Chương 42: Chapter 27 – Balance

Jianyi was lost in thought as the flap to the tent moved and Elder Gao entered, followed by the disciple who had manned the desk earlier. The elder squinted at him briefly before turning to the disciple.

"Now what?"

"I am sorry, elder, but I didn't know how to record the candidate's reading."

"Have you forgotten how to count?" was the acerbic reply by the ancient-looking elder. Guangming, the disciple overseeing their group during the trial, motioned for Jianyi to place his hand back on the card that was part of the testing construct. Again, the gems lit up until they reached eight, and then the ninth started to blink slowly. The elder stepped forward, glancing at him, then the gems.

"Interesting." She remained silent for an uncomfortably long time, then turned to him again.

"Have you taken a pill to increase your talent?" Jianyi was quick to shake his head, then stopped himself, thinking of the Ancestral Pathway Preservation Pill from Elder Chen. Could this have been a side-effect? He wasn't sure. He bowed.

"Honored Elder Gao, I cannot say for certain."

"What? Are you in the habit of eating pills without knowing what they do?"

"No, elder, but I took a pill to heal my meridians; it is possible that the pill had the side effect."

"No simple meridian repair pill would have that effect. Where did you get that pill?"

"Elder Chen gave it to me." The elder looked at him incredulously.

"Elder Chen? Of the Fivefold Spear Sect? Gave it to you?"

"Yes, honored elder." The elder tapped her hand with a finger rapidly.

"Why would she do such a thing?"

"I understood it as an act of kindness, honored elder." The elder blew an imagined strand of hair out of her face.

"Irrelevant." She turned to the disciple who had sat back down behind the desk.

"Record it as a nine." She was about to leave when she turned back.

"Do the second reading." Jianyi was intensely uncomfortable with the attention he received and briefly looked to Guangming, who nodded towards the second plate. He placed his hand on the integrated card and again felt a slight current flowing from the card up his arm and through his spirit. Gem after gem started to glow, this time in a light blue, and there was no pause between the gems until ten of them lit up the tent. The disciple behind the desk sputtered.

"Something is clearly wrong. How can he have ten open when his potential is nine?" The elder sized up Jianyi, ignoring the disciple.

"You needed healing after having tried to break through to ten despite a lack of talent." It wasn't really a question, but Jianyi still felt obliged to answer.

"Elder Gao, it was indeed after the attempt to break through to ten." In Jianyi's mind, the damage and the lack of talent were not really related, but it seemed like an appropriate reply that was not too far from the truth. The elder tapped her finger again against her hand.

"Very well. The potential is not a hard barrier. It can be surpassed with the right will." She turned again to the disciple and directed him to record the reading accordingly and left the tent. Both of the disciples heaved a sigh of relief, and Guangming nodded to Jianyi to collect his medallion and exit the tent. As Jianyi emerged from the tent, every single boy and girl of group three looked at him—some of them curiously, some impatiently, a few maliciously.

"Have you failed again?" came a loud question. Jianyi did not have to check who had said that. He preferred not to gain attention, but enough was enough.

"I would rather fail every challenge and serve on the frontlines than be a dishonorable thief and loudmouth." Before things could escalate further, the overseeing disciple clapped her hands and motioned for his opponent to enter the tent. Jianyi used the opportunity to sit back down between the cousins. Jun looked at him curiously.

"Are you alright?" Jianyi nodded but did not elaborate further. He had to assume that he had succeeded in this challenge. Ten opened meridians should pass any threshold the sect had set, given all that Elder Sun had talked about in the past. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. A few minutes later, the condescending youth strutted out of the tent as if he were already an elder of the sect, a grin plastered on his face.

Jianyi ignored him and instead tried to meditate while the sixty or so young men and women entered the tent one after another. In total, two hours had passed until the challenge was complete. Jianyi made good use of the time to recover further.

They stood in another section of the field. Twenty wooden plinths, knee-high, stood before them; two stone spheres rested on each one. A dozen outer disciples stood in the area, with two sitting behind a desk that held several thin incense sticks arrayed in a line and a bronze bell. It was Pan Jing who introduced the challenge again.

"This challenge is called 'Wuxing's Embrace. You are to balance on one leg while holding the stones with outstretched arms at shoulder height. At ten minutes, the challenge will stop. Every fifteen seconds, the bell will toll. If you drop or you are deemed to have failed, you will proceed to the desk, and your time will be recorded. Proceed." Jianyi did not have time to appreciate the cleverness of the challenge's name. Wuxing was all about balance after all. He was weary.

