Verus frowned as he dodged a series of jabs followed by a scythe kick. After the failure of his kick to do any real damage, it was obvious to him that normal attacks wouldn’t hurt Lee’s ki enhanced body. He was going to have to use a ki attack.

Initiates were only taught the most basic ki techniques, but Verus did know how to enhance his attacks. Taking a deep breath, he subtly altered the flow of ki in his body and began gathering some of it in his chest. Then, he charged toward Lee and unleashed a flurry of punches. His opponent managed to block or dodge all the strikes, but Verus followed them up with low kick. Lee jumped back from the kick aimed at his thigh and raised his leg to absorb the power from the blow, but that was what Verus had been waiting for. He lunged after his foe and threw all his power into a punch aimed straight at Lee’s face. As he exhaled, the ki in Verus’s chest flowed into his arm, empowering the blow and giving it a subtle smoky glow.

Lee attempted to deflect the punch, but it bashed right past his guard and slammed into nose with a loud crack. The bigger boy stumbled back as blood streamed from his nose, but Verus didn’t let up. He jumped up and launched a flying sidekick at his opponent.

However, Lee recovered quickly. It seemed like Verus had underestimated his ability to use the body reinforcement ki technique. Lee planted his feet and blocked the flying kick with his crossed arms. Verus bounced off his opponent’s guard and began to fall, but then Lee counter attacked with an agile scythe kick that slammed into Verus’s exposed ribs.

Pain flared through Verus’s side and a gasping cough escaped his mouth, but he managed to make a rough landing and retreat away from his opponent. Lee let him go with nasty smirk. It seemed the old boy was in no hurry to finish the fight. That made sense since they were here to show off.

A deep breath and a quick mental exercise allowed Verus to ignore the pain in his side. It didn’t seem like he’d cracked anything anyway, although there would probably be a lot of bruising.

A trickle of blood was still leaking from Lee’s nose as he advanced steadily toward his foe in an obvious attempt to pressure him toward the edge of the circle they were fighting in. Verus held his ground and gathered his ki. Lee was too big and tough to be hurt by anything but Verus’s most powerful attack. That wasn’t great. Verus wasn’t confident in his ability to use his most advanced technique in these conditions. It required some focus… and more than a little luck.

Lee charged forward and jabbed at Verus’s face. He deflected the blows, but the attacks made him realize that he had no choice but go for it. He just hoped he wouldn’t trip over his own feet in front of the judge. That would be embarrassing and costly.

Lee ended his flurry of jabs with a heavy punch aimed straight at Verus’s face. He seemed determined to get even with the other boy by bashing him in the nose. Verus wanted to avoid that, so he altered his internal ki flow and attempted his technique. Ki flowed to his legs as he kicked the ground and then performed a quick series of precise footsteps.

Instantly, Verus seemed to disappear from Lee’s sight. The older boy blinked in surprise and gaped at the empty air for a moment, before turning to look around for his vanished foe. He was too late. Verus had slipped into his blind spot and was already throwing a ki enhanced uppercut. The blow smashed into Lee’s chin, snapping his head back and lifting him off his feet. As Verus watched, the bigger boy wobbled for a moment and then fell over like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Verus quickly cushioned his foe’s head with a deftly placed foot so that it didn’t slam into the hard stone. He didn’t want to be responsible for seriously injuring Lee, despite his terrible personality. That done, he glanced hopefully over at the watching elders.

There was a hint of a satisfied smile on Elder Balint’s face, and Elder Sevus nodded in approval. “Excellent ki control and timing for one so young. The Vanishing Feather Step isn’t easy to use in real combat without extensive practice. He has good focus as well.”

“Every initiate here is trained to master themselves according to the teachings of our sect,” Elder Balint responded.

A happy grin appeared on Verus’s face as he bowed toward the Elders. Then, he grabbed Lee and dragged his body out of the circle. He got nasty looks from Lee’s followers, but they were easy enough to ignore. None of them would dare try anything in front of the elders, and they were all weaker than Lee anyway.

