Chapter 120 – Life 65, Age 16, Martial Disciple Peak
When I returned to the classroom, I was surprised to see the other students still cultivating. Examining them in qi vision, I saw that one boy and one girl were struggling to continue cultivating as Martial Disciple 4s, one girl was stuck at Martial Disciple 3, and the last boy was having trouble concentrating at only Martial Disciple 2.
I looked to Instructor Sun to see what I was supposed to do, and he gestured for me to retake my seat, so that's what I did. I didn't even consider cultivating again in the qi-flooded environment, though. Instead, I just watched as the instructor assisted the other students.
From what I could see, the problem was that they couldn't focus, which made sense. I doubted they could even really think about cultivating. Rage from their techniques must be overwhelming them at all times.
When it was clear no one was making any more progress, the instructor went to each student one by one and tapped on their open acupoints. After his treatment, their faces immediately relaxed.
Instructor Sun walked to the front of the classroom and gestured at a diagram of the human body.
"I have sealed your acupoints, but you should still be able to feel them pulsing. Try to feel the location of these pulses as accurately as possible. That is the location of the interface between your physical body and your energy body."
I reached out with my spiritual senses to my acupoints and felt them. They weren't exactly pulsing like the instructor described, likely because I had sealed them myself, but I could sense a kind of pressure locked inside. It felt like there was an alien will that wanted to be released.
I had always considered acupoints as holes through my body, connecting my muscles to the outside world. As I examined them closely, I realized that this paradigm didn't make any sense. There weren't any holes in my body. I should have realized this sooner, but I never stopped to think too much about it. Now, I was beginning to see that instead of being holes in my body, they were more like holes through reality. Between realities?
The acupoints didn't connect my muscles with the outside world, they connected the muscles of my physical body with those of my energy body, allowing the transfer of energy between the two.
"Right now, I have completely blocked your acupoints preventing your energy body from affecting your mental state. You will need to learn to do this yourself, but this also blocks you from absorbing or using qi. The key is to learn control."
He walked over to the boy who had only risen to Disciple 2. Not giving the kid a chance to react, the instructor reached out and tapped one of his acupoints, completely unblocking it.
The boy screamed in rage and moved to stand, but the instructor held him down with a hand on his shoulder.
"Before, his acupoint was fully closed. Now, it is fully open. In most cases, neither state is ideal." The instructor moved his qi to attenuate the energy flowing through the boy's acupoint.
The boy's expression shifted as he slowly regained control.
"That looks right. 5% open. It's a bit low, but keeping it at this level will allow you to remain fully lucid while still having access to qi." He looked around the room and met all of our eyes. "This is the idea. Learn to control the openings to your energy body. When you need a strong flow, or when you are cultivating with pills in a prepared chamber, fully opened acupoints may be best. However, in regular day-to-day life, you will want to keep them turned down so that the mental influences don't overwhelm you."
I thought about Instructor Sun's explanation and tried to match it up with my experiences. It didn't seem right. Back in the Twin Mountain Sect, I had reached a point where I could flip on or off the effects from two different cultivation techniques without limiting my qi flow at all. His description seemed to fit with my more recent lives better, where the cultivation technique took over my mind, but it still didn't match up completely.
I had a bad habit of only taking the information people gave me and working to draw my own conclusions from there, but that needed to stop. With a trained, knowledgeable teacher in front of me, I needed to ask questions to help settle my doubts.
I raised my hand. The instructor's eyebrow raised at the interruption, but he gestured for me to speak.
"As I understand it," I began, unwilling to explain my direct experience, "a cultivator can block or accept the mental impulses from a cultivation technique without cutting off the qi flow. So why would we focus on blocking meridians?"
The instructor gave a slight smile. "As you cultivate, your energy body will develop its own… personality. If you have a strong soul and a solid grasp of who you are, you can block the influences of this personality and only let them through as you desire. However, you are all 16 years old. You don't know who you are yet. If you let your energy body's personality through, it can easily consume you. Putting limits on it will let you develop your own personality without its influence."
I had an idea of what he was saying, but some things didn't quite match. "Doesn't a stronger soul—"
The instructor held up a hand to stop me.
"These are discussions to have much later." He gestured at my classmates. "Right now, we need to understand the basics of acupoint control. The role your soul plays in this balance will be addressed in higher-level courses."
I nodded, accepting his decision.
For the rest of the day, Instructor Sun worked with the other students to perfect their ability to regulate their flow through their acupoints. Just by watching how he controlled the other student's energy flows, I understood what I was supposed to do. When I was in the room with the grandmaster, I was able to quickly figure out how to slam my acupoints shut, so learning to attenuate the flow of energy came easily.
At the end of class, the instructor walked to the front of the room to address us all at once.
"For tonight, I will leave your acupoints blocked. Tomorrow, I expect you all to be able to advance several more stages."
He looked at me with a slightly conflicted expression.
"As the first student to reach Peak Disciple, you are granted one technique from the library." He threw a token at me. "If you don't have a proper cultivation technique, you should go get one now so you can start studying it. If you do have one, you will probably want to save that."
I bowed and headed to the exit along with the other students.
"Su Fang." The boy who had only been able to reach Martial Disciple 2 spoke up as we were nearing the door. "We always visit the dining hall together after classes. Do you want to join us?"
"I don't know… I think—"
"Yes, he does." Halted in our tracks by these words, the entire group looked back to Instructor Sun. He was glaring at me. "To know who you are after you become a cultivator, you must know who you were before being a cultivator. Spend time with them. Talk to them. Learn about them and learn about yourself."
I dipped my head in acknowledgment.
The Academy's dining hall was a large multi-story building that fed over a thousand students every day. There weren't any private rooms, but after standing in line and receiving our meals, the group found a secluded table in the corner of the hall to talk.
"So, Su Fang, my name is Zhuge Yan. Nice to meet you," said the boy who invited me to the meal, giving me a slight nod of his head.
"Nice to meet you." I smiled awkwardly.
Not willing to let my apparent awkwardness dull the mood, the boy kept talking.
"This is Shi Yulong, Chai JiaQi, and Lin LiTing." He pointed to the other boy, the girl who made it to Martial Disciple 4, and the girl who only made it to Martial Disciple 3 in order. "We've been here a little over a month, but you were able to beat us good today."
I watched and gave a wry smile. If I had been paying attention to the others in the room, I wouldn't have cultivated so quickly.
"No need to be embarrassed. It's good that someone was able to call ol' Sun's bluff. I don't think he really intended for any of us to get that free technique he promised."
The meal devolved into silence as we began eating, but the girl named Lin LiTing finally broke it.
"So, Su Fang, where are you from? I'm a minor noble from the Waxing Moon Empire. One of the princesses decided I was talented and sponsored my education here. What about you?"
I knew the school could likely track me down if they wanted to, so I decided to be honest and see where that got me. At least, I would be as honest as I could be. "I'm from the Western Wastes."
"Really?" She looked up in surprise. "Hey JiaQi, that's close to where you're from, right?"
The other girl furrowed her brow. "Yeah, it's a bit north of the Empire of Tranquil Springs."
She looked at me with confusion in her eyes. "How did someone from the Wastes manage to come to the Nine Rivers territory?"
I did my best to maintain my honesty while leaning on a bit of misdirection. "A senior directed me here. He thought it would be a good place for me to learn."
All four of the boys and girls at the table had a look of understanding when I said this.
The larger boy, Shi Yulong, looked at me with excitement. "I won't ask who it was because I know the rules for such things, but can you tell us anything about the senior?"
I thought long and hard about what I could and couldn't say. Again, there was information that wouldn't be too hard for them to find out though. "He was from the Blue Wind Pavilion."
Chai Jiaqi began to have confusion in her eyes. "If you were in the Wastes, how did you meet a senior?"
