The training room was completely empty with no signs of anyone, anywhere.
'Did he leave because I was late?' Alex wondered. But he quickly gave up on that thought. After all, he was only an hour late, and even if he left, Alex had already searched his home before coming here, and he was absent from it.
"He left his home, but didn't come here? Maybe he was called by his master," Alex thought. He decided to wait and see if he would return. If he didn't, Alex would tell his master to send a message to Du Yuhan saying to cancel today's lesson.
So, he waited for an hour. It was getting closer to 7 pm now, and if Du Yuhan still didn't return, then Alex was going to leave.
Thankfully, at the nick of time, Du Yuhan entered the hall.
"Oh, you're here huh. You were running a little late," Du Yuhan said.
"Yes," Alex replied. "Sister returned so I went to speak with her to talk for a few minutes, but it ended up being over an hour," Alex said.
"I see. I did hear Luo Mei was back," Du Yuhan said. "I also heard she fought with Trevor too. How is she?"
"She's alright," Alex said. "In fact, much better than how she was previously. Given how easily she won against Trevor, I would say that she is doing perfectly fine."
"She won against him easily?" Du Yuhan said with a hint of surprise in his voice. "Even I had a bit of a problem with him."
"Oh," Alex said almost mechanically. But then he understood what Du Yuhan was saying and asked, "Wait, you fought him too?"
"Yeah," Du Yuhan said. "He challenged me just now."
"He challenged you? Already? He only just lost like less than 2 hours ago," Alex said.
"Ah, that makes sense," Du Yuhan said after realizing something. "I was wondering how he had such a low rank. He must have gotten Luo Mei's previous rank and came to fight with me with that."
"I remember him being unconscious," Alex said. "Did he come back to target you the moment he woke up?"
"Maybe, who knows. Although, I must say he was quite strong. I'm genuinely surprised Luo Mei won against him. Her cultivation base must have improved again." Du Yuhan said.
Alex remembered Luo Mei saying that she was using True Qi to fight most of the time, so that was probably the reason why she won so easily.
"Did you use Sword Qi?" Alex asked.
"I had to," Du Yuhan said. "There is no other way for me to beat him if I didn't use it. Although, once I did, I did realize how much of an overkill it was. Sigh, that's Sword Qi for you, I'm weak if I don't use it, and I'm too strong if I do."
Alex smiled when he heard that. Du Yuhan was normally quiet and liked to keep to himself, or at least that was what Alex had thought his nature was. However, after getting close to him, he had realized that he just didn't have people to talk with and did talk quite a lot when he got the chance.
'Maybe he just needed a friend,' Alex thought.
"So, are you tired from the fight and want to rest for a few minutes?" Alex asked.
"No, it was hardly a fight. I just struggled because I tried to see how strong I could be without Sword Qi," Du Yuhan said. "Once I did, I won. So, we can start now."
"Okay," Alex said with a smile and the two of them started training once more.
The fight between the two of them was getting more and more unhinged as Alex's skill level in using Sword Intent was getting closer and closer to perfection.
The clinks and clangs of the two's swords rang about inside the training for over an hour. At some points, the two of them had started using techniques too. Slashes with sword intent flew about, with Alex's sword intent barely losing to Du Yuhan's.
Du Yuhan was a little shocked at how terrifyingly good Alex was at learning stuff. 'Just two days and he's learned what would've taken me a month to learn with the same level of training,' he thought.
Alex didn't hold back in the least and started sending around attacks left and right. At some points, he was close to running out of Qi, so he asked, "I'm going to use True Qi now, please use Sword Qi. I want to see how I would fare."
Du Yuhan was a little surprised to hear that. "Use it once and let me see if it can handle the sword Qi," he said.
Alex nodded and used a simple fire slash, but it was formed using True Qi. The heat the sword gave off with the Fire Qi inside of it was unlike any he had felt before.
