After this short greeting, Grace took out a little crystal clear gem from her robes and handed it to Jessy. “This is the testing stone. We only have two in the Clan, one of them I have and the other one is in Elder Jeng’s possession. Just hold it and pour a little power into it. It will change colour and brightness to show how far your spirit power cultivation has progressed in the barrier realm.”

Jessy held the stone in her hand and looked it over. Then without hesitation injected some spirit energy. The moment her spirit energy touched the stone, she felt a strange foreign warmth spread through her body, after a second it returned to the little gem.

Skay’s eyes were shooting light he was so excited. Something that can measure refined spirit energy, of course, the old madman was excited. This object was something they needed to get their hands on. As soon as possible!

James to was slightly intrigued as well, and having worked with Skay for a while now he could tell the crazy old bastard might just swallow that stone in an attempt to steal it. He cupped his chin and watched the stone as it slowly lit up.

The gem itself changed colours several times until finally settling on a dark blue. After it’s colour settled down, a luminescent glow slowly came into existence filling nearly a third of the gem.

Grace’s hand was shaking as she reached it out and took the gem to examine it. She then gave it a few shakes, and it returned to crystal clear. She then poured in some spirit energy and the gem took on an incredibly bright yellow shine.

James wasn’t too sure what to make of all this. ‘For starters, what does the colour mean? Doesn’t it just need to shine a certain amount to show how much we’ve filled our barrier?’

Skay had already flipped out his black-pad and started making notes on everything.

After a moment of inspection, Grace gave the gem another shake allowing it to turn clear, and handed it to James. Then as if James didn’t exist she completely ignored him and turned to Jessy with an expression of having just found a diamond in a cat’s litter box.

“Little Junior Jessy, I should tell you that you have an incredible aptitude for cultivation. There are seven shades of colour, red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue and purple. In that order, they represent a person’s potential based. You’re the first blue reaction I’ve ever seen from the testing stone. Actually, you’re the only blue reaction I’ve ever heard of in the entire empire.”

Meanwhile, the crazy duo was busy doing some experiments while Grace was distracted. Skay was busily writing things down, and James looked like he was placing some electrodes onto the gem. When they were ready, Skay glanced at James and started hitting some buttons to record everything. They both gave each other a nod and James slipped a little bit of energy into the gem.

The moment his energy entered, a strange warmth flowed through his body. Then after going everywhere it could, it returned to the gem. At first, the gem had no reaction at all. For a whole 4 or 5 seconds, it just sat there like nothing had happened at all.

Then finally it rapidly began changing colours ... and then didn’t stop. It just kept changing endlessly and cycled through faster and faster, until the entire crystal looked black as all the colours merged together. At this point, a bright rainbow light started filling the insides of the gem until it had filled almost a third of it.

Seeing this James had a very strange look on his face. He closed his eyes to check his spirit realm. When he came out his face was even stranger.

“Boy, what’s going on? I thought you said you had nearly half your realm full now.”

Skay seemed to be simultaneously excited and disappointed at these results. Most likely because he’d already expected something else only to have that expectation blown away.

James looked at the stone in his hand then cupped his chin again. “Well, I can tell you right now old madman. My spirit realm is half full. My spirit energy covers half the area inside the barrier. I’m definitely not wrong about this.”

What James said was true. His spirit realm looked just like it normally did. Half the dome was filled with his wind nebula, inside of which was his lightning nucleus and on the ground remained his whirlwind of plasma. All together these things took up almost half of his spirit barrier.

As he tried to process what was going on Grace had turned back around and was frozen on the spot watching the black crystal with rainbow colours inside of it. She then actually rubbed her eyes. Then she pinched herself. Then she looked at the other shell-shocked disciples to make sure they saw it too.

“Black? It’s fucking turned black? What did you do to it?!” Before Grace had the chance to move forwards and snatch it James gave it shake and it turned clear again.

“Hmm, sorry I might have been operating my breathing technique while I did it. Let’s give it another try shall we?” Saying as much, James made a conscious effort to stop his breathing technique.

After stopping his breathing, he injected some energy again and the stone turned purple. After that it slowly glowed until half of it was filled.

