Pagoda's first floor.
One of Xue Qiuling's eyebrows twitched slightly for a split-second as Lan Yun sneered at her while proudly proclaiming her own selfishness. There were quite a few people in the area around them, the mere presence of these two girls capable of drawing more than just a little attention. As such, Xue Qiuling's expression didn't falter despite the short twitch, her face maintaining a charming innocence.
"Jealousy? It seems you've misunderstood something, I'm not speaking out of jealousy or love, I just wanted to make sure that you understood exactly how Junior Brother Long feels about you. Love is wonderful, but it's also important to take into consideration the emotions of the other party. A relationship where both parties don't feel the same will only end in ruin and pain."
Every inch of Xue Qiuling's being exuded the graceful air of a Senior Sister as she spoke, leaving some of the onlookers slightly breathless. But Lan Yun only sneered in response to Xue Qiuling's kind aura, her gaze remaining as piercing as earlier.
"Spare me the fake lecture, I've dealt with so many people like you that it's sickening. You consider yourself so great that you've deluded yourself into thinking that all the world's gems belong to you. And as a result, the moment you see a beautiful gem that doesn't just fall into your hands, you get jealous, angry that the gem isn't yours. You don't even care about the gem, you only care about owning it so that others can't. A person like you really isn't worthy enough to talk about love."
Lan Yun held nothing back as she laid into Xue Qiuling. She had come into contact with countless people while working at the brother in Wolfsoul city, she had seen at the very least tens if not hundreds of people who only got close to others because they wanted to have another gem on their fingers. Her words caused Xue Qiuling's eyebrows to twitch once more, her face maintaining a kind and charming smile while a sharp light flashed through her eyes.
"I'm not worthy enough to talk about love? Then what about you, how are you worthy enough to talk about love? Do you think that the marks will vanish just because you remove the rings? A used thing like you, what right do you have to talk about love? Do you think he'll even look twice in your direction with how stained you are?"
Xue Qiuling raised her left hand slightly, seemingly absentmindedly fiddling with some of her fingers. The fingers she fiddled with were the ones that previously carried Lan Yun's two rings, marking her as a prostitute. Yin Long had moved the rings over to her right hand, but having worn the rings for so long it was inevitable that they would leave some very faint marks. Xue Qiuling didn't give Lan Yun any chance to retaliate, politely gesturing towards the pagoda.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go help my Junior Brother find his way around the pagoda. You are of course free to join u... Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that you belong to the Eagle King Hall. But certainly, you have already acquired the special permission to enter our hall's pagoda, right? After all, if you don't then why would you even bother to come here?"
Xue Qiuling smiled politely and gracefully but didn't even bother to wait for Lan Yun to respond, she already knew the answer. She turned around and headed for the pagoda's entrance with light steps, a light and disdainful chuckle from Lan Yun reaching her ears.
"You know nothing, not about me and not about him. He isn't a gem you can acquire just because you want to, and even if you do, he won't stay on your finger for long. His emotions are pure so he loves with all his heart, but in the same vein, he hates with all his heart. You are not among the people able to withstand that purity. So just you try to get close to him, it will only end in your own burning."
Xue Qiuling's steps faltered for a second but she quickly continued on in an unperturbed manner, brushing aside the strands of hair that had fallen in front of her face before she gave a dismissive wave of her hand. Lan Yun followed her with a narrowed gaze and gestured for Jin Wang to follow her into the building, but as Yin Long had ordered him to stay with her, he didn't budge.
--
Yin Long felt space around him twist ever so slightly as he stepped through the gates of the pagoda, but the room he entered hadn't grown larger so he guessed that the spatial twisting was due to pagoda being covered in an array that separated it from the surrounding space. If it was like this then the disciples wouldn't have to worry about disturbing the outside, or getting disturbed by the outside, while they were going over the manuals or maybe even trying to test out a thing or two.
As for the inside of the pagoda, it was surprisingly simple. There was only a single room making up the entire lower section of the first floor, bookshelves that reached all the way to the ceiling going around the room in several layered circular patterns. There was a spiralling staircase at the centre of the room, likely leading up to the middle section of the first floor.
There were a few other people in the room, but most of them were a fair bit younger than Yin Long. This lowest floor that everyone could enter wasn't really frequented by most disciples, only the weakest and youngest would spend any time here. But Yin Long didn't head straight up to the next section, he started to leisurely move along the bookshelves, occasionally picking out one of the jade slips or books that were tucked away safely.
