The Training Grounds

Li Zhu woke up, cold sweat on his back. He had a shocked expression on his face, not believing what he had just experienced.

As he glanced at the egg beside him, Li Zhu had so many unanswered questions.

'This means that it is alive!' was the only conclusion that Li Zhu was sure of, since an egg which could absorb energy and drag him into a memory definitely contained a living creature.

It was presumably a dragon, considering the parents that Li Zhu had seen. That said, it could be some other creature, with the bloodline of dragons within it.

'It probably needs heavenly energy to hatch!' thought Li Zhu, recalling the frightening moment in which his energy had been drained.

Fortunately, the egg had left some energy in his body, which meant he simply needed to cultivate for a while and he would recover. That said, Li Zhu was not going to risk injecting energy into the egg for a while, since the feeling of losing control of his own energy had left an impression on him.

Spirit beasts needed heavenly energy to function, and the eggs of powerful beasts would even need energy to hatch, though it was generally absorbed from the atmosphere. The problem was that the Endless Sword Continent had much less heavenly energy in its atmosphere than the Dragon mountain range that Li Zhu had just seen, which would explain why the egg had not hatched yet, even though an unknown number of years had passed since the event he had experienced in the memory.

'I need to find a place with dense heavenly energy!' thought Li Zhu, though he knew it would be a challenge, since such places were very precious to cultivators, and would not be accessible by a weak qi gathering realm expert such as himself.

Because of this limitation, he would need to wait to hatch this egg, though he was determined to eventually discover if there was actually a dragon inside.

'I better start training if I want to have a chance at top ten in the tournament!' realized Li Zhu, ignoring the issue of the egg for the moment.

After his conversation with Hua Shu, he had realized that the tournament would be challenging, so he needed to be in his peak condition. Since the egg had almost completely drained his energy, it would take time for him to recover, which meant he would have less time to train.

'Knock, Knock"

As he was thinking about the preparation needed to enter the tournament, Li Zhu head knocking noises coming from the door, which was quite unusual.

He and Hua Shu had agreed to meet at the tournament the week later, so he did not know who would come to his dorm and for what reason.

"Open up, Li Zhu... I know you're in there!"

Hearing the voice, Li Zhu hurried over to the door, opening it. In front of him was Yu Hui, smiling.

"What are you here for?" asked Li Zhu, since it was only a day after he had met the Grand elder with Yu Hui.

"My master wanted to reward you for giving him information about Yin energy, so he charged me with paying for your training for this week, before he tournament!" replied Yu Hui, before continuing, "You might not know this, but in the training grounds of the sect, there is a spirit spring, which makes heavenly energy much denser around there. The sect made use of this to create a dedicated cultivation area, though it costs spirit stones to enter, because otherwise too many people would use it, draining the heavenly energy at a higher pace than it is released by the spring. I am here to pay for your use of the Spirit Palace for one entire week, so that you can prepare yourself for the inner sect tournament"

Li Zhu was surprised as he heard this, since he had not expected the Grand elder to actually repay him for information which had been useless.

He was also equally surprised that the Flaming Saber Sect contained a spirit spring, which was quite rare to find. That said, he did not even think about using the spring to hatch the egg, since it needed much more heavenly energy than what a small spirit spring in Couching Tiger Kingdom could release.

"Okay, let's go!" said Li Zhu, ecstatic. This Spirit Palace, as it was called, was exactly what he needed to do well in the tournament, since both he and Buddy needed to recover heavenly energy.

Without further delay, Yu Hui led Li Zhu and his two summons to the training grounds, which contained many different areas, spanning across three peaks.

They were going to Spirit Palace, where the energy released by the spirit spring had been contained. Although it was named a palace, the building had a round shape, forming a dome over most of the peak that it stood on. A massive formation kept the heavenly energy inside the dome, which made it a perfect spot for cultivation.

On their way to Spirit Palace, Li Zhu and Yu Hui stopped at the sparring grounds, where disciples could fight against each other to hone their battle skills, without the risk of death.

