Chương 38: Duel

Jianyi faced Lu Shan, who stood relaxed on the other side of the sparring ring, the audience of disciples murmuring in the background. He had come up with his strategy for the duel over the course of the day. His biggest weakness was endurance, still. Therefore, it would not be in his interest to draw this fight out needlessly. His biggest asset might be being underestimated by Shan. So his hopes rested on a quick surprise strike at the beginning of the duel.

It wasn't innovative, but it wasn't like he had any hidden aces that he could pull out of his sleeve. Shan's spear tip moved in a perpetual eight in front of his body, still held only with one hand.

"Begin!" Fangyin yelled from the sidelines. Despite his desire to end the fight quickly, there was no reason to just storm towards his opponent. Instead, he took a few measured steps forward and to the side.

"I will be satisfied with nothing but your complete and utter humiliation," Shan spoke loudly and formally, his awkward address clearly more to the audience than Jianyi himself. The boy had now taken a comfortable, rooted stance, sliding across the earthen ground to keep Jianyi at a distance. If Shan underestimated him, he probably wouldn't hold Jianyi capable of anything but Piercing Fang—so that's what he gave him.

With a relatively slow step forward, he went through Rise, Advance, Close, Retreat, in no way challenging his adversary, but, as expected, also not eliciting a counter. Lu Shan did not want to end this fight in a single exchange.

"Your weakness is a disgrace to the sect; I regret that I cannot purge you from the ranks permanently." The performative nonsense that Lu Shan uttered didn't even register with Jianyi; he was busy with the execution of his strategy—and in this moment, that meant going for another Piercing Fang, equally badly performed as the last one. This time Shan did react and moved from Unyielding Wall into Flowing Current, both gracefully executed, if not with the full force that Jianyi expected Shan to be capable of.

It was, however, the chance he had hoped for. He deflected the horizontal Flowing Current upwards and turned it into a Blazing Arc, a descending diagonal strike, with the help of Rise, Advance, Turn, and Sink, putting all his strength behind it. For the briefest of moments, Lu Shan seemed surprised and hesitated, but years of training paid off, and with a swift motion, he stepped back and interposed his spear between his shoulder and the incoming attack.

Unfortunately, Lu Shan had the strength to hold firm on the block. Jianyi's attack had failed. But no reason to give up. He had come close; no reason he couldn't do it again. Shan squinted, and his movements changed, became tighter, more controlled. He truly was a great spearman. Every form flowed flawlessly into the next—there was no hesitation. For better or for worse, Jianyi had made the boy take this fight seriously—and with every second that followed, the pressure on Jianyi increased.

Attack after attack followed. None fully followed through, but each one required Jianyi to stay attentive, block, dodge, or, occasionally, counterattack. With the mounting pressure, Jianyi found his arms getting heavier, his breath becoming quicker. He got tired. Then, it was Shan's moment to apply Blazing Arc, and all Jianyi could do to escape was leap back, but he wasn't fast enough, and the attack landed on his biceps.

At the last moment, Shan had twisted his spear so that the attack didn't land with the blunted edge, but the side of the tip. From the boy's small grin, he could see that this was no act of kindness but Shan making sure that no blood would be drawn, that the fight would continue. The pain was manageable, though the bruise weakened him. He could feel the fear of defeat bubbling up, but he clenched down on it ruthlessly, his strong will helping.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. A few moments later, another Blazing Arc—again, he was too slow. It landed on the other arm; no blood was drawn. The noise from the audience got so loud that it briefly penetrated Jianyi's focus as he struggled to keep the spear steady. Lu Shan's posture changed back again to the more relaxed form he had at the beginning of the fight. He knew he had won. Jianyi tried to take deep breaths to gather his strength.

He had one more attack in him; he just needed the right moment. He tried to stay back, gather his strength—and Shan let him. He would make him pay for the arrogance. One moment. Two. There, he sensed his opportunity. The simplest answers were sometimes the best. A few feints, then Piercing Fang. Time to move. Lu Shan inhaled exaggeratedly. What was happening?