"This…" I had no idea what I should say. Did it make sense to tell them that I had left the Wastes? If I did, how could I explain taking a carriage from Dragon Gate City?
Zhuge Yan spoke up to calm me down.
"Don't worry. None of us will pry into your secrets. Everyone has things that they can't say." He gave a meaningful look at the others around the table.
"Yes," Lin LiTing confirmed swiftly, eyeing the others. "No one wants people looking into their secrets."
Once again, the table fell into silence, but this time, I decided to be the one to break it.
"They said where they are from." I gestured at the girls and then looked at the boys. "Where are you two from?"
Zhuge Yan gave me a surprised look and glanced at the other boy to signal for him to talk first.
"I'm from up north. I'm a prince and a branch family of the Empire of Eternal Winter. Each year the family has a competition to see who will be sent to the Academy, and I was selected this time."
I nodded to him and looked at the other boy.
"I'm from the Zhuge family." He looked down and did not elaborate.
I was about to ask more, but I caught the other boy shaking his head, so I stopped. Instead, I changed the topic to something that I considered more interesting.
"What are your blessings?" Lin LiTing froze at the question, so I hurried to clarify. "Is that okay to ask?"
"We all have comprehension blessings," said Zhuge Yan, "as I'm sure you do as well."
I raised an eyebrow at this.
"Grandmaster Ning always chooses people with comprehension blessings. Every Grandmaster has their own preferences, and his is for people who can easily specialize. Usually, that means comprehension blessings."
I nodded in understanding. "Mine seems to be a general cultivation comprehension boost."
Shi Yulong laughed. "That explains why you were able to cultivate so quickly today. I was wondering how you were able to beat us so bad."
I smiled but didn't respond. The boy continued.
"JiaQi and I both have martial arts comprehension boosts. You might be able to cultivate faster, but we'll still be able to beat you up." He flexed his muscles and gave a goofy grin.
"Mine is a boost to strategy and planning," said Zhuge Yan. "It won't help me much right now, but I think the Grandmaster is hoping I'll be able to support him after he becomes a Lord."
I should've realized it before, but his statements made it clear. This school wasn't just about training us. It was about helping members of the Nine Rivers Sect establish connections with talented cultivators.
I looked to the last girl who hadn't spoken, but she just shook her head, not willing to talk about her blessing. Understanding that this was the secret she was referring to earlier, I didn't press.
For the rest of the meal, the other students talked about some of the things they had learned over the past month. It sounded like it was only learning qi control so that they could form their filters and begin cultivating. I might have missed something by arriving late, but it didn't seem to be anything too vital.
After we finished eating, Zhuge Yan spoke up.
"Well, Su Fang, it was nice to meet you, but I'm ready to head back for the night. This acupoint is starting to become a nuisance, and I'm thinking I need to learn how to control it like you do before I'll be able to get any kind of rest. Get some sleep tonight. You never know what tomorrow will bring."
Chapter 121 – Life 65, Age 16, Martial Disciple Peak
For the rest of the week, classes were focused on learning acupoint control. This was somewhat challenging for the other students to master, but with Instructor Sun's guidance, they were able to get it down after only a few days. Once the impulses from their cultivation techniques were no longer a problem, by taking advantage of the Qi Gathering Formation, they were all able to swiftly advance.
After Zhuge Yan finally ascended to Martial Disciple Peak, Instructor Sun gathered us together and gave us each a pill bottle and a new technique manual.
"Go ahead and take that," he said, gesturing to the pill bottle.
I opened it up and examined what was inside. It was an Energy Expulsion Pill. Far more powerful than a Purifying Pill, this pill would remove all the energy from one's body. Understanding his purpose, I quickly swallowed the pill.
Energy exploded out of me in a quick burst and rapidly dissipated into the air.
I had returned to being a Martial Disciple 1 with no cultivation.
"Those," he gestured to the manuals he had just handed out, "are Peak-Yellow cultivation techniques for your highest affinities. I expect all of you to be back to Disciple 2 before the next class."
We had a day off, and I had expected the instructor to insist we use it to go outside and 'learn more about ourselves.' Needing to use it to cultivate was a surprise, but to me, it wasn't entirely unwelcome.
However, just as I was planning a weekend alone in my apartment, Zhuge Yan came up to me to ensure I would meet with everyone for meals on our day off. I thought about refusing, but I knew how the instructor would react if I did.
Since the meals would interrupt me during the day, I spent the entire night cultivating.
With a peak six-star earth affinity, jumping up to Martial Disciple 2 in roughly a day and a half wasn't much of a problem since Peak-Yellow techniques had significantly fewer requirements than my Earth-Rank technique had. Before I even met the class for lunch, I was already on the cusp of my breakthrough.
When I arrived at the dining hall, I was surprised to see a downcast expression on all of my classmates' faces.
I looked at Zhuge Yan for an explanation. "What's wrong?"
"We aren't going to make it," he said, shaking his head. "We're going to have to start sacrificing purity to reach the speed needed."
The shorter girl, Lin LiTing, gave a wry chuckle at that. "Pretty sure that was the intent. He wants us to build up some impurities so we're still fighting in our technique."
I thought about the situation and knew that there were several ways I could help them. I had to decide if it was something I should do, and if I should, how should I? I could make the decision myself, but looking at the group I thought that maybe they would have better insight into how to proceed.
I breathed out and planted my hands on the table. "Do you want me to help?"
The other three all looked to Zhuge Yan.
"That could interfere with the instructor's plans… How could you help?"
There were a few ways I could let them advance in a short amount of time, but I had to think about the facade I was presenting to others.
"A Qi Gathering Formation," I finally said. "Nothing as powerful as what they have in the classroom. Just one powerful enough to help you gather enough energy to advance tonight."
"That could work." I saw the wheels turning in Zhuge Yan's head as he thought through the implications. "We would still be cultivating ourselves, so I don't see any reason the instructor could have for admonishing us. But if he wants us to pursue a path of wild cultivation to meet his deadline, it would wreck his plans."
"Let's do it." Shi YuLong had a wide grin on his face. "If ol' Sun doesn't like it. We can just blame Fang here."
I wanted to object, but Chai JiaQi quickly spoke up in support. "I agree. Let's cheat and let Fang take the fall."
I felt annoyed at this response, but seeing that their expressions were playful instead of malicious, I just looked to Zhuge Yan. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'this is your problem.'
"Alright, where are we going to do this?"
We met in Zhuge Yan's room a little over an hour later. He had procured granite blocks from somewhere and had them waiting for me when we entered.
A basic Qi Gathering Formation wasn't too complicated. Every formation I had practiced had an inscription focused on drawing in qi. The only thing that made it special was that it created a small bubble to contain the qi it gathered.
Qi was drawn into the formation plate. Some of it was used to form the containment bubble, and some was used to fuel the gathering inscription itself. The rest was dumped within the bubble for use when cultivating.
To ensure we had enough energy for all five of us, I set up a separate formation in each of the cardinal directions. It may have seemed better for everybody to have their own separate formation, but since most of us cultivated different energy types, sharing a single environment was best. What were impurities to me was the energy others needed.
After a short test, we found that four formations were too many, and Zhuge Yan was having trouble purifying all the qi before it entered his body. I disabled two of them and the rest of us still had enough energy to cultivate without having to concentrate too much on drawing it in.
Yan was the last one to advance. He had to stay up all night to do it, but with less than an hour before class, he managed it. We were all Martial Disciple 2, and everyone had a pristine foundation.
When we walked into class, Instructor Sun examined us, and a look of annoyance appeared on his face. I saw his eyes dance between us trying to figure out who was to blame.
"Looks like I'll have to set extra rules next time." He grunted but didn't pursue the matter any further.
My classmates smiled at this reaction.
"You have all started with your upper right arms, which is most common, and it will help us with today's lesson, but next time you should think more about your cultivation technique."
