After a short time, the rest of the disciples also gathered near the outpost. Same as yesterday, an Inner Disciple came to escort them to their lessons. Yu Feng had no problem falling into the march this time.

  They reached Instructor Wu's training field again, the giant grinning at them from the center of the field. The disciples started jogging around the field, while the five advanced students did their more strenuous warmup with the instructor keeping watch.

  As they went through the paces, his muscles groaning with the yet unfamiliar movement, Yu Feng watched his fellow recruits. Shen Yao was smiling slightly, his brow furrowed in determination as he tried to touch the ground with one hand, while one of his legs pointed to they sky. Ma Ping was grunting in exertion as he clasped his hands behind his back, and tried to touch his head to his toes, his huge amount of muscle impeding his flexibility.

  Cai Lingxin had sweat running down her forehead, and her two-toned hair stuck to her neck in the heat. But she did not seem to be paying him any undue attention after yesterday's events. Good, he might be able to apologise after all. Xian Chen on the other hand...

  Yu Feng looked at him and was impressed. The boy was bent over backwards, his hands and legs stuck to the floor, very much resembling an arch. His face was set in determination even as he continued to hold that god-awful pose. Yu Feng could not imagine himself doing that. As he was staring at Xian Chen, the boy caught his eyes, amber meeting brown. He narrowed his gaze, but did not say anything, instead choosing to spring out of that pose like an acrobat. He huffed and turned away from Yu Feng, not choosing to bother with him, and began on the next exercise.

  Yu Feng sighed, sweat dripping down the side of his face irritably. No apology was going to come his way, he concluded. Casting Xian Chen out of his mind then, he continued working on the exercises Instructor Wu assigned them, his muscles and bones creaking in complaint all the while.

  Once they were done with the physical conditioning, they again went to the glade where Instructor Yin was waiting for them. Settling down into meditation, Yu Feng focused his gaze inward, trying to locate his meridians. He suspected that the exercise session was deliberately kept before the meditation, as the exhaustion helped calm his mind more than meditation ever could.

  After a few minutes, his thoughts started to slip away slowly like a repeat of yesterday, and Yu Feng grew more aware of his surroundings. He could now clearly see feel his spine, grounding him to the earth, making him its extension. He focused on that feeling, let his consciousness travel up and down the tendril of spirituality, even as he tried to expand his senses from his backbone.

  He took it slow, like the earth did, unchanging to mortal eyes but ever expanding. Soon before the session was supposed to end, he thought he detected an extension of that spirituality in his leg, connecting him to the tremors in the ground.

  A note of music rang in the air, rousing everyone from their meditations as Instructor Yin signaled the end of the session. Yu Feng stretched his body awake, still breathing in the sensations of the world, his leg heavier than usual. He was closer to detecting another meridian and had an idea on where to focus his energies now.

  As he joined Shen Yao and Gong Wei on their way back to the residences, he spotted Cai Lingxin walking a little bit ahead of them.

  "Forgive me, I'll be back in a minute," he told his companions, and jogged ahead slightly to catch up to the girl.

  "Miss Cai, can I have a word please?" he asked from behind, tapping her shoulder.

  Cai Lingxin jumped into the air with a small '~eep', startled out of her skin. She shakily turned around to spot a figure at least two heads taller, staring her down. She went white as a sheet, and was about to start bolting when Yu Feng raised his hands above his shoulders, palms out, to show that he came in peace.

  "Sorry for startling you, Miss Cai," he said with a sheepish smile.

  She put one hand over her heart, still heaving from the deep breathes she was taking to calm herself down. Yu Feng waited patiently for her to respond, not wanting to pressure her.

  She released a deep breath, and stared into Yu Feng's eyes, still trembling slightly. "That's all right, Mister...Yu, was it? I was just lost in thought and was thus a little surprised."

  Yu Feng smiled slightly, and apologised again. "Still, I would like to say sorry."

  Cai Lingxin nodded her head, twirling a strand of her hair between her fingers. "Then I accept," she replied. "But I am curious as to why you decided to approach me, after last night's debacle." On this, a trace of that fire Yu Feng had seen last night entered her voice. She was still obviously upset about what happened.

  Yu Feng took a deep breath, then bowed low, his torso almost perpendicular to the ground, surprising Cai Lingxin.

