Trouble at the hot springs

Loud shouts echoed through the training room, as Bai Jingshen and Ra fought with two massive spears. In the beginning Bai Jingshen didn't seem used to the Borde Technique, but Ra was astonished at how fast Bai Jingshen improved. In only a day the black-haired man easily reached the first-step-stage.

Bai Jingshen also reveled in the feeling of improvement. Ra on the other hand quickly realized how good Bai Jingshen was, so he decided to change to his favorite weapon, which to Bai Jingshen's surprise turned out to be a great sword. As Ra had already reached the perfection-stage in the Borde Great Sword Technique, he slowly began to suppress Bai Jingshen in their sparring session.

The former emperor's fighting spirit began to boils, not wanting to give in against Ra. Therefore, he began to put in 110% in his training, quickly improving his spearman ship.

Originally, Ra only wanted to train with Bai Jingshen for a day, but he quickly realized that facing the experienced Bai Jingshen, his long stuck Great Sword Technique actually began to improve again. Therefore, at the end of the day, he decided to train with Bai Jingshen until the newcomer competition. Bai Jingshen wouldn't reject a good training partner, so he readily agreed.

A huge surprise awaited Bennet as a result, as he decided to look after Bai Jingshen the next day. While watching form the sidelines however, he quickly realized that those two young men motived each other well, so he didn't send Ra away, even though he disliked Claw. For a few hours Bennet even gave both of them some advice, before he left again. Bai Jingshen was a bit confused by Bennet seemingly leaving in a hurry, but how could he know that his fast improvement almost damaged Bennet's confidence.

Bai Jingshen and Ra were at this point consumed by their training, as load impacts and shouts echoed through the room for weeks. While Ra got ever so closer to reaching the transcendence-stage, Bai Jingshen began to swap through different weapons. His goal was to reach the major-success-stage for as many weapons as possible, while later training a few techniques to the perfection and maybe transcendence-stage without forgetting the other weapons.

The fact that Bai Jingshen reached the transcendence-stage with the sword without training much shocked Ra almost out of his mind, but it only showed Bai Jingshen, that it would still be advantageous to focus on some weapons. Therefore, Bai Jingshen decided to adopt a less stubborn mindset. While he still wanted to train all weapons, he realized that he might need more real killing blows, so he had to master a select few.

For this reason, from the third week onwards, Bai Jingshen mostly trained his spearman ship, sword, and knife techniques.

In this way time quickly passed. Not much happen for the two men locked in training, other than Bennet showing up occasionally.

On one day Kayleen and Fluffy came to visit Bai Jingshen. While the dog beast seemed uneasy because of the fierce aura filling the room, Kayleen happily wished Bai Jingshen good look in the newcomer competition. She furthermore explained, that she needed to prepare for the New World now, so they wouldn't see each other until their arrival at Thobar Bionics base. Bai Jingshen was happy to take a break and talk to Kayleen, but he quickly became annoyed, as he felt Kayleen's uneasiness.

Without the redhead explicitly saying so, Bai Jingshen realized that Thomas asked her to keep a distance from him. Although Bai Jingshen didn't have any romantic feelings for Kayleen, he still found it unpleasant as someone held his friend back from meeting with him. Unfortunately, he couldn't change much, as teaching Thomas as lesson would probably antagonize Kayleen.

Therefore, Bai Jingshen was in a weird mood after Kayleen left again. Luckily the perfect vent stood in front of him, making the following few hours hell for Ra. As Bai Jingshen didn't hold back at all, he unconsciously used a lot of moves that didn't have anything to do with Borde Techniques, catching Ra off guard and leaving him battered and bruised.

Finally, the day before the newcomer competition arrived. Bai Jingshen and Ra decided that the best course of action was to relax for a day. Therefore, both man put their weapons down and headed towards the Gentle Water Inn. Bai Jingshen was in a great mood, as they arrived at his favorite place in this city. However, he almost started to curse at the heartless hotel, when he saw the price for a day of relaxation was at 6000 credits.

After Bai Jingshen paid with a heartache, he decided he quickly needed to recover from this shock in a hot spring. Therefore the two men went to the same place where they had their first conversation and quietly soaked their bodies in the warm embrace of this healing water.

After a while of resting his mind, Bai Jingshen suddenly was annoyed when he spotted a few buzzing insects. At first their annoying sounds only reached his ears, until slowly his senses told him, that they even dare to throw glances in his way. In the cultivation world there existed a few big taboos.

