Today was one of their group's training sessions - they switched it up today and so Xiu Shihong would face Li Zhi - it was a pairing that would in theory favor Li Zhi - with her focusing on Water.
This meant that Kou was faced with Hei Tian, they had fought one or two times, which usually ended in Kou being flattened in one or two moves. This time however she had somewhat of a plan.
The fighting started - while Xiu Shihong went all in and started bombarding Li Zhi with spectacular fire attacks... Hei Tian was just looking at Kou with his gentle .. albeit slightly mischievous smile - He always had this when they fought as if he was looking at some cute animal he wanted to tease... It rubbed Kou in all the wrong places.
This time however she had prepared for him, Hei Tian usually used his wind to attack from the distance, grinding you down, before he moved in for the knockout, with Kou who usually needed to close in to do anything at all. This naturally put Hei Tian at an even bigger advantage as his more advanced cultivation already did.
It went like usually - Kou was dashing back and forth while narrowly avoiding blades of wind being shot her way, Hei Tian held a green sword and used his sword to channel his art "Windblast" into a blade, it was an advanced technique. You could say that Hei Tian always had the wind in his back...
While Kou was avoiding back and forth she started to make circles around the boy, she waited and just as he swung his sword down to send another blade after her - she dashed to the side in her hand she held ... a pebble.
Said pebble was thrown as hard as she could - the tiny projectile was too small to be hit by Hei Tian's wind blade - he could not aim at it probably in time and so he had to block it with his real sword.
That was her plan, disrupting his swings to give her the chance to close in on him! And so she did with a few steps she was in range to use jumping shadows - jumping into Hei Tian's own shadow, the unsharpened training daggers in hand she trusted against his unprotected backside.
But Hei Tian was not simple, with a brilliant almost dancer-like move he moved to the side like flowing water, narrowly avoiding Kou's strike. But they were in close combat now - which made Kou able to unleash a flurry of attacks against the boy, Kou's fighting style was unrefined and wild, but she did not mindlessly stab at him either, with one dagger she would always try to keep the boys sword busy while she would lash out with the other against his hands.
Hei Tian masterfully blocked everything, but for the first time in their training he actually seemed to concentrate properly - But the fight was already decided it was something he and Kou knew, both of them just went over to train close combat in their own way for a while.
Until Hei Tian's eyes glowed in a green light - wind gushed from his body pushing Kou into the distance as the boy summoned a miniature tornado around him, Kou was dragged off, she had a nice flight - as she was hauled around 8 meters into the air, the landing, however, was less fun.
She landed on her bum - it was painful but manageable, her large fluffy ears tilted down in a slightly dejected manner as she brooded about where she had made the wrong step, probably she was just not fast enough to do her surprise attack.
Hei Tian sheeted his sword and moved over, helping Kou up - the boy was back to his usual grin. "Once you are in the second realm I will have to try really hard not to be hit!" It was praise.. of course, but Kou felt her pride being struck with Hei Tian sized swords.
She shook it off - a placid smile on her lips "Once... I'm able to use my other art I will.. make you problems already, dun need to be in the second realm for that!" she declared proudly her ears standing ramrod straight.
Hei Tian just chuckled and nodded eagerly "I look forward to it." Then his and Kou's eyes went over to Xiu Shihongs and Li Zhi's fight - Li Zhi was already rather pale - sweat had formed on her forehead - and a good deal of her water shield had been evaporated, Xiu Shihong, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed.
"Careful Zhi - I will throw a big one this time, try to block it - if you can't say so and I will stop it." Their fighting was civil - like you would expect from nobles - none of them were out to hurt the other if they could prevent it, it was simply to hone their combat capabilities and not to hurt each other.
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To the outside world Li Zhi was always a polite slightly shy girl - with Kou and the others her thickheaded nature shone through - she nodded with a determined expression the water in front of her forming into a large floating shield just in front of her. "I'm ready!"
