Chapter 18: Intense Sparring
On the way to the City Lord's Mansion, Xiao Ning'Er made two stops along the way. First, she went to the Adventurer's Shop, where the carcasses of demon beasts could be sold. The shop-owner's eyes bulged out and almost rolled across the floor when he saw the girl in front of him take out the remains of a Draconic Jade Serpent from her interspatial ring. No one had ever brought such a dangerous demon beast back before, this was a creature that could potentially reach gold rank!
The sizable snake-type body was filled with useful and valuable parts, from the high defensiveness of its scales, to the liters of precious blood that Xiao Ning'Er had preserved. The only thing that he felt was a shame was that she wanted to keep the beautiful horns of the serpent, which was the hardest part of its anatomy. For this rare demon beast, after some negotiation, he decided to give her 8,000 gold coins!
Satisfied with the transaction, she then made her way to the top weapon-smith guild in Glory City and commissioned the creation of a specific weapon that she had in mind. She drew out the specifications and measurements for them, as well as listing out the requirements she wanted, and then passed them the horns of the Draconic Jade Serpent as the base material she wanted. Once it was ready, the weapon she wanted had the potential to be absolutely terrifying in the right hands, especially when she added the inscriptions she had in mind. She paid a deposit to the guild and finally reached the City Lord's Mansion around midday.
She flashed her special pass to the guards to gain entry and went towards the training hall where she found the boys fully focused on their training. Ziyun had dropped by to say hi but went back to her room after awhile because she was not in the right frame of mind to begin training with them yet. Xiao Ning'Er frowned in slight concern as she wondered about how her friend was handling everything that was happening.
But first, she caught up with the rest of the group. The yearly exam was just over a month away and she wanted to have a gauge of everybody's progress. Through the constant cycle of physical sparring and martial arts learning, then cultivation consolidation, they had made rapid improvement, especially with the support of the experts Ye Shuo had secretly tasked to aid them. At the same time, they had as many pills as they needed from the Alchemist Organisation, along with their nightly Purple Haze herbal baths.
Du Ze had caught up to Ziyun at 3-star bronze rank and the rest had reached 2-star bronze rank, except for Lu Piao who had gotten a bit lazy after reaching 1-star bronze rank. Xiao Ning'Er decided to join in their sparring and began gently guiding each of them as they rotated sparring partners over time.
Du Ze had the highest strength and raw proficiency in martial arts due to his obsessive training mindset and tenacity. However, he lacked flexibility and disguise in his approach, and she began showing him how much stronger he could become if he could master the art of feinting with subtle shifts of his hands, legs, hips, shoulders, and particularly, the eyes. This would keep the opponent off balance and guessing, meaning that they would be always less prepared for the real attacks.
Nie Li had the highest flexibility, showing a high level of creativity and adaptability in his martial arts. His comprehension was very developed and he would always know how to best respond in a split second to the flow of combat. His main issue was how to raise his cultivation quickly so that he would have greater strength to apply, and how to find high-level martial arts to make use of his perception and skill. She already had some ideas of some martial arts she could impart to him and she would write a customised manual for him soon.
Once again, Wei Nan was the most surprising of the group. She had not noticed him much in the past as he kept a lower profile than the others. His combat ability was far more devious and cunning than any teenager she had ever seen. Although he did not have high raw strength, he would not hesitate to apply any technique to throw off his opponent and have a chance at winning, such as sneak attacks and misdirection. This was the type of opponent that many people would hate facing because he may do something like put up his hands and lift his eyebrows as though surrendering, before suddenly striking at a vital body part.
'This kind of fighter can be useful too,' she mused silently to herself as she sparred with him, visualising the type of role he might play in their team in the future.
The other three, Lu Piao, Zhang Ming and Zhu Xiangjun, all had a pretty solid grasp of basic martial arts although in an unspectacular way. Lu Piao had better fundamentals because of his original training in a noble family but the other two were quickly catching up in terms of martial comprehension on top of already surpassing him in their cultivation level. He better get his act together, if not, he would be left far behind in future.
As they got ready to sit down to operate their cultivation techniques after the sparring, a man stepped out from behind a pillar with a piercing gaze that could probably suppress and scare away a mountain lion.
"Xiao Ning'Er, interesting...interesting. You become more mysterious every time I take notice of you." he said in a smooth, sagely voice. As he stepped out of the shadows, she saw that it was Ye Shuo. He continued, "I was getting a bit restless watching from the shadows. Come! Let's spar!"
He jumped into the sparring ring they had been using and beckoned to her with a friendly smile, as though he had not just asked a little girl to a mock battle. Xiao Ning'Er knew Ye Shuo from her alternate timeline and implicitly trusted his good intentions for Glory City. His cool demeanor hid a deeply passionate and righteous man.
She smiled sweetly as she gracefully stepped into the ring. "It is an honour for me to receive instruction from an expert such as yourself. Please excuse me as I do my best to learn from this opportunity." She was excited that she could finally let loose after all the tension of the last couple of days that had built up. She did not hold back and released her full soul force in readiness for a serious spar.
