In the evening, I returned to our group’s primary classroom for Instructor Sun’s cultivation training.


    The instructor spaced the five of us out around the room so that he could watch us all at the same time while giving us enough separation so that we didn’t interfere with each other.


    “You already have the cultivation techniques you will use for this portion of your training. I hope you have all been studying them carefully.”


    I hadn’t been, but I didn’t expect that to be an issue. He had given me a very basic Peak-Yellow earth qi cultivation technique. I only needed to pull it up in my mental library as a reference to know exactly how to place my filters and vortices. There wasn’t much to it.


    “You will come here every night and cultivate it to the best of your ability. Your requirement is to break through a stage of cultivation exactly once every week.” He looked at us and smiled evilly. “That means you will be Peak Disciples in only a few weeks, right? Not so fast.”


    He reached into his storage bag, pulled out a small pill, and held it up for all of us to see.


    “At the end of each week, I will give you one of these. It will expel all the energy you cultivated that week, returning you to your previous state.”


    I looked at the pill in his hand. It was a variant of a Perfect Rank 1 Qi Expelling Pill that was formulated to only affect one’s most recent stage of cultivation. I couldn’t help but think that even if these only cost a gold each, between the formations, pills, and instructors, the school was investing a lot of money in this class.


    “Right now, you are all Martial Disciple 3. This will remain true until every single person in this room is able to form a pristine foundation for Martial Disciple 4. At the end of the week, if even one person’s cultivation base is lacking, the entire group will take a pill and try again. Is that understood?”


    “Yes, instructor,” we all muttered.


    “Very good. Now, start cultivating.”


    I mentally pulled up the technique in my library and got to work. It was peaceful and relaxing.


    “Stop!” Instructor Sun was standing over Shi YuLong who was cultivating the same earth qi technique that I was.


    “Did you even read the technique? Your filter is barely passable, and your positioning is completely wrong.” He looked around the room at my classmates. “Everyone, get out your techniques and look at the positionings and angles called for. You must match them precisely.”


    I didn’t think too much about it but did as he said. I pulled the technique from my storage bag, checked it, then put it away and continued cultivating.


    I felt Instructor Sun’s eyes lock onto me. After a few moments, I heard him mutter something, but I couldn’t quite make it out.


    He spent the next half hour helping my classmates get their filters and vortices into a position that was as close to correct as they could manage. This entire time, he kept looking over at me, but when he did, he only shook his head.


    “Su Fang,” Instructor Sun shouted once everyone else had been seen to. “Outside.”


    I followed him out of the classroom.


    He glared at me but then breathed out in defeat.


    “Just, don’t help them. The Grandmaster has his own thoughts about how much assistance students should be given. For the rest, they need to learn on their own. The process of slowly understanding the importance of positioning and how to do it correctly will be very beneficial to them.”


    I nodded. “I understand.”


    “I can’t find anything wrong with the way you are cultivating. It’s as perfect as I’ve ever seen. You don’t need these lessons. However, you will still be provided with the pills each week. I suggest you take advantage of this. Cultivate wrong. Do things you wouldn’t usually even consider, like only half constructing a filter before trying to use it. The more you know about such things, the better it will prepare you for when you are a Master.”


    We went back inside, and I followed his advice. Instructor Sun might not have any way to help me during cultivation practice, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try to learn something new on my own.


    ---------------------------------------------------


    Our schedule at the Yellow Orchid Academy became somewhat routine. In the morning, we would study combat. In the afternoon, we would work to improve our profession-related skills. In the evening, we studied cultivation.


    After the first month, our trainers no longer came to every class. Instructor Sun only showed up once a week to evaluate our progress, and Master Tan only came to give me guidance once every other week. The rest of the time, we worked as a group to help each other improve.


    Half a year into this routine, Instructor Sun informed us that we could do anything we wished to help each other progress since the critical phase of our early training had passed.


    Shi YuLong and Chai JiaQi had become significantly more skilled in combat than the rest of us, so they mostly led our morning training sessions. However, since they weren’t exactly skilled teachers, they relied on Zhuge Yan to help plan what we should learn.


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    Once we had all reached Peak Disciple, combat became significantly more complex. Instead of simply needing to fortify my fist as I punched, my qi had to be shifted everywhere in my body.


    A single punch required strengthening the fist’s flesh and bones to keep it from snapping, enhancing the arm muscles to make it faster and stronger, and fortifying the torso and legs so that the punch had a solid foundation behind it. As Instructor Sun reminded us, a punch doesn’t come from the arm, it comes from the entire body.


    My progress in pure martial combat was slower than the two specialists, but I wasn’t too dissatisfied. I felt that I was making solid gains.


    This mainly came from the fact that I was quickly learning to integrate formations into combat. Aside from just throwing exploding pebbles, I had been learning to use disposable shields and trap formations to great effect.


    Whenever we allowed such things during combat, I could easily match the two martial cultivators.


    At first, I was hesitant to fight the others using formations since it felt like cheating. I was using something that they couldn’t. However, Zhuge Yan explained it simply. I needed practice using them, and the others needed practice defending against them.


    After all this time, I was still unclear which professions the others had chosen. I had a solid guess at what Lin LiTing was, but none of the others gave any signs. This could’ve been because they were hiding their skills, but it seemed more likely that in only a year, they hadn’t yet developed to the point where their professions were usable in combat.


