Chương 46: Black Spear

To Jianyi's surprise, Minghao was nowhere to be seen after he concluded his meditation. Instead, it was Elder Sun who greeted him again. The cultivator had started doing some of his correspondence in the courtyard. Exerting pressure on Jianyi was no strain for him, so he was free to do other things. On one occasion, he even went through a bunch of cards, converting them into essence, after Jianyi had helped him move some of the equipment to the courtyard.

"It is not the most efficient way of working, but I must say I do enjoy spending so much time in the sun. The last time I did that was on the frontlines." For a moment, the mood threatened to turn dour, but the elder shook himself and smiled at Jianyi.

"Tomorrow I have to go to the city, so you can spend all day training with Minghao, so I thought I would take over your spear training for today. What do you think?" Jianyi's eyes almost fell out of his head, so surprised was he. The elder had never trained with him before.

"That would be a great honor, teacher." The elder chuckled.

"We will see whether you still think so once we are done." The man who might have been patriarch of the Fivefold Spear Sect produced a spear from one of his storage rings. It was a beautiful specimen. A haft of dark wood that looked as sturdy as granite, with thin, curved carvings that were filled with silver and a long, serrated spear tip from a metal that was as dark as the haft.

"Incredible!" Jianyi uttered before he could stop himself. The elder only smiled.

"What I want to do with you today is simple. I will perform a form or kata, and you will tell me three things that I did right, and three things that I did wrong." Jianyi grimaced. He had gotten to know the elder quite a bit over the last almost four months, and he knew how unpretentious he was; still, telling a sect elder what they had done wrong seemed like overreach.

"Jianyi, nobody is perfect. We can all learn; pointing that out to someone in good faith is not an insult, but you are doing them a favor, a favor that can save their life. So never hesitate." He winked at him.

"Also, I might make it a bit easier for you to catch my mistakes…" With that, the elder stepped into the training ring and performed the first form. Hours later, Jianyi lay in bed and reflected on the day. Even though he hadn't done much, except for the obligatory spar at the end with Minghao, he felt like he had learned a lot. Seeing, really seeing, a true master with the spear move at a slow pace had opened his eyes to how much he had still to learn.

It put the progress he had made so far with the spear in perspective. What he had thought was good was in reality just an approximation, a shadow of what a form could be if executed the way Elder Sun did. But instead of being downcast and disappointed with himself, he was excited about the opportunity to learn and filled with gratitude towards the teachers who spent so much time helping him improve.

Over breakfast, Minghao grinned at him.

"You are going to love me so much at the end of the day. I am sure of it. Well, I am sure you will feel very strong emotions tonight; maybe it is not going to be love, though." Jianyi just took another bite of his food, not letting himself get provoked ahead of time. For some reason, Minghao insisted on bringing a bucket of water with him to the courtyard as they headed out of the kitchen to begin their day.

"In the morning, we are going to do something very simple, something we haven't done in a while, so I thought it would be good to get back to it. Circling Sky." That was the kata that encompassed all five forms of the Fivefold Spear Art. Jianyi now realized how far he was from perfection, but there were moments, rare moments, where he got into an effortless flow where movement followed movement, and form followed form, in a never-ending circle. He smiled, nodded, and got into position.

As there was no opponent, he used his father's spear, starting in the Rooted Stance, slowly moving into Piercing Fang, then Flowing Current… Pain. He stopped, looking around at what had happened.

"I did not tell you to stop. Move!" Minghao yelled at him. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Jianyi got back into position, but the brief glance had been enough to see his teacher holding a wet cloth that he apparently had used as a whip to hit him. He was so surprised that he wasn't even angry. Despite his confusion, he resumed the kata. This time, he only got to Piercing Fang before he felt the sharp pain on his shoulder again.

He briefly hesitated but then continued. Again, the cloth hit. And again. It was almost impossible to get into any kind of rhythm—he gritted his teeth and carried on. Two hours later, Minghao called an end to the session. Jianyi was bruised all over, and every movement hurt. He didn't know how to feel. That had been really tough. But he did have to admit that towards the end, his focus was much improved, and his ability to flow through the motions despite adversity had grown by leaps and bounds.

Minghao shook his head as he looked at him.

