24 Simper Fidelis

"Senior Sister, I promise to the Gods that I will definitely return with the money from these sales," the disciple whom I sold talismans told me. I was giving him a number of talismans, including my newest Invisibility ones, on a consignment basis. 

I was about to say, 'I'm an atheist, so...' but stopped myself because in no way was I an atheist anymore. Instead, I said, "I'd rather not bother Her with these meagre matters, so I'll insist on signing a contract to that effect and filing it with the school instead." 

I was being absolutely sincere here, too. I wasn't sure what would happen if I tried to accept an oath on behalf of my pet goat, and I frankly didn't want to know. Maybe nothing, but she always wanted to be helpful, and that was really, really scary.

It was... better just not to bother Her with such small matters, as I said.

I focused on selling only utility spell talismans, and this next consignment was no different. 

This was my focus partly because they had an outsized effect compared to the resources they cost to make and partly because I didn't want to give away too many of my personal advantages. 

I didn't ever plan to sell talismans, or the secrets of making them, higher than third-level spells, at least not for a long time, and even some third-level spells I wouldn't try to make into talismans, like Hold Person. That spell was still one of my trump cards. Selling that was asking people to make counters to it, and I was sure there were ways to use Qi to do so.

The biggest sellers so far have been Detect Magic (Qi), Identify, Disguise Self and Feather Fall. Two life-saving talismans, arguably, and two utility ones. The divination of Identify sometimes produced weird results on items, especially if they were natural treasures, but overall, it was still quite useful.

"Oh... and I have that other thing you asked me to get," the older disciple shook his head. This guy followed more of the Dao of the Merchant than the Dao of the Sword and had already figured out he didn't have a future in the school. He might very well reach the Foundation Establishment realm someday, but he mainly travelled all over and used being a disciple of a powerful Sect as a type of armour while he traded and made money.

He pursed his lips and said, "Let me tell you, it was not easy to get. If anyone but you asked me for this, you would be the one I would come to in order to try to source it."

I frowned, "It can't be mine."

"I know. You told me that, and I got you what you wanted. I'm just saying it wasn't easy," the merchant said, spreading his hands but producing a small parcel.

I took it from him and gave him the agreed-upon sum, not allowing his whining to increase the price. It was difficult to get, though, so just to be sure, I took it out of the parcel and cast Identify on it. It was always possible he was mistaken, and if so, that would be a problem.

Identify only worked reliably on magical items, and this just barely qualified. I nodded when I got a positive return on the spell.

As far as the merchant disciple's complaints about how hard it was to get, I ignored them. I had already known it would be a difficult thing to acquire, so I had priced the contract accordingly in advance.

I thanked the man and left, returning back to my villa and walked straight into the large room I used for magical research. 

Over the past months, I had gotten to the point where I could cast illusory and necromantic fourth-level spells instantly, which was an amazing achievement. However, I still needed to cast most other schools as rituals, or I could not cast them at all, like Evocations.

There was one spell in particular that I was interested in perfecting, and although it normally didn't involve these types of components at all, I had found it difficult to get Polymorph to work on the "beast" I had selected. And that was, of course, the diremonster that everyone was sure that I was, the Celestial Ghost Cat. They were a kind of rare species, but like most monsters, their strength ran the gamut from weak to terrifying, so finding them wasn't impossible.

I pulled out the small parcel I brought home and set aside the contents, a small amount of fur, on the appropriate area that I had modified for this casting. Polymorph was a ridiculous spell. You could turn yourself into a T-Rex, so turning myself into a spiritual cat wasn't even that much of a stretch. 

You didn't normally need any part of the animal, either, but it just didn't work when I tried it before on any type of diremonster, but I had modified the spell to use a bit of genetic material as a focus. If I was right, then I wouldn't need any more fur once I had experienced polymorphing into it once, and I would need some part of each diremonster in order to transform into them. That was a bit of a letdown, as some species had incredibly broken innate abilities that were way outsized to their cultivation base, even as infants.

