"Again."

The stern voice of our instructor echoed through the hall, demanding attention and compliance as she stared at the centre of the dojo. There, two disciples began their spar once more, steel ringing against steel with each fiery clash.

All around the duelling pair were twenty seven other teenagers, disciples of the outer sect that watched the two finalists struggle against each other for the coveted spot of becoming a true disciple.

"Give up, Ren!" One duellist shouted, her steel staff causing the very air to shift and spark as she thrust the weapon towards her smaller counterpart.

Sabre struck staff as her opponent matched her voice, the opposing rush causing another boom to echo through the dojo. "Never!"

Another stalemate of an exchange. Xiaoli twisted her staff upright to meet the parry sabre strike, then tackled her body forward to unbalance the smaller male. In exchange, Ren deliberately relaxed his stance, letting the strike carry him as he hopped backwards, dispersing most of the force of the push.

Pommel to the chin, only to be thwarted by a twist of the staff. Backswing from the staff, only for a knee to raise and deflect. The exchange went on and on, both outer disciples proving their mettle and determination to become true practitioners of the Iron Earth Sect.

Each disciple gathered kept their eyes on the two top students, breaking focus only to look at Instructor Bei's expression after each exchange. Even those that fell early in the qualification tournament kept their ambitions alight, hoping to learn as much they could for the next tournament.

Except for me.

Now, don't get me wrong; It's not like I don't have a desire to learn proper martial arts. Ancient China was already a tumultuous time, and this strange martial world of Jianghu only made those sordid days all the more deadly. Just imagine any sort of territorial battle in antiquity, then multiply it by superhumans to get an idea of why self defence was a requirement.

To add to the conflict, there has been growing rumours of the Emperor falling ill, which only fuels further strife among the countryside. Local lords draw battle lines between the three princes, while hushed voices whisper of the grand chancellor seeking dark powers to restore his liege. Bandit kings eye the weakened imperial territories of the Eastern province with barely restrained greed, while the demon fortress of the south encroaches with each passing month.

But in spite of all this, I had no desire to join the inner ranks of the Iron Earth Sect. Why?

Because cultivation is ultimately a game of horribly min-maxing your physique, min-maxing your inner Dao, and min-maxing your mindset. Unfortunately for me, I'm a modern day person who was reincarnated into antiquity after passing peacefully at the cusp of middle age. 

That's not to say that I didn't try to min-max myself, but with just my own biased understanding of modern health practices, I failed spectacularly. My understanding of what's healthy for early physical development flew in the face of this world's definition of what's healthy for early cultivator development. Long story short, a good portion of my early years was spent undoing the bad habits of my earlier years. 

I learned the martial arts of the Iron Earth Sect, but also learned that the warrior instinct their cultivation methods cultivate can only hinder the more analysis-based method that my own Dao Aspect manifests as.

It's a shame I didn't learn all this until two years ago at the age of 12, but it's too late now. As it stands, the best method for me to further my martial arts in this world is to join a different sect entirely.

So yeah. Zero interest in the current qualification tournament.

With that said, I'm in no hurry to leave. I still need to gather information on an appropriate sect to join, then gather funds to travel there. Fortunately, I can solve both these problems by staying as an outer disciple. Local villages petition the sect to solve problems like demon beasts in exchange for coins or tribute. In turn, the sect sends outer disciples to deal with these mortal affairs, receiving part of the tribute as commission. By completing numerous tasks, outer disciples improve the sect's standing and can receive one manual or scripture from the sect's archives.

That's my current goal: do tasks to get enough standing to finish learning my current martial arts, then gain information on appropriate nearby sects to join.

"Disciple Gai." 

I straightened my back, Instructor Bei's voice immediately snapping me from my thoughts. Just because I wasn't aiming for inner disciple doesn't mean I could disrespect the sect's elders. And yes, the name I chose for myself was Guy. Don't ask why. 

"Yes Instructor?"

"Explain the three main deficiencies Disciple Ren displayed during this match." She stared down at me, her expression betraying no emotion as the rest of the room slowly turned from the instructor to myself.

This was not the first time I've been randomly selected to answer a trivia question, though I fully admit that it was my fault this time for missing the end of the fight. Fortunately, I still watched some of it, so I could probably use my Aspect to guess the rest. I only really needed a passable response anyways..

