Yu’s healing classes were the first where the students did something other than focus on their Qi, although they were told that would be a substantial part of their first half-year. What surprised Yu even more though, was how pompous the teachers were. The healers that she knew certainly weren’t totally in it for the giving nature of the art, but this group thought that healing was the primary reason humanity hadn’t gone extinct and that all of creation should respect them for it.

That aside, Yu found the class interesting and hoped to be able to become a competent, if not gifted healer. While she enjoyed the feeling of giving back and helping others, it wasn’t what made her heart race with joy the way fighting did.

In her first class, the students were asked who had hands-on experience using healing skills before joining the sect and then tested their skills and competence. Yu surprised them with hers and also her easy use of both affinities simultaneously and was asked to act as a junior healer for the sect during her off-hours. She expressed concern with her schedule and they asked her to allow them to figure something out. She shrugged and agreed. Their efforts cost her nothing after all.

When her Water healing instructor invaded her Wood healing classroom and whispered something to that teacher, Yu was immediately withdrawn from both her novice healing classes and transferred into a single initiate-level class with both Water and Wood Mage students. Apparently, healing was a much more hands-on type of teaching and Yu was even given a pass to get two grade 2 healing skills for relief of wounds beyond basic cuts, bruises, and scrapes. The entire experience threw her mind in a bit of a tizzy and she stumbled to the dojo for martial practice utterly overwhelmed.

Yu was surprised when she saw the class only on her and Li’s schedule and not on Lu’s. Its absence on Ai’s wasn’t a surprise of course. When Yu entered the large dojo training room and witnessed a large room full of a few hundred students, it still didn’t add up. Who was signed up for this class and why?

Li found Yu and they stood together, Li talking non-stop. Yu just listened silently and smiled. Her input wasn’t needed for the “conversation” anyway. Yu felt Li helped her relieve stress just by being so honest and funny.

After the roar announcing the hour and the start of class, an elder who was only about a head taller than Yu appearing in his 50’s in mortal years with a neat short mustache and black hair in a tight bun stepped into the dojo from a side door followed by a dozen or so other elders. He said loudly, “Good evening, disciples.”

They all responded in kind and he continued, “I am Elder Gan and I’m sure some of you are wondering what in the nine hells you are doing here.” At least half of the disciples in the room nodded or confirmed his statement in another way. “Well, the answer is one of three reasons and two of them are in regards to your testing. Specifically, your combat test. At least three-quarters of you are here because you were terrible in combat and either failed or barely passed that portion of the test but passed enough of the others to be admitted. The second far less likely reason you are here is that you passed the combat test so completely that you have been granted the opportunity for extra training with experts. The third is because you are a direct disciple and your master placed you.”

There was a lot of chatter after his explanation, all involving which people thought they were in which category. A whole bunch of folks stared at Yu with various expressions.

Li leaned over and whispered a question in Yu’s ear, “Which were you?”

Yu shrugged as the elder continued his introduction. “As of this moment, none of that matters. You will all be tested equally and receive advancement based on skill alone. Here is how this will work. Each of you will get into groups based on your weapon types. You will line up and battle with one of these elders. You may use Qi in your body but no Qi skills are permitted. This is a test of martial talent. If any of you can make one of the elder’s bleed you will be rewarded with 100 dragon points per injury.” The elders lined themselves up and took out various weapons. “Split up and match appropriately. If you have an exotic weapon that is not easily categorized, see me and I will direct you. If you are new to martial training and have never held a weapon in your life or have no idea which you like, please step to the side over here by me.”

Yu scanned the elders and saw a 16 or 17 year old boy disciple with two shortswords on his belt in a line to battle an elder with a longsword, decided that matched best, and entered that line. The others were by major weapon category. There was a staff, spear, longsword and saber, small daggers, bow, whip (this one called to Yu but she stuck with her hook swords), and a few more exotic weapons that Yu couldn’t identify. They must not have been in her family’s reading material; she would look them up later. Li waved to Yu and joined the group with Elder Gan, always having used only her hands and feet. For Air Affinity users, it was usually small weapons for Aura and ranged weapons for Mana as they maximized their speed and scouting abilities. The group by Elder Gan was probably about half the total in the room. That impressed Yu because it meant each of them had something special about them to be accepted. On the other hand, Ren must have failed all those applicants pretty quickly.