  "I wanted to apologise to you, for my actions last night. It was not right of me to draw you into the argument without your approval, and then lose control even though the situation was stabilised. I regret my actions, and hope that you can forgive me."

  Her eyes widened slightly at his words. Stammering a little, she replied, "S-straighten up, Mister Yu. I do not fault you for your doings. It was clear that you were trying to de-escalate the argument. And there is no one in the world who should stay quiet upon a slight to their family. There is absolutely no reason that you apologise."

  Yu Feng straightened up a little, regarding Cai Lingxin curiously. He had been pretty sure that she was maybe just a little angry, but her words were sincere enough that he was inclined to believe them. Giving her another bow, a little smaller this time, he said, "I am glad to hear that, Miss Cai. I was afraid that I had angered you a lot."

  She shook her head quickly. "It was not you I was angry at. It was rather the fact that the incident happened in the first place."

  Yu Feng nodded in understanding. But now that the apology was done, he was unsure of what to say. Almost hesitantly he asked, "Does this mean we are good?"

  Cai Lingxin smiled slightly, her dimples showing a little. "Yes Mister Yu, I believe 'we are good'. You are obviously a talented individual, and it would be foolish of me to not be on good terms with you. But if that is all, I believe we must be moving forward. Your companions seem to be waiting for you."

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  Yu Feng turned to the left to see Shen Yao and Gong Wei looking at the two of them with barely concealed curiosity. Giving Cai Lingxin a bow and bidding good-bye, he joined his companions again as she walked back to the mountain.

  Shen Yao raised an eyebrow as he approached. "What was all that about?" he asked.

  Smiling cryptically, Yu Feng answered, "Repairing bridges before they could be burnt."

  His friends hummed to themselves in acknowledgement, then started moving along.

  As they were travelling through the forest, a flash of purple static flickered across they sky. The three of them turned their gazes skyward, towards the giant pagoda which was buzzing with an energy. Purple lightning danced across its roofs, even as the ground shook slightly, the birds of the forest rising into the air at the disturbance.

  "Someone must be attempting one of the higher floors," Shen Yao muttered to himself.

  Yu Feng gazed at the structure curiously, its bleached white wood shining brighter under the summer sun. "You know," he questioned his companions, "I never really understood what the pagoda was for? Nobody has talked about it since I came here, even though it's so obviously impressive."

  "That's because it not really relevant to us," Shen Yao explained. "Only Foundation Establishment and above can attempt it, so there's no reason the instructors to tell us anything."

  "It is called the Lightning Trial," Gong Wei continued. "It is a sort of trail grounds for sect members, where if they clear the challenges of a floor, they get some incredible rewards. But I've heard that it is incredibly difficult, and that the only person who managed to pass the entire thing is now our current Sect Head."

  Yu Feng hummed to himself thoughtfully, digesting the information. Purple lightning continued to dance across the sky impressively, and he could also spot a couple of thundering cranes circling the pagoda. He supposed it was something to look forward to, if he managed to reach Foundation Establishment.

  Putting the thought of future levels out of his mind, he continued back to his place of living with his friends, eager to eat and sleep.

  ONE MONTH LATER

  Yu Feng swung his sword in tandem with the rest of the class, the wind whistling slightly with the collective force. His palm was slick with sweat, so he shifted his wooden weapon slightly, then took an upward cut, imagining lopping of a tree branch.

  The summer had continued to grow in intensity, and so had their lessons. After a few weeks of hellish conditioning, Instructor Wu finally had them move on to combat training. Yu Feng stood bare-chested in the ground along with many of his male companions, the summer heat too unbearable to wear training robes.

  Yu Feng took a step forward, his muscles going taut as he thrust his sword tip-first, before drawing it back and doing a cross-slice. Yu Feng had always been very muscled, but his time under Instructor Wu had only enhanced his physique. The sun had given him a slight golden tan, as he had grown a little more in height, his shoulders broader than before. He was now as tall as Ma Ping, who had put on even more muscle, emulating Instructor Wu more and more.

  "All right, that's enough."

  Instructor Wu clapped his hands, and a loud boom rang out, halting everyone's motions. Nobody took notice of the loud noise now, but all of them had flinched terribly when he had first done that.

  Wearing his trademark grin, Instructor Wu called out to his students, "Good work, all of you. I can see your motions becoming smoother with your chosen weapon. Soon, you will all have mastered the basic forms."

