“He’s right, you know.” Lily eeped in sudden mortification as a third voice intruded on the moment, one she very much recognized. She quickly scrambled to her feet, hiding her muddy arms behind her back as best as she could when a good half of her was covered in the stuff. If Master Mingtian’s slight smirk was anything to go by, she wasn’t very successful… “Avyr is an incredibly capable Shedding cultivator for having no formal training in the combat arts, at the pinnacle of his step. That you managed to present any threat at all is more than enough for commendation.”

“It’s not going to be enough against Xinshi.”

“You underestimate yourself.” Reaching into his pocket, Mingtian pulled out a slip of paper— a talisman of some sort— and with a flash of golden fire way more awesome and dramatic than her talismans, all the mud sloughed off her and Avyr, leaving her perfectly clean.

She didn’t even feel sweaty. “How’d you do that?”

“You’ll learn. Later—” he forestalled her questions, earning himself a pout. “But you’ll learn before the end of the semester, I promise. It’s a useful technique, though surprisingly complicated for the effect. Most cultivators probably prefer to invest in a technique for it, but…” he shrugged, and Lily couldn’t help but remember he was a mortal. When he so effortlessly did awesome stuff like that, it was easy to forget… in a battle between him and Avyr, Lily was absolutely sure who she’d be betting on. “Both of you have reached an admirable level of skill for the amount of resources you have access to.” His gaze flicked between the two of them, laden with a weight

of something that Lily couldn’t quite manage to place. “You still have a long way to go.”

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“How?” The word escaped her before she could catch it back, face flushing with embarrassment as she glanced away from the librarian. “Sorry. I mean—”

Mintian chuckled lightly, waving her off. “It’s no problem. Hm… for you, Lily, what you need more than anything is a foundation. Dodging, fighting… all those things tend to become rather dramatic when cultivation comes into play, as I’m sure you’re aware.” Yeah. She thought back to the outer disciple, and Ruqian… yeah, she was well aware of that. “You can’t hope to emulate something like that. Trying to build your style off of a cultivator’s will only see you create something laughable— no, you need to understand the fundamentals. Things that will help you no matter how far you travel along the road of cultivation.”

She cocked her head. “Like…”

Mingtian tilted his head, quiet for a moment, before stepping forward onto the center of the field. “Perhaps,” he said slowly, settling into a battle stance— transforming in an instant from affable teacher to something cold and hard, sharp and as burningly hot as the sun blazing down overhead— “it would be best if I showed you.”

Lily gulped. Uh oh…