Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 220. Hardworking Genius.

“Yin’s finally had enough.” Laien chuckled on his way to a clear area. “He wasn’t sure before, but this time Sebastian’s heart fluctuated too wildly for him to be having any good thoughts. Well, not that I didn’t expect Sebastian to want to use us in some way. It would have been fine to play along with him, had he not been planning to harm us in the process,” he mused. He wasn’t sure if he should feel disappointed, but it would probably be best to wait and see how Sebastian acted. Everyone had evil thoughts from time to time, and it wasn’t like Yin’s ability to read hearts was omnipotent. All they knew was that Sebastian bore towards them intentions which he himself considered evil.

“A bit too far, eh?” Laien asked the question in his mind, his gaze shifting towards Yin and Ivan. The large, cavernous room they were in was roughly one kilometre in diameter. With him and Yin moving to occupy its two opposite halves, they ended up about five hundred meters apart. Although they could still sense each other’s thoughts and emotions from such a distance, they no longer were able to have a mental conversation. As far as Laien could tell, the distance limit for that ability was, at present, roughly fifty meters. Naturally, it would only grow as their Spiritual Link strengthened.

“You’d better focus.” Hearing John’s voice from his side, Laien turned his head towards him. Then he revealed a confident and rather condescending smile, causing the look in the older boy’s eyes to turn murderous. By the looks of it, John’s patience had finally run dry, much to Laien’s satisfaction. “Whatever you intended by asking for those two-minute and four-minute marks won’t matter if you lose before that. Wouldn’t that be a humiliating memory to have?” However, as John’s subsequent provocation proved, it didn’t seem like he had lost all rationale. Taunting one’s opponent was a legitimate strategy; the more so if that person was insufferably, infuriatingly arrogant.

Yet such actions meant anything only when that opponent had no basis upon which he could uphold his arrogance. In the present circumstances, all John’s words did was amuse Laien a bit more and make him feel a bit more optimistic about ‘motivating’ John to train harder. Thus, feeling that he had already said enough, Laien took out his white spear from his interspatial ring. He then swirled the weapon casually, and with a wry smile on his face, assumed a neutral, battle-ready stance.

Seeing Laien cut to the chase, John took a few steps back, increasing the distance between them to the standard ten meters. He armed himself with his sword and roused his Qi, then preemptively drew upon his spiritual energy, preparing to use Guardian Magic in the form of support. With a blue hue of vibrant and pure energy accumulating all over his body, his aura rose sharply, mixing with the killing intent which he no longer bothered to suppress. Haughty as he may be, as a student at the top of Academy City’s Earth’s Quarters, he was anything but a sheltered greenhouse flower.

“Hoh.” Laien nodded slightly, his smile changing to become less condescending, his expression turning into one of happy anticipation. “If we go by aura alone, then he’s a match for a supreme martial master of the second rank. In other words, Reian from a month ago would have had to put in some decent effort if he wanted to kill him,” he praised in his thoughts. At the same time, he was, to some extent, shocked. He was yet to see how John fared in an actual fight, but the overall gut feeling he had about John was similar to that of Raphael back from their very first duel.

“If it was three months ago,” Laien laughed inwardly at the thought that sprouted in his mind. “It would have been bad for us. Academy City… It’s really an intriguing place. I wonder how high ranked John is in Earth’s Quarters? It would be scary if he was only in the middle of the pack,” he mused as the image of the month-plus fights started changing in his mind. He had thought the level of the duels wouldn’t be worth mentioning, but it seemed like he was in for more fun than he had thought.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side half of the cave-like room, Ivan raised his eyebrows ever so slightly. “Your friend is… pretty unique,” he couldn’t help but comment. If it was merely how Laien was, then it would have been fine as every person will have a different personality. However, since unlike John, who was releasing his aura wildly while getting ready for battle, he had been able to keep a cool head, he ended up feeling that only half of Laien’s act was genuine. It wasn’t because he had deduced so based on any conjectures, though. He simply felt that someone like Yin wouldn’t be friends with Laien had the latter’s personality truly been as… nasty as it had been thus far.

