Chapter 2 - Training

In the morning Long Yang opened his eyes slowly.'So it was not a dream at all.' he thought. After tidying up and washing his face, he left the room. He skipped his way through dining hall.

When he entered inside, he saw people who grouped by two to three person groups. They were the other servants of the Sun Clan. When Long Yang opened the door, they only gave a glance and returned their conversation as if he was an air. He waited nothing more since they always acted similarly since they thought he was cripple and found nothing worthy to befriend with.

He didn't mind nothing of them and grabbed his meal. Since he was eating silently and couldn't find anything to pass time he lent ear to nearby group of servants. They were gossiping about something fiercely.

"Hey did you guys hear, it seems Wan Ting still haven't returned since he left the clan five days ago. They say second young master have sent him to gather some herbs."

"Yeah, but he was at the first layer of Qi Condensation. Did he enter inner circle of the forest maybe? Forest seems more dangerous these days."

"Don't think so, everybody here clearly knows how dangerous it's in the inner circle, surely they wouldn't want him gather herbs there."

"I agree, did he run away perhaps?"

"To where? Closest city here is 400 li away. Even he left for Mount Emei Sect, they wouldn't put him into their eyes since he's 35 years old."

"True, though Mount Emei Sect's yearly recruitment should be held 5 months away now. I heard Second Young Master will try to join this year. Since he's at the fifth layer of Qi Condensation he should pass easily this year."

"Yeah since recruitment rules are only younger than 22 years old and higher than forth layer of Qi Condensation, he can be already a member of the sect."

"By the way, i heard a new servant joined last week, they say she's quite the beauty. I wonder who will she serve?"

"I heard she is talented too, i bet the clan would nurture her diligently. I think Eldest Young Master would be very worthy of her service. Wonder why she didn't become his servant yet?"

"Hush, don't you know Eldest Young Master has already a servant? Even if he's a cripple, third elder seems to care about him."

"But third elder is in Tianwu City for a month now. He should be stationed there for some task."

"Hmm then that changes things..."

When he continued hearing about their talk he noticed something was off. Yesterday when he went to gather herbs he couldn't find them in the outer parts of the forest, so he had to head a little bit inner parts of the forest. Since Sun Guo also knew about his cultivation situation it seems like he tried to make him disappear once and for all. 'Really for a girl? Is cultivation that important to lose your life for such a trivial matter? And what was third elder even thinking when he sent Long Yang to serve Sun Guo? I get it he is the eldest one of the three sons of the current head Sun Quan and most likely the next head of the Sun Clan. But was this even worth it, what could he even gain by serving him?' And his memories only proved that right. 'But that may be a blessing in disguise. I think i found my ticket out here.' thought Long Yang while he finished his meal silently.

It was already middle of the morning and should be time for his training with Sun Guo. He slowly walked towards the training area and only saw an empty area. He looked around and only saw some weapon rack which had some blunt weapons and nothing else.

'Might as well cultivate while waiting.' he thought and walked in the middle of the field. He sat in lotus position and tried sirculating his Qi towards his skin. Surely enough, he couldn't feel anything like yesterdays experience from it. 'It seems second layer is hard to achieve with my current cultivation.' he thought and focused the mantra of Azure Dragon Cultivation Art instead. He started feeling the refreshing Qi from his surroundings enter his bodies meridians. While cultivating he decided to check the cultivation arts future levels, since he only saw a Foundation Sea expert in Sun Clan, he knew about some of the levels. But he didn't expect he was a frog in the well. After Qi Condensation future levels were Foundation Sea, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Dao Fusing and Immortal level. He got confused after looking through Immortal level, since he can sense there was more of it but couldn't see anything more after that. But even these levels where enough to overhelm him. He smiled bitterly when he saw in his memories, how highly he thought about the clan head who is a Foundation Sea expert. 'So he was only could get that far in the clan. Even if he was the clan head and have all the resources in his call.' he thought.

Cultivation resources were a very important part of the cultivation, since you can't achieve much by not having talents, resources or hardwork. And the Long Yang before not only he had no talent, he haven't get even spare resources. All the important herbs, pills went to young masters and elders.

While he was trying to accumulate enough Qi to reach second layer of Qi Condensation, his focus has disrupted by laughs that reached his ear. When he opened his eyes he saw Sun Guo and his two lackeys enter the field in a grand manner. These lackeys were the first and second elders sons respectively.

"Sun Guo, i am itching to see the Iron Claw you comprehended." said one of the lackeys, who he remembered as Sun Li.

"Yeah, i wonder how many seconds will it take to make him unconscious this time." said the other one who he remembered as Sun Tao.

"Well, since our little training dummy came is ready and all we shouldn't wait any longer." said Sun Guo. They didn't know Long Yang could hear them while they're talking about him. But when he reached first layer of Qi Condensation his hearing increased with his other senses. He was unlike of his past mortal body. But even if they knew he could hear, they wouldn't care.

