Two men stood opposite of each other in the center of a tiled, rectangular arena. They stared at each other, waiting for a signal.

…

“Begin!”

A woman in her late twenties stood in front of a small class of disciples that were spectating several chi away from those two. Her black hair was twirled into a bun held in place with two white hair ornaments the size of chopsticks.

The mid-level Qi Flourishing disciple who stood on their left took a deep breath as he pulled his right hand back, clenching it into a tight fist. Responding to his opponent’s movement, the high-level Qi Flourishing disciple on the right exhaled and placed his opened hands in front of him, one ahead of the other.

…

…

They stood still for a moment longer, staring at one another until the man with both hands ahead of him nodded.

After receiving his opponent’s go-ahead, the man with the closed fist took a step forward and punched.

WHOOSH

A rush of hot energy coiled around his punching arm and shot forward from his clenched fist in the form of a fiery snake. Its width was no thicker than a rope, but the heat emanating from it could be felt by the group standing off to the side.

The airborne snake barreled towards its target. As it reached the man’s open hands, he breathed in and swung his hands together in a half-circle around his body, redirecting the flaming projectile’s path away from him.

Sssssss…

The flame dissipated into the air after moving three chi away from the initial target.

The two men stood up straight, clasped their hands and bowed to each other.

“Not bad. Not bad,” commended the woman leading the class.

“As you saw from Junior Brother Shin’s example, the Flowing Water Technique can be used to redirect the path of an enemy’s attack. The key is to draw the attack in with your body and guide it away from you in the same manner,” she explained.

She turned away from the two to face the class.

“Now…who’s ne—”

She stopped mid-sentence when she saw an outer-sect disciple standing next to the arena, glancing towards them. She huffed and her lips curled upwards on one side.

“You there…you are late! Hurry up, before I send you away,” she beckoned the tardy man to join them.

Hirose Hide was a Tributary and a direct disciple of the fourth elder.

Normally, she would be training to surpass her Brother Yu in one of the sect’s records, but she was asked to substitute for a lecture in the Flowing Water Technique. The usual teachers and personnel within the sect had been gathered to search for the damned ‘Rusty Robber’.

The students had already submitted the passes for the lecture, so they wanted to prevent the ‘Rusty Robber’ from destabilizing the sect any further. Thus, they turned to the respected and revered Hide to help in the sect’s time of need to cover for one of the classes.

So with great reluctance, she had agreed to handle the class, and now, a student had dared to arrive late.

She was not happy.

The young man hopped onto the arena and walked towards them with a pained expression, resistant to the summon.

Hide examined him thoroughly as he approached them. He had his hair tied into a topknot similar to herself, and his face was clean with a sharp jawline. He walked with the disposition of a cautious yet intelligent man, his footsteps light yet steady.

‘Not bad. Not bad…’ Hide liked men who were smart, so the late arrival’s appearance and demeanor had piqued her interest.

The man reached the center of the arena, clasped his hands and bowed to Hide and the class. Before he could say a word, Hide spoke first.

“Since you are late, you can go next. Junior Brother Shin will be your partner,” she said, intending to make an example of him.

‘If he were smart, he would not have been late.’

…

“Ahem, my apologies, senior sister. Next for what?” he asked with his head tilted slightly to the left.

The young man was Kenja, and he had not come to the arena for a class. He was looking for the challenge pit and had only happened upon the momentary exchange between the two men.

Hide arched one eye up and smirked at Kenja. “Now, now. There’s no need to be coy. Everyone is here to practice the same thing you are—the sect’s Flowing Water Technique. Come, come.”

She motioned for Kenja to stand opposite of Shin.

‘This will teach you a lesson.’ Hide wanted to punish Kenja so that he would not be late to any of his future classes.

Kenja realized that she misunderstood his reason for being here and pondered the best way to resolve the situation.

“Senior sister, I think you may be mistaken. I am no—“

Kenja was cut off and a heavy weight fell onto everyone’s shoulders. “Silence. I have given you an instruction, so you only have one thing to do. Get over there and show us what you are capable of.”

‘Not only was he late, but he is rude as well.” Hide’s impression of Kenja worsened.

Kenja had no choice but to walk to the side opposing Shin.

He was dressed as an outer-sect disciple at the high-level of the Qi Flourishing stage, and the woman was an inner-sect disciple at the Core Crystallization stage. To go against her command would be a sign of disrespect and insubordination in more ways than one, regardless of whether she had made a mistake.

“Disciple, do we have time to waste here? I can punish this bossy girl if you want. I’m not fond of those who push around my disciple just because they are a little stronger than him,” Snail offered, eager to resume their search for the challenge pit.

