Chapter 24 - Two Lessons

Qing Chen charged towards Ao Wen, swinging the Thunder King in a powerful overhand strike. As the blade sliced the air, the sound of faint thunder rippled behind it. The combination of thunder's concussive force and lightning speed led him to believe that he could end this quickly, battering down the little girl before things became complicated.

Seeing the overbearing strike coming, Ao Wen raised the blade of the shark fin-tipped saber in a classic block, her left hand on the spine of the blade, saber held parallel to the ground above her head to receive the strike. Qing Chen grinned at the sight, knowing he could overpower such a simple block with ease.

The block, however, wasn't simple. As the Thunder King made contact with Ao Wen's unnamed saber, she pivoted, allowing the Thunder King to slide along the edge of her saber towards the ground as she stepped up close to Qing Chen, striking his jaw with the ring pommel of the saber! Her movement hadn't finished, the strike with the ring pommel was followed quickly by an elbow slamming into Qing Chen's solar plexus, winding him and doubling him over enough for her to use the long hilt of the ring saber as a hook behind his head, locking him with her forearm like the pincer of a scorpion before throwing him sprawling to the ground.

The crowd quieted instantly. Feng Xi, who had begun to play a stirring song to accompany the action, paused, holding a long note filled with tension. Ao Wen looked down at Qing Chen with disappointment as she placed the shark fin-shaped tip of her saber at the corner of his jaw, poking slightly into his neck. "Lesson one," she said loudly. "The whole body is a weapon, the whole saber is a weapon. If all you fight with is the strength of your arms and the blade of your saber, you're already severely under-armed against a real warrior."

Ao Wen was furious. From the moment she'd woken up in her own life, she'd faced endless dismissiveness. Jun Biyu had never been so disrespected by Teacher Xie and members of the Jun clan. Lessons could be harsh, but she had never been looked at as though she was somehow lesser than her peers. Even Jun Ben, whom everyone teased for his frequently lackluster thinking skills, had been respected as a warrior. This… This sad lunge from an utter novice wasn't just pathetic, it was insulting. "Do you yield? I still need to test your second blade, perhaps you'll fare better in a rematch."

"I yield," Qing Chen spat, pushing himself up off the ground and returning to his starting position, taking a stance he'd seen from many swordsmen at his shop over the years, feet wide apart, blade pointed at the sky, ready to strike out. "I regret holding back," he said, attempting to recover some face. "I assure Brawler Ao that I won't make the same mistake again."

The crowd murmured as Ao Wen fetched the sword that reminded her of a scorpion's pincer. She believed that she'd been underestimated, but she didn't believe for a moment that Qing Chen had held back. She wondered if this was why he'd never broken through to Understudy all these years - he didn't understand the use of his weapons well enough to truly further his craft. He could only rely on the feedback of his customers, many of whom were novices themselves. Looking at him again, her eyes filled with pity. This, she felt, was as far as he would go.

"Ready?" Fenx Xi asked. She knew that Ao Wen was ready, she could see it in her eyes, and Qing Chen clearly couldn't wait to unleash whatever move he had in mind. "Begin!"

This time, Qing Chen didn't move towards Ao Wen at all. Instead, he swung Thunder King in a flat arc toward Ao Wen, gathering lightning energy as he swung. "Thunder Bolt!" He cried, stimulating his emotions, his pride in the weapon he'd created, and his belief in its might to unleash a bolt of lightning toward Ao Wen.

This time, Ao Wen stepped rapidly to the side of the incoming lightning bolt, swinging down with a saber wreathed in bronze martial energy. The roar of a dragon could be heard as she crushed the lightning bolt beneath her saber, but this time, she made no move to follow up, returning to a guard position and staring at Qing Chen in cold challenge.

Furious, Qing Chen deepened his connection with Thunder King, wreathing himself in an aura of crackling lightning bolts. Shifting his stance he lashed out again, this time with an even larger bolt of lightning accompanied by the sound of a tremendous thunderclap!

