Beside a large lake with a massive bridge spanning its length, a lone mansion with a black roof stood, surrounded by countless fruit trees. Many metal poles were stuck into the grounds beside it, unlit paper lanterns hanging from them. A training ground was close by, a sandy clearing with racks of weapons lined up.

Ying Shi and Mohei ran over from a distance as they followed a stone path, stopping before the mansion.

"Whoaaa!" Mohei said, waving his hands around excitedly.

Meanwhile, 10 metres behind. Baiyun heaved as he ran with all his might. He caught up with them shortly, hunching over with his hands on his knees and wheezing.

His knees were shaky and completely numb, but he suppressed the feeling and channeled his soul to mend his muscles.

"Hm. Not bad." Ying Shi said.

"I did well?" Mohei perked up.

"Not you."

"Eh?"

Baiyun cursed to himself. When Ying Shi and Mohei took off, he had to push himself to his absolute limit to keep up, running out of stamina in a mere 10 minutes.

He puppetted his legs and followed them further into the mansion grounds, taking a better look at the surroundings.

As he examined the metal poles with lanterns, the weapon racks and the fruit trees, he frowned. He hadn't used Divine Touch on them, learning the hard way from before that perhaps attempting to touch everything was a faux pas. But all of these appeared to merely be ordinary mortal items, which puzzled him.

Was it a sign Ying Shi wasn't that valued by his clan, or was even this a massive expense here in the WanLing sect? Baiyun was used to mortal materials being practically worthless; he still didn't have a clear grasp of the economic situation in this world.

Meanwhile, Mohei was very excited.

"Ying Shi, Ying Shi!" he said, pointing everywhere. "This whole mansion belongs to you? All of this?"

"Naturally." Ying Shi said.

"Aaaaaahh, that's so awesome! I'm so jealous, I wish my clan gave me my own secret hideout too!"

"Perhaps after you've proven your value to your clan, they might consider such a thing. Until then, dream on."

"Meanie!" Mohei pouted angrily.

"I speak only the truth."

From Mohei's reaction, It seemed even just this humble mansion was quite a prestige, at least to young masters of their age.

Somehow, despite Ying Shi having had no interest in recruiting Mohei earlier, the two were now bantering away. Baiyun was slightly speechless by how he, the "recruited" had now ended up as the third wheel. He decided to leave the two of them to their conversation and wandered off slightly.

As he approached the massive lake, he suddenly spotted something. Fei An was hanging upside down from the bridge, the ends of her long hair submerged in the water like a paintbrush. Her eyes were focused as her hands reached into the water.

This annoying kid was invited to the hunt too? Baiyun supposed it made sense given her strength.

Ying Shi glanced over in Baiyun's direction, then widened his eyes as he spotted her.

"Fei An, what do you think you're doing?" he yelled.

"Ah!"

Fei An flipped back onto the bridge, flustered.

"I have told you many times. This is a lake of ornamental fish, you are not permitted to fish here!"

Ying Shi walked past Baiyun and onto the bridge, approaching the troublemaker.

"I wasn't planning to eat them! I was going to release them back afterwards!" she protested.

"Fei An. I have made this clear many times. I don't care what your intentions are: Do not harass my fish!"

As the two began to argue, the door of the manor swung open, a young boy running out.

"Fei An! Stop! You're embarrassing me!" he yelled.

"Ah! Jingfeng! I'm not going to listen to your nagging... so... bye!"

With those words, Fei An leapt into the air and flew far into the distance, laughing all the while.

"Come back!" Jingfeng yelled.

But he could only look helplessly as the speck that was Fei An grew smaller and smaller.

"Ying Shi! I'm really sorry about my big sister!" Jingfeng ran over to the two of them, bowing repeatedly in apology.

Ying Shi shook his head and crossed his arms.

"Raise your head," he said. "Why apologise when you're not at fault? This is between me and her."

"But I'm supposed to keep a close eye on her..." Jingfeng mumbled. "Our patriarch heard big sis was causing trouble, so he told me to supervise her..."

