The first duels went about as Finlay had expected, still he was a bit impressed by how strong and seemingly immovable the 4 seniors had performed. A quick Analyse further asserted their strength.

Identity :

??? Xiu

Female

24 yrs old

Job :

Inner disciple of the True Sky Immortal sect.

Cultivation :

Qi condensation level 5 (Wind attribute cultivation)

Out of the four, 2 of them were in the 6th level and 2 of them in the 5th. They were all a group of strong mid level Qi condensation realm cultivators. Not only that, their way of fighting was completely on another level compared to his amature peers. They were not only skilled at wielding their weapons, their situational awareness, control and response were all on an entirely different level.

The pattern of each fight went pretty much the same. The seniors gave the disciples a chance to try out various attacks, as they simply stood defending. After the juniors had no more moves to show off, the seniors tested them a bit by launching weak attacks, testing their footwork and to see how they fared in a dynamic battle instead of attacking a stationary object. After a short while, they finished off the fight with a single move, all the while making sure to not harm the weaker opponent.

Once all of the first 4 duels were finished, the instructor simply asked the exhausted disciples to come and rest on a side so they could keep watching the rest of the spars. Finlay noted how the instructor had no notes on hand and neither did he seem like he was going to give any feedback to the disciples until every duel was finished. As a peak Qi condensation cultivator, he must have already developed a strong spiritual sense and his actions or lack thereof is a casual display of his clearly super human memory.

That took Finlay back to one of his classes the previous day. Spiritual sense is a special entity that arises out of a mysterious combination of the soul, spirit, Qi and the organic mind’s mental ability. At the level of a Qi condensation realm cultivator, its effects, although marvellous, will only truly begin to shine in the higher realm of cultivation. Incredibly sharp memory, potential to process massive amounts of information and supernatural abilities like controlling Qi tools, flying weapons and a limited ability to perceive space in 3 dimensions are all luxuries that a peak Qi condensation realm cultivator enjoy.

*Clang*

Finlay was pulled from his musings as a shield was separated from the hands of another disciple, bringing about the end to another duel. He felt greatly enlightened watching the various fights so far and the anticipation of his duel had him slightly jittery from excitement. Before long, it was finally his turn. As he stepped onto one of the marked areas, the instructor called out for him instead.

“Fan Lei, you will spar with Yao Ren over here.”

Finlay was startled at suddenly being directly addressed and being assigned a specific sparring partner on top of that, but he quickly recovered. Giving a quick salute to the instructor, he moved over to his assigned partner.

Finlay observed his senior as he stood before him. Yao Ren was a muscular man with sharp features and a handsome appearance. He had a neutral expression with only a hint of a smile, as if in anticipation to see what his junior might have in store. His weapon of choice was a simple sparring sword, the very same one Finlay chose to replace his own with. But Finlay’s main weapon was clearly the spear that was ready in his hands. The sword in contrast was in a sheath on his back.

Finlay met with the sharp, intense gaze of his opponent as he waited, slowly getting excited to the point where he was gripping his spear hard and a grin was threatening to split his lips. Finlay for the first time was excited to have an all out spar with someone powerful. And then, it started.

“Begin!”

Finlay shot forward, fast as a wolf, striking out with his spear in a deliberately telegraphed heavy attack. The opponent in contrast simply observed Finlay without moving, the growing grin the only indication of him paying attention. And just as the heavy blade of the spear was about to reach, Yao Ren simply moved his sword to counter attack in a simple but powerful flicking motion.

*Clang!!!*

The power behind the seemingly simple motion caught Finlay off guard. The spear was forcefully bounced back in a seeming parody of how Finlay defeated Hu Li before. Fortunately, Finlay’s grip was stronger and a spear, being a longer weapon, was much harder to disarm than a sword. It still caused Finlay to stagger and be off balance for a good moment, though his opponent didn’t seem like he was interested in taking advantage.

‘Looking down on me are you? Then, don’t mind me taking advantage of the fact.’

He quickly found his footing in but a moment. At the same time, he used the bounce back of the spear to spin around with an even greater force. This time, he used almost 60-70% of his physical strength in contrast to the about 30% he used in his initial attack.

*Clang!!!!*

This time, his opponent was clearly caught off guard as he almost staggered and took a step back, but persisted in the end. When Finlay looked up at his face, only a growing grin and sharper eyes answered him back. Despite catching him off guard, the opponent used the same type of move to counter his attack. This caused Finlay to frown a bit. Undeterred, he resumed his attacks.

In a dozen seconds, he launched a continuous chain of countless attacks before separating from his opponent who still had the same casual posture. By now he had a full grin and excitement can be clearly seen in his eyes. Sure, he had intense dangerous battles in the past, but it was all against mindless beasts or against opponents so weak, he simply felt no challenge. This time felt truly different to him. He was experiencing the pure thrill of battle for the first time with no distractions. The pause was momentary and the sparring resumed immediately.

