The Jade Shadows Must Die [Cultivation LitRPG]

The elder spread his hands. "Hit me."

Rix found himself grinning. This is what he'd been expecting when he'd discovered the man was the prison Weaponmaster. Someone to train against. To test himself. His battle against Luna had been eye-opening, but he hadn't had his staff or style then, and still she was fundamentally his peer, even if her current skill level vastly exceeded his. This, though, this was something else entirely. Master Zhen might as well have been a god as far as Rix was concerned.

That thought only set his blood surging.

Later on, he'd realise this was probably a prize, a reward for his efforts over the last few weeks. The elder had a prickly way of teaching, but he seemed to read Rix well. He knew how much Rix would enjoy this. And to be honest, he'd earned it.

"Should I focus on anything specific?" Rix asked.

"Try to channel your style again. I interrupted you after you'd been going just a minute or two, but you'll find that the longer you try to hold it in your mind, the more difficult it becomes. It's like a muscle; it improves with work."

Rix set himself and drew in a deep breath, then let his mind relax. He felt part of himself drop away as something else rose to the surface, and then he lashed out with the fastest strike in the style's repertoire: a straight thrust that treated the staff like a spear. But the attack found only empty air, the Weaponmaster leaning subtly to the side, just far enough to let the blow pass harmlessly by his head. The man smirked, but Rix responded immediately, whipping the staff to the side, lightning-fast, trying to clock his opponent in the skull. A duck, a fluttering step backwards, and the elder stood there still smiling.

Rix rushed forward, giving him no room to breath. Against someone so superior, all-out offence was the only strategy that had even a hint of a chance at success. Rix's staff sang in his hands, an extension of his body that moved more naturally than it ever had.

But it wasn't enough.

"Stop trying to hit me and hit me," the elder said. "If you land even the slightest blow, I'll give you another five hours this week, and I promise to answer any inane question you might have."

Rix growled. The offer hearkened back to his bet with Luna, which fired something in him. He came again, bringing to bear everything his style had to offer. He struck low, trying to sweep the man's legs out from under him, before pivoting and letting the staff slide through his grip, extending its range and unleashing a vicious swing that would have shattered a lesser fade to pieces. But the elder was always a step ahead, using only the smallest, most subtle adjustments to keep himself safe. Again, he was put in mind of fighting Luna, though Master Zhen's dexterity really put her skills into perspective. Where she simply had the experience to read his movements, it was clear the elder was infinitely faster than Rix. He could wait until the last moment, and then simply shift away. That economy of movement was infuriating, like Rix was being taunted.

Then the man made it worse.

"Since you seem to be having so much trouble, let's tip the scales a little." He gestured to his face dramatically, then closed his eyes. "Now I can't see you co—"

Rix attacked before he even finished speaking, driving the tip of his staff at his opponent's chest. The man's lips quirked up as he flowed backwards and out of range.

"Bold, but inadequate," he said.

Over the next thirty seconds, it became clear Master Zhen didn't need his eyes to beat Rix. In fact, he dodged every attack as easily as he had before. Rix considered using Energy Surge, but his duel with Luna had taught him a little something about lashing out to protect his pride. While there was a similar prize dangled before him, at the end of the day this was just training. And, in truth, the technique would almost certainly make no difference. That infinitesimal glob of qi could give him an edge against his equals, but against a man several tiers above him, it was a candle in a storm.

When the end came, it came quickly. With one swing, he felt a sputtering in his mind, and the one after that was a trembling, angry thing that drifted harmlessly wide of his opponent as the style completely slipped from his mental grasp.

"I only lasted two minutes," he said, his breath hitching. Despite the lack of physical exertion, he felt like he'd fought an epic battle.

The elder's lips grew thin. "You expect to run a race after you've only learned to walk? Now we have a benchmark. Take two minutes to rest, then we go again."

Rix gave a slow nod.

And so they went.

By the time Rix's hour was up, he was a sweating, aching mess. The elder looked as calm as if he'd just woken up. Rix had not managed to land a single strike. He was disappointed, which was immediately chased with a healthy dose of embarrassment. Of course he'd missed. The man was at least a Nova. Rix would have had better luck touching the sun. But still, the chance had been there.

Master Zhen's description of the style as a muscle was apt. Over the session, the period of time he could hold his style had gradually diminished. By the end, he could barely manage twenty seconds before his mind gave in. It was a strange feeling, a kind of mental exhaustion he'd never experienced before.

"You've got much work to do," said the Weaponmaster.

Rix sucked in a lungful of air. "Where do I go from here, elder?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Simply channelling your style as you dive will be adequate to improve your endurance," Master Zhen replied. "As for taking the next step, for now, I believe continuing to work on your hand-to-hand will stand you in good stead. While it's possible to progress from Low to Mid Rank with poor fundamentals, the cracks begin to show after that. And if I'm not mistaken, you seem to enjoy the more personal approach."

"Strangely, I do," Rix replied. However the wider Martial Path viewed unarmed combat, there was something satisfying about it. Using your body in such a pure way just felt good.

Master Zhen nodded. "I will continue to add to your program, then. You should know that your struggles with your style don't end here. The System places several requirements on us to progress from Whisper to Spark, and one is simple weapon competency. While nobody is certain if it is a hard requirement, conventional wisdom says you should have your style at Mid Rank to ensure you are judged adequate."

Rix knew of this requirement in an abstract sense, but he hadn't realised it was that granular.

