Boots
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2.33 - Preparations
🕑 Added 2024-03-05 23:00:01 +0000 UTCSeveral weeks after the failed attempt to plumb the mountain’s depths via the waterfall cave, He Yu stepped through a formation barrier and onto one of the sect’s training fields. Fang Yingjie sat meditating on the far side, wind qi swirling around him as he cultivated. Without looking up, the Inner Sect disciple pressed a fist into his palm in salute.
“You have achieved much, Junior Brother,” Fang Yingjie said, his voice as soft as it was deep. Still, He Yu had no trouble hearing him. “I look forward to seeing you in the inner sect. I would very much like to duel you for rank one day.”
It was an odd way to acknowledge his advancement, but He Yu took it for the sign of respect it was meant to be. “This junior thanks Senior Brother,” he said. “Your instruction has proved most valuable over these past few months.”
“Then show me.” Fang Yingjie rose in a single motion, his guandao falling into his hand. The wind qi that Fang Yingjie had been cultivating swirled around the length of his weapon, coalescing into a crescent-shaped blade that extended from guandao itself by roughly a foot.
He Yu summoned his weapon. It was a considerable upgrade to his previous one and had cost him nearly all the wealth he’d gained from his adventure over the winter. He’d purchased it shortly after exploring beneath the waterfall cave. The weapon likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome against those creatures, but it certainly wouldn’t have hurt.
The collar connecting the blade to the haft was worked into the likeness of a dragon. A formation script meant to enhance the flow of wind qi ran along the length of the haft. Based on his initial tests of the weapon, the script roughly doubled the efficiency of wind-based techniques. A second formation script was etched into the blade itself. He Yu had asked for it based on his increasingly heaven-aligned qi.
While he’d not yet managed to advance his understanding of the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering, it was clear how that art would affect his other techniques. Already the wisps of heaven qi he’d been cultivating with the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment had increased, and his presence was taking on more of a heaven aspect by the day.
The guandao was forged of fourth-grade metal, and as such would serve him well as he advanced to Golden Core. Unlike his previous weapon, this one was of a high enough quality that it would be worth upgrading later. If he wanted to invest a considerable amount of resources into it, the guandao could become quite the treasure someday.
His clash with the inner sect tutor was all the proof he needed that his new weapon had been worth the price. Fang Yingjie met him as an equal, keeping his cultivation suppressed to the low Third Realm. As they sparred, He Yu’s techniques came more easily than before. His understanding of the guandao had grown significantly since his last lessons, and he began to believe that he might actually be able to beat his tutor.
That belief came crashing to the ground when Fang Yingjie exploited an opening that He Yu hadn’t realized he’d given. It was a swift, complex series of moves that saw He Yu’s own weapon knocked to the side before the metal cap on the end of Fang Yingjie’s guandao slammed into his chest. Wind howled, the inner sect disciple swept He Yu’s feet from underneath him, and the next thing he knew he was staring up at a gleaming blade inches from his face.
“Do not allow yourself to grow complacent as soon as your fingers brush against victory,” Fang Yingjie said. “Overconfidence has been the downfall of many promising young cultivators.” Then, he extended a hand to help He Yu back to his feet.
“This one thanks you for your instruction,” he said, saluting the older disciple.
“You have come far, Junior Brother. It seems Senior Sister Zhang’s choice of disciple was wiser than some had thought.”
That gave He Yu pause. “Wiser how?”
Fang Yingjie scowled at He Yu from beneath his conical hat. “I do not concern myself with the rumors that spread among the inner sect. Neither should you.”
He Yu gave a quick bow of apology. He’d grown complacent with how he spoke to those around him. Zhang Lifen had always been lax when it came to protocol, and Li Heng had warmed up to him quickly due to their living situation. It would do well for him to remember that such familiarity wasn’t the norm—especially if he gained a position in the inner sect.
“Do not mistake my words for what they were not, Junior Brother He. While asking after such things is beyond your station, the more important lesson is that you should focus on your cultivation, not the mutterings of fools. Senior Sister Zhang would advise you to do as much herself.”
“Of course,” He Yu said, giving another salute.
