CHAPTER

15

Dazzling Inadequacy

I

Hao Zhen awoke to the sound of knocking. Opening his eyes, he looked around the room, which was still rather dark, and found it unfamiliar—much bigger than he remembered his room being—much to his confusion. Then he remembered yesterday’s events. Right. He was in Tian Jin’s house, in one of his guest rooms.

And the one knocking on the door…

“Tian Jin?” he asked, still a little disoriented.

Tian Jin’s voice came from the other side. “Ah, so you were awake after all.”

“I am now,” Hao Zhen grumbled, getting up from the bed. Looking out of the window, he saw that it was dark outside. “What time is it?” he called out.

“Almost sunrise,” came Tian Jin’s voice.

Almost sunrise. Hao Zhen groaned, rubbing his eyes. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t used to waking up early—he had woken up about the same time the day of the mission—but he had been planning on sleeping in a little today. Clearly, Tian Jin had other ideas.

“Give me a moment,” Hao Zhen said, picking up his robes, which he had hastily thrown on the chair yesterday before jumping into the bed. “Getting dressed.”

A short while later, he opened the door and walked out of the room, dressed in the same robes he had worn the past few days. He didn’t know why or how, but it didn’t smell at all. Now that he knew that inscriptions were a thing, he figured the robe was enchanted in some way.

He found Tian Jin waiting for him, leaning against the opposite wall.

“Slept well?” Tian Jin asked, looking him over, a bright, honest smile on his face.

“I guess,” Hao Zhen said, his eyes watering as he tried to stifle a yawn. “I’d have liked to sleep a bit longer, though.”

“Nonsense. It’s always best to rise together with the sun.” Tian Jin pushed himself off the wall. “What do you want to do first? Should we go over to your place right now, or would you like to start with the spar?”

Hao Zhen blinked at him, confused for a moment, before remembering that yesterday they had already decided on today’s plans.

Since he wasn’t in any condition to spar, Hao Zhen didn’t even need to think twice to decide. “Let’s go pick up my clothes first,” he said. Hopefully, the walk to his place would be enough for him to finish waking up.

With that, the two of them made their way out of the house, headed toward the start of the residential area, where Hao Zhen’s house was located. This time around, they walked in silence, though it wasn’t an uncomfortable, awkward one. As they walked, a couple of outer disciples looked their way, though Hao Zhen knew that they were actually only looking at Tian Jin.

As they walked, Hao Zhen tried to think of a way to broach the subject of Tian Jin’s relationship with Bao Yun, but he couldn’t think of a good way to phrase his question. Instead, they talked about what their lives had been like since joining the sect—what they had done these last two months. Hao Zhen didn’t have much to share, but Tian Jin? Hao Zhen reckoned that even if Tian Jin were to talk for a day straight, it wouldn’t be enough to go over everything.

By the time they arrived at Hao Zhen’s house, the sun had already risen. Walking inside, Hao Zhen started to transfer his clothes from the trunk in front of his bed to his spatial ring. Tian Jin stood by the entrance, looking around the house.

“It’s rather… quaint,” Tian Jin finally said.

Hao Zhen glanced back at him, cocking an eyebrow. “I know it’s crap compared to yours. No need to mince words.”

Tian Jin flushed a little bit, then smiled wryly. “Sorry.”

Hao Zhen waved it off. “Anyway, I’m done,” he said, walking back to the door. Tian Jin nodded, and they set out again. On their way back, there were many more outer disciples walking around. Thankfully, nothing happened—it seemed like Du Qing wasn’t planning on making his move this quickly, after all—and they managed to return to Tian Jin’s house without any problems. Still unable to find the right way to ask Tian Jin about Bao Yun, Hao Zhen simply listened to Tian Jin’s stories as they walked.

After crossing the entrance gateway, Tian Jin, who had been leading the way, came to an abrupt stop, right in front of the stage.

Hao Zhen looked at him in confusion. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Tian Jin said. “I was just thinking… Should we have our spar now?” He motioned toward the stage with his head.

Hao Zhen looked at the stage at the center of the courtyard, then shifted his gaze back to Tian Jin. He sighed. He didn’t think this sparring business would end well, but he acknowledged that it was something he needed, and he figured that it'd be better to get this over with already.

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“Sure,” he said, and they made their way over to the stage.

“You wouldn’t happen to know how to use any weapons, would you?” Tian Jin asked as they got into position, standing in front of each other. Tian Jin’s doubtful expression already told Hao Zhen what Tian Jin expected the answer to be, let alone the way he had phrased the question.

“Never even held a weapon in my life, to be honest,” Hao Zhen said. That went for both of his lives.

When they were standing like this, facing each other, Hao Zhen couldn’t help but feel conscious of the height difference between them. Hao Zhen had yet to come across anyone taller than Tian Jin, and he wondered if the other boy was finished growing.

Hearing his answer, Tian Jin furrowed his brow. He probably hadn’t expected the situation to be this bad. If there was one thing Hao Zhen excelled at, it was dazzling others with his inadequacy. He was no stranger to letting down other people. He had gotten quite a lot of practice in that his previous life, as Amyas, because of his sister, and from the looks of it, he was bound to continue that particular tradition in his current life.

Eventually, Tian Jin nodded his head. “All right, in that case, I think it’s better we see how good your reflexes are. We can then work from that.”

