Twin Wings Take Shape

When Long Tian returned to Bluestone Town, Zhao Xiaopang was sweeping fallen leaves in the courtyard.

Autumn had arrived, and the ginkgo tree had turned yellow. Whenever the wind blew, the ground was strewn with flecks of gold. Zhao Xiaopang swung his broom, gathering the leaves into piles as he hummed an unfamiliar tune. Catching sight of Long Tian entering through the side gate out of the corner of his eye, he dropped the broom with a clatter and rushed over.

"Did you do it? Did you?! Let me see!" Zhao Xiaopang circled Long Tian three times, his eyes glued to the ground beneath his feet. With a thought, Long Tian summoned two black-and-white Soul Rings in succession. They revolved slowly, one above the other, their colors more vivid than when he had left. A fine, chaotic sheen flowed through their intermingling colors.

Zhao Xiaopang reached out to touch them, but Long Tian slapped his hand away. "You can't touch a Soul Ring. It'll hurt you."

"Oh, right." Zhao Xiaopang pulled his hand back, his eyes still sparkling. "What's your new Soul Skill? Hurry up and try it!"

"I haven't tried it myself yet." Long Tian rubbed his hands and headed for the training ground. Zhao Xiaopang trotted along behind him, shouting at the top of his lungs from a distance, "Everyone, clear out! Long Tian's going to try his new Soul Skill!"

Several younger students wandering around the courtyard gathered curiously. A boy from Class A climbed up to watch from atop the wall, and even Mr. Wang's window on the second floor of the lecture hall opened a crack without a sound.

Long Tian stepped into the center of the training ground, closed his eyes, and regulated his breathing. In his dantian, both Soul Rings began to glow faintly at once. He poured Soul Power into the Second Soul Ring-and black-and-white light surged from it, climbing along his arms to his shoulder blades. A fierce heat and a sharp chill struck his back at the same time, and golden light and dark mist burst forth!

A pair of translucent wings unfurled from either side of his shoulder blades. The left wing was as black as night, its edges traced with fine dark-purple patterns of light, as though woven from solidified shadows. The right wing shone gold like the sun, warm golden light flowing between its feather-shaped outlines. Each wing stretched more than a zhang wide. Gold and black reflected off each other, shimmering brilliantly in the afternoon sun, while scattered spots of light fell across the bluestone ground like stars shattered into fragments.

The watching children all sucked in a breath. The Class A boy atop the wall nearly fell off, clinging to the edge with his eyes wide.

Long Tian tried flapping his wings. With a beat of the left wing, he glided a zhang to the left, as light as a leaf carried by the wind. With a beat of the right, a warm gust swept out, wrapped in golden light, and lifted the hair from Zhao Xiaopang's forehead. He tried beating both wings at once-the golden and black currents met behind him, and he shot upward nearly two zhang like an arrow loosed from a bow!

But he came down after only two breaths, stumbling a step before finding his balance. His Soul Power was not yet sufficient to keep both wings working at once for long. He could stay aloft briefly, but he would probably have to wait until his Soul Power rose a few more levels before he could truly fly for any length of time.

Zhao Xiaopang was dumbstruck. His mouth hung open, his jaw nearly dropping to his chest. It took him a long while to force out a sentence. "You... you grew wings?!"

Long Tian withdrew his wings, and the light at his shoulder blades faded, leaving them as they had been. He rolled his shoulders, feeling a lingering warmth and coolness intertwined there, as though he had soaked in hot water and then been drenched by a cool spring. It was an indescribably soothing feeling. He grinned at Zhao Xiaopang. "Second Soul Skill, Yin-Yang Twin Wings. Right now I can only glide and accelerate for short periods. With more practice, I should be able to fly longer."

Zhao Xiaopang grabbed his arm. "Teach me, teach me how to grow wings!"

"Get your Martial Soul awakened first."

Zhao Xiaopang wilted, but perked up again at once. As he went to pick up the broom he had dropped, he kept muttering, "I want wings too, I want wings too."

In the days that followed, Long Tian devoted much of his effort to refining his Second Soul Skill. Yin-Yang Twin Wings not only gave him mobility, but could also be used for both offense and defense-the golden light from the right wing could be turned into wing blades and fired at enemies, while the left wing's shadows could be condensed into a shield to protect him. He even tried using his First Soul Skill while gliding, only to wobble into the top of the wall and land flat on the ground, where Zhao Xiaopang laughed at him for a good while.

But after half a month of practice, he could fly low over the training ground for more than ten breaths at a time while accurately firing light projectiles at the iron targets below. Zhao Xiaopang held up a straw dummy for him to use as a target, always hunching his shoulders and shouting, "Don't hit me, don't hit me!" The dummy's head was blasted apart by light projectiles three times, and Zhao Xiaopang replaced it with a new one each time.

As autumn deepened, Mr. Wang arranged a formal combat test for Long Tian. His opponent was an exchange student sent by the junior academy in the neighboring town, a fourteen-year-old boy named He Chong. His Martial Soul was the Earth-Splitting Bear, and he had two rings and level-fifteen Soul Power. He was two years older than Long Tian, his Soul Power was two levels higher, and his physique was in another weight class altogether.

