Chapter 159 - Training Ground

While Ao Wen contended with the ailments affecting Chou Chai and his companions, Zhang Bai and Tang Jin contended with entirely different matters. Following Ao Wen's instructions, one of the courtyards had been demolished to make room for a spacious training ground. Though it could have been a simple matter to flatten and rebuild around a mostly flat, open dueling ground, Zhang Bai had intended something more intricate. 

It had taken him an entire day of studying the many books his father had given him before he'd been able to draw up a plan for their training ground. At its center, a raised dueling square twenty five meters on a side took up much of the space of their training ground. Constructing such a thing out of normal stone and mortar, however, would never endure the damage of Soldiers clashing on the stage and Zhang Bai was certain that Ao Wen would unleash her flames upon the platform as well. Instead of using normal stone, he'd spent lavishly to use pavers carved from the walls of the spirit crystal mines. Further, he'd arranged the stones in a pattern of four trigrams on each side of the platform. 

At the moment, eight of the sixteen trigrams glowed with a flickering green light while Zhang Bai and Tang Jin faced each other from a distance of ten meters. The first set of trigrams created a barrier that prevented wayward energy from spilling out of the dueling square while the second set reinforced the structure against damage caused by their clash. 

"You're sure you've recovered enough from your injuries for this?" Zhang Bai asked as he drew his long two handed sword. While they had both 'recovered' from the injuries they sustained while looking at a home haunted by vengeful spirits, there was a difference between recovering enough to help with the reconstruction of their new home and recovering enough to circulate their energy and fight. Zhang Bai's injuries had been far lighter than the ones Tang Jin suffered and he had no desire to see his junior companion reinjure himself by training before he was ready. 

"It's fine," Tang Jin said with a predatory smile. "Honestly, if I don't do something soon, I feel like I might explode in a way that I'd regret. It's better to let things out here with someone I trust than elsewhere." 

"In that case, feel free to treat me as your sandbag," Zhang Bai said with a smile. Settling into a ready stance, a faint jade barrier began to form around Zhang Bai, starting from his core and spreading outward until his whole body was covered with a faintly manifested suit of scale armor made entirely of his martial energy. "Come at me! See if your claws can tear open my shell," he challenged boldly. 

"Guard yourself Brother Bai!" Tang Jin yelled, drawing his gleaming sword and leaping toward Zhang Bai with an almost feral snarl. Red-gold energy formed around his limbs propelling him forward at blinding speed, his shining blade leading the way! 

In a blink, both men clashed, blades ringing off each other as Tang Jin fought to overwhelm Zhang Bai's formidable defenses. From the beginning it was clear that Tang Jin had no hope of succeeding in a frontal clash. As the defender, Zhang Bai held too many advantages. While Tang Jin's sword was brilliantly fast, the arcs of his attacks were wide to gain enough power to threaten Zhang Bai's shell-like barrier. In contrast, Zhang Bai only needed to make slight adjustments to use the length of his much larger sword to block Tang Jin's incoming slashes. If this fight continued as it was, Tang Jin would exhaust himself long before his older companion broke a sweat! 

Instead of pinning his hopes on winning in a direct clash, Tang Jin instead attempted to circle around Zhang Bai, striking at his exposed flanks, legs, anything that he had a chance to take a swipe at. No matter how much he threw himself into it, however, he couldn't find a hole in Zhang Bai's bladework! There were no openings to exploit and even when he found one, his attack bounced harmlessly on the older man's energy barrier! 

Frustrated, Tang Jin let loose a series of flashing attacks, each one unleashing four blades of energy that slammed into Zhang Bai's shield like the rending claws of a mountain lion. Once, twice, and finally when the third set of flashing blades arrived, Zhang Bai's energy armor shattered like glass! 

Hungry to exploit the sudden opening, Tang Jin dropped his sword and lunged for Zhang Bai's throat, red-golden energy forming claws around his outstretched fingers. Zhang Bai, however, wasn't one to be taken down so easily. Stepping sideways, the older man emulated Ao Wen and struck out with the long hilt of his sword, slamming into Tang Jin with all of his considerable strength and bearing the younger man to the ground in a THUD that drove the air from Tang Jin's lungs. 

"You lost it again Brother Jin," Zhang Bai warned as he pressed down on his young companion. "Take a deep breath, let go of the frustration," he said calmly, staring into Tang Jin's golden eyes, waiting for the younger man's pupils to lose their catlike shape and return to normal before he stood and offered his friend a hand up. "Go again?" Zhang Bai asked, holding no judgment toward Tang Jin for losing his temper in their sparring match. 

"Again," Tang Jin said, picking his sword up from where he'd discarded it and assuming a ready posture once again. "I still have a lot left to get out." 

"As many times as it takes," Zhang Bai said with a smile, resuming his own defensive stance. 

For the next two hours, the men clashed time and time again. Few words were needed between them as Tang Jin poured all of his frustrations out in his relentless attempts to get one over on Zhang Bai. In most of their clashes, whether Tang Jin lost control of his temper and his sword or not, Zhang Bai's defenses proved too much for the younger man. Again and again, Tang Jin was knocked sprawling to the wet stones of the dueling platform. No matter how many times he fell, however, the stubborn youth refused to give up. It was hard to say whether he was truly improving or not over the course of the session, though he was fortunate every one or two clashes in ten to be able to strike successfully at Zhang Bai and on one occasion, to tear the two handed sword from the older man's hands. 

Finally, when both men were surrounded by a cloud of steam as sweat poured from their bodies in the chill autumn air, Zhang Bai looked to his young friend and asked. "Done yet?"

"Yeah," Zhang Bai panted, collapsing on his back and letting the late afternoon drizzle bring a blessed coolness to his overheated body. "I think I'm done." 

"Good," Zhang Bai said with a tired smile. "Now, do you want to tell me what has you so bothered that you had all that bottled up?"