Shen saw Liya's physical form as mana and Laws, but emotion-wise, nothing had changed. There was attraction, interest, and respect. A little regret, too.
He hid those feelings at once. Public displays of emotion helped your enemies understand you, and being understood was a weakness that could be exploited. However, he didn't plan on suppressing his feelings again—not unless there was a great reason to.
"Here," she said, throwing a fresh set of clothes his way. They were just like the ones he had been wearing.
He didn't feel embarrassed by his nakedness. His body was his Path, and there was no need to feel ashamed of what he was. Yet, he understood following social conventions would make many interactions easier.
"Thanks," Shen replied while he put his clothes on.
His new perspective on the world after ranking up made him astonished at how much Liya liked him. He couldn't imagine even discussing romance with a D-rank when he was like that. He felt way, way too different from his previous self. Yet, she had risked her life for a possible future with him.
Of course, she was a Guardian, not a cultivator. But she was also B-rank. He was sure her mind was still beyond him.
That realization filled his heart with gratitude and another warm feeling. In finding how impossible their relationship had been from the beginning, he also found himself liking her more than ever.
Was this what commoners called forbidden love?
"You're welcome," Liya said with an awkward nod.
Shen was astonished again for noticing why she was uncomfortable: she could guess what was going through his head and feared what he would think of her. The awkwardness would be unnoticeable by anyone unfamiliar with her or not at C-rank or higher. It was shown in the slight stiffness of her neck movement, the muscles infinitesimally more taunt than they should be, the very Laws inside her...
Oh!
Shen realized his aura also made him much, much more perceptive to everything, especially Laws. Maybe... Maybe even she didn't realize she was revealing that much to him. He would have to talk to her about it later.
For now, he pulled his aura into himself, lest it was considered an attack on a random approaching participant he didn't notice in time. Although Liya didn't seem affected by his aura, it was currently fueled by Laws, and even his Concept-fueled aura could make E-ranks afraid.
Liya continued, "I teleported you away so the tribulation wouldn't destroy the palace. It could've hurt someone, and you might've been killed as punishment."
Shen smiled slightly and clasped his hands before him, bowing his head in a proper cultivator gesture. "Thank you. Sorry for the trouble and for the lightning bolt. Were you hurt?"
"No. But we can talk later. The fourth demonstration was delayed for three months because of you. No one wants to wait for even a second more. Are you ready?"
Three months? The tribulation and breakthrough had taken much longer than he expected.
Shen raised an eyebrow at her question. "Only an idiot would say they were ready after their very existence changed. You taught me too well for that."
She chuckled, and he was teleported away without further ado.
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Shen reappeared on one side of an enormous sandstone platform in the middle of the ocean.
Demonstration #3 of 5: Remembrance and Rebuilding
In every demonstration until now, you were shown the weaknesses of your talent.
#1 - Aiming for the wrong thing will see you accomplish nothing.
#2 - Overestimating yourself will kill you. Though you might luck out and find help, you can't always achieve everything you want alone.
Now, we want to help you understand your limits and fix them.
Talents are known for rushing ahead of their peers, often leading to shaky foundations and undetected weaknesses. Shaky foundations mean unstable power and the inability to bring your full power to bear. This is bad for their survival, which is both a personal and strategic issue.
Talents do the impossible, but no amount of talent can bring them from the dead. Corpses help no one.
In this demonstration, you will fight every other participant one-on-one at least once.
At first, the strongest participants will be matched against their equals. They will be allowed to use any weapons or abilities except those that can injure the soul. There is no need to hold back; anyone who is injured or killed will be healed or given a new body as powerful as their previous one by the Guardian System.
Then, their power will be progressively sapped. They will fight using standardized armor and weaponry. That will level the ground and make other participants their equals. They will all fight against each other, including those who already fought, but this time with less power. Things will like that progress until everyone is at G-rank.
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After everyone fights everyone at G-rank, all participants will move in the opposite direction. Your power will progressively increase until each participant stops at their current power level.
Use this opportunity to compare yourself to others, find your weaknesses, and improve yourself.
All participants will have one Standard hour before and after each fight to talk to their opponents and trade insights.
All participants will have at least one Standard hour between matches to consult with their mentors for pointers.
SCORES:
Throughout this demonstration, including during battle, each participant can enumerate the issues they found in their foundations.
Each correct finding will be rewarded points based on how important we find them, and each incorrect one will incur a loss of points.
Any improvement will also be rewarded with points based on how good we find that solution to be. Improvements that fix previously pointed issues will reward more points.
Lastly, you can gain points for winning a fight. You will win extra points by exploiting an opponent's foundational weakness. You'll receive extra points if you inform your opponent about their issue at least one Standard minute before exploiting it.
BEWARE:
TRADING INFORMATION IS FORBIDDEN IN ANY FORM, BE IT AMONG PARTICIPANTS OR MENTORS. THE ONLY EXCEPTION IS EXCHANGING IDENTIFIED ISSUES.