He pointed to Chai Jiaqi. "You're cultivating the Flowing River Mantra. Water cultivators tend to be best at smooth, fluid movements. It might have been better if you started with your left leg instead. These are just small optimizations, and they won't have much impact on what we need to do next, but they are things you should consider when cultivating."
He made sure we all acknowledged this point. Then, instead of beginning the lesson directly, he started walking toward the room's exit.
"Follow me."
The instructor led us outside to a large open dirt courtyard with several thick stone pillars nearly two meters tall and half a meter across set up near its center.
"Su Fang." He looked at me with a slightly malicious grin. I got the feeling that he knew who had ruined his previous plans. "Step forward and hit one of these pillars for me. If you can break it, I'll give you another token to the library."
Both of us knew that I wasn't going to be able to punch through a granite pillar, but we also both knew that I didn't have any choice other than to try my best.
I stepped forward and set myself before the stone.
If I threw a punch with all my might, I was certain I would end up breaking my hand. My upper right arm had been fortified, meaning my punches carried significantly more power, but my actual fist was merely mortal.
With the instructor watching me, I had to hit it with all my strength, but he only said 'hit.' He didn't say I had to punch it.
I shifted my stance and drove my shoulder into the pillar with all my strength.
I bounced away, having done no damage to the stone.
Instructor Sun smiled, pleased with the effect of his lesson.
"You couldn't break it. Why?"
I wanted to make a quip about how it was obvious I wouldn't be able to break it, but I saw a look of concentration on Shi YuLong's and Chai JiaQi's faces.
The large man was the first to speak. "His attack didn't have enough power, but even if it did, it still would've failed. His skin and muscles compressed when he hit the pillar and absorbed most of the strength of his strike. Only the bone had any real force behind it, and it would've broken before the stone did."
The instructor gave a slight nod and smiled. "Yes. With the way Su Fang attacked, he would have broken himself long before he made the slightest dent in the pillar."
Instructor Sun walked up to the pillar I attacked and mimicked my movements. When he hit the pillar, it shattered.
"Well?" he asked.
This time, it was Chai JiaQi who responded. "That wasn't the strength of a Martial Disciple 2."
"No? Then what was it?"
She looked at him and a calculating expression crossed her face. "You would need to be at least Martial Disciple 7."
"Only 5," corrected the instructor, "but you were close. 7 would certainly make it easier, but it is doable at 5."
I felt a bit aggrieved that he had asked me to do the impossible, but I knew it was simply my punishment for setting up the formations last night.
"Chai JiaQi. Lin LiTing. Step forward and face each other."
They did so. Lin LiTing looked a bit worried, but Chai JiaQi seemed confident. Her blessing would help her in her martial pursuits.
"Lin LiTing, punch her shoulder. Not too hard, no need to try and hurt her, just enough so she feels it."
The girl stepped forward and threw out a simple jab. Chai JiaQi had planted herself to absorb the hit, but she still winced when it landed.
"Try to examine your energy body. Your qi is floating in its muscles. Push it outward and let it saturate the skin."
I watched in qi vision as Instructor Sun demonstrated. Qi flowed to surround his arm like a sheath. This helped me understand what he wanted us to do, but I doubted any of the others could see it. They wouldn't have developed their ability to see qi much yet.
Chai JiaQi tried to do as instructed, but it was obvious she either didn't have sufficient qi control or didn't understand what was needed.
I reached into my energy body and began manipulating my own energy, feeling how it was supposed to work. It wasn't very difficult, just a matter of flexing my qi, but even flexing a muscle is difficult if you can't feel it and barely know it exists.
"Continue trading blows back and forth. Use the pain to guide you. Send your qi where you feel the pain." He looked at the other two boys. "You two, join them. Practice until you have it under control."
They gave the instructor a short bow and began attacking each other.
Instructor Sun waved me over to the side of the practice yard.
"You're a quick learner." He eyed me up and down, reappraising me. "I'm assuming that if you already knew how to do this, you wouldn't have been so careless with the pillar earlier. It will take them some time to learn what they need to do, so let's begin the next lesson with just the two of us."
He took a fighting stance opposite me.
"Don't block, let me hit your shoulder. Use your qi to protect yourself."
I did as commanded and shifted my qi to form a shell around my upper arm.
The instructor threw out a punch, and it bounced off my skin.
"Normal human strength can't get through."
He threw out another punch.
My qi barrier shattered, and pain lanced through my arm.
"Instead of hitting with normal strength, I shifted my qi to certain muscles to amplify their power. However, you have to be careful when doing this. I also had to put qi into every bone in my arm and fortify the flesh of my fist. Otherwise, with such strength, attacking a qi barrier would have crippled my hand."
He waved me to the side where padded targets had been brought out.
"Your qi can enhance your flesh, fortify your bones, increase the strength of your attack, or improve your speed. There are other potential benefits as well, but these four will be our focus. While the others learn the basics, your job is to learn to move your qi to do what you need it to do as quickly as possible. If you leave it spread out, it will do everything at once, but it is much better to focus it. Think about what you need it to do and move it to where it needs to be."
With this, he threw out another punch, blasting one of the padded targets apart.
Chapter 122 – Life 65, Age 16, Martial Disciple 2
After class, our group headed to the dining hall as usual.
Everyone was in low spirits from their lack of progress. While I had made significant strides in shifting my qi on command, they were all still struggling to form a basic defense.
To me, the problem was clear. The method Instructor Sun was using to guide them to using their qi internally was far from optimal. I had to assume that it would work, but I felt like spending more time explaining qi control and finding a way to show them what they needed to do would help them learn more quickly.
Using earth qi to demonstrate what they should be doing would be difficult, but my fire affinity was high enough that I could potentially manipulate environmental fire qi to give them a quick demonstration. If I showed them what they were doing wrong and how to fix it, I was sure that at least a couple of them would be able to learn in only a few hours.
Once we were seated around the dining table, I made my proposal.
"Do you want me to try and teach you how to control qi like he wants us to?"
My question caused everyone to fall silent, and they all looked at Zhuge Yan.
He rolled his fingers on the table in thought.
"How?"
"I can manipulate fire qi. I can use it to show you what you should be doing. I think one of the problems you're having is that you can't see your energy body very clearly. Using this method, I could show you what you are doing and what you should be doing in more detail. That would give you a better understanding of how to control your qi."
Zhuge Yan sat in silence as he thought, and no one interrupted his process. It took him several minutes to reach a decision.
"No." His demeanor was firm and unyielding. "We already undercut Instructor Sun today. It wouldn't be good to do so again so soon. Your process might be faster, but it isn't necessary. If Grandmaster Ning trusts that the current method will work, we can rely on it."
I nearly started to argue back, to make the case for learning more quickly, but I could see that I had already lost. The faith the others had in Yan's decision was nearly absolute. It seemed strange to me that they would trust someone they'd only known a little over a month so much.
For the rest of the meal, the others talked about their experiences in the combat class. I was a little disappointed that my input wasn't welcome, but I understood. They wanted to learn through Instructor Sun's process.
Instead of contributing, I simply sat and listened to their descriptions of what it felt like when they were trying to fortify their skin. Their thoughts seemed to run counter to my own experiences.
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The next day, our class returned to the training yard. I went to my corner to practice while the others started punching each other again.
When the sparring started, I carefully observed the instructor's expression. He showed a look of surprise and then grinned in delight when everyone was as poor at defending themselves as they were the day before.
We spent all day on basic fighting drills, and at the end of it, I felt I was reaching the limit of what I could learn from this type of practice. As we were gathering to leave, the instructor called me over.
"Follow me." He turned and exited the courtyard in the opposite direction from the other students.
We didn't walk far before I found myself once more in Grandmaster Ning's office, but this time, Instructor Sun stood by the Grandmaster's side.
