บท 17: Chapter – 17 - Cultivation = Hard Work + Practice

For the past two days Rihanna had been obediently following the uncles to attend the Championship every morning. It would continue till evening, wrapping up only when the first sun went down. They had made a deal with one of the commoner families, and were currently housed in their main residence. This commoner family was slightly richer than normal commoners and had a couple of shops in the market, selling everyday necessities - ropes to hemp-clothes, hair brush to plates and pots, everything had found their way inside his shops. He made a decent amount, and had thus brought in his family from a nearby village and settled down in the eastern ghetto of the village. The eastern ghetto was a hodgepodge of various types and sizes of houses, mostly looking like a large slum, and was packed with commoners who had come to the city to seek out better lives. The shops in the city, restaurants and inns, all offered them low wage laborer jobs. Small clans and lone cultivator families often required servants and daily wage workers for their various daily activities. Guilds would also offer better wages to commoners who dared to become lab-rats for their new medicines and poisons. The job was very dangerous, and even if they lived, they were often afflicted by various diseases, crippled or died soon after the test was over.

Rihanna felt pity for these people. The lives they lived were so colorless and dark, trying to simply survive from one day to the other, to live to see another sun rise, struggling with their lives to keep their families and loved ones together.

Was this how Su Matsao lived? Was she surrounded by such darkness everyday as well? But now Su Matsao was gone....so how was Rihanna going to live in the shoes of Su Matsao?

Exhaling a long breath, Rihanna fell back on her bed. The event for today had ended a while back, and they had returned, had the meal prepared by their hosts, and retired to their respective rooms to rest. She had diligently stuck to the Uncle's for the past two days, and ignored Wen Haoli. She had even contemplated on running away....but Wen Haoli was not 'all brawn and no brains'. The very next morning two more brawny people had shown up. Wen Haoli introduced them as his friends, but the way they kept glancing towards her, she knew they were here to keep an eye on her.....so she didn't escape again.

And of course...she could also hear their inner thoughts. Just great – at least she could keep a tab on what they were planning at all times. Hmph....they were barely at level two of Spirit Sensing stage, with Wen Haoli at Level four. Maybe they would have been enough to control Su Matsao...but then she wasn't Su Matsao! She knew she could handle the two people who had just arrived. However she wasn't sure about winning over Wen Haoli, which was why she was biding her time. And when the time came, she would show them what Rihanna was capable of doing to them!

Problem was....even if she did manage to escape, after escaping there was no place where she could go! She didn't even know of any other city other than Moon-Grave and Green-Stone!

Rihanna sat up on her bed and shook her head, then breathed out loudly through her mouth. No point in wasting time over useless things. She was getting stressed out, and her mind was lacking ideas. She sat in lotus position – ankles pulled atop the opposite thigh, back straight, hands gently resting on her knee. Breathing deeply, she let out all the pent up exhaustion and fear, then closed her eyes to meditate.

This was what she had been doing every night, meditating all the way till morning. Father Musakat had given her some pointers for energy absorption. She had also gathered a lot of fruits from the plants and trees in the medical field underground. One fruit especially was helpful in hiding her aura and cultivation level. She only needed to eat a quarter of it at a time, and as long as the person before her did not exceed two whole levels above her, they would not be able to tell that she was any different from other commoners. It also hid her body type.

Well...even if it did hide her body type.....there were already a whole pile of people who knew about her! And she did not know how to deal with them!

'Focus, focus!'

Rihanna let out another breath, then concentrated on absorbing the energy around her. She was very careful now. Unlike her first unrestrained style, she would only allow thin strands to enter at a time, and then stop absorbing it till she had circulated the previous strand and settled it into her dantian. Then she would absorb again.

The ball of energy in her dantian had become very dense, and grown a little. Sadly, due to the differing physique, she could not yet tell what level she was at currently. Definitely higher than the friends of Wen Haoli...but nowhere near to being able to handle that dangerous man!

After taking a look at the spherical white ball settled in her dantian, Rihanna turned her focus to the events of today's championship. This was one of her must-do tasks for every-night. To slowly unravel all that she had seen throughout the day at the championship – the different elemental attacks, the defensive and dodging maneuvers, and most importantly, the combination of different elemental energy in a single move. This was very difficult move and few had used this move till now. Understandable, since the competitors were merely at Energy Sensing and Initial Stage of Foundation Building level. These were considered more high level skills.

Still, all of this knowledge was beneficial to her. Even if she had not discovered the method of using her own accumulated energy, she was determined to succeed. So every night she would sit and re-observe the interesting points, analyzing them in detail. This would then become part of her own repertoire. Once she started using her energy, she would experiment using these skills and techniques, and build her own technique, suited to her own style of cultivation.

After tearing through her review material and analyzing every thread separately, she opened her eyes to check the time. Dawn was just breaking through the darkness of the night, which meant there was some time left till the competitions for the day began. Rihanna closed her eyes again and started focusing on her passive skills. This was the second daily task she had assigned herself.

Practice makes a man perfect – and she was currently practicing her listening skills. Mind reading skills required people to be present around her, so she preferred practicing that in the arena, where the hordes of spectators served as her test subjects. She breathed in and out till her concentration deepened, then slowly let out her hearing senses, focusing on everything around her, slowly letting her senses roll outwards in all directions. At first she could only hear the larger sounds – sounds of snoring in the neighboring rooms, insects buzzing outside the windows, patrolling guards walking through the streets, wind rustling through the leaves of the trees in the courtyard. Then as her senses spread, her focus grew deeper, trying to sense out smaller, softer and delicate sounds and vibrations in the air. Fluttering wings of a night-fly, falling dew on flowers, breathing of each and every person in the vicinity, crawling of earthworms turning the ground, faint tread of people alighting on the roof opposite...?? People....on opposite roof...at night? Who would come to the house they were staying at in the dark of the night, unannounced? Instantly on alert, Rihanna took a deep breath and increased her focus, sending out waves of hearing perception towards the roof. Two.....maybe three people had alighted on the roof.....she tried to memorize the difference in tread of each person.

"She seems different from before.....we need to be careful. If she escapes again, we will be heavily punished."

"There are three of us, and she is just a commoner. If we stay alert, there is no way she can evade our perceptions."

"Still....I keep feeling something is really different about her."

"She's lost her memories. No matter how much she tries to play by the thread, it is clear she does not remember any of us. Must be because of the fall. Hmph....all the ruckus she created....and then ran right back into our hands. Stupid!"

"Whatever....I have also informed Moon-Grave Sect. They are sending the Sect Leader's second disciple. He'll be taking her away from here to the Sect. No need to drag her back to Moon-Grave City."

"That's good – less work for us. So, when is he coming?"

"He should be here by the day after tomorrow."

"One more day little girl.....enjoy your time of freedom for one more day....and then you will be at the Sect Leader's mercy.....you dared to run away after the Leader offered so many benefits to your clan, now it is time for him to extract all the benefits from you!"

They snickered lightly, before leaping off the roof. Two of them disappeared, and one remained behind, probably to guard her. The sounds faded into the silence of the night, like they had never existed.