“…” Kenja didn’t immediately respond to Snail, annoyed with the hypocrisy behind his words. How many times had Snail forced Kenja to move at his pace or do something against his will?

“No, that’s alright. But thank you for the offer, Snail.”

While Snail might have caused Kenja trouble in the past, he had stayed true to his word and caused no incident since leaving Hizumi’s cave. Kenja figured being polite with Snail now could help reinforce this positive behavior for the future.

Additionally, while Kenja wanted to avoid wasting time and head directly to the challenge pit, he was not under any time constraint. There was no need to hurry, and he was interested in the techniques. But to immediately demonstrate the techniques…he was not ready for that…

Kenja faced the man called Shin. He stared back at Kenja with narrowed eyes and a frown.

Before Kenja had arrived, Shin’s cultivation realm was the highest amongst his classmates, but now he shared that position with Kenja who was also at the high-level Qi Flourishing stage.

Shin was intent on showcasing his dominance in front of their Senior Sister Hirose and win her favor. He calmed himself and solidified his fighting stance.

“Ready yourselves!” commanded Hide.

Shin breathed in deeply and readied his fist as he circulated Qi. He filled his second dantian with Qi in order to launch his strongest flame serpent attack.

“Shin…not too fast,” Hide warned him. While she wanted to teach Kenja a lesson, she didn’t want to cause any severe injuries that could blowback on her. As long as the attack was slow enough, Kenja would have ample time to execute the technique at the right time.

“Understood, senior sister,” Shin said respectfully, not withdrawing any power. He had planned for the attack to be slow in the first place, but too powerful for Kenja to redirect.

Kenja had placed his hands in front of him, mimicking Shin from the first exchange he had seen.

The Flowing Water Technique was in the manual that Kenja had received from Rin. Even though he could only replicate a few of the pamphlet’s arts, he had spent hours studying all of them and learning how they worked.

The Flowing Water Technique was a skill unique to the Flowing River Sect. Rather than relying on the world’s Qi, its primary cornerstones involved proper timing and the cultivator’s ability to take in Qi.

Kenja had practiced the execution of the technique, but one of the many problems in training this skill was that you needed a second person to help you. Without a second person attacking you, there would be nothing to redirect, and you would never be able to improve the more important cornerstone—your timing.

Kenja stared at his hands, letting Shin and everyone else go out of focus. His palms were sweaty and the hairs on the back of his head stood on end.

Kenja was nervous.

Out of nowhere, Kenja felt a slimy sensation on the back of his neck, causing him to shiver uncontrollably.

“Stop being so scared. You are my disciple. I already know you can handle that little baby over there, so stop your sweating…it’s gross…”

…MPH!

Kenja’s lips curled upwards as he stifled a loud laugh. His eyes refocused, and he could see everyone looking at him with confused expressions, except for Shin whose eyes narrowed further.

While Snail’s statement was meant to psych Kenja up, the irony of a slimy snail sniveling about sticky sweat was so silly that it caused Kenja to snigger.

Everyone knew that Hide had picked out Kenja to teach him a lesson for being late, and yet this brother of theirs did not only fail to show remorse, but now he was laughing and smiling.

‘Brother, is there something funny about your situation?’

Out of anger, Shin circulated more Qi and filled his dantian up even further.

Hide glared at Kenja with icy eyes before speaking out once more.

“Begin!”

Shin pulled back his right hand, transferring the energy he had stored to his clenched fist. Embers appeared in the air around his arm as he charged it up.

Shin’s narrowed eyes locked together with Kenja’s own. “Good luck to you, brother,” he yelled to Kenja, his tone filled with a biting derision.

Snail harrumphed, “Hmph. The audacity on this one.”

Kenja was too focused on Shin’s clenched fist to say anything.

…

Shin raised his right foot and slammed it on the arena as he launched his fist forward.

CRRRACK

The stone tile he stepped on cracked beneath the immense might of his foot.

SSSSSSSSSS…

Multiple enflamed threads twirled around Shin’s arm as he punched towards Kenja, converging together as they left his hand. They fused to form a blazing serpent twice as thick as before, hurtling straight for Kenja.

WHOOSH

The heat emanating from the serpent was several times fiercer and larger than the snake they had seen before.

Several of the disciples looked away, trembling at the thought of facing such an attack. They pitied their poor brother who was forced to be on the receiving end of the raging inferno.

Hide’s worried gaze shifted from Shin to Kenja and back to Shin.

‘He didn’t hold back at all!’

While she had wanted to punish Kenja for his rudeness, the ferocity of Shin’s attack would cause more than a slight burn. Due to the nature of the Flowing Water Technique, if Kenja failed to execute it correctly, he could be severely injured from such an attack.

