead of that, in this world Shu He had dabbled as an apothecary for a few years now, and while some medicines were certain more 'efficient' at doing its job than medicine in his old world, this was an entirely different scope.
'Wait a minute…' He stared at Chao Shi and spoke "I don't owe anything for this right?" He was given something this amazing, this wasn't a con was it? Was what he thought.
"Hahaha nah, just think of it as a gift to my future junior, they aren't too expensive anyway" Thankfully, it wasn't "It's better for you to be healed for what's to come anyway…" he also said in a whisper to himself that Shu He couldn't hear.
Shu He sighed in relief, another minute of gathering his bearings he glanced over to Bai Shun who was looking at him like he was expecting a question.
"What was that?" Shu He asked.
"That?" Bai Shun said, questioning what he was referring to.
"That strike, you hit me in my abdomen so I should have been winded at most… why did I black out?"
"Good question" Bai Shun nodded "It's a simple technique called 'Qi Disruption' or rather I wouldn't even call it a technique, it's more of a use of applied knowledge".
'That didn't explain much…' Shu He complained to himself.
Fortunately, Bai Shun wasn't done explaining.
"You know that someone's Core Flame passively infuses the cultivator's body with Qi, enhancing it at all times, and that you can actively channel more Qi to improve the enhancement, right?" He asked.
"I've gathered that much yes" That was part of what Shu He had learned over the past month.
"What would happen when you force your Qi into someone else?"
'Into someone else? I haven't tried it before…' Shu He thought about it before giving an answer.
"Would it.. interrupt their Qi flow?" He spoke.
"You're half right, but that's only a small part of it, it all depends on the quality of the Qi, if the Qi is of a higher or equal quality the flow will be interrupted, if it was lower it would be to weak and merely be expelled by the flow" Bai Shun explained.
"What if it's lower quality, but higher in quantity?" Shu He asked out of curiosity.
"That's usually a rare occurrence, but in that situation, as long as the gap in quality between the lower quality attacking Qi and higher quality defending Qi or vice versa, numbers can overcome the qualitive difference."
'Interesting…' Shu He was perfectly happy to learn more about Qi, so this was great for him.
"The 'Qi Disruption' technique is an exact application of these rules, using a higher quality Qi you flood the enemy's Qi channels, causing your Qi to attack the areas the defending Qi is usually reinforcing, disabling them."
'So that's it… Bai Shun is probably a much higher cultivation than me so he did it easily'.
"So, I could do it as well?" Shu He thought, even if it wasn't much use against other cultivators since he's the first level, it may find use against other things.
"Right now, no, like I said you need to send your Qi in to someone else, meaning you need to externalise your Qi" Bai Shun explained.
Shu He quickly realised his problem, he looked at his hands and the Qi flowing through it, no matter what he tried he couldn't get it to leave his body.
"I can't, huh…" He was slightly disappointed.
"But! Qi Disruption and the cases mentioned before are only useful if the defensive qi is currently in a passive state, I noticed it, but you don't know how to defend yourself with Qi" Bai Shun pointed out, staring at Shu He.
"Defence?" Shu He was slightly dumbfounded as this was pointed out to him.
'Of course! I'm dumb! I kept thinking of strengthening reinforcement and didn't think for a second about defending myself with it' He wanted to slap himself for not thinking of it.
"Seems you've realised it, you can mould your Qi to create a cushion at the point of impact, in most cases as long as the attacking Qi isn't excessively more powerful, it will protect you from any form of Qi Disruption while reducing the damage you take." He finished explaining.
Shu He nodded.
"Thank you for explaining this to me" He bowed to Bai Shun, who nodded in return.
"So, what do you think?" Chao Shi asked Bai Shun who looked to him then once more to Shu He.
"Well… He's still green, but that's to be given for his age and location, the first few shots were normal and showed basic discipline, but the ones after showed adaptivity and creativity, of course for a mortal there are definitely better Archers, but if he works hard and focuses he could be great".
"However, the moment he ran out of arrows he was as useless as a cripple, his reaction speed is decent but that's it."
The words Bai Shun said weren't spoken to him, but Shu He took them to heart like they were, of course the bow was all he had, he's been trained as a hunter not a cultivator… But he will need to change that if he wants to move forward on this path, the words 'useless as a cripple' especially struck him deep, it was like he was being compared to the 'him' of the previous life.
"I see… but are there any objections?" Chao Shi asked him.
"None here!" Yun Hua shouted from behind the two.
The other two ignored her.
"…No, I don't see any reason to reject him, he still has to take on the trial either way" Bai Shun shrugged.
"Great" Chao Shi smirked then walked over to Shu He who was still thinking, he reached into his robe and pulled something out, presenting it to Shu He.
"Here kid, take this".
"Huh? What's this?" Shu He asked, looking at what was being held out, it was a small round metal item, he took it in to his hands and when he did, he felt his Qi move slightly, entering the item.
'What?' It was the first time he'd felt his Qi leave his body forcibly outside of the natural cycling.
He observed the item more, on it was an incredibly familiar symbol, that of 'Metal' and just below it was another word 'Referral'.
He looked up at Chao Shi in confusion.
"It's an entry medallion for the Titanic Steel Sect's entrance exam, it's in just over 4 years so you have plenty of time to improve!" He said while smiling.
Shu He couldn't help but grit his teeth and grasp the medal in his hand to prevent himself from shouting.
'I didn't say I was joining, did I?!!!!'