Hardships Of Training

Wei Ying

Next day, Wei Ying felt revitalized, thanks to the energy he cultivate in that private island that his partner had taking him, even going as far as to break his Clan's rule to make him feel as good as new. He didn't remember how he got back to their room, but he assumed that Lan Zhan had carry him back by teleportation and let him sleep undisturbed.

It had work wonders and when Lan Zhan wake him up early in the morning as it was time to head for the training ground, he was ready to face the challenges it will bring. As they were the first to arrive, they sat in the floor to begin their morning cultivation.

As they concentrate, Suibian got out of his blade to watch them from a bit of a distance. They kind of looked good together, almost like the symbol under them, one been the light and the other the darkness. They were in harmony, their strength at the same level, which make them even more compatible with one another.

"Lady Bichen, will you mind them been together in a future?" Suibian asked and Bichen too, got out of her blade to look at the pair sat side by side.

"I'm fine with what my Master decides to do with his life. I am loyal to him and I will stay as such until he dies." She said.

"Ah, you are so devoted..." So cute, he thought.

"Aren't you? We are sword spirit, isn't that what was expected of us?" She asked.

"Yeah, but we can go further than that. Wei Ying is my Master and I am loyal to him to my core, but he was capable to bring me out since young, so we became more like Master and sword... he is more a friend than a Master. I had the feeling you had recently go out, right?" Suibian asked and she blushed.

"Yes... Master Zhan is very strong, but he was in no real need to get me out. The islands here, are very peaceful, but he make sure to give me the energy I needed to be a worthy sword." She said with pride.

"And I'm sure you are... but you can be even stronger by actually spending some time with him, to know each other, see your shared strengths and weakness. Wei Ying was always in troubles, so I learn fast how to protect him the best, how did he needed me to be and help him get stronger. That is also part of our duty to the ones who gave us life." Suibian advised her and she smiled.

"I see... you are right." Damn, her smile is a killer... Suibian thought. "My Master seriousness may had influence me, blinding me to go further." Bichen whisper.

"Maybe... but he is enjoying himself now." Suibian told her as he look at the pair.

"Yes, he is and I am glad for it. He had suffer the loss of his mother at a young age, then that of his father soon after. Maybe I should had go out back then, to help him in those hard times." She said a bit sad.

"You can help him now. Guide him when he feels lost and protect him when he needs it, even when it's to protect him from himself." Suibian said it with a sight, because Wei Ying had both white and dark energy, meaning he was unpredictable and quite the troublemaker most of the time.

"Your Master is quite lucky to have a sword spirit that cares for him that much..." She said with a hint of a blush in her lovely face.

"He is a troublemaker idiot." Suibian said impulsively as he admired her beautiful face and when she arched an eyebrow, then actually laugh, he realize he just had badmouthed his Master in front of her, which was the role model of property.

"Ah, sorry about that..." Suibian said a bit embarrass, yet happy to hear her rich and soft laugh. After that, the others begin to show up one by one until the whole group was complete, including the peacock and the stupid pumpkin of the Moling Su.

Lord Zheng then, show up and divided them in pairs, sending each pair into a different training dimension, so the partner could complement to one another, then once that was done, they will train as a full group. Lan Zhan and he were immersed in a place that looked quite a lot like the Burial Mounds, although there was no hostility, nor real dark energy.

It was like a mirage, an illusion that looked real, yet was all fake. Still, Lan Zhan unsheathed Bichen, as it was supposed to be training and he did the same with Suibian, but then, their respective swords disappeared from their hands, leaving them on their own resources.

"First step, get to know your partner spiritual power and learn to work along with it. In this set, there are twenty targets, fakes corpses located all around, that could only be destroyed with spiritual energy. Good luck kids, is not as safe as you think." Lord Zheng said. Immediately both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan were back to back, as they didn't know what was coming at them.

"Lan Zhan... do you had talismans?" Wei asked and Wangji moved his head in negative.

"No, but I had plenty of spiritual energy." He responded and thus Wei Ying assented. As nothing came their way right away, they walked the uneven terrain, alert and looking for those targets they needed to destroy. At times, Wei stopped to try to have a spiritual read of the place, but as it wasn't exactly real, he could not sense anything out of ordinary.