The arena was set up at Bluestone Academy. Mr. Wang and a teacher from the other academy sat on a raised platform to watch. Zhao Xiaopang, Chen Hao, Han Xu and a few others squeezed into the front row below the arena, craning their necks.

He Chong was as stocky as a little mountain of flesh, his arms thicker than Long Tian's thighs. When he activated his Earth-Splitting Bear Martial Soul, a protective layer of earth-yellow Soul Power enveloped his entire body, giving him an imposing presence. He stomped down with his First Soul Skill, Earthquake, making the arena's stone slabs tremble like drumheads. Long Tian lost his footing and nearly fell. He hurriedly activated Yin-Yang Twin Wings and beat his left wing, floating into the air to evade the lingering shockwaves.

He Chong looked up and punched into the air. The wind from his fist, wrapped in earth-yellow Soul Power, hurtled at Long Tian like a flying stone. With a flash of golden light from his right wing, Long Tian dodged it. Hovering in midair, he activated his First Soul Skill, firing three golden light projectiles in succession at the back of He Chong's head, his waist, and the hollow behind his knee from different angles. Each projectile changed course midway, making their trajectories fiendishly tricky.

He Chong reacted quickly too. His Second Soul Skill, Earth Wall, raised four translucent earth-yellow shields around him. The three light projectiles struck with loud bangs but only blasted a few cracks into them. He was just about to counterattack when a sudden chill touched his feet-Shadow Stealth had circled close around the soles of his feet at some unknown point, and now snapped tight!

He Chong's ankles went numb, throwing him off balance. He smashed both fists into the ground to steady himself, but failed to regain his footing completely. The instant he bent over, Long Tian beat both wings and drew them in, diving down from the air. Golden light gathered to its utmost in his right palm, and he struck the crack in the Earth Wall at He Chong's shoulder. The golden light penetrated it, shattering a corner of the Earth Wall. The moment Long Tian landed, dark mist surged around his left palm. He pressed it against the ground, and shadows slithered across the surface beneath He Chong, then shot upward, bursting against his chest in an icy impact.

He Chong staggered back three steps, a thin layer of frost coating the fabric over his chest, his breathing rapid. Once he had steadied himself, he looked at Long Tian and roared in a deep voice, "Again!" He brought his palms together, and earth-yellow Soul Power gathered and swelled between them-his Third Soul Skill!

Below the arena, Mr. Wang's gaze sharpened slightly. He Chong actually had three rings; he simply had not revealed them until now. The earth-yellow Soul Power condensed into a huge sphere of light and hurtled toward Long Tian with a roar, scraping a layer of stone dust from the arena floor in its wake!

Long Tian's pupils contracted. The power of a three-ring Soul Skill far exceeded what he could withstand at present; he could not take it head-on. Both wings burst open, black and golden light exploding into an interwoven curtain behind him as his speed instantly rose to its peak. The instantaneous burst from Yin-Yang Twin Wings sent him shooting diagonally away like a black-and-gold meteor, skimming past the edge of the earth-yellow sphere! The shockwave from the explosion sent him flying several zhang. He flipped twice in the air, landed, and rolled halfway over before managing to brace himself.

His shoulder burned with pain, and his clothes were torn, but he had not been seriously injured. He braced his hands on his knees and stood up, gasping. Looking up, he saw that He Chong was panting too. The full-force three-ring strike had cost him a great deal, and his face was visibly pale.

Not a sound came from the crowd below the arena.

He Chong suddenly grinned and waved a hand at Long Tian. "I'm done. I had a one-ring advantage over a two-ring kid like you, but my last attack missed and left me exhausted. It wouldn't sound good if word got out. You win."

Long Tian stared for a moment, then smiled too. The two clasped their fists to each other on the arena, withdrew their Martial Souls, and stepped down. Zhao Xiaopang rushed over to support him, fussing over the scrape on his shoulder and asking how he felt. Chen Hao stood a few steps away with his arms folded, the faintest trace of a smile tugging at his lips.

Mr. Wang said nothing on the platform, but judging by the fingers slowly relaxing on his knee, he was not as calm as his expression suggested.

That night, Long Tian lay in bed, his shoulder treated with ointment and wrapped in bandages. He turned over and looked out the window. The autumn moon, large and round, hung above the crown of the ginkgo tree, bathing the fallen leaves in the courtyard in silver-white light. He tucked his hands beneath his head and thought back on the day's match-if the burst of speed from his wings had not been fast enough, He Chong's full-force three-ring strike would very likely have seriously injured him. Two rings against three: the gap was still obvious. He still had a long road ahead of him.

But at least the road lay beneath his feet.

He closed his eyes and sank into meditation. The two Soul Rings in his dantian revolved quietly. The patterns on the inner side of the Second Soul Ring had already begun to take shape, fine and faint, slowly growing. He felt them unfurling bit by bit, like tender shoots pushing through spring soil, and his heart was at ease and peaceful.

In another year and a few months, he would be fourteen.

He turned over, arranged the jade pendant and token neatly beside his pillow, and closed his eyes in peace.