On the fourth day in Training Area Eight, the small room was desolate, the usual sounds of spears absent. The tip of Liu Zili's spear, fluid as a spirit serpent, danced in Jiang Qiu's eyes. His left hand was in his pocket, his right gripped his spear shaft, and the hair over his forehead occasionally rustled.
While observing, he glanced aside. Wang Guanjia was sitting on a bench near the wall, hugging his long spear. His expression was grim, and like Jiang Qiu, he had his hands in his pockets, not practicing.
The late-arriving Hu Ye'ye pursed her lips, pacing in a corner. Her spear tip rose and fell a few times and she glanced around, but in the end, she simply held her spear, pouted, and tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling.
CLICK.
The moment the glass door slid open, the whistling sound of Liu Zili's spear tip slicing through the air abruptly ceased. A smile touched Hu Ye'ye's lips. Wang Guanjia rose and stepped forward, a few dozen bright red Xia Coins already clutched in his hand.
"Instructor, compensation for the tiles."
"Hmph. This will do." Wu Shan casually weighed the fine-textured bills in his hand, his one eye sweeping over the others and their varied expressions. "You and Jiang Qiu, take the left half of the room. You two girls, take the right half."
The moment the bills were clenched in his palm, the matter of the tiles was forgotten. Jiang Qiu loosened his grip on the small, crumpled roll of cash in his pocket and slowly pulled out his left hand.
He picked up his spear and walked to the empty space on the left, his gaze meeting Wang Guanjia's. It was like a dragon from the abyss encountering a tiger on a lonely road; the will to compete flared up like a fire fanned by the wind.
Thus, the four of them split into two pairs—the boys on one side, the girls on the other. Each pair occupied half of the small room, gripping their long spears as they faced off in solemn silence.
"I've already taught you the complete Ancient Martial Spear Technique, and I've clearly explained the fundamentals," Wu Shan declared, standing on the room's dividing line with his back to the glass door. His brow lowered over his single right eye as he scanned the group. "What you need to do now is spar. Fight without holding anything back. You need to get a feel for the Ancient Martial Spear Technique in real combat, to comprehend Mingjin and Hidden Force!
Wang Guanjia will fight Jiang Qiu. Liu Zili will fight Hu Ye'ye. As long as I don't call a stop, you don't stop, even if you draw blood!
Understand?"
The words landed like a willow leaf on water, sending faint ripples through Jiang Qiu's heart. He tightened his grip on the spear shaft held level at his waist. Five steps away, Wang Guanjia mirrored his lowered stance. Spear tip to spear tip, gaze to gaze, they faced off.
This was his second time fighting Wang Guanjia. Just like during the placement test, his opponent's eyes were wide like a tiger's, the muscles on his forearms taut and fierce, the tip of his spear turning slightly.
It was as if he had never lost to him.
"Begin sparring!"
As the shout rang out like a booming bronze bell, a prismatic spearhead stabbed toward his chest with a sharp hiss. Its fierce momentum was greater than ever before, like a lone boat battling upstream against the current. The whistling rush of cold air flipped up the corners of Jiang Qiu's sleeves and collar. His pupils quivered.
'He already has the makings of Spearpoint Armor-Piercing!'
CLANG!
A strike powerful enough to pierce iron armor was flicked aside. Wang Guanjia's heart hammered. He twisted at the waist, making his spear shaft tremble. All the meridians in his body were pulled by a single force, tightening like a drawn bowstring!
The spear shafts met with a sharp CLACK. 'I thought this would be a clash of titans, a grand contest of Hidden Force!'
'But I never imagined I'd be the one sent vibrating like a zither string plucked by a giant hand, my muscles rippling like waves!'
Wang Guanjia stumbled back three steps, his pupils trembling in shock.
'Why? I used Hidden Force, but it felt like all my strength vanished without a trace!'
'Just how much of the Hidden Force has he mastered in only a few days?!'
BANG, BANG, BANG—
The clash of weapons was incessant. Pea-sized beads of sweat flew from Wang Guanjia's chin. His dark pupils grew clouded, and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
Every one of his thrusts was instantly cut off. Every horizontal sweep grazed past his chest, missing his collar by a hair's breadth. He would advance two steps only to be forced back two. The distance between them remained in a constant state of dangerous, but not yet lethal, tension.
