Yan Mo had blacked out even after Liu Mei caught his head and put him back, so when the world swam back into focus, the soft sun filtering through the green canopy of willow trees, all he could do was groan. There were aches all over his body and when he tried to push himself up, his limbs were heavy and unresponsive. The very last thing he remembered was the crunch of the willow bark against his back and the face of the silver-haired girl that was watching him fight.
Who was still there, there was a sigh and Yan Mo could feel calloused, yet gentle hands cup his head and lay him on something soft. His vision slowly cleared until he once again could see his surroundings, and for the first time clearly seeing of Liu Mei.
Normally, boys his age would get nervous laying on the legs of a beautiful girl like Liu Mei, but Yan Mo was not normal. Even as he looked directly at the eyes of Liu Mei, his only thoughts were of the fight he had just woken up from.
"Easy there," She murmured, her voice was calm and steady, "You took a big...stumble."
Yan Mo tried to speak, but only a croak escaped his throat. He felt a cool, damp cloth press down on his forehead, "I'm Liu Mei, by the way," She added, "I saw your fight, thought you might need some helping."
He could barely return a nod, but feeling his strength slowly return, he very, very slowly sat himself up and faced his healer who was clearly not approving of his sitting.
"Thank you, I am Yan Mo," He managed, his voice was slightly stronger. He wasn't sure if he should say anything more, he had never been good in social situations. Luckily the awkward silence didn't have time to form before Liu Mei spoke.
"You put up a good fight though," She continued with her treatment, cleaning some of his scrapes and applying some bandages to his torso. She even had a small bottle of herbal medicine she applied whenever she could. Her gaze after she finished drifted over to the shattered willow tree, "Even if the outcome was...familiar."
Yan Mo's brows furrowed. Familiar? Surely she hadn't..."You saw that?" He asked, a bit of embarrassment that he hadn't imagined colored his voice, "Yeah, well, Han Bao is pretty strong. Especially after his breakthrough."
He shook his head lightly, regaining his composure, his embarrassment turned to excitement, "I just need to get stronger. Faster."
Liu Mei leaned back against the shattered bark of the willow tree, "Those aren't bad goals, but have you ever thought about why you fight? You don't seem to gain anything from it, no contribution points, no insight into techniques, just...beatings"
"I like to fight," He answered without hesitation. He did gain something, a new fighter in his dreamscape, but that wasn't the reason he fought, that was just a good side bonus, "I just like it."
Liu Mei looked into his eyes, slowly beginning to nod, "I see...ahem, there's a ranking system of outer disciples, you know," She said, swiftly changing the topic of conversation, "The strongest hundred outer disciples can challenge the hundred weakest inner disciples to take their spots. It's a couple months till it starts, it's a three day period."
Yan Mo's eyes widened, he had hadn't heard anything about this! Well, he hadn't heard much of anything, he had been locked in on just training, eating, and sleeping after joining the sect.
"I didn't know...hm, I haven't won a single battle, would that make me unranked?" He pondered, not even wondering why she was telling him all of this.
Liu Mei applied a cooling herb to his right hand, the scent of mint and something earthy filling the air, "Nope. You're not at all. To get ranked, you have to climb the ladder of disciples. It takes some time and effort, and some luck of course," She looked up, meeting his gaze, "It's not that easy, some disciples train for years, and oftentimes, the top 100 'outer disciples' are just inner disciples that got too complacent and lazed off in their training. Them being ranked down would only fuel them to be stronger and angrier."
She stopped, observing his reaction, which she could read quite easily. He wasn't trying to hide it after all, it was anticipation, "If you're serious about it," She said, knowing he definitely was, "I'm willing to help, healing you will give me some experience and let you fight more, it's a win win!" After her brother had left on a small trip, she had been lacking a person to train on. The little bird was nice, of course, but it was quite different from a person.
Yan Mo looked at her, "That's a damn good deal!" His choice of words clearly startled the formal Liu Mei, who laughed a bit after, "Thank you, Liu Mei...Hey, what's your rank?"
"I knew you'd be asking this, I'm #162 and no-" She quickly interrupted Yan Mo before he could say anything, "I am not going to spar you."
Yan Mo paused, nodding, looking around him, he saw there were still some disciples left and he felt a decent chunk of his strength had come back, "I hate being lazy, so I'll go get some ranks, eh?"
