Chương 65: You Wanted Me To Teach You

What his card turned into, you ask? Nobody knows. We only know that it did not stop him. Not at all. The opposite, in fact. — He who calls himself Chi You, The Completed Works by He Shulin, foremost scholar of the Outer Realms Jianyi readied himself for the third attack—and subsequent pain—enforced by Elder Fang, the man who had acted as if he hated him since the day he had learned that Jianyi was Elder Sun's student. As with the previous attacks, he entered the Rooted Stance as the starting position—and attacked.

There was a snap. Something was different this time. The pain was the same. The numbness in his hands and arms was the same. The blood in his mouth was the same. His spear. His father's spear. One of only two things he had left of him. Cleanly carved in two. This pain… This was unbearable. The rage that was bubbling up was hard to contain. He felt tears welling up in his eyes, but he bit back down on his tongue to suppress one pain with another.

"Again!" the elder shouted. Jianyi remembered the countless hours that he had trained with the spear. How he had treated it as a shrine to the memory of his father. How he had always envisioned that he would cut through hordes of demonic beasts to take revenge for his father's death. Gone. All of it gone because of the tantrum of an elder. There were two things for Jianyi to do. Leave. Get stronger. He stood up, dusted himself off, walked the few paces to where the remains of his spear lay.

He picked them up, including the few splinters of wood that had fallen off from the cut haft. His head held high, he turned away from the elder, from the ring, and walked away.

"You stay here. I told you to attack," the elder roared behind him. Jianyi walked through the crowd of outer disciples, Jun and Hong, patting him on the shoulder, murmuring encouraging words. Jianyi ignored them just like he ignored the pitying, gloating, encouraging glances of the other outer disciples. He walked home. Out of the outer sect on the central peak, through the outer sect in the western peak, to the inner sect there. He didn't speed up. He didn't slow down. He didn't acknowledge anybody in his path.

He meditated as he walked. It seemed the only way to contain the rage. Once in the compound, he moved directly towards the courtyard. An intense cultivation session seemed a good way to get rid of all the emotion inside him that was threatening to overwhelm him at any moment. He entered the ring and tried to pull his spear out of his storage ring, like he did every time he practiced the Eternal Spear Meditation. It wasn't there—and Jianyi cried.

For the first time since his father's death, he cried as he sagged down on his knees. He cried for his father, for his spear—for every loss he ever felt. He cried until he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

"What happened, Jianyi?" Elder Sun stood behind him, and Jianyi tried to quickly erase the evidence of him crying. Unsuccessfully.

"I am sorry… teacher. I didn't mean to disturb you." He hated how his voice broke. He wasn't a child anymore.

"You didn't disturb me. Now, tell me what happened," the elder said, looking him in the eyes with a smile. Jianyi pulled out the parts of his spear and held them for the elder to see.

"My father's spear. It broke."

"It broke?" the elder inspected the remains of the weapon.

"This didn't break. It was cut. Tell me the full story." That's what Jianyi did. He had never talked about any of the interactions with Elder Fang to his teacher, but now he told him everything since the first meeting in the tent where the elders had decided who would join the sect. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Elder Sun's finger tapped rhythmically on his robes when Jianyi was done.

"I am sorry to hear that it has come so far." The elder paused, thinking.

"Come with me." The elder led the way towards the hallway that led to his study. As with many walls around the compound, spears decorated the walls, and the elder picked one up. The blade was leaf-shaped and made from a metal that looked almost white. In contrast, the haft was from a very dark wood, not dissimilar to the spear that Jianyi had seen the elder train with and that he had replicated in his soul space to defend his spirit. Elder Sun handed the spear to Jianyi.

"This was one of my favorite spears when I was in the Qi Gathering Realm. It even lasted me a while into the Qi Condensation Realm. It is not a true artifact, but the Sun Iron blade and the Fierce Cherry Wood haft offer an excellent compromise of weight to robustness. I would be honored if you use it." The spear was a bit heavier than his father's spear. But it felt good in his hands with a perfect balance and an innate sturdiness that exuded confidence and strength.

Jianyi didn't know what to say; more emotions threatened to overwhelm him, this time positive, though. It seemed that now that the gates were open, his often highly controlled feelings wanted to make use of the opportunity. He bowed deeply to the elder.

"Thank you so much, teacher. This means a lot to me."

"Very good. Now I need to do something. Why don't you cultivate a bit with the new spear, then help Minghao with the dinner preparation?" Jianyi nodded and bowed again, grateful for the continued support of the elder.