Skay’s eyes glittered, and James’ face grew a triumphant proud grin. He looked to Skay. “What did I tell you. Breathing techniques can change everything. The more powerful it is, the more we can force into our barrier.”

As the two started a discussion on the implications of this experiment, Grace just stared with a bitter face. It was truly absurd. One of them with blue and one of them purple. What kind of freaks were these people?

After a short discussion, it was Skay’s turn. Amusingly Grace’s face just became even blanker, as Skay used the gem and got a light blue colour. His light only filled about a quarter of the gem. This was because he spent more time focused on research and rarely took the opportunity to train spirit energy like James or Jessy did.

After a moment of congratulating each other, they reluctantly returned the gem. Just to be sure, Grace tested it again. Then shaking her head with a dry smile, she placed it back into her robes.

It was finally time. Their first training session with Grace involved some basic tests to determine how strong they presently were. Grace was aware that regarding martial techniques and energy cultivation, there wasn’t much she could help then with. Instead, she was here to cultivate their battle experience.

For starters, she allowed them to sit in and watch some sparring between the disciples she brought with her. This way they could get an idea of what battle between cultivators was truly like.

Over on the other side of the arena things proceeded slowly, and thousands of commoners gradually cycled through the system. Everyone there would occasionally glance over to the Gau Clan disciples and sigh in awe as they fired off martial techniques left and right. They could only hope to one day reach the stage they could freely use techniques like that.

The first few battles were pretty exciting for the Brotherhood members, and they managed to get a good idea of just how much punishment a person could take when they used spirit energy to protect parts of their bodies and how much they could doll out with techniques.

After a few fights, one of the Sword Hall disciples walked up to the centre of their training area. For someone so young he was a big guy. He looked even younger than Harvy had when they first met. The only glaring exception was his size and colour. He stood at nearly 7 feet, and his body was covered from head to toe in rippling bulging muscles. He had a head of short white hair which contrasted significantly with his dark skin. Most interesting was his fire red eyes. He constantly looked like he was holding back his anger at ... well, pretty much everything.

His first opponent was a young man from the Hall of Forging who was so short and skinny, he made this battle look like a re-enactment of David and Goliath. Naturally on this world that battle ended differently.

David made a polite bow and gave a “let’s have a good spar, I hope to learn a lot.” in a quiet, humble voice. Goliath just stood there with his arms crossed arrogantly looking down his nose at David. He made a harrumph in reply then before Grace even gave the signal to start he stomped down onto the ground.

The earth seemed to ripple out towards David forcing him up into the air. Before David could even get his bearings, Goliath had approached and swung out one of his massive arms. A sickening ‘crunch’ rang out, and David shot through the air landing and rolling nearly 15 metres away.

James was rather surprised. He knew things could often be brutal for Clan members when it came to grudges and resources, but to him, it seemed like this pair hardly even knew each other and furthermore, this was just training.

Jessy seemed to take exception to the manner in which Goliath had won this spar, and while running forwards to check the injured David, she began to rebuke him. “Just what the hell are you doing? This is only a sparring match! There was no need to use so much force and you sure as hell didn’t have to use petty tricks. The fight hadn’t even started yet!”

Goliath just looked on with cold and indifferent eyes. “Little girl, fists and feet have no eyes. I don’t take any chances in any battles. Training, sparring or a true battle to the death. I don’t care. Fighting is for proving your strength and beating down your opponents. If you feel so heartbroken for the boy, then come up here and challenge me.”

James’ eyes squinted slightly as he watched Goliath giving Jessy a verbal beat down. In all honesty, he was perfectly correct. In this world, what use is having a weak fist? If you train yourself to fight with half power, then it will become a limit to your development. In his opinion, he totally agreed with Goliath.

Suddenly his face lit up into a huge smile. There must be some story behind all this. More importantly than that, some other thoughts were running through James’ head at present.

‘Him! I’ve found him. He will be perfect. Now the question is ... how do I get him to join us? He looks like he probably isn’t even planning to stay in the Clan much longer. He’s probably the same as me. He’s too proud to let something like the Gau Clan hold him back from reaching the limits of this world.’

