To Fight Destiny

"Huh? But, it's probably gonna hurt, like, a lot."

Ryker scratched his head, at a loss for what to do. She didn't want him to put her in a state like Captain Cheng, right?

"But it will make me stronger, yes? As strong as you are?" she asked.

"Uh, I don't think you'll get as strong as me, right away," he answered.

"But you'll definitely be a lot stronger than you are, right now. Maybe as strong as those Zhang brothers, in about a month?"

Long Meiling's eyes lit up, and she strode over to look him in the eyes with an imperious gaze, crossing her arms. The effect was somewhat diminished by how far she had to look up, however.

"Then teach me. I don't care how much it hurts," she said with conviction.

"Hm..."

Ryker rubbed his chin in thought, wondering what the best move here would be. On one hand, she was asking him to do it.

Or, more precisely, ordering him to.

On the other hand, it was *really* gonna hurt. Captain Cheng was supposed to be a lot stronger than her, but even he was left paralyzed by the tiniest amount of mana Ryker could utilize.

If he tried it with Meiling, wouldn't it leave some permanent injuries or something?

"Mini C, what do you think?" Ryker asked, falling back on the tried and true method of asking Mini C for advice.

[If I might make a suggestion, we should teach Miss Long how to manipulate mana, herself,] Mini C responded.

[The volume of mana you can move is extremely high, but your control is terrible, which is why Captain Cheng is suffering at the moment.]

[However, if we simply teach Miss Long the technique, even if her control is subpar, she won't be able to move enough mana to cause injury,] he finished.

"Wow, great idea!" Ryker said, grinning.

"Oh, but how are we gonna teach her?"

He tilted his head to the side, trying to think about how best to teach Long Meiling.

[Don't even bother,] Mini C said, interrupting his thoughts.

[I'll handle it.]

He levitated the compad out of Ryker's bag, floating it over into Long Meiling's hands.

[We can start with some basic meditation to feel the presence of mana, before moving to some thought exercises that will help in its manipulation,] he began, popping up on the screen.

{And I'll help!}

Bestie also chose this moment to show up on screen, causing Mini C to put a palm to his face in exasperation.

"Who are you?" Long Meiling asked, unaware of another existence besides Mini C accompanying Ryker.

{I'm Bestie! Pleased to meet you!} Bestie replied with a sweet smile.

[She's... my assistant,] Mini C recovered, pointedly looking away.

[Anyways, let's get started. Shall we move somewhere more open?]

"Yes. We can go to my personal courtyard," Long Meiling said with a nod.

Ryker also nodded, before turning to leave the estate.

"Well, I'll leave y'all to it, then," he said, waving them off with a grin.

"I've got me a date with some food stalls! I'll come back when the market closes."

For reference, he now had a sizable(?) allowance that could buy him twenty of his favorite roasted Fire Bird skewers, every day.

[Not so fast, Ryker,] Mini C interjected before he could leave, [You'll be coming with us.]

"Huh? Why?"

[It's become clear to me that there are much stronger individuals here than we first thought,] he went on.

[You need to start focusing on getting stronger, yourself, which means practicing your qi manipulation and perfecting those weapon techniques you learned.]

Mini C ejected the Sturdy Iron Rod and the Snow-Rimed Sword from the dimensional storage for Ryker to catch, along with the newly acquired manuals from Meng Guo's system bonus.

[You'll need to be strong enough to defend yourself once we journey out to find your friends. And you should really be saving your money, regardless.]

"Mmph... fine," Ryker grumbled, carrying the bundle of stuff in his arms as he followed them.

"But tell Yuhan to go get me some Fire Bird skewers!"

--

The days passed as the two of them started their respective training regimens. Ryker was moved to an unused guest room within the estate, for the time being.

Things had progressed smoothly, with Long Meiling quickly picking up the mana control technique thanks to Mini C's guidance.

Ryker was a bit slower on the uptake, but soon enough Captain Cheng recovered from his debilitating injury, and he volunteered to take Ryker under his wing for qi training.

One day, after a week had passed since they started their training...

"Faster, faster! My grandmother moves qi faster than you!"

Cheng Hui and Ryker were currently in the middle of their usual qi manipulation training, which involved putting magical, weighted rings on their arms and legs and running through various martial arts movements.

The rings were cultivation artifacts designed to constrict painfully if there wasn't enough qi sent to the limbs when moving. Needless to say, Ryker was suffering quite a bit.

"Uh, you're not still mad about me putting you in the infirmary for three days, are you?" Ryker asked with a strained expression as he focused on getting his qi to flow.

Cheng Hui grimaced slightly, wondering why this fool had to bring that up and remind him, before shaking his head with a sigh.

"...No, I'm not," he said through gritted teeth. He *was* still a little mad.

Though he did feel a great increase in his physical strength afterwards, so there was that.

"It's just a habit from drilling my squad, I suppose," he went on, "But you do need to focus more. It will be hard for you to step into the Foundation Establishment realm if your qi control is lacking."

"Yeah, but I dunno... I'm not really getting it, I don't think."

Cheng Hui paused for a moment, before removing his qi training rings, motioning for Ryker to do the same.

"Perhaps we should take a break for now," he said, sitting down in a meditative pose.

Ryker followed suit, taking off the rings and plopping down on the ground.

"Phew, this is tough stuff," he said, taking a sip of the water gourd he was given when they started.

Although he'd been getting guidance from Captain Cheng for the past four days, there wasn't much improvement.

The actual movement of the qi had become a lot smoother, now, but the speed of the qi flow still left something to be desired.

He looked over to where Long Meiling was currently going through the first stages of body refining, courtesy of his own personal technique.

Looking at her brow creased in concentration, sweat dripping down her face, he wondered what could be motivating her to take things this far.

He knew from personal experience that it couldn't be pleasant.

"Hey, Cap," Ryker whispered, leaning towards Cheng Hui conspiratorially.

"You know why Meiling's in such a hurry to get stronger?"

Cheng Hui looked towards his young mistress, as well, exhaling deeply in thought.

"Most likely, she's looking to prove herself at the next Young Geniuses exhibition that's coming up," he said.

"This will be her last chance to compete before she's married off to the Li family, so she's probably thinking to show her talents and make her father reconsider the marriage."

"Whoa, she's getting married?" Ryker said, eyes going wide, "To who?"

"Li Daoming," Cheng Hui answered. He rolled his eyes at Ryker's uncomprehending expression, elaborating further.

"The one who sent the two Zhang brothers at you, a few weeks ago."

"Ooohh, that asshole," Ryker said, finally remembering.

"So, what, she doesn't get any say in that?"

"No," Cheng Hui said, shaking his head, "And I don't think that will change, no matter how well she does in the exhibition."

"Why not?"

"It's... complicated."

"Hm."

They sat together in silence for a moment, lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, however, Cheng Hui clapped his hands together, springing up to his feet.

"Okay!" he shouted forcefully, as if to expel the gloom from moments before.

"I think these monotonous exercises aren't quite your thing, Ryker, so let's just move straight to sparring," he continued.

"I'll beat some proper qi control into you, so be ready!"

"Hell yeah!" Ryker cheered, jumping up to his feet, as well.

"Uh, but do you actually need to beat it into me, or was that like a figure of speech...?"

Cheng Hui just smiled, giving him a pitying look.