"You offered to teach them, didn't you?" He looked at me from across his desk with steepled fingers.
"Yes." There was no reason for me to hide it.
"Show us how you intended to do so."
I looked at him in confusion for a moment, but quickly turned away to look around the room. "I need a fire."
The Grandmaster obliged and pulled a small cauldron from his storage space.
I lit the burner and started to channel the energy it let off. It wasn't qi, just natural fire, but for my fire affinity, it was close enough.
I shaped the fire into an arm and made the area where my qi would be burn more brightly. Shifting the qi in my body to form a shield, I simultaneously moved the brightly burning area to envelop the flaming arm.
"Their problem is that they can't see their own qi. By using this method, I hoped to let them visualize it more easily."
The Grandmaster looked at my demonstration with interest, but didn't comment on it. He only turned to Instructor Sun. "What do you think?"
"It could be useful, but right now it would ruin them. If he had shown this to the others, it might've delayed us by several weeks."
Grandmaster Ning nodded. "Why?"
"The goal of this training is to get them to move their energy instinctively. This would show them how to do it consciously, but it would interfere with drilling in those instincts."
The Grandmaster looked at me. "It's good that you didn't interfere with our lessons again. I'm sure I know who we have to thank for that. I'm willing to try this method, but not with your class and not right now. We'll revisit this topic later."
He turned back to the instructor. "It seems that Su Fang isn't burning up enough energy. Get in touch with Rei and have her send a student over tomorrow to help him learn his lessons more swiftly."
Looking back at me, the Grandmaster smiled. "Good day."
I felt a shiver run down my spine.
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During class the next day, we were joined by a young woman. Taking a quick look at her in qi vision, I noticed that she was a Martial Master 4. Were they planning to train me by pitting me against a Master?
"Everybody, continue your normal practice. Su Fang, starting today you will be receiving private lessons from Master Tan."
Master Tan gave me an evil smile. "Come with me."
She took me to the corner of the courtyard, and once we arrived, without saying anything, she turned around and threw a punch at my arm.
Her fist connected, leaving my arm bruised and stinging.
"I was told you understood the basics." She assumed an attacking posture with her fist raised in front of her. "Block the blows you're able to block. Absorb the blows you can't. When you see an opening, strike."
She moved forward and began assaulting me.
I quickly realized that all her blows that were intended to connect were aimed at my upper right arm. This gave me an advantage, but it wasn't much. I moved all my qi to simply defend and absorb her attacks.
At first, this purely defensive style seemed to be working, but with each hit that landed, I could feel my energy fade. If I continued to absorb all her hits, I would soon run out of qi.
Intellectually, I knew what I was supposed to do. When her attacks were headed toward me, I should use my qi to make my arm move faster. Once it was in place, I could shift my qi to my muscles and have them absorb the impact to break her rhythm. Then, I could return the qi to my muscles, making them faster and stronger, allowing me to strike when I saw an opening.
I knew this was what I was supposed to do, but in the heat of battle, all I could do was defend.
Once my energy was exhausted, Master Tan stepped back.
She shook her head. "This is going to be a lot of work."
I couldn't help but agree with her.
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I spent the rest of the day getting beat up. I tried to make the proper shifts in my qi, but it was difficult. When she attacked, by the time I knew how to respond, the moment had already passed and Master Tan had struck me once more.
During my breaks to recover energy, I watched the others practice. Zhuge Yan and Lin LiTing weren't having much luck, but Shi YuLong and Chai JiaQi were starting to get the hang of it. While I was moving to protect a large swath of my arm, they had learned to localize their qi to only the area that would be struck. This gave them far more defense than I was getting.
It was clear that they would quickly begin to outpace me. While I could direct my qi more nimbly than they could, it would be difficult for me to develop the reflexes they had. Aside from their blessings, Grandmaster Ning was right. I kept getting tripped up because I was doing everything intentionally instead of instinctively.
If their blessings were powerful enough, there would be nothing I could do to match them, but I could at least prevent myself from falling behind too quickly.
"System," I subvocalized, "improve my comprehension for martial arts as much as possible for ten million credits."
Purchase confirmed. Cost 10 million credits. 83,485,565 credits remaining.
It was a large chunk of change, but if the teachers at the River's Tributary had been correct, I needed to master each and every discipline important to cultivators, and fighting was surely among the most important.
Turning back to Master Tan, I set my feet and smiled. It was time to get learning.
---------------------------------------------------
With my new comprehension boost in place, it only took a few days for me to become proficient in the basics of instinctive qi control. Shi YuLong and Chai JiaQi had extended their lead over me, but I was happy with the steady progress I was making.
At the end of the week, Instructor Sun made a new announcement.
"From now on, you are to advance one stage every week. No more, no less. You will advance on time." He turned to me and glared. "You are not allowed to accept any help from others during your cultivation."
"Yes, Instructor Sun," we all acknowledged.
"Your combat training will continue unabated, but you will need to begin learning a profession. If you have not yet chosen one, take this weekend to decide. However, I will warn you right now, it is against school rules to ask anyoneabout the details of their choice. If you wish to share, you may do so, but you must never ask someone what they are learning."
I cocked my head to the side at this rule.
Why? Was a person's profession such a well guarded secret? I had met countless alchemists, formation specialists, and herbalists, and none of them had shown any reservations at all when talking about their professions. How were you supposed to sell herbs or pills if no one knew you had them?
I didn't think Instructor Sun would appreciate my question, but when I looked at Zhuge Yan, I saw a solemn look on his face. He knew the reason.
That night at dinner, once we were settled down, I broached the topic.
"Why aren't we supposed to ask people about their professions?"
The rest of the table quieted down, and I could feel them become nervous. Zhuge Yan looked at me.
"There are two reasons. For combat professionals," he gestured to Shi YuLong and Chai JiaQi, "they generally like to keep their profession a secret as much as possible because it can surprise an enemy. If someone is a water cultivator but suddenly starts throwing out countless talismans, it can serve as an excellent surprise. Of course, anyone can use talismans, but if you are a known talisman artist, people will be far more prepared for it."
"That makes sense, I guess, but such a rule seems like a bit much if it's only that."
"The other reason," he said, his gaze fixed on me, focused on not letting his eyes roam around, "is that depending on your profession, you can be in serious danger if people know about it."
"You mean, like how someone might want to kidnap an alchemist and force them to make pills?" I asked, trying to put his words into a context I had considered before.
"That is a possibility, but for refiners, it's much worse." His face became stony. "Do you know that with a quality Rank 1 refined weapon, a Martial Disciple is capable of fighting an unarmed Martial Master? From what I've heard, with even just a Rank 5 refined weapon, a mediocre Martial Emperor might be able to defeat anyone on the continent other than the Saint and his Sovereigns."
"Alright… but that's not too different from the benefits a pill can give you. An alchemist can create pills that could allow a Disciple to fight against a Master."
Zhuge Yan steepled his fingers, trying to think how best to explain. "A Pill Emperor can make pills that would greatly strengthen a Martial Emperor, yes. So, if the Martial Emperor is strong enough, they might kidnap the Pill Emperor to have a constant supply of pills, right?"
I nodded, accepting that reality.
"This would still require a constant flow of high level herbs, so they would also need to enslave a powerful herbalist. They would then need to protect their fields from being raided, so they would also need the services of martial cultivators. The scope and scale necessary for constant production of such pills expands rapidly, and there are many ways for that Emperor's adversaries to interrupt the supply chain other than striking at the alchemist."
"Is a refiner so different?"
"An Artifact Emperor can make a weapon that would make a Martial Emperor undefeatable. Once it is made, it's made. No need for a supply chain. No need for more weapons. After the Emperor has that weapon, what do you think they will do?"