Thinking this far James turned to Grace, who seemed entirely unperturbed by this matter, and with a small smile on his face, like he was just distractedly asking, he started an inquiry on the Goliath.

“Elder Grace, who is that young man?”

Grace just let a small sigh slip out then eyed the ... man-boy, in the arena. “That is Haungshu. His father and mother were killed in the city when he was young, and he witnessed the whole incident. At the time, there was a rather depraved character moving about who would find couples with a child and force them to do some unspeakable things to each other in exchange for the child’s life.”

Her eyes moistened slightly, as she remembered back to those incidents, she stared off into the distance as if looking back through time. James wasn’t sure why, but he felt Grace must have a history with this serial killer as well.

After a short second of being lost in her memories, she cleared her throat then glanced back to Goliath, who was now just standing there like a tower of muscle and looking at the yelling and screaming Jessy.

“Well, ever since then he’s been somewhat uncontrollable. The clan isn’t going to make an effort to change that because eventually, it will become his strength and drive. It will make him stronger, and by extension, strengthens the clan.”

Finished speaking on the matter she went to stand up because Jessy was moving to engage Goliath. James waved a hand in front of her, then gave a gentle shake of the head.

“She has to learn sooner or later that her element isn’t all-mighty. She’s had it easy up until now because it’s rather powerful against normal individuals, but now she’s about to meet an abnormal with a powerful will. I suspect this battle will be good learning experience for her.”

Grace made a bitter smile. To think she was being lectured on how to train someone from a fresh little barrier realm practitioner. She had to accept he was right and she soon changed her mindset somewhat.

In her head, she was already thinking of Jessy as her personal disciple that she would train up to greatness. However, as an extension of that feeling, she’d also become a little more protective of her than normal disciples. If she allowed that to cloud the girl’s training, it would only limit her.

In the training area, Jessy shot towards Goliath. Before she even got into striking distance, he through another earth ripple out with his foot. Jessy somehow kept her balance as the earth rose up in a wave under her feet. As she reached to the crest of the wave, she bent her legs and used the earth ripple to propel herself forwards.

Before she could get close enough to grab out or throw a punch a huge hand descended towards her as if covering the sky. Having the experience of numerous battles as a mortal martial artist, she adapted quickly and managed to spin her body in mid-air. As the palm passed through the space her head had once been in, she grabbed out and latched onto Goliath’s arm.

The moment she made contact a savage grin spread across her face, and she began to pump as much spirit energy into his body as possible. That grin very quickly turned sour as she only felt the arm continue to descend with unstoppable force, and she was smashed into the ground.

The air was forced from her lungs, and her body was wracked with pain. She curled up into a ball onto the ground as she tried to gain control of her breathing. As she curled up protectively, a dirty great big boot came towards her, and she was launched into the air.

James could tell at a glance that Goliath was going easy on her, despite what he’d said earlier. If he’d put some force into that kick, then Jessy would surely travel further than a few metres and the sound of things breaking would most definitely have been heard.

James just sat and watched. He made no move to help Jessy, and he didn’t even show any signs of concern. He just stood there with his arms crossed observing.

Grace looked like she was about to run out again but somehow mustered enough willpower to stop herself. As everyone else watched on with their mouths agape, Jessy started to crawl up from the ground. Her cheongsam was dirty and ripped in places. Her red hair was a frazzled mess, and her face was flushed red with embracement and rage.

To think that she had taking an ass whopping twice since coming to this world. As someone who rarely lost, she simply couldn’t accept it. Furthermore, her trump card didn’t even phase the guy. Well, technically that’s not true because the evidence of its effect was visibly protruding out from his body.

Jessy was stunned when she saw this. It looked like he was holding his body up with pure force of will alone. He was definitely affected by her lust element but managed to overcome it with sheer willpower. What kind of twisted mind did this guy have?

Eventually, Jessy had crawled up from the ground and managed to stabilise her beaten and sore body. Instead of bowing out like most people expected from her, she lowered herself into a backwards leaning martial arts stance and raised her hands in front like two knives.

