Guo Yanzhi was happy. He got to make sure his brother was alright and even earned himself the egg of a spirit beast! Even if he were to quit training and cultivating now, his future would still be immensely bright with his beast at his side.
He was traveling among the woods, in a semi-rush and going for the academy! He had given his tokens up and hopefully lost all leads but the determined could still find him before he enters safety!
But surely nothing bad will-
Guo Yanzhi stopped, still, frozen. His eyes focused in on the thing just a hair's breadth away from his eyeballs, it was an iron thread…had he been a split second late, at the very least his vision, and possibly his life, would've been taken.
But-he thought Lou Soso, the girl who uses iron threads as weapons, was injured and couldn't move? But…he did see Mu Qianying go after him and Yan Mo, and it looked like the two girls were inseparable…
Does this mean brother Mo is in danger? Have they just been played a long con?! He needed to turn around to save his brother!
"Ai, ai ai ai, you, pretty boy, don't take a step more," A charming voice came from nowhere in specific. But it was undoubtedly Lou Soso, just hidden.
"These threads connect to my fingertips, one bend of my pinky finger, and your body is suddenly now in 17 pieces!"
"What does this mean, sister Soso?!" Yanzhi shouted into the open, "Are you secretly a spy from the Unorthodox Faction?!" His hand neared the grip of his sword, could he cut through these iron threads before he dies?…he was unsure.
"Well, maybe, maybe not. Who knows, they do say that the wife of the Bakli First Son hasn't been seen in a while~"
"You!" Guo Yanzhi could only shout. He was in pure shock. Lou Soso this entire time was the wife of the first son of the house of Bakli?! The same house often said to be the leading strongest faction of the unorthodox or evil path? Equivalent or greater in power than even the strongest two factions of the orthodox factions, the Mount Hwa Sect and the House of Namgeung?!
"But, then why are you here of all places? Gansu? And you spent two seasons training with us at the academy? What are your goals in this relatively backwater province?"
Guo Yanzhi showed off his critical thinking. And he was right, the Murim Alliance was centered many many miles to the east. In the province of Gansu, there wasn't much to be seen, except…the Zhongnian Sect?
"Well I can't go around monologuing my secrets to everybody, can I? Besides, it's not the right place for you to poke your nose into.."
Yanzhi spotted it! Where she laid hidden, just a small distance to the front and right of him, behind a tree. He had trained with her, he knows what her power lies at. And if she is hiding, then maybe she really wasn't faking an injury.
He moved silently, his hand already on the grip of his sword, he spotted and counted every thread, before deciding what to do. All in the span of one breath, he unsheathed his sword and did an overhead slash. The simplest attack of his Mukcheol Geombeop / The Silent Iron Sword technique, but incredibly effective.
This one attack he had poured tens of thousands of repetitions into and had perfected the movement of every muscle. Every thread in front of him was cut before Lou Soso could finish a blink!
"You fail by underestimating me! I'm still a black robe disciple, and a damn good one at that!" Yanzhi rushed towards the tree, doing another overhead slash but with just a slight angle.
He cut down diagonally, only to find his attack had been stopped by an iron thread that emanated a pink-purple aura. It was evil Qi! Lou Soso's!
"Do I? Or are you just a foolish hypocrite?" She held the string gently with her fingers, confidently turning to face Yanzhi, "I've spent the last few days making this half of the forest into my own web!"
She grabbed on to another thread with her free hand, and slowly began rising into the air. Her feet landed on threads too and she kept crawling upwards.
Yanzhi was horrified by the sight. It looked as though she had suddenly grown more pairs of legs and arms and…"That spider, it was yours wasn't it?"
He heard laughing, Soso had managed to hang up side down, "Perhaps, perhaps it was my tamed juvenile spirit beast that I hoped to sacrifice fools into!"
Yanzhi's eyes widened in shock, "It must be dead then! My brother told me all about it! You and Mu Qianying came to him to convince Yan Mo and Yao Kun to sacrifice themselves! But only Yan Mo went and having underestimated him, he killed that spider! Don't tell me-"
Before Yanzhi could continue, a glowing thread went for his arms, which he just barely avoided, leaping backwards and not faltering his speech.
"You came here for your pet! He liked the habitat here and you had to wait until he was grown to take him back to the unorthodox sects! Sacrifices would only increase his growth, and you decided to use this expedition as a chance! And the instructors-"
He was interrupted again, more abruptly. The sun had fallen by now, and they were fighting in the dark. The battle was barely illuminated with faint pink glows and the occasional sparkle of steel hitting iron.
"You stand no chance against me! Your technique lies in ambushes and traps! But I've gotten out of it and now you're faced with your biggest weakness! A direct confrontation!"
Yanzhi sliced down horizontally, slashing across her neck, causing blood to gush out. She fell and he wasted no time rushing back to the cave to save his own brother!
But Soso's lifeless body…wasn't lifeless just yet…
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"Halt Mu Qianying! Lou Soso has been slain and soon are you too" Yanzhi rushed towards the cave and yelled out, speaking heroically.
But the scene he saw completely averted his expectations. Yan Mo was standing over an unconscious body of Mu Qianying and…a random guy?
Yan Mo had to stop himself from laughing at Yanzhi's dramatic entrance, "Ahem…it seems Mu Qianying is of the unorthodox legion, she just gave a lethal dose of poison to this academy student. Luckily I was around and stopped her before she could deal more damage. But hearing from your…entrance, kek, ah…Lou Soso is evil as well?"
Yanzhi was a bit flustered but it didn't stop him from the task at hand, "Yes, she confronted me in battle and now she lays dead," he neared Mo and the unconscious Mu Qianying, "Should we slay this heretic as well?"
