I have done goofed. There was nothing I could do about the lack of improvement in my soul strength – ‘300’ is here to stay until I break through – but I should have put the tiniest bit more effort into completing them. Because not only my four ‘friends’ are insufferable in their first place ranking, Ascetic Yang has set to correcting my poor behavior. And while the broad strokes of getting the babies to function like adults has yet to fully work, Ascetic Yang is rather good at getting me to work and comply. Mainly because I have yet to learn the legendary skill of my age group: cry. Ascetic Yang has caught onto how I move with crying babies to the playground building for naps, and she does not approve.

“Young master Yun, there still are a few more books for you to go through.” Ascetic Yang says, stacking another few books onto the table.

“You said that five days ago,” I groan. She has been saying that for days – I honestly bought the spiel for the first couple of days, but by day four, I am done. The books seem to keep coming and she tries to pretend that I am close to the finish line, but this is her punishment, no matter what she claims it to be.

No answer, as she drops yet another stack of books onto the table. “I cannot even properly cultivate if you leave me this much reading.” I say, frustration evident.

“You need all of this to catch up to your peers,” Ascetic Yang says. “Half of them rank above you.”

Ah yes, a book about calligraphy is really going to help me on that calligraphy test we don’t have. The last exam only tested physical and spiritual cultivation plus some mental math and puzzles for intelligence. Calligraphy was not included in any of them. Perhaps painting would help. Or even leadership – because the other babies have already practiced rallying dozens in their quest to reach the playground.

“Which is the goal you set for me originally.” I say, tilting back in my seat so I almost fall off. A break from a concussion would be a blessing, honestly, my cultivation speed has dwindled in the past week. “Why punish me for reaching it?”

“Your drop in ranking has disappointed many.” Ascetic Yang finally admits.

Not a surprising answer by any means. Even I can connect the sudden change in temperament that happens the day after the exam results come out. “What is the point of forcing competition for children so young?” I ask.

Ascetic Yang gives some bogus platitudes about face and more – but that all sounds like political posturing using babies as pawns. I want no part of that, so I get up to leave my room. I hardly cross half of my bedroom before a giant pressure stops me in my tracks. Its qi is familiar, coming from Ascetic Yang’s domain.

“Where do you think you are going?” Ascetic Yang asks.

The pressure threatens me to go onto my knees, but I refuse, repeating the Mind Like Water sutra in my mind to recenter myself. The I use Awareness to numb my pain a bit as I collect my thoughts. “Is violence the only way you know how to convince a child? Unable to reason?” I ask.

“Might is right.” Ascetic Yang simply says.

She must be kidding. I give her the benefit of the doubt by assuming that she must be stressed beyond belief from the last few days as well. But that does not excuse her treatment of me. “So what I am hearing is that you believe you are strong enough to kill the nephew of the Ying patriarch’s nephew and the Ying Grand Elder’s grandson then leave the Ying Estate alive.” I say, giving her a moment for it to sink in.

“Their strength is not yours.” Ascetic Yang says.

“Will not change the result that your actions will have consequences.” I say, shrugging. “If you are not going to kill me, remove your domain.” I stop paying her any attention – she takes a mile for each inch I give her. It’s slow, but I do take a step forward. Then another. And another. The domain eventually retracts and I leave the room.

҉҉҉

I would head straight to physical cultivation, but I am a little more than peeved at the moment. It takes a few more sutra recitations before I calm down. When I do, I find myself in the nap room once more. The room is big – enough for ten twin-sized beds to have their own little space, no bunk-beds. A few other babies – none that I recognize, most likely part of the bottom half of the rankings – are already in the room sleeping and I take my usual spot in the corner of the room.

My little cloth bag holds ten fully replenished orange spirit stones. Soul cultivation has been on the back burner the past month as I focused on physical cultivation, mainly so my body does not break into pieces due to an imbalance. This does not mean I neglected soul cultivation, since I can only physically cultivate about five hours a day, generally broken up into two different practices: one on endurance with running and one for everything else – stretching, balance, flexibility and more. Restoring my qi takes another couple of hours then I have to repair my meridians, where the first two layers of repairs have been completed. One more should about do finish them. Coupled with a few more hours to restore my qi once again, I only have a couple of hours daily to focus on soul cultivation, squeezed between my meals, sleep and moving places.