For one, this was another test of his endurance, second, ten minutes sounded surprisingly… doable. Maybe not in his current state, but if he had been at his peak, this would have been simple. Too simple. Jing randomly selected twenty candidates; Jianyi was among them. As he made his way to one of the plinths and picked up the stone spheres, he noticed that they had fine metal engravings—his suspicion rose. Jing started to count down from three, and he took a deep breath.

He settled into a position close to Stillness, with his left foot raised in the air. The stone spheres were surprisingly light as he raised his arms. The first gong sounded across the field. He focused on his breathing and tried to ignore all that went on around him. For what seemed like a moment, he lost track of time; he did not know how many gongs he had missed, but he did notice his arms growing heavier. Quickly. His breath started to shake; his lung still weakened from the earlier challenge.

Despite his attempt to focus solely on himself, he did notice a few candidates dropping from their plinths. Somehow, it felt as if the left sphere got heavier than the right, and he needed to adjust his balance. Then it switched. He started to sway, feeling sweat running down his back. His arms started to drop, but with a force of will, he raised them, despite the spheres getting heavier again. The gongs of the bell were his whole world. Gong. His arms shook. Gong. His legs vibrated. Gong. Pain. Nothing.

This time, no untapped source of strength helped him. Instead, a hand patted his leg. He lost concentration and stumbled off the plinth, barely managing to prevent falling on his face. A disciple stood beside him.

"Your arms dropped too low at the 34 th toll. Please report to the desk." 34 tolls. That meant he had lasted for eight and a half minutes. Was that good enough? Not many others were still on plinths around him. Jianyi was sure that the stone spheres held formations that messed with the user, making them heavier and unbalanced. Still, he thought he could have lasted to the end if he had been at his best. He let go of the speculation and moved to the desk.

The incense sticks were marking the time, and every fifteen seconds, one of the disciples rang the bell. The other took his medallion and recorded the time. While Jianyi tried to meditate as much as possible, he did learn that the dishonorable boy's name was Lu Shan, apparently from some minor noble house in the province. He did indeed manage to stay on the plinth for the full ten minutes and celebrated accordingly. Jun and Hong, the cousins, stayed in his vicinity and both performed well.

They didn't manage to last the full ten minutes, but close to it. After just over 30 minutes, the challenge was over. As far as he could tell, he had been better than the average, but it still bothered him that he had stayed below his own potential due to his current weakness, and it didn't feel like a performance that would help overcome his earlier failure.

"This challenge is called 'Cultivator's Resolve', it will test your will." It was Guangming's turn to introduce the challenge. Jianyi scratched his head and wondered what that meant for him. He hoped that he could solve the challenge without having to rely on something he clearly couldn't control yet. He was amongst the last in line for this challenge and took some time to observe the others as they entered and left the large tent.

Few of the people exiting the tent seemed confident; even Lu Shan did not brag aggressively about his performance. When it was his turn, he stepped inside and found another construct in its center. This time it was a chair with two grips at the end of the armrests. The chair was surrounded by a metal frame that was shaped like a five-pointed star, and at the end of each of the points were small rods pointing towards the ceiling. To the side stood the ubiquitous desk with a disciple behind it.

She pointed towards the chair.

"Sit down and hold the grips. You will enter a soul space. The content is unique to the individual, but in essence, you need to exert your will. The better you do, the more of the rods will glow when you are done. Good luck." Jianyi nodded in thanks, did as he was told, and sat down. As he opened his eyes, he was in a familiar environment. This was similar to the space in which he had completed the trial.

The calm lake below him, his spirit, and the dense gray soul mist surrounding him—just the sky looked like a bright summer day, instead of reflecting Dao, Heavens, and Wuxing. With the added knowledge he had, he could now appreciate the denseness of the mist around him as an indicator of the size and strength of his soul. As he looked beyond his direct environment, he saw, or felt rather, wind blowing in his direction. He intuitively knew that that was his challenge.

He would have to corral his soul mist with his will to form a barrier against ever stronger gusts of wind; if he failed, the mist around him would be blown away, and he would have to exit the soul space. He felt confident in his ability to do so; after all, he had managed during the trial. Glancing down at the lake below him, Jianyi had an idea. Of course, the soul space was just a figment of his imagination, enabled by a formation, but maybe it was an opportunity.

So far, he had failed to make progress on unlocking his seemingly powerful will, which was tied to his spirit. The lake. He looked up at the slightly increasing gusts of wind. The mist around him was robust; he had a moment. The only thing stopping him was his performance during the test so far. He could not afford to fail another challenge. There was a risk. He had been punished for taking some. But on his path to achieving his goals, that seemed inevitable. One final look at the mist around him.

He took a deep breath and plunged into the lake below.