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3.5 - Duels, Talents, Techniques
🕑 Added 2024-04-23 22:00:01 +0000 UTCHe Yu exploded into motion. Wind and heaven howled along his weapon, and surged over his body. With the Sky Dragon’s Flight, he surged across the space separating him from Mo Zhiqiang. Forming the Rushing Wind, he fell upon his opponent.
To Mo Zhiqiang’s credit, he not only stood firm but also advanced on He Yu. The tip of the spear blurred with some wind-aspected art, and He Yu could feel a dampness like he was walking through clouds. Their weapons met with a metallic clash, and He Yu quickly gained the upper hand.
With an upward sweep trailing wind and heaven, He Yu knocked Mo Zhiqiang’s spear away. With a burst of speed fueled by the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering that sent flashes of heaven flickering across his robes, he reversed his grip and slammed the metal cap of his guandao into Mo Zhiqiang’s chest. As his opponent stumbled back, He Yu frowned.
“I had expected more from the way you talked,” he said. A murmur passed through the assortment of gathered inner sect disciples, accompanied by more than a few stifled chuckles.
“You’re using some trick,” Mo Zhiqiang said, still somehow managing to sound haughty. “Senior Sister Zhang must have given you some talisman, or perhaps an elixir that allows you to fight beyond your ability.”
“I—what?” He was having a hard time processing what he’d just heard. “You don’t know Master Zhang at all, do you?”
“I know her reputation is that of a cheat who doesn’t deserve her spot as a core disciple.”
Water qi rushed towards Mo Zhiqiang, drawn from the surrounding mists of the Shrouded Peaks. He advanced in a way that was almost familiar to He Yu after weeks of trying—and failing—to land a hit on Zhang Lifen.
A flash of insight from the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment allowed him to gauge Mo Zhiqiang’s attack, and He Yu stepped in with another heavy strike from his guandao. Mo Zhiqiang shifted, and without even realizing what he’d done, He Yu redirected his attack to match.
A bloody gash appeared across Mo Zhiqiang’s robe, and He Yu could smell the edges of the wound seared by the traces of lightning in his technique. Mo Zhiqiang stumbled back, an expression of affronted shock spreading across his features. Out of the corner of his eye, He Yu noticed several of the gathered disciples begin to break away from the crowd and trail off. Apparently, they weren’t getting the spectacle they’d expected.
He Yu followed up with another strike. This time, Mo Zhiqiang raised his spear across his body to defend himself. He Yu poured qi into his body enforcement art and smashed through his opponent’s defense. The spear clattered to the ground several feet away. He slammed the shaft of his guandao into Mo Zhiqiang’s face. Cartilage crunched, and blood gushed from the noble’s nose as he staggered backward, then fell.
“I yield,” Mo Zhiqiang said, his voice muffled by the hand he was using to try and stanch the bleeding from his broken nose.
Li Heng appeared by He Yu’s side. “Take his spear, it’s easily worth more than anything else he’s likely to have on him.”
He Yu looked over at the spear. It was a nice weapon—well made, etched with reinforcing formations, and decorated with expertly crafted ornamentation. He wasn’t certain though. The idea of simply taking it didn’t sit well with him. It never had. Because Mo Zhiqiang had started the fight completely unprovoked, he could justify taking some spirit stones and maybe an elixir or two from him, but the idea of taking what was obviously a very expensive weapon felt almost like it was going too far.
Mo Zhiqiang spat out a mouthful of blood onto the flagstones. “Bandit. I’ll make you regret humiliating me like this. I swear it upon my family’s honor.”
“What? You were the one who started this,” He Yu said. “Did you just expect me to lay down and let you beat me?”
Although Mo Zhiqiang said nothing in response, the glare he returned was answer enough.
“Empty your storage treasure,” He Yu said as he picked up Mo Zhiqiang’s spear and sent it to his own storage treasure along with his guandao.
“If you take him for all he’s worth, he’ll be too busy recovering from the loss to bother you again any time soon,” Li Heng said.
Although he still didn’t like it, He Yu had to admit that he saw the point. Maybe if he made the defeat sufficiently painful, Mo Zhiqiang would leave him alone after this.
In the end, he took several dozen spirit stones, including a handful of mid-grade ones. He also took a couple of elixirs that he couldn’t immediately identify, and a number of restorative medicines. There were a few other miscellaneous odds and ends in the storage treasure as well, but they were mostly the sort of mundane creature comforts that he’d seen Zhang Lifen pull out from time to time. He let Mo Zhiqiang keep them.
“I won’t forget this,” Mo Zhiqiang called after He Yu as he turned to leave.
He Yu paused and turned halfway to where the other disciple still glared up at him. “That was sort of the point,” he said. “You started this, and I ended it. As far as I’m concerned we’re done. Hopefully, you’ll leave me in peace now that you’ve realized your mistake.”
Once they’d made it to the other side of the plaza, Li Heng said, “Better than before, but it could use some work.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He hadn’t meant to snap at Li Heng, but he was still annoyed by Mo Zhiqiang first starting a fight, and then acting as though He Yu was the one in the wrong when he had the audacity to win.
