Chapter 113: Divide and Conqour

Zen sighed as he fell backward, landing in the soft snow. Shredded leaves intermingled with the snow as it fell on the ground.

“You giving up?”

Zen looked up at the person looking at him. “Hue Yi? What are you doing here?”

“Just taking an evening stroll and I remembered you seem to like this area.” Hue Yi said. “I didn’t know I’d come across you commiting suicide.”

“Commiting suicide? What are you talking about?”

“Well, its quite a cold night and you’re here… lying on the ground… in the snow.” Hue Yi said. “If you saw something like that, what would you do?”

Zen shot to a sit up position and hugged himself to stave off the cold. “Shibi.” Shibi came to sit between his legs, his body shining in warm light that Zen absorbed to warm himself up.

“It’s quite an interesting technique you’ve been practicing.”

“Heh, the technique I’ve been failing at for the past 2 months?”

“What are you suppose to do with this technique?”

Zen gave him a look.

“Don’t worry,” he raised his hands in a placant manner. “I’m not going to steal your technique.”

Zen sighed. I’m suppose to fell 100 leaves and using the technique, catch the leaves and lead them to my hnad without destroying them.”

“I get it,” Hue Yi nodded.

“And, I’m suppose to do it before all the leaves fall of the trees.” Zen said. “So I’ve got time working against me also.”

“These leaves, you going to use them.” The teenager said as he walked to the leaves in question.

Zen shook his head.

Hue Yi sent a pulse of ki from his feet and 100 leaves leapt into the air and stayed, as if held their by some invisible force.

“How-How are you doing that?” Zen said, walking around him and staying out of the field of leaves.

“Think, Wang Zen. You’ve seen me use this ability before.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“This is one of the first ki techniques I ever learned.” He said. “It allows me to create a binding force, that attracts anything close to me. Now because the force’s focal point naturally forms at the centre of my body, it seems my whole body attracts these things.”

“Oh, this is how you made those leaves stick to you.” Zen said. “But these ones aren’t really sticking to your body. They’re just floating in the air.”

“That’s because I’m controlling the power output of the ki technique. I’m producing a binding force strong enough to keep them from falling but not too strong that they rush to stick to me. To master the technique, I was given a bucket filled with stones of 3 sizes, small medium and large. I was suppose to produce enough ki to tunnel my hand to the bottom of the bucket without crushing any of the rocks in the bucket. Then using the technique, with the focal in my hand, I am meant to pull first the small rocks out, then the medium, then the large.”

“Sounds familiar.”

“It should. That’s because it is the same task that you are doing.” Hue Yi explained. “Quantity and control. It seems your technique is similar to mine in that the focal point forms somewhere naturally and you have to willingly move it to somewhere else to be able to complete the task.”

“Yes.”

“Your quantity control is almost right.” He said. “You seem to produce almost 100 leaves.”

“Yeah,” Zen puffed out his chest in pride.

“However, your control is poor.” He said, making Zen’s chest deflate. “You have yet to successfully change the focal point, maintain the correct amount of strength to capture leaves but not destroy them and maintain your technique.”

“Thanks for listing my failures.” Zen folded his arms and looked away annoyed.

“I’m not just listng your failures. I’m drawing attention to why you are failing.”

He tilted his head at the older boy, urging him to continue

“Control, seems like one task but in actual fact it is made of 3 difficult tasks, tasks you are trying to master at the same time.” Hue Yi held up three fingers. “This is why you haven’t had much success in control. If you want to succeed you have to master each task of control separately before you attempt to put them all together.”

It made sense to Zen . Afterall, this was the method he and most successful fighters used to learn a fighting form. First, you master the form. Then you understand its application and where to use it before adding speed and power to the way you practice.

“I understand.” He said.

“Good,’ Hue Yi smiled before walking away.

“Hey, Hue Yi, why were those people chasing after you the other day?”

“I’m under no obligation to answer that question,” he said before leaping away.

Zen smirked to himself while shaking his head. He turned to the tree, looking up at the remaining leaves.

“Alright, I have to train one.” He said as he gathered ki in his palm. He thrust it into the tree, sending 105 leaves falling down before he activated the ki technique, controlling the output. The leaves that entered the swirl were shreadded to bits, all except for the ast two which were still mostly intact as they followed the swirl to the bottom of Zen’s feet. He smiled at himself.

“Two now, one hundred tomorrow!” he said before he thrust his palm into the tree again.

Zen walked back to his dorm.He knew he had onlya few hours of sleep before he had to wake aagain to cultvate in the mana rich mountain of the academy. On the way he saw two familiar figures walking toward him in the opposite direction.

“Jao Fuu and Cong.” He said. “Your both up rather late.”

“Some would say we are up rather early,” Jao Cong said. “Considering it is still morning.”

“So I take it you’ve heard about Xue Shaonu.”

“Xue Shaonu? What’s wrong?”

The twins exchanged uneasy glances.

“Tell me!”

“We do not know much ourselves,” Jao Fuu said. “But word is, she has been poisoned and is in critical condition.”