"Hey, put your back into it, my grandmother could run better than you lot!" Zhi Mu cried out with a laugh, as the four of them ran through the course he had put up. By now, there were multiple puppets dancing around them, trying to make their journey through the training course as hard as possible. Two puppets wielded spears, four swords, and by now at least ten threw all manner of projectiles at them, from mud to arrows. Ren even thought that he saw a small stool somewhere.

"Of course she would, she is a Master, after all." Xin Jing retorted with an eye roll, while laughing. She was still weaving in and out of the different obstacles, by far being the most agile of the four of them, even though Han Ting had a stronger body, it looked like his movement arts were not truly polished, and he also made for a bigger target.

Surprisingly, for Ren anyway, was the fact that he could keep up with them, even if he had to push himself to his limits, sweating and often desperately dodging as something almost hit him, while the others still had enough breath to argue with each other. Shen Junan was even more relaxed, though it had to be attributed to his copious use of spirit outside of his body, than his physical prowess, not only dragging him along, but also deflecting projectiles, and making it far easier for him to sense his immediate surroundings. The others didn't complain about it, though Han Ting poked a little good-natured fun at him.

This training continued for a few hours, with Zhi Mu joining them while he still controlled the wooden puppets, and even corrected their techniques, pointing out flaws and unnecessary movements. Ren could feel himself actively improving as he kept pushing himself along with Han Ting, Shen Junan, Xin Jing and Zhi Mu.

When they took a break, Shen Junan started talking. "Unbelievable, Brother Zhi, did you have to push us this hard? We can already take a nice little shower" He said, while flopping down with a sigh, and laying his glasses on his stomach.

"Stop complaining, you lazy ass." Zhi Mu said exasperatedly while grinning from ear to ear. "Just use your spirit, and clean yourself off with that, Xin Jing has already done it." He added.

"Ugh, can't I just lay down a little first?" Shen said, while stretching on the ground, and then putting his hands behind his head, making him look like a satisfied cat.

"Sure, sure, whatever you say, glasses, but remember to do it later, I am not your maid, cleaning your behind." Zhi Mu made a dismissive gesture at him, and turned to the others, but before he could get another word in, Han Ting began talking.

"Good work, Brother Ren and Sister Xin. I was honestly quite surprised that I was not the best at this exercise. In the body division people are always full of praise for me, and while I knew that my ability with spirit was severely crippled, I was always confident in my body." Han Ting smiled wryly, but was not angry in the least. "It is truly eye-opening to meet talents like yourselves. I had already known about the progress of Brother Zhi, but as he was, and still is, so far ahead I already looked at him more as an elder than a peer. Thank you for that." The tall boy finished, while nodding at both Ren and Xin Jing.

Directly answering his friend, Shen Junan piped up with a relaxed voice, not even opening his eyes as he lay in the grass. "What are you saying, Han Ting? To me you sound as if you were completely defeated by this experience, but there will always be a taller mountain and heavens beyond the heavens. The two of them are even confused what you are talking about, probably thinking something simple like, 'if you are not satisfied, just train more', or something along those lines. All right?" He then opened a single eye to look at Han Ting, and as he nodded hesitantly simply closed it again in seeming content.

They all sank into silence after that.

Thinking about what both Han Ting and Shen Junan had just said, Ren really thought that he should just train till he felt confident in his ability again. He also thought that it should be clear that there would be others who are better at something than you, and it was also not like Xin Jing was better at all things under heaven. In conclusion, he simply didn't get Han Ting's point of even telling them this.

With a clap, Adept Zhi interrupted the contemplative silence, making all of them look at him, and began talking. "OK, that was all very nice and heart-warming stuff, but let us talk a bit about the exercise nonetheless, before we decide on which division we will tour first, all right?" When no one said anything and there were only nods all around, Zhi Mu continued in a more serious tone. "As Han Ting already said, Xin Jing, you did very well, having already refined your movement art, as well as your body arts to a high degree." The girl simply accepted the praise without further comment, making Zhi Mu nod once. "But you can not become complacent, that should be obvious, keep pushing and improving yourself." Turning to Ren next, Zhi Mu lost some of his temporary seriousness and scratched his scalp. "To be fair, Brother Ren, you are somewhat of a special case, as not only have you only cultivated for less than half a year, but the addition of your intent makes it hard to gauge where you should be at progress wise. As you might have realized you could somewhat keep up with the course I prepared, and while you were completely focused the entire time, it did not escape me that you kept not only circulating but even actively cultivated. You should not have any problems defeating normal Novices with ease at this point." As Zhi Mu paused, Ren tried to clear something up first.

"I don't think that I can defeat Novices with ease, Brother Zhi. When I sparred with the Novices of the weapon division, I could not defeat all of them." Ren said, with doubt lacing his voice.

Zhi Mu looked at him, like he said something extremely stupid, but continued in a normal tone. "You might not know this, but the differences in power between a Novice and an Adept is by far the widest. There are many cases of Adepts slaying Masters and Masters slaying Grandmasters and so on, but a Novice defeating an Adept is basically unheard of. Now, why is that?" Zhi Mu didn't give them enough time to answer, even though Xin Jing looked like she wanted to. "I will tell you why. Intent, Intent, and again, Intent. The transformation that a cultivator experiences when he gains his Intent is massive, a qualitative leap of all abilities. That is also why I believe that you were simply holding back subconsciously, trying not to hurt the other disciples' ego, and only completely let loose once you left their company. Maybe you even only held back while sparring, furthering possible growing resentment, as they saw how strong you should be." The boy gave Ren a smile. "But you don't have to worry about any of that now, simply keep it in mind that you do not hold back again, because I know that an Intent, especially one focused on an aspect of fighting, makes your natural instincts skyrocket." Zhi Mu finished with a pat on Ren's shoulder, and started talking about Han Ting and Shen Junan's performances.

Ren was only listening with half an ear though, thinking if he really was holding back. While replaying multiple spars in his mind, he recognized that he did in fact avoid striking at an opening, or let an opponent take a wider swing even if he could intercept it before.

"You really should just let it go, as Brother Zhi said, you likely just didn't want to hurt them." Xin Jing, who was sitting next to him, whispered in his ear.

"All right, Sister Xin, I will try." Ren answered her, embarrassed at being caught not listening, while Zhi Mu continued talking.

And Ren was in fact able to make the negative thoughts vanish from his mind.

After having finished their little after training discussion, Han Ting rose to speak. "I would like to invite you all to visit the body faction with me! You will all have a warm welcome and good food." The boy even hit his chest with his fist like an officer in a mortal army.

Zhi Mu, Ren, and the other two looked at each other, and then simply grinned. "If you invite us so honestly, how can we deny you, Brother Han?" Xin Jing said with a teasing voice.

"Good lad! We will certainly take you up on your word, and tour the body division first." Zhi Mu stood up and slapped Han Ting on his shoulder, almost making the taller boy topple over.

Zhi Mu disassembled the training course, made the puppets vanish once again, and all of them started the descent, while Han Ting was gushing about the body division.