Training In The Woods

Beads of sweat dripped down Zhongming's brow as he performed a martial routine.

This routine was shadow boxing, a practice in which martial practitioners would spar against an imaginary opponent.

Shadowboxing had many uses, but the one that Zhongming was most focused on right now was training to control the flow of the fight.

Being able to control the flow of the fight was extremely important. Knowing when to attack. Knowing when to retreat. Knowing when to allow the opponent to advance so that you can counter. These skills, in particular, were what separated the elite fighters from the novices.

"And I thought I got here early."

Gao Liang said as he slowly walked into the forest clearing.

"After all, since I'm only in the Core Formation stage, I need to take training more seriously," Zhongming replied in between breaths.

"At this rate, before Senior Brother Xue Jian and Senior Sister Hualing arrive, you'll already be exhausted."

Gao Liang summoned the storage array and pulled out two sets of small pebbles and a wooden board.

"Here, why don't you take a break and play some Go with me while we wait for everyone else to arrive?"

"Sure." Was Zhongming's curt replied as he took a seat on the opposite side of Gao Liang.

After a few moves, Gao Liang decided to break the silence with some small talk.

"So, after having studied under Master Mo. Have you developed anything interesting?"

As members of the Mo Sect, they spent no small amount of time developing weapons of war. Due to the Mo Sect philosophy, most of these weapons were more defensive-oriented, but this did not mean that all weapons developed by the Mo sect were defensive in nature.

Ultimately, it was the intention of the people who used the weapons that truly mattered. The Mo Sect were not pacifists who condemned all forms of conflict. Developing devastating weapons of war that could potentially ward off potential invasions was entirely in line with Mo Sect's ideology.

"This was something that I had developed quite recently, with the help of Master Mo."

Zhongming replied as he handed Gao Liang the schematics for his latest co-creation, the automated shield system that he had used against the military strategist Guowei from the State of Ru.

After taking a brief look at the schematic, Gao Liang nodded in appreciation.

"Not bad, not bad at all," Gao Liang repeated, "Pretty intelligent application of karmic causality and targeted defense allows this design to mitigate some of the pitfalls of traditional barriers."

Indeed karmic causality detection was one of the great features of the barrier; it was due to this that the barrier could block specific attacks while allowing others through.

This distinction was based on the concepts of good karma and bad karma towards a specific entity. An example would be an individual or even a state, as shown in Zhongming's match against Guowei. In that particular scenario, the array was able to distinguish at a base level actions that would harm the State of Ming and actions that would benefit the State of Ming.

"Actually, this barrier is not yet complete. For now, it is a mere barrier that can generate a type of conceptual shield."

"The completed version which is still in development shouldn't rely not on a shield of sorts, but rather on denying the actualization of any actions that would negatively affect the person or entity protected by the array."

"Theoretically, with a more robust karmic causality detection in place, such an array could potentially defend against any action that would bring negative results to the protected entity."

"Imagine setting up this barrier to protect a group of people, any attempt to harm or subvert those people would be in principle impossible. Espionage, corruption, exploitation, criminality, tyranny, and other such activities would simply be fundamentally unable to exist in any form."

"Zhongming, you always have all these amazing ideas. However, you might want to pay more attention to the game."

Zhongming looked at the state of the board and sighed. He had been playing the match much too half-heartedly, thus giving Gao Liang a considerable advantage.

"Oh, you two are here early." An almost melodic voice drifted through the clearing.

Zhongming and Gao Liang stood up and greeted their fellow Mo sect members with a slight bow.

"Senior Brother Xue Jian, Senior Sister Hualing, Senior Sister Xiuying."

The two senior soul integration cultivators acknowledged Gao Liang and Zhongming as they walked past them going further into the forest clearing.

Turning around, Xue Jian began to address his three Junior fellow cultivators.

"Master Mo has instructed us to train together; the goal should be to increase our unit cohesion in preparation for the great hunt."

"Sister Hualing and I have already been exchanging pointers, so we are quite familiar with each other's ability. On the other hand, we'll need a more detailed account of your abilities."

"Brother Xue Jian," interjected Xiuying. "I have an idea. Why don't I just exchange pointers with our three cute juniors."

"Just make sure you don't go overboard..."

Xue Jian paused. Unknown to most, Xu Hualing had a bit of a sadistic side, she actually hid it quite well, but Xue Jian had caught a glimpse of it once.

"After all, one of them is only a Core Formation cultivator."

"Brother, how could you say that in front of our juniors, you'll scare them."

Somehow, none of what was being spoken was in any way reassuring to the three younger cultivators.