"Enough of that." Ying Shi waved his hand, shooing him away. "I have no interest in hearing the ways you blame yourself. "Baiyun, Mohei, it's about time I introduced you to the rest of the team."

"Yay! We're part of the team!" Mohei cheered.

"For now."

"Hmph!"

Ying Shi marched to the mansion with them in tow and opened the door.

"Sorry, Ying Shi!" Jingfeng said. "I need to chase my sister down, so I won't be able to attend."

"No worries." Ying Shi said.

Jingfeng nodded in gratitude then took off. The remaining three entered the mansion.

Inside was a huge room lit with warm orange lamps, various shelves and boxes of miscellaneous supplies lined against every wall possible. 13 youths were gathered, most of them standing around a round table covered in various wooden boards and game pieces, some of them holding bags of tokens. The rest sat to the side, tending to weapons or reading from manuals.

Baiyun noted that 10 of them were dressed in a certain uniform, likely guards of Ying Shi's clan. It seemed to be the guard team Ying Shi wanted to recruit him into. He stared at them doubtfully, noting none of them were older than the disciples they supposedly protected. At such young ages, were they an actual effective group or just a play group formed by a young master's whims?

The uniformed group stood up and bowed toward Ying Shi, who merely nodded.

"You've been taking your sweet time to arrive, I see."

A muscular woman in her twenties approached, crossing her arms. Despite her bulk, she carried herself with mannerisms befitting that of a noble. Amidst the children, she was like a giant that towered over the rest of the group.

"I had matters to attend to, elder sister Yingtao." Ying Shi said. "These two will be joining us on this expedition, Baiyun and Mohei."

Baiyun noted the lady's face had a remarkable resemblance to Ying Shi's. In this case, "elder sister" was quite literal. But her face was far from stoic unlike his; while she wasn't wearing her heart on her sleeves, her face had a slightest inkling of amusement from seeing her little brother.

Her aura was restrained so it was hard to guess her cultivation, but it was strong. He wondered if she was the elder who supervised them.

"Oh?" the woman stared at them.

But while Yingtao did not have much to say, a disciple stood up from the table. He was a young boy with lightning-shaped scars and a tinge of yellow in his black hair. His eyes were full of contempt as he stared at Baiyun and Mohei.

Baiyun recognised him. It was Sanguang, the kid who "beat" a wolf after struggling to prey its mouth open for a whole 10 minutes.

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"A reject and a useless servant." he scoffed. "What are you two doing here?"

Ying Shi didn't answer, but a short young girl who held a long staff looked rather annoyed.

"Do you have to do this every time?" she said.

"It's none of your business, Qinghe!"

Mohei clenched his fist angrily.

"Hmph. You're just jealous because Baiyun scored above you!" he shouted. "And you call me a reject? Fine, let's have a duel then!"

"Ridiculous! He's a weakling who only won because of a fluke!" Sanguang harrumphed. "Since you want a beating, who am I to refuse? Come at me! And you too!"

He made a "come at me" gesture at Baiyun, who sighed. Again with the pointless infighting and duel requests. To think Sanguang would still be holding a grudge over such a small thing. Kids were such a handful.

Baiyun turned to Ying Shi to see his reaction.

For a subordinate to openly question the new members was to question the leader's ability to recruit. Sanguang might have spoken carelessly without thinking, but in Baiyun's eyes, influenced by the strict laws of his old sect, this alone was enough to warrant his removal from the team.

But Ying Shi looked the same as ever, perhaps with even the slightest hint of amusement from the edge of his mouth. Baiyun was baffled.

Yingtao spoke up.

"I suppose it's a good time for each of you to show your capabilities to the team anyway." she said. "Come to the training grounds."

The chaperone was encouraging the fight too? What exactly were those siblings thinking?

Ying Shi led the disciples out, the guards marching behind them. She looked around briefly and confirmed no one was missing, then nodded.

CLAP!

Yingtao let out a dramatic clap and the ground began to rumble, dust billowing to knee level. Earth and soil crumbled, the tip of a massive boulder piercing through much like a bamboo shoot. It continued to rise, until it reached the height of a house.

