**Chapter 13: Training Accident**
Fighting is also an important aspect when studying at any Soul Master Academy.
In other words, it's a test to assess an individual's abilities.
The battle between Soul Masters isn't just a fight between soul abilities on both sides.
So, what's the difference between a Tool Martial Soul and a Beast Martial Soul?
In battles between Soul Masters, in addition to unleashing soul abilities, a Soul Master's personal combat skills are also essential.
"I give up!"
On the training ground, a Level 15 student fought fiercely with Gu Ziyi for a long time before raising his hand and admitting defeat.
The students watching were not too surprised by this since they had been astonished many times before.
No one would have thought that Gu Ziyi, who was just an auxiliary Soul Master, could be so skilled in combat.
"Sigh—"
"Alright, I accept your surrender!"
Gu Ziyi took a deep breath and left the training ground immediately afterward.
"Gu Ziyi, you're just an auxiliary Soul Master. There's no need to train so hard to fight!"
After Gu Ziyi stepped down from the training field, Tang Yuehua handed him a bottle of water and couldn't help but try to persuade him.
"Gulp gulp~"
After taking a few gulps of water, Gu Ziyi smiled and responded, "Didn't I say before? An auxiliary Soul Master can't go without some combat power and shouldn't rely solely on others for protection."
These were also Gu Ziyi's genuine thoughts. He believed his Martial Soul shouldn't be a purely auxiliary type.
Besides, improving combat skills isn't a bad thing.
"Ahhh..."
"Watch out…"
Suddenly, there was an exclamation on the training ground.
Tang Yuehua looked up upon hearing the shout, and her pupils shrank in shock: "Ahhhh!!!"
A wooden sword was flying straight toward Tang Yuehua's face.
It turned out that two students on the training field were sparring with wooden weapons. One of them lost control of his wooden sword during the fight, sending it flying toward Tang Yuehua's face.
The other students on the field exclaimed when they saw this, knowing that even a wooden sword could be dangerous if it hit someone!
Whoosh~
At that critical moment, Gu Ziyi pulled Tang Yuehua aside and blocked the wooden sword with his back.
"Ahhhhh!"
However, as Gu Ziyi suddenly pulled Tang Yuehua, she lost her balance and fell onto him before she could steady herself.
Seeing this, he quickly helped her and pulled her closer into his arms.
While holding Tang Yuehua, Gu Ziyi couldn't help but glance behind him in confusion. Why hadn't the sword hit yet?
Looking back, he noticed that Bai Lu had arrived behind him at some point and was firmly holding the wooden sword in her hand.
"So fast…"
"So quick…"
"I didn't even see when the monitor appeared. She grabbed the wooden sword so easily! That's amazing..."
"…"
The students exclaimed as they witnessed the scene.
Gu Ziyi was also surprised. This was Bai Lu's true speed—a Soul Master focused purely on agility!?
Bai Lu had never demonstrated her power at this level before. Perhaps this wasn't even her full speed.
"Gu Ziyi, you can let go of my cousin now."
Bai Lu looked at Gu Ziyi's position with Tang Yuehua, frowning, and quickly reminded him to step back.
"...Oh!"
When Gu Ziyi heard Bai Lu, he realized his situation. Tang Yuehua was still in his arms, and his right hand seemed to have landed in an inappropriate place, though she had her back to Bai Lu, so she couldn't see everything.
As he let go of Tang Yuehua, Gu Ziyi couldn't help but squeeze her by reflex.
He only realized what he had done after the fact but immediately pretended it was nothing and spoke to Tang Yuehua in a concerned tone. "Tang Yuehua, are you okay? Did you get hurt anywhere?"
At that moment, he had to act like it wasn't intentional. Divert attention.
It wasn't pretending; it really was an accident.
But he couldn't forget—the sensation was really nice.
"I... I'm fine, thank you…"
Tang Yuehua, now released from Gu Ziyi's arms, blushed and expressed her gratitude.
She quietly lifted her head, still blushing, and looked at Gu Ziyi. Seeing his genuinely concerned expression, she secretly thought that the hand incident might not have been intentional and was simply an accident.
"You're welcome. I couldn't just stand by and let you get hurt!"
Gu Ziyi smiled, feeling relieved.
"…"
Tang Yuehua's heart began to race at his words. Was she overthinking things?
"Pfft!"
"As long as I'm here, no one will hurt my cousin!"
"Actually, I let you hug my cousin just now. You really got to enjoy the situation!"
Bai Lu, still unsatisfied with Gu Ziyi's embrace of her cousin, immediately commented to interrupt their conversation.
"Oh, cousin, please don't bring that up..."
However, after Bai Lu's comment, Tang Yuehua became even more embarrassed and asked her to stop mentioning it.
"Thank you for your help, Bai Lu. Cousin, let's go!"
After thanking Bai Lu, Tang Yuehua quickly pulled her away from the scene.
If she stayed in front of Gu Ziyi any longer, she'd only feel more embarrassed, and her heart kept racing just from being near him.
However, the image of Gu Ziyi protecting her without hesitation still lingered in her mind—along with the memory of his strong arms.
And, of course, the sensation on her butt.
"Hehe..."
Watching Tang Yuehua's quick departure, Gu Ziyi reached out, touched his nose, and smiled.
To him, pursuing Ah Yin or Bibi Dong was far from realistic. But Tang Yuehua was right there, so it would be a waste not to seize the opportunity.
However, despite his intent to pursue Tang Yuehua, he couldn't spend all his time on this endeavor.
For Gu Ziyi, self-improvement was far more important, whether in cultivation, combat, or knowledge.
Flirting with Tang Yuehua was just his way of testing the waters.
