New techniques.

Ling Jun wiped his lips with the sleeve of his black robe and couldn't help a small smile. He had never experienced something like this, but he didn't dislike the feeling of knowing someone always had his back, and that he could completely trust them.

It felt...good.

Meng Li also felt like she had made her first true friend. Being beautiful, lots of people had tried to get close to her, but she was able to see their intentions from the lustful looks in their eyes. Even the females of the clan only liked her for her status, or were jealous of her beauty.

In recent years she had been ostracised because she developed the hobby of 'borrowing' from people. Originally, it was intended to get people to leave her alone, yet she had come to enjoy it.

Now that Ling Jun could trust Meng Li, he decided to reveal his actual cultivation of sixth level Qi condensation. He also revealed that he could fight on par with ninth level cultivators.

Meng Li was shocked. How had he managed to hide his talent from his clan she thought in astonishment. And how was he able to hide his cultivation base without revealing that it had been hidden?

Ling Jun saw the look on her face and smiled wryly. He could imagine what she was thinking. He told her that he had experienced some good fortune and that if she ever needed to hide her cultivation base, she only needed to ask him. While hard, he was still able to do that much.

They had both planned to stay in the forest for a week so they decided to move together, though he reminded her to pretend to be siblings. Having such a beautiful girl by his side would definitely incur hostility. Meng Li understood and agreed.

They also decided that they would leave the forest separately and also pretend they never knew each other outside.

A week later, Ling Jun was unable to carry any more beast cores. He had run out of space. He had tried getting a spatial ring but it seemed they were so expensive that only sect disciples would generally have them.

The clans in Xin city only had two or three in possession one of which went to the clan head, while others were reserved for the most talented members of the younger generation.

Ling Ji possessed a spatial ring yet Ling Juns talent was not enough.

However, Meng Li possessed one as she was the strongest talent of her clan.

Ling Jun didn't plan on selling the cores anyway as he didn't want to draw any attention, but now that he had Meng Li, he could make use of her to earn some resources.

He gave all of his cores to her and they decided they would meet three months later on the first day of autumn, in the same spot they first saw each other.

They had grown even closer over the past week and were reluctant to part yet both knew that they had to.

They said their goodbyes before parting ways. Ling Jun rose his horse out of the forest as the sun was just setting and arrived home when the sun had just risen.

He decided to sleep for a bit as he was quite tired. He woke at midday before leaving his courtyard. He planned on making his way downtown to gather information.

He arrived at a busy restaurant called The Sunset Haven. He acted just as a young master should, slightly arrogant without paying any attention to other customers.

When the waiter came over, he ordered a couple of dishes before asking the waiter about any news news or rumours that had been circulating.

The waiter was a fair skinned man, with black hair and a nervous smile. He had no cultivation base. He quickly went over everything that had happened recently.

Most of it was useless talk but Ling Jun took note of the rumour that the Little dragon sect was rumoured to be recruiting disciples in various cities and would presumably be here in half a years time. Ling Jun gave the waiter a spirit stone as compensation.

The waiters eyes glowed. With one spirit stone his family could live in luxury for a year.

Ling Jun waited for his food, ate, payed and then left without stirring any trouble.

When Ling Jun returned to his courtyard he decided that he would go and look for a bow technique. He wanted to be proficient with the bow, so he wouldn't have to get close to his targets to attack.

He headed over to the martial library and announced his presence to the elder in charge, who handed him a jade slip below telling him he was able to choose up to five techniques.

He decided to first look for movement techniques so he could flee in the face of danger.

The library was divided into two floors with the upper floor only accessible to elders.

Ling Jun headed over to the movement techniques section. Most of the techniques were similar so Ling Jun chose the best one, the flowing river steps, before moving over to the bow techniques section. Again, he chose the best one, the blackwind bow, before moving onto the sword section. He chose two from those before finally choosing a fist technique, the dragon shattering fist.

He chose sword techniques in case he was forced in to close range and chose a fist technique in case he lost his sword.

Next he went to the treasure pavilion where he was allowed to pick three treasures. Most of the treasures were of similar levels so he picked the best bow he could find, and two swords. The bow also came with a quiver and some arrows.

He then returned to his courtyard and began to practice.

Five days passed in a flash. Ling Jun had found practicing with the bow to be much easier than he expected.

He was able to incorporate his spatial sense into his attacks making them far more deadly. Also, with his fast recovery, Ling Jun was able to spend far more time practicing than the average person by up to three times.

