"Teacher!"

  Baiyun watched as the kid ran off towards the temple doors, his little footsteps pattering. He followed speechlessly, pg the chair bato its inal spot.

  Now at the door, the kid closed his eyes and took a deep breath, gathering his qi. Then with a swift motion, he kicked the door with all his might! A loud bang echoed and the wind whistled. Above the door, two jewels lit up.

  Baiyun shook his head. Challenging a mortal to a fight when he was that strong? Was the kid trying to kill him? In his past life, he certainly had seen his share of young masters who would not hesitate to tear servants from limb to limb, if not for the luxurious carpets beh their feet.

  A minute passed.

  The martial elder shoved the door open, squatting down to the young boy with a grin. With his hand, he tousled the hair of the young boy who squirmed.

  "What's wrong?"

  The kid, whose eyes were red with hints of tears, seemed to grow more upset at those words.

  "That servant over here, he was sleeping on your chair! When I challenged him to a fight to defend your honour, he refused!" he poio Baiyun.

  The giant of an elder turo look. Baiyu uneasy for a moment, but the man merely ughed.

  "Hahaha! Then how should we punish him, Mo?"

  But his voice yful. Baiyun was relieved that the elder wasn't taking offence, but he felt annoyed right after. Why did he have to get caught up in this farce?

  Mo thought food few moments but nothing came out of it.

  "...hnn! I don't know! And stop callihat, my name is Mohei!"

  "Yiving up so easily?"

  The elder flicked the boy in the forehead as he spoke.

  "Gahhhh! Why'd you do that?" Mohei yelled.

  But suddenly, his eyes lit up.

  "Oh, I thought of something! That servant should make a new chair for you, one as good as yours!"

  The elder flicked Mohei's forehead again.

  "Ah! Stop doing that!"

  Mohei rubbed the red spot on his forehead and gred at the elder with wronged eyes, but the Elder had already turned away.

  "Baiyun!" the elder called to him.

  "Yes, elder!" Baiyun said, as respectfully as he could.

  Elder Guan Qiang beed for Baiyun to approach, then handed him a book.

  "Take this and do the exercises here. I expect you to arrive an hour early each m and practitil the rest of the disciples arrive!"

  "Yes, elder!" Baiyun nodded.

  The elder reached into his bag again and passed him a set of training attire.

  "Ahese! You ge behind that er."

  Baiyun nodded yet again. He g where the elder pointed and frowned slightly. Such a huge temple, and he couldn't be bothered to build a ging room for the disciples?

  He relutly listened, walking over and hastily putting on the garments. In the background, he heard the sm of a door, likely Guan Qiaering the temple.

  They were form fitting pin grey robes, with long baggy pants beh. Mohei gred at him as he walked out from the er in his tire, but Baiyun ignored him.

  He stared at the book in hand, a worn out stack of paper bound by brown string titled "Basic Martial Training". He flipped through the pages and found many diagrams of basig and kig routines with simple text descriptions.

  Behind him, Mohei approached.

  "You're a disciple here?"

  Baiyun didn't answer. He followed the stretches shown on the first page. But he still remained vigint, ready to dodge at any time, in case Mohei lost his temper and attacked.

  "Why'd Master accept a servant like you anyway?"

  Mohei walked a few circles around Baiyun and waved at him, then finally realised he was being ignored. He stomped his feet angrily.

  Theood brazenly in front of Baiyun and stuck out his tongue, copying the exercises but doing them 10 times faster. Baiyun was rendered speechless by the pettiness. At the very least, Mohei seemed to be a normal enough kid.

  An hour passed shortly. One by one, disciples arrived, chattering to each other as they sat oraining grounds.

  Mohei and Baiyun stared at each other, one indifferent and one frustrated, before the two of them joihe rest of the group.

  Guan Qiang swung the temple doors open, and the disciples all stood up in unison.

  "Good! Everyone is on time."

  He nodded as he sed ead every disciple. A few of the disciples nervously straightened up hteheir untidy attire as his gaze nded on them.

  "Today is a special day. We'll be doing actual bat training!"

  Mumbles of dismay echoed through the crowd. Baiyun frowned. What exactly was that rea? But notig the elder's stare turning to him, he awkwardly put on a smile.

  "But Elder!" a young girl suddenly called out. "We've only been training for a month. Shouldn't that be after 2 months of training?"

  Baiyun was surprised. Were all the disciples here really that hen, what was with the strength Mohei showed?