'During the placement test, I could still suppress him. Now, just four days later, I'm completely unable to counterattack against his spear. I feel as helpless as a sick tiger with broken bones.'
'If we both went all out in a battle to the death, it might end just like my last fight two years ago, before I was assigned to Class Eight—a crushing defeat by Li Juefeng!'
At this thought, the fire raging in his chest was suddenly doused by an icy wind. In his pupils, the reflection of the spear-wielding youth became as still as a young dragon lying low in a mountain abyss.
'I was defeated by Li Juefeng two years ago... am I now going to be well and truly defeated by Jiang Qiu?'
'No.'
'My aptitude surpasses the strongest students from seven other training areas. When I entered Eighth Middle School, my potential was supposedly second to only two others.'
'In two years, just by practicing the Ancient Martial Spear Technique with my father after school, I managed to develop some degree of Hidden Force. And after the placement test, I had a breakthrough and grasped Spearpoint Armor-Piercing.'
'If I can just get one more dose of Wusu Fragrance, I'll be able to cultivate Copper Skin. If it weren't for my lack of resources, what would someone like Xie Kuang matter?'
'Not everyone is Li Juefeng. I won't let myself be so pathetic again!'
VMMMM—
With another violent shudder of the spear shafts, Wang Guanjia gritted his teeth, tightening his hold on the spear that had nearly been knocked from his grasp. He strained, the muscles of his entire body tensing in his engorged arms!
The latent Strength flowing within him suddenly erupted, surpassing any of their previous exchanges and, to his own astonishment, knocking back Jiang Qiu's iron-black spear!
CRACK.
But the spear shaft he'd just knocked away simply circled around and pressed down again. A few exchanges later, Wang Guanjia was once again forced back, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.
"Hmph, are you children playing house? How can you practice the spear without a shred of killing intent!" Wu Shan stood with his arms crossed. The scarred slit of his left eye pulsed, the dark flesh within seeming to strain against the stitches. The blood vessels in his one good right eye throbbed. "I'm telling you, *I'm* the one who decides how the Wusu Fragrance is distributed, not you!
If you keep fighting so timidly, you can forget about getting any Wusu Fragrance this month. You won't get any for the next two months either! You might as well go feed yourselves to the Demon Beasts during the college entrance exams!
Save us from wasting resources on you!"
His spit flew like rain and his voice boomed like thunder. Jolted by his outburst, the sound of their clashing weapons became like the frantic, trembling chirps of birds startled by a thunderclap!
In the fifty-square-meter room were five people and four spears. Their crisscrossing footwork made the floor tiles tremble, and the flashes of cold steel seemed to turn the very walls pale!
SHLIIICK—
The sharp edge of a spearhead sliced into flesh, eliciting a scream as sharp as shattering glass. "You motherf— Liu Zili!"
Hu Ye'ye's pale face was contorted in a snarl, her red lips bitten tight. Blood welled from a three-inch gash on her forearm as she gripped her spear and charged at the cold, silent Liu Zili.
The crazed whistling of swinging spears swept through the room. Wu Shan, observing from the side, stood calmly, his heaving chest gradually settling as his gaze shifted to the other pair.
His right brow lowered, shadowing his eye socket. His pupil seemed to swirl with a murky light, reflecting the increasingly fierce clash between Wang Guanjia and Jiang Qiu.
'Two years ago, Wang Guanjia, a boy of common birth, dared to challenge Li Juefeng. Now, he's fallen behind even Xie Kuang.'
'Four days ago, Jiang Qiu from the Shantytown dared to challenge Wang Guanjia, and now he has genuinely surpassed him in Spear Technique.'
'I never thought a filthy, run-down place like the Shantytown could produce someone like this.'
'If he'd been born in a regular residential district, he would have qualified as an honors student two years ago, receiving two doses of Wusu Fragrance a month. By now... he probably wouldn't be much weaker than Li Juefeng...'
At this thought, the corner of Wu Shan's mouth curled up a fraction of an inch, and an inscrutable glint flashed in his eye.
'His aptitude is truly exceptional. He's a man of few words who conceals his true strength. Destined for a great future.'
'But you just had to go and expose me in front of Zhao Gongzheng. That was really... irritating...'