That night, as Raon returned to the
guard barracks, he noticed he was being followed.
Not by enemies, but by disciples.
**You've got fans. How does it feel
being popular?**
"Annoying," Raon muttered,
stopping abruptly. "Alright, come out."
Three disciples emerged from behind a
supply building, looking embarrassed. They were older students, maybe eighteen
or nineteen, with the bearing of mid-level practitioners.
"Guard Raon," one of them
said, bowing. "We wanted to ask... could you evaluate our
techniques?"
**Your reputation is spreading faster
than rumors at a high school.**
"Why not ask your
instructors?" Raon asked.
"We have," another said. "They give us the same advice
every time: 'Push harder, cultivate more.' But we've been stuck at Martial Practitioner
Late Stage for eight months. Then we saw your session today, and..." He
trailed off.
The third added quietly, "My brother broke through to Martial Expert
Realm in another sect, the Jade Mountain Sect. When I asked him to describe the
breakthrough, he mentioned principles I'd never heard of. Principles that
aren't in our manuals."
Raon's attention sharpened. "Like what?"
"He talked about Qi synchronization, aligning your energy with
natural cycles. About breath gates and meridian resonance. None of that is in
Blue Pearl teachings."
**Because those sections were corrupted or lost over time. Your
corrections include those principles.**
"One session," Raon said finally. "Behind the storage
building. Midnight. Don't tell anyone."
Their faces lit up.
**You're building an underground training network. This is literally the
plot of every martial arts movie ever.**
"I'm aware," Raon muttered.
---
Midnight came, and with it, a
revelation.
The three disciples, Chen Woo, Park
Soo, and Kang Min demonstrated their techniques. As Raon watched, his enhanced
perception saw the problem immediately.
"You're not stuck because of
talent," Raon said. "You're stuck because your foundation is
cracked."
"What?" Chen Woo looked
confused.
"Your Qi circulation patterns were
built on flawed techniques," Raon explained. "It's like building a
house on a shaky foundation, eventually, you hit a ceiling because the base
can't support more weight."
Qi Circulation is the process of guiding energy through the
body's meridians in a continuous loop.
It refines raw Qi,
strengthens the organs, and connects the Dantian to the rest of the body.
**Deep metaphor. Very sensei like.**
"Can it be fixed?" Kang Min
asked.
Raon hesitated. What he was about to
suggest was risky.
"You'd have to essentially...
restart. Break down your current circulation patterns and rebuild them from
scratch. It's painful, time consuming, and if done wrong, could cripple your
cultivation permanently."
The three disciples exchanged glances.
"How long would it take?"
Park Soo asked.
"Three months minimum. Six months
realistically."
"And we'd definitely improve
after?"
"If you follow the corrected
methods exactly? Yes."
Another pause. Then Chen Woo stepped
forward. "Teach us."
**Quest Update: Train Five Disciples >
Train Eight Disciples.**
**You're really building an army
here.**
"This is going to end badly,"
Raon muttered.
But he taught them anyway.