Chapter 101: Back at the Academy

Zen kneeled before his broken mannequin. “My training mannequin is destroyed.”

“Training mannequin?” Hue Yi said, looking down at the mannequin on the ground. “That’s not a training mannequin, it’s a Battle Mannequin. But I guess you can use it for training…”

“Battle Mannequin?”

“Yes, they are made to bolster a fighting force.” Hue Yi said. “The more fighting forms a Battle Mannequin has, the more powerful and expensive they are.”

Zen thought back to the battle. The mannequin knew his fighting style that he was taught from childhood as well as a short sword fighting style that it had used against the Masked Woman.

“I can tell you one thing,” Hue Yi said, “This mannequin is a good one. High quality.”

Had he seen it fight with him? “How do you know?”

“Because it can repair itself.”

As if on cue, the mannequin began pulling itself together, its two halves becoming one and its wood growing and mending to create a smooth surface. Once fully repaired, it returned to its feet.

“I’ve heard of this kind but this is the first time I’ve seen one.” Hue Yi said. “It works through a complex energy system that is powered by ki. It stores ki and then uses that ki to power its reparations and once the ki runs out, it will no longer be able to repair itself but that can be easily fixed by transferring more ki into it. Whoever built this is very skilful.”

“Yeah,” Jao Fuu said, stepping closer to them. “Wang Zen’s father is really skilful at forging. I’m tempted to ask Uncle Wang for one on my birthday.”

“Your father built this?” Hue Yi said. “That’s interesting. Anyways, we need to gather our group.”

Zen looked up at the Battle Mannequin and placed it in his storage stone once again.

The group gathered again and everyone was fine. They moved further out of the Twin Horn Forest. The happy mood that they had after defeating the bandits had long disappeared after the Masked Woman’s attack. Now all they wanted to do was be out of the cold forest as quickly as possible. After a few days, they were nearing the forest edge.

“Hey, Hue Yi!” Zen said, catching up to Hue Yi who was walking ahead. “I-I wanted to thank you again for saving me.”

“That’s the tenth time you’ve thanked me. It’s weird.” Hue Yi said, looking up from a card in his hand.

“How?”

“Because I know you… or at least, I know your type, Wang Zen. Your not this grateful unless you want something.”

“What? I… Well… that’s not…” Zen did not know what to say. “What are you doing?” he awkwardly said.

“Creating a new bingo card.”

“Really?” Zen said, genuinely interested now. “Of who?”

“Look for yourself,” he handed the card over to him.

Zen looked at the card and his hands trembled. “The Masked Woman.”

The only card he had seen other than this was Chen Jian’s and they did not compare. Her Skill, Speed, Strength cultivation base graphs were very high. He moved to the next section of the card and the image on the card changed to display another category, ki techniques.

Ki Techniques

Needle Sphere Needle Shredder Needle Bomb Needle Stream Short Ki Blade Thrust Unknown Illusionary Ki Technique

Zen read the last one out loud before tapping on it and expanding the information on it.

“Yeah,” Hue Yi said at hearing Zen reading. “From what I can tell, it allows her to project a mirror image of herself and it seems she can use them in tandem with her other ki techniques which make her very dangerous and versatile.”

Zen looked at the number at the corner of the card. The number that determined how dangerous the person was to Hue Yi.

“You rated her as a nine?” Zen shouted.

Hue Yi nodded. “She’s very dangerous. You seem to have a knack for making powerful enemies.”

“For all you’ve know I’ve only made this one.”

“Oh no, even Chen Jian has risen in danger level.”

“What?” Zen remembered on the card he was four. “What is he now?”

“He is at least a 7.”

“H-How?”

“The more I learn about him, the more I realise I don’t know anything. That and his connection to the City Lord family makes him very dangerous.”

“And… And me?” Zen remembered he last time that he did not even have a danger score in Hue Yi’s opinion.

“I’d say you’re a 3 with a strong potential to be a 4. Much higher than what you were when I made your bingo card for Xu Hau.”

Zen clenched his fists. He was still seen as weak and he felt as such.

“What did you do to piss her off, anyways?”

“She and her lover tried to kill me and my bodyguards killed her lover, now she wants revenge.”

“In that case, you should be careful whenever you leave the academy… on second thought with your strength level, you shouldn’t even leave the academy grounds.”

Zen kept quiet for a moment. “You were able to deal with her using your sword arts. Could you teach me that?”

Hue Yi gave a mirthless laugh. “Why would I teach you my secret and rare ki technique?”

“I’ll… I’ll pay you.”

“I doubt you could afford it,” Hue Yi said. “Not even your Battle Mannequin is worth it.”

Zen was unsurprised. This was the answer he was expecting. Cultivators rarely shared powerful techniques unless they had something to gain.

“You should try and find another teacher.” Hue Yi said. “You live in an Academy of cultivators, I’m sure one of them would gladly share their knowledge with you. Ah… look.”

Zen looked ahead and felt relief when he saw the two bent trees that was the namesake of the Horn Trees Forest.

“We’re leaving the forest.

It was night time in the Academy. Hue Yi landed on the windowsill of a window very high up. They had returned to the academy that night and while the makeshift group had gone off to rest and recover, he still had pressing business.

He knocked on the window and waited a few moments before a silhouette appeared on the other side and opened the large window.

“I was able to recover the storage stone with the message.” He handed the pendant with the character of freedom inside an oval. “I guess now we can move on with the plan.” Hue Yi felt a little chatty but it was all leading up to something. “While I’m here, I wonder if you could indulge me. I have a theory on that boy Wang Zen…”

And that is the end of this arc. Phew! I feel strange calling this an end to the arc when I’m still trying to thread together the larger story of this… story? Yeah. Thanks for reading!