“Great job. That befuddled look on Lee’s face when you disappeared was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I will remember it fondly for years!” Warin whispered to his friend as he grinned.

“I was simply doing as the elders instructed and attempted to show off my best.”

“Well, I think you’re definitely going to be chosen by Elder Sevus. Not that it was ever in doubt. You’re a genius when it comes to using ki.”

Before Verus could reply, they were silenced by a stern warning look from Elder Balint. A moment later, Elder Sevus selected Warin and one of Lee’s followers to fight in the next spar.

Verus watched the fight, but Warin managed to win without much of a problem. His chubby friend dominated the fight from the start with a series of palm strikes and low kicks. Eventually, he forced his opponent to the edge of the circle and pushed him out with a ki enhanced body check. There were some advantages to weight.

The remaining fights were interesting to watch but not spectacular. As initiates, none of the combatants knew how to use elemental ki or use any flashy moves. They had to rely on basic ki techniques and martial arts.

Lee woke up before the final fight and climbed unsteadily to his feet. He threw Verus a nasty look, but Verus simply repeated a focusing mantra and ignored him, so Lee soon turned away and began glowering despondently at the floor. Verus didn’t feel sorry for him at all. He should have trained more and spent less time pushing the other initiates around.

When the last spar was over and the initiates had left the circle, Elder Sevus stepped forward to study all the gathered initiates for several seconds. His intense gaze swept over them one-by-one. Then, he briefly pointed to five of them, including Warin and Verus.

“You’ve passed. Congratulations, tomorrow you will be travelling with me to the capital to join our Great Wind Sect’s main temple.”

An uncontrollable tingle of excitement and glee went up Verus’s spine as he turned to look at his friend. They’d both been chosen!

Other smiles broke out on the faces of the selected few. The less lucky initiates looked far less happy, but they remained silent and dignified. They knew better than to embarrass themselves in front of the elders, and they’d still be moving on to the next phase of their training, just not at the main temple.

It was at this time that Elder Caius got up from chair and drew the attention of all initiates by banging his gnarled walking stick against the ground. There was a polite smile on the ancient elder’s bearded face as he gazed at his temple’s latest graduates. “For years you have grown strong under the watchful eyes of this temple’s elders, but now you are no longer children. No matter where you all end up training next, you are men of the Great Wind Sect and you will have many opportunities to distinguish yourselves. Be proud of your abilities and your training, but humble before the glory of the empire and the Archon. I expect to hear of your accomplishments in the future, so always strive to do yourself and your sect proud.”

A few other elders got up and made brief speeches, but they said nothing of real value. When they were done speaking, the initiates who’d passed the test were instructed to be ready to leave early tomorrow and then all the students were dismissed.

Leaving the main hall as quickly as possible, Verus practically ran all the way to his room. Opening the door, he rushed inside and glanced around. The room was tiny and dominated by two small beds that were next to opposite walls. There was barely room for two straw mats and a small table with a candle on it in the rest of the space.

Finally alone, Verus walked over to one of the straw mats and sat down. Crossing his legs, he entered a meditative position and took a deep breath to calm himself. He was practically vibrating as a storm of uncontrolled emotion raged within him. Terror warred with hope and gleeful excitement as he attempted to keep it all under control. It was too much for him. He’d almost lost control of it back in the main hall and embarrassed himself before the elders and his peers. That was why he’d run here, to get his control back in private. In public, he had to project a reserved and dignified manner at all times.

“Fear is an illusion. The unbound soul seeks balance,” he chanted quietly. “The ascetic rises above the feelings of the flesh towards enlightenment. He strives always against temptation.”

This mantra dampened the twisting feeling in Verus’s guts, but he struggled to sit still, and he found himself biting his lip again. There was too much going on. Leaving the temple was a major change, and as much as he wanted to believe it would lead to great things, it could also easily lead to ruin and despair. The temple had been his home for as long as he could remember. He could barely imagine leaving, but tomorrow he would be.