Turning back to her line, Yu watched as a few of the disciples battled the elders with mostly a small amount of skill. It was quickly obvious that a good portion of these students were not taught much but had a weapon of one sort or another. Occasionally, an elder told a disciple to swap weapons because the one they wielded was not effective for them. They all looked downtrodden, likely either thinking they did not wish to change weapons or they believed themselves better than they really were.

One actually argued with an elder demanding another attempt because, “This axe has been in my family for generations and I must wield it!” The elder’s response was quite simple actually. “Do you want to wield it more than you want to be at the Black Dragon Sect?” The student looked devastated and the elder put his hand on the boy’s shoulder saying with sympathy, “Just because you have little talent to wield the axe, does not mean you cannot wear it. Simply don it sheathed and use your actual weapon in combat. You will likely have good talent in a polearm and I feel one would be strong in your hands.”

Beyond that, a small few showed real skill in Yu’s eyes and managed to keep up with the elder for up to a minute. As young as the disciples were, Qi could only last so long and melee fights tended to be very draining; seconds can feel like an eternity when going all out, even with Qi as a crutch. Yu took note of all the ones she viewed as having quality talent, thinking perhaps they could potentially make sparring partners whenever that was permitted.

When it came to Yu’s turn to battle the elder she bowed and asked the elder to blunt her weapons. He raised his eyebrows at her and Yu tried to take it back, realizing she had insulted him. “Elder, I mean no disrespect. These weapons-” Unfortunately, he refused with an angry look and interrupted, “Fight or fail and be expelled.”

Yu opened her mouth but seeing his glare, she closed it and moved into a speed-focused stance which spread her body and limbs and raised and tilted slightly forward her center of balance. Yu’s body flooded with Qi and she watched his body for keys. Seeing his stance was perfectly still she decided to match it by not moving except for the breath in her lungs expanding and contracting. They sat there staring at each other until the elder sneered and said, “Afraid?”

Yu raised an eyebrow and responded, “No. Are you?”

His eyebrows lowered and his face scrunched in anger. Just as his mouth opened Yu charged and swung. Two swords swung in a single motion, one from the bottom left, one from the middle right aiming for his sword. The elder jerked quickly and shifted his sword down to block Yu’s right strike while slapping his right hand down to hit the flat of Yu’s left blade. Yu had witnessed him using that method of defense a few times through his battles with previous dual-wielding disciples. Of course, many students attempted to defeat this by turning their blades into his hand thinking he would withdraw his hand or risk it being sliced open. His skin, toughened by decades or centuries of being infused densely with Qi, proved beyond such a maneuver each time, absorbing and folding around the blade rather than being sliced open.

Yu knew this but did it anyway and as per every prior time and the elder did not bleed even a drop of blood. Expectedly the elder’s defensive strikes were strong and Yu felt both the vibration and strength through her swords into her hands and arms. By normal melee combat logic, she should have fallen back both from being outmatched in defense as well as strength, but she stepped into his space instead. His sword moved like lightning and Yu struggled to meet the blow with crossed hilts. She saw the movement of his wrists just in time to adjust her right blade as he thrust his sword forward towards her left shoulder. Yu was able to turn so the sword’s flat slid along her upper arm rather than impale her shoulder. Her arms visibly shook with the man’s strength and she found herself being pushed back, which would cause her to overbalance backward. At the same time, Yu saw his face sneer once again as she felt him trying to turn his blade so the blade would slice into her arm instead of the flat. He likely believed a good slice would turn around her arrogant attitude. She really hadn’t meant to be disrespectful.

Qi coursed through Yu’s body as she pressed back against his greater strength and she allowed herself to bend slightly. His sneer slowly morphed into curiosity when his blade began to bend at the hilt rather than turn. No matter how hard he twisted, the sword would not turn blade first. He released the pressure, not wanting to ruin his sword.