He had already reached minor completion in the Blackwind Bow technique.

Skill mastery was split into minor completion, superior completion, genuine completion, flawless completion and consummate completion. There were two levels beyond consummate. Adapt level which meant that one could adapt the technique depending on the situation and Transformed level, which meant that one had completely changed the technique into something new and better.

No one in Xin city had ever managed to reach the last two levels before.

Scratching his nose while thinking, Ling Jun decided to practice the Flowing River Steps next. In this manner, Ling Jun continued to train his new techniques.

Fifteen days later, Ling Jun now only had one technique left to reach minor completion. The last technique he had just trained was the sword technique. The reason Ling Jun had taken two swords and two sword techniques was because he planned to dual wield swords. He knew it would be harder to train, yet if he could master it, the benefits would be enormous.

Ling Jun began to practice. Another twenty days passed by and Ling Jun could be seen in his courtyard with sweat glistening off his brows as he swung two swords in his hand. With the sword in his right hand he was executing the Bloody Blade technique and with the sword in his left hand he was executing the Final Line technique.

The former was an offensive technique whilst the latter was a defensive technique. With this, he would now have both bases covered well in battle.

He had finally gotten used to dual wielding and could use two different techniques simultaneously with ease. In fact, it wasn't just limited to sword techniques, he could even use the Dragon Shattering fist and a sword technique simultaneously or any other combination.

He knew that he had gotten used to dual wielding way too fast, but it had just seemed really easy for him, as though he was simply training something he had forgotten ages ago.

On this day, his servant, a fair haired and pretty young girl at second level Qi condensation knocked on his door.

"Brother Ling Jun, clan master has ordered that all disciples between fifteen to eighteen must gather in the assembly hall within fifteen minutes."

"Understood."

Upon hearing his reply, the servant, Xue Ying left with her footsteps becoming quieter and quieter.

I wonder why we are being summoned thought Ling Jun. Perhaps it was some opportunity or perhaps there would be a tournament of some sort. After all, why would there be a specific age range?

Ling Jun quickly disrobed and poured himself a bath. He cleaned himself thoroughly before drying off and donning a black robe with the hood kept down. He strapped one sword to his back before leaving and heading to the assembly hall.

The pavement on the way over was bustling and people were filled with excitement.

"Have you heard! The five year tournament between the three clans and other talents will be taking place in twenty days time!"

"This will be the most exciting tournament in decades as the talents are the best in this generation!"

People were making similar exclamations and the atmosphere was quite lively.

So that's what is going on thought Ling Jun. He carried on walking until he reached the hall. He made sure to arrive after Ling Ji and Ling Su so that his arrival would not attract much attention.

Everyone was talking amongst themselves and Ling Jun found a random group to introduce himself to before conversing.

Eventually Ling Juns father, the first elder, stepped on to the raised podium before clapping his hands. The hall was instantly plunged into silence.

"I'm sure you have been made aware of the five year tournament coming up in twenty days. This year, the tournament will be hosted by the Tang clan. Everyone must do their best so as not to lose face for our clan.

"For this reason, everyone here will be getting five Qi gathering pills in order to improve your strength to the next level before the tournament."

Everyone was shocked.

"Did I hear that right? Qi gathering pills, and FIVE no less? Qi gathering pills are so precious, we only get one per month!"

"The clan sure is good to us, we must definitely not lose any face for the elders!"

The disciples were more pumped and motivated with the rewards offered and decided to seriously cultivate and gain face and honour in the tournament.

After that the disciples lined up to receive their cultivation resources before heading back. Ling Jun, Ling Hao, Ling Su and Ling Ji along with two other older disciples were given extra resources. Ling Ji and Ling Su were given ten Qi gathering pills, a thousand spirit stones and a low black level treasure from the clan.

Meanwhile the other four were given seven Qi gathering pills, three hundred spirit stones and a peak yellow grade treasure. Ling Juns swords and bow were both low grade yellow weapons.

Weapon ranks were split into yellow, black, earth, sky and heaven realms with each being split into low, medium, high and peak. The best treasure the clan possessed was a medium black level sabre. The clan possessed only five low grade black level treasures.

Ling Jun received his resources and chose a better bow for his weapon.

With his dual wielding technique, it would be better if both swords were of similar quality, so power could be unleashed with maximum efficiency.