The strongest of "my" species was at the Celestial Immortal level, hence their name, but I didn't think I'd be able to polymorph into that. That would be too OP. I expected, if the spell worked at all, that I would transform into the equivalent cat based on my sixth level of Qi Gathering cultivation level. 

I had made my most recent breakthrough only a few weeks ago, and my speed was considered remarkable, and that was when I was spending more time studying magic and Daoist techniques than actually cultivating. In fact, I spent more than two-thirds of my free time studying Wizardry.

I was honestly just kind of curious about what innate abilities Celestial Ghost Cats had, as what information I had was a bit vague, and I figured it was something I should know.

Disposing of the small bag that the fur came in, I double-checked all parts of the ritual twice before I started casting. Ten minutes later, I experienced the queer sensation of shifting downwards onto all fours, all of my clothing melting into my skin as Polymorph successfully shifted me into the shape of a ghost cat.

These cats, full-grown, were about the size of a jaguar or cheetah, but they featured an active camouflage system that shifted the colour of their coats to blend into their surroundings like a chameleon or the Predator. They weren't quite as good as the Predator's invisibility, as it took a couple of seconds to shift, so it was only really good while staying still, not moving. 

They were also much more jaguar-like than cheetah-like and clearly were designed as close-in ambush predators with stocky muscles and huge paws rather than designed to run things down as cheetahs were.

I didn't shift into a full-grown cat, which I wasn't surprised about, but I wasn't quite kitten-sized either. I suppose I was a "teenaged cat" in size. I would look similar to a jaguar of nine or ten months old—beyond being a cub, but still looking like I had a little bit to grow in to match the size of my giant murder mittens.

I glanced at one of my front paws and nodded. I only had two active abilities, three if you counted the ability to turn off or on my camouflage, but I could briefly become intangible, like a ghost, and even pass through solid matter. I would have to study how it worked, but I think it temporarily shifted you into the Ethereal Plane. I didn't know what would happen if I ended this ability while inside something solid, like a tree, but my instincts told me that it wasn't a good idea.

Lastly, I had some sort of psychic attack that was intended to paralyse the mind of prey so that I could more easily bite them to death on their necks. I didn't think these were all the abilities this species had, not by a long shot, but they were all the abilities that this young example of the species had.

I'd leave myself transformed for the entire hour's duration, as that felt like the right thing to do in order to completely lock down my ability to polymorph into this shape again. But, first...

I glanced around, left and right, before I padded over to something I had prepared before I attempted to cast this spell for the first time. I had to know.

I climbed into the box and curled up. It really was very comfortable. It felt natural. The only way it would be better was if the box was just a little bit smaller, but I hadn't known how big I was going to be.

I absently licked my paw and figured I could just take a nap in here until the hour was used up. Well, perhaps not a full nap. I might let go of the spell if I fell all the way asleep, but just a cat nap, eh?

Not too long after I settled into my comfortable box, Fang Fang stuck her head into the room and called out, "Mistress, Senior Sister Chen—" I hadn't actually locked the door or indicated I didn't want to be interrupted. I stuck my head out of the box I was in and stared at her.

She screamed and ran away. I frowned, as much as a cat could do so and stretched before hopping out of the box. I didn't want to release the spell, as I had the feeling I needed to go the whole hour to lock in the ability. I didn't know if that was true, but how would I get more fur from a rare cat species? I was a little surprised I got it the first time, and it had taken the better part of a year.

I had standing orders that Senior Sister Chen Dexin was to be invited in and seen as a guest, but she didn't have the same unlimited access as Nalani, my adjutant. Fang'er had probably been here to tell me that she was waiting for me in one of the other rooms.

Now, though, I heard the distinctive and alluring sound of her voice and her chuckle getting closer as she said, "I doubt very much your Mistress has been eaten, little one..."

Then I saw her step into the room, with Fang'er hiding behind her skirts, and Chen Dexin grinned, "In fact, that is your Mistress."

Now Fang Fang looked really embarrassed. She had known that I was a non-human disciple, but I had obviously never changed my shape in my home, so she probably either forgot about it or just assumed it was something very private for me. She yelled, "I'm sorry!"

