Book 2: Chapter 23: One’s Own Master

He moved through the forest like wind.

Lin Xi silently headed towards the yellow perimeter wall while breathing deeply.

His few days of hard work and practice actually allowed him to defeat the ‘Rose Flower’ black-armored opponent even without a bow. However, he was about to face the Direct Spear Strikes soon, which directly suppressed his excitement.

Soon afterwards, he was standing before the entrance into the temple with the Direct Spear Strikes Trial.

After giving the records of the new students before him on that small sheepskin scroll stuck to the wall a look, using these records to suppress the fear he felt towards those spear thrusts, Lin Xi took a deep breath, and then rushed into the spacious hall.

Weng!

Just like that day, the unique mechanical movement sounds rang out. The sounds of bow strings vibrating continuously sounded from within the four walls, black spears that didn’t reflect any light shot through the square openings, stabbing towards the moving Lin Xi.

Lin Xi’s mind was extremely tense, the short blade in his hands that felt more comfortable than the longsword continuously brandishing about like lightning.

Dang Dang Dang…

Noises continuously echoed through this hall, sparks flying in all directions.

Pa! 

Inside the dark hall, a black spear still smashed into Lin Xi’s body, making him fall to the ground again.

After repeating this more than twenty times, Lin Xi, whose entire body was ravaged by splitting pain, finally completely lost the strength to climb back up. Sweat flowed within his black armor like a small stream, but he felt like a fish on scorching land, as if a huge boulder weighed down on his body.

When he was about to faint, he gave the direction he came from a look, and then forcibly shouted out ‘Return!’.

All of the indisposed feeling disappeared. Lin Xi returned to the entrance, but when he faced this gloomy and empty temple, as well as what he felt just now, a layer of cold sweat couldn’t help but appear on his back.

He already set his resolution yesterday, thinking that if he didn’t use the once a day ability, then it would be wasted anyway, so he might as well use it to train.

He would train himself here each day, and then use the ability to go back to the start, go back happily without any wounds or injuries… there was no way he could do this.

Even though he couldn’t discover any lecturers’ traces in the forest with his current cultivation, he understood that there were definitely quite a few lecturers moving through the forest, observing and recording every student’s performance.

Compared to the first time he entered this temple, the floor that was bumpy, entirely different, even more so proved that during these past few days, there were quite a few students who entered this place, just that it just happened to already be late right now, not running into anyone… meanwhile, the fact that there were no spears inserted into the earth only meant that there were always hidden lecturers cleaning things up.

If he returned just like that, then in the eyes of the lecturers here, he would have just walked around the entrance… if he did this every single day, and then broke the record later, then that was too suspicious, the reasoning would definitely be carefully looked into.

His goal was naturally to break the record, seize a course point. Otherwise, as someone who came from the same place as Principal Zhang, wouldn’t he be embarrassing himself?

That was why before he went into meditation cultivation last night, he already properly thought about it, when cultivating here, the first time, he would go all out, be knocked down as miserably as miserable could be, beating himself half dead, challenging his own limits like that. This would not only bring him great benefits in martial skill, it would also be extremely beneficial to both his willpower and meditation cultivation… if it was another student without the ten minutes rewind ability, they definitely didn’t dare challenge their own limits, so the benefits they obtained in cultivation would naturally be less than him. Meanwhile, after completing this, he would push the ‘roulette’ in his brain, go back to the start, and then try again.

This time, he would still admittedly go all out, because for him, there was no way he could hold back before such a terrifying trial, but he wouldn’t let himself be beaten up so miserably, stopping a bit earlier. This way, he didn’t have to rest for a few days before being able to train here again.

He already planned out everything well. At the very least, in this temple, he would have double the cultivation time of others.

However, right now, he was standing at the entrance in perfect condition. When he thought about the spears that smashed into his body one after another just now, as well as the final suffering that made him feel like he was going to die, he still couldn’t help but feel his entire body go cold.

This really was having double the length of torture compared to everyone else.

“Just how many times did you guys suffer like this before you had these accomplishments?” Lin Xi wiped away the sweat from his forehead, looking towards the small sheepskin scroll on the wall, muttering to himself. “This can also be considered true bravery, I reckon…”

After closely examining those records again, Lin Xi took a deep breath. Like a gust of wind, he rushed into the spacious but terrifying dark hall.

Weng…

Black spears shot out from the holes in the walls again.

Dang! Dang! Dang!

Lin Xi quickly took a few steps in succession. Meanwhile, the short blade in his hand continuously hacked at the incoming black spears, deflecting them.

Suddenly, a black spear shot towards his left shoulder. His body originally already subconsciously leaned forward, clearly about to evade this strike, but for some reason, as if his mind was greatly shaken, his movements actually clearly became sluggish.