The worst you could do to any cultivator was to interrupt them in their enlightenment or breakthrough. In some cases, the cultivator would badly hurt themselves and might never recover, forever stuck at their cultivation realm. Another irredeemable thing to do, was to distract someone during cultivation. Even though doing so would only throw someone back a few weeks, but going backwards in one's cultivation was still a devastating feeling for any cultivator.

Right now, Bai Jingshen wanted to relax after a few weeks of harsh training. Clearing one's mind and consolidating gains was an important step, which would help to really let the previous learnings become a part of you. Therefore, the former emperor almost had the urge to turn around and kill those flies. The young man however realized that this world followed different rules, where a murder in public wouldn't only antagonize the other party's elders, but even the local authorities.

Now Bai Jingshen could only start to circle the White Illusion Arts and sinking deep into his mind. On one hand, doing so would engrave the previous training deeper into his mind, on the other he would close himself off from his surroundings.

Ra also quickly noticed some youngsters in another hot spring mocking him and Bai Jingshen. As he looked over there, he saw a young man with spiky hair wildly gesturing in their direction. His two friends seemed to praise him, judging from the smug grin on the youngster's face. Noticing Ra looking over to them, the young man called out:

"You, blondie. What are you doing with that loser over there? Come on, what's with that serious look? Do you see how that guy doesn't even dare to face me?"

After Spike Jr.'s mocking, Ra looked at Bai Jingshen's face. He observed a bit and quickly realized, that Bai Jingshen seemed to be in a meditative state. Ra immediately understood the situation and decided to shield his friend, so he could consolidate his gains. Ironically, Ra also gained a lot from their training, but he didn't achieve a breakthrough, so he was already finished after a short nap.

Spike Jr. watched as the blond man stood up and positioned himself in front of Bai Jingshen.

"Haha, that loser really is afraid of me. Do you see how he pretends to sleep? He even needs someone to shield him.", Spike bragged to his friends, who quickly flattered him:

"You are right, what a loser. Brother Spike, doesn't he owe you something from losing after challenging you?"

"Right, right. He should lick your feet and kowtow. How dare he challenge the chief instructor's son and then run away!"

Spike obviously was uncomfortable with the direction their conversation took, after all he might have embellished his story a little. His friends however didn't notice anything wrong and further poured oil into the fire.

"Look how he just continued with his charade. What a clown!"

"Brother Spike. Come, we should teach him a lesson!"

Under the stubborn pestering of his friends, Spike finally relented and walked over to Ra. The blond man quickly took on a guarded posture, asking in a low voice:

"What do you intend to do? Don't go too far!"

Spike however, quickly wanted this situation to be over, so he ignored Ra, walking over to Bai Jingshen in a brisk pace. He didn't really have any plan, so he arrived by Bai Jingshen's face and raised his leg. Just as he wanted to bring his foot down to humiliate Bai Jingshen, he felt a firm hand holding his wrist from behind. Spike Jr. wasn't to concern at first, as fighting in Gentle Water Inn was strictly prohibited, therefore he was only even more surprised when he felt his body flying through the air.

After a heavy landing, Spike was enraged this time. Since he was only a bit bragging before, he didn't really entertain the idea of doing anything to Bai Jingshen or Ra. However, he felt his pride wounded after flying three meters through the air in a crowded hot spring. Spike almost physically felt all those judging glances thrown by the other cultivators, so he stood up and stormed at Bai Jingshen like an enraged bull.

Ra saw the situation worsening and wanted to shiel Bai Jingshen, but who would have thought, that Spike's friends suddenly popped out, keeping Ra in place. Therefore, the blond man could only watch on, as Spike rushed to Bai Jingshen and slammed his foot into Bai Jingshen's side.

The former emperor just retreated out of his Sea Of Consciousness. Opening his eyes he looked at the ground in confusion, as he sailed through the air. With reflexes honed from years of battle, Bai Jingshen flipped around in midair before landing on his feet and taking in his surroundings. He quickly spotted Ra being held down and a triumphant Spike standing next to him.

All of a sudden it felt like the surrounding temperature dropped. An unbelievable heavy mental pressure descended on the room. Some cultivators with weaker minds even felt their environments clouded in a red shimmer. A killing intent worthy of the White Illusion Emperor erupted from Bai Jingshen. Most people present only felt a shiver running down their spine, but Spike Jr. felt himself drawn in an unending battlefield. Gods seemingly warred with each other, while demons destroyed planets with a wave of their hand.

In the middle of this battlefield a man created a see of blood, covering the stars. With each sword strike one of those mighty gods would fall. Until suddenly this men's sword raced straight at Spike's head.