"Yes, ma'am." I cleared my throat, taking a moment to refocus my Aspect as I turned to the man in question. Starting with a uselessly general statement gave me plenty of time to look through my Aspect's readouts. "The biggest problem with Ren's form was his stance. Ren's movements were too light for the sabre."

Let's see... His unit wireframe shows that he received the most damage in his torso, though there are also a bunch of orange zones at his shoulder and forearms. Legs significantly less damaged due to him jumping around, which matches the last few fights he had. 

"I can't say too much on it since he is better than me in both weapons, but brother Ren chose to use a stance that favoured the sword instead of the sabre. This let him avoid more of sister Xiaoli's attacks, but he could never land a decisive attack of his own." 

With that answer, I settled into silence, waiting for Instructor Bei to correct me. 

Well, half waited. The other half of my attention continued pouring over Ren's unit card. Health bar's down to a third, stamina similarly low. Meanwhile, his energy was still in the green, sitting at a good 80% or so. When the instructor nodded at me to continue, I latched onto that observation.

"Second, Ren was too conservative in his attacks. He paced himself for an extended duel, but missed or ignored opportunities to quickly wear down his opponent." My attention turned to Xiaoli's unit card. Health obviously down to 10% but unlike Ren, the buff staff lady had plenty of stamina left over. 

On the other hand, her energy was completely drained, and there was a tiny debuff marker above her health that signified moderate qi exhaustion. Considering I didn't see too many fantasy fire swings during the fight, I had an educated guess for what happened. 

"Xiaoli eventually got used to Ren's pace, letting her catch him off-guard with a sudden burst of her Staff Arts."

Arts being the catch-all term I use as an ignorant disciple to refer to the various forms and attacks directly imbued with qi. Considering my goals lay outside this sect, I only really focused on my own martial arts, so I never bothered to learn the proper names of all the forms of other weapons.

I paused once more, and all attention fell back to Instructor Bei. Well, half-attention from my part; I still needed a third acceptable answer, which meant I quickly refocused on Ren's unit card in case I missed something-

"Which form did Xiaoli use specifically, and what flaws were there in Ren's chosen response?" Bei's voice cut through my thoughts.

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Oh. Uh. I quickly turned my attention back to Xiaoli's unit card. 

The one advantage to the RTS-style framing that my aspect manifested was that you could see all the things you'd expect from a strategy game readout. Or a MOBA game if that's your cup of tea. And while an RTS unit only had a few abilities compared to the insane library cultivators were expected to learn, the fact that my aspect manifested in my mind meant I could still see the entire list of ability levels and their cooldowns.

Fortunately for me, one of Xiaoli's pseudo-ultimate skills was on cooldown, which meant she probably used that as her sudden burst attack. The fact that it had a relatively high energy cost and was at low proficiency made it the most likely art she had just used.

Unfortunately, the art itself was called "Salamander's Threefold Divine Blaze". With a name like that, I wasn't actually sure if it was a technique outer disciples should be familiar with. Yet, the instructor was asking me, which meant that either it was, or I had the wrong skill entirely. 

Not to mention the tooltip didn't give me much to go on if this were the correct art. There's only so much you can glean from "Attacks a single target three times in quick succession for moderate physical damage. If all strikes connect, the target explodes, dealing one additional strike of heavy fire damage in the area and stunning all affected for a short time."

"Well?" Instructor Bei's voice echoed out once more. I turned my full attention to her this time, and was immediately relieved that she still had the same disinterested gaze. She didn't actually expect me to answer the question competently, and I had no desire to defy that expectation. 

Instead of the half-formed excuse I was originally going to come up with, I simply shrugged. "I'm sorry, Instructor. I did not recognize the art Xiaoli used, only that it carried flame."

Silence, coupled with a dismissive huff from someone near the back of the room. A quick glance at my peripheral showed it was from the direction of Xiaoli's fanclub, so I didn't pay much attention to it.

"... Hmm." Instead, my attention was on Instructor Bei's unimpressed stare."And the flaw in Disciple Ren's response?"

Attention back to Ren again. Unfortunately, his sword arts were all off cooldown so I had no easy way of guessing what he used. At best, I could rule out the more destructive arts considering his energy levels and the condition of the arena.