“He sure is,” Yin agreed with a chuckle. He had already admitted before himself that getting on people’s nerves and infuriating them to the point they could no longer restrain themselves was a type of skill not everyone possessed. In Laien’s case, it could be called a natural ability of sorts since, if he wanted, he could make someone lose their mind from anger. Taking this into consideration, Yin could tell that Laien had still been properly holding himself back throughout the day.

“You admit it?” Ivan raised his eyebrows slightly. He was almost tempted to ask a few more questions about the kind of relationship Yin and Laien shared. Almost. “Please advise me,” he said instead, taking out his sword and rousing his earth and wind element Qi. Perhaps if he one day felt the need to relax, he would seek Yin out and have a longer chat with him. For now, however, he was more eager to start the fight and see for sure if he wouldn’t be able to grab a Heaven’s Seat off of Yin; not to mention that he suspected John wouldn’t be able to hold himself back much longer.

“Sure,” Yin said, revealing an amused smile while retrieving his twin swords. “Do your best to win before two minutes pass. If not, then before four. Any longer than that and you’re both doomed to lose,” he said calmly. He had chosen to take Ivan’s exchange of pleasantries at face value since Ivan was a bit too calm, so he wanted to remind him about the little timestamps Laien had mentioned. It would be a pity if Ivan chose a wait-and-see approach, wasting the opportunity he had.

“…Fine.” Ivan nodded. Yin’s reply had irked him at first, but once he thought his words through and connected all the dots, his attitude finally took a turn in one particular direction. The moment he chose to see himself as an underdog and look at Yin as someone genuinely at the monster level, the originally stern and determined look in his eyes gained a steel-like sharpness to it. “I’ll be fighting with the intent to kill. If I’m misunderstanding the situation, tell me now,” he said quietly, sending the words towards Yin through a little bit of Qi. Now that his killing intent had been roused, he was in no mood to raise his voice. Rather than that, the only thing on his mind was cutting Yin down.

Thankfully, he soon saw Yin nod at him with a smile on his face, so it didn’t look like he had misunderstood; he could now wholeheartedly focus on the battle.

“Ready?” From near the entrance, the Spiritual Department Head called out. The question in itself was a rhetorical one since he could see all four youths brimming with eagerness, and in John and Ivan’s case, with murderous intent, too. Thus, his question was more of a heads-up if anything. “You shall begin on the count of three. One… two… three!” he declared and flipped the small hourglass between his fingers at the same time. Although he was just as eager to witness the two duels as everyone else, he wouldn’t forget about the small favour Laien had asked him for.

That said, just as the word ‘Three!’ resounded within the cavernous room, John and Ivan dashed towards Laien and Yin respectively. Regardless of how enraged or motivated they were, they would have never been promoted to the Earth’s Quarters if they didn’t know the importance of the initiative. Be it dual practitioners like John or the few pure spiritual practitioners in their ranks, not one of them would be foolish enough to stand back to chant a spell in a one-on-one fight. Thus, they didn’t need to think twice before choosing to do the same thing they had done in hundreds of spars they had experienced in the past; they went on the offensive, intending to suppress their enemies.

On one side, John ducked to avoid the swipe of Laien’s spear. Immediately afterwards, he changed the rhythm of his steps, no longer dashing ahead in long strides but opting for shorter, flexible movements. Thanks to that, he was able to adjust his body quickly enough to deflect the follow-up thrust by Laien, deflecting it with a surprisingly gentle movement of his sword. As Laien’s spear slid against the blade he had covered with a thick layer of water-element Qi, he couldn’t help but smile as he stomped at the ground with all his strength, propelling himself forward at twice the speed.

Due to the nature of warfare in the north Eulean Kingdoms, spear wielders were pretty much ubiquitous. While only a few could be called true masters of the spear, all cultivators were expected to at least know their way around the long weapons. John himself had learned the basics of wielding a spear in case he ever had to fight on horseback, be it as a soldier, officer, or general. In Academy City, every other student used a spear or its variation as their weapon of choice, so John had had more than enough experience in fighting them. As such, he knew full well that as a sword wielder, if he couldn’t close the distance to a spear wielder, he would inevitably fall into a disadvantage.

