The Test

The matter of the Blood Erosion Powder caused no small stir in the Luo Shen Residence.

Luo Ping was taken into custody and brought before the Luo God Clan's disciplinary hall. Three days later, word came from the hall that he had confessed everything.

The Blood God Clan had bought him off three years ago. He had run up a huge gambling debt at the time, and they had paid it off for him. From then on, he had become a nail the Blood God Clan had planted in the Luo Shen Residence. Over those three years, during several clashes between the Luo God Clan and the Blood God Clan, much information from within the clan had passed through his hands into those of the Blood God Clan.

This time, the Blood God Clan had sent him word that the kid from the Lower Plane had ruined something important for them, and told him to find a way to destroy the kid's reputation in the Luo God Clan. That was when he had thought of the five bottles of Fire Pattern Pills.

Luo Feng was stripped of his position as an elder and confined to his residence for three years. The disciplinary hall thoroughly searched his courtyard from top to bottom, uncovering two more servants who had been secretly colluding with the Blood God Clan.

For a time, everyone in the Luo Shen Residence feared for themselves. But those who had still harbored doubts about Xiao Yan could no longer utter a single word against him after this affair. If someone who could uncover a spy from a single pill with a wisp of Soul Power truly wanted to harm the Luo God Clan, why would he go to such lengths?

Luo Chuan's injuries healed extremely quickly with the second batch of pills. Every day, people saw him holding onto the walls of the infirmary as he practiced walking, one step at a time. In just seven days, he was already able to get out of bed and walk, and his left arm, which had turned a dark purple, gradually regained its color. The other four injured people also expelled the Blood Fiend Qi from their bodies, one after another, thanks to the pills Xiao Yan had refined anew.

With that, all fourteen Luo God Clan members who had been struck by the Blood Fiend Palm over the past half year had fully recovered.

During those days, Xiao Yan finally made good on the promise he had made at the grilled meat stall.

Every morning, Luo Lan appeared in his courtyard on time, settling into a horse stance and gritting his teeth as he learned the deflecting technique for redirecting force and how to unleash power with Eight Extremes Collapse. At first, the kid could not hold the stance for even half an incense stick's time before he started complaining bitterly, and Xiao Yan would kick him back into position to start over. Gradually, he managed one incense stick's time, then two, then half an hour...

One day, Luo Lan punched the bluestone in the courtyard that he used for practice, and three fine cracks actually appeared on it. The kid stared blankly for a long while, then leaped up and ran around the courtyard, howling that he had finally mastered it. Xiao Yan poured a bucket of cold water over him with a single remark: "Only three?" Crestfallen, he went back to holding his horse stance.

A Heng also visited a few times. After her grandfather recovered, Luo Tianshen arranged for him to live in a small courtyard in the Luo Shen Residence's outer compound, with Luo Su looking after him. Every few days, A Heng would come with a bamboo basket on her back to bring Xiao Yan some freshly gathered herbs.

Xiao Yan took those opportunities to teach her to sense heaven and earth and draw Qi into her body. The girl from the mountains studied with great seriousness, and her comprehension was surprisingly good. In less than a month, she had already touched the threshold of the Sensing Realm. Her inborn affinity with plants gave her a talent for identifying medicinal properties that even Luo Su marveled at.

Watching how earnestly she worked, Xiao Yan vaguely began to entertain an idea, but he had not yet voiced it.

One evening, Xiao Yan came out of the pill room and had just reached the path through the bamboo grove when he saw a gray figure standing beside a bluestone by the roadside, hands clasped behind his back. He seemed to be waiting for Xiao Yan.

"Senior." Xiao Yan stopped and bowed.

Luo Tianshen turned and glanced at him. No emotion could be read in those cloudy old eyes. "Come with me."

With that, he turned and walked deeper into the bamboo grove. Xiao Yan was briefly taken aback, then followed.

The two walked one behind the other, neither speaking. Bamboo leaves rustled beneath their feet, and the evening light filtered through the bamboo tops, casting mottled light and shadow across the path. They passed through the grove, followed the lakeshore more than halfway around, and crossed a stone bridge over the lake, finally arriving before a stone platform built on a small island at its center.

The platform was not large, only a few dozen zhang across. It was paved entirely with a kind of dark stone that glimmered faintly green. A ring of ancient-looking Spirit Marks was carved around its edge, giving off a soft glow in the dusk.

"This is where I practiced my punches when I was young." Luo Tianshen stepped onto the platform and turned to look at Xiao Yan. "Come up."