Well, time to vaguely guess again. Ren carried visible scorch marks on his gi, and the damage wireframe from his unit card made it pretty clear where the major strike zones of the ability were focused. The fact that the sparring area was unexploded also meant he didn't completely eat the attack, assuming it was the Salamander art.

"He was caught off-guard by the attack, and couldn't fully deflect it." 

It was my best guess based on how he'd been fighting. Low qi usage meant he went for a conservative play, but Xiaoli's stamina and her staff's defensive techniques allowed her to keep up Ren's stalling tactic. Despite that, Ren still scored more successful hits than Xiaoli could manage, pushing her to use one of her larger skills. She caught him offguard with the first hit, but Ren's clearer focus allowed him to evade and counter. With Qi deprivation sapping her strength, Xiaoli could no longer fight properly and lost the spar.

It wasn't perfect, but it fit well enough.

"... Disciple Guy." The instructor's brow furrowed as apathy twisted into a frustrated glare. It only showed for a few seconds though, before she shook her head in dismissal.

I don't think she liked that answer.

 "You are instructed to sweep the courtyard twice daily at dawn and dusk for the next four weeks."

She really didn't like that answer.

"I shall inform you more of your task later." With that, Instructor Bei turned her attention to the two duelists, expression softening as she informed them that they would both become inner disciples. Attention quickly shifted to the two as they celebrated, giving me ample opportunity to leave since the qualifications were finally done.

Four weeks. It could've been worse, honestly. Not the first time an instructor's assigned chores as detention. 

Still, I should probably make more of an effort to pay attention in the future. Then again, plans for the future waited for no one. I wonder if there's another task the local village needs.

-----

Waking up an hour before dawn is the worst thing ever.

I have no clue how these cultivators do it. My aspect gives me a built-in alarm clock to wake me up, but there's plenty of others already up and about at this unholy hour. In fact, I'm sure the guy doing laps around the outer walls right now was the gate guard last night, which meant his shift didn't end until after midnight, yet he's still diligently sprinting around.

Then again, I guess you could sorta say the same for me, since yesterday's task was its own tedious affair. A local fishing village needed a batch of lumber to replace their rotting pier, then labour to help with the replacement. It wasn't difficult, especially not for a cultivator that's refined qi to a meaningful degree. Still didn't get back to the sect until basically midnight though.

Well, whatever. My situation was slightly different since I'm not exactly practising any techniques or anything like that. I'm content enough to sweep the sect half asleep. 

I know I was technically instructed to just sweep the courtyard, but I've learned to read between the lines with this sort of thing. Not to mention Instructor Bei is the last person you want to pull technicalities with. 

It's not like I hate the task either; the mindless sweeping gives me an opportunity to train more of my Aspect. Multi-tasking was the reason why I barely played strategy games casually, so any chance to train that particular skill is a welcome one.

With a minor shift in qi, my vision quickly splits in two. Half of my sight remained fixed on the falling leaves, while the other found itself staring down at a forested valley south of the sect grounds, passed the Emerald River..

Peering down from the sky, I focused my gaze on a copse of trees within that valley, appraising the five workers foraging the fruits within.

They weren't actual workers, but rather weird qi constructs created by the RTS nature of my Aspect. Formed from the Dao of Human and Labor, these workers were the run-of-the-mill economy units you'd see in any strategy game. Unfortunately, just like any strategy game, they were incapable of independent thought.

Fortunately, their behaviour still followed certain gameplay conveniences. I have to mentally direct them to take certain actions, but once they receive the order they're fully capable of carrying it out. Once I tell them to start foraging, there is no need to manually manoeuvre the workers around to a new tree each time the fruits run out.

Satisfied with how the forage team was operating, I quickly turned my attention to the nearest guard patrol. 

I really wish I could make something other than spearmen as my primary military force. Unfortunately, most of my units were useless at the moment. Because they followed video game conventions, the units my Aspect created fought with video game skill. While blindly swinging weapons at automatons blindly swinging weapons, their predictable attacks were woefully inadequate for actual living creatures that could fight and react. 

As a result, my early unit compositions consisted mostly of spearmen and archers. Spears were simple enough that even blind stabbing could inflict some wounds on beasts, while the archers could still open an engagement by landing a few shots. Better than nothing, but for a good portion of my life, I thought my forces were doomed to inadequacy.