That demonstration sounded very, very interesting.
Shen had gone through something similar during his Path Idealization when his power greatly decreased. However, he hadn't been able to fight with his decreased power. There was likely much to gain from that demonstration, especially after his breakthrough.
The networking opportunity was also great, and Shen couldn't stress enough how important he believed the lack of trade to be. If not for that prohibition, the entire thing could become a messy political game.
Not that politics weren't already part of it. Pointing out Sapphire's weaknesses to help her notice issues with her foundations could already gain someone some goodwill from her A-rank mentor. Likewise, hiding it could have repercussions. Whether anyone would dare to offend the A-rank depended on how good the rewards were. It was a risk-reward game.
Even so, avoiding that was impossible, so he welcomed the effort made by the infinity-edgers—or maybe Liya.
Prize Pool
The reward for this demonstration will be a mentoring session with anyone on our staff, which includes S-ranks.
Each Standard minute with an expert will have the following costs:
S-rank — 100 points
A-rank — 15 points
B-rank — 3 points
C-rank — 1 point
There are no limits to how many times or how long the same expert can be requested by the same or different participants.
The rewards weren't exclusive, which made networking even more important. The only gain in withholding information was preventing the other party from growing stronger. The potential losses were offending someone or making the other party also less willing to share information with you. It was in almost everyone's best interests to help as many people as much as possible.
Shen was curious about what an A-rank or even S-rank could teach him. He wondered if they had any cultivators, though. That was the only area Liya had been lacking.
Regardless, having the opportunity to receive pointers from an S-rank was priceless.
He found it unfortunate and even a bit silly that whoever had better foundations would have fewer opportunities to gain points. It made sense, though. They were already on the right Path and didn't need mentoring as much, especially those from stronger factions.
On the other hand, the stronger people would have more opportunities to fight, so they had extra chances of finding something wrong, while the weakest participant would only fight everyone else once.
Demonstration #3, 1st Stage, C-rank, 1st Round
Matching C-ranks with at least one C stat against each other.
Each party's tutor will be able to see the fight.
Other mentors will be teleported to their charges while they await the round's conclusion.
Liya teleported into the arena and immediately surrounded them with her domain. It wasn't cutting the system off, but eavesdropping otherwise became considerably more challenging.
To Shen's new senses, her domain felt like the most marvelous wonder of the multiverse. It was Darkness, Spear, and Annihilation—the latter he only identified because she had told him—intertwined with something that looked like her in a metaphysical form. He couldn't even understand what he was seeing, his mind couldn't comprehend it, but he could tell it felt like Liya, including her emotions and goals.
He could intellectually understand Law fragments being used as energy in phase space, but how could emotions and goals become something like that? It made no sense to him. And so it showed how much he still had to improve.
"We have one Standard hour," Liya said and produced a black spear from her spatial ring. "I can't teach you anything if I don't understand your new power. Show it to me."
Shen grinned. "Good old times, huh?" Then, he took the C+ weapon she had given him—and frowned. It was still only as strong as a D+ spear. He felt the Laws of the Spear within it and saw two thick webs of pulsating veins that filled the entire weapon. Each web had the power of a single Law from the Spear, but neither was one of his. "This spear doesn't fit me." He threw it at her, returning it. "The Laws of the Spear in my Path are Extremity, Shaft, and Killing Weapon."
He saw no sense in hiding the information from her. She couldn't train him properly if he did. This demonstration was about finding his weaknesses; hiding them would be detrimental.
In fact, the demonstration fit his needs almost too perfectly. He was sure Liya had had a hand in it.
The drow frowned. "You turned Sharpness into Extremity? That's a rare progression. And then, ironically, Killing Weapon is one of the most common Laws that spear users touch. Combat couldn't become Shaft, so it came from War; a very strange choice. As strange as this... Law that feels like it's piercing your Path."
His grin turned into a wide smile. "What can I say? I'm a Pathfinder."
He had set the system to hide all his achievements, so she would likely not know about them. Or maybe she would. The system gave her a lot of information about him because he was officially her charge.
"Let me guess: you did something weird to Boundlessness. I don't recognize what it became. It looks like Spear but also not. I only encountered something like this once before." She took a white spear with a red crystal spearhead from her spatial ring and threw it at him. "This C+ spear has a Killing Weapon core. And this is enough talking." She smiled and said in English. "Fight me, bro."
Shen chuckled but didn't even have time to Inspect the Spear. He felt himself connecting to it so profoundly that it felt like a limb made of Killing Weapon had just been attached to his existence. By placing a single qi particle on it, he could perfectly control it like he could control his Laws.
Heavens, if he had felt powerful before, now, with this C+ spear with a compatible core, he was sure Liya would be kneeling before him and begging for his mercy soon enough.
He could only marvel at the sensation and get surprised at his domineering emotions for a moment.
The next instant, Liya was upon him.