Hide readied herself to intercept the attack.

If Kenja moved too early or too late to redirect the attack or if his Qi-absorbing capabilities were too weak, she would sprint to him and minimize the damage.

The head of the flame serpent had its mouth open and tongue out, hissing at Kenja. It was already five chi away from Kenja.

Kenja breathed in and out, entirely focused on the head of the serpent. He could feel the heat grow stronger with each passing moment, but his mind was blank as he held his hands in front of him to receive the incoming reptile.

Kenja could feel the heat coming from his backside and neck as well. Sakura and Snail’s support helped Kenja retain his composure as he gauged the distance between him and Shin’s attack.

Four chi…

More of the disciples had closed their eyes, unwilling to witness the final result.

Three chi…

Shin puffed out his chest and tried to look as stoic and powerful as possible. He wanted to impress his Senior Sister Hide by punishing Kenja in her stead.

Two chi…

Hide held herself back from moving, pulling a box of Burn Healing Pills out that she had prepared for the class. She would move the moment Kenja’s fate was sealed.

One chi…

‘Now!’

Kenja began absorbing the Qi through his hands and arms. He swung his arms in a counter-clockwise arc around him.

‘Too soon…’ Hide decided to intervene.

The Flowing Water Technique was a double-edged sword.

While versatile and incredible when mastered, failure to divert the path of the attack not only caused one to take the full attack head on, but the victim would have lowered their natural defenses at the same time.

Because the essence of the technique was to lead the Qi of the enemy’s attack away from the target, the user must forego their own Qi-based abilities and defenses. Otherwise, they would risk failure from their own Qi’s interference.

To ‘draw an attack’s Qi towards you’ is equivalent to guiding a sword straight to your vitals. Attacks that might have only caused a light scratch before could rip through your skin and organs.

For this reason, timing was key.

Too early and the attack would not be drawn away from its original course. Too late and the attack would not have enough time to change its path. Moreover, if the attack was too strong or too fast to draw away, then the technique was useless.

For an attack of this scale, Hide calculated that Kenja would need to pull the snake’s head away the moment it was three cun away from him,

Sprinting towards Kenja, Hide was one chi away when the sight before her caused her to stop in place.

Ssssssssssssssssss…

The snake had followed Kenja’s hands away from him and the class, dissipating after traveling another three chi without hitting anything.

‘What just happened?’

Hide, Shin and everyone else who had not closed their eyes were now staring at Kenja dumbfounded. Those who were now opening their eyes were shocked to see Kenja unharmed.

Shin’s attack was quite powerful for a Qi Flourishing cultivator.

The difficulty in successfully executing the technique rose with the power or speed of the attack, but Kenja had easily sent it away despite his poor timing. That was something that happened only when the target was at a much higher cultivation level than the caster, but Kenja and Shin were at the same level.

“Dummy disciple! That was too early. Don’t be so scared next time! You need to wait till it gets closer!” Snail criticized Kenja, unsatisfied with his performance.

Kenja scratched the back of his head and let out an awkward cough. “My apologies, senior sister. I may have acted too quickly.” He bowed to Hide, hoping she wouldn’t laugh at him.

In the heat of the moment, it was easy to misjudge the distance and proper timing. As he had performed the movement, he realized that he might have made his move too early and assumed that they were staring at him because of that mistake. Considering it was his first time performing the technique, he understood that it was reasonable he would make a mistake, but he was still embarrassed.

‘You may have acted too quickly? Too quickly your head!’ the gallery berated Kenja in their head. There would have been no difference in the trajectory change if Kenja had acted at the right time.

Hide regained her composure and coughed, putting on a smile for the polite Kenja. “Ahem—that’s quite alright, junior brother. Why don’t you and Shin continue till one of you lands an attack on the other? Just make sure to hold back appropriately.” She said the last sentence while giving Shin a mean look that caused him to wince.

Hide was interested in seeing Kenja perform the technique again, so she suggested they trade blows till one of them successfully landed an attack. This would give her time to determine whether it had been a fluke or some sort of trick.

Kenja returned an awkward smile to her.

‘That means I have to get hit…’ he concluded, sighing inwardly.

Kenja had no qualms with the extra practice, but he had no offensive abilities in his repertoire, meaning the only end he could think of was to take a hit from the stuck-up cultivator.

Shin recovered from his shock and took the pose to attack again. “Here I come, brother.” He was eager to redeem himself, unwilling to give Kenja an opportunity to attack.

…

Kenja sighed once more as he held his open palms in front of him.

“Let’s show these toddlers what a disciple taught by the Supreme Me is capable of!” Snail puffed his chest out and Sakura tapped Kenja’s back twice as encouragement.