"So, what are we supposed to do anyway?" one of the Xiuying's friends asked.

Ding Zhe glanced at the clock briefly.

"It's about noon, so I can take you one of the training grounds. Well, we don't really have any concrete schedules, so really, you can do as you please." he said. "There should be monks training at the Lotus Square right now."

"Training?" one of the unknown disciples said.

She was a thin girl with long, straight hair, with gentle eyes that almost looked sleepy.

"Do they train with swords as well?" she asked sheepishly.

"It's indeed one of the weapons we train. You want to hone your skills?" Ding Zhe said.

"I-"

"Ehh?" Yingyi interrupted, staring intently at her. "Young miss, you like sword fighting? You don't look like that type to me."

The girl made an annoyed face in response to his teasing.

"Oh, let me introduce you to her." Xiuying said. "This is Jian Jue. She's actually used to be one of the top disciples in a dojo, back in the mortal world!"

"Mortal world? It kinda feels weird hearing that come from you..." Liu Qiang said.

"Back in her hometown then, heheh."

"Hmph." Jian Jue said. "I'll show you through action, not words. Seeing in believing."

"She's kinda competitive." Xiuying whispered.

"I can hear you, you know!"

"Hehe, sorry."

Hmm. Was it her imagining it, or was Xiuying a lot more cheerful today? Was that girl one of her good friends?

"Oh? Like through a spar or something? You can fight Wang Wei here if you want, he practices the sword too." Liu Qiang said.

"I didn't even volunteer." said Wang Wei.

Without answering them, Jian Jue marched out of the house. The disciples and monk looked at each other before deciding to follow her.

As she treaded along the grass softly, she paused, taking her sword out of her spatial ring.

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She seemed to focus, narrowing her eyes as she raised her sword, before slashing at thin air.

It was a fast swing, but there didn't seem to have been anything special about it. Jian Jue slashed several more times as she ran, seemingly slashing at something.

"What the heck are you doing?" Yingyi laughed.

Finally, she returned from the run, slightly red in the face and looking to the side.

"Tsk..."

Suddenly, she slashed once more. She sent out a thread of soulsense, suspending something tiny in the air.

Huh? Confused, Mei got closer, only to be stunned. A fly had been cleanly bisected.

"I-I don't work well under pressure, okay? Normally I can get them on my first swing! Really!" Jian Jue stammered.

"You stopped it with soulsense first so you could slash it, didn't you?" Yingyi said.

"What?"

"I mean, even if she did, it's still very impressive." Liu Qiang said.

Yingyi shrugged.

Why the heck were they so nonchalant about this? Even if this was a cultivation world, it should be still pretty impressive, right? It's not like Jian Jue learnt it from the sect specifically anyway, given she was a new disciple like the rest of them...

Ding Zhe sighed.

"One of the buddhist principles is not to kill. Personally, I don't really care that much about insects, but as a new guest in our sect, you should be more mindful."

This monk... should he really be saying stuff like that openly?

----------------------------------------

On a stone platform in the middle of the forrest, dozens of young monks were training diligently. Mei could hear their shouts from a distance as they trained, punching the air in coordination.

A middle age monk watched sternly, nodding at the sight.

"Good afternoon, Elder Da! I've brought with me some of the Virtue sect's disciples to train, at their request."

Ding Zhe reached into his pocket and handed over... a teabag? Mei wasn't sure if she saw it correctly, but the elder monk had already put it away. Elder Da smiled faintly and nodded.

"I'm glad to see our visitors are keen to learn." he turned over to the young monks. "Disciples! I will leave you to your devices for the next hour!"

"Yes!" the monks echoed.

Elder Da took them a short distance away, just far away enough for the monks to be out of sight, thought their voices still echoed.

"Before we practice martial arts, there are some important fundamentals. I will be testing each of you to see if you meet the requirements, or we will need more training."

He walked toward a set of about 30 wooden poles jutting out of the ground, each of different height.

"First, we will test your balance. Dhi Zhe, give them a demonstration."

The young monk looked slightly disgruntled as he stepped forth. Putting his hands behind his back, he hopped onto one of the poles and stood on a single leg, before leisurely stepping from pole to pole and walking in circles. Finally, he hoped off with a faint grunt.

"Well done! Disciples, which of you would like to give it a try first?"

"Wouldn't you get badly hurt if you fell onto one of the poles after stumbling?" Wang Wei suddenly said.

Well... they were cultivators, so it should be fine, right? Though Mei winced at the thought of tripping and getting "stabbed" in the chest by one of them.

"Don't worry, I'll catch you with my qi sense if you stumble." Elder Da said.

The disciples looked at each other.

"It doesn't look so bad. Let me try." Yingyi said.

He held onto two of the poles awkwardly as he climbed on, before wobbling. Yingyi seemed to have realised he bit off more than he could chew, his smug expression quickly swapped with a rather constipated look.

He wobbled around from pole to pole, holding his hands out in a T-shape. Yingyi was practically flailing them around as he tried his best not to fall.

"Yingyi! Are you supposed to be a bird?" Liu Qiang laughed.

"Shut it, fatty! At least when I stand on them, I won't break the poles!"

The chubby boy laughed even harder.