  "Oh? I thought you lot were ready, but it seems some of you aren't that fident. Very well, I won't force you. If you think you're behind the others, you choose to sit aside." Guan Qiang ughed.

  "Grr..."

  The young girl grumbled but went silent. Baiyun shook his head internally.

  Guan Qiang cpped once loudly, the force stirring up the fallen leaves scattered around.

  "Wolves! Out!" he yelled.

  Behind the temple doors, loud muffled howls could be heard. The doors swung open with 4 lights, two massive wolves revealing themselves.

  They were almost as tall as the Martial Elder, and the length of two grown men lying down. Around their necks were loose colrs with jades hanging from them.

  But behind them, a paall wolf pups rushed past them. They were fully covered iher armour and furs, with mask-like white helmets that cked eyeholes. Even their ears were covered, appearing as two horn-like es. Latches in the helmet allowed their mouths to open, revealing their tongue and sharp teeth as they panted.

  Baiyun was stuhe elder itting children against spirit beasts? And those helmets... did they suppress the sight and hearing of the wolves, f them to hoheir qi sense instead? It seemed this was training for the wolves as well.

  At the very least, the yous were ner than the disciples.

  "Ahh! Wolves!"

  Some of the children began to shout and cry as the wolves rushed over, the giant ones following right behind. The yous then ran back to the elder's feet and sat, wagging their tails respectfully.

  "St!"

  The disciples quickly stifled their tears as Guan Qiang stared sternly at them.

  "Each of you will face a wolf in bat shortly. The wolves are well armoured and resist eveacks of Foundational cultivators, so go all out!"

  As the elder spoke, he pulled out neck guards from his bag, tossing them towards each of the disciples accurately. The children scrambled to catch theirs, but most weren't as quick as Baiyun with the elixir, so many neck guards tumbled to the ground.

  Baiyun put his around his neck. How ironic for the elder's pets to be better armoured than his disciples.

  "Baiyun!" Guang Qiang interrupted his thoughts. "You are new here, but I won't permit you to skip this practice."

  The disciples stared at him in surprise.

  Baiyu uneasy, but nodded as he held back a frown. Did Guan Qiang "throw the kids to the wolves" early merely as an excuse to test the cims Earthquake told him? Most likely, the spirit had found the corpse of the spider he dispatched.

  It was certain the elder thought he had some rare stitution or talent for bat. He took a deep breath. Truthfully, he would have preferred not to draw attention. Drawing the attention of elders would only make it harder for him to do anythiively. But if it came down to it, pying the role of a talented bat servant could also lead to certain opportunities.

  "Yes, elder!"

  Guan Qiang nodded.

  "Do your warm ups! bat training begins immediately after!"

  "Yes, master!" the disciples echoed.

  Baiyun had already done his warm ups, but he followed anyway. He watched the other disciples carefully, noting down the small mistakes he had made and correg his movements.

  From the er of his eye, he saw the little wolves doing warm ups of their own as well, supervised by the giant wolves. Baiyun's eyes twitched.

  Meanwhile, Guan Qiang checked on each of the disciples, ensuring they had worn their neck guards properly. He chided a few of them, straightening and tightening the colrs despite their protests.

  "You think it's hard to breathe? It'd be harder to breathe with your throat torn out!"

  The disciples were frightened and quickly tighteheir neck guards.

  Soon, the warm ups were plete. Both the wolf pups and the disciples paced about. But the wolves paced out of impatiend excitement, and the disciples out of ay.

  The elder nodded and crossed his arms.

  "Warm ups are plete. Who will voluo go first?"

  The disciples stared at each other uainly.

  But Mohei looked up with a smug grin on his face.

  "I will go first!" he announced.

  Baiyun noticed Mohei was sneaking g him, but he ighem.

  "Very well!"

  Guan Qiang walked over to Mohei and ruffled his hair, ign the boy's squirms.

  "Baiyun, you're up first!" the elder yelled.

  What? Baiyun was stunned.

  "Huh?!" Mohei yelled. "Master, that's unfair!"

  "Be quiet." the elder shooed the boy away as he stomped indignantly.

  Baiyued a little. He was now certain the elder only pushed the lessons ahead to test him! What an irresponsible man... Truthfully, he would have preferred to watother disciple face the wolves first, then glean what he could from that.

  Guang Qiang was likely overestimating him, not realising another beast had done most of the damage to the spider.

  As Baiyun stepped forward, one of the small wolves leapt over to face him. He could not see its eyes, but even with the mask between them, he could ses cautious gaze.