Precisely because of that, John was having a giggity feeling in his stomach. After all that pompous talk, after provoking him so much, Laien made a blunder in the first second of their duel. Even though he could see that Laien was already stepping back and retreating, preparing to keep defending with his spear, he had already grabbed hold of definite advantage. Now that he had gotten into a range that wasn’t great for either sword or a spear, he was fully confident in getting deeper.

Thus, he kept moving forward, releasing more and more spiritual energy with every step he took and every step Laien retreated. He blocked a weak swipe aimed at his head, then dodged out of the way of a wide backswing of the spear that seemed to aim for a turnaround were he to have tried closing the remaining distance all at once. Exploiting the opening which appeared due to Laien rotating his body for the last blow, he closed in yet a little bit more. He was furious with Laien, this much was true. However, he wasn’t anywhere close to losing his head and fighting like a fool.

It might have been but a few exchanges, but he could tell that Laien’s physical strength was only a little bit worse than his. This meant that Laien must have been training his body non-stop since his early childhood, just like he himself had been doing. Else there was no way that someone who had just broken through to the ninth mortal realm in his martial cultivation would be comparable to him, a person who had spent the last year at the peak of the same realm. He had consolidated his cultivation to the limits, be it from the martial or spiritual perspective, so unless someone’s skills were better than his own, he was confident in matching anyone in terms of foundation.

“On the other hand, his skill with the spear is above-average at best.” The thought passed through John’s mind. There were no apparent mistakes on Laien’s part apart from allowing him to close the distance too much in the first exchange, but there were no threatening points, either. All he had to do was to push Laien more, forcing him to reveal more openings to exploit to his own advantage.

There was, however, one thing that was causing him a slight worry. Laien wasn’t actively using his Qi or spiritual energy at all; he seemed to be merely circulating his Qi to enhance his bodily prowess. Laien wasn’t even trying to compete with him with Guardian Magic, allowing him to fill the nearby space with his own spiritual energy to the brim. This made him wonder if Laien wasn’t secretly getting ready to unleash a big move, intending to finish him off in one go in that way.

“You wish,” John thought, his eyes betraying a hint of prudent arrogance. “I’ll suppress you so thoroughly you won’t have a chance to pull any tricks!” he decided and executed control over a portion of the spiritual energy in the air. He continued the exchange of parries, deflections, and dodges as before, but at the same time, he sent surges of water and ice towards Laien’s hands and legs. As expected, just after the first contact of his magic with Laien’s hands, he could tell that his spiritual energy was unsurprisingly being largely resisted by Laien’s own Guardian Magic.

The effects of the water and ice on Laien’s body were bound to be minimal; the Guardian wasn’t powerful magic in itself and the further it was from one’s body, the harder it was to control it. By the same principle, it was much easier for Laien to resist his spiritual energy since he had opted to defend passively and not retaliate. If this was a balanced fight, then such a battle of attrition would have been in Laien’s favour. Alas, John could tell that Laien’s movements and reactions became half a beat slower; this further reinforced his belief that Laien was secretly preparing to use a big move.

“Come on, defend properly!” John called out in his thoughts while laughing inwardly. No matter how little effect the Guardian had on Laien, it was bound to accumulate. Forgetting the matter of Laien losing focus, he could see the frost on his hands and forearms accumulating with every second. Moreover, he was able to force Laien to move in a suboptimal way every time he targeted his feet, thus gaining an even more significant situational advantage in their exchanges. From the start of their fight, no more than ten seconds had passed, but he had already gotten into a comfortable, close range.

At this rate, he wondered if he would win without having to resort to any martial techniques or spells. Using those would potentially give Laien an opportunity to gamble on making a comeback, so if he didn’t have to, he wouldn’t use them. However, as good as he felt about the development of this fight, one thing was unsettling him time and time again. He had no idea why, but the look in Laien’s eyes remained calm and collected; even the slight smile didn’t disappear from his face. If this was a bluff, then Laien was an amazing actor. But if it wasn’t… then it was very worrisome.

Going back in time a little.

