Chapter 35. Unfair?

Yee Rhys did not return to the Outer Sect until morning and headed straight for the dining hall.

The two hours stretched out unexpectedly. The young man had naively assumed that there would not be many discrepancies in the base. On the whole, he even turned out to be right. The basic concepts and terms coincided almost exactly the same. But their interpretations and understandings were as different as a diamond and a rubbish dump. One had the impression that the sect's techniques had been run through a crowd of low-level ignorant practitioners, each of whom considered it a sacred duty to leave their mark on it.

Upon first becoming acquainted with this road of cultivation, trampled down to the point where it had become a destination, Yee Rhys fell into a stupor.

And then had to have a long and tedious explanation of the meaning of each word, periodically digging into the ancestral memory and trying to make sense of the intricacy of the concepts. Some of the terms were not understood intuitively until the third or fourth sphere, and it was not easy to grasp the concepts in general terms. And to put them into words was even more difficult.

Half the problem was that ancestral memory provided all-encompassing information. For example, a spell. Do this, do that, do that, and when it felt like this, let it go. And how do you explain "this feeling" to the person you are talking to with words? It was about the same with the terms. The young man intuitively sensed what was behind them, but when he tried to explain it to the other person, his tongue simply knotted up and took a holiday for health reasons.

Finishing his snack and taking a supply of food, Yee Rhys left the canteen.

- Wait! - A loud shout didn't let him get far.

- Huh? - The young man turned around and saw a group of teenagers led by a three wisps kid.

- You're too old. You've got good technique. I, Ho Ho Tun, am ready to take you under my arm.

Yee Rhys froze in shock. He was forbidden to acknowledge even Elders as teachers. If he acknowledged this brat as his teacher, the Patriarch would hang him upside down in a tree and tell everyone it was so.

- Not interested. - The boy cut him off.

- Wait a minute! - The boy seemed to find that rejection unacceptable. - I am the grandson of the Inner Sect Elder Ho Ho Loc. Our Ho Ho clan is big and has as many as two Inner Sect elders.

Go scare the Patriarch with your great lineage.

- Not interested. - Yee Rhys shook his head. Elder? Judging by the kid's three wisps, he's hardly a beloved grandson.

- You have insulted me! - Ho Ho Tun howled. - The Ho Ho clan will not leave it at that. Teach him a lesson.

The young man stood quietly while five of the boy's handmaidens surrounded him. And he only had five of them. Ho Ho Tun himself stood aside, seemingly oblivious that the intractable candidate had already defeated his kind in a tournament. Of the five handmaidens, two were at the four-wisp level, one at the three-wisp level and two had two wisps . Four wisps was problematic, but they were unlikely to fight at full strength in public.

At first Yee Rhys thought of getting away from these woeful heroes. But judging by the boy's temperament, he would lurk long and hard, looking for opportunities to avenge the "insult". And if only he were alone. There's no guarantee the others won't join in the fun. And constant harassment is not the most pleasant thing. It's all about having someone to run from.

In this situation, it's better to show your teeth and take the fight to them. If you show weakness today, they will hunt you down tomorrow. The boy grimaced. A fight was inevitable. So the only thing left was to minimize the punishment.

The first to show himself was the three-wisp handyman. Apparently deciding that Yee Rhys had had pure luck in the tournament, he attacked, showering his opponent with a hail of punches. The young man retreated and found himself standing next to one of the brawlers of the four wisps. Seeing his defenseless rear, he didn't think twice and attacked from behind.

Yee Rhys dodged sideways at the last moment and tripped him, causing the dishonorable assailant to fly forward and safely collide with the first aggressor's fists. Having inflicted damage on each other, both froze. The three-wisp boy held his stomach, the four-wisp teen held his nose.

The youngster smiled contentedly.

The two-wisp opponents went pale and began to back away. The unbeaten four-wisp warrior frowned.

- This is not fair! - Shouted Ho Ho Tun.

- Unfair? - Yee Rhys was sincerely surprised - If you want a fair fight, challenge me to a duel according to the sect's rules. What honor can you talk about when someone attacks five men against one?

The teenager blushed with anger. He couldn't object, but he wasn't about to back down either. If the six of them couldn't even scratch the insolent with one wisp, it would be a real shame.

- You!!! - Ho Ho Tun finally found his voice and activated the technique. - "Lightning Fist!"

The young man calmly watched as the boy ran at him with his fist wrapped in lightning. The technique was good, but the opponent was simply too low. Elemental attacks only reveal their potential in the Soaring Core Sphere. In the Wisp Creation Sphere, practitioners simply have too little Qi, and the battle is ninety percent body and physical attacks. It is in this area that techniques that enhance body characteristics show the best results. However, starting from the Soaring Core Sphere, they begin to lose their effectiveness due to the increase in the average fighting distance.

At just the right moment, Yee Rhys took a step and dodged the attack. The boy ran a few more steps on inertia. When he stopped, he looked at the young man with flushed eyes and went for another run. After three more attempts, Ho Ho Tun began to breathe heavily and the lightning on his fist became noticeably less.

By that time the first opponents of the three and four wisps had recovered somewhat. The second handmaiden of the four wisps came within striking distance.

Yee Rhys smiled slightly. I'm outnumbered. But the timing is really bad. With that, the advantage in numbers turns against you.

Sensing the attackers coming from four directions, he ducked at the last moment and somersaulted out of the trap. Using the inertia of the somersault to get straight to his feet, Yee Rhys pushed off of the paving stone, jumping backwards with his back to the front. Already in flight, he turned and shoulder flew into the back of the unbeaten foe of the four wisps, aiming straight for the Lightning Fist.

After regaining his balance, the young man looked around at the pile of four teenagers with the occasional lightning bolt skipping across it. Hmm, that worked out even better than he'd planned.

- Shall we continue? - clarified Yee Rhys - or I'm off!

- You! - Ho Ho Tun hissed from somewhere below. He seemed to be the lowest of the pile.

The two surviving teenagers of the two wisps moved farther away. The top of the slide was floundering unsteadily, but was clearly not going to get up. The followers seemed to have tacitly decided to give up so as not to inflame the situation any further. But since it was impossible to explain this to the leader, they pretended to be paralyzed.

Once he had decided that the matter was settled, young man turned and walked away. Threats from down below the pile he ignored.

- Stop. - A low voice was heard as a peal of thunder, making Yee Rhys freeze in place. Turning around, he saw a Discipline Department Elder hovering in the air.

- For fighting, all participants are sentenced to the contemplation of the wall with the drawing. Passive participants, - the Elder squinted at the pair of teens of two wisps, - two days. Defensive, - a glance at the young man, - three days. Attackers - five days each. The instigator, for using Qi techniques in a public place, seven days.

Yee Rhys mentally congratulated himself. The spread was justified. He didn't strike first and most of the time he only dodged.