Xiao Shan stood speechless. He couldn't fathom how Bao Tie had ended up this ragged.
Bao Tie's whole persona felt different. If he hadn't heard his voice and looked at his face closely, he would have mistaken him for another person.
Bao Tie's aura and countenance were very different. Gone was the mocking and devilish intent. He looked calm and serene, as if he was seeing something beyond.
Bao Tie looked at Xiao Shan and spoke. "You are progressing very fast. However, just accumulating qi does not make you a real cultivator."
He slapped his bag of holding, and a small dagger flew out with a whistling sound.
Xiao Shan's pupils shrank as the dagger flew past him several times. He could barely see the dagger as it slashed at his robes, never mind being able to avoid it.
Xiao Shan understood. If Bao Tie wanted it, he would be dead already just with the flying dagger.
The dagger flew back to Bao Tie as he flashed an incantation and raised his left hand. A flame materialized on his palm.
The flame grew rapidly into a flame phoenix, emitting waves of heat as it fluttered in place.
Bao Tie lifted his hand, and the phoenix roared with a screech as the waves of heat and flames created an oppressive environment.
Xiao Shan's forehead was matted with pearls of sweat as veins bulged from the effort to resist the pressure bearing down on him.
He was forced to one knee by the pressure when it suddenly stopped. The phoenix disappeared as Bao Tie cancelled the spell.
"Cultivators battle using martial arts, treasures, and spells, all of which you lack," Bao Tie explained as he beckoned Xiao Shan to fight him with his left hand while keeping his right hand behind his back.
Xiao Shan gritted his teeth. Was this some kind of training, or some setup to get him to submit and be humiliated?
He ran to Bao Tie and threw a punch, then another and another. But all of them were easily blocked. Each punch felt like hitting a wall, unable to make his opponent move.
"Dull," Bao Tie remarked as he threw a palm strike, hitting the space in front of Xiao Shan. Xiao Shan then felt like a bull had run over him as an invisible force blasted him several feet back to the ground.
As Xiao Shan tried to stand, he saw Bao Tie walking toward him. He felt some dread as he couldn't read his intentions.
"Martial arts takes a lot of time to master, and you are clumsy. With your talent, spells are feasible, but they require a lot of spiritual energy."
Bao Tie stood in front of Xiao Shan. "Magic items are effective and relatively easy to use, but you need a small fortune and luck to come across even a low-quality one." He slapped his bag of holding, producing a small dagger, and threw it to Xiao Shan.
Xiao Shan caught the dagger, baffled as he looked at it. Other than a strange marking on the hilt, the dagger looked unremarkable.
"Concentrate the energy into the tip of your finger, then use the dagger to prick it and put a drop of your blood in the marking," Bao Tie instructed.
Xiao Shan felt confused. Was Bao Tie gifting him a magical item? He couldn't grasp the sudden change in attitude.
"Consider it a loan. If you manage to pass the examination, keep it as a congratulatory gift," Bao Tie replied with a calm, serious expression.
Xiao Shan decided to take the risk. He followed the instructions to put a drop of his blood into the dagger.
As soon as the drop entered the marking, a symbol flashed with a soft red light. Xiao Shan could feel a connection with the dagger.
"Good. Now throw it to the side and beckon it back to your hand," Bao Tie directed.
Xiao Shan launched the dagger and then tried calling it back. He had a faint sensation in his mind, but nothing really happened. He practiced in this way for a few hours with very little results.
Bao Tie narrowed his eyes. "Try gesturing with your hands while circulating your spiritual energy in your hands."
Xiao Shan tightened his hands. He followed the instructions, concentrating the flow of his qi into his hands as he made a beckoning gesture. Suddenly he felt a much stronger reaction. The dagger flew into the air, whistling past Xiao Shan.
"There is a special way to control the dagger, isn't there?" Xiao Shan asked, exasperated. Thinking about the specific hand gesture he used, was Bao Tie not giving him the full technique?
Bao Tie calmly responded, "There are no special hand signs for the technique. It is more about visualization and using your energy to guide the dagger."
"You just happened to need physical movements to visualize it. Try visualizing your hand holding the dagger, slashing, pointing, gripping."
