“Strike at me, Alex.”

He forced himself to calm, deadly focus, despite the shiver running through his soul. Because now it was a Gold tier cultivator judging each of his blows, using him as he had used Ning Jing. Yet as challenging as he had found the fight, earning his opponent’s respect as well, all he saw now was cold disappointment when his wheel kick, fueled by the force and fury of nine ranks of Eternal Fox, did nothing to power through his opponent’s wards.

Find Weakness Skillcheck: Failed!

Soul Sight fails to detect opponent’s spiritual flows!

Even skills honed to a killing edge at the hands of the three deadly assassins who had made the night watch guard duty to Baidushi into such a grueling affair had failed to pierce Panheu’s wards, ridge hand strikes causing no visible effect at all, his spearhand stabs doing nothing but jabbing his own fingers.

He swallowed at the look of disappointment Panheu gave him.

“Is this all you are capable of disciple? If so, I fear my second wife is right, and we truly are wasting our time."

Alex felt an awful twisting in his gut as Ning Jing failed to hide her snort, even Jidihu giving a dissapointed sigh.

Alex swallowed back his humiliation, knowing surrendering to it would make him a fool.

Instead he did what he should have done from the start.

Not allowing himself to be rushed any further, to allow Panheu to control the pace with chiding words alone.

Instead he slowed his breathing even as his heart began to race, bringing the fundamental principles Panheu himself had just started teasing the edges of, before fusing it into so much more.

Because Alex could do more than command an aresenal of powerful blows, able to channel fearsome surges of Qi through his meridians with each blow.

White Crane had awoken him to the innermost secrets of Qi itself. Not only the rudiments of how to deflect incoming surges of Qi, but how to pierce both wujen wards, and spells as well.

And when paired with Blackswan, the results could be truly devastating.

Panheu’s gaze hardened. “Well, disciple? If that’s the limit of yo—“

Blackswan!

Alex flashed a cold, satisfied smile when Panheu blinked as Alex’s foot whipped around to slam against his opponent’s raised forearm, the man actually forced back a step for balance, before his frown returned.

But that was fine. Alex had only been using the skills natural ability to tear through even Silver Ranked wards as a measuring stick, finally sensing the slight give of Qi, like pressing against an elastic surface, before his blow had been countered.

Now he had a sense of just how resilient his foe’s defenses were.

Panheu, however, wasn’t content to just let Alex pummel him, as a lighting fast halfmoon kick made clear, Alex just barely weaving under the blow.

Before his fist answered in kind.

Storm Strike synergized with Piercing Strike! You have successfully pierced your opponent’s wards!

finally wiping the disappointed look off his master’s face.

And Alex couldn’t help but feel a surge of vindication and relief as Panheu stepped back and finally gave Alex an approving nod, even as Zhao Doushi hissed, muttering about imperial bloodlines, Jidihu’s throaty chuckle one of clear approval.

“Boy actually channeled lightning!” Ning Jing said, clearly impressed.

“And the perfect counter for almost any ward,” Jidihu noted. “So long as one doesn’t mind deadly secrets being revealed.”

Ning Jing snorted. “You don’t actually believe that boy has imperial blood flowing through his veins?”

“Far stranger things have occurred.”

Alex did his best to tune out their words, particularly the look of horrified dissapointment on Hao Chan’s features, but he clearly wasn’t focused enough, when Panheu’s fists came out of nowhere robbed him of breath and send him crashing to the ground.

“Best focus, disciple. For we hone our blades upon the wetstones of conflict, and it would be a shame to shatter such promising steel.”

Alex groaned but nodded, feeling cracked ribs shift back into place from what he knew had just been a love tap, grateful the now enigmatically smiling man was graceful enough to at least let him catch his breath, though the minute Alex did so, he was once more parrying and blocking the deadly barrage of blows from a man fighting with fearsome intent.

Alex feeling the pressure not only of the assault, but the deadly aura of a Gold, even Hao Chan hissing at the pressure she felt, though all Yinzi did is chuckle, her throaty voice an echo of her mother’s.

You have failed to counter Serpent strike. You have suffered 1 significant bruising. Left arm weakened!

You have failed to counter halfmoon kick. 3 ribs broken!

Groin strike leaves you partially incapacitated!

Alex groaned as he stumbled to the ground a second time, desperate to power heal in the brief seconds his now frowning master stepped back, all but glaring at Alex as he spat blood and forced himself back to his feet.

“This is pathetic. Panheu could have killed him with that last barrage! This boy is nowhere near ready,” Ning Jing scoffed.

“And yet look how he unfolds like a cloth doll crumpled by a child’s tantrum, good as new with a mother’s gentle touch. Whereas if your bones broke like that, it would be quite some time before you were upright, love.”

Ning Jing snorted. “True. The fool’s lucky Panheu doesn’t just shatter his skull and have done with it.”

And Alex felt a dreadful chill with those words, knowing that even if Panheu had been holding back, it had been everything he could do to deflect and weave past the blows that had very much been aiming for his skull.

