After I dropped the scrolls in my house, Lin Chu brought me to a courtyard so massive, I had to pause for a moment and just gawk—I mean, calmly observe and quietly marvel.
It was simply a wide area of yellow ground trampled into absolute flatness by hundreds of legs. On one side of it, groups of students of different ages exercised together, ran laps, or slacked off.
On another side, separated by a small fence, hundreds of soldiers trained and sparred under the command of their drill sergeants. All of them were dressed only in their pants and were sweating with exertion. Even farther away, I saw people on horses… Although most of the horsemen must've trained outside of the Lin Manor.
I and Lin Chu were walking toward that side of the training ground past much smaller groups of young clan disciples, when I heard a shout.
"Father! Father, did you come to watch us train?"
Lin Chu stopped, and I saw a pair of young kids ran from the nearest disciple group and stop in front of him. The younger of them was 4, and the older must've been around 6-years-old. Their instructor followed right behind them, saying apologies and urging the children to return to their lesson, but they ignored him.
Then Lin Chu threw him a glance. Paling, the instructor went silent and stepped back.
I stopped gaping at the two kids and forced my face into something more dignified.
Despite the youthful chubbiness of the faces of the two boys, I instantly saw the familial similarity in them. If I squinted, I could see something of Lin Chu in them, too.
Lin Chu had children! For fuck's sake, the man looked so cold that his jade rod would freeze any woman he touches!
"Father, who's that guy with you? Is that your new disciple?"
"You shouldn't interrupt your exercise just to rush me with questions. This is extremely poor discipline. If someone of lower status than you did something like this, he'd get lashes for the misconduct," Lin Chu said sternly to the boys. "Now go back."
"But Father… We barely saw you after the New Year's," the younger one whined.
"Fine! But you will be back for dinner, right? Right, Father?" the younger asked.
Lin Chu gave his son an icy look which could be interpreted as "stern dad glare" by someone with imagination. If you ask me, he looked at Lin Deng in exactly the same way.
"Maybe. Now go, Little Li, Little Wen."
With a last sigh and polite goodbye, the pair went back to their group, where they were scolded by their instructor before returning to stretches.
Lin Chu and I reached the soldiers' part of the training grounds without further interruptions. There, Lin Chu brought me to a drill sergeant whose soldiers were making squats.
"Sergeant Zhou Hou, this is my personal disciple, Ru Yujin," Lin Chu said. "I want you to train him like you would any fresh recruit until he can hold his own."
The drill sergeant bowed deferentially, but gave me a worried look.
"Master Lin Chu, but your disciple—surely he can already beat some lofty soldier! We are mere mortals, what's our might compared to that of yours? He should train with other disciples of his status, such as those under Master Lin Tan—"
Lin Chu cut him off with a Look. With the capital "L".
"The difference in basic strength can be problematic, but is solvable. Use heavy weights to make Ru Yujin's stamina and strength equal with that of your soldiers. Disciple Ru, and you must learn how to control your strength in a fight. I don't want to hear about any heavy traumas given to other soldiers. Strengthen your body and obtain basic combat skills. It's as necessary for cultivation as amassing Qi."
I nodded. Controlling my strength was something I'd need to learn anyway, unless I wanted to start accidentally breaking things as I became stronger and stronger. However, I knew it won't be much of a problem. Just like my brain adapted to my enhanced senses, my body coordination became better when I advanced in cultivation.
"I will work hard, Master."
"Then the last thing I need to show you is where you will practice your techniques."
***
This time, by "showing" Lin Chu meant "dropping me at the entrance and diddling off to do his own business". From his words, this was a common training ground where everybody could practice in their free time.
It seemed pointless to enter a place where people practiced techniques without even reading a single technique manual, but I was curious, so peeked inside, anyway.
Behind a stone fence was a courtyard, where a row of battered training dummies made from metal waited for eager disciples to test their mettle. On the side, there were also racks with training weapons.
A couple dozen of disciples, both noble and lowborn, practiced there—although each group steered to their own side of the spacious training ground. Their respective instructors watched over them sharply.
To my surprise, there were familiar faces here, too! A group of young lowborn disciples had some of my former classmates, and watching over them was Fen Kuang.
He noticed me too, and his face soured.
"Brother Ru Yujin. Don't let me distract you from whatever you came for." He turned to the disciples near him, who all paused to gawk. "Look at your training targets! None of you can do even this simple technique right! Remember—the brighter your Water Qi becomes, the less you need to spend on the technique, and the more attempts at this you will have!"
Behind his back, a familiar girl with mismatched eyes waved at me and mouthed something. Ignoring Fen Kuang—he wasn't my boss anymore!—I approached her.
"Junior Sister Jie Xun, did you want something?"