Suddenly, the door in front of Verus opened with a whoosh that sent a slight breeze through the room. Opening his eyes, he saw his roommate Warin enter their room.

“Verus, what are you doing?” Warin asked as he gave his roommate a curious look.

“Um, I thought I’d do some ki exercises to help by ribs heal before going to bed, and maybe do some practicing. I want to make sure I have them down before we leave,” Verus explained as he struggled to hide his inner turmoil.

Honestly, Verus had almost forgotten about his injury. It was nothing next to the storm of emotions he was feeling.

Warin sighed. “Some of us are going to meet in the outer gardens, do you want to join us?”

The last thing Verus wanted was to be around a crowd. “No, I should focus on healing and meditating.”

“Are you sure? Someone said they thought they saw a spirit hiding among the bushes. They said it looked like a small ghostly fox. We were going to look for it.”

“No, but thank you for asking. Besides, there’s no way the elders would allow a spirit onto the grounds. They’re far too dangerous. They enflame human emotions in order to feed off our ki, and they especially like defenseless young cultivators at the Foundation Realm like us.”

“Most spirits aren’t nearly as dangerous as the elders claim. They just trying to keep us out of trouble. Those stories about weasel spirits cutting people and sucking out their blood are just stories.”

“Maybe, but I’d prefer to stay here,” Verus replied. Quiet meditation and ki practice were exactly what he needed right now. He enjoyed the repetition involved in training basic techniques. They were reassuringly simple and reliable, allowing you to advance toward enlightenment and peace one step at a time.

Warin looked Verus over with a frown. He looked like he wanted to say something but knew better than to argue with Verus when he was in a mood and being stubborn. “Very well then, I’ll see you later,” he said before ducking back out of the room.

Now alone, Verus settled down on his mat and began concentrating on his internal energy. Breathing in through his nose, he sucked the air down toward his belly, before breathing it out through his mouth. Then, he repeated the process, as was second nature to him by now. Slowly his emotions came back under his control and his nervousness about the future faded to a tolerable level.

Once his shivering had stopped, Verus had to decide on a technique to practice. All this talk of spirits made him want to practice the Faithful Soul Ward, since it was the only way he knew to defend himself from spirits and mental influences. The technique was simple and effective, even if it wasn’t a Great Wind Sect secret. Instead, it was taught by the Lightbearers to anyone that wanted to learn, as part of their duty to defend humanity from spirits and demons. Despite its availability and common usage, the technique had spread throughout the empire because it was extremely effective, especially for low-tier cultivators.

The key to the Faithful Soul Ward was to focus on your devotion to something external to yourself as you channeled your ki accordingly. The Lightbearers taught that devotion to God through his representative the Archon was best, but Verus had never had much success with that. The dogma of the Lightbringers could be a little hard to believe sometimes. Instead, he got better results if he focused on his devotion to pursue enlightenment. When he meditated and cleared his mind, Verus sometimes thought he could feel a peaceful connection to all things. The elders were very vague about what enlightenment was actually like, saying it was different for everyone and they’d know it once they ascended, but that seemed right to Verus.

On top of shielding his spirit and mind from attack, the Faithful Soul Ward also allowed him to ignore temptations and focus better when used. Amusingly, Verus could also use it to block the aura of the Lightbearers, even if he rarely bothered except for training purposes.

Concentrating, Verus moved his ki through his channels according to how he’d been taught. While he could perform the technique at a basic level, the more he practiced, the more reliable and powerful it would become. Defending his core and mind from spirits seemed very important, because tomorrow Verus and the other sixteen-year-old initiates who’d reached the Foundation Realm would be heading out into the world as cultivators for the first time. It was time for them to leave the temple that they’d all been raised in and travel to the sect headquarters so that the next part of their training could begin. The outside was supposed to be very dangerous, full of spirits and hungry beasts. Verus couldn’t change that, and he couldn’t wish away his moods, but he could minimize them by being as prepared as possible.