And the icy chill of terror washing over him as Panheu’s gaze turned flinty hard made it clear that he dare not let himself get distracted by any more comments from the peanut gallery. He better focus once more with everything he had, or Panheu would indeed punish him in ways that could very well prove fatal.

And if that happened…

Alex clenched his jaw, terror turning to hot fury, before morphing to ice-cold focus once more. Now gazing clinically at a man promising death with his lazy half-smile. And Alex realized what a fool he had been. Striving to control the conflict of their bodies, when Panheu was already winning the battle between their minds.

So Alex locked gazes with his opponent, no longer flinching from, but rather embracing the weight of his master’s killing intent.

So that when his mentor next struck, Alex had the tiniest head start in countering the blow, finally beginning to sense his opponent’s attacks just enough to counter, at least partially, the force of spiritual energy behind the blow.

Qi Deflection successful counter’s open palm technique!

You have suffered one Light Wound.

Qi Deflection has leveled up!

Alex paid little attention to the messages now relegated to the back of his mind as he finally began to underst the pace and flow of combat. Embracing his opponent’s hardening gaze that resulted in deadly barrages Alex was finally beginning to feel not only with his eyes, but sense approaching almost like a static charge. A field he could now feel like a pressure wave against his skin.

Feel, and at least sometimes deflect, before seizing the moment his master committed himself to responding in turn, answering deadly open palm blows with fists and feet channeling the very current of the storm now pouring down upon them as much as through his soul.

Finally accepting in full the lightning that had always been a part of the swirling storm of Qi.

Lighning synergizing so well with Piercing Strike, both leveling with eerie synergy as he stopped resisting the implications and allowed them both to flow into the truth, the deepest understanding of his unified art. For the furious surge of the storm would wash past all resistance, the steel gray skies above, crackling with lightning now perfectly mirroring the storm inside Alex’s soul.

And when the howling winds seemed to echo with the furious howls of the gods above, such that Ning Jing and Zhao Doushi both hissed and cursed, Alex laughed in the storm, his fierce gleeful smile perfectly mirroring his master’s, before they nodded in eerie communion, both acknowledging their willingness to challenge the very heavens above.

Before both charged forward and the steel grey skies exploded with lightning crashing down as Alex roared and launched forth the true deadly power of the storm, thinking nothing of channeling the god’s own hate as his cost to channel the skill crashed down to zero.

A skill he no longer thought of as separate from Eternal Fox Kung fu, any more than he did Qi Deflection, pairing so well with the fiersome storm slicking his skin at deflecting his master’s blows. At least sufficient for Alex to answer in turn, knowing just when to alternate Storm Strike with Black Swan to send his opponent stumbling back, spitting blood for the first time ever.

Alex felt the girls at the table freeze as Panheu’s mask of sangfroid was shredded, and the deadly killing aura of a centuries old assassin washed over Alex.

Before the headmaster roared with laughter. “Well done, Alex! Now let’s see if you can survive a few more rounds. Best fight in earnest, boy! For we can learn nothing if we don’t push ourselves further!”

Of course his mentor’s rebuttal was as bad as Alex had feared.

But at least when he crashed to the ground with broken limbs, torn ligaments, bruised organs and yes, a hairline fracture to his skull, Panheu was no longer gazing at him like he was lower than dirt, nothing at all as Alex took his time, fully healing his wounds before inevitably lurching back to his feet once more.

More than willing to embrace the pain, even as his interface rang with the sweet gong of success.

Qi Deflection has gone up one rank!

Piercing Strike (Spell Cleave) has gone up one rank!

Storm Strike has gone up two ranks. You have had a breakthrough! You have begun to fully incorporate lightning into your understanding of Silver Swan!

Silver Wing has gone up one rank!

You have begun to unify aforementioned disciplines into your understanding of Eternal Fox Kung Fu! (Lightning use optional. Dark Qi use optional.)

But the words meant nothing, for all that Silver Wing and Qi Deflection in unison helped him better counter Panheu’s deadly blows. He didn’t truly feel like he was one with his art until a final message rang through his skull that night as he crashed to the ground. But not before having delivered a sweeping kick that sent his master tumbling as well, now tasting the power of tsunami roaring through his soul with every blow he delivered.

Black Swan has gone up one rank! Black Swan has been fully unified with Eternal Fox Kung fu! You may now embrace the power of the Tsunami with all of your blows!

Alex shivered with the intensity of the breakthrough coursing through him as the world around him, everything from the rustling grass to the howling wind whipping around them, to rain washing the blood from their cheeks, all of it resonated with sudden profound meaning, as the storm whispered its secrets, and he felt himself blossom in ways wondrous and grand, knowing that from this day forward he would be channeling at least a whisper of the storm’s might and lightning’s fury with each of his blows.

Even Panheu bowed his head and stepped back, flashing Alex a hardwon smile.

“Well done, disciple. Well done indeed.”

Alex bowed solemnly and low, and neither hesitated to sit back to back, breathing deep, allowing the storm to wash over them as they embraced their breakthroughs and solidified their gains, the others staring at them with expressions of awe, amazement, or supreme satisfaction.