It was two days later, and Jianyi was at the training ground for the weekly meeting with his friends. The cousins and Miyao were already there and commiserated with him for what had happened with Elder Fang. Jianyi appreciated their sentiment but did not want to discuss it. He was done with the sect's spear training. He hadn't asked yet, but was sure that Minghao would help him like he had when he was sequestered in the compound to work on his soul technique.

Shuhua was unusually late but came running with an excited gleam in her eyes.

"Jianyi!" she shouted as she neared.

"Your teacher, it's Elder Sun, isn't it?" Jianyi nodded, unclear what to expect.

"There is a duel in the main arena tomorrow. Over on the central peak. Elder Sun is fighting Elder Fang!" He was taken aback by that news. He had only seen the elder briefly to bring him breakfast this morning, but otherwise, he had been busy. Had his teacher challenged Elder Fang to a duel over his behavior towards Jianyi? It must be, right? He couldn't make heads or tails of this right now.

"We should go watch it together!" Jun said excitedly, and the others agreed easily.

"I… I need to check. Let's focus on training for now," Jianyi said, ending further discussions on the topic.

Jianyi had known that the sect had thousands of disciples, but he hadn't known. From the outside, the arena had looked impressive, but sitting among thousands of cultivators looking onto the packed earth of the arena ground, a space that was easily a hundred paces long and wide, was impressive. But that was not what had his gut churning in anxiety. When he had come home the previous day, the elder had not been around. Minghao had reassured him that all was in hand and that he need not worry.

A duel was just part of daily life in the sect after all. He should just go ahead and watch; maybe there was something he could pick up. However, wherever he had gone since then had been abuzz—Elder Sun was a revered figure in the sect, at least with the more senior people, and he hadn't dueled in living memory of most of these people. There were also rumors flying around that this was linked to an incident with a junior cultivator.

As much as he wanted Elder Fang to be punished, he had to assume that he was the spear teacher for a reason. The idea that Elder Sun would lose or, even worse, get hurt on his behalf was unthinkable. The anxiety he felt was incomparable to his own duels; there, his fate had been in his own hands. Here, he could do nothing but pray to the Heavens to look out for his teacher. His friends were sitting with him and chatting, but he barely heard them.

They had been early and got some of the best seats—for outer disciples. One whole side of the arena was reserved for elders. They had large, luscious seats on a platform that had multiple layers, with the top platform just having a handful of seats, one of which was for the patriarch. The core, inner, and outer disciples were then placed in circles around the arena, with the core disciples being closest to the duel field. Before this day, Jianyi had had no idea how many elders there were in the sect.

Of course, he had known that there were more than the five he had met in the tent three months before and the few he had seen since. But there were dozens in attendance—given that many of them must be on the frontlines, it was a truly staggering amount. An awed murmur went through the disciples when the patriarch appeared. One moment, his seat was empty; the next, there he sat. Physically, he cut an unassuming figure, but there was no doubt about his power by the way the elders around him reacted.

Everyone sat just a little bit straighter in their seats. Finally, things quieted down, the gate onto the dueling field from the bowels of the arena opened, and Elder Fang stepped out. He wore his usual gray robes and had his hands clasped behind his back. Unusual, however, was his smile—Jianyi had never seen the elder smile so far, and it felt fake. The elder walked one third onto the field, then turned towards the patriarch and elders and bowed his head in greeting.

On the opposite side of where Jianyi was sitting was a small stand overlooking the field below. Elder Wang, the administrative elder of the inner sect, who had given Jianyi a hard time once but also helped him under the scrutiny of the other elders on his first day in the sect, stepped onto the stand. An awkward silence covered the arena, and Elder Fang's smile seemed more and more like a grimace. Then, Elder Sun arrived.

Instead of coming through another gate, he flew over the outer walls of the arena, the rows and rows of disciples, and landed in the field below, his eyes never leaving Elder Fang. His voice echoed through the arena.

"It has come to my attention that you are still pained by my rejecting you as a student. So… you wanted me to teach you… Here I am." With every word Jianyi's teacher spoke, the silence of the observers grew until it was almost physical. Elder Fang's smile dropped off his face, replaced by a furious mask. Even the elders on their comfortable seats leaned forward; some scowled. This was no friendly spar. Elder Wang, who apparently officiated the duel, spoke up.

"The duel is won when one party surrenders or is incapacitated." Now, the silence in the arena broke. These were not the regular rules. Most loudly spoke the absence of the rule against lethal attacks.

"On my command…" Both elders produced spears; Elder Sun's was the black one that Jianyi had seen before.

"Begin!"