Chapter 103: Looking Up
A little more than a month prior, Zi Delan and his friends were struggling to find food, often resorting to methods he did not feel comfortable with just to keep himself alive. Mugging innocent people. Robbing stores and homes. He’d hated doing it, but the choice was thieving or dying of starvation.
At least, they’d never had to resort to killing anyone and had tried to limit their victims to those who could most afford the loss. Not that anyone had much to spare, but they did their best.
Things had changed for the better. For the much, much better.
In the last month, he had never wanted for food, and not only had he been taught to cultivate, but he was a respected member of a sect led by a powerful master.
The blunt tip of his opponent’s practice spear poked Zi Delan in the chest. Ouch!
“Pay attention!” Yang Ru said.
Oops.
“Sorry, Senior Brother.”
They exchanged blows again, Senior Brother easily blocking Zi Delan’s. At least that time he kept his concentration on the spar.
It was just so hard to keep his mind from spinning. There were so many things demanding his focus that his attention just kept wandering. Five days ago, he’d never held a real weapon beyond a small knife. He’d never had a ton of information inserted into his mind by a jade slip.
For the simple training session with Senior Brother, Zi Delan was expected to choose the correct basic movements of the spear for attack and defense, to watch what his much more experienced opponent was doing and react accordingly, and, oh yeah, not forget to move qi through his body to enhance just the right muscle at the exact right time, minimizing both the amount of muscle he powered and the amount of time he left it powered.
Simple, no?