17 Moonfang

The sky was blue and clear, looking pure as if it had been washed clean. The sun was shining golden.

Puffs of white clouds floated away, and a group of colourful tropical birds chirped as they flew beneath the blue sky, forming an arrow formation under the clouds as they soared.

This variant of tropical birds would only appear in large groups during springtime. Their bodies were littered with feathers the colour of the rainbow, their bodies the size of an eagle. The birds had owl's beaks, while their tails were that of a peacock's flowing long tail.

It had been fifteen days since the day Di Lan managed to acquire number one in the test to refine the vital Spirit. The spring breeze blew over the whole mountain's green grass, while the wild flowers bloomed eagerly, and the bees and butterflies danced around together. Life was surging all around; it was the wonderful beauty of spring.

The breath of spring was so strong that the tall bamboo walls surrounding the training grounds could not hold it back.

This training field occupied a hundred meter distance. The ground was flat, paved with a layer of thick and wide bricks. Its four sides were planted with green sword bamboo; these green poles were placed closely together side by side, straight and tall, forming a circle of green high walls.

While below, the wall corners were stone as well, clumps of green grass emerged from many areas. In between the bamboo were also some wild dandelions, poking in from the outside, a few even climbing the wall.

Forty-two young teens at the age of fourteen to fifteen were standing in the midst of the training field right now, formed in a semi-circle around the academy elder who was in the center, putting their focus on him. This was a combined of Di Lan's Section D class, and Di Lang's Section 1 class. This was one of the privilege of a Section 1 class, where they get to follow every class that the academy elder teach.

This was a lesson to teach the students on how to use the Moonfang Spirit.

"The Moonfang Spirit is our Mu clan's symbolic Spirit, just like the Mao Clan's River Spirit, and the Bao Clan's Mountain Spirit. The majority of you on the field have chosen the Moonfang Spirit as your vital Spirit, so you must all watch properly. Soon, I will demonstrate personally how to use the Moonfang Spirit to attack. Students whose vital Spirit is not the Moonfang Spirit must also concentrate on me, as this classical long-distance attacking method can also be used on other Spirit; the spectrum of methods one can use is very wide."

As he spoke, the academy elder stretched out his right hand, his five fingers opening wide. He lowered his palm so that the young teens could see the center of it.

"Firstly, you use your mind to mobilize the Moonfang Spirit, moving it to the end point of your fingers." Following his voice, the broken crescent mark that represented the Moonfang Spirit moved down the elder's arm and into his fingers.

"Then, you mobilize the spiritual essence in your core, pouring it into the Moonfang Spirit." A thread of gold coloured spiritual essence gushed out from the elder's body, so fine it was almost impossible to see. It entered the Moonfang Spirit in his palm.

The academy elder was of a Rank three realm, and only Rank three Spirit Masters could produce gold coloured spiritual essence. Rank one Spirit Master's spiritual essence was commonly known as bronze spiritual essence, while Rank two Spirit Masters had theirs called silver spiritual essence. When they reached Rank three, it becomes gold colored spiritual essence.

Once it absorbed the thread of golden spiritual essence, the broken crescent-shaped mark in the elder's hand instantly glowed brighter and brighter. Although it was daytime, it still issued a brilliant yellow light.

"That's awesome!"

"How magnificent.." The youngsters could not help but let out praises of surprise and amazement when they saw it.

The yellow light flickered faintly in the elder's hand. At first glance it would seem as if the academy elder's hand was scooping a handful of moonlight. The academy elder smiled a little. "Now watch carefully, the last step is just like how I will do it, launching it out."

As he said this, his widely opened five fingers slowly closed together, then he lifted his arm up and slowly moved it forward, his arm straight. Finally, he waved his palm lightly in a cutting motion.

The entire movement was steady and powerful.

Swoosh.

The young students could hear a light brushing sound beside their ear.

Following the academy elder's movement, the condensed metallic golden beam in his fingers was thrown out like that.

The light transformed into a lithe fangblade in the air, the faint yellow fangblade only twice the size of a hand, the shape just like a fang of a beast glittering in the night sky. It drew a slightly curved line in the air before it hit a grass puppet ten meters away.

A tearing sound was heard, and the grass puppet's neck that was about thirty centimeters thick was cut clean by the moonblade. The puppet's body swayed about, the huge head suddenly falling onto the floor.

After cutting the grass puppet into half, the fangblade immediately appeared dimmer. However, it continued flying about another seven meters in the air before the broken crescent began to gradually fade away, finally dissipating in the air.

Looking at the grass puppet's neck again, one could see that the cut area was extremely clean, as if it was cut away by the sharpest sickle.

The youngsters were all shocked as they saw this, their eyes wide-open. A few of them even touched their own necks involuntarily, astonished by the attacking power of the fangblade.

After a short silence, the sounds of exclamation began. The teenagers had shining eyes as they stared at the grass puppet, some of them staring at the elder's hand. A few of them were looking at their peers, talking and whispering excitedly.

Only Di Lan stood hidden in the crowd with a focused expression as his hand and his fingers were copying the motion of what the elder had just displayed, his stature was calm.

"All those of you who have refined the Moonfang Spirit, step out. Each one of you shall take a grass puppet and follow the way I just did it, throwing out the fangblade, practice attacking."

Once the academy elder was finished, around thirty students stepped out.

In this batch, the entire clan nearly had a hundred young teens joining the Awakening Ceremony. Those who had cultivating talent were around sixty-nine. Among these students, those who had chosen the Moonfang Spirit numbered around thirty-eight. After going through these few days of hard work, they had all refined the Moonfang Spirit. Those that were left were all mortal grade talents. It was not because they did not desire to refine the Moonfang Spirit, but it was due to the inability of their talent, so they could only withdraw after learning of the difficulty.

