Huang Zhihao and Shi Wencheng both sat there, lost for words after what they had just witnessed. Old Wu told them to ‘just watch’ and it didn’t take long for them to see what he was talking about. The young man deduced the vague location of the Shadow Cat almost immediately and after coming to the conclusion that it would be better to fight on the ground he descended the tree at a rapid pace. Followed by a short stand off as he backed up into a clearing, then the entire fight lasted a total of less than a minute. The Shadow Cat’s speed took him off guard during the first attack, but he still managed to deflect and even injure the beast. Then it was all over by the second attack.
Old Wu sat there sipping spirit liquor while the two of them collected their thoughts. Finally after several minutes of silence Huang Zhihao looked at the old man.
“Just what have you brought me? That kid has barely taken half a step on his journey, he doesn’t know a single art, in fact he hardly counts as much more than a mortal and I just watched him demolish a spirit beast that I would hesitate to send against students that have spent a year here, not to mention the Shadow Cat, which by all rights shouldn’t be anywhere near your average Qi Condensation Realm cultivator, let alone a freshly Awakened one. As if that wasn’t enough, he did the whole thing blindfolded.”
The more the words tumbled out of his mouth the more ridiculous they sounded, if he hadn’t just watched a perfect projection of it handed to him by someone he trusted implicitly, he wouldn’t believe it for a second.
Old Wu sighed and looked up at the sky through the trees that surrounded them. “He also did all of this while he had just started to transition off of food…Trust me Zhihao, I was almost as surprised as you, in fact it was a little galling, I had just finished talking up the difficulty of the ‘Forest Survival Course’ that I had cooked up for him, only to have to sit there and watch him blitz through everything that I threw at him.”
Looking back down at the blank looks he was getting from the two he shook his head and chuckled. “Anyway, questions?”
“Why is he still wearing a blindfold? I know the Body Refinement regiment I gave you called for its use but he is well and truly past Body Refinement.”
Old Wu had to sigh again. “I figured you would have questions about the blindfold, I’ll let him explain it, then go over the details from my perspective.” He took out another blue marble but just activated it himself this time, there was another brief flash before the three of them watched a conversation that occurred between Xu Long and Bai Mei at the House of Heavenly Respite, starting with her asking him if he was really blind.
After they had watched it they both had thoughtful looks on their faces as they contemplated what Xu Long was talking about. Old Wu gave them a little time before he started explaining the situation from his perspective.
“During his Body Refinement training with the blindfold, he started off not unlike the both of us expected, but after a time something seemed to click within him and he started to embrace his lack of sight. He would stand perfectly still and try to react to incoming attacks from anywhere around him. It seemed to me to be based entirely on his intuition, perhaps supplemented by his other senses, but he struggled to explain it very clearly so that is only my conjecture. Regardless, by the end of his Body Refinement journey at 13 he was able to deflect and deal with everything that I threw at him. When he achieved all he could with that, he abandoned the passivity that allowed him to reach that point and started trying to go on the offensive whilst being unable to see. Two years later, just before his Awakening he was at the point that he was winning in our spars more often than not, if only slightly.
“Around five months ago when I noticed that he was ready to Awaken, I left him to his mother’s care and guidance and went to get him a sword. I took my time and gave them three months together because they would be separated soon. By the time I had returned he had Awakened, mastered the Clear Spring with the help of his mother, to the point that he could cultivate whilst running through his sword forms and determined that he wanted to continue wearing the blindfold, developing his ability to interpret the world around him from the qi flows that he could feel. I sparred with him on my first day back and he was already at the point that he was predicting my movements by the slight fluctuations in the earth qi under my feet when I shifted my weight.
Huang Zhihao just stared at Old Wu after he had finished his explanation of the kids blindfold. “So basically what you are telling me is that you haven’t brought me a disciple, you’ve brought me a little monster.”
Old Wu chuckled. “Absolutely. Now that I think about it, I believe it will be very good for me to see someone else have to deal with the absurdities that I have been dealing with for the past decade.”
Huang Zhihao massaged the bridge of his nose before looking at Shi Wencheng who was still a little lost for words. “Wencheng, I am going to need your help with this one. He is going to need a sparring partner that is more available than I will be but still a lot stronger than him, it also can’t be one of the older students lest the kid completely destroy any confidence they have in themselves.”
