Han Bao grunted, sweat pouring over his face and the light gray hairs being plastered to his forehead by the sweat. The training dummy infront of him was tattered, cut down to pieces of pieces, but he still wasn't happy, infact he was absolutely frustrated.
He moved on to another training dummy, praying that this time would be different. He swung his wooden sword again, it was a practiced and powerful slash, but it was hollow. The comforting surge of energy and the 'flow' that usually came with his movements was absent this time around.
If before, when he was a soldier on a battlefield, he was a raging, unyielding fire, now he was a matchstick trying to light up a damp, soaked cloth. There was a whole ton of effort, a lot of smoke, and not a sight of flame.
He had been stuck for countless months. His past fighting experience and sudden influx of Qi had let him progress to the 4th Layer of the Mortal Honing Realm in weeks, but not it felt like he hit a wall he couldn't even chip away at. He had sparred, meditated, and pushed his physical body to the brink of life, yet a breakthrough still felt like ages away.
He looked over at the young kid he had sparred with just a month ago. He still remembered Yan Mo's surprising resilience and joy in the struggle. It reminded him of when he was younger, the endurance that came with the youngness of age. Even though he wasn't old, breaking past the 30-year mark, he was definitely not in his biological prime anymore.
He slammed his fist into the freshly tattered dummy with a mix of anger and sadness, "What am I missing?" He muttered to himself.
Unbeknownst to Han Bao, he was experiencing the opposite flaw of Yan Mo without knowing it. Over a month ago, Yan Mo realized his biggest weakness was that his physical power wasn't good enough for his Qi to properly run through and power him. Han Bao's physical prowess was incredible, on the other end, with his raw strength being equivalent to the peak of Mortal Honing, but he had subconsciously neglected his Qi, the inner energy meant to fuel progression in the Mortal Honing realm.
He was a fortress of muscle and fortitude with a soldier's resilience that led it, but the engines that were meant to propel it forward were running on fumes. His body was equivalent to a Grecian statue despite his grey hairs, but his flaw was just that. His focus had been on powering the vital energy, which is what commoners and soldiers do, while true, future immortals focused on the internal energy, Qi!
Meanwhile, a short distance away, Liu Mei sat cross-legged beneath a willow tree, her silver hair catching the rippling sunlight. Her wooden sword was laid beside her, entirely untouched throughout the whole day.
Her focus was different, while Han Bao was focusing on pure athletic might, she focused on a more gentler force. She was a master of mending. Her hands, while calloused from years of practice, moved with a unique type of grace as she tended to the little creature on her legs.
A small bird with a broken wing had fluttered into her quiet space only a few days ago. Now, a soft green light shone from her palms as she slowly healed the delicate bones back into their place, the tiny bird chirping softly, fitting perfectly onto a single palm.
She was always more aligned to being peaceful than being destructive like all the others in the sect. Still though, she watched Han Bao's training session with understanding, she had seen multitudes of disciples like him before, so intently focused on one aspect of cultivation that they created severe imbalances that would harm their development in the future.
At the very least, it wasn't irreparable, they were still before the Sea Spirit Realm, meaning any mistakes they make they can still fix and realign themselves.
She looked back down to the bird in her hands, a light smile forming on her face. It's wing was at a better angle, not entirely healed yet, but on a better track. Liu Mei hummed with a quiet satisfaction in her work, an entirely different kind of power than the one Han Bao and Yan Mo and even her little brother chased after, but nonetheless vital.
She turned to see if Yan Mo was still working like a dog, every day for the past month he has been coming here, doing rigorous physical training. She shook her head, just because it's called Mortal Honing doesn't mean that's all you focus on...after she failed to locate Yan Mo, she decided to once more look at what Han Bao was doing, only to see the two interesting individuals in a stare-down.
Yan Mo was slightly above average height, standing at 6 feet, but infront of Han Bao, he looked like a child. There was an entire head of difference between their heights, and though Yan Mo had spent a month of rigorous training that any commoner would've quit in less than an hour, his physique was also shunned by Han Bao's glorious stature.
But that only made the young kid more excited, hungry for a rematch he's been waiting for over a month! He had even advanced a layer in his cultivation after he had realized his shortcomings! Yet he knew it would not be an easy battle, even in his dreamscape, after a hundred thousand battles, Yan Mo had only won in a thousand of them.
