A blue signal flare shot into the sky just then from a distance away, from the direction of what looked to be the training field. “Please locate your assigned partners and report to the Main Training Field immediately. You are dismissed.”
The crowd of people gathered in the hall dispersed, each cultivator going off to search for their grouping partners. Gyuvin found Ricky standing near the doorway of the hall, and he sidled up to him tentatively.
“Looks like we’re going to be training partners,” he said, offering a little bow. “I hope to learn a lot from you.”
Ricky’s eyebrows were furrowed, but his expression smoothed itself out as he inclined his head in acknowledgement. “I hope the same.”
“Let’s go to the field now, shall we?”
“Alright.”
The training field had been marked out into squares with a glowing white array, each square about the size of a large room. Their first task was to be a duel, no holds barred other than the unspoken understanding not to, you know, kill or otherwise fatally wound your partner. Each cultivator had been given a handkerchief which corresponded with the colors of their sect; gold for Meteor Court, blue for Moonrise Palace, red for Seven Star Manor, light green for Dewspring Estate and so on. The duel would be considered over if either of them conceded and pulled their handkerchief, or if one of them could manage to subdue the other long enough to grab the other’s handkerchief.
“Cultivators, please be prepared. The duel will begin in five, four, three, two…”
The glowing white array lines delineating the squares rose into the sky, forming cages of translucent white light, closing each pair into their own arena.
“One!”
Gyuvin unleashed Yuexi, immediately on guard. Preparing a cloning talisman, the tips of his fingers glowed golden, and he threw it behind him, running in the opposite direction. A cloning talisman temporarily created a mirror-image copy of its user, an extremely effective confusion tactic in short-range hand to hand combat. On the other side of the arena, Ricky had his sword drawn, watching the two identical copies carefully.
Cloning talismans were, in reality, better served distracting demons or corpses without much critical thinking ability. Humans, on the other hand, were slightly more adept at spotting the flaws in the cloning technique; the original user always moved just a tad bit faster than the clone did, and it took Ricky only five moves to determine which one was the real Kim Gyuvin.
“Yuexi, shield!”
A golden array of light expanded to block the burst of spiritual energy Ricky sent flying towards him, and Gyuvin ducked away a second later, swinging out with his polearm to force Ricky to back away. The arena wasn’t the most spacious of fighting grounds, and the pair of them went back and forth, bolts of spiritual energy in both gold and blue hitting the walls of the array.
Gyuvin spun Yuexi over his head, gathering a burst of energy at the spear’s jade-plated tip, and launched it in Ricky’s direction, the force of the attack shaking the ground beneath their feet. Ricky raised his sword and a shield of blue light surrounded him instantly, but the force of Gyuvin’s attack was just too overpowering. Gyuvin waited for the right moment to jump and pin Ricky down, pulling the milky blue handkerchief to signify his victory. The translucent walls of the array turned gold to acknowledge the victor, and Gyuvin looked back down to offer a hand to help Ricky up.
“Are you okay?”
Ricky was already standing, though he was hunched over, a hand pressed to his face, a light sheen of sweat glistening on his pale skin. His palm was dripping with blood when he brought it away, but Gyuvin only caught a glimpse of it before he turned around.
“Are you bleeding somewhere? I’m sorry if I injured you,” he said immediately, running over to check on Ricky. The blonde boy took a clean handkerchief from one of his pockets and pressed it to his face, soaking up the blood from his hands.
“I’m fine,” Ricky answered quietly. “It just caught me off guard.”
“I’ve never seen this happen to someone after a duel,” Gyuvin continued, worried, watching the color slowly return to Ricky’s face as the flow of blood gradually slowed. Theirs had been one of the earlier duels to end, and the sound of swords clashing still rang out from all around them. “Is that why you were in the infirmary last night? Do you want me to take you there now?”
Ricky shook his head. “I’ll go on my own,” he said, stepping out of the array and concealing the bloodied handkerchief under his sleeve. “Congratulations on winning the duel, Gyuvin.”
Gyuvin watched him disappear in the direction of the main buildings with even more questions than he’d had before. The duels had all ended now, each square lit up with the colors representing the sect of the cultivator who’d won. Craning his neck, Gyuvin caught a glimpse of another gold square somewhere towards the other end of the field; Hanbin had won his duel too. Blue squares and black squares dominated the rest of the field, blue for Moonrise Palace, black for Lunar Valley. As expected, the top few sects were likely to have stronger cultivators.
They were given a half hour’s break to rest up and recover from the duel. Gyuvin, still fretting over his partner whom he’d unintentionally sent off to the infirmary, decided to head over there himself, partly out of concern and partly out of remorse, just to see if there was anything he could do.
The main corridors were quiet considering almost all the cultivators and seniors were at the training field. Gyuvin followed the signs down the open corridors to the infirmary; the door was ajar, and he could hear two soft voices talking inside the room.
“I told you you shouldn’t have put me with him…”
“I tried to say something, but I didn’t have any reasons to back it up. Stop talking and drink this.”
Silence.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you, Ricky. I’ve refined the pills a little to adjust the dosage, so take these every night and you should be fine.”
“I understand. Thank you.”
“You should try to stay away from Kim Gyuvin. I don’t think it would do you any good to be near him when it isn’t necessary.”
“I know. I’ll be going now.”
There was the faint sound of shoes against the floor, and Gyuvin backed away from the corner by a few steps so it would look like he’d just arrived.
“Hey, Ricky. Is everything okay? I feel bad about earlier…” Gyuvin put on a wholly concerned expression, as if he hadn’t heard any of their conversation.
Ricky graced him with a little smile. “Everything’s okay, don’t worry. Are the duels all over?”
Gyuvin nodded. “Yeah, they gave us a half hour break to recover. Are you sure you don’t want to stay here and rest up?”
“I’m fine to go back. If there’s nothing else, then I’m going to head over there first. See you later.”
Ricky hardly gave him a chance to answer, disappearing down the corridors back towards the training field, his blonde hair fluttering loosely in the wind behind him.
So Ricky had requested someone, a senior probably, to not pair him with Gyuvin, for whatever reason. Gyuvin peeked around the corner, trying his best to see who it was that Ricky had been speaking to inside the infirmary, the one who’d advised Ricky to stay away from Gyuvin. It was an older man, clad in Moonrise Palace robes, though he wasn’t wearing any armor. Perhaps he was a medic or a healer of some sort. Gyuvin wondered exactly what kind of problem this senior had with him, to be asking his junior to stay away from him as much as possible. How did this senior even know who he was? And from the looks of it, Ricky seemed to be heeding his advice.
Gyuvin sighed, turning back towards the training field. He was doing no good standing around pondering on his own.Â
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