42 4 Months
Thus Meng's training in seclusion began. During the first 6 days, he used at least 12 hours a day to think of a suitable profound art and its profound skills. Since he had no time to create anything too big, he decided to go only for 3-4 profound skills. The rest of the day he dedicated himself to meditating. On the 7th day, he went to spar with Hengjun for the entire day, since they weren't using any profound energy in their attacks, the time for the rest was truly more like thinking of their faults instead of resting. Meng was pleasantly surprised by Hengjun's spear skills, he wasn't called young talent for nothing and his experience using spear was much richer than Meng's despite Meng attaining a higher realm on the path of the spear.
After every sparring session, both Meng and Hengjun felt as if they advanced a lot, mainly Hengjun who felt much closer to his spear and felt as if it was moving more and more precisely as he wants. Meng on the other hand was absorbing Hengjun's fighting style and also his rich experience with the spear. Hengjun always knew how to respond to which situation and he never failed to respond to his attacks calmly which convinced Meng that the only thing holding Hengjun down was his low profound strength.
As days were passing by, Hengjun grew even more hard-working when it came to profound strength unlike before since the sparring sessions made him realize that he was lacking a lot in that department. Each new sparring session both of them grew a bit closer as they spent the entire day together exchanging moves which in this world can be used to form a solid trust and friendship between 2 people.
On the 4th and last sparring session, a lot of disciples arrived to watch them as even though their attack didn't contain even a bit of profound energy, it was still enough to leave the wind quaking despite not using any special techniques. To others weaker disciples it looked like just regular 1 vs 1 spar but those who were more accomplished on the path of the spear felt as if they were watching 2 vs 2 spar. Meng vs Hengjun and Meng's spear vs Hengjun's spear.
After the spar ended...
"*huff* Brother Meng, I felt it...For the first time, I felt as if my spear was trying to aid me to defeat you." Hengjun said with a tired but satisfied smile.
"Haha, finally... Continue listening to your partner and don't be afraid to sometimes let it lead you, after all, that's what mutual trust means. Since you were able to advance so much, I think you are capable of mastering this in the remaining 7 months." Meng said and handed him a scroll.
"Hm? This...!" Hengjun opened it to take a look and his eyes widened.
[4 Wind Directions]
[1st move - Zephyr - with the help of profound energy sends numerous wind blades from all directions to attack the opponent while enhancing the user's speed and his weapon's sharpness.]
[2nd move - Astray Sakura Petals - creates thousands of thousands of miniature wind petals capable of shredding the opponent into small pieces.]
[3rd move - Wind Deity's Wrath - With the spinning motions of one's weapon above his head and with help of profound energy, creates a large raging vortex of violently rotating winds that serve to protect the user while also pulling his opponents inside the vortex, letting them experience violent and sharp wind blades.]
[4th move - Tempest - Ultimate move that should be used only in most desperate situations, depletes user's entire reserves of profound energy, making him enveloped by a sharp light-green glow, transforming the user into Wind Deity himself for a short amount of time. Trendemously increases the user's speed without feeling any wind resistance, also, trendemously enhancing the sharpness of user's attacks. Once completely mastered, one might fly in the sky unhindered for a short amount of time.]
That's all Meng could think of in such a short time but he was especially proud of the 2nd and 4th move as they were the hardest to create. He was actually done with 1st and 3rd move in only 5 days but it took him another 23 days to create 2nd and 4th move. However, he came up with those names a few minutes before he had to leave his seclusion.
"Is this really a wind Profound Art? It also looks like a high tier one...Brother Meng, did you...during that training in seclusion?" Hengjun asked with an astonished expression, guessing that this was what Meng doing the entire month instead of focusing on his cultivation. Because of that, his cultivation increased only to the 8th stage of the Nascent Profound Realm which made Hengjun feel slightly guilty.
"Don't make that expression, it was created by my master, he only taught me during my time in seclusion. It's relatively easy to learn but hard to master, especially 2nd and 4th move, so do your best to master all you can, brother Hengjun." Meng replied with a smile before giving him the entire book of instructions on how to perform all those moves along with his tips.
"...Alright, thank you very much for this grace. I will make sure to train as hard as I can to master all moves within those 7 months." Hengjun bowed and said with a serious tone. Although he accepted Meng's excuse, he was sure that there must be more into it than it seems. No matter, he still appreciated this and respected Meng's privacy.
---
During these days of training at Iron Spear Clan, Chu Yuechan returned back to her sect. Frozen Cloud Asgard Mistress, Gong Yuxian, was pleasantly surprised when her sect gained another throne. However, when she asked Chu Yuechan how she broke thought in such a short time, Chu Yuechan just replied that she must not speak of it since she swore on her entire sect to keep it secret. Gong Yuxian was even more curious but since Chu Yuechan swore on her entire sect, she let it go as she wouldn't want to taint Frozen Cloud Asgard's reputation.
