lecture

Ning'er was excited. That much was clear to all those that knew her closely. Admittedly, there were not many people who did, but still.

After yesterday's ordeal and Hao's promise to help her prepare herself, she had nearly burst from motivation. Thinking back on that small pep talk he had held her, she was still a little baffled by the pure aura she had been enveloped in at that moment.

Afterwards Hao hadn't wasted any time and taken her through a small tour inside the library. Despite having only been to the Institute for such a short time, Hao had already read an amazing amount of books inside the library in her opinion.

Thus, he had told her in no uncertain terms that he expected absolute devotion to the path or she should quit right away as he would not drag someone along who was unwilling to truly learn.

Of course, she had been adamant that she wanted to learn and after that he hadn't said another word about the matter, seemingly taking her word for a promise of her.

The next hour had been filled up with the two of them swiftly walking through the library, while Hao occasionally grabbed a book for her, which she would have to read and understand in her free time.

In Hao's words, to truly devote yourself to the path of cultivation you not only needed to have the desire to become great or strong, or something as asinine as that. No. You needed to burn with passion for the path itself! You needed to desire to learn more and gain a deeper insight into yourself and the world around you. Only then, through that inner fire would you begin to truly see and walk the path before you.

Once the two had gathered enough books for Ning'er's studies in Hao's opinion, they had left the library and went outside to some secluded clearing.

At first she was unsure what to do but that confusion soon faded when Hao told her to simply do as he did and just take in how her body felt throughout the whole exercise. The understanding would follow soon enough if she was diligent in her work.

Thus, after Hao had stripped of his tunic and kimono, leaving him in nothing but his trousers for the moment, which had Ning'er to redden considerably at the view, he began to go through various warm up exercises.

She tried to follow his lead as good as possible but soon realised that those seemingly easy looking exercises were truly exhausting! Thus, it didn't take long for Ning'er to drench her formerly pristine clothes but she tried not to mind that, even though her clothes began to cling to her form tightly soon, making her squirm a little as her imagination began to run wild once again.

Still, no matter how her mind began to flail around, she kept her eyes on Hao, imitating him to the best of her ability and soon enough he stopped going through those warm up exercises.

Following those, with their muscles warmed up well enough in Hao's words, they began to stretch to smoothen their muscles and tendons so they would possess greater flexibility in their movements.

To say the least, for someone like Ning'er, who was rather flexible by nature, those stretching exercises still hurt. A lot. She, who had never really went through any physical training before, besides martial forms to help with her cultivation, that was the moment she began to understand a little what lay before her. Hard and arduous work, and she would have to push forward, again and again, if she wanted to ever grow strong in the future. And yet, she grit her teeth and resolved to not give up. She had given her word and she not break it!

Once the stretching exercises had come to a stop, Ning'er was already as tired as she had never been before. Hao though did not say a single word but motioned for Ning'er to step in front of him.

Gesturing for her to copy him, she began to mirror his movements. Standing opposite from Hao, she stood with her trembling legs just as he did. When he moved his arm, she followed him. When he raised his leg to slowly twist it to the side, she copied him, all the while doing her utmost to not collapse on the spot.

Soon though, her body couldn't take it anymore and collapsed where she stood. Gritting her teeth though, she pushed herself up again, returning to copy Hao once more.

Though, Hao had returned to the beginning position of the form they were going through, making it obvious to her that she would begin at the beginning once again due to her collapse.

Still, she did as he did and once again they moved in sync. This time though, Hao would occasionally come over to her and correct her movements. Sometimes moving her limbs into easier positions and sometimes moving them into a position that nearly doubled the energy she would have to exercise in order not to collapse right then and there again.

Like this, they had moved, and moved, until the sun had begun to set, which made Ning'er realise that they had been practising for hours by then! She had completely lost track of time, so focused she had been on the form they had been going through, and despite her trembling form she stood a little straighter after that realisation had set in. Hao in return had simply smiled at her and told her to return home and begin reading through the books on philosophy they had gathered from the library.

The day after that she was to go to classes as usual, but to her amazement, Hao had told her that he would join their class for some time, to see if it was worth it for her to stay inside said class.

Which brought Ning'er's thoughts back to the present, nearly vibrating in her place in the middle of the slowly filling classroom.

Not far from her, her former best friend Ye Ziyun was sitting and from time to time glance over in her direction but otherwise remained seated in her place.

Then there was her fiancé Shen Fei, once again wearing that smug grin upon his face, and it took her considerable willpower to not just walk up to him and smack said boy straight through the windows, just so she wouldn't have to see that face again.

At the back of the class, that boy Ni Lie and his group of friends stood near the wall once again, joking and whispering to each other occasionally, giving the whole group a slightly mischievous air, in complete opposition to the stern teacher Shen Xiu, who stood at the front of the class, simply waiting for all of her students to join before she would begin her lecture.

Then, along with a few other boys and girls, Hao walked in, his aura unmistakable to Ning'er among the crowd, shining like a bonfire in the darkest of nights, bringing security and warmth back into her world.

She couldn't help but smile once she saw him, and despite being aware of the slight flutter of emotions that had began to stir in her stomach yesterday, tried to remain calm and collected, which was easier said then done actually.

"Good morning, Hao." She greeted, her smile brightening slightly once again when he had come close enough to once again envelope her in his aura of warmth and 'force'.

Obviously, her shift in attitude had not gone unnoticed by quite a few 'observers' of hers, which included both her fiancé, former best friend, strangely Nie Li and his group of friends, and the teacher as well.

Though, since her teacher was the aunt of her fiancé her change in attitude was kind of understandable to her. Nie Li's group though, was a mystery to her.

"Good morning, Ning'er. How far did you progress in your studies yesterday?" Hao's voice asked, bringing her back to the present in the process, and she moved a little to the side so he could sit besides her throughout the lecture.

He did so without a sign of surprise on his calm face, immediately causing an uproar of whispering amongst the other students, though both Ning'er and Hao didn't really care about all the others around them, instead returning to their conversation.

"Not very far." She replied a little downcast at her own progress. She had tried but those books had been very hard to understand, thus she had not gotten very far, with her body being sluggish and tired on top of that.

"I tried to read and understand as much as I could but those books were very…esoteric you could say I guess. I had a very hard time to understand even a little bit of what was said inside of them." She continued, though instead of being stern and a little disappointed in her progress, she was surprised to see Hao nod in understanding. She truly needed to stop making so many presumptions about Hao, she realised right then and there and she would try to improve that trait of hers.

"That doesn't surprise me very much. Contrary to your physical cultivation, which you can continuously push forwards, again and again breaking past your limits, so long as your heart and will are strong enough, your education and the cultivation of your mind cannot be forced in such a manner.

Each person has their own tempo of understanding and learning with the mind and rushing that part never ends well. Take your time, contemplate until you think you have gained some understanding on the matter you read about, and only then continue." Hao told her and she nodded at his words. It made sense now that she thought about it and would try to do just that.

Though, before the two could continue their conversation, their attention was drawn towards the front of the class, as the teacher had decided to begin her lecture at that point in time. Obviously, Ning'er became quiet and instead simply observed and listened to the lecture while at a glance she saw that Hao had begun to take in the content of the lecture and the capabilities of their teacher.

He began to analyse and judge and Ning'er was already curious what his judgment would be in the end, but until then she would keep listening. After all, she had still many things to learn and understand, no matter the source of said knowledge.