Shi Wencheng snapped out of his dazed look and looked at Huang Zhihao. “What about my confidence in myself, Master?”
Huang Zhihao got a serious look on his face. “Think of this as an opportunity. Mastering your will is absolutely mandatory If you want to reach Dao Seeking and beyond one day.”
Seeing the serious look on his master’s face, Shi Wencheng knew that there was no getting out of this, not that he wasn’t interested in this little prodigy but he would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t worried about what he had just asked his master, the kid’s talent was intimidating.
Resigning himself to his fate he looked towards Old Wu. “Just where did you find this kid, Old Wu?”
Old Wu looked towards Huang Zhihao for a moment and after receiving a nod he returned his attention to Shi Wencheng. “I am not going to tell you. In fact I will not tell anybody, not even your master. If you ask Xu Long, you will get the generic story that I would have told you just now if Zhihao didn’t vouch for you. It is important that he be allowed to grow and develop without the baggage of his parents weighing him down.”
Shi Wencheng had to admit that he was not expecting that kind of answer. “Wow, that is intriguing, now I really want to know.”
Old Wu smiled at him. “Don’t worry, once he is at a high enough realm it won’t be that important to keep his origins a secret. And knowing him, that day will arrive far sooner than is reasonable.”
Huang Zhihao chuckled at Old Wu’s comment, he could tell that both the old man’s faith and utter exasperation with the kid came from almost a decade of having to deal with a child that defied expectations so monumentally. He, on the other hand, was a little different from the old man, the more talented the kid was, the more excited he got, he had been looking for a disciple to pass on everything he knew about being a Sword Immortal for at least a few thousand years, not wanting to attempt to transcend before he knew that his legacy in this ‘mortal realm’ would continue. Now though, he could feel it, this was it, what he had been waiting for, and he wouldn’t ever get a better chance than this.
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Looking towards Shi Wencheng. “Wencheng, for the first year or so I won’t call on you for this, just focus on your breakthrough and subsequent stabilization of your cultivation, but after that, be ready, I will call on you.” After getting a serious nod in response he looked towards Old Wu. “I take it that you will want a place to stay and watchover him in secret? Even if only on occasion.”
Old Wu smiled and nodded. “That would be very much appreciated.”
Huang Zhihao smirked at the old man. “You can take my official room at the top of the Spring Pagoda, it also happens to be the heart of the grand formation and will allow you to watch the entire Academy. Even though I rarely use it, no one will enter without my permission, and if they do, I would very much appreciate you telling me who they are.”
Old Wu smiled again and raised his cup in gratitude. “Thank you my friend. Well, now that all of that is out of the way, how about the three of us drink a lot and catch up a little?”
Both Huang Zhihao and Shi Wencheng laughed, the old man never changed.
…
Xu Long and Bai Mei joined the group of students walking up the giant wing of the Guardian Protector. At first Xu Long was a little concerned about its feathers being damaged by all those feet, but that feeling was quickly dispelled as he stepped on the wing and discovered that he wasn’t even touching the feathers under his feet. There was a barrier, so imperceptibly thin that he couldn’t feel it from a distance, but now that he was in contact with it he could feel it, or rather he could feel what it was containing.
Earlier he had mused on the difference between Ming-Yue and the other ice cultivators that he had met, namely that she felt like a raging blizzard, somehow contained. The clarity of his perception of qi had always been proximity based and it’s not like he had been so brash as to go right up into the giant owl’s face when they first met, though what he did was apparently considered quite brash to others. Regardless, now that he was actually touching the giant spirit beast the difference between it and the humans he had met at a similar level of cultivation was apparent. The humans that he knew at a similar strength were barely perceptible to him, he identified them more based on the strange phenomena they produced by being absent, this spirit beast, however, didn’t seem to feel the need to follow suit, all that stood before the gargantuan amount of power that Xu Long could feel roiling below the surface was a thin barrier that Ming-Yue’s qi seemed to not want to cross.
“Xu Long?”
He was awoken from his fascination by the voice of Bai Mei and realized that he had stopped walking the moment he stepped foot onto the wing. He apologized and kept walking.