Above them there was a gray sky with many ravens flying around, like bad omens. He had never been inside the Burial Mounds, but it felt creepy just walking around in a dead place. There was no signs of life inside those mountains, just barren land and dead trees with a black earth under their feet.

"I don't know if this is how the real Burial Mounds looks like, but how can Yin make a living in such a hellish place? She most had really gone mad." Wei Ying whisper and out of nowhere, several vines that previously looked dry and dead, came to life, trapping one of Lan Zhan's foot, then yank him off his feet, making him fall.

As soon as Lan Zhan was down, the thing begin to drag him with quite the speed, but Wei broke the vine with a spiritual shot, freen his partner, who was immediately back on his feet. Several vines came in pretty much every direction and both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan shoot at them with their inner energy.

Lan Zhan was a bit surprised that Wei Ying's energy was not the usual white or blue, but deep crimson, just like the eyes of Xuanyu. At first, he thought Wei was once again possessed, but Wei's eyes were his usual chocolate as he fought and completely under control. Perhaps the color was because he could also use dark energy, but it didn't felt like he was using it now.

"Lan Zhan, this is a trap to drain us out, we need to get away. As soon as I use one of my talismans, we run!" Wei yelled, taking one of his yellow talisman from his robes, then throwing it forward, making the vines explode, giving them the momentum to get away from them. They ran for a while, only stopping to get some rest, but then again, other things also begin to chase after them like the crows, serpents and other things.

"Damn, if we are to encounter those every time we stop, we are going to be in troubles. Sorry old man, but that will not do..." Wei said as he took out one talisman, then write over it and infuse it with his energy, then he took a bit of the soil and put it over.

A red barrier was then created with Wei Ying's energy and as long as he had the talisman with him, the barrier will move along with them, protecting them from the things meant to drain their energy as a fast rate. Lan Zhan used his own energy to get rid of those serpents that were bigger in size.

"Wei Ying, the first target is to your left, go for it." Xuanyu said to him and he wasted no time to do so. The corpse came at them like a fierce one but before Wei Ying could strike, Lan Zhan shoot out a powerful attack with his spiritual energy, setting the fierce corps in ashes.

"We take turns..." Lan Zhan said and Wei Ying smiled in agreement. With the help of Xuanyu and most possibly of Chenqing, they followed their directions while they keep both the barrier and the shoots as they ran. The training ended up been quite challenging, but as they fend corpses and other things, they had learn to become a team.

At the end, Lan Zhan had shoot seven targets down, while Wei Ying got thirteen. However, Lan Zhan had destroyed more serpents, crows and vines than Wei did, so they were more or less even. They had inwardly compete with one another in a friendly way that had make them push themselves to their very best, which was the point of the training.

As they spend hours trapped in the training ground, using only their spiritual energy, they find out what the other was capable off and learn to trust one another. To be honest, the whole silent contest was fun and even Xuanyu and Chenqing were enjoying guiding the kids around and bet on who will hit the target first.

Once the last target was shoot, they returned to the real training ground, realizing it was almost sunset in the islands. They had pretty much spend the whole day running and fighting several things at once. Most of the group were sitting in the floor, lotus style, waiting for those still in their respective training.

"It was about time, Wei Ying. What took you so long?" Suibian asked immediately. Bichen and he had been pulled out so suddenly they couldn't do anything to prevent it. They could only wait for them to return, but then the other swords were thrown out too and Lord Zheng gave them a special task to increase their spiritual energy by sharing.

They all had sat in a circle while holding hands, then concentrate not in their own energy, but the one holding their right hand, then their left. The exercise had been a disaster at first, because Su She's sword spirit, Nanping, was not willing to participate, but shortly after, his Master had come out of their training, unable to help Nie Huaisang with their task, then Lord Zhen sent them both Master and sword away.

The poor Huaisang was glad the training had been stopped, because he was fearing he was actually going to die there, as Su She had took off on his own and leave him alone to fend for himself, which end up been almost eaten by a fierce corps that came out of nowhere. It was then that Lord Zheng had brought him out, quite angry with Su.

