Chapter 74: The plan (1)

After soaking in the pond for over three hours I came out soaking wet, however, I soon dried myself up with spiritual energy. "You only just recovered some spiritual energy can you please not use it up yet?" asked Tao di as he walked over to me. I looked at him and smiled however, I never replied to his question. "This won't do. Every morning at dawn you must soak in here for two consecutive hours before you can leave," commanded Shang Guan Tao. "My skin will start looking like an old person when I leave to go home," I replied whilst everyone around me laughed. "Childe, aren't you already middle-aged?" Shang Gu asked. When did she get here? "Oh, I just arrived," she announced, I glared at her and muttered, "Watch your tone,". Shang Gu immediately nodded and apologised.

"Right, so what has happened here since I left?" I asked around as everyone entered the meeting room. Tao di looked at Shang Gu however I noticed she was not answering him. So he had to reply to my question himself, however, Zhi Yuan*(1) beat him to it. "Firstly your lovely disciples have progressed quite well, but Chang Ling seems to be held back. It seems he hasn't mastered the lightness of the sword. But that sword should be the easiest to master. He named his sword Qing meaning light. Chang Xue however took on well with her sword, she named it Wu Yuan meaning No Fate. I don't know why she named it that but if you wanna know you'll have to ask her yourself. However, what's most concerning is that I heard from Xu Kai*(2) that her studies have been progressing," I looked at Xu Kai and he too confirmed that Zhi Yuan was saying the truth.

Looks like I need to have a word with both of them. "As for the rest of them, they all have done well. I actually can't wait to see the outcome of the martial arts part of the competition," announced Zhi Yuan as I nodded in agreement. I was quite looking forward to that. I was looking forward to all of the competition. Well, there were only two sections. The martial arts section and the four arts section*(3) "Xu Kai, anything to report?" I asked. Xu Kai looked at me and replied "Not much Zhi yuan has said for me. But I do wonder how the qin and qi part of the competition is going to take place?" I looked at him and thought that his worries were quite true, I forgot to give them a summary of how the competition would happen and it was due to begin in two days.

"Basically for the martial arts part of the competition, I would write down all the outer disciples' names on a piece of paper and throw it in a hat and pick two out of random. Those two would be versing each other. And whoever wins will move on to the next round. The loser is disqualified. However, we're placing the rankings of both tests depending on which one scores the highest in everything. So if they win the first round it will be 50 points and adding 50 for each stage they pass. As for the four arts I've invited the Lan Si Chui to help access them. And depending on what they all come in the points would be added 20 each time. With the tenth having 20 and 1st having 200. As for the Qi part, I'll be setting up a puzzle for them to solve. Whoever comes closest to solving it gets additional 30 points for each place starting from the tenth place again. As for Shu, they'll be assessed on the essay they write according to the topic sentence. And finally, the Hua part is quite easy, they paint a picture filled with a certain topic," I explained whilst everyone nodded. "What's the topic question for the Shu part?" Xu Kai asked, I looked around and wrote on a piece of paper 'whether or not war is needed in certain situations. As soon as everyone saw it I burnt the paper just in case.

Glossary:

1. Zhi Yuan is the outer disciple's trainer. He specialises in sword training and has reached grade 9 martial art cultivation on Ice and water. He had a funny attitude however when he was teaching he had the ' I won't take any nonsense attitude'. They know him quite well. But they aren't close enough for him to know mc's real identity but he does know that Han Shang Yue ain't mc's real name.

2. Xu Kai is a scholar who specialises in teaching the moon valley disciples the four arts. He teaches both males and females as he believes that both genders should be given the chance to learn. Has a good relationship with the Shang Guan twins as they recommended him. He is said to be the only son of a ruined noble family.

3. The four arts contain qin (琴, a seven-string instrument), qi (棋, the strategy game of Go), shu (書, Chinese calligraphy) and Hua (畫, Chinese painting ).