Ao Wen again met the attack, this time head-on, cleaving through the lightning as she leaped toward Qing Chen. Hastily, Qing Chen positioned the Thunder King to block but instead found himself knocked to the ground by a heavy blow from Ao Wen, infused with her raging draconic strength. "Lesson two," she said, once again holding the tip of the blade against his neck. "Sabers are not wands. A saber is meant to cleave through anything in its path, not to hurl energy like a fisherman casting his line." Walking away from him, she picked up the first saber she'd used, holding both in her hands. "These sabers are passable," she said loudly, letting the crowd hear her judgment. "I'm keeping the first one as payment for your wager. I'm keeping the second one as an apology for the insulting way you fought today. I feel like I'll need a backup when the first one fails me," she said, tossing his reputation as a craftsman into the dirt before the crowd.

"Tang Jin," Ao Wen said, clearly still angry about how things had gone. "My mood is spoiled. You deserve a fight of your own, you shouldn't be a target for my anger at someone else. Would you agree to postpone?" The gazes of the crowd had begun to weigh on her. She'd wanted to come here to prove her strength, to show that she deserved the respect of any other warrior. Instead, she felt like she'd bullied a child in front of a grand crowd. The joy she'd had at spending a day shopping with Xi had burned away leaving a bitter taste in her mouth.

"Fairy Ao," Tang Jin said after a moment. "My mood is also spoiled. Truthfully, seeing your skill, I doubt that I am your match, even with one of Aesthete Qing's Named Blades in my hand." Whatever doubts he had about Ao Wen's prowess had been banished in her first exchange with Qing Chen as she dismantled him without the use of her martial energy. Seeing her strike down two thunder strikes with her own energy, he knew that the gap between them was vast. "A powerful blade may make the difference between opponents of the same rank, but clearly, I was misguided to think it was enough to challenge you. Please, let me extend my own apology, both for last night and today. I'd welcome you and Fairy Feng to join me on the balcony of the Four Garden's House for tea. If the gardens succeed in recovering your mood, perhaps we can have a more private exchange of pointers later."

"Tang Jin," Feng Xi called out, stepping up beside Ao Wen. "Is it true that you practice your Tang family's Radiant Mountain Lion sword form?"

"It is," he said, puzzled why she would bring it up now.

"I've heard that it has strikes of surprising power, capable of rending flesh from bone?" Feng Xi continued. She knew that points of commonality were one of the best methods to sow seeds for friendship. Tang Jin had been crude and belittling in every encounter, but yesterday seemed to have shaken him loose. Enemies could become friends and nothing between them had reached a level that could be called true enmity. If things worked out, it would be a win for all of them, and if it didn't, making the attempt was unlikely to hurt anything.

"That's true," he said before continuing humbly. "That isn't a feat that I've managed myself, though I've learned the technique in theory."

"Little sister," Feng Xi said, seeing an opportunity to pull Tang Jin away from Mo Yan and his circle and to set him on a better path. "I wonder how his rending technique compares to your own Rending Pincer? Perhaps we could discuss over tea?"

"If big sister is so inclined, how can I refuse?" Ao Wen said. She had sheathed both sabers and still wasn't happy but she truly didn't want to make things worse with Tang Jin. Despite gaining two free sabers, none of it felt like an accomplishment or anything to be proud of. She almost threw away the blades but it wasn't their fault and she truly needed a proper weapon at her side in the days to come. Sighing in frustration, she gestured for Tang Jin to lead the way to his family's restaurant. Maybe he was right and the gardens would help them both recover their mood.

Once again, the crowd of onlookers dispersed, talking about the exciting events of the past few days. The older generation who had seen things like this play out before smiled wryly, looking forward to the spectacles to come. It was rare that so many young people awakened at close to the same time. Whenever it happened, tempers flared, hormones raged, and drama could be counted on as a regular occurrence. Perhaps within a year or two, if there were no other new awakenings, things would settle down until the cycle played out again. For the youngest ones in the crowd, the feeling was very different, reigniting the hope in their hearts that they too could become cultivators one day.

Finally, a small number of observers rushed to deliver their notes to a number of powerful or influential figures in the town. Between Feng Xi's breakthrough and the crushing power that Ao Wen had just demonstrated, the interests of many people would be affected by the shifting currents of power.