Chapter 24 - Demon Instructor

"Now? We start your training," Guan Hai said, drawing Yang's and Mei's attention. "First off, I now know your cultivation and affinities. Needless to say, those with affinities are more likely to become strong. However, their training is divided, and they comprehend and increase their skills with those elements at a slower pace the more affinities they possess."

"So I can master my fire element faster and defeat Yang?" Lu Jing asked.

"Heh. Dream on," Yang snorted.

"Oh? You mean to say that my thinking is incorrect?" Guan Hai asked. "And just how long have you been training?"

"If I were to say for over two millennia, would you believe me?" Yang smirked. "I don't need your training on comprehending the elements. I just want the prize I'm due, and then I'm out."

"Oh, shame. That behavior will get you killed. You must change," Guan Hai said, and his fist met Yang's chest faster than he could react. Yang spat a small trail of blood before crashing into the wall.

"Will you change?" Guan Hai asked as the other seven moved out of the way and huddled together.

"Scary," Mei said, Lin nodding in agreement.

"Fuck," Yang cursed aloud as he got out of the hole in the wall, only to have his face slammed into the ground by Guan Hai.

"Will you change?" Guan Hai repeated.

"You anger me!" Yang roared, releasing his spirit energy. The air sizzled from the poison as Yang stared at Guan Hai while getting up. He used Viper's Dominance Art but combined it with his poisonous spirit energy without holding back. Guan Hai waved his hand, and the spirit force was neutralized. Yang narrowed his eyes and sent twelve moon blades of water using the Moon Slicer Art. Guan Hai sighed and shattered them with his bare hands.

"You must change. You know a lot of element practitioner arts, I admit that. However, you don't use them efficiently," Guan Hai said. "You have not comprehended the level of Understanding the Elements."

"Comprehension? I'll show you comprehension!" Yang roared, closing his eyes as spirit energy surged around his body like a vortex.

"What's happening?" Mei asked as the ground began to shake, and Yang's body started to glow with light.

"Impossible, he's only fourteen, and he's reached the level of Understanding the Elements?" Shen Dong gasped, with Hua and Sima Qing also shocked. As his father was a duke, Lu Jing also knew what it meant. Sun Yi's father was the city's head librarian, and he too understood what Understanding the Elements was.

"You know what Yang's doing?" Lin asked as the ground quaked beneath Yang, Guan Hai narrowing his eyes as if waiting for something.

"Understanding the Elements is not something we can just reach. It means we have been exposed to the element so many times that we can control it to a degree. What Yang is doing is actually controlling all the light spirit energy and earth energy and harnessing it to himself. The thing is, it's even higher than most people I've seen! Even most Earth Mortals do not create such a disturbance in the natural spirit energy," Shen Dong explained.

"Element practitioner arts are a complex version of it and are more focused with many effects. With element practitioner arts, we can use the element in ways it was never supposed to be used in accordance with nature. An example would be teleportation. That Snake Specter Art, as Yang calls it, is an advanced use of the earth element. What Yang is doing now is a more simplified but powerful application of spirit energy!" Shen Hua concluded as Yang had his right arm covered with tiny rocks and sand while his left hand glowed with light.

"I will show you the true terror of light and earth. I will also show you a neat surprise," Yang said, appearing next to Guan Hai faster than a blink of an eye. Guan Hai's cultivation was two levels above Yang's, and he easily blocked Yang's left punch.

Lin and the rest could only see a blur around the imperial guard as Yang punched and kicked while constantly changing his trajectory and movement. When Guan Hai moved back, Yang stopped momentarily and stomped the ground, causing spikes of earth to appear, covering twenty feet around him. Guan Hai easily shattered them and took to the sky, but Yang was already there in a flash, standing on a small tower of earth, suggesting he had catapulted himself.

"Earth and light fusion element art: Terra Destroyer Art. I just made it up just now," Yang said coldly, holding a giant boulder high above his head that spun so fast it looked like a sun. Light was distorted around it, and gravity seemed to increase. Yang pointed at Guan Hai, and the artificial sun, wrapped in light, sped toward the imperial guard like a comet. Guan Hai dodged it just before it hit him and appeared behind Yang, drop-kicking him to the ground. Yang formed a small crater in the ground just seconds before his fusion practitioner art smashed into the wall.

Everyone gasped as a large explosion erupted from the impact. If the Jade Poison Desolation Spear Art was his most powerful practitioner art, this fusion art was his most destructive. A crater fifty feet in diameter replaced what used to be a piece of the wall, as well as a few rows of stands that had been above that section.

"You are strong," Guan Hai approved as Yang spat blood while pulling himself out of the crater. "It is no wonder you know so many element practitioner arts. I don't believe the rumors of you having a hidden master. It is because you reached the level of Understanding the Elements. Your training will be fun."

"Uh, then what about us during this near three-month training camp?" Lin asked.

"You seven don't have as much spirit energy as Yang. Even you, Shen Dong, do not. It is because your bodies are not strong enough to harness and possess more spirit energy. Spirit energy does not condense in your Spirit Realm alone. It also condenses within your blood, bones, cartilage, and organs. One example of you using your body at a higher level is adrenaline. For that, I need one of my partners," Guan Hai said, summoning a ten-foot tiger with red stripes and a golden horn. "Here is your first lesson: you must run around the academy faster than my tiger. If you don't, some of you will go into his stomach. You run until sundown. Have fun."

"What?" Sun Yi exclaimed, paling as the tiger roared and lunged at them. Sun Yi turned just in time so that the tiger's claws only grazed him.

"Blood! He's not joking! RUN!" Lu Jing screamed, and the seven dashed out of the training grounds, the feral tiger right behind them, narrowly missing them with its claws with every swipe.

"You're a demon," Yang said as he stood up, popping a medicinal pill from his storage ring.

"You disapprove?" Guan Hai asked.

"No. Running in fear does agitate the body. There are no breakthroughs without pain and trials," Yang said.

"Speaking from experience?" Guan Hai asked.

"You can say that. So what's my training?" Yang inquired.