She let out a long breath and calmed her mind and body as all her focus suddenly fell onto Goliath like a tonne of pressure from the sea. Goliath, noticing this change in her demeanour, also lowered his stance and raised his fists to his chest like a boxer.

The entire arena suddenly became eerily quiet. Even the normal sounds of the commoners at the other end of the arena had dropped to nothing. Everyone was motionless as their eyes glued to the pair facing off in the arena.

James seeing the tension building and the determined expression on their faces smiled to himself. “It’s perfect.” He muttered. Then with unnatural speed, he blurred from his position standing on the side and appeared in between the pair like a ghost.

He glanced between the two of them, then with a slight smile looked to Goliath. “Say, big fellow, I have a proposition for you. We’re looking for members in our guild. Now before you decline, this membership is a rather special one. Regardless of that, let’s make a little bet. If the girl can beat you, what do you say to joining our guild as an interim member for a little while? You can decide later if you’re interested in staying around.”

Goliath just continued to stare into the eyes of Jessy as the tension continued to build. Finally, he gave the nod. Although it might seem rather sudden to just follow this kind of thing, James had some certainty he’d not turn it down. This kind of person seeks out strong fighters to challenge themselves.

If Jessy won this battle, it meant he’d run into someone at his own level that could defeat him, which was rare. In addition to that, the guild was young and was in an alliance with the Clan. They could sort something out later, but becoming an interim member until he could beat the girl would be fine.

With that nod, James grin grew brighter. Then he took a gold coin out of his pocket flicked it into the air and blurred away again. As the coin spun into the air, the pressure in the arena grew by an order of magnitude.

Even Grace was surprised by the psychological pressure these two barrier realm practitioners were giving off. If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought they were both already in the Palace Realm.

Suddenly the ‘ting’ of the coin hitting the ground rang out and Jessy and Goliath both shot forwards like rockets. This time, instead of using lust element Jessy used her water element. Her hands cut through the air like high-pressure jets of water.

One was chopping towards the neck of Goliath as the other stabbed out towards his stomach. His reaction was rather quick and agile for a bloke so huge. His body lowered and the strike to his head passed through the air as his hand shot out like a viper and grabbed onto Jessy’s wrist before she made contact.

Meanwhile, his spare hand threw a strike towards her head that seemed to carry the weight of a mountain with it. The moment he made contact with her hand, Jessy’s motions changed and her stance slid backwards like flowing water.

As if covered in oil, her hand slipped out from his grip. As she retreated, her head slid only slightly enough to the side, and his punch grazed her ear as it passed her face.

While Goliath was drawing his arm back to a protective stance, Jessy had already jumped and spun in the air, throwing a whirling kick towards his open rib cage. His body twisted as his assisting hand slid under his extended arm grabbing onto her ankle. His body shook slightly from the force and before he could get a decent grip Jessy had slid back away like the motions of the tide.

After this short exchange and testing of the waters, they both jumped back a step and created a little distance. Taking a quick breath and trying to figure out the best method to take down their opponent.

Jessy was incredibly surprised. Now that she was being serious, she thought she’d take the advantage in this battle. After all, being a short girl she had the most experience fighting big bulky opponents and could easily target and create weaknesses.

To her disgruntlement, Goliath seemed to have even more experience fighting people smaller than himself and had closed up or protected almost all those weak points he’d normally have. To make it worse, striking him was like hitting a rock wall and his agility was far beyond the norm for a man his size.

On the other side, Haungshu was rapidly trying to process this development. The most pressing thing was that she seemed to be utilising a completely different spirit energy now. That could only mean that she had two elements.

To make matters worse, she obviously had a great deal of experience. Even he wasn’t prepared for that rapid kick to this ribcage. It was only because he’d experienced something similar before that his body could react quick enough to defend.

To add to all that, her element seemed to morph between as powerful and unstoppable as a volcano erupting, then as slippery and uncatchable as the tides of the beach.

Making him feel even worse about this whole thing, was that the girl had apparently never sparred or trained with spirit energy before. Which meant that in this short exchange, she’d already managed to adapt enough to using it in a battle that she could utilise it effectively.

If he didn’t finish this soon, she would only gain more experience with it, by that time he may not be able to take the upper hand without expending almost all of his energy.