He had a toothy grin and rushed off. Was resting lazy? Not really, but Yan Mo saw it that way. One thing he hated above all was being passive and becoming complacent.
The cool wind that had picked up did little to dampen the fire that was lit inside Yan Mo, he had spent the last month training with elite focus into defeating just a single opponent, it was enjoyable but after his rival had jumped up 3 layers, he would need to temporarily aim for more 'equal' rivals.
The first opponent he fought was another man built like Han Bao, just significantly weaker. He wielded a hammer and every single swing felt like falling boulders. Yan Mo, remembering a particularly vicious bear he'd wrestled with in his dreamscape, weaved and dodged, his smaller frame was like a blur against his opponent's attacks. He couldn't match the brute power, but he could easily outlast him, just like he had with the bear. That had finally ranked him at #733.
That wasn't too bad, he still needed some healing Qi from his new fighting partner, but quickly found his next opponent. She was thin and had countless daggers on her body. She was a whirlwind of speed and Yan Mo quickly found himself on the defensive end, but he recalled a fleeting encounter with a viper in his dreamscape, one with lightning-fast strikes that dodged all of his attacks. He mirrored the movements of his opponent and used his Qi to disrupt her Wind Qi, quickly exposing openings she clearly wasn't prepared for.
That had easily jumped him 50 spots, landing him at #683. After two relatively straightforward wins, he searched for a tougher opponent, who happened to be somebody known for their 'deceptive' method of fighting.
Yan Mo once again found himself on the defensive, but it was different this time. He was tricked by constant feints only to be hit by a flurry of quick attacks from behind. And his Qi reserves were draining much faster than normal, but luckily his Dreamscape came to be useful again.
It was when he was a child and saw a cultivator passing by his village practicing, it was somebody who used a similar style of fighting, somebody elusive who used constant misdirection and sudden bursts of acceleration to catch his targets off guard. He focused on channeling that memory, it was a long time ago, so it was quite weak, but he didn't try to focus on the specific moves, instead, he tried to understand the principle of the unpredictability within the technique.
Yan Mo began trying to anticipate the patterns of the disciple's attack, weaving just barely out of the barrage of the most dangerous blows and then pushing towards him. He was trying to subtly evolve his own footwork while messing with the disciple's.
They danced and danced, eventually doing a full lap around the entire training grounds before Yan Mo became fully aware of the rookie's simple style, finally finishing him off. He was now rank #640!
Just as he had finished his fight, he noticed a small crowd had begun to gather. Whispers followed him as he tried to head home for the day, murmurs wondering who the new kid was, suddenly beating three disciples in a single day after losing a fight that would put an average disciple out for a week.
"He's not bad, I guess, but have you seen the girl that constantly tends to him, she's-" Yan Mo walked faster. Today was the most productive day in quite a while and he had a lot to meditate, and sleep, on.
Getting to his dorm room, he laid down on the bed, going to bed instantly. Being in a clear, lucid state in his dream let him cultivate in his sleep. It was just as mentally tiring as doing it awake, but he found it fun, as he could lightly modify the arena of his dreams.
He could feel the time pass as he was pulled into a deep and very long sleep. He wasn't sure how long exactly, but he had advanced to the 6th Layer of Body Tempering, which was quite a fast pace. When he entered the sect, he was in the 4th layer, and halfway through his month-long training, he had reached the 5th, and now he was at the 6th!
It wasn't the speed of geniuses, but it was certainly above average. Besides, he had something to focus on other than cultivating...
He stood in the middle of a mountainous arena, in front of him were now TWO opponents instead of one, the two fastest opponents he'd faced yet. The elusive disciple and the dagger-using wind cultivator.
Once again, he became lost in time as he fought and fought. Using his newfound breakthrough to find the limits of his power, he had become strong enough to battle over two dozen wolves at the same time, he wasn't sure why, but he felt like knowing how to fight a large group would be helpful.
As he defeated the swarm of wolves, he felt...weird, he had heard others talk about their strengths, and he knew that a normal person in the 6th Layer of Body Tempering should not be able to do all the things that he was able to, is it because of his dreamscape arena? Is just battle knowledge able to do all that he can?
Suddenly, the entire dream shook, like a massive earthquake had passed, and with it came a horrific sound and feeling, a grumbling stomach and a massive headache.