Chapter 198: Secret Treehouse
The next morning, Anji expected to work on her Seven Sound Mantra. However, Yan Ping stopped her.
"Are we not going to the forbidden library today?"
Although enthusiasm was good, Yan Ping knew she could not leave her disciple to practice something potentially dangerous without certain measures.
"Not today," she confirmed. "There’s something you must master before I can allow you to go into isolated training for the Seven Sound Mantra."
Before Anji could ask about it, Yan Ping shuffled her curious successor out of the hut and to the cafeteria, holding her hand without asking for permission. Anji could only hold onto the question at the tip of her tongue. There was no arguing with her shifu when it came to monitoring her health and lifestyle.
After a breakfast with Aunt Wine hovering around them but unable to approach because of Yan Ping’s frosty aura, Anji waved goodbye to the kitchen staff and thanked them for the delicious meal. She still had no idea where they were going, but the silver amulet that swayed with every step at her waist made her smile. Even if she could not train with it, the locket was still a very pretty accessory she wanted to show everyone.
Following her shifu to a path that Anji rarely took, the girl struggled to keep up when they strayed from the smooth pavement. There were not even carved stone steps in the forested terrain. Even if it was still clearly daytime, the tall trees blocked out most of the sunlight, making it seem dark to Anji. It was a different part of the vast mountain terrain, and Anji could only watch her step, trying not to slip on another pile of fallen leaves.
"Mm, you haven’t learned any lightweight footwork yet. Although it’s not a complete technique, if you try to channel qi to the soles of your feet and emit a layer of energy around them. It makes feeling the terrain before you touch it possible with some practice."
Martial masters were often the only people who could walk over water and on delicate trees without falling. It took many years of practice and fine control to execute it. Her teacher’s unexpected tip made Anji wonder if traditional martial schools were teaching their students incorrectly. Many would strengthen the body and mind before the meridians. Here, her shifu offered Anji a shortcut to compensate for her weak physique.
Trying it out for herself, Anji realised it worked scarily well. Not only was she able to get a better grip, but Anji found herself able to understand nature energy better. Was this how lightweight footwork masters climbed the face of cliffs without ever slipping to their deaths?
Yan Ping slowed down to allow Anji more time to familiarise herself with the little trick. It was not difficult, but it took a lot of focus. Strengthened Core students could do this briefly, and it was a handy trick that allowed them to hop across burning coals without getting burned. The trick often required cultivators to expand their energy outwards to cover their entire body. Many martial schools used this method to train Strengthened Core cultivators and push them into the realm of Refined Core. The final test was whether they could stand on water for a minute without getting their socks wet.
Despite not having an advanced cultivation core and a sealed golden core, Anji’s energy control far exceeded those at her level. If Yan Ping was right, the girl had control of those similar to Solid Core cultivators on the verge of entering the Enlightened Core stage. Nobody else in the Strengthened Core stage could hop around so easily with ’feet detectors’ as Anji dubbed her new skill. More amazingly, Anji subconsciously applied what Yan Ping told her about harmonising with nature. The more she practised the new skill, the wider her scan area and ability to sustain it became. Thankfully, the forest’s natural energy was uncomplicated. This forest was left untouched, unlike the rest of the Mystical Qilin Sect, filled with spells and arrays.
"We’re almost there," Yan Ping announced, and Anji opened her eyes.
In front of them, there was a huge tree. It was the biggest tree Anji had ever seen, and in the canopy of leaves, there was a house built into it.
"We’re going up," the blind woman told her disciple. "Use the same thing you did earlier to climb it. I’ll wait for you upstairs."
With a few light hops, Yan Ping’s white robes fluttered and disappeared into the leaves. Anji’s jaw fell. Was that real lightweight footwork? It looked so cool!
Not wanting to be left at the bottom of the tree, Anji did her best and tried to imitate jumping. However, it only went as high as she could leap. Puzzled, Anji blinked. That did not go as planned. Did she miss something?
From the cosy treehouse that needed a lot of cleaning, Yan Ping kept an invisible eye on Anji’s progress, scanning the area to ensure it was safe from wild mountain monsters. As no spells and arrays were here to preserve the natural energy, the sect master cleaned everything by hand.
At the bottom of the large tree, Anji quickly realised that she would never be able to mimic her shifu’s way of climbing the tree. Her feet were great at scanning, but they would not jump high or stick to vertical surfaces. Anji knew how to climb regular trees, the kinds with many shorter branches and tough barks that gave her grip. However, this ancient tree was too wide to hug and had hardly any holds in the trunk for her to clamber onto. Moreover, there were no other trees tall enough to reach it. Anji thought about climbing an easier tree nearby and hopping over from branch to branch like a monkey.
Was the only way to get into the secret treehouse to master lightweight footwork?
Shaking her head, Anji decided to look around the tree. Surely, there would be another method. Her shifu might give her difficult tasks. However, she would never give Anji an impossible task. Each time Anji thought she could not do something, her shifu proved her wrong. This might also be another test from her shifu.