Chapter 13 Front drawing room

It's a blue sky with wispy clouds, vagally it could be remembered the name of the clouds to be cirrus.

"Don't think about pointless things." Valentine looked up from the ground. It turned out that being small, short, and adorable, didn't mean that one couldn't beat the unholy hell out of someone. The fluffy tail of third elder swished as the elder stood over her body.

"Deep breath than get up. We need at lest two more rounds." Most of the general training areas, were just open spaces with a soft dawn grass. Since it was the elders personal training area, it was two-hundred-year dawn grass. It was oddly soft luxuriant and velvety. Valentine's back had rarely felt so good.

Her simple black dress had been beyond repair, and after a long night at requisitions, she was kitted out in basic robes, underclothes, two belts, and a bright pink bow in her hair. She was unsure why she had needed the bow, since her kit had included several plain hair ties but those working requisitions insisted on it.

Outer disciples wore white, becoming progressively more colorful as one advanced in the sect. With soft reddish ears and mottled red tail, her pale jade robe, add a dark sash and third elder Li Ming had become very fetching.

"Yes, third elder." Since Iris was Lady Valentines direct master, she was required to address other instructors by title. Struggling to her feet, the exhausted and battered girl attempted to maintain a basic stance. It was laughable how simply the fox girl kicked her in the forehead, sending her tumbling once again.

"I take it the lady never taught you anything martial related, just cultivation?" Groaning from the ground, the girl nodded.

"Well last one and then we can get the basics started, chop chop." There was a deliberate pause from the noble who contemplated, just not moving. On the second round, the small fox had thrown her across the grass yard with out any problems. It was unlikely that she could get away unscathed. At seventeen years of age, she had never known one could struggle to stand up.

"Here I come!" Leaping at the girl, Valentine threw her hands in the elder's general direction, the outcome was no different. Several hard strikes in her lower sternum and she dropped like a sack of potatoes.

"Even with a warning from me you didn't get much more than at me, we got a long way to go." Despite not having done any fighting or martial training it still stung. It was difficult to learn one's limitations, just as it was difficult to find that one had things they could not do.

What followed was a slow process of teaching the girl basic martial combat forms. Whereas the exercises she learned for Iris were soft flowing movements, these were jagged and gnarled. Since Valentine didn't have or want to speak, the elder instead chattered constantly.

"It's not a problem that most of your efforts have focused on cultivation, you have a pure foundation which should make it much easier to advance. I would have great difficulty getting such a pure foundation without a pure spirt root. The fact that you have non elemental roots, and the fact that its so pure, and not counting the formless bladeless battle arts are perfect for you, it's not a question of how far you will go. Even if you started late, hard work would lead you to greatness. The heavens will be your limit."

"Shift your arms a bit higher, most of this stuff is just basics for the body. Stuff that you can use qi with and forms for martial cultivation must be precises. You could blow your arms off if you're not careful."

While slowly adjusting the noble with gentle touches and guides, the arm comment earned a pause from the noble.

"Blow my arms off?" Valentine asked very slowly.

"What did big sis not tell you about the problems with cultivation?" There was genuine concern.

"Well, it's not that bad really, besides the lighting tribulation, qi deprivation is painful, but it is recoverable. The biggest concerning is forcing to much qi into a body that can't handle it, but that only happens when one absorbs essences or forces, they can't manage to contain. If you don't absorb something with out preparation, most problems are mental."

Third elder rambled on and on, Valentine nodded as she was slowly guided through a series of exercise. There were three more days of indoctrination courtesy of the short fox. Indoctrunation included a vast tour of the sect.

Medical hall, point store, artifact hall, pill palace, alchemy stores, gathering forum. Two different training fields, herb garden, beast pens, seven unique hot springs, caves of training, caves of punishment, writing school, Dao libraires, scroll tower, Yin Yang palace, and to round out the grand tour of the entire sect, a brothel in the red-light district.

