63 Bond (III)

Hui Lan had followed Elder Zhang into different doors leading to the other door. In the main hall of this place, rows of doors were all placed beside one after the other.

The door that they had taken was a one-person size door and was made out of grey steal that looked like the walls of this arena which was made out of rocks.

Just as she thought that they would continue to walk forever, after a door that seemed to have been made out of peculiar steel was opened, bright beams of light shone from outside.

Hui Lan had to close her eyes when the light hit her face abruptly. They had been walking in a much darker corridor from the outside world.

Like a reptile being hit with the light, Hui Lan was momentarily blind. Unlike reptiles, her eyes began to adjust to the scenery in front of her.

She followed Elder Zhang out from the door and the elder then closed the door and soon after the doors seemed to have a kind of lock from the inside that made different kinds of clicking noise.

Hui Lan was still staring at the door when the elder was already making his way up a hill that was beside the door.

"Follow along. We can't stay outside for long. When the sun goes down, those wolves would come out again." Elder Zhang spoke about them without any signs of concern but as if talking about the weather and not life and death.

Thinking of those big gnashings sound from the door, those wolves...they did not sound like any particular wolves ah.

Hui Lan turned around and quickly followed the elder, only to find that they would be climbing up a small hill.

...Ah, so more walking it is.

Hui Lan followed Elder Zhang silently as they made their way up the 'hill' which felt pretty much like the peak of this mountain.

Elder Zhang was walking up ahead of Hui Lan in silence as well. He had a peaceful air of a teacher as he led his student up the hill.

Soon, they finally stopped at a wide spaceful place in one part of the mountain.

While Elder Zhang went ahead to find a seat for himself like he was strolling in a garden, Hui Lan had to stop to catch her breath.

Although it wasn't as tiring as the running course that Elder Yi had given her, the walk was still quite some distance for her weak body.

She took a peek at Elder Zhang who had already found his seat and settled down. The elder's eyes were closed and he was sitting as if he was meditating.

...Sigh, he was waiting for her

...Well, she shouldn't be keeping him waiting for long.

Hui Lan stood up straight and walked forward towards the elder. She stood still in front of him before speaking to him, "Elder Zhang, Hui Lan is ready."

Without opening his eyes, Elder Zhang spoke, "Hm, you should be." He then opened his eyes coolly, "Turn around and get the wooden sword from behind you. Today, you are to have a sword duel with me."

Hui Lan's thoughts began to race.

...A sword duel?

...Hmm...she hadn't done one since the first week she had arrived in this time period.

...She was sure that, now, she would probably be terrible at it, but...she missed holding onto a sword as well.

...Not to kill, but to swirl it around and put her mind at peace.

She turned around with excitement in her heart. The first thing that caught her attention was one wooden sword that looked as if it was carved into the tree, but the outline of the sword was still visible.

Hui Lan's eyes sparkled even more before making her way to retrieve the wooden sword from its rightful place.

Carefully, Hui Lan took the sword out leaving a sword shape hole on the tree.

The sword looked pretty much simple, but its handle was wrapped up tightly with a decent amount of cloth protecting the user from getting any splinters while using it. Meanwhile, the end of the sword was very sharp, it one was not careful, and put force into it, she feared that it would be able to stab into anything if the practitioner had such thoughts.

Hui Lan swayed the wooden sword back and forth in the air and revealed a pleased smile on her beautiful face.

...It was just the right weight for her, not too light that was too fragile nor too heavy that she could not hold onto it.

...It was just right.

Hui Lan turned around to face Elder Zhang who was to be her dueler in today's sword duelling.

On the other hand, Elder Zhang was already prepared with a long straight wooden stick or was it a branch but whatever it was, it was not a wooden sword like hers and looked as if he had picked the stick somewhere around this area.

The elder held onto the simple stick with nobility as if he was holding onto a sword that was ready to be swayed.

...Aiya, although it did not have any sharp edges like hers, why did she feel like it could stab her heart into pieces if Elder Zhang wanted to?

"Elder Zhang, you will go easy with this incompetent student right?" Hui Lan asked very humbly.

Elder Zhang who had seen the young lady sway the sword silently a minute ago as if she had been holding onto a sword her entire life did not think that that would come from her mouth. Although she looked slightly awkward, she was sure that wherever she was from, she could pretty much use it fairly well.

...Hm, he would like to see what she had stored up.

...Although he knew she was physically weak, if her mind wasn't, then there was nothing more to speak. She can just start there.

...And from the likes of her, she wasn't weak.

"Feng Hui Lan, be prepared." Elder Zhang spoke aloud for the first time in front of Hui Lan before taking one powerful leap from where he was and was heading towards Hui Lan's direction.

Meanwhile, Hui Lan was enrooted in the same spot.

On the other hand, her mind and heart had a surge of energy that had never been before in this body. Despite it being a peculiar feeling to this body, Hui Lan was familiar with this feeling.

Her long lost fighting instinct was beginning to flow into this body slowly.

However, there was no more time to wait for this body to get used to it.

The scene in front of Hui Lan was played in a slow-motion; Elder Zhang's long wooden stick was slowly descending towards her and it would have fallen on her if she had not taken a step to the side and took a step away from the reaper's hands.

Hui Lan took a firm step away and her entire body twirled away to the side just in time to dodge away from Elder Zhang's powerful move.

As she was able to dodge away, her eyes made contact with Elder Zhang's eyes that were looking at her in the corner of his eyes.

...How scary, she thought to herself.