At least until I started learning proper martial spear techniques myself. 

Suddenly, the spearmen I created knew how to use their spear. Instead of blindly poking things, they learned to brace and parry, redirecting straightforward strikes from simple monsters. As I learned how to channel qi, they learned to target critical points in their targets, then to use minor amounts of qi themselves. 

Even my archers learned some hand-to-hand combat.

It was clear that my units' ability to fight was based on my own. That explained why my early units were useless, since I didn't learn how to properly fight until I graduated from fundamentals two years ago. 

Admittedly, it wasn't a perfect transfer of skills. My units were always a grade or so worse than I was, but every little advantage helped, especially if I have to rely solely on them in the future.

My budding army was the main reason why I was aiming for martial techniques rather than information on other sects. Speaking of which, I think I see a demon beast. Time to see how well a squad works against-

"Disciple Guy." 

Oh. Someone's calling me. Time to fire and forget, then. As much as I would've liked to watch the fight, I can always create another squad, and there will always be more demon beasts.

I quickly shrank the viewport of my base area down, before turning to fully face the source of the voice.

Only to find a familiar face staring at me. I guess not all cultivators were morning people. She looked as tired as I felt. "Err... Good morning, Instructor Bei. Can I help you?" 

"What are you doing out here?" She was clearly confused about something, which I didn't understand because she instructed me to be here. "I thought I asked you to sweep the courtyard."

Okay, not here specifically, but still.

"I was going to do that after I finished up here and the pond." A quick mental check of my clock told me it was still 5:30, which meant training wouldn't occur for another hour. "There should be plenty of time, but I can do that right now if you want."

Instead of a response, the senior cultivator simply stared at me for a few seconds, before bringing a palm to her face.

"Right. Of course. Instructor Xuyuan. This was my mistake." At that, she straightened herself once more, shaking off the remains of drowsiness from her face and returning to her ever-present tutor image. "You do not need to sweep the grounds. I was not assigning a chore to you."

Err... Oops? "You weren't?"

"No. I simply needed you to prepare the courtyard. Follow me." At that, she began making her way back into the training area. I had no intention of falling behind. 

Only for her to stop at a corner and turn back to me, arms crossed with another one of her neutral stares. "You left before I could explain the specifics of the arrangement, then failed to answer summons."

"I apologise for misinterpreting your instructions." Not much I could do except give a formal apology. "I also apologise for missing the summons. I had accepted a task from Quliang village.shortly after yesterday's tournament, and the process took longer than expected.

She held the stare for a moment longer, before shaking her head and moving onwards. "There is no need to apologise. It was a minor error on both our parts, and one that shall be rectified shortly."

Well if that didn't sound ominous. Fortunately, Instructor Bei was not the kind of person to be cryptic with words, so it's easy to chalk her words up to simply being overly formal or something. Instead of worrying about it, I quickly followed her back into the courtyard. By now, peaks of orange have begun to flare up the distant sky. Only another twenty minutes or so before dawn. 

With that said, I still wasn't sure what she needed me to sweep this courtyard for, but the sooner I finished the sooner I could go back to playing war games against the not-so-local demonic forest.

"No need." Yet, before I could properly begin my tasks, Instructor Bei's voice rang out once more. "Just for today, I shall prepare the arena."

"...Arena?" 

I slowly turned away from the floor to the woman, not quite sure what to expect, only to be greeted with the sight of her pulling out a fan from thin air. Qi gradually filled the spirit weapon, only for her to give a faint flick of her wrist.

Small swirls of wind immediately began to gather, pulling away dust and debris from the night before. It wasn't a clean job, but it didn't need to be, and after a few moments the courtyard was devoid of detritus.

"Forgive me instructor, but what is the purpose of all this?" I wasn't quite sure what was going on. All I knew was that the broom was apparently no longer needed, which means it goes back to the equipment shed.

Before I could step away however, Instructor Bei gave another casual gesture with her fan. The broom was whisked away, only to be replaced with the training spear I usually used.

...Oh. 

I think I get it now.

"Indeed. There is only one reason to use the training grounds." At that, Instructor Bei unfurls her fan, somehow expanding it from a tiny handheld trinket to an ebony black spear. 

"Ready your stance."