"Kid—" I began, but cut myself off. Why would they kidnap the refiner? They already had the weapon. They wouldn't necessarily need more than one. They would just want to make sure no one else had access to its equal.
As a look of realization crossed my face, Zhuge Yan nodded. "Refiners are the top targets for assassination within every empire on the continent. The empires who have already managed to obtain Rank 5 and 6 artifacts will do anything they can to keep their edge. If a new empire or kingdom wants to train up a refiner to make them a new weapon, they must do it in absolute secrecy."
Yan looked at me seriously to make sure I fully understood his message. "If someone is even suspected of being a high level refiner, they will be targeted. Both this school and the Nine Rivers Sect have protections in place to help refiners live long enough to be trained and grow up, but that doesn't mean they are safe. Even within the school's walls, there are people who would go to any length to prevent a rival faction from gaining a refiner."
"Can't the Sovereigns, or at least the Saint, do anything about this?"
He shook his head. "Possibly, but if they can, they don't want to. They've arguably made the situation worse over the years."
"But—"
Zhuge Yan cut me off. "We are broaching topics best left alone. Let's talk about happier things."
I nodded and allowed the conversation to change topics. I noticed that when we did, Lin LiTing, who had been extremely nervous as Zhuge Yan talked, finally relaxed.
Chapter 123 – Life 65, Age 16, Martial Disciple 3
At the beginning of the next week, I was pulled into a private training room by Master Tan.
"You technically have a choice of which profession you wish to pursue. However, as you've already shown that you wish to become a formation specialist, we will skip some of the formalities."
When did I do that? Wait, were we not starting with combat today? I was surprised, but spending time on formations instead of getting beat up was appealing.
"Are you ready?" I saw a look of eagerness in her eyes. Was she as happy to not be doing combat as I was?
"Yes," I nodded.
Master Tan reached into a small storage bag on her hip, took out a small stone, and threw it at me.
I reached out to catch it, but when it was within an arm's length of me, it exploded, sending a blast of qi directly at my chest.
I tried to react, but I was already too late. The wave of energy hit me and sent me sprawling.
"What are you doing?" Master Tan's face was a mask of anger.
"What am I doing? What was that? I thought we were going to study formations."
"Morning is combat training. Morning will alwaysbe combat training."
I stood up and brushed myself off.
As soon as I regained my focus, without asking me again, Master Tan threw another stone at me.
This time, I didn't try to catch it. I dodged to the side as quickly as I could.
The stone sailed through the air and landed on the ground with a dull plink.
"Why did you dodge?"
I looked at the woman and couldn't help but feel annoyed.
"Because if I didn't—"
"Wrong," she cut me off. "You dodged because you weren't using your qi vision properly. If you had, you would have seen that the stone didn't have a formation on it. Now, let's try this again."
She didn't go into long-winded explanations about what I should do. She knew what my capabilities were. At least, she partly knew about my capabilities. So instead of discussing further, she simply reached into her bag, pulled out another rock, and threw it at me.
This time I did as she told me to. I turned on my qi vision and saw that the stone was nearly bursting with energy.
I shifted my weight and dodged to my left as quickly as I could. I was a bit slow, and the burst of energy that came from the stone grazed me, but I was able to stabilize myself.
Master Tan didn't wait for me to recover. The moment I stopped moving, she instantly threw another stone at me.
This time, I saw that it was filled with energy, but it wasn't at the level of bursting.
As I was about to dodge, I understood what I was seeing. This stone did have a formation inside it, but it hadn't been fully energized, so it wouldn't explode.
I reached out and grabbed the stone. I was about to examine it when Master Tan threw another one at me.
This time I could see that it would explode, so I dodged to the right.
Next was a dud. I grabbed and pocketed it.
Then, she threw another dud.
After that, she threw an exploding stone, so I dodged.
I quickly regained my balance to prepare for what would be next, but I didn't see anything else coming toward me. I let down my guard.
That was when a small stone made solid contact with my skull.
Reeling in pain, I could barely process Tan's words.
"You became too reliant on qi vision. You stopped looking for normal physical objects and were only looking for balls of energy. That's a quick way to get yourself killed."
I sank to my knees. I knew I had to adjust to it, but I was annoyed by Tan's teaching methodology: Make the student fail, then explain why they failed. Instructor Sun hadn't been too different either, but when 'failing' meant getting knocked in the head with a rock, this method of learning started to grate on my nerves.
There had to be a better way to teach cultivators, but if this was the best academy on the continent, I shouldn't expect to find anything better anywhere else. I would just have to learn to deal with it.
---------------------------------------------------
After several hours of being tortured, I went to have lunch with my classmates. Their praise of their new masters' teaching abilities left me stunned. When they described their training, and I found they had endured just as much punishment as I had, I could only shake my head.
Once our meal was finished, I returned to my private classroom to see over a dozen square granite blocks each the size of a sheet of paper laying on the floor.
"You wanted to practice formations, right?" Master Tan looked at me from across the room and gestured to the blocks as she spoke. "Well, get to practicing. Show me what formations you know how to create."
I nodded and grinned. Crafting. I could do crafting.
I approached the first block and began making a basic Rank 1 Qi Gathering Formation.
Using my earth qi, I first carved a swirling vortex inscription that would allow the formation to pull energy from the environment. Then, I made a simple shielding inscription to trap qi. After that, I drew a line going into the vortex, through the shield, and off of the stone. Finally, I injected a bit of my own qi to start the process.
A trickle of qi was pulled into the formation and was forced into the vortex inscription. This accelerated the pull, and more energy was drawn in. Once the vortex was saturated, the excess qi flowed into the shield, and a weak, invisible energy started to form. After the shield inscription was saturated, the remaining energy flowed into the shielded area where it could be used to cultivate.
Master Tan nodded her head, but she didn't show any reaction. Making a Qi Gathering Formation hadn't surprised her.
"Make something else." She pointed to the next block.
I considered my options and decided to make something simple.
Using the same base inscriptions as last time, I strengthened the shielding portion and diverted all the energy into it, letting none escape. This formed a basic barrier formation. My reason for choosing this was to show I understood a few intricacies related to using the same inscriptions for different tasks.
Master Tan glowered. "Make something different."
The formations I was most comfortable with were the ones used in the assembly line of the pill factory I had made in the past. I thought through the Rank 1 formations involved and decided to display the trap formation we had used to hold the pills.
I started by carving the same vortex to gather energy. Then, I carved a detection inscription that would identify when something was above the formation and trigger the next stage. Lastly, I carved a dual-inscription combination that would bind the detected person or object in place. I made the binding force as strong as I could with the space and materials available.
"Another," Master Tan commanded.
I made as many different formations as I could think of, from lighting formations to simple growing formations.
"Another."
At this point, I was out of ideas. I looked at the granite block and needed to think. Every formation started with the vortex to pull in energy, so I went ahead and carved that. Once it was complete, I sat to think about how to proceed.
After a couple of minutes, I came up with an idea and moved to start carving.
"Stop." Master Tan was looking at me with slightly narrowed eyes. "You just decided which formation you wanted to create. You made that vortex inscription first then sat to think about what you would draw. Is that correct?"
I nodded.
She reached into her storage bag, took out two stones, and threw them at me.
Having learned my lesson earlier in the morning, I quickly flipped on qi vision to look at them. One had a formation, but it wasn't energized, so it wouldn't explode. The other was just an ordinary rock.
I reached out and grabbed them.
Master Tan waved a hand. "Copy my formation onto the blank."
I had been dodging these rocks all morning, but I hadn't taken the time to study them. Now, looking at one carefully, I became a bit confused.
The formation wasn't like anything I had seen before. The rock had a single opening on it for qi to enter. From there, the qi would travel down a pathway, wandering and meandering throughout the stone, until finally looping back to near where it entered and starting the circuit over again.
