Chapter 24 - Wishes and Fishes
Benton kept a watchful eye on his disciples, worried both about them getting injured in a fight and about them growing fatigued from how hard he was pushing them.
A week passed, and the siblings were making progress in many ways. First, distance wise, as they were covering a lot of ground. Each day the siblings got better at targeting their leg and foot muscles with smaller and smaller bursts of qi, allowing them to travel faster and farther. Second, cultivation wise, as they fastidiously cultivated for five hours every day. They’d been traveling for a little over two weeks since reaching the fourth minor realm, and between the twins’ talent and the extra qi from the pill, Yang Xiu and Yang Ru were each more than halfway to the next breakthrough. And finally, third, combat wise, as they now each could solo a rank two spirit beast. Benton still stayed close by in case anything went wrong, but he hadn’t had to act in days.
Further proof of their advancement came in the evening of the seventeenth day since they’d first broken camp. Yang Ru achieved Large Success with the spear technique. Yang Xiu was again green with envy, and his accomplishment spurred her to work even harder. He was nothing but supportive, in his taciturn way, until she broke through the next day. After that, it was all subtle jibes and glances proclaiming that he was the superior martial artist.
That night, Benton sat them down after dinner. “Great job, you two. I seriously mean it when I say you both should be proud of yourselves. The average sect member of even a larger sect would have taken three or four times longer to reach Large Success with a technique.”
Of course, the average sect member didn’t fight life or death battles multiple times a day. The siblings’ talent surely helped, but all the fighting followed by meditating turbocharged their advancement.
“Now that both of you have achieved Large Success,” Benton said, “I have a task for you.”
Yang Ru grunted.
If Benton’s interpretation was correct—and he was getting better at understanding grunt—that one meant something like, “Senior Brother means now that you have finally achieved Large Success, lil sis.”
Yang Xiu shot her brother a glare.
“That task is to reach Small Success with your sibling’s weapon,” Benton said.