Chương 34: Diamonds in the Rough

Despite Liming's best efforts, Paike mostly kept them out of trouble for the rest of the day. Only a few of the other newly initiated disciples received challenges from her, but they were quickly dispatched. Liming soon realized that challenging someone beneath them in rankings was not beneficial and only made them appear like bullies. So, even that stopped. They sat in the center of the sect compound by the fountain, waiting for people to challenge them.

While they waited, they talked, but no one seemed willing to try their luck and unseat either of the two siblings. This was somewhat surprising to Paike. He would have expected someone like Han Saiyan or Ren Shu to come and try him again. But perhaps they had learned their lesson last time. To her disappointment, Liming couldn't even find any of the seven or so disciples that outranked them. She complained about it constantly and worried about their positions slipping.

Paike wasn't particularly worried about anyone leapfrogging them in the rankings, at least among the newly initiated disciples. Besides, there was a long way to go, and they didn't even know what the rankings were really worth yet, either. It seemed his sister cared a lot more about the public perception than he did. She might have had a point. Perhaps they could have started to look at the overarching outer-sect rankings instead of just the newly initiated.

However, they weren't ready to fight peak Ruby cultivators yet, let alone Topaz ones. So, it was the list of the newly initiated disciples they were concerned with for now. When evening came, Paike found himself back in his slightly damaged house. Guan Li was already slumped in his bed, the door propped open after a brutal bout of training. When Paike asked how the physical education classes had gone, he only received a grunt in response.

Apparently, it had been a special day with basic weapons training, which wouldn't happen again for a while during the physical cultivation sessions. The following day, bright and early, Paike and Guan Li set out to meet Liming and the other seventeen members of their class in the field where Elder Ji had them gather. Paike recognized many of them. There was Li Feng, the number one ranked disciple. He was some sort of swordsman that Paike kept an eye on. Just the way he moved, told Paike that he was dangerous.

He didn't know his story, but he moved like some of his older relatives who saw serious combat. That couldn't be the case, though, right? He would have heard about him if he was that remarkable. Some of the other notables were Mei Lingchi, who did well in the spirit cultivation class. She came from a clan that was notable for their healers, if Paike recalled correctly. Han Saiyan and Ren Shu were both there, but they ignored the Kongs. Zhao Liantian was the only other disciple from the top in the class.

Still, that made seven of the top ten in the class. Only Yue Mingli and Wu Chen were missing. Those two were likely noncombatants. That still left thirteen others who passed their trail that he didn't know anything about. Twelve, excluding Guan Li. Paike was almost as wary of them as they weren't people he knew yet. He would have to learn about them as if they were talented enough to make it here. They wouldn't be irrelevant for long. The twenty of them milled about, waiting for the elder to appear.

Before he did, though, a section of the forest shimmered and vanished. In its place, a series of large constructions appeared—obstacles that stretched nearly 100 meters long and 50 meters wide. There was a duplicate set on either side, and Paike couldn't help but wonder what kind of pain this course had in store for him. Everyone around him was also staring at the course.

The first obstacle was a towering wall made of shimmering, translucent crystals that reflected and refracted the early morning sunlight in dazzling patterns. The crystals slowly shifted and ground against each other, bits of dust falling to the floor, the sound of grating stone filling the air. Each crystal wall mirrored its counterpart across the two lanes of the obstacle course. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

After that came a narrow, glowing beam of light suspended over what looked like a bottomless chasm. But every once in a while, ripples in the dark told Paike that it was likely just deep water, with something swimming beneath the surface. The beam of light pulsed and shifted, apparitions appearing from it and floating into the sky before disappearing half a meter above the beam. Beyond that was a strange-looking forest, and further ahead, Paike couldn't see the remaining obstacles. Already, they looked daunting.

A sharp crack from behind startled everyone, causing them to spin around. Elder Ji stood with his hands still pressed together. He took a deep breath as he studied them, and Paike prepared himself for a lecture about keeping watch on their surroundings. Indeed, they should have known the elder was there. But Elder Ji exhaled in a controlled manner, as if pushing away that lecture.

Paike still took the lesson to heart—perhaps he needed to pick up some sort of detection art, though he wasn't sure how that would work with his crippled chi. He refocused his attention on the elder before he got too lost in trying to find a solution. Elder Ji nodded to Li Feng, the only member of the class who didn't seem surprised by his arrival.

"I'm glad you're all here. For the eight of you who were here yesterday, I expect the same effort today. You won't receive any preferential treatment due to a little extra training or luck. You'll have to work just as hard as everyone else. Everyone else? Work harder." A chorus of "Yes, sir!" echoed from the students as they bowed politely, clasping their fists to their chests.

"Today marks the beginning of your real training," Elder Ji said.

"Last week, I gave basic lessons to anyone who wanted to attend. But now, I'm here to train you for a purpose. You all have real potential." Paike almost tuned out for a second. He was pretty sure that was the first time he had heard those words in any reference to him. WIth a slight shake of his head he listened back in.

"You might not all be the best in the outer sect, but with enough effort and work, each of you could be among the best. You could become truly worthy of this great sect.

"Now, I don't spend all of my time here. Some of you might wonder why I, someone several realms above you, would bother teaching newly awakened cultivators like yourselves about physical cultivation when someone much weaker could do the same job without you even noticing the difference." He paused as if waiting for someone to speak up, but when no one did, he continued.

"It's not for your benefit; it's for the empire's. When I'm not here, babysitting you sad young sacks in hopes of finding a diamond in the rough, I'm on the frontier, fighting barbarians and pushing our empire outward, protecting our people from spirits and other threats. That is the true goal of any imperial cultivator of worth. All of the great nobles have spent time on the frontier, or at least someone in their family has.

Every once in a while, a new head of a family will rise through conniving and politicking rather than raw strength. Still, those houses have always been forgotten within a decade." Paike considered Elder Ji's words. Was it true? He couldn't think of a counterexample off the top of his head, though he didn't know much about noble house politics. His family had always avoided such things. But his family did spend a decent amount of time fighting, if not always, on the frontier.

Their respect was certainly earned through strength.

"Unlike some of those hothouse flowers raised in the capital, who only know how to duel—if they know how to fight at all—real cultivators cannot rely solely on themselves," Elder Ji continued.

"While you alone can count on yourself to progress through the realms of cultivation, that's not true in a fight. Fights on the battlefield are never one-on-one. Even two ninth-realm cultivators fighting will often have teams of seventh- and eighth-realm cultivators supporting them. Those teams can make as much of a difference as the ones fighting at the forefront." Many of the disciples didn't like hearing this, but Paike could somewhat agree. After all, wasn't that his dream?

To support his sister and siblings as long as possible before he was inevitably left behind? Let Liming be the face of their warband; Paike would fight from the background, handling defense and logistics. That was one of the reasons why their choice of arts so early in his training was so distressing. Everything seemed to be heading in the wrong direction. Others though were seduced with tale that cultivators faced the heavens alone. They thought of fighting and standing unsupported. Paike never had that luxury.

Elder Ji didn't wait long for the disciples to process his words.

"Over the next three months, I'll prove this to you," he said, his commanding voice catching everyone's attention.

"If the trial didn't convince you, the war games and various trials we'll put you through will rarely allow a single star to shine alone. Only through cooperation—or utterly dominating your opponents—will you achieve victory. And believe me, we'll make victory worth your while.

"Now, as you all noticed, behind you is your first lesson."