  The students all gave a weak cheer, too tired to do anything else. Yu Feng passed his sword around from one hand to the other absentmindedly. While it was true that he was getting better with the sword, he did not feel that it was the best weapon for him.

  When Instructor Wu had first started combat lessons, he had asked each person to choose a weapon to focus on. Yu Feng had tried all the different ones laid out, from a spear to tonfas, but none really called out to him. In the end, he decided to stick with a sword as it was the one that made most sense to him.

  Instructor Wu gestured for them to all come over, so they arranged themselves in front of him in neat rows. The discipline was ingrained into him for a month now, two for the others. As they walked, he could feel the earth shifting along with their movement, every tremble resonating in his bones.

  Over the past month, Yu Feng had made great progress in his meditations. He had managed to sense seven out of the ten meridians in his body, all of them of the earth attribute. His spine, legs, arms, nose and ear meridians were all connected to the earth, making them incredibly sensitive to when anything moved around him. He only had three more meridians left to uncover, and he had an inkling as to how he should go about doing that.

  As they stood gathered in front of Instructor Wu, he gave them their task for the day. "Now that you are all comfortable with your weapons, I felt it would be nice to do a military exercise. To that end" - and two yellow and red flags appeared in his hands- "we will be playing a game."

  "There will be two teams, Red and Yellow. The objective of each team is to steal the other team's flag. The only rules are that you cannot maim or kill another, and that the flag must be visible clearly, and not be carried by someone. Otherwise, anything goes. The forest behind me is your playground." He gave a fierce grin at that, as if excited by the idea of bloodshed.

  "Shen Yao," the boy startled at his name, "and Cai Lingxin will be captains. Choose your teams within the next ten minutes, then gather back."

  His instructions given, he sat back down onto the ground, and materialised a book into his hands. As he started reading it, the students started moving about, talking to the two team captains and joining either.

  Yu Feng caught Shen Yao's eye and nodded, walking over to him. Him, Shen Yao and Gong Wei had grown closer over the past month, doing almost everything together. He joined his friend's side, and asked his captain, "So, what's the plan?"

  Shen Yao looked at him appraisingly. "You are the defense scout," he assigned Yu Feng his role. "Your sensitivity is good, and we need a strong fighter to hold the last line of defense."

  Yu Feng nodded with his assessment. That's where he would like to be too. Soon, the rest of the roles were decided by Shen Yao, and they walked off into the forest in search of a spot to put their flag.

  The forest had become a place of peace to Yu Feng in the past month, him spending huge amounts of time within the trees, just listening to the sounds of nature and getting in touch with his meridians. It was a place where nature and earth intertwined in a complex manner, and Yu Feng had spent days at that point unravelling the complex ecosystem that the organisms in the forest operated in.

  Soon, they reached a sort of rocky outcropping which Shen Yao determined a good place to display the flag. It was stuck into the crevices of the rock at the highest point of the outcropping, far away from casual reach.

  The task finding a spot done, Shen Yao quickly barked orders at the rest of the team, and they scattered off into various directions as a bugle sounded in the air. The game had started.

  "Protect the flag, Yu Feng," Shen Yao commanded, before disappearing into the forest, leaving behind Yu Feng and four others.

  It was very boring, Yu Feng concluded, to be the last line of defense. While he could hear shouts way into the distance, nothing seemed to be approaching them at all. The other disciples with were also growing relaxed, the forest around them radiating peace.

  After half an hour of this stillness, Yu Feng's senses finally picked up something. Someone was approaching from the east, and from the vibrations in the air and ground, it sounded like a group of at least five people.

  "Get ready, someone's coming," he snapped at his team, who immediately stood at attention, looking where he was staring.

  Soon enough, a team of seven people came bursting out of the undergrowth, their weapons brandished, Yu Feng's eyes widenening in surprise at who was leading them.

  Xian Chen stood at the front of the group, his saber glinting a little in the sunlight, a drop of blood dripping from its edge. He had an almost satisfied smile as he looked at Yu Feng, and then at the red flag in the rock.

  "Looks like I get to kill two birds with one stone!" he exclaimed to the air. "I have been enduring for a month, to grow sufficiently strong enough to beat you, Yu Feng, and now I finally have the chance."

  The air around Xian Chen's saber shimmered slightly as the air seemed to grow a little warmer around it, him and Yu Feng staring into each other's eyes. "Come, let's finish the fight you wanted to start that day."