I swiftly grabbed Baiyu's three tokens out of his pockets to keep for myself, now I have 9 total tokens!
And I now know this Jade is much more useful than just being my own benchmark, it is a real treasure!
I didn't have time to revel in my victory for long, however, as Li Baiyu jumped up again, still dazed, he struggled to stand but still unsheathed his swords, "Fight me again!"
I carefully used my foot to kick his swords out of his hands, just so he doesn't hurt himself accidentally, "Why would I? You've lost all your tokens. And do you really not see what's happening here?"
Baiyu fell to the ground, holding his head and looking over any cuts on his body, "See what's happening? What do you mean?"
"It's clear the other instructors have some kind of grudge or vendetta against ours, and now they're trying to embarrass his students as a way of embarrassing him. Shouldn't we, as first years, work together to try and help our own instructor rise? I get you think we're a bunch of bumpkins and don't deserve your time, and though we haven't interacted much over the last few yucheons, the instructor and us still deserve your respect. Besides, if we team up and beat up our third and fourth-year seniors, won't that be a lot more vindicating than beating your peers?"
Baiyu didn't respond. Instead, he slapped himself on both sides of his face to wake himself up fully and gathered his swords, sheathing them, "Fine then, let us search for others."
I nodded, finally he was listening to reason. Though we didn't speak much, or at all, it felt good to walk alongside knowing we were working together, hopefully to be the first of many.
We only had half an hour before the sun would set on our 6th day of wilderness training, and luckily we found a second-year disciple!
He wore black robes like us, but had two golden clips on his robes instead of one, a sign of his seniority. But....other than that, he wasn't very...memorable. Baiyu challenged him before I could even though he had no tokens, and managed to beat and steal the kid's last two tokens easily.
Hopefully he was just a fluke, maybe a cause of nepotism, and not a good representation of our senior black-robes, because otherwise...that's sad. Gansu doesn't have a bright future if this is one of their better disciples.
Anyhow, me and Baiyu left the second-year alone and found a decent, tall tree on whose branches we could sleep on, but before we went to sleep, I just had something bothering my mind to ask, "Weren't you partnered up with Guo Yanzhi? Where is he?"
Baiyu eyed me from the branch opposite me, "I could ask the same for Yao Kun"
"Wow, I didn't know you were nice enough to learn our names. He got gravely injured in a battle with a Qi Beast, he gave me his tokens and was forced to leave. Now as for Brother Yanzhi?"
Baiyu shifted slightly, crossing his arms and leaning back on the tree, "There was some kind of 'treasure' found in the center of the forest, where multiple people were gathering, Guo Yanzhi was there too. But then we were ambushed by beasts and forced to split up, that's when I met you."
Hm...Brother Zhi isn't one to be defeated easily, his intelligence and maturity are the highest among us, he must've found some kind of strategy to stay alive.
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[Li Baiyu POV]
I waited until Yan Mo was asleep to leave. I won't succeed if I'm near him, not with his talent and dominance. I don't understand him, not even one bit. I work just as hard as him, I should have higher quality techniques, and I was trained as the 11th Son of the Sect Leader of the Southern Sea Temple.
So how is it that he's been able to beat me each time? I might be caught in my emotions from time to time, but I don't let them overtake me, I still play strategically and smart. It couldn't possibly be that he's simply...smarter than me? The gap between our base power has to be far too large to be bridged by slightly smarter fighting.
It's too much to think about so late in the day, I just know I want to get out of here and get myself some tokens. If I can't just yet beat him in a head-to-head, then at the very least I can beat him at gathering tokens. I jumped from tree to tree, avoiding the ground and any dangerous nocturnal beasts that could be roaming below me.
It took me only an hour's worth of travel to find two disciples, both third-years, camping out asleep below. But it's dishonorable to attack them without them expecting, bad rumors may spread about me if I did. So instead I jumped down and cut the wind right above their faces, causing them to wake up.
They jumped up quickly, but I didn't give them a chance to shout any of their own stupidity and slow me down, "I'm Li Baiyu, a first year black-robe disciple, I challenge you to a duel!"
One of them looked at the other before angrily standing up and grabbing his weapon, a large, heavy battle-axe, "I'll be forced to teach you some manners then!" He rushed in without a further comment, swinging his heavy axe down on me.
Luckily I was able to take a quick step back and dodge the swing, which split the ground beneath me in two. Heavy attacks, and as a third year, he's most likely been training his body and Qi for far longer than me. He'll have more endurance than me, meaning I should try and make this battle quick.
I swung my sword down at air, but used my Qi to send a gust of powerful wind for him. He didn't react, moving right through it. Alright, next idea.