    This was unfortunate because it meant that I didn’t receive the same practice fighting against someone with a strong profession, but considering how two of our members were still able to push me to my limits, I didn’t consider it much of a loss.


    When it was time to practice professions, we separated out into private rooms. None of the others were willing to openly display their talents to the group, but we came back together in the evening for cultivation practice.


    While Shi YuLong and Chai Jiaqi were excellent at fighting, their cultivation abilities were lagging behind everyone else. Even though Zhuge Yan’s affinities were slightly worse than theirs, his ability to comprehend esoteric concepts let him develop faster. I wanted to help them, but I didn’t want to go too far and interfere with the way Instructor Sun and Grandmaster Ning wanted them to learn.


    Instead of helping them cultivate directly, which would have been terrible, or even showing them exactly how to place the filters, which might have been okay, I decided to simply nudge them in the correct direction as they worked. As they were cultivating, I commented whenever I noticed anything slip out of place. This helped, and I felt like I could do more, but I was worried about creating more problems they would have to deal with in the future.


    When it was close to the end of our first year in the Academy, Instructor Sun gathered us together.


    “Tomorrow, there’s going to be a little competition. We have been paired up against another Master’s class. You will fight as teams, five people on each side, but the fights will all be one-on-one. The first team to win three matches will be declared the victor, but all five matches will still take place regardless. Beyond winning, consider this an important training exercise against skilled opponents who have a good reason to see you lose.”


    He let his words sink in for a moment before continuing.


    “Plan your strategy for tomorrow yourselves. Just don’t embarrass me or Grandmaster Ning. The members of the winning team will each receive a token that will allow you to choose a single technique from the library.”


    Once the instructor left, we all looked at Zhuge Yan.


    He sighed. “Let’s get to planning.”


    ---------------------------------------------------


    The next day, Instructor Sun led us to a large courtyard with a raised fighting stage where a Master and five Disciples were already waiting for us. The stage was a square ten meters to a side and was made of solid gray stone.


    We had decided to follow a simple strategy. With no information to work from, we would just go up in the order of our ability: LiTing, Yan, me, JiaQi, and finally YuLong. If we noticed something strange during the match, or if we gained information about our opponents’ capabilities, Yan would be in charge of making adjustments to this order.


    LiTing’s fight was rough. She took a lot of blows, but she was able to absorb them all, so she didn’t take any damage. Her only risk was running out of energy. Fortunately, her opponent slipped up and she was able to take advantage, ending the fight quickly.


    Yan wasn’t so lucky. His opponent was stacked with bulging muscles, and he was a far better fighter than Yan was. Also, it seemed like he wanted to make up for his team''s defeat in the first round. The large boy was great on the offense, but he had a bad habit of simply absorbing blows instead of blocking. This allowed him to counterattack more freely, but it also ate up a lot of qi.


    Yan capitalized on this by focusing all his attacks on the boy’s upper right leg. It took time, but he was eventually able to deplete it of all its qi and deliver a devastating blow.


    With one leg out of commission, the boy conceded the fight.


    Yan stepped down victorious, and it was my turn.


    My opponent was a petite girl with long hair in a braid behind her back that reached down to her waist. As soon as the fight started, she charged me. She focused all the qi in her legs on letting her run as fast as possible.


    In the blink of an eye, she was right below me, sending a powerful blow toward my midsection.


    I didn’t have time to think.


    On instinct, I crossed my arms and fortified them as much as possible. At the same time, I shifted the energy in my legs and torso to keep my feet firmly planted.


    Her blow hit me like a sledgehammer with bone-breaking force, but my fortifications held, and she bounced off.


    Taking advantage of the opening this created, I shifted the qi in my legs, increasing my speed, and ran toward her.


    Glancing in qi vision, I saw the energy in her forearms was disrupted, but attacking there wouldn’t have much of an impact. Instead, I focused on a small flaw I found on the right side of her abdomen. It wasn’t much of a weakness, but she would have difficulty moving qi to defend that area.


    When I arrived in front of her, she had already regained her balance and was ready to defend, but the energy in her arms hadn’t yet stabilized, so she didn’t have the force or speed necessary.


    I punched out at the weakness I had identified, but halfway through the motion, I pulled back and did my best to escape.


    The ‘weakness’ had been a way of concealing a talisman against her body.


    Lightning exploded out, and I was barely able to dodge. If I had let my blow land, I would have taken that blast at full force, and it might have been difficult to even survive.


    I had expected a purely martial competition, but if this was the way things were going to be, I was prepared. I reached into my robes and pulled out a handful of small pebbles. Using Master Tan’s stones as a template, I had shrunk the design down so that I could toss half a dozen stones at once. This was a shotgun approach.


    I energized the pebbles and threw.


    The girl tried to dodge, but there was nowhere she could go.


    The blast of qi that struck her wasn’t very powerful, but it forced her to close her eyes.


    I rushed forward and struck her hard in the solar plexus, sending her sprawling.


    After that, the fight was quickly decided, and I walked away the victor.


    YuLong and JiaQi fought next, but there was no suspense. The other team’s best fighters had already been eliminated, so we won easily.