When Ren opened his senses to the world again, as the sun crested the mountaintop, the first thing he recognized was Xin Jing sitting cross-legged before the extinguished bonfire. This alone would not have drawn his attention, but the fact that a sheep had its head in her lap, while snoring rhythmically, and the girl smiled almost fondly, resembling a grandmother's to her grandchildren, made him do a double take.

She still had her eyes closed, though, almost making Ren raise his eyebrows.

Shen Junan was already doing push-ups in the meadow, a few meters apart, while Han Ting was in a handstand. Both of them extended their spirit, Han Ting's was clinging to his very skin, it was obviously straining the boy's body.

Shen Junan's spirit on the other hand was roving about in different shapes, unrestrained, colourful and magnificent to Ren's senses. It extended across their little clearing, and a large part of the surrounding meadows, comparable in size to the expansion of Darkhaven's spirit in their lessons, Ren thought.

Zhi Mu was not in attendance, having apparently wandered off. As Ren let his senses swing around more and extended their range, only getting blurry impressions on the edges of it. Ren felt the elders and Xiao Ai inside the seven sided estate. The first elder was watering plants, with a tranquil aura, apart from the others, while Ai was having a conversation with the muscular elder Han Meijiao and the female elder of the heart division who was apparently the grandmother of Xin Jing. Trying to get a read on their spirit or expressions did not earn him anything significant, but a sense of calm confidence from the woman in black, boisterous excitement coming from Han Ting, and somehow he thought Ai was maybe a little apprehensive, he was able to gleam. The Sect Master had apparently already left the venue, or at least Ren could not detect him.

Looking farther out, across to the other side of the estate, he could feel Zhi Mu, and instantly honed in on him, letting his 'vision' of him become more clear. Ren had now stretched his senses as far as never before, and was once again amazed at his own progress. The older boy seemed to put up some kind of constructions, his threads of spirit moving different objects around, while he moved among them, humming to himself.

It soon became clear to Ren, that what Zhi Mu was building was a kind of parcour, like he had seen in the elementary division, before being taken farther up the mountain. As soon as it stood in all its glory, the young Adept accelerated, and too fast for the eye to catch flew through different moving obstacles, precisely touched different spots on a post, and before Ren could wonder what he would do next he had already completed it, leaving Ren awestruck.

Surprisingly, after having done this only once, Zhi Mu nodded to himself, disassembled the course again, and made his way over to them at a rapid pace, avoiding the estate with a wide margin.

Opening his eyes, Ren let his senses retreat to the immediate surroundings, and instantly felt a little dizzy from extending them so far.

He promised himself that he would practice on improving his range even further, as there really was no such thing as too good an ability, Ren argued to himself, and he would be able to practice his meditation at the same time still.

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As Ren opened his eyes, Shen Junan addressed him, without turning his head, still trying to get a few more push-ups in. "Good morning, Brother Ren. If you wonder where Zhi Mu is, he is on his way back to us, he even told me that he was going to the other side of the mountaintop, so I wouldn't be able to sense him clearly without really focusing." The boy did a little flip, to stand up, and stretched himself. He then made an exasperated gesture. "Well, what can you do? But I suppose that we should wake up Xin Jing, though honestly I can't believe that she would let herself slip so deep into her cultivation, that she can't even tell when all of us are up."

A shimmering blue tendril of spirit then approached the girl and her sheep, and only when it almost touched her, did Xin Jing open her eyes.

"Hey! You don't have to try and wake me up like that. I'll have you know, that I was aware the whole time, and water aligned spirit in the morning, not nice, Brother Shen, not nice at all." She coloured a little as she said this, as it was clear that she did not have full awareness of her surroundings, but the other three simply shrugged at let her be, and she then continued. "So, where is Zhi Mu? I thought he would stay with us." She said with a puzzled voice.

Of course, the young Adept chose exactly this moment to appear behind the Xin girl in a flicker of motion. "And I will stay with you for this week, but I just had to test something for a moment." He said, while holding the stick of the previous day behind his back with both hands. His spirit fanning out around him in threads, like the rays of the sun, made him look like a true son of heaven, Ren thought.

Now Han Ting piped up, while still doing push-ups in a handstand. "You were certainly gone for longer than, a moment, but what did you think we should do today? I thought, that since we had a whole week, we could tour the different divisions of the sect, maybe." Han Ting suggested, with little pauses in between his words, as his muscles strained.

Zhi Mu looked like he hadn't thought about that, and scratched his cheek slightly. "I guess that we can do that later, but for now I thought that we could maybe do a little training course together." He said, considering how they would spend their future days together. "Maybe we should have one day for each of our divisions." Zhi Mu suggested, but he immediately slumped forward. "Ugh, we probably have to tell old man Cloudgrass, that we will leave the mountain top, though." He added with a put upon sigh. "Well, we can worry about that later, and if he didn't approve of us going down, I am sure that he could stop us easily."

Ren and the other three were not quite convinced by Zhi Mu, thinking about just not telling the first elder that they would tour the sect, even if he would know, didn't quite sit right with them. As the yellow eyed boy was their senior and already an Adept, though they ultimately also thought that it was fine.

Without much more preamble, and before any of them could voice their further opinion on the matter, Zhi Mu began to assemble the course. Like Ren observed previously, multiple different parts shot out of the boy's spatial bag, and were immediately grabbed and then assembled by Zhi Mu's threads of spirit working in harmony. It was truly a sight to be remembered, Ren thought.

"A parcour is really my worst nemesis, when it comes to training." Shen Junan said wryly. "But I guess that I should still try to push my body forward like this." He said, while looking at Zhi Mu.

"That's the right mindset, glasses. You can even go first and show the others how it is done!" Zhi Mu said, with a teasing tone to his voice, and even brought out two puppets, made of some kind of wood. They were about as tall as the average man, and towered over their master. "Let me even spice it up a little, we are the elite, after all."

Shen Junan simply looked miserable.