The 1000th Reincarnation

"Im..pos...sible" the spirit muttered weakly. 

The spirit let go, clutching his neck making it clear that he could no longer hurt Zephyr. 

"I might not be able to kill you but I still won't help you whatsoever." 

Zephyr was thinking of threatening the spirit once again, but he knew it wouldn't be viable in the long run. He let the spirit be and went to sleep, too much had happened in one day and he was exhausted. 

...

As soon as Zephyr woke up, he got dressed and went to train. His body was way too weak and his qi could only muster up the strength to do verse 4 sword arts at most. Swinging his sword at the scarecrow, two people approach him from behind. 

"Baek," the both of them started chuckling, "Hard at work, aren't you?"

Zephyr ignored them. One of them grabbed a training sword from the rack and swung the sword as hard as he could into Zephyr's leg. Zephyr dropped to the ground looking up at them in disgust. 

"Why is a failure like you looking at me like that," one of the boys said with disgust. 

The boy spit on the floor, walking closer to Zephyr. 

"Mark my words, you're going to die at the entrance examination. And it's going to be at my hands", the boy whispered into Zephyr's ears.

They both walked away entering the restaurant near the training grounds. 

"You could've killed them both, why did you hold yourself back?" the spirit asked. 

"Why would I mess with them now and get in trouble, when I can just kill them at the entrance examination later," Zephyr sneered. 

----------------

My assassin hasn't returned, where the hell is he?!

The young master was furious. He had meant to kill Baek the night before but some how had failed. The assassin was gone, he had straight up disappeared. The only person who could've killed him might've been Yun Aran, which was the most likely scenario because he was always around him. 

No matter, it's pointless to stress over something so trivial. Mark my words, Zephyr. No matter what you are dying at the entrance examination. 

----------------

Day after day, Zephyr got up to train in the morning, ate in the afternoon, and trained his qi until nightfall, but he soon realized if he wanted to survive the examination he would need to learn some Cultist techniques. Using any other techniques would make people suspicious of him and he would most likely be executed on the spot.

Two days away from entrance exam, Zephyr approached Yun Aran, training at the training field. 

"Yun, can you teach me one of you're sword arts?" 

Yun Aran ignored him and continued practicing different techniques on his sword. 

Zephyr drew a circle in the sand with a stick. 

"If I make you move out of the circle in thirty seconds, you have to teach me one of you're sword arts. If I don't you can have my right arm."

Yun swung his sword in a vertical motion releasing a strong gush of air, demonstrating the power he had over his sword. He smiled.

"How interesting, I'll take that deal of yours Baek. In return, I won't even attack you, I'll only defend."

Zephyr readied his sword. 

"Start!"

Zephyr ran forward ducking as soon as he got close and slashed Yun's waist. With no effort Yun blocked the attack with the hilt of his sword. 

I'm still not strong enough to deal enough damage, I'll have to overwhelm him with speed. 

Zephyr wasting no time, sidestepped behind Yun trying to stab his back. Without even looking at Zephyr, Yun reached behind him with his sword in hand easily blocking the attack. Zephyr slashed his shoulder, thigh, and neck. All of them blocked at just the right moment. Zephyr stepped back, recuperating. Yun turned to face Zephyr's direction. 

"Baek, you're going to have to do better than that if you want to learn my sword arts. You got fifteen seconds."

Zephyr gathered up his qi, if he wanted to be fast he was going to have to focus it all into his legs. Zephyr dashed into Yun aiming to slice off his leg. Caught off guard, Yun frantically tried to blocked the attack, but it was a feint. Zephyr moved to the left of Yun, blade right against his neck. 

"Baek, you're stronger than I thought."

Zephyr let go of his blade and dropped to his knees catching his breath. Zephyr had focused every ounce of his qi to strengthen his legs, and he did not have nearly enough qi to be pushing himself this far. 

"Cultivating qi all by yourself, you truly are something." Yun chuckled to himself, scratching his chin. "Fine, I'll teach you one of my sword arts. Come back tomorrow and I'll teach you. For now, just rest up, I know you've pushed yourself." 

Yun walks back to train leaving Zephyr in the sand. Zephyr quickly got up, if he was going to protect this planet he had to get strong enough to leave the Cult to engage the next phase of his plan.