The Sect Leader System

Chapter 351: Training Montage

Jin LiJuan’s life had become very weird in the approximately five months since meeting the thunderbird, Leizhenzi. For one thing, her cultivation had increased dramatically. With Leizhenzi’s help, her wolf, Ganzou, fearlessly hunted spirit beasts constantly and reached the peak of Foundation Establishment.

Which meant she reached that realm as well.

It was quite strange for her to know that only two members of the Rising Tide Sect exceeded her cultivation—Master and Town Lord Fatty Ren. She was technically stronger than Senior Brother and Senior Sister, though Jin LiJuan had no doubt that either of them would trounce her in a fight.

Put another way, her next advancement would make her a Golden Core.

She boggled at the thought. Everyone knew that almost no cultivators reached Nascent Soul, meaning Golden Core was widely considered the true pinnacle on the continent. Even in her wildest dreams as a child, she never pictured herself achieving that much power.

Another big change was that she was now bonded to three spirit beasts instead of just Ganzou. Leizhenzi was, of course, the second, and she’d added his friend as the third, a massive turtle that Master named Oogway.

She didn’t one hundred percent understand everything the thunderbird told her about bonding, but since her connection to Ganzou increased her cultivation whenever his went up, it wasn’t possible or desirable for her to gain similar boosts from the other two as well. Instead, he’d modified the connection to them to make her stronger—Leizhenzi’s contribution—and tougher—due to Oogway.

Jin LiJuan had gone along with his recommendations easily enough and was pleased with the result. Even ignoring the effect of her increased cultivation, the benefits of the bonds made her much less likely to be taken out in a single hit from one of her future opponents in the tournament. When combined with her peak Silver Body Cultivation, she felt she wasn’t nearly as vulnerable as she would have been.

She’d not only advanced physically in that time, though. Master had left her with a stack of talismans that allowed her to Teleport from the Eternal Celestial Peak to the sect grounds and back whenever she wanted, and she frequently did just that to make use of the Time dilation rooms.

It took hours and hours and hours of effort, both in the training rooms and participating in real world fights against tough spirit beasts, but she saw much progress with her techniques. Her first goal, which she achieved, was to get Quiet Mind, Upgraded Strong Oak Sword Art, and Ensnare all to Large Success. After that, she visited the Contribution Points Shop and emptied her account to purchase a shield technique.

In truth, her age and lack of talent prevented her from earning many points, and she could only afford one of Master’s amazing creations because she wasn’t seeking one to be custom made for her. Instead, she chose between the ones he’d given to Senior Brother, Senior Sister, and Esteemed Cultivator Kang Lin.

Jin LiJuan had eyed the Lightning aspected shield of the latter for a long time but reluctantly didn’t choose it. Master had suggested that she keep a relatively low profile as far as letting anyone know that she could use any qi aspect, and Lightning was simply too flashy. The Ice aspect of Senior Sister’s was likewise not exactly low key as it tended to lower temperatures around it, making its element obvious.

Senior Brother’s, on the other hand, simply drained Momentum from any projectile that hit it, making it both extremely qi efficient and its qi element harder to detect. While that trait wasn’t perfectly hidden, it was much less easily determined than the other two, so that was the one she chose.

Besides, she honestly thought that it might be the best of the three. Lightning’s main advantage was that it struck back at anything that hit it. Which was obviously good. But the job of a shield was defense, not offense. Right?

And as far as defense went, completely halting a projectile with very little qi used was perfect. Senior Sister’s wasn’t exactly terrible, either, with its ability to make objects slide off it, but working with a team meant that ricochets mattered.

Jin LiJuan was quite pleased with her choice, and the more she worked with it, the more happy she became.

Having been told that the shield’s most impressive effects didn’t work until Mastery, she devoted all her training efforts to reaching that objective. And she managed it, barely, as she reached that milestone only a few days before Master was to meet her to transport the team to the tournament.

During her time on the mountain, Jin LiJuan also learned a lot more about her bonded companions and about spirit beasts in general. For one thing, not all spirit beasts were created equal. A normal rank four squirrel would lose to a normal rank four tiger one hundred times out of a hundred. A tiger was simply bigger, stronger, faster, and deadlier than a squirrel. Size mattered, as did whether the base creature was a predator or prey. A small weasel, a definite predator, would almost always beat a larger rabbit of the same rank.

The only factor, besides rank, that could tip the scales was a bloodline. If, instead of a normal rank four squirrel, that normal tiger encountered a squirrel with a bloodline that gave it extra speed and sharper teeth, it might actually lose one time in a hundred. If the bloodline conveyed even more advantages, though, that number might rise to twenty-five or fifty or seventy-five or even a hundred. It all depended on what effects the bloodline actually gave.

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It turned out that none of Jin LiJuan’s bonded spirit beasts were normal. All possessed bloodlines. The weakest of the three was Ganzou, but he was still much stronger than an average spirit beast of an equivalent rank. Even without the bloodline, he was a large predator, giving him a distinct advantage. With it, his intelligence, senses, speed, strength, toughness, and size were all improved.

In retrospect, it should have been obvious to her that something was different about Oogway. Normal turtles didn’t grow to be twenty feet in diameter. Besides the increase in size, his bloodline greatly increased his intelligence, made his shell almost invulnerable, gave him the ability to move at a decent pace on land despite his ungainly flippers, and provided him with a technique to quickly interject himself between a target and something attacking it.

