Ren had often heard the smith, one block down from the orphanage, talk about how time seemed to flow in different manners, and that there was really only your own understanding of it, or some such. He said, that a singular meaningful moment took up more of your time than a thousand hours of ceaselessly swinging the hammer ever could. Ren wasn't really able to grasp what the old man meant by it, though. A thousand hours was a lot more than one moment, right? There was meaning in it too, right?

As he watched his friends try to grasp a new exercise, which consisted of doing the water bowl training, but with a twist, they had to control their spirit outside their body, instead of having their hands on the bowl they stood one step beside it, he was somehow reminded of the old smith. As he watched them flail around their spirit, and fail spectacularly at their task, Ren wanted to give out advice, but since he could still not control his own spirit more than a hand span from his body it was a moot point.

Adept Di was looking at all of them with a, as Ren would describe it, sadistic smile, taking pleasure in the Novice's struggle.

"What is this shit?! Why should I even learn this right now, the trials are right around the corner, and we try to practise something like this?" Zhen Jian cried out, as his bowl was flipped by his raging spirit, spilling water everywhere. While many disciples disliked Zhen Jian's abrasive personality, they also silently nodded along. They all asked themselves, how the exercise would help them if their trial was only three and a half months away. They should instead improve upon what they already knew!

But Adept Di remained stoic. "Do you think that this is a game, Novice Zhen? That I am wasting your, oh so precious time?" Zhen Jian wanted to immediately retaliate with a snide remark, but thought better of it as Di Niu's demeanour changed for the worse. "Do any of you really think that I would make you drill your control at this critical juncture if it made no sense at all, have any of you even lost a single second to contemplate how disgustingly ignorant you sound?! The most defining feature of a Novice is the ability to control their own spirit outside the body, and it will only gain importance, of course it will be relevant for the trial!" Adept Di, shook his head, and spat at the side, not even hiding his contempt from the Novices at all. "If you want to have any semblance of a chance at succeeding, I suggest you sit yourself back down and start the exercise, all of you." He looked every single one of them in the eye, and when his gaze came to rest on Ren, he blinked twice, as if he had forgotten that the boy was also a participant of his class. "And you, Disciple Ren. Try to slowly move away from the bowl, even if you are not yet a Novice, it never hurts to hone yourself." Di Niu sounded a little unsure about this, but as Ren also couldn't simply leave the lesson or blatantly ignore the Adept's suggestion, he simply sat down next to Ling Sen and started practising again.

After the declaration of the Adept, the students were mostly cowed and while some still bore doubts in their hearts, none were brave enough to voice them aloud like Zhao Jian had initially done.

And so they practised in an almost deafening silence, and while the tensions were running high, Ren was mostly focused on his new task of slowly increasing the range of his control. By the end of their class, he had increased the distance between himself and the bowl by about another hand span, while maintaining his control.

When their group of five left the class and walked to the usual place, the other four were complaining about the Adept, Xiao Bao being the most vocal of the lot.

"Man, that was terrible, right? Sure we will need this skill going forward, but we don't even have arts to make use of it right now, we could only slap people with our spirit, he he." Bao said, rolling her shoulders. "At least we will be able to practise on our own. Hey, little Fatty, you wanna spar for a bit, I think that I improved again, and need a punching bag." She added with a smirk.

"Very funny, Bao, I am already trembling, just thinking about your uncoordinated sword slicing me up." Little Fatty retaliated with a sarcastic voice. "But sure, we can spar for a bit, though I want to get a bit more meditation in."

Daiyu chimed in as well. "It only makes sense, that we would be tested on our remote control of spirit, and I have not yet a firm grasp of it, I will continue with the exercise." She sounded a little dispirited and even angry with herself.

"I shall join in thine endeavour of self-improvement, Sister Ji." Ling Sen said. "Brother Ren, will you not commence this experience with us? Though thine ocean of spirit hath not reached the threshold of a higher realm, it might still prove itself to be useful." Ling Sen asked Ren, while walking next to him.

Ren himself was not really sure what area he should focus on. On one hand he now saw a possible solution to learning the domain of the sword, but on the other hand he had no idea how far he could push his range before he simply hit a roadblock and had to reach the level of Novice to advance further.

He also had to consider the advancement of his sword-step, it was still far from what he hoped it could be, and he didn't have to control his spirit outside of his body for the basic level of the movement art.

And so Ren answered Ling Sen's inquiry with a contemplative voice. "I think that I want to practise my movement art a bit more, I still have not mastered the basic level of it, but I might join you guys later."

On the way to their waterfall, they chatted about what they would eat in the evening, Bao and Daiyu recommended they eat chicken curry, with a side of dumplings, while little fatty insisted on eating eel, saying that it would somehow make them livelier. Ling Sen and Ren were mostly ambivalent about the choice of cuisine, Ren thought that all dishes on the mountain were delicious. When they finally arrived at their training ground, the two girls argued, that since only little Fatty wanted to eat eel he should not drag the rest of them into it, and the boy reluctantly agreed.

The next hours were quieter than usual, Ren noticed, even Bao and little Fatty were not making a lot of noise while they sparred, Daiyu and Ling Sen were sitting in a meditative position, and most glaringly, there were no other Novices present.

The next days and weeks began to almost flow into each other, eat, train, eat, train. While the time with his group of friends was still fun, their routine was becoming monotone, and while they were all improving, Ren most of all, they had a feeling of stagnation creep in, as the other four were sometimes getting anxious about the trials.

Darkhaven's private lessons were not helping. The man was trying to push him to further heights and even started reciting not only poetry and his thoughts about cultivation and the world to him, but also songs of distant lands, talking about his travels to the east, how mesmerizing and diverse the culture and environments were, and that, should he reach the next realm, he would travel again. He talked about a majestic school for mages, and how he studied their ways for almost a decade, reminiscing fondly.

Ren always felt like he was listening to the old smith, or a kindly grandfather, and though they did not talk about the trial for the Novices, Darkhaven corrected his sword forms every lesson, and the lessons were also staying multiple hours long, instead of shortening again. They were now even meeting once a week, where they previously only had one lesson every two weeks.

The trials were ever drawing nearer. Disciples were polishing their hard-earned skills as the summer arrived in full force, battering them with unrelenting heat.