The doll was surprisingly intricate now that Nanming looks at it, the joint, the limb and the body was detailed following the human body, minus the face.
"What is this doll?" Nanming asks.
"A training doll that is meant to gauge how powerful One's attack is…" Hu Mei answered, but she didn't do so much as to look at Nanming's face properly.
"Let me demonstrate"
Hu Mei then takes a fighting stance, her fist curled up as she gathers her energy to concentrate on her palm.
BOOM
When she punches the doll, she didn't just break it, she obliterates the doll into thousands of pieces. And even then, her gathered energy managed to pierce far beyond the doll before dissipating into the air.
Such hefty attack and yet she didn't manifest any Aura. Nanming, with his limited knowledge in Martial Arts, finds it odd, but when he is about to ask, Hu Mei already spoke first.
"I am an Energy Manipulator, rather than using my Energy to fuel a technique I instead use it as is"
Hu Mei said, her lips became smug as if she was proud of her accomplishment. But she quickly clears her throat and undoes her expression.
"Ehem, anyway. Try punching the doll" Hu Mei asks.
Nanming didn't do anything, instead he looked at Hu Mei with confusion.
"What's wrong?" Hu Mei asks, tilting her head before correcting it swiftly.
"…The doll is broken" Nanming said plainly, and for a moment Hu Mei stay silent before she started to squat down and squeal.
Nanming, part shame and pity, decided not to interrupt her action and instead just stand there awkwardly.
For a good minute, Hu Mei remained in her position. After that she quickly stood up and acted like nothing happened.
She then extends her hands out, strings of Energy pour out from each of her fingertip as it cascades down into the doll, or what was left of it.
Nanming then watch in astonishment as the splinter of the doll converges back into its original shape.
"…T-try it"
Hu Mei said as she stands aside to give Nanming some room to perform his attack.
Nanming then stands in the spot where Hu Mei told him to, and he just stands there.
He didn't know whether he was told to perform any attack or to replicate that Energy attack Hu Mei does, but Nanming didn't know how to do Energy attack, so he just decided to punch the doll with all his might.
BAM
His fist connects, but the doll remains. Nanming was confused, he strikes the doll with all his might and yet this is all he could do. Nanming withdraw his fist, only to find that the doll remains unscathed, his attack didn't even leave a mark.
"Now I see the problem, you didn't know how to control your energy right?" Hu Mei said, all her awkwardness vanished like clouds on sunny days.
"…Yes" Nanming said, expecting a lesson.
"Figure it out yourself then" Hu Mei said as she procured her book that she hid a moments ago.
"…What?"
"This is the second semester, surely you didn't expect me to give you theory and method right away, right?" Hu Mei said as she walked away from Nanming and towards a tree.
"You can go in and out of this courtyard to learn something, I will be here only at this day, and this time so don't forget that" she said, before she hid behind the tree. Nanming already knows what she was up to even though he considered trying to convince her to teach him.
But Nanming decided against it, he was here to learn, and if he didn't do it himself, he would grow to be an ignorant bastard who didn't know any better once he inevitably becomes lonely once more.
He should use all the time here as efficiently as possible to learn.
.
.
.
"Hey hey Chen!" Gu Tian words met deaf ears as Chen pretended not to hear her.
Before he can walk any further, Gu Tian intercepts him and moves in front of his track.
She did not utter a single word, instead she locked her eyes at Chen while making a face Chen could only assume as pleading.
"…What?" Chen finally breaks his silence.
"Can you please teach me how to use an abacus?" Gu Tian asks, twisting her finger as if to help her case.
Chen, who is still confused as to why she suddenly acts like this could only sigh.
"Why should it be me?" Chen replied, he is exhausted trying to socialize with everyone and last week's argument with his fath— the Demon King certainly didn't help in reducing his stress, but Gu Tian just wouldn't let him be alone.
"Because you're good at it!" Gu Tian said, trying to drag Chen off into some quiet place.
"I have something I must do…" Chen said back, he could've just yanked the hand Gu Tian was holding to be done with it, but his stomach sank when he tried to do so, as if an anchor is pulling him down.
Besides, Gu Tian is making that face again, the face that Chen looks at fills him with intense emotion and the wish to stay a bit longer, it's infuriating for him to act this way.
"Why don't you ask Ni Len or your brother to help?" Chen asks, in the end he failed to deny her request. Gu Tian, who is ahead of him skips her legs while making a cheerful face, she's practically glowing.
"Ni Len is busy with his Theorem class since he wanted to become a strategist" Gu Tian said.
"Ni Len? A strategist?" Chen replied in astonishment, now that he thinks about it Ni Len is weak physically, but he managed to lead the Camp at the final day despite the turmoil.
Surely, he should've noticed his talent sooner, maybe it's because he rarely met him. Doing all this socialization for him to gather enough followers to rival his older brother. Speaking of which…
"Oh?" A suffocating presence suddenly filled the air around Chen, Gu Tian instantly went back to Chen as a figure, taller and older than them appears.
"…Greetings, older brother" Wu Chen said, his face a constructed smiles as he regards the man before him. The first Demonic Prince, Wu Yincang.
Behind him is countless groups of both male and female, they all look at Chen with open contempt.
