In the rear courtyard of the book pavilion, Fang Qianyuan and Ding Long were sparring.
"Take this!"
Ding Long leaped high and brought a knife-hand strike down at Fang Qianyuan. Quick of eye and hand, Fang Qianyuan instantly shifted behind him, using Shadow Step's explosive speed to close in from the rear.
Ding Long felt a fierce gust rush toward him and was startled, but his combat experience served him well. He rolled forward on the spot, narrowly avoiding Fang Qianyuan's grabbing strike.
"Hey, hey, enough, enough! Junior Brother Fang, you're improving at a terrifying speed. I can barely hold my own against you anymore!" Drenched in sweat, Ding Long waved his hands repeatedly.
"Senior Brother Ding, you're tired too. Let's take a break first," Fang Qianyuan said with a smile.
"Come on, Ding Long, you're being pathetic. No matter how gifted Junior Brother Fang is, there's no way he could beat you already. If you want to slack off, just say so. But the selection is right around the corner, and Elder Gong told us all to spar and practice together more. How can you still act like this?" A voice came from outside the courtyard gate. Wei Wu had arrived.
Wei Wen and Ning Yuerong followed him into the courtyard.
They had been practicing diligently lately to prepare for the upcoming Training Institute selection, hoping to secure better rankings and rewards.
At those words, however, Ding Long's face darkened. "Easy for you to say. Try it yourself and you'll see!" he snapped.
"Forget it. I can't be bothered to argue with you," Wei Wu said. "Junior Brother Fang, shall we exchange a few moves?"
Fang Qianyuan needed plenty of practice, so he readily agreed. "All right. Senior Brother Wei, please."
Before long, Wei Wu retreated to one side, clutching his hand with a look of shock.
"How is this possible? Junior Brother Fang, you can already fight us to this extent? I wasn't using my full strength, but you forced me back so easily. You might actually be stronger than us now!"
"Now you know how formidable he is, don't you? Just a few days ago, Junior Brother Fang still couldn't beat me!" Ding Long said.
"Well..." Wei Wu looked at Fang Qianyuan, his expression suddenly filled with mixed emotions.
"Junior Brother Fang did win this bout. But you used Shadow Step repeatedly to attack and dodge. Don't you get tired?" Ning Yuerong asked curiously.
"I've fully mastered the rhythm of regulating my breathing," Fang Qianyuan said. "As long as I don't use it repeatedly in quick succession, I can recover rapidly. So it doesn't actually consume as much energy as it might appear to."
"That makes sense. In the end, Shadow Step is only a movement technique. Someone who's mastered it completely will find it much easier to use," Ning Yuerong said thoughtfully. "And you have a gift when it comes to physique, much like people born with prodigious strength. It really is enviable!"
"You're still underestimating Junior Brother Fang. His strength isn't just a matter of exceptional talent. He's already begun using that talent in combination with high-grade spirit creatures and inscribed talismans to build his own combat system. His fighting is more methodical too, unlike Ding Long and Wei Wu, who are still flailing about at random," Wei Wen remarked from the side.
"Brother, how can you say I'm flailing about at random?" Wei Wu protested.
"You still insist you aren't?" Wei Wen asked with a smile. "You're only at the level of an ordinary martial artist who's learned a few unarmed moves. Have you ever thought about how to combine spirit creatures or strengthen your combat arts? Junior Brother Fang is different. Though he's only just started, the spirit creatures and inscribed talismans he uses all suit his circumstances and bring his advantages fully into play. And from the Gray Wolf he first trained with, to the Blue-Eyed Gray Wolf, to his current Gale Berserker Wolf, they've all been spirit creatures of the same wolf family. He hasn't wasted much time adjusting all over again, so he mastered them quickly. Think about what you used to do, wavering between choices and training some Thunder Eagle on a whim. You wasted more than half a year without anything to show for it. All that money spent buying the spirit creature went down the drain!"
"Well..." Wei Wu's protests died at once, and he had nothing left to say.
After lecturing his younger brother, Wei Wen asked curiously, "Junior Brother Fang, why do I keep getting the feeling that you're still keeping a few tricks up your sleeve? You didn't use Raging Wind Slash in those bouts. Have you developed moves around it?"
As expected of a disciple who had spent years in advanced training, he had spotted the crucial point at a glance.
"I am indeed studying moves built around it," Fang Qianyuan said. "And once Raging Wind Slash is unleashed, it's difficult to control. I was also afraid of injuring my two senior brothers."
Ding Long and Wei Wu both looked rather embarrassed.
Fortunately, Fang Qianyuan continued, "But we're only sparring right now. If we really competed in the arena, both senior brothers could use your best combat arts too. I might be injured and defeated before I even had a chance to unleash Raging Wind Slash."
"I know you're being modest, but hearing that finally makes me feel a little better," Ding Long said, letting out a long breath.
Everyone laughed, but they knew in their hearts that Fang Qianyuan was no longer the person he had once been.
If he entered the Training Institute selection in this form, he would surely leave people stunned!
They went on to discuss everyone else's preparations, and Wei Wen suddenly raised another point. "Actually, sparring like this isn't all that effective."
"Why not?" Fang Qianyuan asked.
"Because although it seems to give us experience fighting opponents, it's vastly different from real combat, let alone a life-and-death struggle," Wei Wen said. "We'd be better off killing more demons in the Demon Suppression Cavern."
"There's nothing we can do about that," Ding Long said. "We can't go around injuring or killing people just for a martial tournament, can we? Besides, demons are different from people."
"No..." Wei Wen said. "Spirit Tamers with the means really do injure, or even kill, opponents who are fellow Spirit Tamers just to gain actual combat experience!"
Ding Long stared in astonishment. "What?"
"Senior Brother Wei is telling the truth," Ning Yuerong said. "I've heard my family talk about it. Some aristocratic clan scions and geniuses from powerful families use people as sparring partners. Never mind injuring them-even killing them isn't unusual. Experts trained this way have an edge to their presence that ordinary disciples lack. When they fight, even if their cultivation is similar, they're on completely different levels!"
Everyone fell silent at her words.
"But Junior Brother Fang is a genius. Insights that take other people many fights to gain, he gets after just one. Things other people have to experience personally to understand, he can grasp by drawing connections. Surely that counts?" Ding Long said, sounding somewhat unconvinced.
Though he seemed to be arguing with Fang Qianyuan as his example, he was really speaking of himself, unwilling to settle for mediocrity.
Ning Yuerong understood what he meant and dealt him a merciless blow. "How many geniuses from humble backgrounds like that can there be? Besides, having better cultivation conditions doesn't mean the children of aristocratic clans and powerful families are mediocre. On the contrary, there's no shortage of geniuses among them-and hardworking geniuses at that!"
"It looks like those people will be our greatest opponents. There's a limit to how strong ordinary disciples can be. At worst, the odds are fifty-fifty, but against people like that, we'll have very little chance of winning," Wei Wen concluded. "The higher rankings in martial tournaments have always been dominated by aristocratic clans and powerful families. Very, very few competitors come from humble backgrounds, and even among those, more than half only rose to prominence after showing their talent, attracting an aristocratic clan's attention, and being taken in and nurtured."