Chương 28: Lake

Jianyi plunged into the lake of freezing water that was his spirit. Quickly, darkness surrounded him, but he could see the light above him as he dove deeper with powerful strokes of his nonexistent body. Deeper and deeper. Darker and darker. Maybe he should be feeling uncomfortable. Pressured. But that was not the case. He felt at home. Was the lake endless? He didn't know, but he continued. How much time went by? He didn't know, but he continued. Finally. A mound of granite covered the bottom of the lake.

It looked indestructible at first. At second glance, Jianyi could spot some thin cracks. He willed his spear into existence and rammed it into one of the cracks. Despite being inside the lake, he felt the wind above pushing against his soul with increased strength. He thrust his spear again against the same point. A few shards of granite splintered off the large rock and dissolved into the water. He thrust again and again and again. The progress was slow, but a tiny hole formed under his pressure.

He did not relent, and finally, as he felt the soul mist above under increasing threat, his spear pushed through, and, with a deep thrum, a thin but radiant ray of blue light shot out of the granite block and infused the water above it. Jianyi felt stress and fears that he had not been aware of melt under his resolve to do what it took to succeed in the test. He looked up and pushed himself from the bottom of the lake.

The granite below him was huge, and it would take a lot of work, likely years, to grind it down, but today he had made the first step. He shot out of the lake and faced strong winds that had thinned his soul at the direction it was coming from. Jianyi reached out and wove his will through the mist—through his soul—and shoved. He remembered how hard it had been during the trial, and it was still far from easy, but he had made progress. The mist responded to his wishes and consolidated.

He pulled it close to him and then, slowly, formed it into a blade-like structure with its thin point angled into the wind, making the gusts blow by him toothlessly. Stronger and stronger did the wind get, but Jianyi consolidated the mist further and further, perfected the form and the wind, even as it strengthened to storm gusts, could not penetrate his defense. From one moment to another, the wind stopped, he opened his eyes—and sat in the chair of the challenge.

Five rods, gleaming brightly in blue light, surrounded him.

Jianyi smiled. He felt very good about the last challenge. Not just that the result had likely been good, but also that he had made tangible progress in one of the tasks given to him by Elder Sun and important to his personal development. He smiled to himself as he followed the disciples and his group to the fifth and final challenge. This time, they ended up at a small, separate field. In the center, a large area was cordoned off with large canvases that made it impossible to see what was happening inside.

"Elder Gao told you at the beginning that one of the challenges would test your ability to handle complexity. This is 'Searching for Dao'," Guangming looked at them seriously.

"It has been a long day, but my advice to you would be to tap into your reserves and give it your all." Jun and Hong sat close by him again. This time, it was the usually more silent of the two that opened the conversation.

"Did you achieve what you wanted to today?" Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Jianyi scratched his chin.

"Worse than I had hoped for, but I think I am fine with how things went so far." He had not asked the two questions of his own, but felt that it was only polite, given that they might not see each other again after the next challenge.

"How about you?" Hong nodded.

"Surprisingly good so far, but this one could be tough." He nodded to a fellow candidate who left the canvassed off area with a stricken look on her face.

"I still think we would be better off with the fighters," Jun added, grinning, "but it was a fun day today, right?" Jianyi surprised himself by nodding and smiling back. He wouldn't necessarily say it was fun—there was too much pain involved—but it had been interesting and quite a different experience from the last weeks of focused training and cultivation. He nodded his head to the cousins as he got up to enter the challenge area. It was his turn.

The first thing he noted was that he didn't hear anything from the outside area the moment he stepped beyond the canvas. The second thing was that he needed to take a few steps upward onto a raised platform. Stone plates formed a square in the middle of the otherwise wooden platform. A quick count revealed there to be eight times eight of the plates. He looked to the right, where a disciple stood behind a plinth with a metal covering that seemed to be connected to the platform via bronze engravings.

A disciple stood by the entrance and directed Jianyi to stand on the wooden frame of the platform, in front of the stone plates.

"Do you know the name of the challenge?" Jianyi thought for a second.

"Searching for Dao." The disciple did not react.