Two translucent cards appeared before the boy, who fended off one of Jianyi's feints, while willing one of the cards to move forward and vanish in a burst of qi. Cards. Lu Shan had access to his cards. The audience shouted excitedly. Jianyi stumbled. In shock? No, the ground below him had turned into cold, sucking mud. He fell to the ground, sinking a hand span into the sticky mix of earth and water. It had never occurred to him that this was not a spear spar, but a duel in which techniques were allowed.

It had never even occurred to him that Lu Shan might have techniques available in the first place. Shan, looking down on him, his spear directed at his throat menacingly, underlined how far behind Jianyi was.

"Say it."

"I yield," Jianyi said. As much as it galled him, no reason not to acknowledge reality. He had lost.

He settled down in the lecture hall for the first of the two sessions on their place in the sect. Shuhua waved and sat down next to him.

"I heard Cai Fangyin ask Elder Fang to intervene and stop Ruolan from only letting you run in circles." Jianyi raised an eyebrow. That was a level of support he did not expect from anybody, certainly not an inner disciple. Maybe she felt sorry for him after the duel.

"The elder declined, saying that his priority was only group Jade."

"Thank you for letting me know. I appreciate it. The running is not a problem."

"But how can you grow stronger if you don't exercise with the spear?" He shook his head.

"Even if I were at the peak of my vigor, an intense running exercise can only help."

"What keeps you from your peak vigor, as you call it?" She looked at him curiously, then hesitated.

"Please excuse me for prying; you don't have to answer!" Jianyi shrugged.

"I failed an attempt to open my lung meridian, which has been a severe physical setback, but it is getting better every day." He elected not to mention that his neck meridian had been damaged as well. No need to cause even more of a fuss by revealing he wasn't using the Imperial Gate Opening Technique.

"Oh, I am so sorry. Do your group leaders know? I am sure they would excuse you from the running if they did!" Shuhua looked genuinely distraught.

"The elder knows; not sure about his disciples. But it doesn't matter. I am sure I will get to 200 laps soon enough. I am sorry for my fellow disciples, but it is not like the training is detrimental to them." He had convinced himself of that—maybe it was just a coping mechanism for the shame, but he did believe that physical vigor could make the difference in a fight, and, while maybe boring and exhausting, it was almost as beneficial as another couple of days of basic movements.

The conversation with Shuhua came to an end as Elder Wang entered the room. Jianyi frowned slightly as he hadn't expected the head of Administration from the inner sect to give lectures to disciples of the outer sect.

"Good morning. My name is Elder Wang Xing Yu. The Elder for the Administration of the outer sect is in closed-door cultivation, so I am filling in for him." That solved that mystery.

"Today we will talk about the structure of the sect and where you fit into it." The elder was surprisingly good at engagingly explaining things, not something Jianyi would have necessarily expected from somebody leading the administration. But maybe the emphasis should rather be on 'elder' than 'administration', after all, this was first and foremost a martial sect.

Elder Wang talked about how decisions were made in the sect: the patriarch with support from the council of elders, the three levels of disciples, core, inner, and outer, and the various departments within the sect, such as administration, library, alchemy, and others. The disciples in the room perked up when she talked about contribution points, the core currency in the sect, and merit points. It turned out that contribution points gained in a month were added to the merit points on a twenty-five-to-one basis.

So if he continued to work in the kitchen plus the points he got from Elder Sun, he would gain 6 merit points per month. He didn't know what number of points one needed to get for the best rewards, but it seemed significant compared to the ten points that members of the Jade group had received upfront. This led to a lot more interest in the Work Assignment hall, the primary place to find jobs and assignments that would yield contribution points.

They also learned that rewards would be provided mid-year, after the six-month assessment, and the main awards, at the end of the year, after the year-end tournament. There were many ways to gain merit, but it seemed that the calendar of the Fivefold Spear Sect still revolved very much around the progress one made with the spear. Overall, it was an informative but not revolutionary session for Jianyi, who had already spent three months in the sect.

168. Four more laps than the previous session. Too slow, but better. A few more of the disciples in Lapis had stayed around after having finished their own run, some supportive, but one spoke loudly enough for Jianyi to hear about somebody so weak holding them all up. Another agreed, citing the duel as yet more proof that Jianyi wasn't suited for group Lapis. Ruolan hadn't said anything; the other inner disciple had called the run to an end. Elder Fang had looked on.