The Heavenly Wandering Sword

Chapter 35

The start of class was signified by the sound of a harp vibrating over the campus. Li Jian wandered around the academy grounds for a while before being shown to where the Elite Hall was. The Elite Hall had a few classrooms and indeed had a Hall Monitor who stood there. The rhino demon snorted and held up a hand before seeing that the human in front of him had an Elite Hall professor insignia. “Please pardon my shortsightedness.” The rhino demon bowed and moved out of the way of the entrance, Li Jian simply smiling and walking past. “Classroom 3.” He murmured to himself. He turned the highly decorative and engraved door handle before walking in to see his students. To his pleasant surprise, there were only six students in his class. There were two golden demons who looked almost human if not for their golden eyes and the slight presence of fangs. There was one human child and three witch elves. The six of them stared at him as he walked in.

“A human is an elite hall instructor?” The older of the demon said, huffing with irritation while the three witch elves each had a look of slight surprise on his face. The younger demon narrowed his eyes unconvinced of the fact. “Human, you’re the assistant right? Where’s the actual professor?” Li Jian sat down on the desk instead of the chair and looked at the six of them. “Boy, if you want to be insulting you need to get better at it. I’m Professor Li, your unwilling tutor for you six spoiled brats. Please remember that when you are in my class, I don’t really want you here and I don’t really want to be here. Please also remember that I am not your servant and I don’t care about your background. I haven’t really read the rules of the school so if I get annoyed I may beat you.”

The human there looked at him with his eyes wide, as if seeing something glorious for the first time in his life. “You there, with the weird look in your eyes. I don’t have a crooked appetite ok? I won’t give you a passing mark if you offer to do stuff.” Li Jian gave him a rather disgusted look but Han Tian the human student waved his hands furiously. “No no please don’t misunderstand Professor, I just didn’t expect a human professor for this class.”

“I am sure you all have your opinions on a human professor here. I personally also have my opinions on being a professor here. Regardless, the class I am teaching is spiritual combat. The six of you brats will need these skills honed so you can better bully whatever poor soul that manages to cross your path.” He looked up as one of the witch elf woman held up her hand. “Yes? You with the pink earrings.” The witch elf girl stood up. “Professor, my name is Shing Hai, my mother is General Shing Yong. If you do not wish to be a professor here, then how come you are working here?”

“Well the Generals Daughter Shing Hai, that is because the principal is a wily fox who is also as beautiful as she is wicked.” He heard her footsteps in the hallway, changing his comment midway. Fu Rong stepped into the classroom and smiled pleasantly at the students. “I hope you all learn the good things from Master Li and not the so many bad habits that he has.” She said the last part with a knowing gleam in her eye, turning her head to somehow glare and smile at him at the same time. Li Jian waved his hand slightly. “I do not have bad habits, only unappreciated ones. If I was such a bad person, why does Sister Fu want me so much?” The female students all blushed at the way he phrased the last part, while Ru Fong blushed just a tad before coughing. “See what I mean? Master Li is very knowledgeable but unfortunately he also has a bad habit of setting a poor example in front of others.” She turned away from the students and glared at him with murderous intent in her eyes before walking off.

“Professor what was that all about?” Wu Shan the older of the two demon brothers said, sitting forward in his chair. Li Jian coughed slightly to himself. “For you young men in here, remember that real men must step forward even when they know there is danger.” He held out his hand in a thumbs up gesture while Wu Shan’s eyes sparkled with admiration.

“Now then, to get to my original point. I want you to all understand that like it or not, we are both here and while you are here, this is a classroom, and I am your professor. If you do not like it, go ahead and drop out. If you stay, you will understand what spiritual combat truly is.” Li Jian looked at the students. The two demon brothers were sold, staring at him at daring to flirt so brazenly with the Principal. “Silly boys, don’t they know I have to pay for that later.” He thought to himself. The human boy was still staring at him as if he was his new idol, and the three witch elves just looked at him unconvinced.

