A Legend of a Heavenly Cultivator

5 Proving Himself

That night, after Ru Hua had applied a compress to her still slightly swollen cheek and brought a simple dinner that he ate without much conversation, Chu Jianqiu sat cross-legged in his room, closed his eyes, and entered the tower.

The first door that had opened welcomed him with spiritual energy flowing abundantly. More abundant than the previous nights at the bottom of the ravine, perhaps because his physical condition was now better and his meridians were more open to absorb it.

He trained throughout the night.

Not training in the usual way, not repeating techniques or forcing qi through barriers with ordinary methods. Inside this tower there was something different, an understanding of qi that felt more fundamental than everything he had ever learned before. Like learning to read sentences after years of only memorizing letters.

His physique responded faster than he expected.

The meridians that last night had still been somewhat stiff began to flow more smoothly. His newly repaired dantian began to expand slowly, holding more qi than before. And something in the way he moved qi felt more efficient, cleaner, like water flowing through a freshly cleared channel compared to a channel full of mud.

When dawn broke and he opened his eyes in the real world, his body felt different.

Lighter.

Fuller.

'This cultivation realm is still below my former peak. But the way qi flows now...'

He moved his hand, feeling the current of qi follow the movement with a responsiveness he had never felt before. Not about quantity. About quality. About control.

Ru Hua knocked on the door right when the sun was a handspan above the horizon.

"Young Master. It is time."

The Chu Family's main training ground was at the center of the complex, surrounded by pillared corridors that were usually not too crowded except during official training sessions. But this morning, no one knew how the news had spread, nearly all the residents of the complex had gathered there.

Servants stood at the back, whispering to one another.

Family members from various branches occupied the pillared areas, their faces suggesting an enthusiasm they did not hide well.

In the corner closest to the entrance, several elders sat in chairs that had been prepared. Elder Chu Minghan was there, his expression flat but his eyes observing everything. At his side, Elder Chu Renfa stood with folded arms and a thin smile that was not friendly.

And at the center of the ground, Chu Bolin was already standing waiting with a posture that said he needed no warm up for this.

Chu Jianqiu walked in.

The whispers immediately rose in volume.

"There he is."

"So he really is still alive."

"But his dantian must be destroyed. Impossible he can still fight."

"Does he not know this is suicide?"

Chu Jianqiu paid no attention to those voices. He walked to the center of the ground, stood facing Chu Bolin at the appropriate distance, and gave a brief nod as the formal greeting required by family combat protocol.

Chu Bolin returned the nod with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"I did not expect you to actually come," Chu Bolin said loudly enough for the people around to hear. "I thought you would keep sleeping to recover yourself. If you indeed still have something to recover."

Small laughter came from several corners of the ground.

"Begin," Chu Jianqiu answered.

The laughter stopped.

Chu Bolin furrowed his brow briefly, then raised his hand and qi immediately flowed to the surface of his skin, forming a thin protective layer that glistened under the morning light. His cultivation realm was at a solid level, having utilized the last three years that Chu Jianqiu had spent without cultivation very effectively.

He advanced with a fast attack.

Not too fast for the standard of Chu Jianqiu from before.

But perhaps fast enough for Chu Jianqiu who according to his calculation was now nothing at all.

What happened next made almost everyone on that training ground fall silent.

Chu Jianqiu did not retreat.

Did not evade.

He moved to meet the attack, not with a defensive style, but in a way that looked like someone who had already read the direction of that attack three steps earlier. His hand deflected the direction of Chu Bolin's fist with great economy, using the momentum of the attack itself to spin, and one return strike landed precisely on the side of Chu Bolin's body with a force that pushed the larger young man half a step sideways.

A moment of silence.

Then new whispers exploded around the training ground.

Chu Bolin steadied himself, his expression changing completely. His dismissive smile was gone. What remained was a gaze that was rapidly trying to recalculate.

'How can this be?'

He advanced again, this time with full power, no longer underestimating. His qi flowed thicker, strengthening each strike with a visible layer of energy.

But Chu Jianqiu was already different from the Chu Jianqiu he had imagined last night.

One night inside the tower had given him something more valuable than just recovery. The significantly increased qi control made every small movement he made have an efficiency far surpassing what he could once achieve. His physical body, which had also strengthened overnight, moved with a sharper response than before.

The fight continued, but its direction had been clear since the first minute for anyone who could truly read it.

Chu Bolin's strikes grew harder, more frustrated, increasingly losing efficiency because he was beginning to force himself.

While Chu Jianqiu moved calmly.

Evade. Deflect. Return.

Until finally, one technique that flowed from the new understanding he had gained last night flowed out of his hand very naturally. Not a high level technique. Not something amazing in appearance. But its execution was perfect, and its impact was real.

Chu Bolin landed on the ground of the training field with one knee, his breath ragged, his right hand pressing his chest that felt like it had just been struck by something far heavier than just one ordinary human blow.

The silence on that training ground lasted quite a while.

Then voices began to emerge. Not laughter. Not dismissive whispers. Something different. A mixture between genuine shock and something resembling disbelief.

"He won?"

"But his dantian should be..."

"His cultivation... where did it come from?"

"Three years he made no progress and now..."

Elder Chu Renfa at the corner of the training ground had the most unreadable expression. His lips were flat, his eyes narrowed, and his fingers tapped the arm of his chair in an irregular rhythm.

While Elder Chu Minghan, for the first time that morning, showed something resembling a smile on his old face that was usually flat.

Amid the commotion that was beginning to arise, Chu Jianqiu stood with controlled breathing, looking around the training ground for a moment.

Faces that over the past half year had looked at him with a mixture of pity and indifference, now looked at him with something different.

He did not smile at that.

He did not do anything excessive.

He only turned, looked toward the training ground's gate, and in his heart spoke something only he could hear.

'This is only the first step. Still very far to reach the place I am heading to.'

And within his mind realm, the tower's light pulsed once, slow and calm, like someone nodding in agreement.