Coming to that conclusion, he suddenly took two consecutive steps back and then dropped into a horse riding stance. His left hand sat out in front of his body with a straight arm and his right hand sat at his hip in a fist. He took in a long breath then started to pour as much of his earth element as he could into his arm.

The moment he’d retreated, Jessy began to advance. She already had a good idea what would happen if she allowed him to create too much distance. His longer arms made it difficult to get into striking range already. If he managed to start firing off martial techniques, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to close the distance enough and would most likely be struck out.

She reached him just as his hand started moving away from his hip. The moment his hand began to move the ground began to tremor slightly. His foot slid forwards, and his hand suddenly shot out like a bullet. Just as it was about to strike Jessy, her body leant back entirely as her front leg shot upwards and collided with Goliath’s chin. She looked like a ballerina balancing on one foot, with her head leaning back nearly touching the ground and the other leg sticking straight up in the air.

Luckily for her, she moved just in time to avoid any contact with the punch. She realised just how lucky it was as she looked back behind her from upside down.

About a foot away from where her head touched the ground started a depression of compressed earth that reached to nearly 4 metres away. Presumably from the sheer force of the punch creating a massive projectile of air pressure. Like some kind of sickeningly powerful air cannon.

Goliath, on the other hand, was lying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling of the arena. He just stayed there and blinked a few times. Finally, a disgusting grin spread on his face, not too dissimilar to the one that Skay usually made when he discovered something interesting to play with.

Goliath had lost plenty of times before. But he’d never lost to another barrier realm practitioner. Only to true spirit realms. This was a first for him, and it meant that he’d finally met someone that he could compete against properly. Someone that could help him propel himself higher. He swore he’d beat this girl before he left Gau City.

James just stood at the edge of their training area nodding his head sagely, as if he’d just suggested the winning horse in the Melbourne Cup and had known from the very beginning it would win.

All the barrier realm disciples stared slack-jawed at Goliath. The strongest barrier realm in the entire Clan had been taken down by a girl two foot shorter than him. Grace was looking rather proud, even though she hadn’t actually taught Jessy anything yet and she wasn’t technically her Master yet.

After this short affair was finished, the commoners resumed passing through the system, and the disciples of the Gau Clan started doing some sparring again.

After a while, a fairly arrogant disciple who’d bested some younger men in the arena turned to James with a sneer on his face. “I heard you were the one who killed Calso. You’ve just sat there all day watching us fight. Even the little girl had a go. How ‘bout it? Gonna come up here, or sit over there like a wimp and cower behind the Elder?”

James just looked at the fellow for a bit, then a bright smile spread across his face. “Oh? What’s this? Are you a True Spirit Realm now? If you know I killed that grotty little bastard Calso, then you must know he was far more powerful than you are.”

The man’s face paled slightly and then after a moment of thought he gave a chuckle. “You must have used some trick to win. In a fair dual, you’d never win against Senior Brother Calso. I could probably beat you with a single wave of the hand.”

James just continued to smile brightly but before he had a chance to respond, Skay let out a sigh. “Fine then you little bastard. This old man here hasn’t stretched in a while, let me have a go at you.”

James was astounded. He was well aware Skay was mostly only here to record them using martial techniques and didn’t care at all for fighting. He also knew that Skay didn’t care a bit for shame or face and wouldn’t step in to defend James for something like some petty words.

It could only mean the crazy old bastard had something he wanted to test out. James suddenly had a terrible premonition.

Skay made a great production of looking the feeble aged old man, as he hobbled out to the arena crouched over and holding his normally perfectly straight and fine back. Once he was facing the disciple about ten metres away, he stopped.

The man just stared with a half bemused, half angered expression. “Old man don’t lose this Junior his face. If you somehow manage to win how could I live with myself, and if I beat you I’ll be accused of bullying weak old men.”

Skay just gave a devilish grin and started moving around like he was trying to stretch his legs and arms, which was made comical by his aged body giving out creaks and cracks every now and then. “Oh shut it you little bastard. I’ve scraped tougher stains out of my jocks. Wiping the floor with you will be like taking a breath.”