Xiu Shihong casually stretched out her left hand - quickly swirling fire sprang into life around her fingertips - the ball of fire grew quite quickly to be the size of a fully grown horse, Xiu Shihong had exceptional control of her Qi so nothing around it caught on fire.
She fired off the ball with a flick of her hand, it shoots towards Li Zhi's water shield like a bullet, as both of them collided a loud swishing noise could be heard and the training field was quickly turned into a big mist cloud.
They had to wait for it to settle down to see the outcome, Li Zhi was on her knees coughing - she had used too much Qi - in her stubbornness to block the attack, Xiu Shihong was already by her side gently clapping her back "You dummy, you should really listen to me, it does not matter if you can't defend against it fully... "
Li Zhi just grumbled an apologie, the girl was usually so reserved and studious that this complete 180 in combat made all 3 of them suddenly laugh, and Li Zhi exhausted as she was joined in a little later.
Shortly afterward they parted ways - the next training round would be Hei Tian - teaching Kou and Li Zhi how to fight in close combat.
......
In the evening.
Opening up meridians was quite a painful experience...
In the last few lessons, the Elder had gone more into detail as to how they worked and how many there were. A normal body would have 81 normal meridians and 29 spirit meridians. Making 110 in total.
The average cultivator in this empire was in the second realm and had roughly 8 to 10 open meridians, which would give him access to a variety of different arts, many people would use this to strengthen their main element or ability as best as possible.
The more one would focus on a particular element the closer one would come to comprehending the sacred laws of the world behind it, for instance, the desert cultivators in Xiu Shihong's lands had a deep connection to the earth, their meridians were completely attuned to earth.
The strongest of that tribe could feel the vibration of the earth beneath them, they could step into the earth and travel large distances in an instant. This was only a fragment of the power the law of earth would give someone that could fully understand and use it.
That was the biggest reason most people focused on one element or two at most. Opening meridians would become harder and harder the further one went. While one would probably fine with opening 6 Meridians - for arms legs - body and head. It was not a thing someone that would go for bigger hights would be satisfied with.
Over the long history of the empire, there were many people that made it their goal to open all the basic meridians, but the furthest one has ever gotten was around 30 - it was an old sage at the very peak of the core realm - that had to spend all his life on this.
Generally opening Meridians was easy at first, but would become harder the further and older one got, the effort to open 10 and the effort to open 20 would be war from just double, it was more like 100 times more difficult!
Well at least that was what the elder had told them in the lesson, she had recommended that all of them strive to open a meridian in each part of their bodies, that way their Qi would be able to flow through their bodies a lot better - furthering cultivation and reducing stress on the body from using arts.
With this lengthy explanation, Kou's goal for the last couple of days was quite clear - open 4 more meridians.
And this is where we find our current predicament - Kou was currently groveling on the floor holding her head while a splitting pain was assaulting her, she had tried to open the meridian in her head, and failed. What happened after that was that she felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer and found her head to be in need of some remodeling.
All of this happened inside the cultivation room, so Kou's wailing and complaining were unheard by the rest of this cruel world, and she had quite a few words to say to whatever was the cause of her failing. Throwing open the door she went out just to almost fall over.
Xiu Shihong and Li Zhi were currently both here, after the exhausting fight earlier they had settled down for tea and started to chat about God and the world, it mostly involved talking about the different noble's that were currently attending their opinions on them and such.
In short, for Kou it was dreadfully boring.
They had invited her to partake in their talks but Kou was quick to decline that... So when she came out a lot earlier then she was supposed to both girls looked over somewhat confused before both of them started laughing at Kou!
How mean! They looked at her and laughed - Kou right now was a mess - her hair was disheveled her eyes bloodshot and her left eyebrow had a nasty twitch to it - even her fluffy ears were tilted down all the way against her head.
Blowing up her checks and glaring at the girls she moved towards the fireplace, the relaxing warmth of it would do wonders for her head. And while both girls laughed at her - Xiu Shihong quickly moved to make some relaxing tea for Kou while Li Zhi went to get a cushion for Kou to rest her head on, they were friends in the end.. and so Kou forgave them their laughter...