Yu Chen awoke early the next morning, but he didn’t go to the training ground as he usually would. He’d long felt himself outgrowing the lessons for the outer disciples there, so instead he began training at home in his inner courtyard, beginning with the Iron and Steel forms.
He flowed through the movements, warming his body up before deciding to examine the newest techniques he’d acquired. He began with the Diamond Forms, as the Condensing Fist formed the core of his fighting style, and he was committed to perfecting it.
To his surprise the Diamond Forms appeared to be exactly the same as the Iron and Steel forms, only it looked like someone had woven the two together. Wait, that wasn’t true, he thought with a frown. There were slight variations included in the new forms, so minute that they almost escaped his notice. Like that movement right there. In the Iron Forms it was typically a punch, but now, there was a finger thrust out -
Yu Chen drew in a deep breath of surprise as the profundity of the new Forms hit him. They were the culmination of the two previous forms. In the Iron Forms he’d learned how to condense his qi before impact, empowering the blow, while the Steel Forms had taught him how to utilize that qi throughout his entire body, not just limiting it to his hands and feet. Well, in truth he’d taught himself, but it turned out that it was observing the Steel Forms that had given him the idea.
The Diamond Forms on the other hand fused the two disparate teachings into a unified whole. This form taught how to condense your qi into an infinitesimally small point, increasing its destructive potential manyfold, its power limited only by the cultivator’s ability to compress their qi.
It was an advanced technique, one that demanded the utmost amount of concentration and willpower as well as an extraordinary level of control over one’s qi.
It was a revelation so beautiful that Yu Chen felt embarrassed. Until now he’d simply flooded his fists and feet with qi as he used them. Even when he’d begun utilizing other parts of his body, such as his shoulders, knees and elbows, he’d still simply flooded the area, not bothering to control his qi. Now that he saw the true Condensing Fist he felt ashamed to have been using it in such a sloppy and inefficient manner.
Now that Yu Chen knew what to look for, he saw it in every movement. He watched as the man in the Diamond Forms condensed his qi into the individual knuckles of his fist, creating a punch that struck with four points of qi instead of one, and each point contained a denser amount of qi than Yu Chen poured into his entire fist. The man struck out with his fingertips, his toes, and any tiny point where he made contact with his foes.
Yu Chen was humbled.
It turned out there were mountains everywhere. He’d thought he’d come close to mastering his martial art, only now realizing he’d been scratching the surface.
He began to practice the Diamond Forms, losing track of time as he familiarized himself with the motions. His heart was at peace, and he couldn’t help but smile, as he once again began to feel the sensation of progress. The technique itself wasn’t so hard to grasp, as it was based on the Condensing Fist that Yu Chen had been using for quite awhile now. Still, it was slow going, and by the end he’d only managed to condense his qi a hair further than normal.
The biggest issue was time, there was only so much time in which to act after all. In a fight things were hectic, and even the forms had a rhythm to them. Condensing one’s qi into a fingertip within the space of a single movement was far beyond Yu Chen’s current capabilities.
Once he finished learning the new forms he examined the technique he’d picked out in the Manual Pavilion, The Crashing Wave Palm. The technique wasn’t filled with movements as the Forms of the Condensing Fist were, instead they contained diagrams showing how to properly utilize one’s movements to generate force in a fight.
The first thing Yu Chen realized was the importance of maintaining a proper rhythm, as the technique revolved around conservation of momentum. It was a delicate balance. When a wave rose and fell, the heights it could reach were determined by how low it could sink, and the lower the trough, the greater the crest that followed.
It required one to be adaptable in their movements, and he imagined the technique would be tricky to master for anyone that still fought using forms.
It was the perfect technique for his free training, and so Yu Chen began fighting against the imaginary foes in his mind as he incorporated the new technique into his attacks. It didn’t click right away, but once he grasped it the first time, the entire technique became obvious. The trick to it was to maintain a sort of rolling motion, and he did just that, mimicking a wave as he weaved beneath an invisible attack before bobbing back up. As he fought his momentum became a tangible thing, and rotating his qi, he slowly internalized the feeling.
Yu Chen could see how water had inspired it. The technique had a depth to it, and there was more within it than what appeared on the surface. It could be used to strike hard, of course, with the relentless force of a pounding wave crashing ashore, but it could also be soft, gentle as the ocean’s touch, as peaceful as receding water. As long as you retained your momentum, that ebbing flow could transition into a deadly force of destruction at any moment.
It was an elegant technique, one that gave his movements some much needed structure. Once he’d given up on using the forms his attacks had become more vicious and unpredictable, but they lacked purpose beyond inflicting damage as quickly as possible. With this new technique he found that his previous thinking had been limited, and that there were more things to learn before perfecting his fighting style.
However, training would only help him so much. A savage grin crossed his face. He needed a fight to really grow, and he knew just where to find one.
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Yu Chen kicked in the door with a crash.
The boys in the room leapt up, startled at the unexpected intrusion. Turning, they looked to see who dared intrude on their territory. Didn’t this idiot know who they were? Which fellow was it who’d awoken today thinking he had balls?
A tall boy filled the doorway in their vision. He was brimming with muscles, and his black hair was pulled back into a long ponytail, revealing the sharp image of his face. He wore the embroidered robes of the Inner Sect, although not quite properly. One of his arms was unsleeved and lay within his robes, resting languidly at his waist, while a vibrantly striped snake lay coiled around his neck, occasionally flicking her tongue as she observed the boys in interest.