"Every step you take, you need to call out the number of your step and the reason for it. You have sixty seconds." Jianyi looked at the man with wide eyes. That was not a sufficient explanation! The moment the disciple had stepped behind a desk and an incredibly loud gong sounded right behind Jianyi, which made him jump, and the first two rows of the stone plates turned around. The first row had one of the Wuxing symbols on each of the plates and three that were empty.

The second row had two Water symbols, two Fire, and two Metal. What was that supposed to mean? But wait. The symbols on the second row were not equal. One of the water symbols was larger than the other. The same was true for the two other affinities. A gong rang again. Could it already be fifteen seconds? He looked back at the first row. There, that made sense: "One. Wood…" He jumped on the Wood symbol and then immediately to the larger Fire on the second row.

"Two. … feeds Fire." He ducked as a flame lance flashed by him. The third row turned, showing two each of Water, Metal, and Earth, again with a large and a small version.

"Three. … creates Earth," he said as he jumped to the large yellow dune. With a bang, all the stone plates behind and beside him dropped away into a seemingly endless abyss, and the fourth row turned around. Fire, Metal, Water.

"Four.,,," A gong interrupted him, his heart beat accelerated.

"Four. … bears Metal."

"… enr. Five! … enriches Water." He had almost forgotten to call out his jump, and he felt sweat running down his body as blades flew by him, then an ice bolt. The sixth row held all the Wuxing symbols again, plus a square, a circle, and a triangle. Should he just start again with wood? The seconds ticked down. He remembered a question that Elder Sun had asked him, 'What is the fundamental characteristic of Wuxing?' Jianyi jumped to the circle.

"Six. Wuxing is balance!" Wind buffeted him as another gong rang. The seventh row turned and showed two stars, two scales, two lightning bolts, and two empty plates. Seconds left. He jumped to the scales.

"Seven. Wuxing enforces Heavens' law." Lightning flickered above him. The last row. A gate and a simple line. He jumped.

"Eight. Finding Dao." He looked at the plate below his feet as darkness surrounded him, and only the line on his plate glowed in silvery light. A gong and he was back on the platform, breathless from the stress, and the disciple waved him over to the desk for record keeping.

Jing and Guangming led them back to the field where everything had started and to the area below the sign for group three. Tables and benches had been set up, and plates of food waited for them. Jing raised her voice to be heard by all sixty candidates.

"Please eat, it's been a long day." She pointed towards a tent close to the Gazebo where the patriarch and Elder Gao had talked to them.

"A group of elders will now review the results of the day and make the final decisions on who will be in which group, the one headed to the outer sect or to the one focused on body cultivation. Usually, this should not take more than an hour. Rest now." Jianyi was quite hungry and happy for the opportunity to rest before the outcome of the test would be announced. He was skeptical about his chances of entering the outer sect.

Of course, he didn't know how the elders would rate and weigh the different challenges, but it was a fact that he had outright failed one of the physical tests and achieved a middling result in the other. If they wanted strong fighters, and he had no doubt that they did, he would have big marks against him.

"Look, I don't want there to be bad karma between us." He was pulled out of his thoughts and surprised to see Lu Shan sitting across from him, seemingly calm.

"I have observed you. You are weak. You'll go to the battalion and die there soon, so I want to be clear: we are even, you have hit me, I have hit you, there is no karmic balance between us." Jianyi was speechless. The formerly blustering, raging boy was now calmly declaring his imminent death. Before he could even begin to form a reply, he heard a clatter to the left of him and saw the girl who had been attacked by Lu Shan having dropped her chopsticks, squinting at the boy, her lips pressed into a thin line.

She opened her mouth but then closed it and instead got up. Jianyi was briefly worried she would attack Shan, but instead she resolutely marched in the direction of the tent where the elders congregated. Despite his father's death, reincarnation and karma had never played a big role for Jianyi. But he did know that it was very important to some.

"It is not for me to assess your karmic debt; the Heavens record it." With that, he turned away from Lu Shan and instead focused on his food. A few minutes later, an inner sect disciple approached Jing and Guangming with haste. Both looked at him, and Guangming waved him over. Jianyi sighed. It seemed that his attempt to remain inconspicuous had failed again.

"The elders would like to see you. Please follow the disciple." They made their way over, and the disciple held the flap open. Jianyi righted his robe and stepped inside.