Baiyun sat in silence as the elder bandaged his leg. He let his eyes water slightly, but he did not cry. Even if he was playing the role of a strong-willed child, being completely unfazed by such a huge wound might seem odd.
Medicinal substances from the bandages bound tightly to his leg seeped in. It stung, but his wounds stopped bleeding and began to heal.
A slight distance away, the little wolf whimpered as one of the large wolves levitated a bottle in the air, feeding it a red elixir of sorts.
Bayun looked at Guan Qiang's slightly frowning face. He could not tell what the man was thinking, but he tried his best to guess.
Was the elder disappointed? He had not won through strength nor combat talent, but a lucky sneak attack at the last second. What he showed was far from enough to defeat the spider. Wild beasts weren't suicidal; if they grew injured, they would flee like the serpent did.
If the elder thought he killed that spider alone, this meagre level of strength must have been disappointing.
Guan Qiang wrapped the last of the bandages around Baiyun's leg. His expression suddenly turned into a smile.
"Good work. It seems Earthy took interest in you for good reason, huh?" he said.
Baiyun was baffled but he nodded. Was that just a front?
Guan Qiang walked off after those words.
"Mohei, you are up next!"
"Y-yes!" Mohei shouted.
He no longer seemed as confident, hesitating slightly. Mohei glanced at Baiyun as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself. He grabbed a spear just as tall as he was from the weapon rack, then marched onto the square and faced another wolf.
"I'm ready!" he shouted.
Guan Qiang nodded, counting down from five quickly.
"Fight!"
Mohei brandished the spear and pointed it towards the wolf. But it was not as eager as the previous, circling the boy cautiously instead of pouncing. Perhaps it feared suffering the same fate as its sibling.
"Hmph. Coward!" Mohei harrumphed as he swung his spear in an arc.
He rushed forward and thrust his spear! But the wolf was just as quick as the previous; it tilted its head and dodged easily. At that moment, Mohei's eyes grew focused.
He took a quick step forward and winded his arm, punching the wolf to the side of its head. A huge burst of flames erupted from his hand with a loud bang, blasting the wolf away from the sheer force! The winds roared as smoke and dust swirled around the arena.
The wolf was sent flying and slammed into the ground with a tumble, bouncing several times if it were a stone being skipped. A few of its fellow wolves stepped to the side to dodge its disgraceful tumble.
"Whoaaaaa!" the children cheered.
Baiyun wasn't surprised by their reaction. Mohei's attack was a spectacle to behold in comparison to his dull moves.
Mohei finally relaxed, turning to smile at his fellow disciples.
"Hehe! These wolves are no match for me!" he said happily, swinging his spear in the air.
But the silhouette of the wolf stood back up amidst the dust. Flashes of light shone through the cloud, the sound of crackling lightning echoing as it approached. Two white eyes of qi materialised on its eyeless helmet, shining through the smoke.
"Awoooooooo!" the wolf howled indignantly.
"What?" Mohei took a step back in dismay.
Baiyun wondered if he forgot Guan Qiang's words; the armour of the wolves could guard against even Foundational attacks.
The wolf emerged from the cloud with arcs of lightning rushing through its armour. Every step it took charred the ground slightly, burnt black pawprints dotting the path it walked.
Guan Qiang laughed.
"I'm here to teach martial arts. But if you choose to use magic, my wolves are happy to indulge you!"
"That's not fair!" Mohei cried. "You didn't warn me!"
The wolf did not give him time to breathe, lunging at him while he was distracted talking to the elder. Mohei Baiyun watched in silence as the two fought and shook his head.
Mohei was beginning to toss out spell after spell and hardly relying on martial arts now. There was nothing to glean from his amateurish magic. Baiyun wasn't a dedicated spellcaster, but Alchemy was a field that required a decent mastery of spells and qi control.
He turned away and tended to his leg instead, no longer interested in the prolonged fight. His hands carefully massaged his leg to get more of the medicinal paste to soak in. At the same time, he controlled his qi and circulated it from his dantian through his blood vessels. His leg no longer hurt. It seemed a numbing herb was part of the bandage's ingredients.
Fire and lightning flashed in the background, nothing but annoying distractions.
Baiyun reached strands of soulsense into the bandages and examined the composition of the bandages slowly. The ingredients of the medicinal paste were all herbs of this world, unfamiliar to him.