On the opposite side of the cavernous room, the contest of blows between Yin and Ivan escalated in its ferocity far quicker than anyone could have expected. Contrary to Ivan’s personality, his fighting style was nothing short of overbearing; somewhat barbaric, even. Relying on the toughness that the earth element provided him, he kept forcing Yin into simultaneous exchanges of blood. Naturally, Yin opted out of them every time, but this quickly resulted in him being pushed wholly onto the defensive.

If it was only this much, then it wouldn’t have been enough to call Ivan’s style ‘barbaric’, though. The youth, despite clearly having great skill with the sword, kept trying to grab Yin’s forearms with his free hand. He repeatedly attempted to slam into him with his entire body whenever their swords clashed, maintaining a low, balance-oriented stance the whole time. Above that, he used his wind element Qi not only to release gusts of cutting wind at Yin every time their swords clashed, much like Reian tended to do, but also to pull up dust and stones and send them at Yin’s face.

The constant attempts to trip his opponent with his legs, to blind him with dust, to slam into him, to force simultaneous exchanges of blows… All of those things would have been troublesome enough on their own. Still, when they were employed extremely well and paired up with Ivan’s extremely polished basic fighting ability, they turned any fight into a nightmarish experience for his opponents. To top it all off, just like he had said, Ivan was doing his best to seize the advantage with the goal of killing Yin, holding nothing back in terms of the ruthlessness of his attacks and tactics.

He wasn’t as talented with the sword as Casimir, and his talent for cultivation wasn’t as high, either. However, unlike Casimir, who tended to fight in a more level-headed way, relying on his superior abilities to suppress his enemies, Ivan appeared intent on dragging them to the grave alongside him. From the perspective of effectiveness, although Ivan’s way of fighting was far riskier, not to mention that it was rather unsightly, it was superior to Casimir’s approach. Or, at the very least, such were Yin’s thoughts as he struggled to keep up with Ivan’s wild barrage of attacks.

On more than one occasion, Yin had felt the urge to stop holding back and cut Ivan down where he stood. The way Ivan fought was simply that frustrating to go against. Yin’s teary eyes full of dust and his body riddled with dozens of small cuts were only a part of it, though. The wind-element blades were annoying, but they could barely draw blood, and Ivan knew it too. The worst part of it all was that Yin’s own rhythm kept being disrupted at every step. Although it was in part because Yin was holding back, Ivan’s strength was more than genuine. In fact, Yin suspected that if it had been before he created the Thundercloud Sword Art, he might have suffered at Ivan’s hands.

He wouldn’t have lost, but in terms of skill, he would have been on the back foot the entire time. This was a thought as terrifying as it was thrilling for Yin. Fighting Ivan was pissing him off to no end, but at the same time, it brought him joy whenever he adjusted his own style in response. His Thundercloud Sword Art was still relatively immature, and while its main focus was to predict, force, and avoid enemy’s blows by a skin-tight margin, there was room for improvement. For example, perhaps he could imitate Ivan to a point, possibly use the subtle movements of his body, the flow of his Qi, the ethereal ‘intent’ of his aura, to make his enemy believe he would do something else.

Of course, it was easier said than done, and if Ivan knew what Yin was thinking about, he’d likely cough up blood from exasperation. The degree of talent that would be required to pull off what Yin was considering was beyond human comprehension. It was one thing to employ such ‘tricks’ in a fight against someone much weaker when you could hold back and control yourself to an iota. The benefit of that person being easier to fool would be there, too. However, to try something like that against an evenly matched opponent, to not even mention someone stronger or a group of enemies, was unarguably tantamount to foolishly throwing one’s life away.

The only expected result of such foolishness would be mistakes in one’s own movements driven by the conflicting, majorly failed attempts at leading your opponent on. This had already been proven by many before Ivan and reconfirmed by Ivan’s own countless failed attempts at transforming his style. Yet what Ivan was unable to perceive was that Yin’s Sword Art actually began to slowly evolve in that exact direction. Of course, it wasn’t because Ivan was dull that he had failed to recognize those changes. In essence, it was because all of Yin’s attempts at executing this new method ended with failures; most of them resulted in another bloody scratch being added somewhere on his body.