“If you truly want proof of that, one of you bring up a treasured weapon, preferably a sword. Maybe something you don’t mind losing.” One of the witch elf girls stood up and bowed her head slightly. “I am Su Hao, this is my treasured sword Crystal Spirit.” Li Jian looked at the blade as she drew it from her hip and nodded. “Now hold it out and power it up.” She nodded again and the sword began to glow with a massive infusion of spiritual force. Li Jian nodded. “It is clearly a treasured sword, worth perhaps hundreds of thousands of spirit stones right?” The class nodded. “This is the true meaning of spiritual combat.” He picked up a piece of chalk and infused some of his own spiritual power into it before flicking it. The chalk flew through and snapped the treasured sword in two to the surprise of everyone in the classroom. “If your spiritual force is strong enough, there is no such thing as an invincible treasure. Each treasure can only bring up your strength to a certain point. In the face of overwhelming power, everything else is meaningless.”

Su Hao stared at the broken sword in her hand and gaped at the professor. “Oh no no no no no I have to explain to my mom! This is her sword! She only lent it to me for class!” The other two witch elves glared at Li Jian with daggers coming out of their purple eyes while Li Jian just raised an eyebrow. “Who is your mother?”

“Queen of the Witch Elves, Queen Suyan.” Li Jian sighed to himself. “I said to hold out a sword that you wouldn’t mind losing.” Su Hao looked down at the remains of the sword, the blade sliced clean I half by the piece of chalk. “I didn’t think it would break!” Li Jian shrugged slightly. “Come see me after class is over then.”

He stood up and continued on as he picked up another piece of chalk. “This is just chalk but I infused it with some of our spiritual force. This is the lesson I wanted you all to see with your own eyes. One day if you face an opponent who is much more powerful than you, just keep in mind that having a fancy sword or a powerful axe will not help you. Now from now on, I want you all to only carry plain steel swords. Don’t bring your family heirlooms and treasured garbage to class.” The lecture went on for a few hours as Li Jian spoke about the nature of spiritual force and what it truly is.

“This will be your first assignment. When you go home, get a piece of tree branch and practice imbuing your spiritual force into it. Tomorrow, we will review this. Class is dismissed, Su Hao stay behind.” Everyone else left after class, the other two witch elves glaring at the professor as they walked by. “Kids can glare as much as they want. Only when they become adults does it become a problem.” He thought to himself. Su Hao sat in her seat, her eyes still staring in shock at the broken sword in front of her. “Su Hao, I hope you learned something today especially considering who your mother is.” He sat down on his desk and looked at her. She looked up and opened her mouth as if to say something but nothing came out. She was finally able to form words after a few moments. “But how is that possible? This is steel that has been tempered in the frozen flames of-“ Li Jian held up a hand and sighed. “Are all these things unkillable? If someone is powerful enough, nothing in this universe is mortal.”

He held up a hand and the pieces of the sword glowed. “Kon Kon.” He thought to his mind. His sword spirit came out and looked at the blade. “Damn Master, did you lose your temper again?” The sword spirit was invisible to the witch elf’s eye as he worked his magic, the sword re-assembling into whole in front of her eyes. Li Jian floated the now re-built sword into his hands and gave it a few test swings. “Very light, well made. The balance is very fine, it’s an excellent sword. Don’t bring it around anymore.” He handed the sword back to Su Hao who looked at him as if he was some kind of an immortal master. “Professor! Thank you! How.. how did you do that?” Li Jian just smiled at her. “The more you understand about spiritual energy, the more you are able to do. It’s too bad, there’s no sword spirit that this sword has spawned yet.”

Su Hao knew that a sword spirit was something very important to her mom and made a note of it. “How do you summon a sword spirit in a sword?” He tilted his head and shook his head slightly. “There’s no set way. The person must either be powerful enough themselves or be familiar enough with the sword that their spiritual force and the energy of the blade has melded to create someone in between. All of that also requires a blade made with enough spiritual essence melded in during the forging process. That is why no matter how well made or how powerful the wielder, a simple steel sword will not form a sword spirit.”

After Su Hao had left, Li Jian poured himself a container of the peach tea that seemed to be a witch elf staple drink from a large ceramic container that was set in the classroom for the class. He drank from it and sighed to himself. Teaching was much more difficult than he remembered. He remembered when he was a master and had a disciple, he would show his disciple a single part of a martial art and then send the disciple off to go spend the next two months learning it.