Training With A Sect Elder |2|

Wang Tao, looking at these two disciples so close together for a run, was delighted. After all, he was a spiritual master who relied on his body, seeing as his martial spirit was connected with his body. So approaching the two people who were looking into each other's eyes, peering at each other, he placed a hand that was the size of their chests over the shoulders of both of them.

"You both did well. Now follow me to the others."

Feeling as if a mountain had landed on them, turning towards the culprit, noticing that it was the Sect Elder, Lien Hua and the mysterious child immediately calmed down.

"These juniors salute the Sect Elder."

"Don't worry, nothing bad has happened. Just follow me."

Noticing that they had not angered the sect elder with their standing point they began to follow him and looked at each other in the meantime.

"How do you do? I'm Feng Xiao, and you are?"

"I'm Lien Hua, nice to meet you. Sorry for the promptness, but you're really fast."

Still a bit overcome by the adrenaline in her body from the race that had made her exhausted, Lien Hua didn't think much about the words she was using. She simply wanted to get to know this person, who although young like her, was faster.

"Ahah... don't worry. I have my martial spirit to thank for this, a Wind Cheetah that gives me high speed and stamina, but still you should be Lien Hua, one of the medium trio of class 1 right?"

"Medium trio? Yes? Yes, I'm Lien Hua from Class 1. Nice to meet you."

Hearing that that stupid nickname had spread so far and wide, Lien Hua felt a sudden urge to go and fire a shot at the back of Chen Huang's head, who felt a chill behind his back at that very moment.

"I'm from 2nd class, not as important as yours but still acceptable- Ah, look, here we are!"

Lien Hua looked ahead and saw that they had arrived ahead of all the other disciples in their year. She immediately noticed how the two of them were being watched by everyone. It was plausible in the end that they had run like madmen, leaving the third-place finisher behind in their dust.

Scratching her cheek a little from the embarrassment of being in front of all these people, Lien Hua looked towards Wang Tao, who was starting to speak.

"Now that we have finished the first test, in 10 minutes we will start with the next test. All of you will have to put a wooden dummy in front of you and we will start by learning some simple martial arts moves! Now take a break!"

So realising that he was discharging them, all the disciples, still exhausted from the race, threw themselves to the ground without even so much as a second thought. In the meantime Lien Hua, also exhausted and back on the ground, stood beside her new friend, interested in finding out more about him and his martial spirit.

"It's strange that I've never seen you before. I'm sure I can recognise most of the people gathered here today."

"Yes, you've never seen me before because I'm one of those people who entered through the sect's external entrance test."

Lien Hua had never heard of this external entrance test from the sect, so very curious, she started asking him questions.

"External sect entry test, what is that? Sorry to be too invasive."

"Don't worry. In the end it's information that everyone can deliver. The sect's external entrance test is a test for all those who are not from the sect yet still wish to join the Flowing Lotus Sect. If you want to enter, every year the sect offers this test where they scrutinise the children who want to enter, looking at talent, martial spirit, and intelligence."

"Wow... I didn't know there was such a test..."

Obviously Lien Hua was lying. She knew that every Sect had an entrance test. She had expected something like this from all the light novels she had read in her past life, however she simply didn't need to think about it in this life and it had simply slipped her mind.

So seeing that the Sect Elder was moving towards them again, Lien Hua sensed that the 10-minute break had already passed and stood up, beating her clothes a bit that had become dusty from the earth. Looking to her side where the boy with dark green hair and absurdly amber eyes also stood, he was slightly taller than her, so Lien Hua had to raise her head a little to look straight at him.

"OK guys, now that you're organised, each of you will have to stand in front of a wooden dummy, and there, as soon as you are ready, I will give you instructions on what to do."

Lien Hua began to move around as all the people there did the same, noticing that the training grounds were so large that even with all the disciples gathered today, the training dummies were not even being used at all. The training dummies consisted of cross-shaped poles with a straw-padded mesh on top and a red circle in the middle, and were placed every 2 metres, giving a great deal of room for movement.