When their meeting came to an end, Chu Yueli approached Chu Yuechan to congratulate her sister.
"Younger sister, I have had a chance to meet the boy you and Qingyue mentioned once when you both returned." Chu Yuechan informed her sister.
"Boy?" Chu Yueli asked as if she already forgot who is she referring to.
"The one named Su Meng...I just wanted to warn you not to forget to choose your favor he owes you very carefully." Chu Yuechan said with a small smile before intending to leave.
"Wait, elder sister! Why are you mentioning that boy out of nowhere-?! It can't be..." Chu Yueli tried to stop her sister since she was confused by her sister's words but then it struck her...Her elder sister went outside and then returned within a few weeks with a new strength of the throne before mentioning the name of a boy.
'This can't be- I must be overthinking things, there is no way he would be able to help elder sister to advance.' Chu Yueli was trying to think of a reason why her elder sister mentioned Su Meng.
"I am sorry, younger sister. I can't tell you anything. It's your decision if you choose to seriously listen to my warning or not." Chu Yuechan replied without looking back at her sister before leaving.
---
3 months later...
---
[Name: Su Meng]
[Cultivation: 3rd stage of True Profound Realm (Yin-Yang energy) 34 open Profound Entrances]
[Physique: Hell Suppressing Physique (Minor Completion)]
[Passive Skills: |Intermediate Harvesting (Lv. 8)+|, |Intermediate boxing (Lv. 6), |Elementary Swordsmanship (Lv. 9)+|, |Advanced Nimbleness (Lv. 1)|,|Spiritual Sense (Lv. 3)|, |Intermediate Concealment (Lv. 7)+|, |Intermediate Alchemy (Lv. 8)+|, |Intermediate Crafting Lv. 1|+, |Intermediate Spearmanship (Lv. 9)+]
[Personal Skills: Cloud Steps(Lv. 7), River Crossing Slash(Lv. 3, Yin), One with the Shadows (Lv. 4),
7 Moves of Ferocious Sun (Lv. 4 - 4 moves, Yang), The Void Shattering Step (Lv. 3)]
[Skill Points: 35.679]
---
In those 3 months, Meng had probably the biggest progress yet. Although it might not be noticeable at first sight, when his Nimbleness rose up to an Advanced level he felt a big boost in his speed which once again allowed him to use even more weight during fights without being hindered by it. When his Cloud Steps advanced to 7th level, he became capable of creating a few afterimages. The Void Shattering Step also advanced and made him capable of traversing more than 650 steps at once.
His alchemy also went up a lot since he started creating pills without Vista's assistance. He was now capable of creating the Profound Strengthening pills for Spirit and Earth realms but he refrained from even showing them to anyone. He only tried to create a few Earth Realm ones that he all gave to the clan master, telling him that it was a little gift from his "master" for taking good care of his "disciple".
Meng also used those 3 months to practice his One with the Shadows, spying on other disciples what they are talking about in their free time. Expect for the rubbish he has heard, he discovered that a lot of disciples turned even more hard-working due to the mysterious "rewards" given only to those who are worthy enough. There were also rumors inside the Iron Spear Clan that those mysterious rewards were provided from Meng's mysterious master but from what he has heard, it sounded more like speculations than rumors.
...One time, while Meng was traveling through the shadows at night to catch any other people speaking about the clan's situation or anything at all, he unconsciously entered the females' side of the clan's grounds and he immediately regretted it after what he heard what they were discussing there at night.
'I had no idea that I have so many fans but I hardly heard anything regarding the clan's situation! I just heard some unimportant things such as female disciples being split into 2 camps... the 1st camp were Tie Hengjun's fans while the 2nd camp was full of my fans...There even existed some secret 3rd camp but I truly don't want to know what they are rooting for...that's what my intuition tells me. At least it seems that branch of Xiao Sect became a bit quiet, I wonder what are they planning, maybe I should visit them once again.' Meng thought while lying on his bed. During all those 3 months he continued living near the other disciples and he even continued eating his meals with them. Most of the disciples were feeling quite comfortable in his company despite knowing that their status is completely far apart. This was one of the reasons why he became so popular even among the younger generation.
Meng was liked by the older generation due to his mannerism, talent, and diligence while the younger generation liked him for his friendliness and politeness despite having much higher status than them. Some of the younger disciples even started calling him Saint Meng, of course, they wouldn't dare to mention it in front of him even though some of the bold ones tried it a few times but all they have earned from Meng was a little laugh before being slightly reprimanded. Despite seeing that he wouldn't punish them for it, no one continued using it in his presence since they could see that he wasn't too comfortable with it.