I waved a paw at her, not minding how she freaked out. If anything, it made me feel good. It wasn't surprising to be shocked at the sight of my perfect form.

I was watching Fang'er leave, so it surprised me when I felt a hand on my head. I swung around and saw Chen Dexin was rubbing my head.

Incensed, I cast Message. Normally you needed verbal, somatic and material components to cast this spell. But for spells where material components weren't used up, which was most of them, components of all types were just a type of mnemonic device to help the caster. It was possible to eliminate the need for some or all of the components needed to cast spells if you studied a particular spell in-depth.

I could only do this for a few spells, though. Message was a pretty common spell to be so highly studied by all Wizards, but especially naughty ones like Merildwen and her parents. The capability to send messages in secret was a huge advantage, and it had been what had allowed them to plot when they had been in the underground ruins so many months ago. As such, being polymorphed was a pretty big disadvantage from the perspective of using most of my spells.

I sent, <This majestic cat did not grant you permission to touch!> I had the idea to swat at her with one of my giant paws but merely raised it threateningly instead.

She laughed, "Come on, you're already purring. I didn't even know cats as big as you could purr."

Was I? I mean, maybe a little. I suppose I was still technically one of the "small cats" then, not completely analogous to a jaguar. I didn't think jaguars could purr either, but cheetahs could—I definitely knew that. Anyone who hadn't specifically googled "videos of cheetahs purring" was just missing out.

I had to admit that spot right between my eyes above my nose felt really good to be scratched. I closed my eyes a little bit and said, full of dignity, <I'll allow it.>

She stopped scratching me, and I opened my eyes, about to complain that I hadn't given her permission to stop. But she walked over to the couch I kept in my workroom and sat down, patting her lap. I narrowed my eyes and said, <This majestic cat is not some lap pet!>

She just patted her lap again and said, "I'll rub behind your ears."

I instantly used my "intangible ability" and pounced on the couch. Solid objects, when I used this ability, seemed like the consistency of a thick cloud. Paradoxically, I could push through them with only a thought, but at the same time, they could support my weight if I wanted to. I sat on the couch, placed my head in her lap for the time being, and shifted back.

My sudden presence startled her, but the human servant chuckled and rubbed me behind the ears as promised. A little of this sounded good, and afterwards, I would go out onto the roof of my villa and eat the two pigeons that had made the mistake of living in my den. Their presence in my territory was ugly in my eyes. I only permitted the owl to roost near me, and even then, only temporarily!

However, I must have gotten distracted. I wasn't quite asleep, but time flew, and eventually, the hour duration of the Polymorph spell elapsed, and I suddenly woke up to full alertness as I shifted back into my natural form in Chen Dexin's lap. She pouted and said, "Aww... I was hoping you would be naked when you shifted back."

I coughed. Now that I was normal, I realised that polymorphing had been affecting my mind to a large degree. That was normal, as you were temporarily only as intelligent as the beast you shifted to. Clearly, this type of diremonster was just as intelligent as humans, but it was just as clear that their instincts coloured my time polymorphed.

I would have been content to spend the entire hour duration just lying in that box, for example. I also had an outsized opinion of myself, with my arrogance increasing quite a bit while I was transformed. At the time, I didn't think it was weird that Chen Dexin would come over just to rub my ears, but now I realise she must have had some other motive for showing up.

"Uhh... so, what brought you to my place today, Senior Sister?" I asked, trying to avoid blushing at my behaviour while I was cat. 

I tried sitting up, but she casually pushed my head back into her lap, saying, "I like you like this better." 

She smirked and then continued, "I've made it my habit to offer you advice whenever you encounter new things. It'll be that time of year in a couple of weeks. The school will open up to new disciples, and I wanted to give you some advice on how to proceed."