I rushed right back at him, and as soon as he prepared his horizontal swing, I ducked under and swung at his abdomen, I used nearly a third of my Qi in order to cut past his dense muscles and truly hurt him.
He fell on his face. Despite their size and strength advantage, they've only competed against other Gansu techniques and styles, so my Namhae Ssang-Geom Sul (Southern Sea Twin Blade Art) is like making a large goldfish in a small pond fight against a catfish of the ocean.
I took his three tokens and faced off against the next third year, who had a headband to keep his long hair out of his eyes. He wielded a spear and attacked as soon as I was ready.
This battle was rough, his spear could keep me at a distance, and if I ever broke through, I wouldn't have enough momentum without it either being too easy to dodge or it dealing barely any damage.
And he was defencive based as well, he was purposely drawing me to a battle of attrition knowing that it's my weakness against him. But it's all too bad, I haven't yet shown one of my own trump cards.
"Namhae Ssang-Geom Sul, Hidden Technique, Bohyul Do (Way of the Guiding Waves)"
It was a risky technique, one I hadn't mastered yet but still one meant exactly to combat this type of combatant. My ancestors were graceful, creating stances to the technique after realizing it's potential weaknesses.
I moved in and out of his spear range, like high and low tide. Slowly, I stopped being pushed back, and instead we were at a stand-still. I was holding my own against him, and he noticed, he tried to push in closer to get rid of my advantage.
Yet he didn't know that's exactly what I was waiting for. At the exact moment he rushed in, so did I, closing the gap and with enough time to slash at his thigh, making him unable to keep fighting.
There, I had just won against two third-years, using my own smarts as well, what is stopping me from doing this to that stupid Yan Mo?! Why is he so unique, why am I just filled with rage whenever I see him??!
Alas, it's not something I can answer right now, I should focus on matters most present to me. And currently, that means to find a way to rest my pearls and gain more than the 8 tokens I have.
It all starts with rest, however, so I stole the third-years campfire and slept there.
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[Yan Mo POV]
Day 7
He dishonorably left right after I fell asleep, didn't he? Unbelievable, and here I thought he was really starting to listen to reason!
But I have better things to focus on, a third-year disciple managed to find me, and he seemed damn bent on emberrasing me, meeting the trope of the average bad guy in every novel I've read during my younger years.
"You junior, you're lucky I found you because I'm quite merciful. If you kowtow before me a thousand times and cripple your cultivation, I'll let you leave with only one of your legs broken!" The generic looking guy thrashed on me.
But still, he wasn't one to look down on. The Dragon-Phoenix tests, the most important examination a cultivator can take, is given every single year. Third-Years have been rigorously training for two straight years and after failing twice, they're filled with an anger unlike any other. They're the perfect medium between lacking wisdom and having power to be something to be wary of.
I didn't want to talk against him, idiots that speak like a villain from a novel are ones that are annoying to even try to communicate with. I just charged straight forward, giving two quick attacks to make him back up.
"Hah! You arrogant junior, you have no idea you're just a big fish in a small pond!" He deflected my attacks easily, not even stuttering. He kept his eyes locked with me as he attacked back, swinging his sword with a single hand.
Each strike of his had heft and speed! This was definitely one of the upper-class third-years, the cream of the crop as it's been said.
He wasn't even using any techniques nor stances and I was still being forced on the defensive end. Even my Jade isn't going to be of great use here, it's Qi Absorbing qualities are useless when my opponent is barely using any!
I don't want to make use of my Five Flames Art, he's never seen it or it's suffocating presence. I need to set myself up to use it as a finishing move!
"Soaring Red Flame Art, Second Stance, Burning Moon!"
I sent forward a blade of flame, to which the third-year disciple seemed surprised, "What is this?! You sent out this attack in less than a breath's time? But no matter, I can tell how weak this is!"
He slashed away at the blade of fire, making it dissipate, only for him to realize I was running and hiding behind it. Quickly, I had to make use of this momentary shock!
"Yeowang Oyeonmu! Third Stance! Gwanwang-ui Chimbi! (Piercing Sun Fang)"
A straight attack, simple, lethal. The sun shone brightly and a red aura exhuded out of me, stunning the third-year for just a few moments.
But with just half a moment to react, he moved barely out the way, receiving a cut and a burn across half his face. He yelled in pain, yelled.
I couldn't even keep going on attacking, I had to clutch my ears just to stop them from bursting. It cannot be hurting enough to shriek like a monster!
I tried to swing my sword, just one lucky hit and he would lose! I enhanced my sword with Qi and-felt the Jade begin to heat up? And the Qi on my sword began to largen and condense without me putting more Qi in!
Is this Jade now amplifying my own Qi?!