Quickly, she brought her sword up vertically in front of her and pressed onto the sword firmly with her free hand as Elder Zhang's second move was already coming for her.

She dug her feet onto the ground firmly to receive the next blow from Elder Zhang and watched as his second move was the result from missing his target.

This consecutive move, she did not have the time to dodge away like she did in the beginning.

Like a loud gong to a loud bell, Elder Zhang's wooden stick clashed onto her wooden sword.

Having been prepared, Hui Lan was able to withstand the clash.

With one flick, Elder Zhang flipped his straight stick away to hide behind his back and nodded, "Well done." Before walking away from her.

...Hui Lan slowly lowered her sword but her hand that had been holding onto the sword a moment ago slightly shook.

...She looked at the elder's back with an uneasy look. He must have not given his full power a minute ago and that was just a tease.

She slowly returned her feet to stand in the same position. Hui Lan was in a sense of speechlessness behind Elder Zhang.

Despite not being able to sort her thoughts at the time being, she could still feel a familiar sense to when she used to duel before...it was as if she was able to reminisce about the good old times.

Elder Zhang stopped right before a tree before slowly turning his face to look behind him through his wide hat, "Your turn."

Hearing Elder Zhang's words, Hui Lan gripped onto her wooden sword tighter while her eyes were staring at the elder.

...Hm, let's see how bad she could do, Hui Lan thought to herself.

Although thinking of how bad she would do, Hui Lan closed her eyes and began recollecting the moves that she had practised all her life in another lifetime.

...Well, let's see what she can do for now.

Slowly, the young lady reopened her eyes and a sense of determination was shown distinctively through them.

Hui Lan took a step forward.

And another step forward.

She then began to run towards the elder with her sword held out to her side.

When Hui Lan had reduced her distance with Elder Zhang, she thrust her wooden sword directly at his back.

Like she had thought, he was able to dodge her move easily by swaying to the side.

"Swing your sword like you know you will win. Show some more confidence in your swing and who knows what would happen." Elder Zhang's voice rang into her ears as he floated away behind her.

Hui Lan let out a long sigh.

...Again, she thought to herself.

Hui Lan quickly turned around to follow the elder and this time, she threw every move that she thought she could do with this body.

However, with every move, Elder Zhang was able to dodge away from it.

He could see that she was a master from where she came from which was why she was only saving her energy.

...But what he wanted...was for her to be like a new beginner and try out everything she got and not keep it in. She was much more capable than she thought.

"Tut tut, still not giving your all?" Elder Zhang made a gentle backflip behind Hui Lan. He then spoke again when he landed onto the ground, "Stop thinking and let your body flow…"

Hui Lan who was now breathing heavily began to think of his words with furrowed brows. The afternoon sunlight was still shining through the gaps of the leaves and glistering onto Hui Lan's small traces of sweat along her hairline.

...Stop thinking? Was she thinking too much?

Hui Lan quickly thought back of her past moves and...it seemed they were for her to save her own energy.

...Flow? Hm...what if...she could use some of those moves she had done yesterday from the shadow book.

...The Yin Ying moves…

If she could cooperate those flows with her swordplay...then it might just work.

Hui Lan took a deep breath again before turning around to face her master who had also turned his side profile to look at her as well.

...Since there wasn't much strength left, then she would just let her body flow.

...Elder Zhang wasn't going to hurt her anyway.

Hui Lan began running towards Elder Zhang again, but this time, her muscles seemed much more relaxed than before.

Elder Zhang raised one of his brows.

...Not bad.

Once again, Hui Lan lifted up her sword and once again, Elder Zhang's foot had already taken a step to his side to move away from her. However, just as the sword was in the air, it was lowered down just as fast as Elder Zhang began to move to his side.

Feeling the shift in the direction of the wind, Elder Zhang smiled.

...So she had some tricks up her sleeves…

Elder Zhang took a step backwards and Hui Lan could only crease her brows again.

He was about to get away again!?

With the wooden sword in her hand, Hui Lan began to follow Elder Zhang with the sword in front of the elder as both were running in the same direction.

Elder Zhang was running backwards while Hui Lan was following him with the wooden sword in front of him.

However, with one flip he did a swirl in the air and was already gone from Hui Lan's reach.

Hui Lan turned to look at her master, but he was already standing on top of the tree. He stepped onto something on the tree and wooden pillars in human size emerged from the ground.

"Practice your swordplay with these pillars until the sun is about to set." Elder Zhang spoke with his hands held behind his back.

Hui Lan felt slightly bad of herself, but she did not show it out and merely nodded in front of her master.

...She would practise more.

Immediately, Hui Lan was already practising her swordplay with all the pillars around her like she was actually duelling with a person.

This went on until the sun was about to set when Elder Zhang who had been meditating raised his hands to stop Hui Lan.

"That is it for today, tomorrow, you will do it again. Let us go down for now." Elder Zhang then jumped off from the tree branch and led the way down.

Hui Lan looked down at the wooden sword in her hand and was slightly sad to part ways with it.

"Bring the sword with you!" Elder Zhang spoke from afar when he did not hear his student follow him.

Hearing that, Hui Lan's eyes began to sparkle once again.

...There were no wooden swords in their underground place.

...This was the only one and she wanted to practice with it.

She did not linger around any longer and began to trot along her way back with her wooden sword safe by her side.

As the two humans had left the garden, two pairs of crystalline eyes shone from the dark corners in the forest.

…Hm, that girl...she smelled familiar...