Jay's steps were solid and purposeful as he left his friends behind. He was on a hunt for a new philosophy. The month he spent in seclusion had allowed him to reforged his foundation, giving him the power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. But the sparring match against Alex, and the desperate, chaotic battle in the fen, they all left him feeling helpless and taught him a harsh lesson: a shield that only waits for the blow is a shield that will eventually break.
He needed to be more. He needed to be a sword.
He made his way to the inner sect training grounds, a place he had rarely visited before today. The atmosphere here was a world away from the boisterous energy of the outer ring. The air crackled with a higher density of Qi, and the disciples sparring on the white stone platforms moved with a quiet, deadly seriousness. There were no wasted movements, no boastful shouts, there was only the hum of channeled energy and the sharp clang of Qi-infused weapons.
His attention was immediately drawn to a crowd gathered around one of the central platforms. The pressure emanating from it was immense, a clash of two distinct and powerful auras. On one side was a disciple whose body flickered with arcs of white lightning, a blur of motion that seemed to defy the eye. On the other stood a like a bastion, a young man with a broad, steady stance, his hands held open at his sides. He wielded no weapon.
Jay's amber eyes widened. An Earth cultivator.
The lightning disciple was relentless. He zipped across the platform, leaving sizzling afterimages in his wake, launching a barrage of sharp, crackling lightning bolts. The Earth cultivator didn't raise a single wall. Instead, with a subtle stomp of his foot, a segmented, three-paneled shield of polished brown earth erupted from the ground, intercepting one bolt, then shifting and reforming in an instant to block another from a completely different angle. It was a fluid, reactive defense that Jay had never even conceived of.
'He's not just blocking,' Jay muttered to himself, his gaze locked on the fight. 'He's predicting.'
As if hearing his thoughts, a voice spoke from beside him. "He's not just predicting. He's controlling."
Jay turned to see a young man with sharp, intelligent eyes and a calm demeanor. It was Kenji, the Golden Core sword user who had been defeated by Kai Jin's impossible air cannon. He gave Jay a polite nod of acknowledgment.
On the platform, the Earth cultivator's strategy shifted. The lightning user, frustrated by the impenetrable, shifting shields, gathered his energy for a powerful, straight-line charge, his body becoming a living thunderbolt.
The Earth cultivator simply smiled and placed his open palm on the platform floor.
The ground in front of the charging lightning user suddenly turned from solid stone to thick, grasping mud, his incredible speed reduced to a desperate slog. Before the speedster could react, the ground beneath his feet hardened again, but now it was uneven, jagged pillars of rock shooting up at awkward angles, completely disrupting his footing.
"He's not just defending," Jay breathed, his earlier thought now seeming childishly simple. "He's changing the battlefield itself."
"That's Gao the Unmovable for you," Kenji said with a hint of a smile. "He believes the ground his opponent stands on is the most important weapon in any fight."
With his opponent slowed and trapped, Gao's offense was simple and brutal. A massive, five-foot-wide fist of solid stone erupted from the platform directly beneath the lightning user, catching him in a concussive blast that sent him flying from the stage, his lightning shield shattering into a shower of sparks.
The crowd let out a collective gasp, followed by a ripple of applause. Jay just stared, his mind racing, dissecting every move. The fluid defense, the battlefield manipulation, the final, decisive strike. this was the path he had been searching for. This was what it meant to turn a shield into a sword.
"He's incredible," Jay said, unable to hide the raw admiration in his voice. "I need to learn how he does that."
Kenji looked at Jay, a new, curious light in his eyes. "You're an Earth cultivator, then? Newly ascended, by the feel of it. Your foundation is solid, but unstable." He paused, a thoughtful expression on his face. "You were with the boy who sparred with Senior Brother Kai Jin, weren't you?"
Jay blinked, surprised. "Yes. Alex. He's my friend."