That was true. I sighed with emotion. I had been here a whole year, almost. It had been a little more than a half year since I took over Chen Dexin's job, and things were running smoothly. I was training Nalani as my replacement, as she was stronger than she appeared. Perhaps she wasn't in the past, but since she dissipated her former cultivation base and restarted with a much better cultivation method, she had a very dense amount of Qi and the experience of over a decade of cultivation and fighting experience, so she was easily the strongest of my clique even though she liked to be in the background.

Xiao Li had been visiting me again for the past six months, and he was already in the middle part of the eighth level. He extracted a promise of going out on adventures when we both reached the Foundation Establishment. I wondered how long that would take. 

Perhaps I would have to speed up, but while cultivation was fun and a good way to pass time, it was in no way more interesting than studying magic. But although I prioritised my own safety, I was actually kind of getting antsy to see other places, too. 

This was a different feeling than I would have expected from either Merildwen or myself. Merildwen had the time sense of an elf, and wouldn't easily get bored here for at least a handful of years, while I personally wouldn't mind staying here nearly as long, too. I wondered if the "antsy" feeling was a universal feeling of cultivators because the idea of testing myself seemed very appealing now.

I kept my head in her lap and said, "What should the Disciple Union President be doing during the examination for new disciples, then?"

---xxxxxx---

"Going into the city again, Junior Sister?" asked the man guarding the portal room.

I nodded my head. Being what was basically a student council president had benefits, and one of them was I could use the portal to and from Cloudsoar City for free whenever I wanted, "Yes, Senior Brother. If you don't mind energising the portal for me?"

"Of course. Please don't dawdle, though. I have a regular transit to effect in a half hour or so, and I don't want a headache," he held his hands up in mock supplication.

I darted through at my top speed as soon as the portal was opened, and it closed just a half second after I made it through, so I didn't think he would have any complaints.

I stepped out of our small outpost in the city and glanced sideways. There was already a line of cultivators waiting, and we wouldn't open up until early tomorrow morning. I had discovered the reason that people lined up in advance was because it was widely believed that our school only recruited enough people to cover last year's attrition through disciples dying, leaving the school or going on long-term leave or a long-term mission, so they felt being the first was advantageous.

This was true, but it wasn't really the case that being first helped you at all. The school had been doing admissions like this for... an unknown number of years, but at least a hundred thousand. They had a pretty good idea of both the capabilities of the average person coming to try out every year as well as how many to expect, so they just carefully calibrated the difficulty to result in the correct amount of new admissions. If a little bit more or less were admitted a year, that was fine.

Still, I liked that they seemed devoted enough to show up early, and I'm sure others did as well, so perhaps it did help with admissions so long as you got through the tests.

I met eyes with one of my girls, who was incognito, pretending to be in line. My predecessor recommended this as a way to weed out any talented assholes. If they were incredibly talented, we would admit them even if they were the worst of assholes. But if they were merely good enough, it was possible to blackball them by recommendations from a few disciple organisations, mine especially, and Chen Dexin recommended that I filter out people who might prove to be excessively problematic.

I noticed all of the discussion amongst the people in line stopped immediately after I walked out. While I was only wearing the usual Outer Disciple's robes, I had two prominent pins on my lapel, one for the Jade Peak and one with the emblem of the Disciple's Union. Some in line would definitely recognise them, as those who were legacy admissions or who really wanted to come to our school would have learned as much as possible about it in advance, and these were the most likely people to wait a full day in line, too.

I smiled in an affable way at the line of people before running off at my highest speed, heading towards the train station.

An hour train ride down into the lower city and another twenty-minute run got me to my location, one of the City's Prisons. I specifically chose this prison as it served one of the rowdier sides of the lower city.

The guard on duty recognised me and seemed a bit nervous at my presence but ushered me through to meet with the Warden. The Warden knew exactly why I was here, and he didn't seem like he liked it. I actually thought better of him for that, although I couldn't tell if his antipathy was for his prisoners' benefit or just because he didn't like this type of cloak-and-dagger stuff.

Still, he was very professional and had a list of prisoners and their crimes awaiting me. Normally, I would ask a few questions about the lucky person I chose, but in this case one of the names at the top of the list was listed as being a demonic cultivator that killed an entire family.

