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After the test, the students paired up for combat exercises in which they could only use physical attacks and defense. Using special powers was not allowed. Since there were seven of them, naturally, Bai Rui paired up with Cheng Nuo while the other six trained with each other.
Cheng Nuo was somewhat agitated by this. In fact, he had been training in this sort of thing, but compared to geniuses like Liu Guang and Bai Rui, his skills were nothing special.
However, seeing the serious and focused expression of the eyes under the mask, Cheng Nuo calmed down and tried his best to go on the attack, throwing out a punch and kicking out with a foot. Bai Rui easily fended off his punch with one hand and blocked his foot with the other hand.
Cheng Nuo lost his balance and fell over but after he landed on the ground, he realized that he was actually not hurt at all. He didn’t know how Bai Rui had managed to do that, so he jumped back up and continued the combat exercise.
Bai Rui didn’t call a halt to the training session until night had fallen. Cheng Nuo couldn’t even remember how many times he had been defeated. He felt utterly exhausted but he also knew that he had made a lot of progress and insight in his combat skills.
Bai Rui was clearly a very good teacher. In the past, Cheng Nuo had tried asking Liu Guang to train him, but Liu Guang was too afraid of hurting him, so their training sessions were always too short and perfunctory.
It was late at night when they finally stopped training, but Bai Rui still didn’t give them time to rest. He pointed at a wooded hill and said in a monotone voice, “I’ll give you one incense stick’s worth of time to hide in the forest. Those with wood elemental energy should have an advantage there. The first one I find will be ‘out’.”
Are we playing hide and seek?… Cheng Nuo watched the others scatter as they ran up the hill.
Cheng Nuo leaped on top of the trees to look for a good hiding place. Although Bai Rui didn’t have a beast’s sharp senses like Liu Guang, his perception was probably almost as keen. When Cheng Nuo judged that the incense stick’s worth of time was over, he picked an ordinary tree to hide behind. He leaned on the tree’s trunk, palms touching it, as his wood elemental energy pulsed through his body and through the tree, hiding his presence by merging his aura until it was one with it.
Due to this forest’s close proximity to Yongchun Hall, there were very few dangerous magical beasts here. When Cheng Nuo closed his eyes, all he could hear was the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and the buzzing of insects.
Sensing the presence of a person, he opened his eyes, only to realize that Bai Rui was falling down from above.
****! He hadn’t even heard Bai Rui moving and it hadn’t even been that long at all!
Cheng Nuo felt frustrated as he got up, his head hanging down in despair, “Am I the first one you found?”
“No.” Bai Rui’s eyes seemed to sparkle with good humor. “You’re the fifth.”
Cheng Nuo perked up and smiled, saying, “Then I don’t have to be eliminated.”
Bai Rui didn’t say anything more. He just stared unblinkingly at Cheng Nuo, with a soft, gentle expression on his face. Cheng Nuo was stunned to see that now Bai Rui was no longer surrounded by a cold, oppressive aura. Even so, Cheng Nuo still felt very nervous so he tried to act natural and asked, “Aren’t you going to look for the last two?”
Bai Rui took off his mask and sat down, leaning his head against the tree. “No hurry.”
Cheng Nuo inwardly scolded himself – why the **** are you nervous?!
Although Bai Rui was training him now, Cheng Nuo was still his elder. He should be acting his age!
Cheng Nuo pretended to be at ease as he sat down and glanced a few times at Bai Rui’s profile. He realized that his observation earlier had been correct. Bai Rui was indeed thinner.
“Bai Rui… have you been injured recently?” Cheng Nuo said hesitantly, “You look thinner than last time I saw you.”
Bai Rui was slightly surprised. He hadn’t noticed. The truth is that he was indeed recovering from the side effects of the medicine he had taken last time. His life or death was on a knife-edge for many days before he recovered and his cultivation had also been affected. Of course, he had no intention of revealing that. He turned his face and said softly, “Really? Maybe it’s because I’ve been busy. Is your injury healed?”
When their eyes met, Cheng Nuo was dumbfounded and his heart skipped a few beats but, when he thought of Liu Guang, he quickly regained his senses. He turned away, gazing in front of him with a smile. “My injury healed a long time ago. That’s good, we were in a hurry the last time we parted. I was afraid you would be in trouble…”
Bai Rui’s eyebrows knitted together slightly. Why was Cheng Nuo so nervous? He also seemed to be trying to put some distance between the two of them… He took a sword out of his storage bag and threw it at Cheng Nuo. “Didn’t you lose your weapon last time? I recently refined this, but it’s useless for me to just keep it, so why don’t you use it instead?”
Cheng Nuo reflexively caught the knife and was a bit surprised when he looked at it. The blue sword that Bai Rui had given him before was quite beautiful. It was something that one would know was out of the ordinary at first glance. In comparison, the sword Bai Rui gave him now looked ordinary. He tested the sword out a few times and found that the weight was just right, neither too light nor too heavy.
He put it into his storage bag, then smiled and said, “Thank you.”
Cheng Nuo scolded himself again. He and Bai Rui had gone through life and death situations together. Now that he had decided to be with Liu Guang, although he was too shy to tell even an old friend about it, there was no need for him to be so nervous. He just needed to act like he normally did…
When Bai Rui saw that familiar smile, he turned his face away uneasily, but the doubt he had been feeling in his heart immediately faded away and a faint feeling of joy replaced it. He stood up and said, “Go back down to the training ground and wait. I’ll find the last two people.”
By the time Cheng Nuo stood up, murmuring a soft “mmm” sound of agreement, Bai Rui had already disappeared. Unbeknownst to Cheng Nuo, Bai Rui paused to watch him walk out of sight before continuing on his way.
By the time Bai Rui returned to the training ground with the last two people, he had reverted to his previous cold and steely image as an instructor. He only gave them an hour’s rest before he started training them again.
The next few days on the training ground were extremely arduous. There were times when they were hardly allowed to sleep or rest, but Cheng Nuo felt that it was worth it since both the speed and strength of his wood elemental skills had greatly increased. He and Bai Rui were able to talk to each other a few more times and now, perhaps because he had more time to think about it, Cheng Nuo was able to act more naturally.