But he could recognise the essences within. Essences were part of the universe's building blocks. From the most mundane mud to the grandest trees, every material had essence in them. Even if the herbs were alien to him, essences would never lie.
Numbing wood, Mending Wood, Earthsoul essence. Within this bandage were quite a few interesting essences, perfect for certain pills...
Baiyun quickly shook off that thought. To even contemplate using bloodstained bandages as a pill ingredient; where did his pride as an alchemist go? He sighed.
He heard a thud as Guan Qiang suddenly sat next to him, stirring up the dust slightly.
"What's wrong? Feeling demotivated?"
The Martial Elder's massive hand suddenly patted Baiyun on the back.
"Do not avert your eyes. Grit your teeth and show your spirit!" Guan Qiang said. "He is your competitor, so watch closely as he fights."
Baiyun nodded speechlessly. It seemed the elder had mistaken his sigh for something else.
With the elder beside him, he looked up once more and saw Mohei facing the wolf. He was covered in scratches and breathing heavily, battered down by the fight.
The wolf was uninjured due to its armour, continuing to rush at Mohei and swiping its lightning-imbued claws. Perhaps fearing what happened to the previous pup, it did not open its mouth even once.
"Fire explosion!" Mohei roared.
His eyes began to glow bright red and his pupils vanished. Mohei tossed his spear ahead and raised his arms into the air, summoning a massive ball of flames as tall as he was! But the wolf merely stood there haughtily.
"Hah!"
Mohei shouted as he tossed the huge fireball onto the wolf. The spell exploded with a loud boom, distorting the air and melting the earth, sending smoke and red embers in every direction. A few of the spectating disciples yelled and ducked, but a faint barrier materialised around the combatants, keeping the spectators safe.
Guan Qiang chuckled.
"A spectacle, isn't it? Do you envy his ability to use magic?"
Baiyun was slightly miffed, but after a moment of thinking, he decided to nod.
The elder snapped his finger and dispelled the barrier as the last of the embers died down. With a wave of his hands, the smoke and debris were blown away instantly, revealing the two fighters.
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Mohei heaved, his footsteps unsteady. His robes were soaked with sweat, sparks of lightning lingering and arching around his skin. Finally, he toppled backwards onto the ground with his eyes rolled into whites. The boy was unconscious.
The wolf turned around and ran back to the big wolves. It looked up at them proudly and wagged its tail.
"Look at his unsightly state. Magic might be powerful, but there are limits to it. What will you do once your qi is exhausted?" the elder said. "The beauty of magic sways many, but only your body will be ever reliable!"
Ridiculous! Baiyun nodded, but held back a frown.
He had no plans to become purely a body cultivator. Even if he didn't have meridians, he was certain there were still ways to use spells somehow. It made no sense to abandon one of his past life's expertises.
This fight was unfair to begin with, since all attacks from the disciples would be shrugged off by the armour. Mohei throwing his strongest spells was useless, since he was ultimately still just a Qi Gathering cultivator.
If Mohei was smarter, he would fend off the wolves attack with physical strength until it exhausted itself. Since the wolf wasn't willing to reveal its weak spot by opening its mouth, all he achieved was exhausting himself by using flashy attacks that did no damage.
Wait. Baiyun had a realisation. Was that the intentional way to win this trial, the armour there solely to discourage the disciples from using magic? He turned to look at the elder.
"Work hard and show them even a servant without magic can succeed. Those kids could use a little humbling." Guan Qiang said. "Even if you can't cultivate qi, the path of Body Cultivation is still open to you."
He took out another vial of body strengthening elixir and passed it to Baiyun.
"Thank you, elder!"
Baiyun put on a smile and accepted the elixir with a grateful nod. Even if it was a misunderstanding, he was still going to shamelessly take it.
Meanwhile, a few disciples laughed as they grabbed Mohei's unconscious body by the feet, dragging him away.
"Ah." Guan Qiang suddenly realised he had been distracted. "The wolf wins!"
Baiyun shook his head as he watched the elder chase off the mischievous disciples, tending to Mohei's injuries.
Soon, the rest of the fights began. Most of the disciples had little skill with martial arts and some still insisted on using magic, so there was little to learn from them. But Baiyun watched anyway, not wanting another talk from the elder.
But he was suddenly caught off guard by one of the matches.
A muscular young boy with walked up onto the field. His hair was neatly shaven, only a single step away from being bald. If not for his height, his face would make him mistakable for a grown man.