And Alex couldn’t help smiling back at Yinzi and Hao Chan both before centering himself, focusing on his breathing, once more doing all he could to connect to the storm all around him as the day finally drew to a close.

Only then did Elder Panheu rise, going so far as to offer a hand to lift Alex to his feet. “A most satisfying day, Alex. Shall we continue on the morrow?”

And Alex couldn’t help but smile and nod, even as his master’s twinkling eyes made it clear he would no longer be holding back, Alex having no doubt he’d be fighting more desperately than ever in the days to come.

Their breakthrough’s this day might have been exceptional. But it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough for what he and his mentor wanted to accomplish.

He sensed that.

And he sensed that his mentor did as well.

Their training together had just begun.

Zhau Doushi, however, was looking at Alex and his father both with frank disbelief.

“That boy shouldn’t even be standing, Father. And channeling so much power with every strike? How is that even possible?”

His mother squeezed Zhao’s arm and shook her head. “They are daring heights together we wouldn’t dream of risking ourselves,” Jidihu counseled. “The wisest decision you might make in the next decade, my son, besides marrying the mother of your child, would be spending each and every waking moment watching the pair of them in the days and weeks to come.”

Zhau Doushi’s cheeks flushed, as his mother handed him a small wood carving. “She’s beautiful,” he whispered.

His mother silently nodded. “Blessed with a mother and grandmother who love her. Hopefully a father as well.”

“Of course! I would see them right now, but… Father never even shared this mad vision of his with me, his closest confident, his son! Daring to evolve his art, looking for a breakthrough of this magnitude. Why didn’t he...”

“Because you are his son. The bonds of love you share are at odds with forging each other in the fires that he and WiFu’s eternal disciple dare to embrace.”

“But mother...”

She sighed. “Do you truly think he would dare such arts with you? When one misstimed blow would kill his own son? And how could he evolve himself, or his art, when a father’s duties war so sharply with the Gold Titan he’s determined to become in truth?”

Zhau Doushi paled and shook his head. “Alex should have been killed, multiple times over.”

“Yet he’s not. Which tells you as much about Alex’s true nature as you need to know.”

Alex heard the words, but let them wash over him as the others devoured the spread of rice, vegetables and grilled meats a pair of servants had hurriedly brought in before quickly departing, Alex and Panheu still meditating on their fights and the world at large until his mentor rose at last to gaze appreciatively at the starry night sky, the pair of them alone once more as the others retired to either the garden shed or the headmaster’s impressive manor.

Alex smiled to feel the weight of his master’s hand gripping his shoulder. “A fine day this has been, Alex.”

“I agree, master.”

Panheu chuckled softly. “And yet somehow I feel you’re far more than my simple disciple now… and that there is now far more to that shed than a single boxed room and several stuffed tics. Because were it not so, truly you risk it all, sleeping so close to girls who would claim you as their husband in the blink of an eye, did you dare.”

Alex smiled, but wisely said nothing.

His mentor’s bemused gaze turned curious. “Did the fox perhaps gift you with secrets allowing you three to slip past certain restrictions?”

Alex shook his head. “Not at all. If I’m stupid enough to seduce them, their foundations will pay a terrible price.” He gave a rueful chuckle. “And I don’t mind telling you that it’s been a very challenging year, in more ways than one.”

“And you’re stronger for it,” his mentor said resolutely.

Alex shrugged. “Certainly it motivated me to break through to Silver.”

Panheu nodded. “I’m not blind, Alex. And even her mother senses how Yinzi embraces Deepest Bronze. I have no doubt your discipline inspires them like nothing else.”

Alex smirked at that, but wisely said nothing, simply bowing his head.

“I will see you on the morrow, Alex. Do get what rest you can. You must measure the accrual of added insight with the needs of the body and mind, or the morrow will be perilous for you indeed.”

Alex flashed a cheeky smile. “Unless, of course, within your humble shed lies a magical palace filled with enchanted beds and wondrous food assuring that I’ll be refreshed as any hero living on in stories of legend with dawn’s first light.”

Panheu chuckled, eyes twinkling. “Wouldn’t that be something? Good night, Alex.”

“Goodnight, Master Panheu.”

Alex wearily made his way to the garden shed, and were anyone to look his way as he opened the door, all they would see would be three threadbare tics stuffed with hay upon the hard-packed dirt floor, and a trio of apples shared by Alex and his disciples before they lay down and prepared to rest.

Because with his realm now free of invaders, it had been nothing for Alex to alter the shape of his quarters with a singular act of will, slipping under a scratchy looking blanket that nonetheless felt heavenly against his skin as he slipped into blissful clouds of perfect repose… before taking charge of his dreams and replaying the sparring sessions and breakthroughs he and Panheu had savored together endlessly for the benefit of Hao Chan and Yinzi, still party-linked and now sharing his dream, until his revelations became their own.

Congratulations! You have successfully used multiple food, sleeping, and palatial buffs together with your group link to impart multiple breakthroughs within your disciples! Spiritual Teacher is now Rank 8!