A scowl formed on the man’s face, and he gave Skay a glare. “Fine then old man. You’ve asked for it. Let no one say that I, Galtin Gau, am a bully of the old and weak. Just remember old man, fists and legs have no eyes. If I hit you too hard and you die, then don’t blame me.”

Having said that far, he cast a glance towards James and a grin formed. Skay remained unperturbed, then signalled his readiness to start. Grace was little worried that the old man actually would die. If not from a heart attack, then from a single slap. She didn’t even get the chance to question him though because James’ bright smiling face uttered out a ‘go!’ and the fight had started.

Or was supposed to start at least ... Skay just started to hobble forwards very, very slowly while clutching his back. Galtin just stood there looking like even stepping forward to slap the man to death would be dirtying his hands.

However, all this quickly changed. When Skay got to with 5 metres of the man he stopped. Then raised up a single finger and pointed it forwards. Suddenly a little glow appeared at the tip of his finger and focused onto the disciple’s right shoulder like a laser pointer.

James’ eyebrows tried to crawl back up into his hairline. Suddenly it struck him what was about to happen, and he flipped out his black-pad to record everything.

Galtin just stood there looking at his shoulder where the little dot was. “What? A dot of light? That’s your best? Old man, I’ve had enough of playing. If you don’t forfeit and walk away, you really might die when I strike you.”

Skay’s evil grin broadened, and then suddenly his finger flashed, and his arm made a chopping motion. Nothing changed, and the pair just stood there watching each other.

Skay then blinked and looked down at his finger with a confused expression. After a moment of looking at and flicking his finger, he looked back at Galtin like he was expecting something to happen.

“That’s enough old man. It’s time for you to realise this isn’t some game.” Saying as much Galtin stepped forwards and lifted his right arm back to swat Skay to death. The moment it raised above his head it started moving down. It wasn’t moving under his own power, but sliding downwards. After about half a second a ‘thud’ sounded out and Galtin was suddenly missing an arm.

Skay’s disgusting grin returned, and he just turned and started walking back out of the arena. Inversely, Galtin was staring at his arm on the ground. At first, he felt nothing. Then his brain finally caught up to his body and the pain of losing an arm struck him like a bus.

“AARRGHH!!!” He fell to the ground of the arena as blood started pumping out of his now flat as a plate shoulder while he clutched at it screaming and crying out. James was just standing over at the side replaying the whole thing again and again on his black-pad entirely ignoring the whole scene.

Grace was watching dumbfounded. ‘Just what kind of power was that? To be able to slice through a person’s body at 5 metres like it was nothing.” Grace watched Skay walking back to James’ side. The look on her face was as if guardedly watching some ancient monster that could strike out and devour you at any moment.

Finally, the rest of the people around caught up to the scene they just witnessed and began to run out to try and quell the blood streaming out of Galtin. Jessy just let out a long sigh and gave the two boys a glare that just bounced off them like light off a mirror.

Skay just looked at her sheepishly like she was getting upset over some spilt milk or something. “What? Little lass, you heard the boy, fists and feet have no eyes. How was I supposed to know he wouldn’t try and dodge? These things happen when you’re not careful in battle, you know?”

Finished defending himself he crowded together with James and watched the replay of his massacring that poor little bastard in the training arena. James looked up to see everyone worrying over the disciples lost arm and gave out a long sigh. “Harvy, take him to the lab. Skay, I guess we should at least patch him up a little. Poor cunts probably having a shit day now. Even if I suspect he was sent by Jeng to stir trouble, no point in having him bleed out in my Guildhall.”

Once that was said he cupped his fists as a salute instead of bowing, then led the Brotherhood back down to the lab. He turned to Grace with a sorrowful expression before entering the elevator. “I’m sorry about all the trouble today Elder Grace. We’ll do our best to help this fellow back onto his feet. I’ve no doubt we can reattach the arm before any significant damage is done. We’ll see you again in three days. Oh, and tell that giant fellow to stop by tomorrow.”

He then turned, walked into the elevator and pressed some buttons, taking Jessy, Skay, Harvy and their new experieme ... erm, patient, down to the lab below.