There was nothing like the careful, structured inscriptions I was used to. Just a messy line weaving throughout the rock. Trying to duplicate it precisely would be difficult if not impossible.
I reached into my storage bag and pulled out one of the stones I had stashed away during our earlier practice. Looking at it, I saw that it had the same type of messy loop inside of it, but the twists and turns were completely different.
I decided that this meant the exact shape didn't matter. It only needed to be a loop. I took the blank stone and began carving it. When I was finished, I held it up for Master Tan's inspection.
"Push your qi into it," she commanded.
I narrowed my eyes but didn't argue back. I let a trickle of qi enter the stone, not too much. If I overdid it, the stone would almost certainly explode like hers had.
I had only pushed a small amount of energy into it when I suddenly heard the stone pop.
Horrified, I could only look on, expecting to be hit by a full-force explosion. It was far too late to escape.
The stone simply crumbled to pieces in my palm.
Master Tan chuckled at my expression. "There are a few lessons you need to learn. First, every formation you demonstrated was based on continual input of qi from a vortex inscription. There are other types of formation."
I had known that, but my focus had been on making formations that would last. I had ignored the ones that needed a user to insert their own qi.
"Aside from that, you need to understand your materials better. The Explosion Formation on my rocks is perfect for you to practice with. The diameter of the channel you create, the length of the loop, and its placement within the stone are all extremely important. The diameter and length will determine how much energy the formation can contain. The placement will determine how much energy the stone can contain. Both of these factors need to be balanced correctly for the proper result."
She took out another stone and held it in her hand. "What would happen if I injected enough qi into this?"
"It would—" She cut me off.
"Explode, that's right. So, assuming you had made that one correctly," she waved at the stone fragments at my feet, "why the hell would you inject qi into it while you were holding it? You need to learn to send qi into a formation from a distance. As a Martial Disciple, your control over it will be terrible once it's far enough away, but that doesn't matter. For the Explosion Formation to work correctly, you just need to be able to inject energy into it, not control it."
She dumped a pile of small stones onto the ground at her feet.
"You have a surprising level of accuracy when drawing inscriptions, but you need to work on drawing them faster, smaller, and with a better understanding of your materials. Each time you create a prototype stone, practice injecting your qi from a distance to make it go boom."
Picking up a small rock, she tossed it up and down in her hand.
"If you run out of materials to practice with, go outside and gather some more."
Chapter 124 – Life 65, Age 16, Martial Disciple 3
In the evening, I returned to our group's primary classroom for Instructor Sun's cultivation training.
The instructor spaced the five of us out around the room so that he could watch us all at the same time while giving us enough separation so that we didn't interfere with each other.
"You already have the cultivation techniques you will use for this portion of your training. I hope you have all been studying them carefully."
I hadn't been, but I didn't expect that to be an issue. He had given me a very basic Peak-Yellow earth qi cultivation technique. I only needed to pull it up in my mental library as a reference to know exactly how to place my filters and vortices. There wasn't much to it.
"You will come here every night and cultivate it to the best of your ability. Your requirement is to break through a stage of cultivation exactly once every week." He looked at us and smiled evilly. "That means you will be Peak Disciples in only a few weeks, right? Not so fast."
He reached into his storage bag, pulled out a small pill, and held it up for all of us to see.
"At the end of each week, I will give you one of these. It will expel all the energy you cultivated that week, returning you to your previous state."
I looked at the pill in his hand. It was a variant of a Perfect Rank 1 Qi Expelling Pill that was formulated to only affect one's most recent stage of cultivation. I couldn't help but think that even if these only cost a gold each, between the formations, pills, and instructors, the school was investing a lot of money in this class.
"Right now, you are all Martial Disciple 3. This will remain true until every single person in this room is able to form a pristine foundation for Martial Disciple 4. At the end of the week, if even one person's cultivation base is lacking, the entire group will take a pill and try again. Is that understood?"
"Yes, instructor," we all muttered.
"Very good. Now, start cultivating."
I mentally pulled up the technique in my library and got to work. It was peaceful and relaxing.
"Stop!" Instructor Sun was standing over Shi YuLong who was cultivating the same earth qi technique that I was.
"Did you even read the technique? Your filter is barely passable, and your positioning is completely wrong." He looked around the room at my classmates. "Everyone, get out your techniques and look at the positionings and angles called for. You must match them precisely."
I didn't think too much about it but did as he said. I pulled the technique from my storage bag, checked it, then put it away and continued cultivating.
I felt Instructor Sun's eyes lock onto me. After a few moments, I heard him mutter something, but I couldn't quite make it out.
He spent the next half hour helping my classmates get their filters and vortices into a position that was as close to correct as they could manage. This entire time, he kept looking over at me, but when he did, he only shook his head.
"Su Fang," Instructor Sun shouted once everyone else had been seen to. "Outside."
I followed him out of the classroom.
He glared at me but then breathed out in defeat.
"Just, don't help them. The Grandmaster has his own thoughts about how much assistance students should be given. For the rest, they need to learn on their own. The process of slowly understanding the importance of positioning and how to do it correctly will be very beneficial to them."
I nodded. "I understand."
"I can't find anything wrong with the way you are cultivating. It's as perfect as I've ever seen. You don't need these lessons. However, you will still be provided with the pills each week. I suggest you take advantage of this. Cultivate wrong. Do things you wouldn't usually even consider, like only half constructing a filter before trying to use it. The more you know about such things, the better it will prepare you for when you are a Master."
We went back inside, and I followed his advice. Instructor Sun might not have any way to help me during cultivation practice, but that didn't mean I couldn't try to learn something new on my own.
---------------------------------------------------
Our schedule at the Yellow Orchid Academy became somewhat routine. In the morning, we would study combat. In the afternoon, we would work to improve our profession-related skills. In the evening, we studied cultivation.
After the first month, our trainers no longer came to every class. Instructor Sun only showed up once a week to evaluate our progress, and Master Tan only came to give me guidance once every other week. The rest of the time, we worked as a group to help each other improve.
Half a year into this routine, Instructor Sun informed us that we could do anything we wished to help each other progress since the critical phase of our early training had passed.
Shi YuLong and Chai JiaQi had become significantly more skilled in combat than the rest of us, so they mostly led our morning training sessions. However, since they weren't exactly skilled teachers, they relied on Zhuge Yan to help plan what we should learn.
Once we had all reached Peak Disciple, combat became significantly more complex. Instead of simply needing to fortify my fist as I punched, my qi had to be shifted everywhere in my body.
A single punch required strengthening the fist's flesh and bones to keep it from snapping, enhancing the arm muscles to make it faster and stronger, and fortifying the torso and legs so that the punch had a solid foundation behind it. As Instructor Sun reminded us, a punch doesn't come from the arm, it comes from the entire body.
My progress in pure martial combat was slower than the two specialists, but I wasn't too dissatisfied. I felt that I was making solid gains.
This mainly came from the fact that I was quickly learning to integrate formations into combat. Aside from just throwing exploding pebbles, I had been learning to use disposable shields and trap formations to great effect.
Whenever we allowed such things during combat, I could easily match the two martial cultivators.
At first, I was hesitant to fight the others using formations since it felt like cheating. I was using something that they couldn't. However, Zhuge Yan explained it simply. I needed practice using them, and the others needed practice defending against them.
After all this time, I was still unclear which professions the others had chosen. I had a solid guess at what Lin LiTing was, but none of the others gave any signs. This could've been because they were hiding their skills, but it seemed more likely that in only a year, they hadn't yet developed to the point where their professions were usable in combat.
This was unfortunate because it meant that I didn't receive the same practice fighting against someone with a strong profession, but considering how two of our members were still able to push me to my limits, I didn't consider it much of a loss.
When it was time to practice professions, we separated out into private rooms. None of the others were willing to openly display their talents to the group, but we came back together in the evening for cultivation practice.