Injuries occurred often in the sparring ground, but there was always an elder present, who would stop the fight before anyone died. This was a great way to train disciples, as well as give them a platform to openly settle their grievances.

'Who are those two people fighting now?" Li Zhu asked Yu Hui, as they both watched the sparring grounds from the hill top.

The sparring grounds were built in a valley between the three peaks which collectively made the training area of the sect. There, on a large stone platform, two young men were in the midst of a fierce battle.

"One of them is Wang Da, the current fifth strongest disciple in the outer sect. The other is Wu Chen, who is the sixth strongest outer sect disciple. They are probably fighting to determine who is the strongest before the tournament, which would lower the morale of whoever loses. Wang Da will most likely win, though, since his halberd skills are unparalleled in the outer sect, and Wu Chen has lost to him a total of nine times before today" patiently explained Yu Hui, who knew much more than Li Zhu about the inner workings of the sect, and the famous disciples.

In the sparring grounds, a thin young man fought gracefully with his halberd, which seemed to appear in many places at once, always striking the weak points of its opponent.

On the other side, a burly young man, the physical opposite of his enemy, simply stood there, not even bothering to dodge.

The myriad halberd strikes all hit the burly young man, Wu Chen, who did not budge, unaffected by the attack.

"Wang Da, how the tables have turned... I have completed the tenth level of my Stone-Skin manual, so your attacks are completely useless before me. Let alone you, I can probably reach the third spot in this tournament, since no one beside those two freaks could hurt me." spoke the tough young man, laughing at his opponent, who simply stood there dazed.

"I don't believe I can't break through that thick skin of yours!" yelled Wang Da, recomposing himself, before charging at Wu Chen, his halberd now shining brightly.

Although he had been discouraged from the previous clash with Wu Chen, he would not give up his place as the fifth strongest so easily, not without a fight.

Wang Da's halberd almost blinded many of the spectators, as suddenly a large projection of it appeared in the sky, pointing at Wu Chen.

The large young man, who had looked so tough just the moment before, now had the appearance of an ant before the halberd in the sky, which released a frightening amount of energy.

The massive projection quickly descended onto Wu Chen, who extended his arm towards it, in an act of defense.

As the halberd hit Wu Chen, the sparring grounds began to shake, as the ground beneath the two young men's feet broke.

Light shined intensely, and the spectators could not yet see the result of the clash, that had even surprised even the elder, who stood nearby.

"As I told you, Wang Da is still stronger than Wu Chen" Yu Hui said to Li Zhu, as though he had always known how the fight would end.

Li Zhu, though, did not reply, simply staring at the stone platform intently, trying to see through the barrier of light,

"I'm sorry, Yu Hui, but I'm afraid you're wrong this time... look closer!" said Li Zhu, just as the light finally began to fade away.

Standing on the stone platform was Wu Chen, in the same spot as before. The only hint that he had been hit by a powerful attack was his hand, which had a small cut on it.

'He actually caught the halberd with his bare hands!" exclaimed Li Zhu, realizing what had happened.

Wang Da, a few yards from Wu Chen, had fallen to the ground, his heavenly energy exhausted. He had used his strongest attack, to no avail: Wu Chen's defense was unbreakable!

"Okay, Yu Hui, let's head over to Spirit Palace." whispered Li Zhu, still shocked at the sight in front of him.

Never had he seen two people at the same stage of cultivation have such different levels of strength, but Li Zhu was not discouraged, rather he was inspired, and eager to grow stronger.

'In this upcoming tournament, I will enter the top ten places, no matter how strong my opponents are! As for this Wu Chen, his Stone-Skin manual is quite the cultivation method, but in front of my summons, no level of defense is enough!" was Li Zhu's thought, as he shot a final glance towards the sparring grounds, before entering Spirit Palace.

He realized that his current strength was not enough to break through Wu Chen's defense, but he still had much room to grow, and he was determined to find an alternate way of fighting the tough young man, rather than just use brute strength, as Wang Da had done.