Placing herself in front of her training dummy that she had chosen, Lien Hua first began by calming her breathing which was still a little irregular. Then noticing that she was beginning to calm down, she looked towards Wang Tao.

"Now that you are all ready, we'll start with the second test! The martial arts one won't be a real physical test but one of comprehension! Although you won't need these martial arts after you pass the Spirit Scholar Rank, they are still useful in order to have a solid foundation in martial arts! Now follow my movements well which I won't repeat again."

Wang Tao completely changed his behaviour. If before he was severe and fearful, now he had become as calm as a mountain and as serene as a lake. First of all, he put his legs apart, creating a position that Lien Hua knew well; it was the horse position! Wang Tao put the palms of his hands facing outwards and began to push them towards the front and as he pushed them, it was as if waves had been created in the space around him and had followed the movements of his palms which, once stopped at their maximum extension, went on until they hit the training dummy in front of him.

Lien Hua was as surprised by the waves that had been created as all the other people present with her, and she looked closely at the training dummy that had been hit, noticing a situation that the others had failed to see. The training dummy was swelling in front of them until it exploded into a thousand pieces, giving shocked faces to everyone present, even the older disciples.

Wang Tao exhaled a deep breath and opened his eyes, raised his head, looked at all the shocked disciples and was proud to see this as he stood up from his previous position and began to speak.

"This technique is called Ocean Wave Palm, a basic technique. Now that you've seen how it's done, try it and let me see what you can do."

So Lien Hua stayed where she was and began to silently look at all the disciples in front of the training dummies. Still a bit shocked, she looked towards the training dummy and then towards her palms, still not having understood more or less what she had to do even though an idea had appeared in her head as soon as she saw those waves.

She knew that mainly everything they did would be judged by how they managed to get the spiritual energy out to alter the world around them. There was just one setback: Lien Hua had been so caught up in the fact that she knew how to cultivate, that she had not yet tried to get this spiritual energy out of her body.

Scratching the side of her mouth a little at this forgetfulness of hers, Lien Hua wasn't fazed by it, seeing that hardly anyone around had figured out what needed to be done yet; only Lin Yue had already started trying and Feng Xiao, the boy with dark green hair.

Looking towards Chen Huang however, Lien Hua saw that he simply used only his palms and that was it. Lien Hua then turned towards her training dummy to stop watching that pitiful scene and concentrated by closing her eyes. She thought about wanting to let something out of her Dantian instead of letting it in like during cultivation. It was a fair reasoning for her; in the end if she could get in, she could also get out.

So Lien Hua stood there for a few minutes, concentrating, trying to get even a small strand of spiritual energy to come out. Only after many attempts did she finally see something come out of her Dantian. A small filament the size of a hair had managed to peek out of it. But as it came out, it went right back in because Lien Hua had become distracted.

'I've got it figured out. Now calm down, take a deep breath… Phew… Now I should try the same technique during the Ocean Wave Palm. Maybe I can get the spiritual energy out much faster without having to concentrate too much.' Lien Hua always thought a lot and acted on her ideas; in the end, as she always said, "Better to try than not."

Lien Hua, so taking a couple of breaths to calm herself down, stretched her legs and got into the horse position, noticing how familiar this was to her and was slightly surprised by this, but not thinking too much about it and staying in that position for a couple of seconds to get the hang of it. She closed her eyes and put her hands in front of her with her palms facing the training dummy.

Lien Hua, trying to emulate the same technique as before, succeeded, and as soon as she saw that even a small tip had come out of the Dantian, with all the strength she had in her body she pushed her two palms towards the training dummy. Meanwhile, she opened her eyes as soon as she pushed her palms in and could see with immense joy that as soon as she had pushed her palms in, around herself, even if it was for a millisecond, something had happened; the world around her had taken the shape of a very thin wave.

So with a huge smile that made the people next to her, who hadn't noticed anything strange, look suspicious, Lien Hua returned to the horse's position, having stood up for a moment in surprise, and began to repeat the exercise again and again, getting better and better as she went.