“Make an example of him. Did you see all those people watching? I wouldn’t say you’re an easy target after that display, but you certainly didn’t do anything to make yourself look like a hard one.”
“What do you mean by ‘that display?’ I beat him, didn’t I?”
“You did,” Li Heng said. “But we both know you’re capable of far more than that. Where was the sort of show you put on against Princess Tan?”
“I mean, if he’d warranted anything like that,” He Yu said, letting the rest of his thoughts on the matter remain unspoken. He didn’t like it, but his gut told him Li Heng wasn’t wrong.
“Well, if I were a neutral observer, I’d have come away from that knowing that you have an over-developed presence for your advancement. That speaks to strongly aspected qi of high potency and density. That means you’re clearly someone of respectable talent, at least. That’s good and will keep some of the disciples who are less confident in their own ability away. You didn’t give any indication that you’d formed a Wayborn Seed though, which could be good or bad. At least you’ve got it in your back pocket should someone with any actual ability challenge you.”
“Respectable talent?” He Yu asked. That seemed like it was going a bit too far.
Li Heng stopped and then turned to face him fully. After a moment, he shook his head. “You truly haven’t realized it. From barely awakened to middle Body Refining in under a year? Remember that I told you I started cultivating at fifteen? I’m a year older than you, and I was only middle Foundation when I joined the sect.”
“Yeah, but you said you stayed at the peak of Qi Gathering for some time, didn’t you?”
“I did, but only about a year. And it was the same little excursion into the wilds that pushed both of us to late Foundation, I’ll remind you.”
“I mean, fair,” He Yu said. “I still don’t think I’d call myself talented or anything.”
“You do realize that out of everyone Princess Tan fought in the tournament, you were the only one who lasted more than a few minutes against her? Not to mention that you actually gave her a hard time. If you’d been at late Body Refining, I’d have given you even odds on actually beating her.”
Now it was He Yu’s turn to search Li Heng’s features. Eventually, he realized that Li Heng had meant it. “No way,” he said and began down the path once again. “She’s far too strong. I’m just amazed I put up as much of a fight as I did.”
“That’s my point,” Li Heng said, falling in beside him once more. “The fact that you stood your ground speaks volumes about you.”
Now that he thought about it like that, He Yu saw his point. The conversation turned towards Li Heng’s potential targets, something that He Yu was grateful for. The main purpose for these first few duels was mostly just to test the waters. He wanted to get a feel for the relative strength of the inner sect disciples before issuing any formal challenges for rank.
Although Zhang Lifen had told him that rank was important in the inner sect, He Yu wasn’t particularly set on climbing just yet. His main concern for the immediate future was breaking into late Body Refining and then reaching the peak. The most important thing that he’d manage to gather about the path to forming his Golden Core was that he needed to align himself with his Way more fully.
Specifically, he needed to do that by searching the beliefs that drove him. Based on what Zhang Lifen had told him earlier that day, he had an answer but was wanting of a question. He needed to turn the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment towards that task. Although he’d had some initial difficulty, he’d since learned that it was indeed a potent cultivation technique. It both provided him with insights and helped him understand the fullness of their meaning. If there was anything that would aid his way forward, it would be relying on the art that had come to form the foundation of his Way.
At length, Li Heng found someone he thought was a good target. He Yu didn’t know the other disciple’s rank, but that hardly mattered. As the duel progressed, it quickly became clear that Li Heng outmatched his opponent and was more interested in putting on a show than scoring an easy victory. As other inner sect disciples trickled in to watch, He Yu took a seat well away from the crowd.
Under the boughs of a red mountain pine, He Yu pulled out the jade slip containing the Cloud Emperor’s Heavenly Palace from his storage treasure. With a trickle of qi, he activated the manual and sought the knowledge of the Spring Rain Mirror.
Zhang Lifen had chastised him for not practicing it. She had told him it was foundational to the art, much like the Peerless Judgment and the Sky Dragon’s Flight. She had also mentioned that she had specifically consulted Elder Cai about his training. If she insisted he begin cultivating the Spring Rain Mirror on the advice of Elder Cai, he’d be a fool not to listen.
If only he could make sense of the technique. So far, it was the most difficult and complicated technique that the art had to offer. It didn’t help that it was a water aspected technique. Water was the least developed aspect of his presence. Although Elder Cai had said He Yu had a natural affinity for it, he hadn’t ever really thought to seek out arts or techniques in those early days that made use of the aspect. It had lagged behind as a consequence. Now it was wildly out of balance with the other aspects that made up his presence.
Well, he’d managed to cultivate the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment, hadn’t he? That had been tremendously difficult when he’d first started. So had the Sky Dragon’s Flight, especially those first embarrassing attempts that had sent him crashing into pillars and people both. Really, this was just more of the same when it came to the techniques of the Heavenly Palace art.
There was nothing to do but grit his teeth and push through the difficulty.