Hao Zhen had a bad premonition about that.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Hao Zhen lied.

Tian Jin then shifted as he lowered his stance, his eyes narrowing, his gaze becoming intent, his body visibly tensing. Usually, Tian Jin didn’t give off a dangerous impression. Sure, he carried himself with a level of ease and confidence Hao Zhen doubted he would ever have, but he never came across as menacing or threatening. Now, though, pretty much every nerve in Hao Zhen’s body was telling him to turn around and run away.

It was as if a sword had just been unsheathed, the naked blade revealing itself to the world.

Hao Zhen blinked, and in the next moment Tian Jin was right in front of him, crossing the distance between them in an instant, his right arm cocked back.

Another blink, and Tian Jin’s fist was right in from his face, merely an inch away. A sudden gust of air blew against Hao Zhen’s face, slightly ruffling his hair.

Hao Zhen blinked again.

What the—

And it was over.

“Why didn’t you dodge?” Tian Jin asked as he took a step back, drawing back his fist. There was a puzzled look on his face. He was back to acting like his usual self, the dangerous aura from before gone.

It was only then that Hao Zhen finished processing what had just happened. “Dodge?” he asked, incredulous. Clearly, Tian Jin’s expectations of him weren’t nearly low enough. “I could barely see you move!”

“I…” Tian Jin narrowed his eyes. He looked genuinely confused, clearly not comprehending what was going on, as if he couldn’t believe anyone could be this pathetic.

Oh, Merciful Heaven. Hao Zhen pinched the bridge of his nose, turning his head down as he considered the situation.

It wasn’t as if Tian Jin was alone in feeling surprised. Hao Zhen had known that Tian Jin was on another level, but he hadn’t expected the difference between them to be this big. He vaguely remembered Tian Jin fighting in the entrance examinations, and he definitely hadn’t been nearly as fast. Then again, back then Tian Jin had been a graysoul, not a second-level redsoul.

In hindsight, Hao Zhen probably should have known that things would turn out like this.

“Look, I’m at the first level of the Red Spiritual Realm,” Hao Zhen finally said after putting his thoughts in order. “You’re at the second. That alone already means there’s a significant difference between us in terms of physical attributes.” He waited for Tian Jin to nod, then continued, “On top of that, you know martial arts. I don’t.” He rubbed his neck. “I mean, the first time I was ever punched was earlier this week when you saved me from Ke Li. Surely… Surely this isn’t that surprising.”

Unlike Tian Jin, he hadn’t gotten to the fighting stage of the entrance examinations, having been disqualified before that, in the strength trial. He had only managed to pass afterwards because too few disciples had actually managed to reach the fighting stage, so some of the ones that had been disqualified were also allowed to join the sect, Hao Zhen among them.

Tian Jin crossed his arms over his chest. For a while, he didn’t say anything, seemingly immersed in his thoughts. “All right,” Tian Jin finally said, his expression relaxing. “We don’t really have the time for you to learn martial arts, so we’ll instead focus on getting you to the second level of the Red Spiritual Realm and increasing your proficiency with Ethereal String Puppetry.” He paused, looking at Hao Zhen inquisitively. “What do you think?”

That, in Hao Zhen’s opinion, was a much more feasible plan. For a moment there, he had been worried Tian Jin would suggest some kind of insane training regime, claiming that by the end of the week Hao Zhen would be able to hold his own in a physical fight. And while Hao Zhen believed he could do with that kind of training, Tian Jin had been right when he said that they just didn’t have the time for that right now.

Focusing on his cultivation and spiritual skill right now would definitely be far more advantageous, as that was bound to bring results in the short term. Hao Zhen did plan on learning some martial arts further down the line. He just couldn’t make that his priority at the moment. What was important right now was to become strong enough to survive whatever Du Qing threw at them, and the easiest way to achieve that would be through increasing his level and getting some practice in with Ethereal String Puppetry.

“Sure,” Hao Zhen said, answering Tian Jin’s question. “Should we start with cultivation?”

“That works.” Tian Jin then sat down on the stage and motioned for him to do the same.

Hao Zhen hesitated. He had been about to suggest heading inside for this. Then again, it was a cloudy and all-around pleasant morning, so he reckoned it wouldn’t hurt to do this outside. In any case, they’d have to head back to the stage later anyway when he started practicing Ethereal String Puppetry, so they might as well stay here.

With that, he sat down in front of Tian Jin, wondering how this would go. They’d definitely be talking about cultivation methods, and he wasn’t sure how exactly Tian Jin would be able to help with that.

Tian Jin was already a second-level redsoul, considering he was already a second-level a month ago when he participated in that competition for outer disciples, he probably wasn’t that far away from becoming a third-level, but from what Hao Zhen knew, that was only because Tian Jin was absurdly talented and had plenty of cultivation resources at his disposal. Maybe he knew some kind of trick or technique to comprehend cultivation methods faster? After all, Tian Jin was born in a magical clan, so maybe he knew something that Hao Zhen didn’t.

As it turned out, Tian Jin didn’t have any special techniques to teach him, but he was able to help all the same. Hao Zhen had already known that Tian Jin was a genius, but over the course of the ensuing conversation, he realized just how much he had been underestimating the other boy.