Beneath the gazes of the crowd, the diminutive monk seemed to shrink even more. As he closed in on the smallest of the three stones, Chun De had to crane his neck up to see the top. Scarce chuckles emerged from the crowd of observers. The young aspirants had caught on to the fact that the Kunlun disciples weren't berating them for chitchat, so loose talk began to spread.
Chun De pressed his mittens up against the boulder and, with a grunt, began to push. Soon, the frozen earth quaked as the stone began to shift. The smiles of the onlookers quickly disappeared. The stone kept moving farther and farther, until a proctor had called the test to a stop.
The little monk collapsed, panting. Though he had done it, it hadn't come easily.
Murmurs erupted among the crowd, trying to make sense of what had just unfolded.
"Maybe the rocks aren't that heavy." Some wondered.
Bai Guo began to view the little monk in different light. "This boy who felt barely any heavier than a bag of rice in my grip could actually pull that off? I guess I was wrong - he's not here by mistake."
After Chun De had scraped himself off the ground, the disciples continued calling out names.
Emboldened by that underdog performance, the youngsters grew overconfident. Many had attempted to shift the largest obstacle, and all of them failed. After wasting the last scraps of strength that remained after the first test, some hadn't had it in them to move even the smallest boulder, leading to complete embarrassment. Soon the young martial artists had learned from the mistakes of their predecessors, and the showboating stopped. None dared to try the third rock again.
Bai Guo noticed that each competitor was allowed to try their hand at all three weights if it so pleased them. The time between the attempts also seemed inconsistent. But ultimately, whatever the result, none of the contestants walked away feeling scorned by anything but the limits of their own ability.
"Zhu Da!" The next name had been called.
The giant with the dark braid stepped forth. He tossed his coat out onto the snow, and just as readily discarded his upper garment. His broad and ruddy chest bare, he confidently strutted towards the largest stone.
Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Bai Guo tried to find somewhere else to look. He caught Shao Luli staring at him. As though startled by the unexpected eye contact, the girl practically recoiled as she turned back to the stones.
"Brother Da, show them how it's done!" Shao Luli cheered him on. The crowd, spurred on by the girl's rambunctiousness, laughed and echoed her words with sarcastic encouragement of their own.
"Was she waiting for me to look her way?" Bai Guo wondered. "So annoying!"
Zhu Da hugged the boulder, his muscles rippling, and began to push without so much as a grunt. After a slight delay, the enormous stone started to slide ever so slightly along the ground. The jeering aspirants had instantly been silenced.
"Good!" Master Tan Huan himself had offered his praises. "That's enough!"
Zhu Da stepped away from the rock. Shao Luli rushed out from the group and picked up his garments to hand them back to him. The big man seemed extremely pleased with himself as he rejoined his begrudging peers.
The next examinee had then been called forth.
"Bai Guo!"
The young man in question had been preoccupied with keeping his mounting annoyance in check. He took his leave of the crowd very slowly, trying to figure out his plan.
"I can tell that girl's trying to goad me into making a mistake. And there's no way I'm just being paranoid! She's definitely out to get me!" Bai Guo grumbled to himself. "Well, I know that's her game, so there's no way I'm falling for it."
But his feet still brought him before the tallest boulder. The crowd heckled him. Nobody believed that a miracle could happen twice in a row.
Bai Guo paused before it, his mind reeling.
"Ah, what good is knowing, if I just plunge right into the danger anyways?! And it's not like this is the first time I do this! This stupid temperament of mine is exactly how I ended up here, so many miles away from home!"
Bai Guo hesitantly pressed his hands against the stone. "Zhu Da didn't have to move this thing far before they stopped him. I think I can move it that much... But even if I mess this up, I can just try the smaller rocks. I'm not tired at all, not like the others, so I think it's possible. Worst case scenario, I'll come out of this embarrassed, but at least I shouldn't flunk out of the tournament."
The young man sighed heavily as the thought had crossed his mind. He took measure of the miniature mountain before him once more. "...Look at me, trying to bargain down my failure before I had even given it a proper try. Master could probably push this thing back with a single arm."
As he thought back to that golden haired woman, something stirred inside him. "Ah, what was I even thinking! Forget some stupid Shao Luli! After all the hard work that master poured into me, if I can't even move some stupid rock, how could I ever face her again?!"
With a rallying cry, Bai Guo rammed himself into the boulder. The crowd stilled their breaths. Though no one present earnestly believed that he could do it, after being shown that it is indeed possible, nobody had had the confidence to doubt him openly.
But they couldn't help but erupt into cheers when the great weight gave way beneath the young man's strength.
"Enough!" Master Tan Huan called out. He smiled, his hands crossed behind his back. "Well done!"
Bai Guo collapsed to his knees. Drawing out strength he never knew he possessed had utterly exhausted him.
The spectators regarded him with a sprawling mixture of shock, admiration, envy, and wariness. For a lot of the people present, the competition turned out to be fiercer than they had anticipated.
Bai Guo took his place among his peers with a small smile. Though he was satisfied with his accomplishment beyond measure, he restrained himself. He avoided looking at the girl that roused his ire, because he worried that it would prove impossible to maintain his composure depending on the severity of her expression.
Shao Luli had eventually had her turn, successfully overcoming the smallest obstacle. She, too, avoided Bai Guo's eyes as she went back into the crowd.
Once everyone had been given the chance to try the challenge, the test had concluded. By the end, no one else had managed to shift the largest stone.