Once he slashed, the slash directly flew towards Du Yuhan who looked at it with surprise. Without spending a single another moment in hesitation, he dodged to the side and the attack flew directly to the wall behind him.
"Eh?" Alex said with surprise. "Why didn't you block it with Sword Qi? It can't be that it's stronger, right?"
"No, it's weaker, at least by a small amount," Du Yuhan said. "Much weaker if I use True Qi too, but… I need some time to prepare Sword Qi for attacks. It doesn't come naturally as it does with Sword Intent."
"Oh right, I remember seeing that in the competition," Alex said. "So that means I can use True Qi right?"
"I mean… yeah, but how much True Qi do you even have? In fact, I'm surprised you even have any," Du Yuhan said.
"Oh, don't worry. My cultivation method allows me to have True Qi way earlier than normal people. Which is why I'm stronger than normal," Alex said.
"I see, then go ahead and use it," Du Yuhan said as he got ready to fight. Motes of lights flickered around him as they started moving around him and condensed into his sword, forming Sword Qi.
'Damn that looks awesome no matter how many times I see it,' he thought.
Alex got ready too and used True Qi along with his sword intent to fight against Du Yuhan. Du Yuhan made the first attack and the fight began.
The two of them fought as if they were mortal enemies, fighting to get the other's head. If someone else saw from outside, they would surely believe that some sort of illegal fight was going on inside.
Alex only used normal slashes and True Qi along with Sword Intent and didn't use any other techniques, while Du Yuhan stuck to just Sword Qi. And yet, the sword Qi was easily beating his triple combination attacks like it was nothing.
They continued fighting until Alex couldn't keep up anymore and all of his Qi had ended.
"Wait, wait, I'm done," Alex said as he huffed and puffed. Du Yuhan too was out of breath and full of sweats.
"That was one of the most intense training sessions I've had in a long time. Thank you for that," Du Yuhan said.
"No problem. I really like this session too," Alex said. He took long breaths after being out of it, and just then, he noticed someone opening the door.
"Oh, someone's calling me?" he wondered and sent in his spiritual sense to see that it was actually his sister that was calling him.
"I'll have to leave, for now, brother Yuhan," he said. "My sister is calling me for some reason."
"Oh, okay. I will leave too," Du Yuhan said and walked out with Alex.
Alex walked down, past his home towards his sister's, and saw that his sister and others were standing around outside.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"You idiot," Luo Mei said loudly, surprising both him and Du Yuhan. "You should respond to messages quicker."
"Um, I was busy training with brother Yuhan," Alex said.
"Training?" Luo Mei looked at Du Yuhan with surprise, who looked aside, not being able to meet her eyes. "Anyway, you've been challenged," Luo Mei said, handing him his badge back.
Alex looked at his badge in surprise.
'Can't be, right?' he thought. The badge said that he was challenged by someone in the 15th rank.
'15… that was sister's right?' Alex thought. "Brother Yuhan, what number was Trevor ranked as?"
"Umm… 15, I think. Why?" he asked and saw Alex holding onto his badge. "No way, you didn't get—"
Alex gave a sad smile. "I did," he said. Alex looked at the time and saw that there were only about 15 minutes left before it was 9 pm and the fightings would be over.
"But you don't have any Qi," Du Yuhan said. "You won't be able to win."
"I know, but if I don't go over now, I forfeit the match anyway," Alex said.
"You're out of Qi?" Luo Mei asked with surprise.
"Yeah, I was training very intensely," Alex said with a sigh. With zero Qi in him at the moment, there was no way for him to fight against Trevor, let alone win. So, there was no choice but to give up right now.
"Sigh, I won't go then," he said. "I will give up on the rank."
"Are you really giving up?" Luo Mei asked with concern.
"Yes. I should have noticed when you messaged me, sister. I'm sorry," Alex said. "But I don't think there's a cause for any worries. I will just challenge him tomorrow and take back my rank."