He grabbed a random sword and used metal qi to mould it into a ball, then tossed it aside. The wolf now had permission to use its lightning. But the boy rushed towards the wolf, punching and kicking at the wolf relentlessly!
The wolf howled and tried to fight back, but the boy did not give up despite the lightning burns and bruises covering him. For the next few minutes, the disciples watched in horror as he pummelled the wolf endlessly, until the wolf was knocked unconscious by the repeated impacts shaking the armour.
"Ying Shi wins!" Guan Qiang announced.
Baiyun's eyes twitched. The disciples here had only enrolled for a month, but this kid had definitely been training long before then! Mohei likely had prior training as well, but it was not that exaggerated.
A few uninteresting fights passed. Tearful disciples began to litter the training grounds, covered in bandages like Baiyun. Some laid on the ground listlessly.
The young girl from before, who complained they hadn't been training enough, walked up with a grin. In her hands she held an absurdly long meteor hammer, two mace heads tied together with a 3-metre long metal rope.
"I'm Fei An! I'll show you all how it's done!"
She rushed towards her wolf with a maniacal grin, shrouded by a cloud of wind. The wolf howled and imbued its body with lightning, but she was too fast for the wolf to claw or bite, dodging its every attack. She was the first disciple actually faster than the wolves!
Fei An grinned as she tossed the meteor heads into the air and tugged on the metal rope. They spun through the air violently, turning into a silver blur that stirred up the very wind! The disciples backed away, frightened by the sheer momentum of her weapon.
The wolf growled cautiously, but it was caught off by a strike to its underside that sent it flying into the air. Fei An struck the wolf repeatedly with precise hits, not letting it even touch the ground. It was as if she was juggling a toy! The wolf could only howl pitifully and whine as it tumbled in the air helplessly.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" she laughed.
Finally, it let out a strange high pitched howl. One of the giant wolves leapt into the air and snatched the little wolf away. It had surrendered!
"The wolf resigns. Fei An wins!"
Baiyun nodded. It seemed there were a few incredibly talented disciples in this group! For children in qi gathering, those two were quite the talents. It made him almost interested in seeing more fights.
Unfortunately, there were no other skilled disciples. But there was one more amusing fight.
A kid imbued his body with lightning, then rushed over to the wolf and grabbed it by the head! The wolf activated its lightning as well, but neither of them hurt each other with their lightning.
"Hnnnn!"
The kid grabbed the wolf by the mouth of its helmet, pulling with all his might until his face turned red. The wolf let out muffled grunts of anger, not wanting to let the kid open its mouth either. It tried to claw at him, but its legs were far too stubby. It tried to distance itself, but the kid was grabbing its face too firmly!
For nearly 10 minutes, they remained locked in a stalemate, both grunting in exertion until Sanguang finally managed to pry its mouth open, shoving a shield into its mouth! He was much more merciful with his choice of weapon than Baiyun.
"Awoooo!"
Guan Qiang watched speechlessly.
"The wolf resigns... Sanguang wins!"
...
The rest of the fights ended uneventfully.
Guan Qiang gathered Baiyun, Fei An and Ying Shi in front of the other disciples.
"Well done to the top 3! The rest of you, train harder and try again next time!" he shouted.
Sanguang grumbled to the side, glaring at Baiyun resentfully.
"Fei An, 1st place! Your reward is a Wind-Striped Pear."
"Yay!"
She snatched it from his hand and scarfed it down immediately, like a starving wild animal. Guan Qiang didn't even have time to announce the next winner.
"Ying Shi, 2nd place! Your reward is a Purpleheart Ore."
"Many thanks, elder." Ying Shi bowed as he received the ore.
"And lastly, Baiyun! Your reward is a Rock Ginseng Pill."
"Thank you, elder!"
Baiyun nodded as he received the pill. His divine touch scanned it, and he was delighted. This was actually quite useful! He noted he was the only one who received a complete product, rather than a rare ingredient.
Perhaps it was because the other two were disciples of prestigious families, who could refine the ingredients into better things... at least if Fei An didn't immediately devour the "treat". Eating such a precious ingredient without processing it into a pill or elixir was such a waste. Baiyun's heart ached slightly.
"Combat practice is over! Return to regular training, we will have a spar with the wolves again next week."
The disciples let out dismayed groans.
"But teacher, we are all injured..."
"I want to go home!" another kid cried.
