Result of a Stall

The world suddenly brighten, color again flourishing its existence. The black and white contrast no longer was able to maintain its existence.

Immediately as this happened, Xuanyin and Jia reverted to their original state before the separation of reality. Jia, her normal self watching from the platform, and Xuanyin, still bounded with Jilun through the bridge made of her lips. The moment didn't last long, though.

Xuanyin removed her two lips off of Jilun's as she slowly backed away from him.

She turned her head to face Fengge who was still in the upper platform, looking dumb as if he was just a shell of his formal existence. Disregarding his state, she continued.

"Current combat prowess is quite low, though great reaction for someone without any experience. I feel he would have no problem adapting to the techniques the grounds teaches"

It took Fengge a solid minute to snap himself out of the state he was just in. He sort of felt... that the event he had just witnessed had to have broken some rule placed in the clan. Who was Xuanyin? To have done such an act, with... a newly, undiscovered, unknown, and weak human who hadn't even started the path of the martial way?

One had to remember just what Xuanyin's position in the clan really was. It was so, that upon her request, any being of the male gender would gladly bow down to her. With her personality, as Xuanyin had been under his care for a bit, he had noticed just how unapproachable she was. But to, out of the blue, take the floor from beneath him and do this?

It was shocking, that was all. In reality, he had no control nor business with her. Its just, this only further sought to confused his image and original understanding of her even further. Even with his experience of over a hundreds years of age, he still found her hard to read, and it frustrated him.

But, he had an image to maintain, and he was sure she was in contact with the grounds master, so he had to put up front his best image.

Fengge nodded, acknowledging Xuanyin's remark. His back stood tall, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary, like a goddess kissing a rock, had happen mere moments before. Truly worthy to be called an actor.

Seeing as Fengge had heard her with his statue like actions, Xuanyin's eyes wandered to the boy in front of her.

"You did well for your first battle, and my complement is well warranted and you can take it as such. I'm sure that with the resources coupled with the many years of heritage that the Aster Grounds holds, this will be your place of prosper."

Jilun was also slightly absentminded, being the victim, of the whole ordeal. Her beauty alone was already hard to resist, but for her to go up out an pull a move such as the one she had just did? He couldn't prepared for it in this life.

Of course, showing embarrassment would be the last thing Jilun would want to do. Not only that, but Jilun didn't take any of her actions to heart. He had just arrived at the grounds, and hence, hasn't gotten to know her as a person whether it would be directly or through other people. He has no way of telling her personality from the few encounters that they had. For all he knew, such an action might be her physical way of horsing around, something she did for fun. In a way, it remined him of Jia's personality, as she too would do the same in her intimate expressions.

Personally, this was to save himself, as she was already a dangerous to be around mentally, but also to save him from future embarrassments brought by any possible misunderstandings.

Taking the obvious note, Jilun knew his trial was over.

He bowed to the goddess in front of him of out courtesy, then exiting the training grounds and walking towards Jias position.

Jia also took the obvious note as she too made her way down up from the raised platform. Jilun couldn't help but smile as he passed her.

Jilun anticipated her battle greatly. Call it his intuition, but stemming from her unusual strength and unpredictable personality, he felt rather favorable in her talent for martial arts. He sort of took the explosion of the Disk of Nature has a hint, even if it maybe was an accident.

Even though Jia had many other things in her mind, she smiled back, before continuing down to the platform.

Jilun made his way up to Jia's previous spot near the instructor as he set his gaze down upon the grounds.

***

Jia made her way to the opposite of Xuanyin, standing calmly for the start of the trial. Xuanyin observed Jia's nature as she spoke.

"I've already explained the significance of this battle, so I feel no need to repeat myself, I assume you are ready?"

Jia spoke no words in response. This only made Fengge cringe even further, but learning from his lesson last time, he didn't speak out.

Xuanyin showed no reaction to Jia's blatant disrespect of her. Instead, she only calmly looked into her eyes.

"Then, I grant myself the first blow."

*Swoosh!*

Distorting reality itself, Xuanyin disappeared from the scene, Jilun, watching from the stands, couldn't help but widen his eyes in awe.

It was that same speed that left him unable to do anything, completely a defenseless baby in front of a true master of the arts. And to add salt to his wounds, it was done not by any old monster, but by a girl his age. It really made him wonder if it was the different environments that allowed such a progress in growth, as he knows martial arts is not something you come understanding from birth. And that even if you are born talented, it wouldn't be discovered until you applied yourself to test. So while talent does play an incredible role in the future achievements, it does not lessen the amount of work it took to get there.

But to achieve that speed... Jilun couldn't imagine the amount of pain and suffering required to learn such a technique.

His eyes quickly locked on to Jia to see how she would react.

Jia had already witnessed his battle, and walked into her trial having a sort of expectation. Given that he was sure that she also assumed the exact same move would be used against her, as this a trial, not a battle to the death, he was anticipating how different she would act in comparison to him, how she would do better.

In the next moment, as Jilun had expected, and although only seeing a shadow of the goddess, she appeared behind Jia. At this point, Jia hadn't even moved, so Jilun assumed the same would happen to her as it had to him.

Until she disappeared.