“Why did you stop?”
When Xu Long heard the question he remembered what his mother had told him, that other cultivators of his realm rarely, if ever, utilized their perception of qi as a sense to navigate the world around them and almost exclusively restrained it to only be utilized during cultivation until their spirit and control of said perception increased further down their path.
He turned his head in her direction. “I’ll show you when we sit down.”
As they walked up the wing Xu Long tried to focus less on the blizzard beneath his feat and more on the bigger picture, mostly the other students around him. He noticed quickly that they were congregating in the middle and to the back of the giant owl’s back, perhaps intimidated by the Guardian Protector and not wanting to get too close to her head. So naturally Xu Long went straight for the point closest to her head.
Bai Mei followed with a concerned look on her face which quickly turned to outright worry as Xu Long chose a spot very close to the head of the Guardian Protector. She walked a little slower, waiting for something to happen, but when nothing did she followed and sat down beside him, both of them positioned to be looking out over the Guardian’s head when in the air.
“To answer your earlier question, close your eyes and feel the qi around you as if you were about to start cultivating.”
Bai Mei looked sideways at him with a raised eyebrow, but she did it nonetheless. At first she couldn’t figure out what he was trying to show her, then she noticed the barrier underneath her, once she concentrated, it very quickly gave way to her perception and she was nearly knocked on her back when she felt the raging blizzard of qi that was casually contained right beneath her.
Her eyes shot open and she looked at Xu Long who was sitting placidly next to her. She wanted to say something but was completely lost for words.
He smiled at her. “You should watch for longer, I noticed earlier that there appear to be patterns amongst all of that chaos, it might help someone like you who cultivates ice qi.” He then looked forward. “That is, if that is alright with you Ming-Yue?”
Bai Mei’s eyes that were already wide with surprise somehow managed to get wider as the huge head of the Guardian Protector elongated a little and then swiveled 180 degrees to look straight at the two of them. She then heard a cold feminine voice in her head.
“I would advise against it, child of the Bai. The path that your forebear walked is quite unique in the pantheon of those who follow the way of ice, it may taint your path if you focus your efforts on the paths of others.”
After Bai Mei’s astonishment wore off and the beating of her heart calmed she managed to squeak out a reply. She bowed her head. “Thank you for your guidance Guardian Protector. My Grandmother did give me a similar warning.”
The giant owl only replied with a “Hmmm”, before turning her gaze towards Xu Long. “You see how she speaks to me. You could learn a thing or two from her. You should also be wary of where you poke your nose, young one.”
Xu Long laughed. “I would prefer to just be who I am, it feels too restrictive to do otherwise. As for my nose, I apologize, but your qi wasn’t suppressed or hidden like the other Dao Seeking Realm cultivators that I have met, so I assumed you wouldn’t mind.”
“Your intuition was not wrong, like most of my kind, I find it beneath me to do as you humans do, I know they have reasons for doing so, yet I still cannot find it in myself to care enough to bother. But that is not what I was referring to. You are far too young and know far too little to be handing out advice for the cultivation of others.”
Xu Long was quiet for a moment as he contemplated the words of the owl. “Your point is taken. Thank you for your guidance Guardian Protector.” He then turned towards Bai Mei. “I apologize Bai Mei, I spoke without thinking, it just seemed interesting to me and thought it would to you as well.”
“It’s fine.”
Xu Long then looked back towards the giant owl. “Well? What do you think, pretty good huh?”
There was a long drawn out silence. “You were right, you should just be yourself. Those words sounded so disingenuous coming out of your mouth that it was almost insulting.”
“Hey, come on, no need to be like that. I meant every word.”
Bai Mei could have sworn that she saw the giant owl roll its eyes as it turned its head back around and completely ignored Xu Long. As she thought about the situation that she just experienced she couldn’t help but break out into laughter. Xu Long stopped poking the giant owl when he heard that heavenly laughter and turned in her direction and smiled.
As he did so, he could feel quite the collective of malicious stares on his back. He got the distinct impression that he was not going to be that well liked by his fellow male students.
But when he heard that laugh from beside him, he thought that it seemed like a fair trade off.