Things are not bad despite the limited time. Working on physical cultivation and meridians did help me improve my Qi Awareness. Not only getting a lot of practice with it, but in different ways than Spirit Like Water would have pushed me to use it. Mainly, I have graduated from the single string of qi to weave into my soul. It takes more qi and more concentration, but I have managed to weave two thinner strings of qi now. While not the most helpful for fixing patches of my soul that need repair, I can treat two slivers of damages at once now, which is going to be increasingly helpful as I have fixed the bigger problems.

Shaking interrupts my weaving, so I open my eyes. Tie Lijie and Fang Wangyong, the culprits, argue as each try to figure out the best way to get me up.

I brush both of their arms off before they ruin me. “I’m awake, what do you two want?”

“Martial classes begun this month. You should come too.” Tie Lijie says, flexing his muscles. My imagination finds the faintest bulge in his biceps.

“Not just running around, but fighting. Actual fighting like heroes.” Fang Wangyong says, patting his belly. “Besides, we heard you came out of house arrest, so let’s go fight. It will beat staying in your room all day.”

Perhaps I have allowed my frustration with my house arrest cloud my judgement about the two. We run to the southwest building on campus – the martial training building I suppose. The building seems to only have a few rooms, but some hastily built formations and walls splits each floor into four, preventing me from seeing into two of the corners. The two corners I can see have four students each, two of whom fight against humanoid, marble golems and, for the most part, losing. The next two floors show something similar, but the babies are grouped up by sex and weight class once more.

Not our little group, which also includes Chen Yingyue and Nan Yenay, who are currently sparring against two golems on the fourth floor. Both of them seemed to have awakened their elements. Chen Yingyue appears to use a long range fighting style, with a bow and arrow. Wind speeds her movements but she has yet to master infusing her element into her arrows, so her damage is weak. The golem is unable to get close to her, as she retreats against any advancement, darting around her half of the room like hummingbird.

Nan Yenay uses some element, fire or water probably, judging from the steam that radiates from her body. Somehow her cultivation technique grants her a moment of explosive speed and strength that requires me to use Awareness to even see. The timing for the technique seems intricate as Nan Yenay does not succeed every time. When she fails, the metal armor she wears prevents her from running away but allows endure the golem’s heavy hits.

Regardless of the two strategies, it seems that the golems are designed to be undefeatable – probably piloted spiritually by their guardian or some other seventh or eighth rank cultivator. The two lose, but both feel that they are just shy of victory and are rearing to go again, stopped by their guardians who tell them to recharge their qi while discussing the fights. Not only does the fight gives the two enough chances to show and practice their entire kit but also motivates them to try a little harder. Not bad if I say so myself – seems like a much better strategy than preemptively stopping them from crying.

The chipped and cracked golems seem to repair instantly from the fight, allowing Fang Wangyong and Tie Lijie to begin fighting immediately. Both of them have pulled out a weapon in the few moments I have not been looking. Tie Lijie brings out a Warhammer, an iron-like head on one side, a spike on the other. Its on the smaller side, maybe because Tie Lijie has yet to begin lifting weights. Tie Lijie’s attacks don’t do much to the golem, but before the golem can attack him, his feet blur with qi and he somehow evades each and every attack.

Fang Wangyong uses a similar movement technique but wields a spear instead. At the pointed edge of the spear is a diamond shaped hole, where his qi has coalesced into a flame. Its big enough that it is not snuffed out by quick movements, but does not seem strong enough to damage the golem.

Eventually, the two are worn down and defeated by the golems, the golem arm’s stop just an inch away from their faces. They also grumble about how close they were, but mostly bicker between each other on who was closer to winning. I would say Fang Wangyong because his chubbier build meant he could store much more qi behind his blows and could hit harder when he ran out of qi. But I’m not about to jump into that dumpster fire, so I remain quiet, waiting for the discussion on the fight to start.

