All four of us walking through D District together caused multiple stirs before we reached the one where Lo Kien lived. "Senior brother Xu, maybe we could have that first lesson once you've picked a Spirit rank technique? I mean, today? Some of my fellows are probably going to be angry once they hear I'm getting help from more talented disciples."
"You may have a point," I murmured back, "I'm starting to get annoyed at being stared at."
"Well, we're here now, senior brother, I'll be real quick."
He was true enough to his word that it even impressed me—he was in and out in under a minute. We walked rather more hastily back to A District. Once we got to Building #242, I let Shokoya and Lo Kien in the outer entrance and through the door at the end of the hall which led to a spacious common area. "All right, let's lay them out."
At Li Han's prompting, Lo Kien took out a scroll, while Li Han also reached to lay three more on the common room table. "Spirit Sharpening Strike? A good choice, junior brother," said Lo Kien, "higher end among Spirit Grade power attacks, and very reliable. As it happens, that one isn't among the ones I brought. In fact, I wouldn't mind learning it myself, though I very much would mind spending the 200 points for it myself. I'll trade you for one of mine after Xu chooses his, if you like."
"R-really?! Thank you very much, honorable senior brother Li!"
"Although, I do see what you mean by its suitability. From his battle today, our friend Xu does not seem like the power attacking type."
"Not wrong," I said, "it does seem like it has too much of a wind-up. Let's see what you brought, senior brother Li."
The first technique of his three I barely needed to look at to reject. It was called "Rending Light Slash" which was, in fairness, not quite the fanciest name I'd ever heard for a sword beam attack. The other two were quite a bit more interesting. The first was called Spiritual Nerve Strike, which did little damage but could paralyze or hinder the movements of the target for a brief time, even if the strike was blocked, though from reading it over, the effect would be stronger if it was not. The other was named Blossom Ray Thrust. An unusually effeminate name, but on looking into it I discovered that it was because it caused an energy ray of shorts to shoot from the sword's tip. It had a decent effect if shot like a projectile, but if the technique was used on an actually landed hit, it would do severe damage to the target from the inside.
Honestly, I thought it was more suitable for Shokoya than me, since he tended to use thrusting attacks much more than I did, but if I took Spiritual Nerve Strike, I'd have no melee techniques that weren't control skills. Blossom Ray Thrust definitely fit my needs the best out of all four. "Yeah, it's going to have to be Blossom Ray Thrust. Actually, I bet Shokoya would do even better with that technique than me, can he learn it too?"
Li Han grinned. "I thought you'd probably pick that one. And I'm sure we can come to an arrangement for Shokoya to learn it too. If you agree with junior brother Xu's assessment, Shokoya?"
"I do," Shokoya nodded, "in fact, that's the technique I've been planning to save up for. I'd really appreciate it."
Li Han nodded back. "So, little junior, which technique will you trade for?"
"Hmm," said Lo Kien, taking several minutes to look them over, "Blossom Ray Thrust is definitely excellent, but it might be a little advanced for me. Also, I'm lacking in control skills. Spiritual Nerve Strike will suit me best, I think."
"That works out well," said Li Han, "having three people in line for Blossom Ray Thrust would have been pretty awkward. So for now, you have fun with it, junior brother Xu, and then, little Li, that's your Spirit Sharpening Strike for my Spiritual Nerve Strike."
The two of them slid the respective techniques across the table to each other, Spirit Sharpening Strike taking the place of Spiritual Nerve Strike where Li Han's techniques had been lined up. Finally, Li Han picked up the scroll for Blossom Ray Thrust and handed it to me. "For now, let's go ahead and give you that lesson, Li."
"Back to the training courts it is, then!" said Shokoya, "While you're giving him pointers, I think it's time for me to try the sparring matches myself."
"Then starting tomorrow, I'll go back to grinding missions for a while," I said, "I'm really chafing at how few points I have built up right now. I can still learn Blossom Ray Thrust on the go."
"Then I'll do the same," said Li Han, "I'm getting quite close to the total for that Heaven Rank technique. Just you make sure to leave a note when you're going to challenge the Tower of Enlightenment."
It appeared that was going to be a long time coming. At least I was able to grind Contribution Points toward Ninefold Shot while also gradually learning Blossom Ray Thrust. It wasn't easy. If an Earth Rank technique scroll had been on the order of difficulty of a few trigonometry books, the Spirit Rank scroll was an entire stack of books on par with my own height, consisting of doorstopper size scientific texts, anthologies of doctoral papers, and other equally esoteric information sources. I had a feeling that once I got my hands on my first Heaven Rank technique, analogies would fail me.
After three escort missions, my points had been replenished nicely. I'd been obligated to defend my spot in a Ranking Qualification match after returning from each mission, but no one had given me the kind of trouble Hong Zinlong had. In the meantime, Shokoya had reached the half-step stage, but had narrowly lost two qualification matches. The second time had pitted him against a lower rank than the first, such that I thought he'd have a good chance of winning if he drew a match against someone below #950.