The books and jade slips didn't only contain cultivation manuals and skills suited for certain weapons, some of them contained the biographies of cultivators or experiences that some of the previous members of the dojo had. One of the books he picked up was almost 50 pages long and contained nothing but a vivid description of a whip attack that the author had seen as well as some ideas he had about the steps that the attack consisted of.
Yin Long glossed over a few more books while ignoring the curious stares of the surrounding disciples, some of which looked to be under 10 years old. He spent a few more minutes looking over the books on the lowest floor and then headed for the staircase leading up to the next floor, the soft voice of Xue Qiuling reaching him just as he was about to step onto the array engraved into the floor around the stairs.
"Hoh, you're actually still here? Most people just rush as high as they can the moment they pass through the gates, it's refreshing to see someone actually spend a bit of time here on the lowest floor. After all, our seniors and ancestors have spent years filling up even these lower floors, that effort deserves our respect and time."
Yin Long halted his step and glanced behind at Xue Qiuling, who was walking over with an elegant smile while her hands were folded behind her back. She nodded her head at the younger disciples scattered throughout the room and smoothly positioned herself next to Yin Long, nodding towards the stairs.
"The moment you step onto that array, the guardian golem for the next section will be produced. This first one is fairly simple even if you don't know the trick so you shouldn't have any problem. You can challenge the guardian as many times as you want, you can even challenge them after beating them in case you want to try a new move so they're very handy."
One of Yin Long's eyebrows rose in slight anticipation thanks to Xue Qiuling's words. Golems were extremely useful sparring partners since they couldn't feel pain and could be repaired quickly if there was a need to. Depending on the level of skill and intelligence embedded in them, some could be better sparring partners than actual humans.
As such, hearing that he could challenge them an endless amount of times made Yin Long quite excited. A vast library of manuals and skills to go over as well as an endless supply of sparring partners, as long as he packed enough provisions he could probably stay in this pagoda for weeks on end.
With these thoughts in mind, Yin Long stepped onto the array engraved into the floor, the bookshelves and stairs suddenly moving away from him as space around him expanded for the examination. The guardian of the stairs rose up from the floor, a two-metre tall orangutan that seemed to be made out of earth positioning itself in front of him. The orangutan had exceedingly long legs, but its limbs and body were rather thin and didn't look like they could contain too much power.
"Choose your weapon."
A stream of energy gathered in front of Yin Long as the guardian spoke, forming an orb that hovered in front of his face. He could guess what he had to do so he stretched out his hand and touched the orb, sending a bit of his Qi and thoughts into it to form a standard sword. Yin Long felt his Qi freeze when the sword finished forming, it seemed like he would have to rely solely on his sword skills to pass this test. He lowered his sword and raised his foot to move forward, but Xue Qiuling's voice sounded out from right behind him and stopped his movements.
"You're holding the sword wrong. It might be enough for a normal fight, but when it comes to a battle where you only use your skills it's important
to observe your opponent and change your moves accordingly."
Xue Qiuling had stepped onto the array alongside him and was standing practically right behind him, smiling charmingly. Yin Long moved his pupils once more, his glance sliding away from Xue Qiuling and landing on the guardian. He planned on just sparring with the monkey to see what it could do so he had indeed not bothered doing what she said, observing his opponent and adjusting his moves accordingly, he didn't see a point in doing so for a fight like this. His expression made his thoughts abundantly clear to Xue Qiuling, who simply chuckled softly.
"Hehe, you shouldn't think of it like that. You might learn something after a few times with a mindset like that, but if you view it as a life and death battle from the very start then you'll learn things faster since your mind is in high-gear. Here, let me show you with this one. I'm guessing you'd probably need about 10 or 12 moves to defeat monkey here if you do things normally, but let me show you how to do it in just one move."
She wrapped her arms around Yin Long from behind as she spoke, grabbing his left arm and placing his hand on the hilt of the sword so that he was holding it with both hands. One of his eyebrows rose, but he didn't resist too much, he had trained like this with Lan Yun and the youth from the Deshi clan in the past as well, it was one of the simpler ways to get the hand position correct.
"There you go, holding the sword with both hands reduces the number of moves you can do but increases the power within each and every one of them. Look at monkey, what do you think he specializes in?"
It was a question that Yin Long didn't even really need to think about, just looking at the guardian in front of him made his specs exceedingly clear.
"His legs are too long and his limbs are too thin, he probably specializes in speed while lacking proper power and defences."