“What are you waiting for?” Ascetic Yang says. From where, I do not know. I can’t even see her.

“With what weapon?” I ask, feeling woefully unprepared for this fight. “Why don’t I get a weapon?”

“With what time? You spent your first four months tucked away, another month catching up on learning, the following month in a coma and last month training your body.” Ascetic Yang asks, annoyed.

Ascetic Yang needs a vacation. ASAP. Something has tilted her and I rather not be the thing that she vents her frustration upon. I want to just give up my turn, because no combat training and no weapon sounds like a wonderful way to land me into the hospital. But with four sets of baby eyes eagerly looking upon my attempt and none of whom were seriously injured, I walk up to the golem.

The good thing is that the golem does not attack until I initiative my first strike, so I activate Awareness and Qi Awareness. I have yet to see the golem use any form of qi, but who knows what it is capable of. I may not have any movement techniques, weapons or martial techniques, but it does not mean I am unarmed. Playing cat’s cradle has helped me manifest my qi, so I have played that game quite a few times with the four, when they decided classes were overrated.

I create three sets of strings: one for each of my hands like those boxing bandages and the last as a net of qi, held between my hands, in case I get to opportunity to tie it up. If none of the four could beat it with force, I have no chance either. The process is slow since I use much more qi than normal to create these strings, caring little if the strands within each set fuse together. I am pretty sure I hear complaints, but what else can I do? Probably tie up their mouths next time if I feel particularly annoyed next time.

I hold that net of qi in front my neck to my navel. It’s first two strikes always seem to go for the chest then gut. Slow and steady I walk up to the golem. Within about three feet, it strikes with its right stub of a fist.

I can see it – still faster than I can move, but I can see it. My heart drops a bit, my shrivels upand my body screams ‘nope’ but I manage to stand my ground as the golem smashes its fist into the net. I take a step to the side as the net wraps around and stops the fist, fully expecting the second fist to punch straight through it.

It does not, so I fuse the qi surrounding my two hands into the net so I can wrap around the fists before pulling back. The golem rampages randomly in place for about a minute, giving me a chance to move back and create another net of qi. When it finally gives up on trying to remove the net of qi, it turns its attention to me, charging straight at me like a train, since its arms are tied together into a point at me.

I run around it, but I am not as fast as the other four, so it spins fast enough to find and run at me. I don’t have nearly as much of a net as I do before, so I can only cover one of its ankles with my new net before I retreat. The golem rampages once more, trying to scratch it off with its one good leg. It fails, kinda. Some of it was removed, but more than enough stays for it to be effective. Then it charges at me once again.

After a few more cycles of this back and forth pass before I can bind its legs. One more after that so I can create enough qi to connect the nets around arms and legs so it can no longer move. Once I am ensured it can no longer surprise and attack me, I walk back to the group of dazzled babies. Not a single peep of my method taking too long, just amazement that I succeeded where they failed.

I want to celebrate, but it’s clear that this thing has definitely been nerfed somehow – perhaps because I lack a martial technique, a weapon and a movement technique. Now that I have had a few moments to review my plan, the thing definitely was able to tear through the nets of qi, but it was stopped somehow.

It doesn’t take me long to figure out why. The five guardians plus a martial arts teacher begin talking over each fight. One of the first things they point out is the fact that the three of babies used a frontal assault and continued until they lost – a bad idea. While Chen Yingyue had the right idea of staying back and out of harms way, she did not retreat when she was running low on qi and remained instead, allowing herself to get captured and possibly killed.

The martial teacher praises me to no end, but it only annoys the other four babies and ultimately undercut by Ascetic Yang who sends me a whole host of messages denoting my own failures and how my plan would not have worked if the golem had not been exhausted by Chen Yingyue and Fang Wangyong. Not that any of the teachers will admit that – my victory serves nothing more as an example as to win without a frontal assault and explaining that would undermine my victory.

So yeah, I am just a cat’s paw of a teaching tool for the teachers to use. Yay.