To the youngsters of the Mu clan, the Moonfang Spirit was not a simple heavenly Spirit, but the symbol of the clan's glory.

Very quickly thirty-five of them stood in a row. Each of them faced forward, standing ten meters away from a grass puppet on the opposite.

Di Lan stood in the middle of the row, but he did not garner any attention. The practice began.

The students all stretched out their right hands, letting the Moonfang Spirit move to the heart of their palm. One by one, the blue crescent mark started to give out pale blue light as bronze spiritual essence was poured in.

But when they drew a vertical cut with their fingers, only seven or eight crescents flew out. Among these crescents, some of them only appeared for a short moment before dissipating away. Some flew out for two to three meters before disintegrating into blue light with a bang. Some flew further, but the direction was severely off-course, flying straight up to the sky.

The young teens all frowned. When they saw the elder's demonstration earlier it seemed quite easy. But when they started practicing themselves, they realised the skill required in this action. To throw out a fangblade and to have it hit on the grass puppet, it really was not that simple.

The elder had a faint smile as he watched. He saw this scene every year, and was not surprised. The remaining twenty students could only stand outside the field, watching jealously.

After practicing for seven minutes, the youngsters were gradually able to produce fangblades. For a time in the training ground, pale-blue coloured moonblades flew about everywhere.

A few moonblades would fade halfway, a few unluckily crashing into another. Some flew out of the training field, twisting around. Those that were able to hit on the grass puppets were just a small few. Of course these were all due to sheer luck.

The academy elder started to tutor and guide each one personally.

He focused greatly on Di Lang, Mo Chen and Shi Cheng and those others with good latent talent. He patiently corrected their postures, teaching them his experience. Towards those mortal and bronze grade talent students like Di Lan, he only mentioned a sentence or two.

Di Lan kept condensing the blue light in his hand. He waved his palm a few times cutting the air, but he did not release the light, he was only experimenting as simulations in his mind started working. With the field a mess at the moment and no one focusing on himself, he moved his thoughts and released his hold on the Moonfang Spirit, his palm tilting a little, making a cutting action.

He did not focus on his own grass puppet opposite him, but aimed at the one on his left.

With a whoosh, a fangblade flew out quickly, passing through the center of chaos, drawing a straight line in the air and cutting into the body of a grass puppet.

The grass puppet wavered for a moment, the body was pierced by the tip of the fangblade. But very quickly, the green grassy area that was pierced began to regrow, tangling together and healing away the wound.

Of course, this grass puppet was not a normal scarecrow. It was a Rank one heavenly Grass Spirit, having the nature-type ability of self-recovery.

Unless the puppet was cut into half at once, it would just recover back to normal in a short while.

"Wow, look at that fangblade!"

"How cool, who threw it?"

Fangblades that were able to hit grass puppets right now were rare. Di Lan just experimentally hit one, yet it caused the most significant result so far. Thus in an instant the students outside the field gave out cries of surprise. Even the academy elder's attention was caught, and he asked, "That fangblade just now was not bad. Was it yours?"

He looked at a mortal grade talent student with an inquiring eye, since that grass puppet was just opposite him.

This male student blinked his eyes, feeling somewhat bewildered as he faced everyone's sudden gazes at him. To be honest, the field was just in a chaos earlier with moonblades flying about, so even he did not know if it was he himself who threw it.

However, looking at it, it probably is me? Thought the young boy. Then he nodded his head subconsciously.

The youngsters around him immediately looked at him with admiration.

"Who is he, what is his name?" Some of the girl students asked around.

"Even he can throw out a fangblade, I must not lose!" Mu Mo Chen's eyes flashed with a hint of determination.

"So it's not big brother who threw it," Mu Di Lang inexplicably sighed with relief. After Uncle and Aunt consoled her, she was able to recover from the previous blow.

"Big brother, you won first place last time because your luck was good, picking a weak-willed Moonfang Spirit. A Spirit Master's cultivation cannot always rely on luck, I will win you." Di Lang was cheering for herself in her heart.

"You did well. Continue trying hard, seize the feeling you had earlier." The academy elder patted the student's shoulder, smiling as he encouraged him.

The young boy quickly showed excitement and he nodded continuously, his eyes appearing with a different luster.

The elder took the opportunity and announced, "Listen up everyone, this will be your homework. Practice well after class, in four days, I will check the results. Whoever performs the best will receive ten pieces of spirit stones as the prize. Understand?"

"Yes!" The young students all shouted loudly. They could not help but be more excited when they heard about the spirit stone reward.

However only three minutes later, the fangblades that flew about in the air started to thin gradually.

"Damn, every single fangblade takes up 12% of spiritual essence."

"The consumption of the fangblade is just too much, I am just a mortal grade talent, my aperture can only hold 26% of bronze spiritual essence. I can only throw out three fangblades."

Those that stopped all sighed.

The academy elder was calm as he witnessed everything, but his heart sighed, "This is the benefit of those with high cultivating talent. To use the fangblade, it is simply just three words – Practice makes perfect. Those with higher grade talent are able to hold more spiritual essence in their core, and the rate of recovery is faster, so they have more chances to practice. Those with poorer talent can also use spirit stones to make up for it, strengthening the number of practices. But those with low grade talent and have no spirit stones, though they have the mind to practice they will still be powerless. Sigh, the Spirit Master's cultivation process is just so cruel. I had just better take care of those high grade talent students."