Defence, speed, power, people had argued for countless years over which one was better, which one should be focused on. But none of the sides had ever managed to agree, constantly convinced that their own way was superior despite its flaws. Xue Qiuling nodded her head, her warm breath tickling Yin Long's ear as she spoke, letting go of his arms and stepping back.
"Sharp eyes. Exactly, he's fast but weak and frail. As such, hitting him a bunch of times isn't as useful as giving him one single good smack, that's the trick to easily beating him. So have at it."
Yin Long glanced back at Xue Qiuling as she stepped back, his black pupils lingering on her still-innocent face for a second before he nodded his head in gratitude and turned to face his enemy. It didn't really matter whether or not he beat the guardian straight away or later, but since she had tried to help him with good intentions then it was only fair that he at least showed gratitude for it.
And the truth of the matter was also that he probably wouldn't have thought to grasp his sword with both hands. Wielding his sword with one hand had already been ingrained into his bones, it was a habit so natural that he didn't even think about it. He even did it sometimes while he practised using a greatsword, resulting in a certain imbalance between his moves and body.
He took a few steps forward, the monkey jumping into action when Yin Long took his fourth step. It kicked off of the ground and shot forward, stomping the ground multiple times to change direction and angle, ending up behind Yin Long's right side and punching at his waist. The fist made contact with Yin Long's waist, his body reacting on instinct.
He moved his sword over to his left hand, his right hand letting go of it as he allowed his body to turn along with the punch. As a result, he spun down along the arm of the monkey and swept out with the sword, his blade leaving a crack in the neck of the monkey. The guardian jumped back again after it was hit, Yin Long clicking his tongue in annoyance.
"Tch, did it again."
He hadn't meant to switch his grip on the weapon over to one-handed, it had simply happened naturally as he moved along with his instincts. Looking at the crack on the monkey's neck and thinking about the feeling he got when he hit it, he came to the conclusion that Xue Qiuling was about right in her assessment, his normal one-handed grip would need about 10 or so moves to defeat the monkey. This realization caused him to click his tongue once more, Xue Qiuling wasn't one of the more senior disciples of this dojo for nothing, she definitely had sharp senses.
He exhaled a quick breath and then grasped the sword with both hands again, his gaze focusing on the monkey as he erased everything else from his mind. But even with everything erased, a certain thought popped up in his mind. If just the very first guardian was this intriguing and forced him to try out a new style for a quick victory, how much more fun could he have, how much more could he learn while sparring with the guardians of the higher floors?
The monkey didn't know or care about Yin Long's thoughts, kicking off the ground and shooting forward once more. But it didn't jump around this time and instead chose to rush straight at Yin Long, his earlier dodge had probably shown it that attacking from behind was a fruitless endeavour. The guardian quickly reached Yin Long's front and lashed out with both arms, one fist heading for his head while the other one headed for his abdomen.
But having the enemy right in front of him was the best possible situation for Yin Long, like this it would be easy to ignore his instincts and attack in a different manner. He performed a move he had used countless times in the past, albeit a different variation back then, he lowered his blade and placed the side of the tip against the side of the ape's lower fist. He pushed the punch to the side and lowered his body so that the other punch flew over his head, allowing him to dive into the bosom of the guardian.
He put strength into both arms and tilted his blade, the tip starting to dig into the side of the ape's fist. He then pushed the blade forward, the tip running along the arm of the ape for a bit before his slash reached the guardian's abdomen. The attack cut open the abdomen of the monkey far easier than it should have, causing Yin Long to guess that the test was probably set up in such a manner that the guardian would falter the moment the disciple attacked it while grasping their weapon with both hands.
"Trial completed, Disciple Yin Long has received the right to move up."
The guardian dissipated after the verdict was delivered, the sword Yin Long was holding dissipating along with it. The expanded space shrank again, the room around Yin Long returning to normal, the stairs in front of him now available to him. A few soft claps came from behind him, Xue Qiuling smiling at him in a reassuring manner.
"It ended up taking you two moves, seems like your instincts have solidified quite a bit. You must have trained quite a bit already, but seeing as you're used to only utilizing one hand I'm guessing that you've never actually had a proper teacher, otherwise they would teach you the other ways to grasp your weapon. But don't worry, as the one who brought you into this dojo it's only fair that I help train you. Wouldn't want you to leave too soon you know? So, how about we rush all the way to the third floor, the guardian there should give you quite a challenge."