"6th brother, I have yet to congratulate you on your passing" Wu Yincang said, his red eyes glint behind his suffocating presence, not a shred of smile or even expression decorates his face.
'Passing? As in passing the test or passing to the afterlife?'
A word game Chen had become familiar, each syllable hiding constructed intent built with scrutiny, such is how his first brother operates. Clinical, Paradigmatic and ruthless.
"I thank you for your congratulatory words" Wu Chen said as he bows, hiding his face as he contemplates on what face he should wear.
"Don't be" Wu Yincang said as he holds Chen's shoulder.
"I am just surprised that the likes of you could survive until now…" He said, with such plain and ordinary voice that it's more humiliating than if he said it with mocking voice.
"I'm looking forward to our reunion, it's been years since we last see each other, no?" Wu Yincang said, his face went closer to Chen's to the point where Chen could feel Wu Yincang's breath creeping down the back of his neck.
"And you…" Wu Yincang then beckons Gu Tian, who went silent and still as a board. For a beat, Wu Chen's heart sank when he realized that Wu Yincang attention was shifted towards Gu Tian.
"Lady Tian of the Gu Clan, my pleasure to meet the candidates of this generation Dawn Star…" He said, pulling one of her hands and kissing it at the back of her hand. Gu Tian was so shocked that she could not utter a single word.
"Oh, did I catch you off guard?" Wu Yincang said those words in such cruel curiosity that it makes Gu Tian's spine tingle. Her legs went weak, her breath hitched, it's just like that day when she met her uncle. Such imposing and suffocating presence by mere words, safe to say that he is not to be mess with.
"My apology for such uncouthness then, I am yet to be familiar with the propriety of the west…" Wu Yincang said, grabbing a flock of Gu Tian hairs gently as if admiring its sheen, and suddenly his hand was grabbed by Chen.
"…" Chen utters not a single word, but his gaze that is sharp enough to pierce someone's heart speaks louder than any sentence could.
One of Wu Yincang followers, a brawny male then grab Chen's hand in return to allow for Wu Yincang hands to escape his grip.
"…How brazen, to treat those older than you with such open contempt" Wu Yincang utter, and with that he finally leaves the scene. No words were spoken, not even a farewell for propriety's sake.
"I overlook this matter once…" He said as he paused his stride for a second, before beckoning Wu Chen over his shoulder.
"Don't expect me to be compliant in the future if it permits us to meet once more" Wu Yincang leaves, alongside the many followers tailing behind him.
Wu Chen can hear them talking, but in such blind hatred his ears were deafen by the sound of his own heart beating out of turn. Only after Gu Tian grabs his hand did he get out of this hateful trance.
"…You alright?" Chen asks, putting his hands over Gu Tian's shoulder.
Gu Tian breath, that is irregular, slowly went normal again, with shaky hands she greets Chen's hand and looks over at his face. A face usually sculpted now decorated with concern, she likes to think it was because of her that Chen makes such face true to himself.
"I'm fine, who is he anyway?" Gu Tian said, feeling the impure intent of Wu Yincang over her body. Yet it's almost like a play, as if Wu Yincang did it to provoke Chen, and it's clearly working.
"My older brother, Wu Yincang. He is the closest one to inherit the throne" Chen said, looking over Wu Yincang fleeting figure hidden beneath the flock that is his followers.
"…Chen" Gu Tian said in concern, her face frowning as if in the verge of tears.
"W-what?" Chen was flustered; he was surprised that Gu Tian would suddenly cry like that.
"D-doesn't that mean that he will eventually kill you for the throne?" Gu Tian asks.
"Why? He is the first to the throne, why would he kill me? I am the 6th siblings after all" Chen replied.
"I heard that in the Wu clan, the one who inherits the throne is required to kill the rest of their siblings to avoid power competition" Gu Tian said, her voice trembling ever so slightly.
"…Don't worry about that" Chen replied, putting on a reassuring face and pat Gu Tian slightly in her shoulder. The gesture seems to calm Gu Tian down as she looks at Chen with teary eyes, she then wipes the tear off from her face quite aggressively as she smiles.
"Now let me teach you how to use an abacus" Chen said, extending his hand out to invites Gu Tian to hold it. Gu Tian hesitates a bit before she finally held Chen's hand tightly.
Both then went on towards the room where there was supposed to be an abacus.
Yet in the distance, Wu Yincang observes. Accompanied only by the brawly male that is by his side previously, the brawly male has a short black hair, almost bald even if not for the ever presence follicle decorating his empty scalp.
"Why would you leave him alone back there?" The brawly male asks, his voice is neither that of restraint nor respect, as if he was at an equal standing with Wu Yincang.
"It is unwise to pluck an unripen fruit" Wu Yincang replied, to which the brawly male watch him with quite a disgusted look.
"Are you referring to your brother or that Gu clan girl"
"Obviously it was my brother, I am of many names, but a pervert is not one of them" Wu Yincang counters back at the allegations with calm voice.
"Let us not dilly dally here Ruen, we've matter to attend" Wu Yincang said coldly as he walks away with hands behind his back, the brawly male known as Ruen immediately follows him before he settles his pace besides Wu Yincang.
'Chen, I will not let attain more height… You are yet to be prepared for the courtly scheme of those who are rotten'