The boulder had a strong earth scent and was a patchwork of textures grey and brown.

"Whoa!"

Mohei ran up to it and gave it a few slaps, confirming the rock was in fact rock solid.

One of the young guards clapped excitedly with a smile, but no one else was clapping so he awkwardly slowed his hands to a halt. But at the last moment, Mohei began to clap as well. The guard turned over in surprise, then quickened his claps once more.

Yingtao gave them a baffled look briefly before resuming her speech.

"We will demonstrate our strength here. Sanguang, Mohei, I have no interest in you injuring each other, so compete here instead."

"Ehhh?" Sanguang cried out in dismay. "I'm a lightning cultivator, this is an unfair matchup! I want a proper duel, not this!"

Mohei began to laugh.

"What's wrong? Are you scared you'd lose?" he jeered.

"Shut up! Your fire attacks won't do much either!"

Yingtao flicked both of them on the forehead. Baiyun nodded. It seemed he had misunderstood her earlier.

"Ack!"

"I'm not letting you roast each other alive with fire and lightning. Just suck it up." she said.

"Grrrr..."

Neither of the two seemed happy, but Yingtao began to glare which quickly shut them up.

Baiyun meanwhile frowned as he examined the boulder. With its irregular composition of whatever happened to be beneath the ground, he would certainly find many weak points with Divine Touch. But he wasn't strong enough to do much even with that advantage.

With his meagre strength, it took him thousands of attacks merely to chip a wall of Undying Basalt. Even if this boulder was nowhere as strong, he wouldn't exactly look good if it took him 10-30 attacks to remove a few chunks from the wall.

"Who will go first?" Yingtao asked.

The clapping guard raised his hand almost too eagerly.

"Master Yingtao, let me demonstrate!"

Perhaps eager to wash off his embarrassment from earlier, he rushed to a weapon rack and grabbed a halberd. He spun it in his hands and stirred the winds slightly, blurring the weapon into a whirling white circle.

"Hah!"

He yelled as he leapt high into the air, slamming the halberd downwards! A loud bang echoed through the air as half the weapon sunk into the boulder. He winced as the impact shook his hands violently, the pole of the halberd visibly vibrating, but he barely held on before letting go.

Baiyun looked serious as he stared at the spider-webbing cracks on the boulder. Even if the kid made use of gravity and momentum, not to mention an unrealistic attack that was easy to dodge in actual combat, this was quite the firepower for a Qi Gatherer.

He hadn't confirmed the guard's cultivation stage, but somehow he got the feeling the guard was still far from the Foundational stage.

"Not bad." Yingtao said.

Not bad? Baiyun frowned. Were all the disciples here as monstrous?

One by one, the guards demonstrated their skills, damaging the boulder to a similar extent. The tall boulder was covered in cracks, multiple weapons sticking out of it. By now, the entire boulder was covered in cracks, seemingly about to shatter at any moment.

Baiyun took back his words. Despite their age, these were all fairly competent guards.

Yingtao gestured to Ying Shi, and he nodded back.

"The guards are done demonstrating. Baiyun, you're up first!" Ying Shi said.

First again? The guards had already softened the rocks, but Baiyun was still dismayed. He touched the boulder and activated Divine Touch.

The cracks had spread through the boulder a lot. There was a huge fault that looked promising, but if he split the entire boulder in a single blow, it would cause an uproar! If they overestimated him, he would likely be placed on the front line of their formation, putting himself into needless danger.

Baiyun was staring hard at the weapon rack when Jingfeng's shout suddenly rang out.

"Sorry! It took a while for me to find her!"

High in the air, Jingfeng ran over with a lasso in hand, dragging Fei An along as she floated disgruntledly.

"Ahaha! Fei An, he turned you into a kite!" Mohei laughed.

Fei An suddenly rushed towards him, yanking Jingfeng forward until he fell forward.

"Eek!" Mohei yelped.

"Big sis!" Jingfeng yelled.

