First Practice

Walking through the city on their way to the river was an entirely different experience for Wu Ling. Long having become sensitive to the lecherous gazes of men, he generally made a habit of taking the most direct routes to his destination and constantly watching the crowd to ensure that none of the people leering at him had decided to follow him.

Now that he'd shed his feminine guise for more masculine robes befitting a young cultivator there were still plenty of male gazes directed his way but this time they were filled with an almost welcome hostility and jealousy as they looked from the deliriously happy Su Xiang walking next to him to the obscenely handsome young lord that she clearly fancied.

Their appearance left several onlookers feeling that the world wasn't fair and that handsome men like Wu Ling should just fall into the river and die. What surprised Wu Ling even more, however, was the number of soft feminine sighs he heard as he and Su Xiang walked along with several jealous stares targeting Su Xiang for capturing the latest handsome young lord to emerge in the Outer Blossom Ward.

"Elder Sister Xiang, it looks like people think we're a couple," Wu Ling said, loud enough for a group of gossiping onlookers to overhear.

"What?" Su Xiang said, startled out of her affectionate cuddling of the soft, fluffy rabbit to look around at the people casting jealous gazes at them. "How are we a couple? I'm snuggling your Guardian Beast not you," she pointed out. "I think people are just jealous that I get to hold little brother's adorable Silver Snow Rabbit."

"Well, Yue is adorable, so I guess people could be jealous that you're the one she's snuggling with," Wu Ling said with a laugh, relieved that the level of hostility directed their way was diminishing. It didn't put a stop to the murmurs of interest directed at either of them but that was easier to ignore.

When they finally reached the spot along the river that Su Xiang had mentioned, Wu Ling instantly understood why she felt it would be good for practice. Even with the river running fairly high in the early spring, the bank of the river offered more than two hundred meters of relatively flat ground before rising sharply into a fifty-meter cliff. All around the area, several boulders had been cleaved from the nearby cliff, many of which showed the scars of mighty impacts or sharp cuts from the energies of practicing cultivators. In a few places, large boulders had been cleaved cleanly in two with almost polished smooth edges. Today, it seemed that they were fortunate and had the space entirely to themselves, giving them plenty of room to test Wu Ling's new techniques.

Wu Ling started by recalling Yue despite the pouting look he received from Su Xiang. Summoning Hou, he produced a small spirit crystal and fed it to the eager bird.

"You're feeding it spirit crystals already? Does it take that much energy?" Su Xiang asked when she saw his action.

"It's not that he needs that much energy, it's that I want to see how much he can do without worrying about running myself dry," Wu Ling explained. "Besides, I still have a bit over fifty spirit crystals from yesterday and that's after our shopping and using the gold and silver to make sure that rent on our courtyard is paid through the end of the year. I can splurge a little right now and it feels smarter to invest in training than to hold myself back."

"Okay, in that case, should I use my eyes?" Su Xiang asked, her sapphire eyes sparkling with an extra glow.

"I don't see why not but I don't know how much they'll help," Wu Ling answered with a shrug. Su Xiang had inherited a rare ability along with her Three Eyed Sapphire Serpent bloodline. While it was incredibly rare for any Spirit Folk to have a strong enough bloodline to manifest a physical characteristic like a genuine third eye, that didn't mean she couldn't inherit the serpent's ability to see through falsehood to the truth of things.

Her ability was one of the reasons that Wu Ling hadn't bothered to deny his identity when Su Yao brought him to her. It would have been pointless to try, just like it would have been pointless to lie to her. Su Xiang had trained her eye talents even further though. She didn't just use it for things like seeing through disguises or spotting swindling merchants, she'd also taught herself to use it against opponents to discern their intentions, see through feints, and achieve superior insight into their method of fighting.

In this case, Wu Ling thought it was a waste of energy for her to use her vision against Hou, the bird just wasn't smart enough yet to be tricky, but she might notice things she wouldn't otherwise and the feedback from those insights was sure to be useful so Wu Ling gave her a thumbs up.

Starting from fifteen meters apart which felt neither close nor far, Su Xiang drew her slim, brightly polished sword and put all her focus on the flaming golden bird circling around Wu Ling. "I'm ready," she called, bouncing on the balls of her feet and preparing to dodge the incoming fireballs.

Hou didn't stand on ceremony, instantly conjuring a ball of flames the size of a small apple in one of his claws and accelerating rapidly in his circling flight. When he reached the right point on his arc, his talons opened wide, sending the ball of flames hurling toward Su Xiang at surprising speed.

While it was fast, Su Xiang had been watching closely and waiting for exactly the moment it released its flaming projectile. Darting to the side, the ball of flame impacted harmlessly against the rocks of the river bank, leaving behind a scorch mark roughly twice the size of the fireball itself. The most interesting part was that the flames lingered for just a moment on a small twig, burning it to ash before the flames flickered out entirely.

"Well, I don't think I want to get hit by that," Su Xiang said, looking at the place where the fireball had impacted and whistling softly at the damage. "But as long as I'm watching Hou, I don't think it'll be too hard to get out of the way."

"You're right, one on one, it might be a bit too easy," Wu Ling mused. "Let me try a few more things with Hou, I think the results will be the same but we'll find out."

Hou, it turned out, had several different ways to deliver his deadly gifts. Circling around Wu Ling at high speed would let him hurl a ball of fire in any direction and if Wu Ling were surrounded by multiple opponents, Hou might be able to attack multiple directions in series. The best way they discovered to do this relied on one of the unique traits of the Golden Crow; Hou possessed three clawed feet, each capable of carrying its own individual fireball and sending it hurtling toward a different target.

He could also throw up to three fireballs at once by diving directly at his target but it took him longer to get to a place where he could dive or circle again to throw more fireballs.

"Okay, I think that's enough Hou, come back for now," Wu Ling called out, drawing Hou back into his Inner World and releasing Yue.

"Which Sword Light techniques have you learned so far?" Wu Ling asked, recalling the days when his father had shown off techniques that seemed blindingly powerful to the six-year-old Wu Ling but were in fact only the foundation techniques known to every outer court disciple to reach the second stage and become a Soldier in the sect.

"Flash Cut and Flying Crescent," Su Xiang said with a smile. "You still remember?"

"I do," Wu Ling said, letting the wave of memory pass through his heart before bringing himself back to the present. "Flash Cut probably won't make it through Yue's ice shield, it's fast but it's not very strong. The Flying Crescents though, how far away can you send your sword light?"

"Not far, ten meters is about my limit," Su Xiang confessed.

"Okay, in that case, I have something in mind. Are you up for a more practical test?" Wu Ling asked with a challenging smile.

"Sure, I'm here to help you really, as long as it's useful I'll do whatever you need," she replied genuinely. She was already impressed at how capable his 'Guardian Beasts' were looking. If he felt that there was more they could do, she wanted to see how he pulled out their strength.

"Okay, you see the rock over there," he said, pointing to a large boulder fifty meters away that had one of its faces sheared off, leaving a nearly flat, nearly vertical surface behind. "I'm going to run to that rock and paint something. Your job is to stop me."

"That's it?" Su Xiang asked. "Just stop you?"

"That's it. Think you can do it?" he asked, his smile growing even wider.

"Sure, let's see what you've got little brother!"