"Silver rank??!! And not a recently broken through 1-star as well. Maybe 2-star at least!" he muttered in amazement to himself as he took a stance of readiness. This girl's progression was really keeping him entertained and hopeful!
While he was still lost in her thoughts, he heard her voice ring out, "Be careful, Mister," as she activated a profound movement technique to dash at full speed towards him with her clenched fist extended towards his face. At black-gold rank, her movements appeared slow to him and he moved a few inches to the side to avoid her. Immediately adapting, her fingers extended like lightning, changing the shape of her clenched fist to claw towards his eyes.
As he leaned back slightly to avoid the vicious claw, she suddenly disappeared completely from his view. It had all been a series of feints, he realised as he quickly shifted the balance of his hips to hop away in an instant. It was just in time because she had crouched, almost lying on the floor face-down, and had begun an unbelievably fast leg sweep as her body rotated like a whirlwind.
He stood a few feet away as he watched her complete her leg sweep and end up in a crouching, ready stance, watching her opponent like a stalking predator. He flung his head back as he abruptly burst out into a loud laugh, "You are truly something else, little gi..."
"We're not done," she breathlessly whispered as she sprung up from her crouching position into a series of complex kicks and punches. She was having too much fun to stop now. He calmly observed her as he avoided and deflected all her attacks with the slightest of movements, nodding in approval at her level of martial prowess.
If he were just a regular expert, he may be able to handle the first three or four attacks easily but the profound way in which she chained her strikes together would subtly disrupt the opponent's rhythm and balance until it was too late to adjust to. Then the killing blow would fall with no way to avoid it.
'Maybe I should get her to train my Snow Wind soldiers!' he thought jokingly to himself, with a twinkle in his eyes. He continued sparring in this fashion, sometimes tapping a shoulder or a knee with a flash of his hands to show her where an opponent would take advantage of an opening. He strangely found a deep satisfaction from guiding her, more than when he trained his own warriors.
They continued for 20 minutes until she stopped and put her hands on her knees. Her hair tie had broken sometime during the fight and her black hair was a wild mess, covering her eyes and face as she took deep gulps to force air into her lungs. Large droplets of sweat dripped and pooled on the ground around her. Once she caught her breath and regained a bit of her energy, she stood up straight, and bowed respectfully towards Ye Shuo.
"Thank you, Mister. I learnt a lot from the spar. I'm sorry if I was too vigorous in my attacks. I had no intention of hurting you." she said in a grateful voice. In all the happenings going on, she had not noticed the knot of tension in her heart, which had started to unravel when Ye Shuo allowed her to fight in completely unshackled freedom. She felt a sense of peace begin to settle in her soul.
He smiled knowingly at her, "Xiao Ning'Er, I'm rooting for you. Keep going and make Glory City proud. If you ever need any help, reach me through the City Lord's Mansion. They'll know where to find me. Oh...my name is Ye Shuo." He impulsively laughed out loud, "How about this? You can call me, Uncle. Somehow, I'd like that..."
"OK, I'm truly honoured...Uncle." she said as a warm feeling spread through her heart. She had not had a chance to get close to Ye Shuo in her past life and she was finding that on top of being a loyal servant of Glory City, he was someone she could truly respect and see herself growing closer to.
As Ye Shuo walked off with his usual cold expression again, the boys came around her, whooping in excitement.
"What a fight!"
"I still have goosebumps on my arms."
"Xiao Ning'Er, you're my hero...hahaha!"
Seeing their excitement, she decided to take some time to discuss the details of the spar just now, breaking down the sequences step by step. She helped them to understand some of the flaws she had, as well as the opportunities she tried to take. It benefited them tremendously in their martial comprehension to be able to see it first-hand and then go through a disciplined process of analysing the battle. This would be an invaluable experience for their future development.
After a time, they sat down to cultivate and internalise the insights they had obtained into their cultivation. Once they were done, it was already starting to enter into the early evening. They said their goodbyes and as they left, Xiao Ning'Er pulled Nie Li aside.
"Here is a precious Abstruse Gemstone pendant. I found this ancient treasure in the ruins but don't tell Ziyun. I want you to give it to her to cheer her up. If she wears it, her cultivation training will speed up by more than three times and it will also nourish her soul force. Is that all right?" she told him seriously.
He looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Why...?"
"Nie Li, somehow I feel like you and Ziyun are perfect for each other. I just want to see you guys happy together. I hope you can believe me." she replied. She knew Ziyun would be very open to Nie Li now because of what she had shared during their expedition, in the pocket of greenery where they fought the Draconic Jade Serpent. And she knew that her best friend needed the support right now.
As she left the City Lord's Mansion, it was already getting dark. She pulled out an unused soul crystal from her interspatial ring, playing with it in her hand as her forehead creased in deep thought. Then, she headed towards the infirmary.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
AerynSun
AerynSun Mysterious grey-robed old man, for the win! :P
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