He tried attacks from all angles, used feints, straight up powerful attacks on his vital spots and even attacks from blind spots, but nothing seemed to work as the senior didn’t even turn around to either deflect or dodge all the attacks. He discovered that his opponent was not only strong, his swordsmanship was also vastly superior to Finlay’s own skill at using a weapon. He briefly contemplated channelling Qi to launch his strongest spear attack. Combined with his understanding of the concepts of Heat and Cold, he could launch an attack approaching the peak of early Qi condensation realm, but he felt embarrassed at using such an all out attack against a skilled opponent in a casual spar. He also didn’t want to expose his true strength openly. With no other moves left, Finlay paused his attacks to put a bit of distance from his opponent.

Taking that as cue, the senior stepped forward to attack Finlay instead. From observing the previous spars, Finlay knew that the spar was in the second phase where the senior would test his fighting ability on the move and check his footwork. This is where Finlay actually was more confident with his Phoenix Flight arts. He had initially used the system to instantly master the footwork art, the Matrix style. He later practised everyday to adjust the movements from his memories to fit with his current body and develop the required muscle memory. By now, he could be considered to have barely reached the threshold of Mastery.

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While Phoenix flight arts wasn’t a foot technique that was exactly ideal to his current circumstances. It was primarily designed for high speed combat at a higher cultivation realm and given its name, one can imagine that it was also reinterpreted to be used on the ground. Despite this, a D grade technique is something that will serve well even after one reaches foundation establishment level. So, at the lower levels of Qi condensation realm, mastery of it gave a great advantage to Finlay even if he was against a skilled and experienced sword wielding warrior.

As the opponent chased after Finlay, trying to close the gap between them, it was Finlay’s turn to mostly defend as he simultaneously used his footwork to maintain the ideal distance to use his spear properly. This Cat and mouse chase lasted for a good while. Long after all the other spars were concluded, Finlay and his opponent were still going strong, even as Finlay was only barely managing to hold his ground. He knew though that the opponent did not use any of the immense strength that he displayed at the beginning, in this second round. Despite this, he allowed himself to smile a little. He was actually having a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, the fun times didn’t last long for Finlay. Soon, the opponent grew annoyed and a challenging glint grew in their eyes. Slowly, the strength of each hit, parry and push increased. Initially, Finlay was still able to occasionally launch a counter attack here and there, he even managed to leave a tiny tear in the opponent’s robe, but with the ramping up strength, he could no longer counter attack. In but a dozen seconds, he was pushed to his limits as he desperately retreated to keep up his defences. More and more shallow injuries were left on him until he felt like he was on the verge of being unable to maintain the defence.

He saw the moment the opponent finally had had enough of the fight and was about to make the final move.

*Clink Clang!!*

Filay lost the grip on the spear, only barely holding on with his left hand. The opponent saw the opening and plunged in closer to Finish the duel. Finlay thought quickly on a response. He threw his spear in the space between him and the closing in opponent, trying to cause some obstruction to buy himself just another moment. Simultaneously, he stretched his right hand behind him to grab the sword on his back. The haphazardly thrown spear tumbled in the air as the annoyed senior had to slow down slightly to flick it away with his sword before closing in on Finlay.

Just as the senior’s sword was about to reach Finlay, Finlay jumped back with all the strength he could spare as he drew the sword out of its sheath and in a smooth, single move, swung it down in a powerful vertical slash to meet the other’s sword that was just about to end the duel. The opponent was so sure of his victory that he was caught off guard momentarily. Finlay took advantage of this moment and moved into the opponent to launch a counter attack with his sword, momentarily pushing the stunned opponent back.

Finlay barely had the spare mental attention to register the cheers erupting around him, because the momentarily advantage was just that, momentary. The senior quickly recovered and shot back attack after attack towards Finlay who was quickly thrown into a precarious position again. A sword with its smaller size and reach allowed him to defend better at closer range and his innate inclination towards the weapon allowed his instincts to wield it as naturally as he could, but ultimately, his experience with a sword is lacking and he had no proper instruction in using the weapon. Hence his defence was even worse compared to when he was still wielding the spear. He still pushed his mental ability to the limit to defend for as long as possible.

Despite his best efforts, his defence was quickly overwhelmed and he was soon disarmed just the same as the other disciples in earlier duels and a sword was placed by his neck, resting on his shoulder casually. By now, Finlay had a dozen different shallow cuts all over his body, while his clothes and the basic training armour given by the sect was completely damaged in multiple places. He was profusely sweating and panting hard. Even the senior was taking deep breaths, looking like an average man who walked just a bit too fast, much to the dismay of Finlay.