  Behind him, he heard a loud thud followed by ctterial. He turned around and saw a on rack tipping bad forth, rattling noisily. Guan Qiang pulled it out from his bag moments ago and tossed it onto the ground carelessly.

  "Take your on of choice o unarmed!" the elder boomed.

  It would be suicidal to go unarmed. Baiyun looked through the arsenal of ons and had a moment of indecision.

  Ihousands of years he had lived, he always scoffed those pursuing the mastery of bat. An old memory of something he said in his younger years came to mind.

  "bat teiques? They are merely a waste of time. Iime they spend honing their teiques, I'll cultivate beyond their read crush them with sheer might!"

  Baiyun sighed to himself on the inside.

  Those arrogant words would still hold true if he was ae of a powerful sect, with boualent and plentiful resources. But he was noitiful servant, uo even cultivate normally.

  Wanting to overwhelm his oppos with superior cultivation was just a distant dream now.

  On the rack before him, there was not a single on he rofit in. He did know some bat arts, but they were mostly spells, something he could not use now.

  The closest thing to a on he had used was a smithing hammer, along with farming implements. Ba his younger years in his past life, he inally aspired to be a bcksmith. But after fag a major setback, he gave up, switg to alchemy instead.

  ...

  "Indecision?" the martial elder asked.

  Only a few seds had passed, but he sehe boy's hesitation.

  Baiyun shook his head and grabbed a small maow was not the time to reminisce. Against leather armour supposed to resist eveacks of a Foundational cultivator, sharp ons would be useless. Blunt ons were far more likely to be painful.

  Or at least, that was how he assumed it worked.

  Mixed in the crowd, Mohei suddenly tiptoed, cupping his hands to shout.

  "Hah! What a tiny on! Perfect for a weakling like you!"

  Baiyun ignored him. He sed the rae st time and grabbed a wooden shield as well, then o the elder.

  "I'm ready."

  "Good. Anything goes in this fight." Guan Qiang said. "Whives up or is incapacitated loses. After I t to 5, the fight starts!”

  The elder took several steps back, and the disciples quietened. He began to t down.

  "Five!"

  ...

  "Four!"

  ...

  "Three!"

  Baiyun got into a defeance, holding up his shield towards his oppo. The small wolf turo one of the rger wolves briefly as if to look for affirmation, then back toward Baiyun. Then it s Baiyun, baring its teeth.

  "Two!"

  Baiyun took a step forward as the wolf arched its back.

  "One!" Guang Qiang yelled. "Begin!"

  The wolf took off with a growl, disappearing into a blur as it lu Baiyun. There was no time to dodge or react. He felt a powerful force sm into his shield, sending him airborne! Baiyun grunted as he hit the ground with a painful thud, his shield spinning away out of reach.

  He groa the pain that shot through his body, but the wolf did not wait. It shot forward towards the fallen boy with its teeth bared once more.

  A strange air suddenly surrounded Baiyun, time seemingly slowing.

  He swung his mace towards its head with all his might. But as it smmed into the pup's mask, its teeth had already sunk into his leg. The wolf was disorientated by the blow and jumped aside, but the damage was already done.

  “Ahhhhh!” the children screamed.

  Baiyun winced as white hot pain shot through his leg, crimson blood dyeing his robes. Some of the children even began to cry. At the er of his eye, he saw Mohei c his mouth, but he had no time to pay heed to that.

  The wolf narrowed its eyes beh the mask.

  Prey.

  With its fastest lu, it disappeared into a blur of grey.

  But it was not the delight of ripping flesh that greeted its mouth.

  Baiyued with inhuman speed, raising the mace towards it before it had even lunged. By its own momentum, the wolf forced the on down its throat!

  "Hrkkk!"

  The wolf toppled onto the ground and cwed at the on in panic. But Baiyun's eyes were cold. He ignored his wounded leg and got up. He pressed the beast down with a foot and grasped the mace tightly, holding it in pce.

  It did not show him mercy when he was down, so her would he.

  "Stop! Baiyun wins!" Guan Qiang decred.

  Baiyun finally let go of the wolf and it spat out the mace with a choked whimper.

  Mohei and the disciples stared at him in shock as his leg tio bleed profusely.

  He breathed heavily, his heart thumping like a drum. He was just as shocked as them by his own victory; that decisive move of his was mostly by impulse.

  One of the giant wolves stared at Baiyun with killing i as the little one ran to it pitifully. But just as quickly as he se, it faded away.