Chương 60: Palisade

It was late afternoon; Jianyi had just returned from one of his small tours around the impromptu woodcutting camp, and he looked into his spiritual space. He felt… full. All day, he had alternated between practicing the Eternal Spear Meditation and making sure that nothing would happen to the group of villagers that had cut down a dozen trees or so and cleared them of bark and branches.

His lower dantian was fuller than ever before with qi, and he felt like the space at the bottom of it, where the more permanent qi gathered, had filled up a bit. With the amount of available qi, he should definitely be able to activate Verdant Mending, possibly even Bolt of Fire on top of that. He was tired, though. The relentless practice was taxing body and mind.

What made up for that was that, beyond Endless Expanse, the equivalent of the Open movement in the Fivefold Spear Art, he had also started on Eternal Veil, or Close. The lingering doubts on whether he had made the right choice in spending time cultivating while on a mission had vanished over the course of the day. He did not have the feeling that the woodcutters or Jun had begrudged his choice. The opposite was the case, really. After seeing his relentless practice, the respect of the people around him had grown.

Once back in the sect, he would have to discuss this decision with Minghao, much like some of the other choices he and his companions had made on this mission so far. Now it was time to return to the village, and Jianyi did help carry the timber to the wagon with the two horses at the edge of the small, wooded area that they had spent most of the day in. Shuhua, Miyao, and Hong reported that the day had been quiet at the village as well after they returned, and they had dinner together that the village provided.

The Rusty Squirrel meat was surprisingly tasty—the village butcher explained that mortals could only eat meat from spirit beasts of the lowest realm, and only in small amounts; it was a delicacy, though, and they didn't get to enjoy it often for obvious reasons. The butcher also handed them the claws and teeth from the spirit beasts that they had slain the previous day. After the butcher left, the man he had healed came by and thanked Jianyi personally.

His wound looked mostly healed, and he had regained a lot of his strength and vitality. Jianyi offered to take first watch, and Hong joined him. The most exciting part was when a regular fox tried to sneak into the village, but it was quickly dispatched without having to wake the other disciples. The next morning, the whole village was engaged in repairing the palisade. The bottom third of the tree trunks they had harvested were charred and then covered in a quickly hardening mix of resin and ash.

That procedure was to ensure that the palisade would withstand the elements and last for generations. To Jianyi's surprise, the work was done before the sun had risen to its peak, which meant that it was time for the young disciples to start their trip back home. The elder provided them with a scroll confirming the work they had done and thanked them extensively for their help.

Jianyi sat in the kitchen with Minghao and recounted the highlights of the mission that they had just completed. After arriving at the sect, they had entered the back entrance of the mission hall, where they got confirmation of the successful mission and were able to drop off the materials they had collected on the trip. Jianyi's share of the rewards had been five merit points and three hundred contribution points.

The sect had bought the relatively useless card from them for five hundred contribution points; the materials from the Rusty Squirrels had also sold for a bit, so in total, he had made three times as many points on the trip as he did in a regular week. More valuable than the points, though, was the experience. Minghao couldn't stop laughing at the team just rushing into combat. He did, however, confirm Jianyi's decision to cultivate in the forest.

From his perspective, it might have been different if there had been any indication that they were in a dangerous environment. That close to the village, in the middle of the day, with other people providing at least some degree of vigilance, it was better to use the time productively. But context mattered. He described situations from his own life where the decision would have been categorically wrong. When Jianyi described how he lacked experience in nature, the retainer squinted at him but didn't say anything.

He did congratulate him, though, on the Wild Chrysanthemum, but declined to identify it for him. Knowing these things was important; knowing how to research them even more. So that was one of his priorities for the next few days. Afterwards, he could share the proceeds of the sale with the rest of the group.

Jianyi stood at the training field of the central mountain peak, waiting for the exercises of group Amber to start. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He was sincerely looking forward to it as he felt that, especially the sparring with the inner disciples at the end, but also the continuous feedback on the forms they practiced, helped him a lot.

The recent fights against the demonic cultivator, as well as the spirit beasts on their merit mission, had also helped him crystallize how much he had yet to learn. It wasn't surprising after having joined the sect officially less than six weeks ago, but it was still a wake-up call that meant that he could not relent. Disciplined training was paramount. He turned as he saw Hong and Jun approach him with an unusual urgency. Hong stepped close to him and whispered in his ear.

"We heard in the dormitories that there were a couple of disciples angry that you got special treatment with your one-on-one coaching and sparring. One of them has supposedly riled up their brother, or cousin, or whatever, to 'put you in your place'. Maybe you want to leave early today?" Jianyi blinked in surprise. He had not noticed that anybody was frustrated with him because of the individual sparring he received. That could just be him not paying attention to any of the other disciples, though.

He would definitely not cut his training short just because some boy or girl, who clearly didn't know how to fight, was going to send their big brother over. Backing down from these kinds of confrontations did not pay off, in Jianyi's experience.