What Ivan never would have imagined, however, was what the main reasons for those repeated failures on Yin’s part were. It wasn’t because Yin was failing to improve upon and evolve his Thundercloud Sword Art, but because he was having trouble adjusting it down to Ivan’s level. If he wanted to allow Ivan to perceive all the subtle fake hints that he was putting on display, then he had to make sure that Ivan was capable of noticing them. It wasn’t an easy task though, as not only was Yin not used to holding himself back like that, but Ivan’s barbaric fighting style wasn’t helping him understand what his opponent was and wasn’t capable of responding to.

As a result, with Yin focusing on his own thing and Ivan stubbornly attempting to land a clean blow, their battle entered a stalemate.

While those two duels were proceeding, the six spectators were obviously paying close attention to both fighting parties. Interestingly enough, it was only Alex who kept his original light-hearted smile. What was on his mind, though, remained a mystery to everybody but him, as no one would be able to tell if he was surprised, satisfied, or disappointed from looking at his reactions.

On the other hand, the frowns on the two Vice-Heads’ faces were far easier to read. The two men were happy to see their pupils obtain an advantage in their fights, but they were also unsure what to think about Laien and Yin’s underwhelming performance. They’d have had to be mentally challenged if they didn’t come to have some suspicions by this point, but the true nature of the present circumstances eluded the scope of their imaginations. After all, the simplest answers were sometimes the hardest to accept. Who in their right mind would ever conclude that the entire scheme of duels came from Laien’s suggestion, taking the form of a trade with Azuresky and Emeric?

Even if Sebastian or one of the two Department Heads told the two Vice-Heads the truth of the matter right there and then, the two would have found it hard to believe. For Laien and Yin’s prowess to be so superior to all of their students that the duels their side viewed as serious could be treated as a learning and teaching experience… it was too ridiculous to be true, and yet it was.

The two Vice-Heads were up for a rude awakening in some time, but truth be told, it was the trio of Sebastian and the two Department Heads who were already gawking with their eyes open wide. The side with Laien and John didn’t display anything worth their attention so far, but unlike Ivan, and apparently unlike the two Vice-Heads, the three of them were able to see Yin’s movements change in real-time. To someone with too little experience, with too weak perception, Yin’s movements would appear chaotic and unorganized, seemingly under the pressure of Ivan. In contrast, to them, Yin’s figure was like a blur, their instincts telling them one thing and their eyes denying it the next instant.

If the distance between them and Yin was a little smaller, perhaps one hundred meters instead of five hundred, they were sure the effect would have been even more pronounced. What terrified them more, however, was that those phantom-like images were slowly disappearing from their view. They had at first thought that Yin was making mistakes, but it was only a few seconds later that they understood what he was doing. And the instant they realized, the three of them felt their bodies grow hot from nervousness while cold sweat started forming on their necks and backs.

Although Yin and Ivan didn’t display any martial techniques so far, it was apparent that at the level they presented, either of them would be able to kill a regular martial master of the third rank without much effort. However, the three of them knew that Yin’s true abilities were far, far beyond the level he was displaying. And, if they had had some reservations about the extremely high evaluation Casimir and Anna gave Laien and Yin, they had all been shattered into nothingness.

Those who weren’t true experts would never be able to understand how terrifying Yin’s display of skill was. To begin with, most people in the world wouldn’t even be able to recognize what Yin was doing; just like Ivan and the two Vice-Heads. However, those who could see those mirages fuelled by the multitude of minuscule, subtle feints made through the body, Qi, aura, and intent, would be able to imagine themselves being cut down by Yin without having a chance nor the ability to resist.

As they thought along such lines, Sebastian and the two Department Heads swallowed heavily. If Yin obtained even a modicum of success in this fighting style that was considered to be impossible to carry out, he would become an unimaginably dangerous enemy. If they had to one day face him on the field of battle, they feared to imagine how disastrous the results would be for their camp.

Little did they know that terrifying as it was, they had only seen the tip of the iceberg as far as Yin’s strengths were concerned.