After a moment of silence, the watching disciples erupted in loud cheers and some claps, especially the ones who had had the bitter taste of sparring with their seniors just now. Finlay didn’t deal well with too much attention but he was particularly embarrassed right now because he was being cheered for losing a fight. Eventually, Finlay recovered and gave a sincere and firm salute towards his superior opponent.

“This Fan Lei sincerely thanks the senior for your kind teachings.”

Finlay was a little concerned that he might have offended the senior somewhat by his delayed salute or pushing his fight a little too far for a spar, but his fears ended up being unfounded. The senior showed a small but genuine smile as he saluted back. The instructor soon calmed the class down and Finlay joined his classmates on the side. He sat there silently contemplating his fight and also watching at the remaining spars. Even though the instructor hadn’t said anything yet, Finlay could already see a multitude of flaws in himself. He realised he had pretty much little to no basic training in using a close combat weapon of any sort. Based on his innate talents, he knew he should be focusing on learning to wield a sword the most, yet a spear had served him well, especially against beasts and for defensive fighting, so he can’t exactly neglect it completely either. He also had the Archery that he lately couldn’t find enough time to work on.

Soon, it was the turn of Dokgo Xu against the female senior. Dokgo Xu was also adept at using a bow and arrow, but the smaller arena style duels are particularly disadvantageous for ranged combat of any type. So, although the fight began with Dokgo Xu doing some impressive attacks with his archery, it soon devolved into a melee. Dokgo Xu seemed to have acquired some decent footwork technique as well, catching the attention of Finlay. Although his speed of mastery couldn’t compare to Finlay’s cheat speed, it was still rather impressive. Combined with an art particularly suitable for the cultivation level and duelling and his much greater skill wielding a sabre, he actually held off the senior’s attack for longer than most.

Unlike Finlay’s own humble and graceful opponent, Dokgo Xu’s was a bit fiery tempered and his attempts to survive only earned her ire, resulting in an overwhelming attack that soon ended the fight. Still, it was an impressive fight for one so low in cultivation and so young. It’s even more impressive considering that Dokgo Xu performed so well despite not having a significant background.

‘Wow! I never thought bro Xu would be so impressive. It seems I must reconsider my image of him.’

Soon, everyone in the class had finished their sparring duels. After a brief discussion with the 4 seniors, the instructor gathered everyone’s attention.

“Hmm…Those spars were arranged to allow me to evaluate your current ability and see for any general deficiencies. I must say that all of you didn’t fail…”

Several disciples seemed pleasantly surprised at the straight forward compliment, only for it to come crashing down.

“...to disappoint me. It was clear as day that several of you had never had a battle with a cultivator before. Most of you have no knowledge of the fundamentals of wielding the weapons you did wield and several of you have clearly been skimping on cultivating after completing your body integration realm.”

Everyone fell silent at that and a majority of them had averted their gazes at the instructor out of embarrassment at being called out, including Finlay. He was at least guilty of 2 of those 3 things.

“And yet! And yet, you did show some spirit when facing an opponent vastly stronger than you. This, I can appreciate,” the instructor ended with a nod of approval and a small smile. A cheer almost broke out from the relieved disciples before it was quickly stopped with a wave of his hand.

“Now that the pleasantries have gotten out of the way, let us proceed to the evaluation of each of your fights, your strengths that you need to focus on and your weaknesses that you need to focus on twice.

“To begin with, let me establish the conditions of the spar a bit more clearly so that we have a baseline reference to properly evaluate. As I’m sure you have pieced together by now, the spars had 3 phases for most of them.

“The first was to see the capability of you to launch full force attacks should a situation provide itself in a battle. The second is to see how you fare in an actual dynamic battle against similar level opponents. In this phase, the raw strength of your opponent starts at a lower level than your current cultivation and primarily focuses on testing your footwork. The last and final third phase is when the opponent increases the onslaught, slowly ramping up both the weapon skill and raw strength to check how you hold yourself in a truly threatening battle where you need to push both your footwork and weapon skills to the peak. It is also worth noting that the strength of your opponents never exceeded the highest level displayed by you in the spar.

“Now, I see that some of you look a little lost. I know what you’re thinking. If you are too weak at the moment, you might not have even felt the 3rd phase begin before you were defeated,” some of the disciples lowered their gaze in apparent shame.

“There’s no shame in that. It just means you have a longer road to run before you can catch up with your peers and trust me when I say that it’s not that much longer. As long as you follow my instruction and diligently dedicate yourself to practise, you will be there before long. Let us start the evaluations from the first group of 4…”

With that, all of the disciples were asked to come forward and the important points of their battles were discussed for the benefit of everyone and at the end, each person was given private advice on their path forward. As a peak Qi condensation realm cultivator, the instructor had access to a limited spiritual sense and countless Qi arts/techniques to keep their conversation from being audible to others.

Soon, it would be Finlay’s turn…

To be continued.