Pa!

This spear still smashed into his left shoulder. Then, two black spears sent him crashing into the ground.

Lin Xi released another groan of pain, sucking in cold air. However, his eyes were instead filled with ecstasy.

Just like how this world was filled with too many areas that were unknown, too many unknown changes, a single person’s thoughts, a single person’s calculations, still can’t do everything. Moreover, this person, in their life, will always obtain some nice surprises that could not be predicted.

The way he charged inside this time was identical to the first time. He originally thought that since he could redo things once, then it was equivalent to having an extra round of training. However, what he didn’t expect was that towards the other spears’ attacks, he didn’t have any memories, but towards the first spear that hit him, he had a deep impression, his body even subconsciously making evasive movements!

This meant that as long as he advanced in the same manner, the direction in which the other spears shot at him should also be similar. In that case, not only did he seem to have become his own teacher, knowing what kind of adjustments he should make in the areas he originally couldn’t evade, what kind of movements are more suitable… moreover, he would definitely be able to evade some spears he originally couldn’t, advance even quicker, even further!

When he thought about the benefits he could obtain, Lin Xi became more and more excited, his eyes becoming more and more bright. However, he wasn’t in a rush to get up, instead waiting until the pain wouldn’t affect his movements anymore, and only then did he bounce up, rush forward like a gust of wind!

Pa!

After rushing out who knew how many steps, Lin Xi was finally knocked to the ground again.

While laying on the ground, gasping for breath, he turned around to look behind him. While breathing in the smell of the dirt, his heart felt more and more content.

The distance from the entrance to where he fell was only roughly thirty steps. However, when he changed forward without any thought of safety before, he only moved sixteen or so steps of distance from the entrance.

Now, it was only the second time he was knocked down. There were three times where he was knocked down last time, but he managed to successfully evade this time.

Meanwhile, the suffering the long spears brought his body previously, and the evasion this time, even more so left a type of branding on his body. He could even sense that his skills made clear progress compared to before.

Almost every single evasive movement, every single cutting motion became a bit faster.

After resting quietly for a while again, Lin Xi continued forward.

…

Inside the spacious hall, sounds of the black spears stabbing into the earth could be heard, noises of Lin Xi’s short blade making contact with the spears, his heavy falling sounds, and roars of pain continuously sounded.

Only when Lin Xi felt like if he continued further, his injuries would clearly prevent him from recovering by tomorrow or the day after, did he stop his training. He already traveled close to a hundred steps from the entrance, almost reaching the middle of the hall.

“If I still have some time, I should see if I can get my hands on some of those medicines Teacher An told me about…”

Then, Lin Xi ignored all sense of aesthetics again, slowly wriggling his way back to the temple entrance like an earthworm. While he was still contemplating whether or not the things on the medicine list would have some use, he was completely unaware that right now, a pair of eyes that were staring at him were filled with shock and surprise.

Lin Xi slowly ‘wriggled’ his way out of this temple, walking out of the yellow perimeter wall. 

Ka

A secret door opened from this temple, the one who stared at Lin Xi with shock and pleasant surprise walked out from within.

This was a somewhat stooped young black-robed lecturer, on his left cheek a dark green lizard tattoo.

His movements were swift and quiet like a lizard in the dark. The black spears inserted into the earth were completely returned to the square-shaped holes all around this formation. When these black spears were replaced, the muffled sounds of hinges moving could be heard from behind the walls again.

Then, this young black-robed lecturer sprinted under the sky that had already darkened, easily leaping over the yellow perimeter wall, rushing to the end of this training valley, arriving before a towering cliff.

He didn’t stop, instead running with even greater speed, rushing step after step along this cliff, running frantically towards the skies.

At the center of this cliff were a few simple and crude caves, only some simple everyday meal utensils here. However, from this cave, one could see a larger half of the training valley’s mountain forest.

Luo Houyuan, who was dressed in old-fashioned academy lecturer black robes, was currently sitting in one of the caves with his eyes closed. There was nothing before him, only the vast sky.

The instant the stooped young black-robed lecturer swiftly entered the cave like a black lizard, he opened his eyes, calmly asking, “Li Wu, what is it?”

“Self Defense Department heaven’s choice Lin Xi, the second time he entered the Direct Spear Strikes Trial hall, he reached close to a hundred steps.” Li Wu whose breathing wasn’t rushed in the slightest gave Luo Houyuan a bow of respect, reporting.

“I understand. You do not need to worry about him for now.” Luo Houyuan nodded. Even though his tone was calm, waves were surging within his mind. Green Luan Academy had never lacked geniuses in these past sixty years, but this Lin Xi’s speed of improvement… really was enough to deserve Li Wu’s shock and surprise.

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