"Thank you for the warning, Hong. I am not aware of having done anything wrong; therefore, I am not going to change my plans," he said, nodding to the boy. The session went very well, and Jianyi got the sense that his footwork had improved slightly. As he was about to leave the training field, Jun and Hong by his side, an inner disciple stepped in his way, and a couple of the outer disciples who were part of Amber stopped, some of which grinning expectantly. Jianyi raised an eyebrow but stayed polite.

"Senior brother, how can I help you?" The man was tall, well-muscled but not overtly broad, and had long hair kept together by a jade comb.

"Are you the troublemaker?" the young man asked him, his eyes squinted.

"I hope not, senior brother. In which way should I have caused trouble?" Jianyi remained polite, smiling slightly.

"I heard that you got kicked out of Lapis because you caused trouble, and that you caused so many issues in Amber that the teachers were forced to separate you from the group. This sect gives its all to fight demons; it cannot abide troublemakers. I cannot abide troublemakers." Jianyi nodded severely.

"Senior brother, let me assure you that there is nothing in my life that has a higher priority than fighting demons. All I do, I do with that target in mind. If you allow me, I would love to address your concerns." The inner disciple squinted even harder but could find no reason not to hear him out; his desire for order seemed genuine.

"The reason I was moved from Lapis to Amber was that I had to miss two weeks of training due to other obligations, and Elder Fang thought that, therefore, Amber was more suitable for me. I regretted that decision initially, but to be honest, I now enjoy my time in Amber quite a bit.

"And that brings us to the second point. I sincerely hope that I have not caused any trouble in Amber. Your fellow inner disciples who run the group have not separated me from the others. I do participate in all exercises; only at the end do I have the honor to spar individually with them, as they deemed the gap between the other outer disciples and me too large to be helpful for them or me."

"Is that so…?" his accuser slowly turned towards the group of outer disciples, especially a girl at the center, who had looked on, expecting a beatdown and were now a bit more restrained. The man held his finger to his nose while thinking.

"That should be easy to verify, and know that if what you said is true, I will apologize and make sure that others…" He looked back at the other group.

"Understand that order needs to be kept and shall never be abused for their own petty grievances."

"Yan Min, you, and you, come over here." The man pointed to one girl and two boys from the other group and waved them over, his gesture leaving no room for dissent.

"Each one of you will spar against this young man. First to three points wins. A troublemaker should not stand a chance against you." He turned back to Jianyi.

"Is that acceptable?" Jianyi did not really feel like he had to prove anything, but the way the conversation had gone, it almost felt like the inner disciple was now using him to teach the others a lesson. He shrugged.

"Sure, why not." Just a few moments later, Jianyi stood in the ring against Yan Min, a girl he might have sparred against before but had not really stood out to him in any way. From the faint familiar resemblance and the way the inner disciple had addressed her, he suspected that she was at the heart of the sordid affair. The triumphant look from earlier was gone from her face. The tense grip of her spear told a story of fear. Jianyi's compassion was limited. She had brought this on her own head.

The one kindness he could give her was to not draw this out—and not give her a chance to surprise him. The moment that the inner disciple called for the fight to begin, he leaped forward and delivered a crushing blow with Blazing Arc to the girl's shoulder. Despite the blunted edge of the training spear, she cried out in pain and dropped her spear—a tear falling from her face. Jianyi stepped back. Looking towards the disciple who squinted again.

"Min'er, do you forfeit the fight?" The girl nodded, her face down, her hand holding her shoulder. Jianyi had no interest in hurting any of his fellow disciples, but he also wouldn't serve as a piece in their silly games. All he wanted was to learn to fight. Handing the girl a pill, the disciple waved for her to move out of the ring and make way for Jianyi's next opponent. The boy seemed a bit better at masking his fear, but his tongue constantly flicking over his lips gave away his nervousness.

Jianyi was interested to see whether the same attack would work again and launched forward with another Blazing Arc. The boy managed to duck under it, but Jianyi turned his attack into a 360-degree turn that ended in a Flowing Current, the horizontal attack, which smashed into his opponent's side uncontested, forcing him to breathe out explosively. Stepping back to give the boy a chance to center himself again, Jianyi thought about his next attack. Keeping it simple seemed the best way forward. Piercing Fang.

The moment his opponent signaled that he was ready, he shot forward with the most basic of attacks. The boy saw it coming, but was not fast enough to evade, leading to another hit, this time in the stomach. The inner disciple sighed.

"I have seen enough." He turned to Jianyi, slightly lowering his head.

"I apologize for having accused junior brother. I am sure you will soon find your way back into Lapis or even Jade. May your path be long and fruitful." With that, he collected Yan Min and the two boys and pulled them to the side, where he apparently told them in no uncertain terms what he thought of them. Hong and Jun clapped him on his shoulders as they walked back home.