The next examination was conducted indoors, with the aspirants called into a vast hall one by one to demonstrate their techniques before three seated older disciples and master Tan Huan.
Bai Guo bowed before the proctors. He drew his sword and demonstrated three of the Fifteen Heroic Sword Steps.
"Was that all you wished to demonstrate, contestant Bai?" One of the elders asked, very obviously unimpressed.
Bai Guo was not oblivious to the man's leading tone, but he had nothing else to show, and as such, had simply nodded his head.
"You are also signed up for the contest of the fist." The elder reminded.
Bai Guo was instantly overcome by panic. "I completely forgot!" He thought. "If these people were disappointed with my three sword moves, then they just might laugh me out of the competition when I show them the only fist technique I know! And I hadn't practiced that move at all!"
Swallowing his anxiety, the young man demonstrated his sole attack - a punch from a wide stance, the Mountain River Strike.
The elder that had been giving him lip a moment prior couldn't suppress a smirk when the brief demonstration had concluded. In a polite effort to conceal it, he turned his gaze towards his desk and wrote something down.
The other proctors were not amused at all.
Master Tan Huan had then instructed, "Try any one of your sword techniques on the target there. Strike as hard as you can. You only have one chance."
The target in question was a rectangular block of wood, about as wide as an arm on all sides, held up by wooden boards. Bai Guo performed the First Step, jabbing into it with a yell. His father's sword had pierced through the solid block as easily as through silk, penetrating it up to the hilt.
The young swordsman himself seemed shocked at the result. He tried to get his weapon out, but no matter how much he tugged and pulled, it remained firmly in place.
"Young man..." Master Tan Huan stood up, a gentle smile on his face. "Stop that. You'll break your sword."
The master came over and, with a quick flick of his wrist, retrieved the stuck blade. Embarrassed, Bai Guo bowed as he accepted it back.
Tan Huan chuckled. "Contestant Bai seems unaware of his own strength. I wonder how this came to be. Who taught you, young man?"
Bai Guo hesitated, wondering how to answer the question. "My late father taught me the sword."
"What was this esteemed man's name? How did he die?" Tan Huan asked.
"Bai Yang. He perished in combat, protecting me."
Tan Huan's moustache quivered; though he failed to recognize the name, he nevertheless seemed moved. "The world is full of heroes." He placated.
The master patted Bai Guo on the shoulder. "Young man, your father left you with an impressive foundation. If you prove yourself in this competition, then under my guidance, I guarantee it will not go to waste. I can polish you into an outstanding martial artist."
Though Bai Guo knew that Tan Huan's praise was mostly misplaced, he still couldn't help but feel a tinge of pride. Not for himself, but for his father, and his master.
They had then had him demonstrate the power of his unarmed technique by having him crack a number of sturdy wooden boards. Twelve had been stacked up against the wall, and twelve were smashed beneath his fist.
Once again Bai Guo had found himself flabbergasted by his own feats. "I poured so many hours into the First Step, so I can accept what I can do with it now. But this one I hadn't practiced at all! What's going on? Why is it so strong? Is brute force really all it takes to be a martial artist?"
He thought back on his master's brief battle against Tao Geming, when the two had briefly discussed the core tenets of martial arts. Tao Geming eschewed formal techniques in favor of cultivating the kind of raw power that could turn any move deadly. But even though what had just unfolded before his eyes seemed to further prove that man's beliefs, and even his master hadn't disagreed with him at the time, Bai Guo was loathe to accept his point of view.
Bai Guo could tell that the examiners seemed far less conflicted about his results than the young man himself. They wrote something down and sent him away.
By the time the third trial had concluded, it was already dark. Because the Kunlun Sect disciples were unwilling to guide the aspirants down the mountain in these conditions, they provided them with lodgings in the barracks.
With the girls segregated into a different building, about fifty young men were housed in a single large room. Bai Guo found that the little monk was, coincidentally, bunking right next to him.
"Brother De, good work out there." Bai Guo approached with a friendly smile.
Chun De stared at him with wide-eyed surprise, and then his eyes began to wander all over as he treated his peer to awkward silence. Finally, after a long pause, he offered his gratitude. "Thank you, brother Guo."
Chun De's voice had a naturally high pitch, and the little monk went through a very unconvincing effort of making it sound gruffer and lower. Bai Guo's eyebrows flew up when he heard it, instantly struck with suspicion.
"His voice didn't even break yet?" He thought. "No... I don't think that's it... Could it be...?"
So shocked was Bai Guo that he had neglected to hide his surprise. Witnessing Bai Guo's strange reaction, Chun De's bald head began to glow with a shade of red.
The little monk suddenly bowed, still speaking in that forced voice. "I never got the chance to thank brother Guo for saving my life."
"Ah... Don't worry about it! Really, it's nothing." Bai Guo hastily raised the bowing monk. The more he heard Chun De speak, the firmer his impression grew.
Though Bai Guo smiled politely, his mind was racing. "No wonder Chun De was so hesitant to speak. It's a dead giveaway! I'd better cut this conversation short before anyone else overhears and realizes that the monk is actually a nun! While I'm sure she has some reason to hide her true identity - I didn't exactly come here for legitimate reasons either - other people might feel less inclined to keep her secret from the disciples."
"Well, I'll leave you to it." Bai Guo said, chuckling strangely. "I'm sure you're tired after a day like that. I feel the same way."
As the participants went to sleep, Bai Guo had found himself remarkably self-conscious, spending the entire night on one side, his back turned to Chun De.