Tang Yuehua was still young, so he wasn't in a hurry to take things further.
When he was at Liusha Academy, it was difficult for Gu Ziyi to gather information, but now at Tianbao Academy, he was finding it much easier to access crucial knowledge.
There was a lot of material in the academy's library that he had never encountered before.
For example, meditation techniques practiced by Soul Masters.
There were records in the library that, besides the common meditation techniques, each major sect actually had its own more advanced meditation techniques that were much faster than the widely distributed common methods.
Common meditation involves absorbing external energy and slowly converting it into Soul Power.
Advanced meditation techniques, on the other hand, still absorb external energy through meditation, but rather than waiting passively for the energy to transform into Soul Power—a slow process—they use the Soul Power already in the body to wrap the external energy, following a specific path to accelerate the transformation.
"It's really nothing too complicated. It's just like my Heart-Cleansing Curse Talisman, which also speeds up the process of energy digestion and helps Martial Soul cultivation reach saturation faster than common meditation techniques!"
"In short, less time is spent cultivating Soul Power, and more time is freed up to cultivate other areas!"
"In the original story, Yu Xiaogang managed to research a relatively advanced method for controlling Soul Power. Yu Xiaogang was very proud of his achievement, but he didn't want to be secretly criticized by Tang San, who already had the inner skills and mental techniques from his previous life!"
(T/N: Hey guys, I'm not sure about this line. I don't quite remember this part of the story. I think the correct line would be, "Tang San, so as not to embarrass Yu Xiaogang, who at the time was very proud of his achievement, hid the fact that he already had inner skills and methods from his previous life and accepted his teacher's inferior method." What do you think? Does it make sense? Or is the original correct?)
"Tsk, tsk, I only see schemes..."
"I used to be amazed by the Douluo Continent, which took tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years to develop into its current society, yet couldn't develop inner techniques and mental methods better than those of Tang San's martial arts world, which hadn't been developing for long—only a few thousand years for its society. It turns out that Soul Masters on Douluo Continent don't care much about this!"
"Having advanced meditation techniques would just help them complete their Soul Power cultivation earlier in the day, so they didn't see much need to research it!"
Complaints aside, Gu Ziyi thought that if Yu Xiaogang could create a set of advanced meditation techniques by himself, then he could also tweak something simple for himself.
Naturally, it's dangerous to experiment recklessly with one's body.
Gu Ziyi didn't fully understand human meridians or acupuncture points.
But he felt that as long as he followed a logical approach, he could execute it in a way that felt comfortable to practice.
Like common meditation, it feels quite comfortable at the start.
Surely, this isn't something dangerous to test.
He might not be able to develop real inner force and mental techniques, but creating a meditation technique a little more advanced than common ones shouldn't be a problem.
"You're crazy!"
Gu Ziyi accidentally revealed to Tang Yuehua and Bai Lu his intent to research an advanced meditation technique for himself.
Once Tang Yuehua found out, she immediately became anxious and quickly tried to talk Gu Ziyi out of messing with his own body.
"No, cultivation allows us to continuously evolve, which means evolving in a good direction.
You're talking about meddling with things you don't fully understand!"
"As long as I follow this principle, nothing wrong will happen to me!"
Gu Ziyi said confidently.
"How could it be that simple..." Although what he said made sense, Tang Yuehua still felt that he was playing with something dangerous.
Seeing that Gu Ziyi seemed unwilling to give up, Tang Yuehua opened her mouth and immediately wanted to say something.
She naturally possessed an advanced meditation skill.
Not only did she have her own advanced meditation technique, but she also had some advanced meditation techniques from other sects that her father had obtained to see if they would help resolve his own inability to practice cultivation.
However, none of them managed to help her!
For the sake of her friend, Tang Yuehua didn't want Gu Ziyi to act recklessly, so she thought about teaching him one of the advanced techniques she possessed.
She understood the pain of wanting to practice but being unable to.
"Cousin, since he's so confident, let him try for himself!"
However, before Tang Yuehua could say anything, Bai Lu spoke up and stopped her impulsive action.
"Gu Ziyi, you can try if you want, but remember to stop immediately if you feel anything wrong while cultivating. This kind of thing is still very dangerous to attempt alone!"
However, after stopping Tang Yuehua, Bai Lu still expressed some concern to Gu Ziyi about this reckless practice.
"...Of course, I won't put my life at risk!"
Gu Ziyi smiled and readily agreed.
In his heart, he secretly thought it was a shame that this long-legged girl, Bai Lu, was getting in the way of Tang Yuehua!
In the following days, Gu Ziyi spent some time studying advanced meditation techniques every day in the library.
Tang Yuehua and Bai Lu were worried and curious about his attitude, so they asked about the progress of his research every few days.
Then, Tang Yuehua would also participate in Gu Ziyi's experimentation. Occasionally, she suggested whether it would be better for him to change the circulation direction and directly recommended a direction for him to try moving his Soul Power.
Thus, you could often see Gu Ziyi and Tang Yuehua discussing over a painting of the human body filled with lines in the library.
As it was not possible to teach him advanced meditation techniques directly, she could only give him some suggestions and ideas.
After Bai Lu found out about this, she didn't stop her because she realized that Tang Yuehua was only suggesting something occasionally and hadn't presented anything concrete or complete in the big picture.
Moreover, not all suggestions were adopted by Gu Ziyi. After testing many of the suggestions, he stated that they weren't working well and directly gave up.
Later, Tang Yuehua didn't dare to continue making more suggestions.
She and Bai Lu had a feeling that Gu Ziyi would really develop an advanced meditation technique.
Tang Yuehua and Bai Lu couldn't help but feel anxious about his results.
…
(End of chapter)
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