For some, life was surviving. For others, it was finding love or a successful job.

In this new world, some discovered a new passion, something had been buried deep by society, not allowed to come out among in the most civilized countries.

“Fight me,” Geneva stated toward the tall man who had stormed in St. Peter’s main training spot. The man had started giving out pointers, correcting people posture and overall cheering on everyone who did anything well.

“It would be my pleasure!” the man smiled, “but give me a second, I need to restrain my cultivation. We will make it a Technique only spar. Would you mind giving me your hand? I need to feel how strong you are.”

Almost without asking the man everyone called ‘the Vermillion Tyrant’ took Geneva’s hand and lightly squeezed. A second after, he took back his hand and nodded.

“6th level of the Mantis realm? Ha! Considering that you people fought few battles, it’s impressive.”

Geneva felt patronized by the comment and simply narrowed her eyes. Jacob had said that this man was one of the greatest fighters in existence. That meant she needed to get a feeling of just how strong he was.

“You use a halberd? Like the black sucker, uh. Well, I don’t know nearly as much as him, but I’m sure I can give you a pointer or two!”

Geneva saw the man didn’t take out any weapon.

“Are you going to fight bare-handed?” Geneva raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, I usually fight with my flames, but given my cultivation level, I can’t bring them out without risking burning you to a crisp.”

Geneva didn’t wait for another signal and simply sprinted forward, starting with a side-slash.

When she sparred against Jacob, she would usually not even know how she got to the ground. The Vermillion Tyrant, instead, observed her moves carefully and moved painfully slow.

He side-stepped and moved forward, making Geneva backpedal quickly.

Then, he stopped.

“If you charge like that, you are reducing the effective range of the halberd. Do you know any ranged attack?” the Vermillion Tyrant looked at her weapon, deep in thought.

“Not really,” Geneva said, almost embarrassed.

“Just coat the blade in Qi and let the Qi go when you slash toward me. You will need practice to acquire more range and make it sharper, but please try.”

Geneva did as he said.

She started summoning Qi and moving it up to the blade through her hands. As soon as she felt enough Qi on the blade, the man talked again.

“Make it sharper. You are not going to hurt anyone with a blunted edge.”

Geneva’s Qi control was not the finest. She had always relied on her battle-instincts to win her battles. Qi was not something she was good at. She had to focus for almost an entire minute before she felt the Qi become denser and sharper on the blade.”

“Not bad. It takes time to learn how to do that properly, and that’s why many people use Martial Techniques to bypass the proper practice. But if you want to carve your own path, you need to experiment. Now, swing it at me as your opening move as soon as I am coming toward you. When I back off to avoid the hit, press me.”

And that was what Geneva did.

The Vermillion Tyrant took a step forward, then another. On the third, mid-step, Geneva suddenly slashed with her Qi-blade and she let the blade run toward the man five meters from her.

The man backstepped even if the blade fizzled out of thin air before it could travel more than a couple of meters.

“Stop! Too late! You caught me mid-step and that was wonderful! But you have to start advancing even before I move! You want to anticipate me backing off and then you want to slash as soon as I’m out of balance. That would kill most of the warriors I know. So, let’s try again.”

…

Hektor had to admit that the woman he had taught for the better part of the morning had been an extremely talented fighter. Even if her talent was nothing much, she could probably make waves in the future.

He was now sitting on the ground, a little sweaty from all the back and forth he had carried on with people. Warriors in St. Peter were tougher than he had imagined. Even though Jacob had not brought them to real fights, beside the one with the Charybdes, it seemed like they could still hold their own.

Their cultivation is too weak.

That was the problem of sheltering people so much.

But there were many promising talents being grown in the dark. He saw the special group of women, the most trusted force at Jacob’s disposal after his personal group of friends and family. The Vermillion Tyrant saw a mighty flame inside those women’s eyes.

Hektor had to give it to Jacob: the Blade Tyrant had tailored the Cultivation and other Techniques perfectly to the people here. Apparently, even the ones with weaker Cultivation Techniques had been evaluated carefully. The amount of work that must have taken was insane.

As meticulous as always.

Hektor bit his lower lip while thinking about the night before. He had barely slept after hearing Jacob talk to the Phoenix girl…

I have to do something about that.