At the very least, it was another small insight into his mentor. Ever since the encounter with King Hao, some part of He Yu’s thoughts had been preoccupied with questions surrounding her. Were he truthful, he knew next to nothing about her. She had said that she chose him because she saw potential in him. But what about Sha Xiang?
The way in which Zhang Lifen had brought him into the sect all but ensured he’d have an enemy in Sha Xiang. There was also the fact that she’d all but abandoned him once he’d arrived, occasionally showing up to mostly just make his life difficult.
She’d been present at the bandit camp when they fought King Hao, too. When the bandit leader had been taken over by that presence, Zhang Lifen had acted and then sent He Yu and his companions away. Since then he’d convinced himself that she had known what would happen—that everything He Yu had experienced over the winter was a part of some plan of hers.
At the same time, he’d seen the mask drop on several occasions. There was more to her than the smiling, flippant woman she made herself out to be. It was clear she worked very hard to project a certain image of herself. He Yu didn’t need the judgment of an emperor to see that. All of it taken together made it difficult to pin her down.
“You have my sympathies,” Fang Yingjie said. It seemed that He Yu hadn’t hidden his thoughts as well as he’d hoped. “Come, let us train. It will help clear your mind, and I can show you how to improve your mastery of the Five Crescent Winds.”
Despite his advancement, and his tutor’s self-imposed limits, He Yu never managed to come close to beating Fang Yingjie. There was much that could be said for experience, and Fang Yingjie had a decades-long head start. That experience was something He Yu could learn from, however, and he did learn.
While they fought, Fang Yingjie continued to lecture He Yu not only on the intricacies of the guandao but on the principles that underpinned the Five Crescent Winds. These lectures were more practical than the last time they’d spoken of what it meant to strike like the wind—being more akin to the Elder Wen’s lectures on the theory of cultivation.
By the time they parted ways, He Yu felt as though he was on the cusp of understanding something greater in the art. He would have to meditate on the insights he’d gained that day to truly make use of them, but he had plenty of time for cultivation these days.
The outer sect had settled into an uneasy truce in the past weeks, as more and more of the disciples entered seclusion in preparation for the tournament. Those who had already broken through to Body Refining were almost entirely focused on training and tutoring. Sect jobs were snatched up the moment they were posted, and there were grumblings about the lack of availability for inner sect tutors among those disciples still in the Foundation stage.
Even Sha Xiang—who had created quite the reputation for herself as a duelist and a bully—had more or less left her usual prey alone since entering the Third Realm nearly two weeks ago. Instead, she could frequently be seen around the assignment hall in the company of Cui Bao and Qiao Xia. Apparently, the three of them were responsible for the lion’s share of completed sect jobs.
At the beginning of winter, that would have been a concern. Now? He Yu had spent most of the winter training with a cultivator at the Soul Refining stage. Now that he’d returned to the sect, he and Li Heng were at the same stage and their sparring reflected that.
They couldn’t even spar in the courtyard of their home anymore, instead having to reserve one of the sect’s training fields, lest their practice destroy their living quarters. Yan Shirong frequently joined them, and the resulting free-for-all was as instructive and invigorating as it was fun.
Although the physical training with Ren Huang and the lectures with Elder Wen had come to an end, that didn’t mean He Yu’s days were spent in idleness. The failure to explore the waterfall cave didn’t mean that Tan Xiaoling was any less interested in searching the outer sect mountain for any advantage. She and Chen Fei spent their days roving the slopes of the Shrouded Peaks hunting spirit beasts, and even roaming into the surrounding sect lands. He Yu and the others joined them more often than not.
They all still spent time up at the waterfall as well, just keeping to the area around the lake and leaving the cave alone. As Tan Xiaoling and Yan Shirong had predicted, the horde of insectoid creatures stayed mostly inside the cave depths. The ones that did venture out were significantly easier to handle on the surface. Their cores fetched a good price at the sect market, as the aspects weren’t suitable for He Yu’s cultivation.
Between their continued monopoly on the waterfall, their growing access to beast cores, and the increase to their weekly spirit stone allowance from the sect now that they’d all reached the Third Realm, He Yu felt—for the first time since entering the sect—that there was no immediate pressure from a lack of cultivation resources. As such, he was able to throw himself fully into cultivation and training, pushing ever closer to middle Body Refining by the day.