"A friend who can take a direct hit from a Nascent Soul expert and heal it with a self-made pill in seconds," Kenji noted, a wry smile touching his lips. "He is... an interesting person. The talk of the inner sect, as you can imagine."
A wave of pride, mixed with a familiar pang of inadequacy, washed over Jay. Alex's reputation was already preceding him.
"Alex walks his own path," Jay said. "And I need to find my own." He turned to Kenji, his gaze direct and full of a humble, burning resolve. "You said you know him. Gao. Is there any chance... you could introduce me?"
Kenji studied Jay for a long moment. He saw not arrogance, but a deep, genuine hunger to improve. And he remembered the solid, unyielding way Jay had stood beside his friend after Kai Jin blasted him off the stage, a quiet pillar of support. Curiosity got the better of him. Anyone who ran with a person like that, Alex kid, had to be interesting in their own right.
"Gao is always looking for strong sparring partners to test his techniques against," Kenji said with a slight shrug. "He can be... particular. But a Foundation Establishment disciple who wants to learn instead of just showing off?" He clapped Jay on the shoulder. "That might be just interesting enough. Come on. I'll introduce you."
Jay's heart hammered in his chest. He gave a deep, grateful bow. "Thank you."
As they walked towards the platform where Gao was helping his defeated opponent to his feet, Jay felt a new, electrifying sense of purpose. He was about to step onto a much larger stage, not as a helpless shield, but as a cultivator determined to forge his very own legend, one piece of solid, unyielding earth at a time.
Kenji led Jay towards the platform. As they approached, the crowd began to disperse, the exciting match now over. On the stage, Gaor was helping the defeated lightning user to his feet, offering a respectful nod and a few quiet words.
He was lean and compact, with a calm, almost serene presence that seemed to absorb the frantic energy of the training grounds. When he turned, Jay saw that his eyes were a deep, patient brown, the color of ancient, settled earth.
"Gao," Kenji called out as they stepped onto the platform. "Good fight. Your control over the battlefield is as sharp as ever."
Gao offered a small, polite smile. "Kenji. A good fight requires two willing participants. Senior Brother Runchu was just helping me test a new sequence." He looked at Jay, his gaze polite but noticeably cold, a hint of dismissal in his eyes.
"This is Junior Brother Jay," Kenji said, gesturing to him. "He was hoping to learn from you. He's an Earth cultivator as well."
Gao's polite smile didn't waver, but the dismissal in his eyes deepened. Another new Foundation Establishment disciple, all fire and ambition, thinking a few lessons from a senior would be a shortcut to power. It was a common and tedious request.
"My path is my own," Gao said, his voice as calm and steady as his stance. "You must find yours, Junior Brother. There is no substitute for personal struggle." It was a polite, but firm, rejection.
Jay's face fell, but before he could offer a defeated apology, Kenji stepped in, a sly glint in his eyes.
"He's also the friend of that newcomer," Kenji added casually. "The one who had a 'friendly spar' with Senior Brother Kai Jin."
Gao's polite mask finally cracked. His eyebrows shot up, and he looked at Jay with a new, genuine interest. "You're with him? The boy who took a direct hit from Kai Jin's Azure Gale Fist and just... walked it off?"
"We're friends," Jay said, a flicker of pride cutting through his disappointment.
Gao was silent for a long moment, his gaze turning analytical. He was no longer looking at a generic junior; he was looking at a piece of an impossible puzzle. Someone who could stand beside an anomaly like that had to be more than he appeared.
"Very well," Gao said, his tone shifting from dismissive to curious. "A lesson, then. Raise your sword, Junior Brother. Show me what kind of foundation you stand on."
A jolt of nervous excitement shot through Jay. "Thank you for the opportunity, Senior Brother."
He took his stance, his sabre held ready, the bronze sheen of his earth-aspected Qi coating his skin and blade. The spar began with a probing exchange. Jay was strong, his defense solid. He met Gao's simple earth-fist attacks with firm, practiced parries, his footing slightly shaken from the sheer power difference. But he quickly realized that Gao wasn't trying to break his guard; he was testing his reactions, feeling out his rhythm.