Their eyes flickered in confusion as they took him in, looking between his face and his robes. Yu Chen gave them a moment, and he could see the exact moment recognition flickered into their eyes.
“Isn’t that-” One of them began speaking, but he was cut off by another that strode forward towards Yu Chen aggressively.
“I don’t know where you got those robes, but if you think - ?” He began to speak out as he approached, but he had to stop as he fell to the floor choking, when Yu Chen struck him in the throat.
Yu Chen smiled grimly, looking around the room, before stepping over the boy lying on the ground coughing and wading into the midst of the others. They were the same five boys who had been with the Feng brothers, and had participated in their blatant robbery against him.
He kicked one of the boys out of the way before pivoting and driving his fist into a second.
Why do I count six though? Yu Chen thought, ducking forward as a third boy threw a desperate blow at his head. Oh well. That small movement had closed the distance between them, and he probably thought Yu Chen couldn’t effectively target him from so close.
Wrong.
Yu Chen lightly pushed off the ground, condensing his qi as he slammed his shoulder into the boy, driving him into the wall hard enough to crack it. The boy slumped down to the floor, cradling his side. He’d be lucky if only a few of his ribs were broken.
The fight was short and brutal. There’d been six of them in total, but Yu Chen had managed to incapacitate one before the fight began. Not that it mattered. They were nothing more than a collection of lickspittles and bootlickers. Yu Chen doubted any of them possessed the will to even make it to Foundation Establishment. They barely knew how to fight, despite being in the sect for who knows how long? Yu Chen judged that only one of them had achieved the level of small success in the Iron Forms.
They lay battered and bruised, scattered across the small room. Yu Chen’s heart had hardly begun to beat heavily, and he frowned, unsatisfied at the short fight.
I’m not really the sort to hold a grudge, he thought, looking down at the beaten boys in disdain. It was the sort of thing that would only be a hindrance to him and wouldn’t serve him in the future. The road of cultivation was long and endless, and this fight wouldn’t even be a footnote in his history.
Okay, maybe he had a bit of a grudge.
He gave the closest one a hard kick, enjoying the pained cries he elicited.
“Get up.” He said, kicking the boy again.
The boy slowly rose to his feet, looking towards Yu Chen in fear.
“Go and get Wu Feng! Make it quick. Tell that dog I said to hurry.”
The boy ran off, tossing a glance behind in fear but Yu Chen paid him no mind. Instead, he picked out a chair from the mess in the room and made himself comfortable while he waited for Wu Feng to arrive.
It didn’t take very long, something Yu Chen was grateful for. Apparently, the boy hadn’t been too far away, as shortly after sitting down he heard the loud crunch of snow entering his ears, the sound of two sets of footsteps running in his direction.
Yu Chen had placed his chair at the entrance of the house, so he had a nice view of the other boy as he ran into sight.
He let out a cold smile when he saw Wu Feng’s face. The right half of his face was as ugly as ever, but the left half was now frozen in a curled rictus, the muscles around his cheek and eye pulling his skin tight to one side. Two vibrant red streaks marred the affected area, gifted by Lue She.
“You!” Wu Feng shouted, and his eyes flared red as they met Yu Chen’s. He began to furiously approach the boy, but his face quickly paled once he noticed the snake wrapped around Yu Chen’s neck.
“T-That evil thing! You still have it?” Wu Feng said as he came to a halt, fear coloring his voice as he observed the striped serpent.
“Lue She?” Yu Chen said, raising a hand to gently tickle her chin. “She is my chosen companion, and we have sworn to walk this path together, no matter how far it goes. Of course she is still with me.”
Wu Feng stood in place, his feet refusing to move as though they were stuck. He was filled with warring emotions, filled with rage as he shivered in fear, unable to approach the snake that was now looking directly at him, flicking her tongue. He swore the ghost of a smile crossed her serpentine face as she bore her fangs at him.
Yu Chen snorted. “Coward.” He said lightly, and the word struck Wu Feng like a blow. The boy bristled at the words, but he didn’t reply, knowing them to be true. Yu Chen nodded his head. It was a measured attack, and he knew he had just created a demon that would reside in Wu Feng’s heart, stalling his cultivation in the future.
It wasn’t enough.
“In three days, we will duel at the training ground. I want you to put up everything you have. In return I offer my place in the Inner Sect. Do you accept these terms?”
Wu Feng’s face turned red, but a greedy flash crossed his eyes as he looked towards Yu Chen. Wu Feng didn’t need an incentive to agree to the fight, but he couldn’t resist the allure of the added rewards. He didn’t fear losing to Yu Chen in a fight.
Wu Feng wasn’t a bum like the hangers-on that he surrounded himself with. He wasn’t as strong as his brother, but he’d still managed to enter Qi Refinement and was a full level higher than Yu Chen, who gave off a noticeably weaker aura.
For now at least.
"Fight you? I'll fight you!"
“But that beast cannot come, I won’t allow it in our fight. If you’re not a coward, leave it behind and face me like a man. I’ll crush you and make you pay for what you’ve done to me.” Wu Feng said angrily, as he pointed at Lue She. She hissed in anger, moving her head towards the boy and he shrunk back in fear, cowed by the little snake.
Let me bite him again.
Yu Chen raised his hand, absently petting the small snake.
Do not presume to command Lue She,” Yu Chen said coldly. “None may dictate her actions, not even I.”
Lue She let out a slow hiss of agreement as he spoke.
“Still, this is between you and me. I will gladly meet you alone.”
Yu Chen stood up and dusted himself off, addressing Wu Feng one last time.
“Remember, three days. I’ll be seeing you.”