Leizhenzi was a descendant of the Lord of the Eternal Celestial Peak, an entity comparable in power to Master, and that relationship was apparently a big deal. The thunderbird’s intelligence, power, and attacks were on an entirely different level than any of the others.

All in all, the pecking order was clear. Leizhenzi could beat both the others simultaneously. Oogway would come out on top of Ganzou one hundred times out of a hundred. And at the very bottom of the stack, despite all her improvements, was Jin LiJuan.

If she wanted power, she’d have to rely on borrowing it from her team.

The final advancement made during the five months wasn’t hers alone but shared with her bonded spirit beasts. Instead of four individuals fighting separately, they’d learned to fight as a team and settled into their various roles.

Jin LiJuan’s main job was to survive. For one thing, she was the weakest of the four, likely unable to take on any contestant she would meet in the tournament on her own. More importantly, though, was that, per the rules for beast tamers, their entire team was defeated when she was incapacitated or surrendered. Opponents didn’t have to beat Leizhenzi or either of the others, just her.

Thus, her priority was defense. When they practiced as a team, she kept Oogway between her and their enemies and conserved her small qi pool for her shield’s use. She never engaged in offense.

If Jin LiJuan wasn’t so weak, Oogway’s job would have been to soak up as many hits as possible to keep Leizhenzi and Ganzou clear to attack. In their actual team, his only mission was to protect her, thus keeping them from losing automatically.

That left Ganzou and Leizhenzi to defeat their opponents, and they did a great job of that, even pulling down rank seven spirit beasts, the equivalent of a Golden Core and a full rank above them.

Most of the time, Ganzou nipped at their target with hit-and-run attacks, dashing in to bite and then retreating before the enemy could retaliate. The tactic had the effect of keeping attention on him while Leizhenzi prepared a finishing strike.

Their opponents typically didn’t last long.

Occasionally, they encountered a beast too fast or strong for Ganzou to use his normal strategy. In those cases, Leizhenzi would go head to head with the target, leaving Ganzou to strike when the opportunity arose. They got very good at working together.

On the morning of the day Master was due to arrive, a rank eight giant spider crawled into the territory they’d been using to hunt. Ganzou let out an excited yip, directed toward Leizhenzi.

“I agree,” the thunderbird said. “We can take it.”

Oogway slowly waved his long neck, his version of shaking his head. “The tournament is our goal. We have our first match later.”

Ganzou whined.

“Because it’s a rank eight,” Oogway said. “Best case, we’ll use all our qi reserves and not have any left over for the match. Worst case, we’ll get injured.”

“Where’s your spirit of adventure?” Leizhenzi said. “We need to challenge ourselves. And I bet we won’t even need qi to win in the first round. Worst case, we replenish with spirit coins and healing pills.”

Thus, the decision was made without her input. Not that she would have refused the fight, but it would have been nice if one of them had asked her opinion.

The spider was strong but slow, and it didn’t produce webs. Its only form of attack was to bite, which it could only do if it got quite close to its target. With Oogway standing between it and her, Jin LiJuan was in no danger as she watched her other two bonded fight it.

Ganzou darted in and nipped one of its back legs, drawing its attention and causing it to laboriously turn to face him. By the time it got situated, a massive thunderbolt, an intense discharge of lightning accompanied by a massive wave of sound, struck the spider.

Before it recovered, Ganzou circled it and nipped the same back leg.

Despite the spirit beast being two ranks higher than its two attackers, it wasn’t nearly as powerful even as Leizhenzi, much less he and Ganzou working together. Soon, the spider lay shriveled up on its back.

As Jin LiJuan moved to process its parts, clapping came from above her. She looked up.

“Master!” she yelled.

The sect leader floated gently to the ground. “That was some teamwork. You guys must have gone through a training montage to rival an eighties movie over the last several months.”

Jin LiJuan lamented that she didn’t understand what he meant by his statement. She was sure much wisdom existed in his words if she were just smart enough to understand him. “Yes, Master. All four of these lowly ones have done much work.”

“Good,” he said, his face beaming a smile. “I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see you like this, Li’er. Is your team ready to go?”

She glanced at each of her bondeds, and they all nodded.

“Yes, Master,” she said.

In preparation for him Teleporting them, she had Oogway withdraw into his spatial habitat.

“How is that device working out?” Master said.

“Oogway loves it, Master. He can enter and leave all on his own whenever he wants, and the environment is exactly what he wanted. He spends most of his time inside.”

Master’s eyes lit up. “That’s good and all, but hear me out. That bag hanging from your waist is unsightly, and you don’t have anything to transport Leizhenzi and Ganzou. How about I make you three new beast transports, each in the shape of a red and white sphere.” His voice grew enthusiastic for some reason. “During the match, you can throw the ball and yell, ‘Ganzou, I choose you!’ What do you think?”

Neither Leizhenzi nor Ganzou particularly wanted to be put inside a spatial environment despite the advantages offered, and she didn’t see how making the bags into spheres would be better. But Master seemed so excited about the idea.

Jin LiJuan had never been particularly skilled at schooling her face, though, and she must have shown her thoughts because he said, “It’s fine. Probably for the best, anyway. Given how litigious those guys are with their IP, they’d likely figure out a way to sue me across dimensions.”

Again, Jin LiJuan had no idea what he was talking about and wanted to weep for the wisdom she was surely missing because of it.

“Okay,” Master said. “Let’s get ready to go. Here’s how we’re going to do it…”