While I still couldn't sense the weight of karmic sin or merit on a person, which was why I had to make sure that the people I selected were guilty, I could definitely feel the type of cultivation method a person used and would easily be able to identify if this person really was a blood cultivator, as they had an especially distasteful taste to my senses.

It was unusual for such people to be imprisoned as they were normally killed immediately. It was kind of hard to keep a cultivator in jail, actually. At a minimum, you'd need guards who were also cultivators and stronger than him.

Seeing my selection, the Warden let out a sigh of relief, saying, "I was very much hoping you'd show up today and pick this one. Otherwise, we'd have had to keep this asshole until the next execution day next month."

I raised an eyebrow, "How are you keeping him contained?" The Warden was a cultivator, but most of the guards weren't.

"He was crippled and handed over to us by some random adventurer. What a fucking asshole, why couldn't he have killed him?" groused the Warden.

I nodded. Just because a cultivator had their spiritual sea crippled and damaged didn't necessarily mean that they weren't dangerous. They'd just find it difficult to store any Qi in their body, so they couldn't use much or any abilities, not even empowering their own strength with Qi. However, their true Qi remained, so they were still at a baseline level much stronger than that of a regular person. 

It was also not necessarily a life-long injury, as cultivator's bodies were remarkable, with some having downright insane healing capabilities, to the point where I had been told that a Core Formation cultivator that focused on durability might be able to come back to life from just a single drop of blood, which amazed me. 

I expected it would take the Warden himself or some of his highest-tier guards to keep this one prisoner in line. "Please give me about an hour before you bring the prisoner in," I requested, and the Warden nodded and then showed me to the room I had used each time I came here.

I considered what I was going to do. Several months ago, I had already gotten to the point of "basic competence" on the two techniques Han Meiying had given me, and almost as if she could detect this, she once again appeared and allowed me to pick one more. 

I would get two more as well if I raised the first two techniques to "small perfection," also.

For now, the third technique I picked was the one to refine someone into a corpse puppet. These weren't the same thing as the undead I was used to, but they weren't that different either.

Unfortunately, I couldn't use "all of the buffalo" here, as if I refined him into a wrathful spirit, then all of his spirit would be used up, and his body would become inert. 

But I could use the talent-devouring technique and one of the others. That was the first technique that surprised me; how useful it was. It didn't transfer knowledge about a particular skill to me, so it was a little bit less than I thought, but it did something that was even more magical. 

It devoured a person's talent for something and then added it to myself. There were no truly untalented people. Everyone had some talents, even if they were more or less useless. The first time I got this skill to work, I devoured the talent for malingering or pretending I was ill to get out of work.

What a letdown. The man had been an admitted serial killer who killed two entire families for fun, and his biggest talent was getting out of work?!

You also couldn't use this technique rapidly, as your body and soul took some time to "digest" the foreign bit of talent. There was a factor of diminishing returns, too. For example, the last time I had been here was two weeks ago, and I was just about done digesting a talent for stealth, which had been my luckiest gain so far.

However, if I encountered a man who was as equally talented in stealth as this last guy and used the same technique on him to steal it, then I would gain almost nothing. It wasn't additive like that. To achieve something more in the "stealth" talent, I would need to find someone much more talented in the same thing.

I could see how some people got addicted to using these types of techniques, though.

I decided that even though I focused on incorporeal undead, it would be a shame if I didn't turn this guy into a corpse puppet. The use of cultivator's bodies was supposed to create a vastly better puppet, according to the manual. Plus, corpse puppets were easier to store than regular undead, as they were just corpses until you used your Qi to animate them. They were animated by you, not by endless negative energy like regular undead.

That was both a bonus and a negative, but for the moment, I felt that it gave me more advantages than disadvantages. 

People who focused on this area tended to have one or two corpse puppets that they would upgrade over time or replace if they got better "materials." They were more of a piece of equipment rather than an undead, so they weren't necromancers like I was, who might have many, many undead serving me, but it was still a close thing and definitely something I wanted to study. 