While Shi YuLong and Chai Jiaqi were excellent at fighting, their cultivation abilities were lagging behind everyone else. Even though Zhuge Yan's affinities were slightly worse than theirs, his ability to comprehend esoteric concepts let him develop faster. I wanted to help them, but I didn't want to go too far and interfere with the way Instructor Sun and Grandmaster Ning wanted them to learn.
Instead of helping them cultivate directly, which would have been terrible, or even showing them exactly how to place the filters, which might have been okay, I decided to simply nudge them in the correct direction as they worked. As they were cultivating, I commented whenever I noticed anything slip out of place. This helped, and I felt like I could do more, but I was worried about creating more problems they would have to deal with in the future.
When it was close to the end of our first year in the Academy, Instructor Sun gathered us together.
"Tomorrow, there's going to be a little competition. We have been paired up against another Master's class. You will fight as teams, five people on each side, but the fights will all be one-on-one. The first team to win three matches will be declared the victor, but all five matches will still take place regardless. Beyond winning, consider this an important training exercise against skilled opponents who have a good reason to see you lose."
He let his words sink in for a moment before continuing.
"Plan your strategy for tomorrow yourselves. Just don't embarrass me or Grandmaster Ning. The members of the winning team will each receive a token that will allow you to choose a single technique from the library."
Once the instructor left, we all looked at Zhuge Yan.
He sighed. "Let's get to planning."
---------------------------------------------------
The next day, Instructor Sun led us to a large courtyard with a raised fighting stage where a Master and five Disciples were already waiting for us. The stage was a square ten meters to a side and was made of solid gray stone.
We had decided to follow a simple strategy. With no information to work from, we would just go up in the order of our ability: LiTing, Yan, me, JiaQi, and finally YuLong. If we noticed something strange during the match, or if we gained information about our opponents' capabilities, Yan would be in charge of making adjustments to this order.
LiTing's fight was rough. She took a lot of blows, but she was able to absorb them all, so she didn't take any damage. Her only risk was running out of energy. Fortunately, her opponent slipped up and she was able to take advantage, ending the fight quickly.
Yan wasn't so lucky. His opponent was stacked with bulging muscles, and he was a far better fighter than Yan was. Also, it seemed like he wanted to make up for his team's defeat in the first round. The large boy was great on the offense, but he had a bad habit of simply absorbing blows instead of blocking. This allowed him to counterattack more freely, but it also ate up a lot of qi.
Yan capitalized on this by focusing all his attacks on the boy's upper right leg. It took time, but he was eventually able to deplete it of all its qi and deliver a devastating blow.
With one leg out of commission, the boy conceded the fight.
Yan stepped down victorious, and it was my turn.
My opponent was a petite girl with long hair in a braid behind her back that reached down to her waist. As soon as the fight started, she charged me. She focused all the qi in her legs on letting her run as fast as possible.
In the blink of an eye, she was right below me, sending a powerful blow toward my midsection.
I didn't have time to think.
On instinct, I crossed my arms and fortified them as much as possible. At the same time, I shifted the energy in my legs and torso to keep my feet firmly planted.
Her blow hit me like a sledgehammer with bone-breaking force, but my fortifications held, and she bounced off.
Taking advantage of the opening this created, I shifted the qi in my legs, increasing my speed, and ran toward her.
Glancing in qi vision, I saw the energy in her forearms was disrupted, but attacking there wouldn't have much of an impact. Instead, I focused on a small flaw I found on the right side of her abdomen. It wasn't much of a weakness, but she would have difficulty moving qi to defend that area.
When I arrived in front of her, she had already regained her balance and was ready to defend, but the energy in her arms hadn't yet stabilized, so she didn't have the force or speed necessary.
I punched out at the weakness I had identified, but halfway through the motion, I pulled back and did my best to escape.
The 'weakness' had been a way of concealing a talisman against her body.
Lightning exploded out, and I was barely able to dodge. If I had let my blow land, I would have taken that blast at full force, and it might have been difficult to even survive.
I had expected a purely martial competition, but if this was the way things were going to be, I was prepared. I reached into my robes and pulled out a handful of small pebbles. Using Master Tan's stones as a template, I had shrunk the design down so that I could toss half a dozen stones at once. This was a shotgun approach.
I energized the pebbles and threw.
The girl tried to dodge, but there was nowhere she could go.
The blast of qi that struck her wasn't very powerful, but it forced her to close her eyes.
I rushed forward and struck her hard in the solar plexus, sending her sprawling.
After that, the fight was quickly decided, and I walked away the victor.
YuLong and JiaQi fought next, but there was no suspense. The other team's best fighters had already been eliminated, so we won easily.
Chapter 125 – Life 65, Age 17, Martial Disciple Peak
We gathered in our classroom the day after the competition, and Instructor Sun greeted us with a stony expression.
"You won, but don't let it go to your head. That was one of the weakest classes. None of them had combat blessings, and a couple of you still only barely managed to win. In the future, don't expect things to be so easy."
He reached into a storage bag and threw a pill and token to each of us.
"Take the pill and clean up your cultivation. Tonight, you need to start working on building your true foundation. If you don't have a decent cultivation technique, go to the library and find one. If you do, get a martial technique. I expect you all to be back here at the beginning of next week prepared for class. You need to be Martial Disciple 2. No more, no less."
Taking this as a dismissal, we all bowed and turned to leave, but the instructor spoke up once more, halting us in our tracks.
"And just so we're clear, if you get a martial technique, make sure it can be used with the part of your body you fortify. Don't cultivate your arms after buying a leg technique."
This time he didn't wait for us and instead turned and left the room before we could respond.
The academy library was a place I had been interested in visiting ever since Instructor Sun gave me my first token for a free technique. However, going there without knowing what to expect might have resulted in the loss of my only opportunity to plunder every technique possible, so I had delayed my visit. I wanted to understand what would happen when I went before I did so. Barring that, I wanted to at least learn how to gain extra tokens first.
With the reward from the martial arts competition in hand, I had more freedom to act.
My classmates and I arrived at the library as a group and entered to see a large reception area with an elderly man standing behind a counter.
"Yes?"
Zhuge Yan took the lead in responding. "We're here to select techniques."
The librarian gestured to the counter without speaking further.
I wasn't sure exactly what he wanted, but the others weren't so clueless. They each stepped up and placed their token on the counter. I followed suit just a beat behind.
The librarian nodded. "What kind of techniques do you want?"
Shi YuLong was the first to speak. "A martial technique for earth qi, as strong as I can get."
The librarian acknowledged his choice and turned to the others. Chai JiaQi wanted a leg-based water martial art, and Lin LiTing wanted a metal qi cultivation technique.
Zhuge Yan had been struggling with his choice, but when he finally decided, his voice was firm. "I want a cultivation technique for dark qi."
I sensed that the librarian was surprised for the first time, but he didn't show any outward signs of disagreement. He just turned to me.
"Can these tokens be exchanged for higher-level techniques?"
"No, these are Rank 1 tokens."
That helped me make my decision. I already had a good earth cultivation technique, so I wasn't hurting for another one. I was presenting myself as an earth cultivator in this life, and I wanted to continue down that path for now. In any case, I didn't worry too much about making the 'correct' decision because it didn't seem like it would be very difficult to access the library again in the future. If I couldn't get another token in this life, I would just wait for the next.
"An earth-based martial art."
The librarian nodded once more. "Follow."
He took us down a long corridor with several doors on either side. We walked until reaching the third door on the left.
"Martial water techniques," the librarian said, gesturing to the door. "You have ten minutes to make your selection."
He opened the door and ushered Chai JiaQi inside.
The next door we stopped at was for Lin LiTing who was also given 10 minutes.
