Wei Zian knocked on the door in front of him, nervously shifting in place. The first week of training had been rather uneventful, aside from finding out that advanced trigrams was also taught by Ning Bo, who was similarly enthusiastic about that subject as well, giving them another preliminary test and more 'recommended' reading. Still, it was now Friday, and it was time to meet his guiding elder.
"Enter," a voice sounded from the room, and Wei Zian swore he could feel the impatience in the tone already, like the man felt Wei Zian was wasting his time before he even saw him. He opened the door and came face to face with Elder Xu Yan, the notorious guiding elder from the eighteen hells. Wei Zian could tell straight from his facial expression that Elder Xu didn't think much of him.
"Wei Zian? Sit down please," Elder Xu ordered, not even bothering to wait for an answer. Wei Zian barely caught the jade writing brush the man threw at him the moment he sat down.
"Show me your basic three," his guiding elder ordered, referring to the qi control exercises they were taught in their second year.
He had heard about this part. No one had ever mastered the basic three enough to impress Elder Xu. Sure enough, Wei Zian had barely begun levitating the brush when he was interrupted.
"Slow," Elder Xu pronounced. "It took you a full breath of concentration to enter a proper mindset. You must be faster. Begin again."
Begin again. Begin again. Begin again. He kept saying that, again and again, until Wei Zian realized it had been a whole hour since they had started with this. He had completely lost track of time in his attempt to focus on the exercise instead of his growing desire to stab the brush into Elder Xu's eye socket.
"Begin again."
The brush immediately rose into the air, before Elder Xu was even done talking. Really, how could he possibly get any faster than this with the exercise?
He lost focus when a spirit stone collided with his forehead, disrupting his concentration.
"You lost focus," Elder Xu admonished.
"You threw a spirit stone at me!" protested Wei Zian, unable to quite accept that Elder Xu had really done something so childish. "What did you expect would happen!?"
"I expected you to maintain focus on the exercise anyway," Elder Xu said. "Had you truly mastered the exercise, such a minor disturbance would not have impeded you. It seems I have once again been regretfully proven right: the inadequacy of current sect curricula have stunted the growth of another promising disciple. It seems we have to start with the very basics of qi control. We will go through each of the basic three until you can perform them flawlessly."
"Elder, I had these exercises mastered a year ago," Wei Zian protested. He was not wasting his time with the basic three. He had already spent too much time refining those in his opinion.
"You have not," Elder Xu said, sounding as if he was offended Wei Zian would even suggest such a thing. "Being able to perform the exercise reliably is not the same as mastering it. Besides, doing this will teach you patience and how to control your temper, which is clearly something you are having trouble with. Those are important skills for a cultivator to have."
Wei Zian's lips pressed themselves into a thin line. The man was intentionally aggravating him, Wei Zian was sure of it. Apparently the rumors were right and these sessions were going to be one giant exercise in frustration.
"Let us start with the levitation exercise," Elder Xu said, oblivious to Wei Zian's thoughts. "Begin again."
He was starting to hate those two words.