No words were exchanged between the two, as both knew what the other wanted. Han Bao saw Yan Mo's relentless practice that he matched and could sense his advancement. Maybe this will be the battle to stop his plateau?
The two struck blades, neither wanted to spend time exchanging starting blows, getting straight to the heat of the action. But Yan Mo noticed something, his opponent wasn't giving it his all. No, in fact, Han Bao was fighting in a very unusual way, irregular to his normal style. Then, it clicked, Han Bao was trying to use Yan Mo in order to help himself break his bottleneck!
Well, helping an opponent to be an even better rival in the future can't be a bad thing, surely.
Han Bao strikes are hard, powerful, making his sword feel like a sledgehammer, but unable to strike Yan Mo. He was moving on pure instinct and sense, like a wild animal. The two were polar opposites, Han Bao was moving wide and predictable, while Yan Mo was swift and random.
Even so, it was an even fight, Yan Mo still wasn't sure how to properly exploit the predictability of his opponent. And hit after hit, Yan Mo only got slower and more sluggish but still, for now, being faster than Han Bao's wide movement. Both fighters were clearly enjoying themselves nonetheless.
"Azure Sword Technique - River Stance," Han Bao muttered under his breath, causing Mo to become cautious. Han Bao started moving fluidly, like he was made of water. His attacks became less and less predictable, in fact, one could barely argue that he did several attacks. It was more like a constant, raging river pressuring Yan Mo backwards.
Still, Han Bao barely landed anything, superficial scratches at best. This lit up a flicker of satisfaction within Han Bao, he needed to be faster. His body was too slow, too sloppy, he needed to become faster like the river his own stance was imitating.
His Dantian surged, absorbing the Qi within himself and pushing it through his meridians like a raging flame spreading across a dry forest. Even his wooden sword became coated in Qi, slamming into Yan Mo's, causing his sword to become cracked.
Yan Mo smiled, This bastard, he really just broke through in the middle of a fight huh? Yan Mo snickered as he coated his own sword in a thicker layer of Qi, rushing forth and meeting blades with Han Bao once more.
Neither let up and they pushed their crossed blades further until their noses were touching and they were directly staring daggers at each other. Both of their eyes were filled with frivolous joy and determination. Yet in the end, a month of work was only a month, and once Han Bao had a massive breakthrough letting him jump directly to the 7th Layer of Mortal Honing, the fight was already over.
Yan Mo was flown back, crashing into a willow tree. He could only laugh, all that work just to lose again...
That just made him so much hungrier for a victory.
Han Bao walked over to his younger sect brother, giving a light bow with both fists, "I must thank junior for the experience."
Yan Mo could not stand up, but nodded, "I'll beat you soon."
"I'll be waiting," Han Bao couldn't help but smile back, before turning around and walking away. He had just experienced a massive breakthrough, and Yan Mo also knew, Han Bao could use this momentum to reach the Peak of Mortal Honing, his body was already at that level anyhow.
Yan Mo was about to pass out but his falling head was caught by calloused fingers, it was that silver haired girl that had watched his fight!
...
A man sat with crossed legs, who's face was wrinkled with the passage of time, and his beard had grown down to his knees. His eyes opened and there was the slightest tug at the edges of his mouth into a smile.
This man was the Outer Sect Elder, in charge of all the happenings with the outer disciples. But he was also known by a different name, the Swordbreaker Elder.
The time for the ranking battles would be soon to come, and he was supposed to oversee it. Of course, at the end, he was supposed to pick one sect member who he saw had the most potential to take under his tutelage and, most often, direct discipleship.
He hadn't chosen a disciple in over two decades, he didn't deem any worthy. He was already happy this year when he already saw two who clearly had both talent and the hunger to improve and was in constant conflict over who to choose!
And now two more appeared that caught his eye. He looked down and shook his head, This is the generation of miracles, it seems.
He chuckled, something that caught the attention of the servants near him. They were all powerful, in the Earthly Essence Realm at the least, yet they trembled before the Swordbreaker Elder. They had never seen him even smile or be startled, and now he goes into an all-out chuckle?!