"Students can take this exercise in two ways. Some take it as a test of will. Others take it as an opportunity to learn about spatial awareness. I shouldn't have been surprised that you took it as the former, but two hours? Maybe next time, try to dodge a couple of times?" Jianyi looked at his teacher with an open mouth. It had never even occurred to him that he could have dodged. What really made him angry, though, was that the lack of spatial awareness was something that he had paid a price for two times already.

He had sworn to himself to be better. But today he had failed again. He sighed. There was so much to learn. So much to improve. At least it reinforced the value of these lessons. The rest of the day was spent on extensive stretching, catching up on some of the work that hadn't been done around the house in previous days, and an extended session of qi control training. Despite all the work and pain, Jianyi still felt somehow refreshed at the end of the day.

He hadn't noticed it, but working on his soul and will day after day had been incredibly draining. After a day of other pursuits, he felt energized to resume the training the next morning once Elder Sun was back.

Two letters arrived at the compound that day. The first was from Shuhua with another set of notes from the various classes Jianyi had missed. She also added some commentary on the group spear training, explaining how they had continued the practice of individual movements under the tutelage of Miyao. In a good-natured gossip section, she relayed that apparently Jun was trying to impress one of the servants who had gone around the dormitories trying to make friends, as she called it.

Jianyi smiled as he put the letter away. He would have to respond to her in the evening. His smile froze as he saw who had sent the second letter. Lu Shan had apparently decided that Jianyi's absence was due to his trying to escape from their next duel. Nothing could be further from the truth, but it did bring Jianyi's fears back that he was falling behind compared to his fellow disciples. He did make progress with the spear.

He truly felt that the intense and diverse exercises that Elder Sun and Minghao were having him do helped him improve in leaps and bounds; however, everything else had stalled. While the youths in his classes probably just took a pill to unlock their dantian, he had stalled out on the lengthy technique to open them. Despite the notes from Shuhua and the others, missing out on those lectures felt bad, too.

He had hoped that he could, if not beat Lu Shan, at least make a much better showing at the second duel—that seemed unrealistic, now. His adversary had given him a date for the next duel. He had two weeks to complete the Veil of the Immutable Will technique and get ready for the fight—he didn't want to imagine what would happen to his standing in the sect if he had to decline the duel because he was still stuck in the compound. Accelerating his progress with the Veil was the only way forward.

Hovering above his spirit lake, he worked on making the twenty-four spears around him into the impenetrable defense that he needed them to become, just like in the two previous days. It had been hard to regain the feeling from the first session in which he had been able to form the ring of spears. The good news, though, was that he could form the spears now much faster. It took him barely half an hour to do so—incomparable to the hours it had taken just to form a single one earlier. Mentally, he took a step back.

What had he been doing? He had tried to imbue the spears, formed from his soul mist, with his will to make them into a fortress. That was exactly what the Veil of the Immutable Will Art asked him to do. Why had he managed to complete the first step relatively quickly—faster than Elder Sun had expected—but now he was stuck, with no discernible improvements? Visualization. It was much easier to build the defense if he could see it than just trying to make it happen. Why not apply this again, then?

Elder Sun's spear came to mind with its dark wood and metal; it looked menacing and unbreakable—nothing would move past that spear. With a deep exhale, he willed the circle of spears around him to take on these properties. This was his realm; nobody was allowed to enter it, not even perceive it. The realm around him seemed to shudder as the ring of spears turned from a thunder-cloud-gray to a deep granite black. The eyes above him, that had haunted him for the last week, vanished.

He was so surprised that he lost control of his emotions and concentration, and the whole construct destabilized. But he grinned nonetheless and emerged from his meditation. Elder Sun stood before him, smiling.

"You did it, Jianyi. Very well done. Even if just for a moment, you vanished from my soul senses. I can tell that once you have stabilized the technique and made it permanent, it will serve you well."

"Thank you, teacher! I really appreciate how much time you spent on this." The elder chuckled and stroked his chin.

"You are very fast, my young friend. Remind me to never tell you how long it took me to learn this very same technique. My teacher got quite frustrated with me," he winked as he left the courtyard. Jianyi was not done, though. Minghao had him do the exercise of hitting a wooden plate with his spear again. The difference being that he didn't have to use a blindfold, but in exchange, Minghao tied a rope around one of Jianyi's arms or legs and pulled at random moments.

It was deeply frustrating, but made it even more rewarding whenever he did manage to hit his target. The workday concluded as always with a spar. He felt that Minghao had increased the speed quite a bit since they had begun the training week, but he could still keep track of the man's movements.