At that exact moment and despite the fact that she was bowed backwards, Yu’s grimace turned into a strained grin as, instead of his blade turning, hers did. She rotated it and slid the left blade downward and toward the elder’s stomach, causing his hand to attempt to slap the head of her sword away, as it did each and every time before. But her sword was different than any others he saw that day or most days of his long life. Yu once again turned it, but it wasn't the blade but the extended tip with its sharpened curve and pointed flourish aiming at his approaching palm. The blow struck and the sword shifted in her hand because of the odd angle it was forced into and the strength of the elder’s slap.

Yu watched as his eyes widened in shock and he began to withdraw first his hand and then his body. Yu followed, bending forward and straightening up as he helped her with his withdrawal while simultaneously thrusting forward with her right sword, crescent first. He reacted quickly and pushed back with great force causing her to fly backward, tumble down and roll a number of times away, tripping up another disciple and slamming into a wooden column which visibly cracked.

Yu thought to herself I need to stop fighting elders as she groaned and stiffly climbed back to her feet. She retrieved her swords which escaped her grips at the end and stared at the elder. She saw that his expression was changing from surprise to anger and back a few times.

It also didn’t escape her notice that the room was silent as she slowly walked back. Yu slowly lifted her swords and pointed at his chest with one and his hand with the other. Everyone looked at the elder and the sounds of gasps and whispers could be heard. Yu did make out one laugh, likely from Jao Li but chose not to respond.

“There had better be a good reason why nobody is following my instructions!” The bellowed Elder Gan as he stomped over. Everyone’s head turned to him and then scrambled to return to what they were doing. He then stomped up between Yu, whose breath had returned, and the elder, whose breath never even sped up. Staring at Yu and then the other elder, he asked, “What is going-” Elder Gan froze when he saw the two holes and blood marks on the elder’s torso. Then he scanned the elder from top to bottom and saw another small blood mark on his palm.

He turned back to Yu, saw the swords, and asked suspiciously, “Your name, disciple?”

Yu bowed to him and responded, “Fenghuang Yu, elder.”

His gaze turned furious and he swore.

The other elder looked curious and then pensive; eventually his eyes widened and he said, “You’re. . .” His voice faded before completing the thought.

Yu looked curiously between them and asked, “Elders?”

Elder Gan cleared his throat and asked the unnamed sword-wielding elder and asked, “Can you proceed, Elder Haoqi?”

He nodded and said, “Of course,” and then ate a small white pill which appeared in his hand.

Turning back to Yu, Elder Gan snapped, “Follow me!”

Yu put her swords away, bowed to Elder Haoqi, and followed. Elder Gan demanded in an angry tone while they walked, “You didn’t earn enough points in your first week?”

“I’m sorry, elder. I don’t understand,” Yu responded in a baffled tone.

“You were supposed to come to see me and not stand in line and disrupt the class.”

Yu confusedly asked, “Elder, nobody gave me that instruction. I saw others with dual swords and joined them in line.”

He huffed and said, “Your hook swords are unique in this sect and thus should have been over with the other exotics, awaiting instructions. Now you embarrassed one of my elders.”

Yu blushed, “I’m sorry, Elder. It was not my intent.”

“And how does your intent matter to the outcome?” He growled back.

Getting a little annoyed, he answered, “Elder, nobody told me to do anything different than any other disciple. What else should I have done?”

He whipped around at her and glared as he nearly yelled, “You should have not fought!”

Yu responded in the same tone but a lower volume, “With all due respect, Elder Gan, who gave me those instructions? I did what I was told, nothing more or less.”

He continued to glare at her until he jabbed her badge with his finger hard enough to cause her to stumble backward and then ordered her, “Get out! You will receive an update to your schedule based on today’s. . . performance.” The fury in that one word was obvious to everyone nearby, but Yu ignored it and left the building.

Li had finished earlier and was waiting for Yu outside the entrance, so they walked together to the dining hall, Li complaining wildly but on her behalf the entire time.