"Yeah? I'll turn you into a kite too!" Fei An grinned devilishly. "Take this- Ow!"

Ying Shi suddenly flicked her on the forehead, interrupting the floating spell she was about to cast on Mohei.

"Enough." Ying Shi said. "Demonstrations have begun."

He pointed to the side, where the disciples and guards were waiting their turn.

"Not fair." Fei An grumbled. "Only adults are supposed to be able to do the finger flick! You're not any older than me! Not fair! Not fair! Cheater!"

"I have never heard of such a rule." Ying Shi said.

Fei An was about to argue, but Jingfeng got up from the ground and dragged her away, wiping the mud from his scowling face.

Baiyun watched the farce speechlessly. Having dealt with troublesome young disciples in his past life, he could empathise with Jingfeng.

At the same time, he had finally made his decision. He reached out and grabbed a bow and quiver.

He didn't have the physical strength of the disciples here, but even if his arrows couldn't dig far into the hide of spirit beasts, it would at least serve as support.

Baiyun imagined a quick scenario. As a spirit beast rushed towards a disciple carrying a mace, he released an arrow aimed at its eye. The beast panicked and dodged, leaving an opening for the disciple to bash its skull in!

He nodded to himself. It wasn't flashy, but the most realistic way he could make himself useful given his current strengths. And most importantly, firing arrows from the back was the safest bet.

Alchemy was an art that required the most precise of hand movements, the balance of elements and the most delicate of qi control. Even the smallest of mistakes could lead to catastrophic failure, even cauldron explosions in the worst case.

Compared to that, how difficult could using a simple bow be?

He slotted an arrow into his bow confidently.

"A bow? What's that going to do against a boulder?" Sanguang laughed.

But Baiyun didn't answer. He was going to aim at the hilt of every weapon, striking all of them sequentially.

He aimed the arrow and closed an eye; a strange air of focus came into the air. The other disciples grew silent, sensing his seriousness.

Whoosh!

The arrow shot through the air, piercing it in a perfectly straight line. There was no thud of stone being stuck, only the faint whisper of wind.

Baiyun turned away.

"What happened? Did he pierce the entire boulder somehow?" Mohei gasped.

"No." Ying Shi said. "He missed."

Yingtao, who had remained composed until now suddenly burst into laughter. Hearing her, the other disciples began to laugh as well.

Baiyun's eyes twitched. He thought he had aimed that perfectly, but the string bounced in an unexpected way, sending the arrow veering off course!

"It's the first time I've used a bow in my life." Baiyun coughed.

Tsk... if only he had practiced with the bow before this...

"Then why'd you use it?" Mohei asked.

Baiyun was silent. It wasn't as if he could say he was overconfident and assumed aiming a bow would be child's play.

Sanguang was laughing the hardest, jeering at Baiyun with childish taunts.

"Baiyun, go beat him up! He only knows how to say stupid things!" Mohei yelled.

But Baiyun had little interest in fighting a kid over petty squabbles. He turned to Ying Shi, who seemed indifferent. He still wasn't going to do anything?

Seeing Baiyun's questioning look, Ying Shi finally turned over.

"Do you expect me to resolve your conflicts? Resolve it yourself through battle." Ying Shi scoffed.

His sister sighed and shook her head.

Baiyun frowned. From how resigned Yingtao looked, it didn't seem like she planned to stop him. Did this kid have a screw loose? What sane person would encourage their team to bicker and fight?

"Ying Shi." he said. "Your sister told us not to duel, or we'd injure each other."

"Don't worry." Ying Shi said. "I'll pay for the recovery elixirs."

Baiyun was left speechless.

"What's wrong? Chickening out?" Sanguang said.

Baiyun stared at him, then at his own bow. He thought to himself for a moment. If practice was what he needed...

"Fine. You're on."

Baiyun picked up the bow again but picked a quiver full of padded arrows this time. His aim might not be there yet, but it seemed a practice target had offered itself to him.

He didn't feel any anger towards Sanguang, but something within seemed to compel him. Something he didn't understand.