"What happens if you try to tier up while judged inadequate?"

"You're struck by lightning and killed on the spot," Master Zhen deadpanned.

Rix's eyes grew wide for a moment until the man broke into a smile. "Ah, the gullibility of youth. Admittedly, it's not so far removed from the truth. The process is very unpleasant. All your essence is vented through your meridians and out into the air. You're forced to start from scratch again at the bottom of Peak Whisper. I'd strongly advise you to be certain when you take that step."

"That's good advice, elder."

Rix knew from the Chronicles that the other requirement to jump from Whisper to Spark was to kill a Spark-tier fade. So, now he had the complete picture of what it would take to tier up for the first time. It wasn't an immediate goal, but he filed it away for later.

Their session concluded after Master Zhen showed him several more katas. It wasn't even mid-morning yet, and Rix was already exhausted, but in spite of the myriad emotions the training session had raised in him, he felt exhilarated. He hadn't touched the elder, but in terms of positive reinforcement, that had been his best session yet. The man would continue to taunt him, but he felt as if he was slowly, begrudgingly earning his respect.

But he didn't have time to dwell on it long. The bell ringing through the yard told him he had places to be. He needed to be back in his cell in five minutes. It was heartstone day.

Since having his offer rejected by Yutaro in the mess, Rix had stopped producing any extra stones. It made the session much more bearable. But he still wasn't looking forward to it.

***

The next morning, he felt well enough to dive. After running through all the training exercises the Weaponmaster had given him, he raced down to the dive site a few minutes late. Most prisoners had already gone through, but there were a handful still milling on this side of the portal. One of them was Kenzo. The man was in conversation with several others off to one side. His eyes narrowed when he saw Rix, but he made no move to engage in conversation. Still, after Rix went through, he made certain to linger, watching the other inmates head off to their respective quadrants before he began the journey west. The Iron Hand had continued to be too occupied to really get in Rix's face, but it paid to be careful.

The Fractured Realm had shifted again overnight. While the area closest to the dive site was still that rough and rocky canyon, it quickly morphed into a wooded valley split by a river that flowed gently through the trees. The water looked clear and fresh, though Rix didn't dare try to drink it. He had the urge to try and follow it back to its source. Would such a thing exist? In the real world, a river would be fed by a lake or waterfall or melting glacier, but this place didn't obey the rules. Here he expected the river to simply come into existence somewhere. But he didn't have time to ponder; there was work to be done. Today was all business.

He killed several fades in the Low Whisper zone, taking a moment to enjoy how easily he killed the weaker varieties now. One was something new — a kind of metallic bird that fought with razor-sharp wings, like two great sabres — but even that barely caused him to break a sweat. He took it from the sky with carefully placed blows, then finished it on the ground. With his style humming and his confidence at an all-time high, it felt almost trivial. A far cry from several weeks back when every encounter had been fraught with danger.

He continued to follow the river as it wound its way out of the forest and into another canyon. Near the base of the cliff face, he encountered another entropy field. He toyed with it again briefly, but couldn't work out any further applications beyond simply refilling his qi quickly. As disappointing as it was, it seemed unlikely that these spots would provide any kind of breakthrough for him. Not without dedicating significant time to experimentation anyway, and he wasn't willing to do that without some guarantee of results.

The most direct route to the Mid Whisper zone was up and over the cliff, and fortunately there was a section of the rock wall near the entropy field that was easy enough to climb now that he had Martial Soul strength and agility. The terrain on top shifted again into something he hadn't seen yet — a towering bamboo forest. There were bamboo woods on the northern outskirts of Cloudpiercer Citadel, but they looked nothing like this. Those trees were thin, whip-like things, but here, the bamboo shot up at least one hundred feet in height and was thicker than his thigh. Though they were dense, they were also uniform, which did interesting things to the light, creating a kind of flickering effect as he moved through the trees.

This was amplified by the heavy mist hanging in the air. Even with his enhanced acuity, his vision began to drop away after about twenty feet. It lent the area an eerie feel, casting the forest in a strange monochrome. He could have made a beeline straight through to the next zone, but then off to his right, faint but audible, he heard the telltale skittering of a couple of the spider-fades. There was a certain grim nostalgia in fighting this particular sort of fade now. It had been part of much of his growth in his short time as a Martial Soul, from his Fractured Realm trial to that first tenuous battle, to the surprise of the spine-thrower.

And so, he decided to linger and take them out. The mist made the location perfect for an ambush, and Rix took ample advantage, slowing his pace and creeping forward, using his senses to guide him until he could make out their faint outline through the haze. There were four of them this time, but he didn't pause. In this part of the realm, even four would be manageable. If anything, it would provide the sort of test his style sorely needed.

Like a ghost from the mist, he leapt forward and engaged. The battle was tougher than his earlier two, but he knew immediately he was up to the task. With surprise on his side, and no spine-thrower in theirs, he had the fades right where he wanted them.

So focused was he on the battle that it was only blind luck that saved him. As he was unleashing the finishing blow on the last fade, he spun, suddenly taken with the idea of making a show of it. Something heavy and powerful crashed through the space he'd just occupied. It sank into the trunk of the nearest tree with a sickening crack that seemed to echo throughout the forest.

Then a familiar voice. "Well, well, well, look who we have here."

A chill rolled through Rix.

He turned to find Yutaro and Kenzo stepping out of the mist.