My type of necromancy tended to be weak on single strong units until I was very, very strong, having to use a flood of disposable skeletons or zombies instead. If I could combine one or two "corpse puppet" style minions, this would shore up a traditional weakness.

After I got the room set up, I sat around to wait. Less than ten minutes later, the Warden personally delivered the prisoner, just shoving him through the door and closing it.

The man snorted, "Who are you supposed to be? A conjugal visit?"

"Thank you for making this easy for me," I replied cheerfully and paralysed him in place with Hold Person for a moment before the first ability took effect. Hold Person only lasted a minute, but he wouldn't be able to move by the time it wore off, anyway—now, if I could only find a way to stop his screaming. 

Could some illusions muffle the sound? I'd experiment with putting them on a Major Image ritual before I started next time. This man had such a dense aura of blood on him that I was sure that my cat Crow would receive a delicious dinner tonight.

---xxxxxx---

The first day of the disciple's examination was almost over, and we'd inducted over sixty new disciples today. Only three needed to be blackballed due to things that my secret investigator discovered, but those were three people who wouldn't cause unnecessary strife in the Outer Sect.

Strife was a necessary part of the Outer Sect system, so adding unnecessary strife on top of the already existing necessary strife was bad.

I was considering a nice long bath with bubbles and rose-scented water, but Fang'er knocked on my office door. "Mistress! There is someone at the door who claims to wish to challenge you to a duel."

Oh, my. I felt rueful. Was this how poor Senior Brother Jiaozi Liu felt? "Please show them to the tea room. I'll be in directly."

I glanced around and then pulled out the most current copy of the "top 100" Outer Sect disciples intelligence report from a drawer and placed it in my dimensional storage. Then, I casually walked into the tea room, a tea service with steaming water already present on the table.

My opponent was a new disciple, which wasn't surprising. He was at my same cultivation level and had been in one of the top three of new disciples this year. What was his name? Yang something, I knew that for sure.

"Welcome, Junior Brother Yang..." I said, gliding over to sit opposite to him and pouring us both a cup of tea.

He looked a bit unsure after seeing me, but he was polite. I asked him, "I assume you are here because you don't wish to spend an evening in one of the beginner tipis?"

Even if you never actually won a fight, you only stayed in the beginner tipis for the first two months. It was mainly a way to encourage people to use the sparring system, and it certainly worked for me. The lowest quality dwelling that the Outer Sect provided to disciples after the first two months was the equivalent of a small studio apartment.

He nodded rapidly, "Yes, Senior Sister..."

"Mei Wen," I offered,

"Senior Sister Mei Wen, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take your house," he said, slightly regretfully.

I smiled, "Well... let me tell you a little bit about how this works first." I then told him all of the rules, including that he would only be allowed to challenge someone once a week and that he had to pay both spirit stones and contribution points if he lost.

This last part seemed to devastate him, and he sighed, saying, "I'm afraid I am completely broke in terms of spirit stones. Damn!"

I raised an eyebrow. Even the most parlous of cultivators would have at least a few dozen spirit stones. There must be an interesting story behind his absolute poverty. I held my hand over the table and caused five spirit stones to fall out of my dimensional space.

This caused him to narrow his eyes, the first sign that he was intelligent so far. You couldn't perform this manoeuvre with most spatial pouches, as you had to reach inside to get them, and seeing a Qi Gathering disciple with a spatial ring or one of the very high-quality spatial pouches where this was possible was unusual.

I slid the five stones across the table and said, "These are yours without further let or obligation. As for whether or not you want to challenge me in particular, let's talk about that briefly."

He seemed unsure at first but finally nodded, sweeping them up, "Thank you, Senior Sister."

I nodded, "Now, might it be the reason you chose my dwelling because I was the lowest ranked of the high-quality villas?"

He blushed and nodded. I smiled, "There could be a couple reasons why you want to fight the weakest of us, but it doesn't matter." 