There was a city at the base of the sect, in which supplies to the various peaks were sent.

Lady Valentine saw more naked women and topless men in the last three days, than she would ever see in her life again. When the noble finally regained some sense of conscious, she was waylaid in her small bed in her room

"Meng Meng, is here!" The loud boisterous voice belonged to Meng Sei. She managed to pass sect trials at age twelve, due her talent in talisman making. She was now thirteen and excessively loud.

"I brought you a blood humor recovery pill, it's good for hang overs and exhaustion." Her pixy cut gave her a very cute spunky appearance. Valentine who had never experienced this level of activity was on her bed covers distorted, attempting to drown out the bright light. Groaning, she managed to focus some what on the spunky girl.

"Its yours if you promise never to chase after Xiao Quin." That wasn't hard, she wasn't interested in younger children, even if the girl in question didn't look like one.

"Here you go!" Way too much cheer for the splitting pain in her head, even with the struggle to nod added in.

"Let's be good friends, Ill see you on the formation grounds for daily training tomorrow. Bye!"

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"I had thought I was in hell than, who knew I was about to fall from heaven." There was quiet as the duchess attempted to fortify her wounded soul.

"If you consider what how we train our elite knights of the duchy, that would be a starting point. Every day was a run to the formation grounds, there we would preform strength increasing exertions, after which we repeat basic forms over and over until the instructors were satisfied, than we would run back."

Breakfast, then mixed cultivation lessons and education. Sparing after education, lunch, instructions from masters, evening strength exercises. Cultivation evaluations, followed by running. You than have ten minutes to eat and get to sleep."

"Wake up at two to cultivate yin energy under the moon, or yang under the new moon. Run more, sleep before sunrise and repeat."

Even the duke seemed surprised for a moment, but then it made sense, to achieve the extraordinary, you couldn't very well do ordinary things. While knight training was not as extensive daily, they would regularly go through periods of extending training, which was similarly inhumane.

"Every day?"

"Every day, slack off and lose the one day of the week you get off to recover. It was easier than it sounds since someone who had built a foundation gained some advantages in terms of what their bodies can sustain. "

"Then we started technique training." That replaced the basic forms with more advance ones, to make up for the lack of exercise from sparing, you do physical practice from your cultivation technique."

Duke Lockheed had gone through a single extended training period lasting two weeks and attend practices with the knights three days a week when he was younger. To compare the two would be unfair to the word nightmare.

"No wonder you beat the hell out of the guards, your completely on the level of special operations." It was a rare time since he had become a duke of the Actinides kingdom, that the duke just blurted out what he was thinking.

"It was only a requirement for three to six months, assuming you passed your cloth test." Noble lady lost herself in her thoughts for a few moments, before she decided to turn her attention to something else.

"I'll be back. I wish to check on Lady Iris. I will continue my story after lunch."

For the first time the duke wasn't that angry when his daughter left. Given the displayed expertise there might be something achievable in this mess.

There had been no need to check, they were in the drawing room near the front of the estate. Recounting the exciting climax of her acquisition of the Apple Blossom sanguine flame.

"We had already beaten off the pill palace, but artifact hall was much trickier. They had a railing device, fortunately one time use, but it was enough to take out the sect leader of the poison vine sect. It was a specialty made item for just the purpose of acquiring the flame. Realistically its incredibly difficult for someone to overcome an entire realm difference, but with the distraction of the flame, and the ambush, it was enough. So, it was me, the poison heir, a golden orb and a few foundation realm guys from the poison vine sect, against a dozen members of the Central continent Artifact Hall…"

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Flame cynosure, the seed of an essence flame. These are formed when an essence flame is born, leaving behind a near indestructible core, that even deities struggled to contain. Destroying one required an immortal artifact, and even than it was incredibly difficult.

"The Sanguine Flame will belong to artifact hall!" Leaning back to avoid a swing from a heavy stick, Iris was surprised. Despite being high level foundation realm, they were terrible at fighting.

