Shao spent most of the next few days in the forest. On the first day, he collapsed in exhaustion after throwing just three Crashing Stars and had to drag himself back to the village. On subsequent days, he made sure to space out his uses of the martial technique such that he would not immediately run out of stamina. He found that, as long as he gave himself at least thirty minutes to rest between usage of Crashing Star, he would not collapse. Through this more subdued pace, Shao was able to use the martial technique fifteen times on the second day.

By far, Shao’s least favorite aspects of his training regiment were the frequent muscle aches. When he woke up every day, he had to spend several minutes stretching just to return his body to full mobility. On the morning of the third day of Shen Jian’s visit to Bluecrest, Shao spent nearly half an hour in bed struggling mightily against the numbness in his legs before he gained enough strength to stand.

On the other hand, Shao’s favorite aspect of training was the solitude it afforded. Most teenagers his age weren’t comfortable with solitude, but he had a lot of experience being alone with his own thoughts. On the whole, Shao had spent most days of his life fishing, which was an exceedingly solitary experience. Even when he went fishing with Lin Daiyu, they spent the vast majority of the time sitting in silence.

Standing alone in the forest, swinging his iron staff at unprotected trees and rocks reminded Shao of the countless days he spent fishing from the docks of Bluecrest or the Lin family boat. No villagers sat there watching him train with their expectations of greatness and their anxiety that he would not be able to protect them.

After several days, all the attention the villagers were giving Shao was starting to grate on his psyche. Previously, his interactions with most of the villagers were subdued by familiarity, but now his interactions with the villagers were paired with hospitality bordering on supplication. By the gods, people were bowing to him. Shao was happy to remove himself from the awkwardness of that shifted paradigm whenever possible.

He was especially grateful for the solitude because it meant he wouldn’t have to speak to Shen Jian. Every conversation between the two cultivators always quickly turned into a verbal sparring match. There was just something about Shen Jian’s demeanor and disposition that rubbed Shao the wrong way.

On the fourth day, several scrolls appeared on the threshold of the Lin family’s front door. When Shao opened them, he found that they held visual diagrams for staff fighting. Though he was greatly annoyed at the prospect of receiving a gift from Shen Jian, he begrudgingly integrated the staff techniques into his daily training regime.

Despite himself, Shao found the scrolls very useful. Through the use of those scrolls, he was able to transform his daily staff training from wild flailing to something resembling a controlled fighting style. He learned how to use the momentum of the spinning staff to change the angle of his attack and swing from a different direction.

One of the diagrams showed how to switch his grip mid-attack and use the staff like a spear. Shao tested this technique on the trunk of a tree and ended up embedding the staff deep in the tree’s wooden core. He was only able to wrench the staff free after several minutes of concerted effort.

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On the fifth day, Shao woke up in the morning with a familiar ache in his muscles. That day, however, the feeling was not nearly as strong as the day before, even though he had used Crashing Star eighteen times the previous day. Shao smiled widely as he rotated his shoulders and lifted himself out of bed. His body must have been acclimating well to the strain of the Crashing Star technique.

Just as he had done the previous few days, Shao spent the first few minutes of the day in his room, half-dressed and stretching his body as the ache of the past day’s activity faded.

He was still stretching when he heard Lin Daiyu call him from his home’s living room. “Lin Shao! Come out here!”

At a volume that his grandmother couldn’t possibly hear, Shao grumbled in annoyance as his stretching was interrupted. As he slid his pants on, he said, “I’ll be there in a second, Granny Daiyu.”

He looked over to his shirt but decided that putting it on would be too much of a hassle. Full mobility had not yet returned to his arms, so it would be difficult and uncomfortable for him to fit his arms through his sleeves. Figuring that pants alone would be sufficient clothing to wear in his own home, he opened the door to his room and entered the living room.

Sitting in the living room were Lin Daiyu and Chu Peijing, each sitting at the table in the center of the room with a cup of tea in front of them. They drank from two ceramic cups that were recently gifted to Shao by Patriarch Guanyu himself.

As Chu Peijing saw Shao exit his room, she started blushing, and she quickly averted her eyes from Shao’s half-naked body. Seeing the girl sitting there, Shao stood up straight and bowed in her direction. He said, “Welcome, Chu Peijing. Granny Daiyu, you didn’t tell me we had a visitor.”

Not bothering to look at her grandson, Lin Daiyu said, “I’m not your servant just because you’re a cultivator. She has a message for you.”

For reasons that eluded Shao’s understanding, Chu Peijing refused to raise her eyes from the tea as she said, “The honorable Shen Jian wishes to speak to you. He says there is a threat to the village that requires your attention.”

“There’s nothing honorable about that bastard,” Shao spat before thinking.

Chu Peijing looked up from her tea for a moment with an offended look on her face. “Don’t speak so negatively of him. He has been nothing but kind to me and the people of Bluecrest.”

The fervor of her response only lasted a moment before she once more averted her eyes from the visceral muscle of Shao’s abdomen.

“Well, he hasn’t been very…” Shao opened his mouth to contradict Chu Peijing’s statement, but he couldn’t think of a good argument that wasn’t a lie. He couldn’t recall any particular instance of Shen Jian mistreating him. Even Shen Jian’s suggestion that someone else in Shigong Temple would order the destruction of Bluecrest Village wasn’t exactly a threat. He couldn’t even really complain about the kidnapping, since he attacked Shen Jian first.

Shao couldn’t point to any particular event that captured his dislike for Shen Jian, but that didn’t lessen his disdain. Shao couldn’t stand Shen Jian’s insistence that he become his student and his complete disregard for Shao’s opinion on the matter.

Seeing Chu Peijing’s obvious discomfort, Lin Daiyu looked up from the fishing line she was checking for any damage. She saw Lin Shao, causing her frown to deepen. “Go put a shirt on! You’re making the girl uncomfortable!”

Lin Daiyu waved her hands, indicating for Shao to return to his room. Warded away by the mighty technique of his grandmother, the genius cultivator returned to his room and put a shirt on.