I held out my hand and drew out the sheets of paper the latest intelligence report was printed on and handed them to him, "This is an intelligence report on the strongest one hundred disciples in the Outer Sect. It normally costs twenty-five spirit stones to buy this. But feel free to read it. You'll find the disciples ranked in order of precedence, based on this group's opinion on their relative strength."

"Wait, you're the third most powerful disciple?" he asked, suddenly, after only flipping a couple of sheets, "But you're only in the sixth level, like me."

I smiled but refrained from speaking. I thought I was probably the strongest, actually, especially if I had a bit of time to prepare. He quickly leafed through the rest of the pages and nodded, handing the stack of sheets back to me, "Thank you very much, Senior Sister. Do you happen to know the address of Senior Brother Huáng?"

I grinned and nodded, "He lives, at least for now, in the next villa." This disciple had recently won a fight against the previous owner of this villa, which often changed hands every other week.

"Thank you. I won't take up any more of your time. Please don't get up; I'll see myself out," he said politely and left.

Nodding, I liked polite, smart boys like him.

I continued to sip my tea and was surprised not five minutes later Fang'er found me again, still in the tea room, and said, "Uhh... Mistress, there is someone here to challenge you to duel."

Again? I sighed. Maybe I should move houses, but I was quite fond of the servants that worked in this one, so I would keep it. Fang'er was proving to be both an intelligent worker and a cultivation prodigy as far as the servant disciples thought. She was already mid-way through the first level of Qi Gathering. 

I definitely thought she would reach the fifth level before her tenth year of service, so I considered her more of a future disciple-in-truth than the other servant disciples who just wanted to get a nice cultivation level and leave after twenty years.

"Please get some more tea and hot water, and then show him in," I said.

Unlike my last suitor, this gentleman was a battle maniac and could not be deterred, no matter how much I implied he was making a mistake. He was also at the sixth level, and he felt that there was no one who could defeat him at his own level of cultivation, but I didn't feel as though he was that remarkable.

I didn't keep trying to convince him. As soon as he seemed intransigent, I led him outside and to the nearest sparring circle. The deacon manning the sparring circle seemed amused at me bringing in someone, but remained quietly professional.

I glanced at the rack of weapons, and instead of taking a sword, I paused. The talent I received yesterday and was slowly digesting was one for sabre arts, which was really nice as I had just started taking sabre lessons. It was probably the second most useful talent I had gotten so far, after stealth. Still, I haven't felt up to actually using a sabre in a fight yet.

I didn't feel much of a threat from this disciple, so I could try the spear or axe, which I had been training in as well, but finally, I nodded and didn't take any weapon at all, merely walking into the sparring circle and standing ready.

There was a crowd around watching, and I could hear some interested murmurs at my choice not to arm myself. My style of fighting wasn't a secret, though, so they probably thought I was just going to beat this new brother about the head with spells after using illusions or enchantments on him.

But that wasn't my intention.

"Begin!" said the referee.

I instantly cast Haste, which doubled my already impressive speed and leapt straight at the challenger. Haste was another spell that was borderline broken. When you started talking about "doubling speed," it was fine when someone's speed was still purely at the human or near-human level, but when you doubled someone's speed when they had already moved so fast that an average person could barely see them? The bonus was huge!

My opponent wasn't slow, but the bonus caused me to watch his sabre come towards me as though it was slow motion. I used one hand to divert his wrist, then struck out with a palm strike directly on the flexor muscle on his inner arm, causing his hand to open in slack, dropping his weapon.

Then I performed a standard throw that wouldn't be out of place in Judo, except that I threw him thirty metres over my shoulder and all the way out of the ring.

"Winner, Mei Wen!" the referee declared.

I sighed, picked up the sabre he was using and replaced it on the rack. Was I becoming a battle maniac myself? There was little satisfaction in this fight.

Things weren't difficult here anymore. It was a shame.

I privately decided to focus on cultivation this next year. If I really buckled down, I didn't think I could catch up to Xiao Li, and then we could go out and find new and interesting people and kill them.

Fuck! I wasn't becoming a battle maniac! No, it was much worse; I was becoming a Marine!