Shi YuLong and I were sent in the third door the librarian stopped at. Inside, over a dozen shelves were filled with hundreds of rolled-up bamboo scrolls. Nothing had a label, and it was unclear which techniques did what.
I knew what I needed to do, but especially with Shi YuLong accompanying me, I had to play the part of a typical Disciple. I walked forward, picked up a random scroll, and read the first slip.
"Yellow-Ranked Heavy Staff technique." I sighed in a show of despair. "How are we supposed to find anything suitable when nothing is labeled?"
YuLong grinned widely. "Fate."
He walked forward and began picking up random scrolls, reading the first line before putting them aside and choosing something else.
I followed his method, but when I was picking my 'random scroll,' I brushed my hand across all the techniques around it, depositing copies of them into my mental library. If we were being observed, I didn't want to be seen simply running around the room touching everything in sight.
I estimated that eight of our ten minutes had elapsed when I finished my plundering. That only left me two minutes to choose the technique I would have to use over the next few months.
In my random searching, I hadn't found anything particularly valuable. All of the scrolls I had glanced at were only Yellow-Rank techniques. It was possible that there was simply nothing better in the room, but I didn't believe that.
Of course, if there was anything good in this room, it would already be stored in my mental library, but that didn't help me much at the moment. If I wanted to use the technique openly, I would have to take the scroll out of the room with me, and to do that, I would both have to spend time cataloging the techniques and then match them up with the physical scrolls.
I didn't have time for that.
Not trusting myself to YuLong's 'fate,' I believed there had to be a way to determine the good techniques from the bad. I could have asked the System for assistance, but that felt unnecessary. There had to be another way.
As I was looking at the countless scrolls, trying to see anything that differentiated one from another, something clicked in my head, and I had an idea. There was something special about cultivation knowledge. I couldn't store high-Rank manuals in my library, and I could barely force myself to read knowledge that was too advanced. When I tried to memorize parts of Emperor Li's books, I couldn't understand a single word.
Extending this idea to technique scrolls, I turned on qi vision and started looking around the room. At first, nothing popped out at me, but I knew there had to be some kind of energy or… something in these scrolls. These scrolls had to contain something beyond just ink and bamboo. I wasn't sure what I did, but I felt a piece of my mind twist, and all the scrolls around the room began to glow with a faint light.
My time was almost up, so I quickly darted around the room, looking for anything glowing with a brighter light. I thought that maybe there was a hidden cache of knowledge here, maybe something in a secret alcove available only to the skilled or lucky, but no such luck. The brightest scroll was near the center of a shelf in clear view. I picked it up and examined it with my analysis ability.
Earth-Rank Martial Art, Mountain Crushing Fist, Requirements: Martial Disciple 2 to Martial Disciple Peak, Earth Qi
To unleash the technique's full power, I would need to be a Peak Disciple, but I could begin practicing it as a Disciple 2. That seemed to fit Instructor Sun's requirements.
I looked at YuLong and saw that he had only found a Profound-Rank scroll. My eyes darted around the room, and I rushed over to grab the only other Earth-Rank technique I could find. I wasn't sure of its properties, but I tossed it to the boy.
"Try that one. It should be better than what you have."
He didn't even look at it. He just placed the technique he had been holding down and decided to follow my advice. Maybe accepting things you're given like this is what he considers 'fate,' or maybe he just wasn't happy with anything he found himself and wanted someone else to blame for his bad luck.
We left the room at the same time as everyone else and found the librarian waiting for us.
I had one more token to use. From an outsider's perspective, logically, I should have looked for an earth qi cultivation technique or grabbed another martial earth technique, but I didn't need either of these. I wanted to grab the cultivation techniques for one of the other elements, especially the secondary ones, but it would be hard to explain such a choice if I was questioned about it.
I handed the librarian my second token. "I'm interested in multi-element cultivation techniques."
The librarian narrowed his eyes slightly but took the token and gestured to the door closest to the reception area.
"You have ten minutes."
I hurried inside. This room only held a little over a dozen books instead of the hundreds of scrolls that were in the martial vault. I acted the same as I had before, brushing my hand across everything while choosing scrolls to read at random.
Of all the scrolls here, the most versatile were the five Peak-Earth triple-element techniques for each of the constructive combinations in the five-element cycle, such as wood to fire to earth or earth to metal to water. For the secondary elements, there were only dual-element techniques available for the opposing elements, dark with light and lightning with wind.
After searching with the altered qi vision—energy vision?—I didn't find anything special. Nearly every technique here was Peak-Earth, and choosing a technique was simply a matter of which combination one wanted to use.
Walking this path could be interesting in the future, but it wasn't my plan for this life, so I left the room without taking a scroll, showing that I had decided not to cultivate any of them. This made the librarian scowl.
"You won't be getting your token back."
I dipped my head in acknowledgment.
The librarian took us to another room where a large formation was set up next to several blank sheets of paper. One by one, we handed him our chosen scrolls, and the information was copied from the bamboo slips onto the paper.
"These copies will only last for one month. You are not allowed to duplicate them or transmit the knowledge to anyone else in any way. If the Academy learns you have done so, you will be punished severely."
He looked at Zhuge Yan. "Not even your family will be able to reduce the punishment for such an act. Is that understood?"
The librarian looked at each of us, getting our agreement.
I spent the rest of the week slowly cultivating my Peak-Earth earth qi technique. While the multi-element techniques were interesting, mastery of a single element was what I was looking for in this life. It didn't take me long to push it to Disciple 2, so I spent the rest of my time before the next class practicing the Mountain Crushing Fist.
The technique as a whole was interesting. It used earth qi to bind my feet to the ground, allowing me to exert significant force without needing to worry about recoil pushing me away. This could be dangerous though. If I were to hit an unbreakable object, my fist might shatter instead of bouncing off. The risks of using a powerful technique were real, but as long as I was careful, it would allow me to attack with devastating strength.
I also began to consider if I could use the same principles defensively. Why not bind myself to the ground to help absorb attacks? I quickly flipped through my mental library, looking at the techniques I had just copied, and I found a Profound-Rank technique called the Mountain's Repose which did exactly what I was thinking about.
I didn't want to use any of the stolen techniques openly, but using the Mountain Crushing Fist in inventive ways should be expected, right?
I began consulting my library to help me think of other ways to use 'the Mountain Crushing Fist' to my advantage in the future.
The next week, our classes resumed with lessons on integrating our techniques into our fighting.
Instead of using the ones we had just gotten from the library, Instructor Sun had us start by using one of two basic Yellow-Ranked techniques called Punch and Kick.
Punch was a technique for taking qi from the arm and applying it to a punch. The way we were fighting before, qi was only being used to strengthen our bodies. Through this technique, the qi in a punch would cause damage separate from the physical blow. Even a soft punch could carry enough qi to cripple a mortal.
The two techniques were extremely simple, but learning to properly integrate the qi movements instinctively was still a challenge. Master Tan forced me to concentrate on learning to use Punch properly and wouldn't allow me to even practice the Mountain Crushing Fist until several weeks later.
Our schedule of training resumed its normal rhythm of combat in the morning, professions in the afternoon, and cultivation in the evening. Every few months, we would be matched against another class for a martial arts competition. We won most, but when classes were focused around martial blessings, usually only YuLong and JiaQi were able to secure a victory.
Whenever we succeeded in these competitions, we received another library token. I plundered the earth qi cultivation and formation specialist rooms, but I wasn't willing to show my hand by going into rooms for the other elements. Instead, I used the extra tokens to build out the martial techniques I could openly display. However, I did hold a couple of tokens back in reserve, just in case.
I added a movement technique that would help me travel faster and stealthier on bare earth as well as leg attacks and defensive arts.
In this manner, three more years passed. At twenty years old, we were all Peak Disciples. Our classes would soon come to an end, and we would have to figure out what we would do next.