Xiao Yan followed him onto the platform, beginning to understand. Sure enough, Luo Tianshen stood with his hands behind his back and said calmly, "During your days with the Luo God Clan, I've watched you refine pills and control fire. I saw you cripple Blood Butcher at Sunset Glow Slope and uncover the spy in the infirmary. I've seen quite a lot. But I haven't yet tested you with my own hands to see exactly what you're made of."

Xiao Yan was silent for a moment, then cupped his fists. "Please instruct me, Senior."

"Make your move," Luo Tianshen said calmly. "There's no need to hold back. With that little bit of cultivation, you can't hurt me."

Hearing this, Xiao Yan held nothing back. He nodded and took a deep breath. Guided by the two layers of reverse scales, the twenty percent of Spiritual Energy in his body slowly began to circulate. Pale golden flames rose from both palms, a faint trace of pink within them making them especially conspicuous in the dusk.

He used neither the Heavy Xuan Ruler nor the few old pills left in his Storage Ring. Against someone like Luo Tianshen, any flashy moves were superfluous. What he wanted to test was just how far he could go in this world as he was now.

Xiao Yan stepped forward, his figure suddenly turning into a streak of pale golden fire. In an instant, he charged in front of Luo Tianshen and slammed out a punch, flames surging over his right fist. Luo Tianshen stood motionless. Only when the fist was three inches from his chest did he slowly raise one finger.

Bang.

A single withered finger tapped lightly against Xiao Yan's fist. At that instant, Xiao Yan felt as though his punch had struck a towering mountain. All its force, all its flames, were forcibly stopped and sent back by that one finger. A rebounding force swept back up his arm, making the whole limb go numb and sending him sliding back three involuntary steps.

The rebounding force was not overbearing; it could even be called gentle. Yet it came with perfect precision, neither too much nor too little, returning the full force of his punch to him unchanged.

Xiao Yan steadied himself and shook his numb arm. There was not a trace of dejection in his eyes; instead, a glimmer lit up in them. He had long known he could not be Luo Tianshen's match. What he wanted to see was not victory or defeat, but the gap between them, and that single finger had let him see it clearly.

"Again."

With a low shout, he shot forward once more. This time, his movement changed. His feet traced a strange pattern, his figure darting left and right, forward and back, leaving trail after trail of pale golden afterimages across the stone platform. It was Three Thousand Lightning Movement, the movement technique he had learned on the Dou Qi Continent. Fueled by Spiritual Energy in this world, it was unexpectedly even more nimble than before.

Countless afterimages lunged at Luo Tianshen from every direction at once, pale golden flames burning on every fist and palm.

Luo Tianshen's cloudy old eyes brightened slightly, but he still did not move. He merely traced a circle in front of him with that withered finger. As he completed the circle, the air on the stone platform instantly froze. The countless onrushing afterimages stalled for an instant, as if they had struck an invisible wall. In that instant, Luo Tianshen pointed at one of them.

Bang.

That afterimage was Xiao Yan himself. The finger landed on his shoulder, sending him flying backward. He rolled several times across the platform before finally steadying himself on one knee. He raised his head, a thread of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes were brighter than ever. "Senior, that circle... was it a Spirit Mark?"

Luo Tianshen looked at him, and a faint trace of surprise finally appeared on that face, which had remained as undisturbed as an ancient well. "You could tell?"

"A little." Xiao Yan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and stood up. "When you drew that circle, it was as if someone had gripped the Spiritual Energy around us. My afterimages were sustained by the flow of Spiritual Energy through the air. Once it stopped, the afterimages naturally dispersed, leaving only my real body."

Luo Tianshen was silent for a moment, an unusual glimmer slowly appearing in his old eyes. "That move is called Spirit Immobilization. It is a secret the Luo God Clan does not pass on to outsiders. Of the clan's juniors struck by that finger, nine out of ten would only think my cultivation was too high. The remaining one could only tell there was something strange about that circle. You are the first to see the principle behind it at a glance."

Xiao Yan chuckled and said no more, simply taking his stance once again. His shoulder still ached faintly, and the blood at the corner of his mouth had not dried. Yet in his eyes burned something Luo Tianshen had not seen in a young person's eyes for many years. He had seen plenty of young people who refused to admit defeat, but this was a hunger-an almost greedy hunger for this world and the things he did not yet understand.

Luo Tianshen watched him for a long while. At last, a smile slowly appeared on his aged face, and he raised his hand.

"Again."