But Guan Qiang's stern eyes immediately shut them up, and the disciples reluctantly resumed training. Baiyun looked at his wounded leg and realised it had mostly healed by now. So he stood and trained with the disciples as well.
Regular training was not as exciting as the spar against the wolves. The disciples merely performed various routines from the book, punching and kicking the air endlessly. Baiyun wondered if training would be more effective with a straw dummy as an actual target.
Guan Qiang would correct some of the inaccurate movements from a few disciples occasionally, but for the most part, he sat on the dingy wooden chair and read a manual silently. It seemed the elder really used that chair... Baiyun was speechless, not understanding why the elder didn't buy a better one.
Hours passed as the disciples trained gruellingly and the sun soon set.
"Disciples, you are dismissed!" Guan Qiang said.
He returned to the temple immediately after, leaving only his chair behind.
But Baiyun was not done training yet. With the heightened senses of his soul, he could sense the state of his body to its most minute detail. Physical training was to let muscles wear and tear, then rebuilding themselves to be stronger than before. His arms and legs were numb, but he could tell some of his other muscles had yet to be pushed to their limit.
Some of the disciples stayed, watching what Baiyun was up to, but most left. But none of them talked to him. He supposed the children saw him as strange. Even Mohei remained silent, though he did approach with a conflicted expression, before running off.
Soon, he was the only one remaining.
It was night by the time he stopped, the skies above now pitch black. Baiyun panted and wiped off his sweat. At this point, all that kept his arms moving was the qi coursing within his blood vessels. It was as if he was a limp body, puppeted around by strings of qi from within.
Baiyun reached into his bag and pulled out the Rock Ginseng Pill, popping it into his mouth. Unlike the body elixirs, he didn't feel the need to save it for the future. He chewed the pill into a paste, before pulling out a water gourd and spitting the destroyed pill into it.
It was undignified and unsanitary, but it was needed to extract the full potential of the pill. Unlike the body of a cultivator, his mortal body would struggle to absorb the pill directly. Baiyun gave the gourd a good shake and left it to sit for 30 minutes, before drinking several mouthfuls.
He sat down and crossed his legs into the lotus position, closing his eyes and focusing.
The WanLing servants had earth constitutions, not uncommon amidst the servants of most sects. Earth bodies were physically strong and resistant to impurities, ideal for servants.
Baiyun slowly refined the pill water within his stomach, pushing the impurities further down his digestive system to be passed out later. It would be better if he spat out the impurities, but he didn't want to risk it under the watchful eyes of the sect's spirits. He carefully aligned and smoothed his muscle fibres with his soul, channelling the essence of the pill into them.
As the last of the pill essence in his stomach was absorbed, Baiyun repeated the process and drank more mouthfuls from his "makeshift elixir".
Finally, an hour later, the gourd bottomed out. Baiyun poured a little water from a different gourd in and gave it a quick shake to rinse it, before drinking it. The pill was now fully consumed.
It was late at night and he was still far from home.
Baiyun looked at the ground, then at Guan Qiang's creaky chair wordlessly. After contemplating for a minute, he decided it was still better to sleep on the chair than the dirty ground. He reluctantly sat on it and leaned his head back.
"Ah! Baiyun! Don't sleep yet!" the light spirit's voice called out.
Baiyun opened his eyes and turned over in surprise.
"I was looking for you all night!" the spirit cried. "But I saw you were taking an elixir, so I waited for a moment."
"Ah."
Hopefully him consuming the pill in such an optimal way was not suspicious. Baiyun suddenly remembered something and reached into his bag, pulling out the two body elixirs and handing them to the spirit.
"Can you help me hold onto these? I think I want to train more before I drink them." he said.
"Eh?"
The light spirit took them, but she was confused for a moment.
"We haven't met in a day, and you immediately tell me to hold onto something for you?" she said in disbelief.
"Hehe." Baiyun smiled innocently.
"Fine, I'll safeguard them for you." she said. "Now, let's go home! Don't just sleep on a chair here! Have you even eaten yet today?"
Baiyun nodded helplessly as the spirit lectured him. He really had forgotten to eat anything today! A mortal's body truly was troublesome.
She picked him up and flew to the canteen, ushering him in. After a quick meal there and a few grain balls as a snack, he was sent home.
He removed the bandages around his leg and stashed them into his bag, before lying on bed and letting his body sleep. It was quite comfortable after a day of hard work.