"Duck!" Crouching, a dagger coated in dubious liquid flashed overhead. It scored a graze, and in seconds the person on the other side had an arm three times the size it should be. It was a simple kick to the sternum that launched him back. Something screamed doom at her, and Iris dove for cover. Sizzling fire vaporized the earth in the space she had been standing.

"Help him!" Iris shouted at the poison heir, pointing to the only golden orb cultivator on their side from her prone position. "Ill handle the rabble!"

Springing up ward the only outsider on the poison vine sect grabbed a heavy stick with some strange gears whirling on the end of it. She didn't know what artifact hall made, but it was a serviceable club. Wading into the small group of foundation members from artifact hall, she started whacking. In a way she felt like an old lady, beating someone with a cane. Despite not being good at fighting, they were able to block some strikes. Drawing quills from her armband she threw them at their joints while attacking with the mech club.

Dense forest worked against both parties, but Iris extensive travels gave her the edge. That was until the Sanguine Flame exploded once more. Everyone on the battlefield dove attempted to find cover. It was a moot attempt; a single cascading wave of fire leveled and disintegrated its surroundings. What had been a lush grove of apple trees, had become a barren wasteland. At the center, solid dais made of great oak housed a five-petal king blossom, ringed by small soft five petaled pink centered flowers.

Burring brilliantly on top was a white flame with pink and blood red ribbons. Wisps of fire reached out seeking nourishment. Most of the dirt that had blasted aside protected the myriad of participants.

"So much for the poison vine sect!" Rutan, the only golden orb cultivator still standing, stood over the ruined body of the sect master.

Both the heir and Iris managed to dig themselves up in time to intercept. Iris had been further, Shisho could only dive at the weapon, Leaving Iris to watch helpless as a blade bit into her body. Her father may have been down, but the lady had not, so even impaled, she twisted her qi into noxious poison.

Iris finally made it, drop kicking her opponent off the heir. Knelling, the girl was relived to find that her wound was not immediately fatal. Unfortunately, she was still leaching toxins, and her father would recover enough to see her daughter in this state. A nascent soul cultivator would turn everything within five hundred yards into a mire that wouldn't support life for decades.

"Crap I didn't want to do this." There were people recovering all around them, including the railer. Even as that the fire still lashed out at every one present, heaven forbid the Apple Flame devoured a nascent soul.

"Sorry about this." Heir to the poison sect had a flame refinement pill. It was supposed to help capture a newborn, non-agitated fire. It was also deep in her cleave in a small pouch. Soft yet resolute firmness, shaped like a marshmallow peach, what an amazing rack this elfish woman had. It was at this point in the story, that lady Valentine extracted justice.

"Ow, stop hitting me!" It would have been fine if Iris had told the story as one of survival, rather reminiscing about how nice her breast had been to feel up while trying to find a pill in a brassier was not. Hence why Iris had been knocked to the floor with Valentine's foot kicking her.

"Enemy to women!" The noble cried out as she extracted vengeance for he jealous. Both Charlotte and Mary had the same thought.

'Isn't she a woman herself? And didn't you molest her in a hallway yesterday?' They were wise enough to not say anything, both women had demonstrated ample strength.

"Sister, you can't leave us hanging like this!"

"Right we have to know how this ends!"

Both the Elis's stared at Lady Valentine with large shimmering puppy eyes after their request to continue the story. Valentine lasted for seven seconds before she caved. They reminder her to much of Min Min.

"Fine fine, dear finish you story." Siting back down, leaving the martial master to suffer for past transgression without assisting her up.

"Well were was i?" Looking thoughtful after Iris had brushed imaginary dust and returned to her own chair.

"Right the flame was going berserk, a golden orb cultivator who I didn't think I could win against, and place about to turned to swamp. I needed the flame to consume the poison so i…"