After they were gone, they try the exercise again, making better progress, until they had manage to feel the energy in both sides, then the whole circle. With Huaisang a bit bored as his training had been ruined, he begin making bets of which pair will come out first and most of the spirit had betted on the strongest, Wei Ying and Lan Wangji, but to their surprise, the first pair had been Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen, who were already accustom to night hunt together and that was after three hours in. Then it was Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing after five hours. Wen Ning and Mianmian followed after seven hours, then Yanli and her peacock Zixuan a bit latter than the last pair.

They waited for the top pair to go out too, but as long hours passed and no sing of them, they asked Lord Zheng if they were alright, but the mischievous old man simply laughed, saying that he had thrown them the hardest training, set in the Burial Mounds with a lot more than fierce corpses as targets. He said that if they went out before nightfall, they could be consider lovers, as they will know each other so well that they will breath as one.

"We were quite busy, fighting giant serpents, hellish crows, fierce corpses and those things that show up at every step, some dry vines... the targets were also so far away from each other that it's a miracle we still have some energy left." Lord Zheng laughed.

"Ah, you were doing so wonderfully together.... I was a bit carry away..." The immortal said.

"A bit? We pretty much spend the whole day in there!" Wei protested.

"But did you notice? Did anyone of you notice?" Lord Zheng asked.

"Notice what?" Jiang Cheng asked back.

"Your spiritual energy increased. Ours too..." Sandu said to his Master, noticing the change instantly as he went out with Lady Qing." Wei Ying looked at Suibian, who assented.

"Sandu is right. Yours and Lan Wangji's spiritual energy is now quite frightening." Suibian assure him.

"But how?" Mianmian asked surprised.

"The training ground selected for each of you had a higher concentration of white energy and as you fought only with that, your body was forced to collect more, to not run out of it. As all of you unconsciously gather a bigger amount, more spiritual veins that had previously been close, had now open, allowing you to store more energy than usual. Try it Jiang Cheng... crate a fire for us." Lord Zhen urge him and Jiang Cheng make a symbol on his hand, then make the motion to throw it and a big fire showed on the floor in a line about two meters long and a meter high.

"Damn, that was..." Jiang said, as he looked in awe his own creation. His fire was usually less than half of what he created now.

"That's a lot of fire Jiang Cheng... you got stronger indeed." Huaisang said, tapping his shoulder.

"The more time you spend in the training the more energy you will gather. Now, try it too, Wangji." Lord Zheng said, making the motion for the others to back off a little.

Lan Zhan looked at Wei for a second, then he make the same symbol on his hand and his fire was nothing less than a huge wall of fire three meters high, seven meters long that Lord Zheng had to instantly extinguish with his own energy, because the heat was great.

"Damn, I want the Burial Mound training next." Jiang whisper and Wen Qing sighed. They had worked quite well together, but Jiang Cheng was fighting more to show off his skills than anything else. Still, she found it cute that he wanted so badly to impress her.

"What about Wuxian? A demonstration?" Zixuan demanded.

"Sorry, but his fire will probably burn out the next island and I already risk it, letting Wangji try it. Now, go eat something and get your rest. Tomorrow we will repeat this training, but I assure you, you will not had the same one as today. Rest up well." Lord Zhen said just before he disappeared.

"Now that he mention it, we keep ongoing without stopping to even eat. Lan Zhan, I'm starving! Come on!" Wei said as he took Wangji's hand and pull him, smiling with excitement as they ran forward to the end of the island, but Lan Zhan used a teleporting talisman midway, disappearing from the other's view.

"My Lady Bichen, they had forgot about us." Suibian whisper while sighing and he was glad to see her smile.

"We know the way. Let's go back, Suibian..." She softly said, offering her hand, which Suibian took it with pleasure.

"Lucky bastard..." Sandu whisper, a bit jealous, but then he looked at Senlin that still had her hat put on and shock his head. The lady which he had held his hand with, was indisputable strong and a beauty on her own right. He had a feeling that if their Masters end up together... maybe them will too. Maybe...

AN: Thanks for reading. This was a longer one because it had been so long since the last update. I hope you guys like it. The romance between Suibian and Bichen had started and the others swords will follow as well along with the romance between Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing. There will be a chapter of them, probably in the next. With lots of love, please take care. 😙❤❤❤