Under emotionless gaze of the Long Yang, the trio came before him. Sun Guo snorted and said "Hey, get up and take a stand. You will taste Iron Claw today. You should be glad you can see these techniques since you wouldn't even glance them with being such an useless person.".

Long Yang didn't even try arguing them. They were some arrogant teenagers, who would swear everyone they can before them. Current them would be even considered as kind, usually they wouldn't shut up when they're before some girls that they were trying to impress. His only thought now was to get this farce over with and continue his cultivation. He took his stand like he used to in the life before.

Trio looked his stand and found it confusing. 'Since when did he learn something like this? How would it even help a cripple like him?' they thought.

Sun Guo didn't want to give it any more thought and started gathering his Qi in his hands. When they become pitch black, his eyes gave a cold glint and he smirked feeling very proud of himself. He rushed towards Long Yang and screamed "Iron Claw!".

Long Yang gazed the incoming claw in front of his guard. He could clearly see it coming but couldn't dodge since he was only at the first layer of cultivation while his opponent was in eighth layer. Instead he used his quick wits and chose to guard instead of dodging. When he felt the claw connect his arms he felt immense pain. He felt his arms tiered in multiple places and his face went pale. He immediatly retreated and started circulating his Qi in his arms to stop the bleeding. He felt a cooling sensation in his arms and felt the bleeding stopped after 10 seconds.

While Long Yang were dealing his injuries, at that time Sun Guo was watching him with a bewildered look. 'Since when can he take a blow from me?' thought Sun Guo with a confused face. But confusement immediately replaced itself with anger. His face went red from anger and started gathering his Qi again in this hands.

Seeing Sun Guo preparing another attack, Long Yang chose to change his guard this time. Because before his arms were healed, another injury at the same level could very well cripple his arms. If that happened the rumors would be true this time.

Sun Guo shouted "Iron Claw!" again and rushed towards Long Yang again. After he swung his claw, he yet again saw Long Yang standing. He gathered his Qi again in his hands and same happened 2 times more.

When he saw Long Yang even blocked with his back, he started preparing his fifth attack he heard Sun Li behind him.

"Hey Sun Guo, you will really kill him if you continue this time."

Sun Guo thought about it and decided it would be really bothersome for him if he died on him in the training field. So he snorted and dissipated the Qi in his hands. He solemly said "We're finished for today, come to my room 3 days later after you recuperated.". Without waiting for an answer he turned and left with his lackeys. But while he was leaving the field, one could see the killing intent in his eyes.

After seeing them off, Long Yang couldn't hold on anymore and plumped down the ground. He felt dizzy from the bloodlost and his Qi was deplated since he tried stopping bleeding so many wounds. He lied on the ground and tried sirculating someQi and gather enough strength to move.

After he lied there for half an hour, he thought he could move again for some time. So he got up slowly and pulled his tired body to his room.

He couldn't even remember the road on his way here but when he reached his room he immediately plumped down to bed. He couldn't even fall asleep from the pain of his wounds. So he tried cultivating. After cultivating in not so perfect position on the bed for five hours, he could already feel all the pain he felt went away. He who couldn't find enough chance to cultivate the day before, continued cultivating without knowing about his talents. He couldn't even compare because he just felt the Qi yesterday first time. After cultivating for another three hours he felt his cultivation improved very well and felt it wouldn't take too long to breakthrough to second layer.

After cultivating straight eight hours he felt a bit dizzy and decided to stop gathering more Qi in his body for the day. He felt consolidating this Qi and using it to improve would be much more useful for now, and he started chanting the mantra for Bronze Skin Method in his mind. The method which he didn't get any response yesterday, unusually went smooth. He started feeling Qi reaching his skin and pass by his wounds from the fight in the morning. His wounds had already stopped causing him pain, but after trying out Bronze Skin Method, he noticed some cool feeling on his skin. Like his skin was adapting all the damage it get from today and trying to become a new. After continuing two more hours and lifting his gaze to see the stars, he stopped his cultivation for today. But just when he got up from his position, he noticed something wrong with his skin. It was peeling like a snake and another new skin could be seen under it. He went to bath and peeled all his skin. When he saw the new skin on his body, he noticed the new skin giving a dark brown lucent color.

'Did i improve my body cultivation or something?' he thought. Normally he would wake up from his cultivation by system announcement when he achieved something but he decided to check his status. And sure enough he saw his body cultivation leveled up.

Long Yang (Age 19)

Cultivation: First Layer of Qi Condensation (Early Level)

Cultivation Method: Azure Dragon Cultivation Art

Body Cultivation: Bronze Skin Level 2

Martial Arts: Bronze Skin Method

'I must have gone too hard on myself today to not even notice the announcement.' thought Long Yang. After he finished cleaning up he went to bed and fell asleep instantly.