Xiao Shan thought for a while before trying to beckon the dagger again. This time he tried to get the feeling of the dagger landing in his hand. The dagger then flew back and landed in his hand too fast. Xiao Shan felt his hand numb from the impact, but he felt he was getting the hang of it.
He then tried to do different movements like slashing or lunging, slowly getting the dagger to move reliably.
Xiao Shan focused intensely on the training until it started to get dark. He was about to stop when Bao Tie, sitting cross-legged to the side, called out, "Continue! Cultivators have heightened senses. Circulate your qi into your eyes."
Xiao Shan obeyed. As he focused his qi on his eyes, he found that he could see very clearly in the night just with the moonlight. He continued his training in this manner for a couple of days, stopping to cultivate to recover at intervals.
The morning of the third day, Bao Tie stood up. "Come, show me your progress."
Xiao Shan was sitting cross-legged, cultivating. He opened his eyes, pointing his hand. His dagger flew with a whistling sound at Bao Tie, who blocked with his own dagger.
Xiao Shan immediately stood, shifting his hand as he maneuvered the dagger to attack a blind spot on the back.
However, Bao Tie's dagger blocked quickly, then shifted to attack. Xiao Shan immediately shifted position, jumping to his left while making a grasping motion with his hand. His dagger immediately returned as he tried to block Bao Tie's attack.
In the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Bao Tie slashed several times at Xiao Shan's robes. Once in a while, Xiao Shan would manage to avoid or block, but only one out of twenty attacks.
Xiao Shan stood short of breath. Defending with the flying dagger required more control than attacking, and this was harder.
"Continue!" Bao Tie yelled as he continued with an onslaught of attacks.
The day continued in this way, between training with short cultivation breaks, engraving the flying dagger techniques into Xiao Shan through hard work.
There was only one more day before the examination. Bao Tie stood in front of Xiao Shan. "Your dagger control is acceptable. However, you need a lot of movements that give away your intentions." He continued the grueling training.
Finally, the morning of the examination arrived. Bao Tie was arriving at the outer sect grounds gate with Xiao Shan following behind, his robe in tatters, a contrast with his determined aura.
Both entered the outer sect ground. Bao Tie then took Xiao Shan to a pavilion where they could get a new set of robes.
On their way there, a tall muscular man walking out of a shop called out, "Well, well, isn't it the bastard himself? Did you finally get punished and dragged behind a horse?"
Bao Tie pretended not to hear as he increased his pace.
"Hey, I'm talking to you, bastard. Did they cut that sharp tongue too?" the man demanded as he moved quickly to block Bao Tie.
Xiao Shan stood behind Bao Tie as he pondered whether to keep walking and pretend he was not together with Bao Tie.
"I see you are still a burden in others' paths. Why don't you scram for me today, for old times' sake?" Bao Tie responded, looking at the man with a calm, dispassionate face.
"Ha! Don't think your family can cover for you all the time. I'm close to breaking through Foundation Establishment, then I can teach you a lesson in your elders' stead," the man replied, irritated.
"Besides," he chuckled, "I may even do that early. I heard a very interesting rumor."
The man looked derisively at Bao Tie. However, as he locked his sight into Bao Tie's eyes, a chill ran through his spine. He felt his back hair raise as a sense of danger rang loudly.
He spat to the side, breaking up from that state. "I'll let you go today and give face to your uncle." He then passed by Bao Tie, bumping into his shoulder as he went through.
Xiao Shan stood to the back, his sight to the floor. "Perhaps I ended up falling in a snake's den," he thought while sighing.
"Let's go," Bao Tie directed as he continued to the pavilion.
Behind them, the tall man furrowed his brows. "What the hell was that? I'm already at the ninth level while that bastard is stuck at the fifth." Recalling Bao Tie's eyes made his skin crawl. Obviously there was something going on that he couldn't quite grasp.
As the man walked, a short middle-aged man joined him. "Junior Patriarch, I got the news on that fellow you want revenge on," he reported as he walked alongside the tall man.
"Seems like the little guy he has in tow is a disciple he is pushing for joining the sect. The Bao family has some sort of ultimatum on him. He has to get the little guy through."
The lips of the tall man curved into an evil smile. "It would be a shame if something were to happen to the little guy, don't you think?"