Seeing a perceived opening, Jay lunged, pouring his power into a decisive slash. It was a mistake.
The instant he committed, the solid stone beneath his feet turned to thick, grasping mud. His forward momentum died, his feet sinking into the ground. A second later, the mud hardened back into stone, trapping his left foot as if it were set in cement.
He struggled, but he was caught. He saw Gao take a single, unhurried step forward, his hand raised, already gathering a massive amount of earth Qi for a final, match-ending blow.
Panic flared in Jay's chest. I lost. Just like that. The old ghosts of failure, of Chen's mocking voice calling him a "paperweight," threatened to resurface. But then, a new thought burned through the fear: a shield is useless if it cannot move.
He stopped struggling. He closed his eyes and focused, not on the trap, but on the earth. He felt the Qi flowing through the platform, an energy that he came to understand more. With a grunt, he poured his own Qi into the ground.
The stone directly beneath Gao's planted foot suddenly buckled, a wave of displaced earth throwing him off-balance for a single, crucial instant.
It was enough. Jay freed his foot and charged, his sabre a flurry of desperate, furious motion.
He closed the distance in a heartbeat, his blade aimed at Gao's chest. But Gao, already recovering his balance, simply smiled. He reached down and plunged his hand into the stone platform as if it were water.
He pulled out a sword.
It was a perfect, double-edged blade, formed from the compressed, polished stone of the platform itself, its edges sharpened to a deadly precision.
SHING!
The sound of stone grinding against steel echoed across the grounds. Gao's impromptu sword met Jay's sabre with a perfect, force-redirecting parry. The momentum of Jay's charge was turned against him. He felt the sabre ripped from his grasp, sending it spinning across the platform.
He stood, disarmed and off-balance. The tip of Gao's stone sword came to rest a hair's breadth from his throat. The stone hummed with a terrifyingly dense power.
The spar was over.
Gao let the stone sword dissolve back into dust, a look of genuine surprise and admiration on his face. "You adapted," he said, his voice holding none of its earlier dismissal. "You used my own move against me to create an opening. Your foundation may be unstable, but your battle sense is sharp. Very impressive."
Jay, still catching his breath, bowed deeply. "Your control... I've never seen anything like it. That sword..." he shook his head in awe. "How did you do that?"
"It is a technique I was fortunate enough to discover in some old ruins while out on a mission," Gao explained, a hint of pride in his voice. "It is called the Earth Master's Armory."
Jay's eyes went wide with a desperate, hungry light. An art that could turn the very ground into a weapon... it was the missing piece of his puzzle. "Could you... could you teach me?"
The brief warmth on Gao's face vanished, replaced by a cool, professional distance. "I cannot," he said, his tone firm but not unkind. "Junior Brother, there is an unspoken rule in the cultivation world, one that becomes more important the higher your realm. You never share your personal, signature techniques. To do so would be to hand a future enemy the very key to your defeat. A battle between masters is often decided by a single, unexpected move. To reveal that move is to invite death."
He saw the disappointment on Jay's face and offered a rare, encouraging smile. "But do not be disheartened. Your control is not lacking. You already have a strong foundation. You do not need to follow my path. You need to forge your own."
He pointed towards the western edge of the sect. "My technique is not just earth and Qi. It must be infused with a trace of refined metal essence to hold an edge. If you wish to understand the nature of both earth and metal, pay a visit to the sect's smithy. Observe how the master blacksmiths forge spirit-steel. Perhaps... you will find your inspiration there."
Jay looked from Gao's sincere face to the smithy in the distance. He had a path. Not a borrowed one, but a direction. A chance to forge his own legend.
"Thank you, Senior Brother," Jay said, his voice filled with a new, unshakeable resolve. "Thank you for the lesson."