Mo shook his head, moving some hair out of his face, "It isn't for us to decide, we are only teens. Accidents in battle can't be averted but purposeful murder…we should leave that for our instructor to decide."
Yanzhi nodded but stopped…"Brother Mo, had our instructor not told us he'd be looking over us every moment? Yet he saw not see my ambush and Mu Qianying's poisoning but did not do anything."
"Well, it sounds like he truly couldn't see us. Maybe he was distracted by something, which leaves us with a tough decision, the expedition will naturally end by sunfall tomorrow, but do you think we'll be able to fight off hordes of students and still keep ourselves safe from Qianying's trickery and keep her restrained?"
"I gathered enough rations to feed three people for a day, if you don't care for gathering additional tokens, we could seal the entrance to the cave and wait off the end of the tournament."
"En, I have 22 tokens after getting yours and Qianying's, I should safely have over double the second place student."
"I don't wish our trip out here to end so anti-climactic, but this needs to end fast and safe."
"Don't be worried, brother Zhi, it's not as if we were made to entertain others, like in those novels you read, no! We were created by the Tao as said by the Nine Scrolls of the Murim Alliance to give ourselves meaning!"
"En! Well said brother, besides, if we were in a novel, this is just poor writing, surely we aren't in those!"
"Of course! What author would write this part into the story of their 'Heaven-Defying Master to Cause Earth's Fury' or whatever crazy titles they come up with?"
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So after ten days, the wilderness expedition ended and the season of winter had fully come. When the cave entrance was unsealed, the three saw a thick coating of snow over the ground that must've been over four inches thick. In just a single night? What a blizzard it must've been.
Several instructors appeared before their disciples and quickly ran with them back to the academy grounds. The baldy instructor of the first years seemed grim, so Yan Mo and Guo Yanzhi held off their questions.
But they did hand over Mu Qianying, and told them off the treacheries of Lou Soso, to which the baldy instructor only blankly nodded and headed off.
This was…unusual. The instructor Yan Mo, Guo Yanzhi, and the rest had grown to love was energetic, emphatic, and seemingly tireless! What could have possibly happened to him to change his attitude so greatly?
It was no time to think however, as tens of black robed disciples stood in rows based by their years in the training grounds of the sect, and the academy head stood in front of them all, shouting out, "Whoever among your individual years has the greatest and second greatest amount of tokens, step forward!"
The weary, tired, and incredibly disheveled disciples from each years talked amongst themselves before their representatives were sent out. For the first years, it was of course Yan Mo and Li Baiyu, as Lou Soso was dead, Mu Qianying was in custody, and both Yao Kun and Guo Yanzhi had left the expedition early due to their own reasons.
Each disciple was then made to show their tokens to everybody, and of course great but tired shouts of surprise came when Han Mo revealed his 21 tokens, when the second place, a fourth year, had only gathered 13.
For his amazing performance, the academy head came to Yan Mo and personally handed him a wooden box about the length of a sword.
Yan Mo bowed in gratitude and thanked the academy head. Then the second, third, fourth, and fifth places all got their rewards, to which the wooden box grew smaller in size each and every time.
Jealous stares cumulated at the top five students, but especially Mo, yet he did not care. The academy head dispersed the crowd, to let them go on their dearly needed showers.
But Yan Mo did not, he kept his prize unopened for now and headed straight to the Gansu Academy Scripture Hall. He had promised himself he'd come here days before, and since there were only two days before the winter tournament, he didn't wish to waste any time.
The Hall was a large tower with four levels, when he went inside, he saw shelves on shelves of books with minimal decorations, and yet this library was more beautiful than any other building Yan Mo had been in before.
He saw the levels were clearly separated and saw both yellow and black robed disciples learning in harmony, but though he saw a mix of yellow and black on the first two floors, he didn't see a single yellow robe on the top two floors
He didn't need to ask anybody for clarification or confirmation, he knew what it was. Murim was always at a hierarchy, just like the laws of the wilderness, except Murim had learnt to craft. The weakest of the students got less materials and less focus, while the top students got instructors per handful of students and access to all levels of the library!
Yan Mo didn't care to learn other techniques, he had countless stances to master of his own Five Flames Art, so for now he decided he'd learn from the history of other swordsmen and see what he can apply!
He went to the history section and looked through the books, two of them stood out, both on the history of swordsmanship. But one was based around Mount Hwa, who are the greatest swordsmen of the Nine Great Sects, while the other focused on the Namgeung Clan, who are the greatest swordsmen within the Five Noble Houses.
Having already learned the Mount Hwa basics and hearing their philosophy repeated to him time and time again, he decided to read the book about the Swordsmanship of the House of Namgeung.
And as he flipped through the pages, on to their most known stances, he had a revelation…the swordsmanship of Namgeung had copied the swordsmanship of the Five Flames Art!
Their 'Heavenly Press Technique' in which they swing the sword on its flat side and apply Qi to exert immense force and pressure is identically sounding to the Cheonguk Chaggak (Sky Crushing Stroke) of his art!
This…he could learn his Fifth Stance by studying the sword art of a similar technique! That's great! The Heavenly Press is one of the most revered and versatile attacks!
With the tournament in just two days time, if he could even simply learn the basics, that would be ideal!
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On the other side of the Scripture Hall, there was a yellow robed disciple studying a novel while doing physical training.
He was hidden in a corner with his shirt off, showcasing his physique that would make any black robe disciple at the academy be ashamed.
Beside him were two stacks of books and novels, on all sorts of topics.
Although the upcoming tournament was supposed to be between black robes only, this yellow robed disciple had gained favor with one of the instructors and allowed to participate.
After all, he is Tian Shi Long, to mean Heaven Devouring Dragon!