"My lady, this room is...?"
Tang Yeye swallowed. The violent movement inside had settled. From what her lady had said, each room could be adjusted, the "difficulty level" Bai Fanxian had just demonstrated being only one example.
"The Training Tower was built to push your abilities to their limit," she said. The blueprint had been An Weiying's — something she had once proudly shown off and then refused to take back. Perhaps she had known it would come in useful someday, or perhaps she had simply moved on to the next thing.
An Weiying produced a staggering number of inventions every year. She might be consumed by something one moment, then stubbornly abandon it the next.
"Each room can be customized without affecting the others. You can design your own training environment however you like."
In the past, the chaos of that era and sheer lack of need had kept her from ever using it. Now things were different. She needed to make her people stronger, and quickly. The demonic beasts from other dimensions were proof. History was repeating itself.
For now, her people could handle it. If things got difficult, she would step in personally. But Bai Fanxian was still only one person. There would be times when she couldn't get there in time, or was simply too exhausted to be everywhere at once.
If those beasts grew past Sage level, she couldn't promise to keep anyone safe.
"It's similar to Gravity Heaven. Your room has been set up for you as well."
A light touch and the door swung open. Tang Yeye went still, thinking back over how she fought.
"I told you once that close combat doesn't suit you. That's part of why I didn't have you train Supreme Fist Art the way your older sister does."
She had said it when they first started training.
"My lady said until I reach Martial Master level..." Tang Yeye murmured. Back then her cultivation level hadn't been enough, so it had been put off. But things were different now. Her qi quantity and control had long since outpaced her cultivation rank.
"Yes. I did. But what I've prepared isn't only about raw power."
The ancient wooden door opened. Unlike Gravity Heaven, there was no surge of pressure — just a wide hall with a ceiling high enough to disappear into shadow, and brown shelves running the length of both walls.
"Long-range combat takes many forms..." She raised a hand. Hundreds of qi-forged arrows materialized, lining up in neat formation behind her.
*WHOOSH!*
*THUNK!*
The moment a white ringed target appeared across the room, one arrow shot forward and struck dead center. Less than a second later, targets shot up from hatches in the floor, hundreds of them, all at once, moving constantly. Bai Fanxian's eyes narrowed. The remaining arrows burst out like missiles, each on its own scattered path, as if fired at random.
But when the motion stopped, every target had been hit dead center.
Not one arrow had missed.
Tang Yeye's eyes went wide. She wanted to do exactly that. Bai Fanxian cut the thought off before it could form.
"That was a demonstration. You pass when you can destroy all one hundred twenty-four moving targets before they vanish."
"...One hundred twenty-four?"
"Yes. Not a single one missed."
"But I can't use qi like that..."
"I didn't tell you to do it the same way."
At her word, the shelves slid back, revealing an array of equipment for trainees to choose from.
Bows and arrows in various sizes. Wrist-mounted weapons. Throwing knives. Shuriken straight out of Eastern ninja cartoons.
But what caught Tang Yeye's eye was a cluster of colorful paper sheets arranged in one corner, covered in characters she couldn't read. They looked like something out of an Eastern folk story.
"Ghost-repelling talismans?"
Huang Zihuan laughed softly at that. Bai Fanxian shook her head, weary. Perhaps she should put a limit on how much television these children watched.
"You can't compare those to these."
A talisman flew from the shelf into her hand, held between two fingers. The moment it sensed qi, it blazed brilliant red.
*BOOM!*
It shot faster than a missile and struck a rising target. A heartbeat later, a scarlet explosion bloomed across the far wall like a giant firework, swallowing every target, leaving only ash drifting down.
"Wow..."
Tang Yeye stared, then darted over and grabbed a talisman. She tried channeling qi into it the way she had just seen, but no matter how much she poured in, the characters wouldn't light.
"If anyone could use them, wouldn't that be a problem?"
Bai Fanxian smiled faintly and took it from those small hands.
"Drawing talismans works on the same principle as forming Borders. They're miniature dimensional spaces on paper. All it takes is energy to activate them." She pressed a finger to it and moved through the characters faster than the eye could follow. New ones settled around the old, nearly seamless.
"You can modify them however you like. If you understand the principles, you can turn a flame talisman into something like this."
*WHOOSH...*
The talisman streaked through the air, curved in a long arc, and burst at the ceiling. No flames. No smoke. Just bright, colorful sparks blooming like festival fireworks.
Bai Fanxian gave a satisfied nod. Unused as it had been, her touch was as sharp as ever. But if anyone who knew the true value of these things had seen this, they'd die of heartbreak — no one, even in her day, had ever brazenly used talismans for entertainment like this!
"Hold out your hand."
She touched the back of Tang Yeye's hand. Tang Yeye felt her lady's qi flow in, warm and steady. She held still and let it settle.
"These talismans are extremely dangerous. Without restrictions on who can use them, they'd be unmanageable."
"Try it."
Tang Yeye's face lit up. She grabbed a talisman and fed qi into it. But within five seconds, something felt off.
*FLICKER!*
The red characters flared — then went dark just as quickly. Tang Yeye swayed and sat down hard on the floor, dazed, before she even fully understood what had happened. All that qi she was so proud of hadn't even come close to meeting the talisman's minimum threshold!
...This doesn't need user restrictions at all, does it?
There can't be more than a handful of people in the world who could actually use these!
Tang Yeye could only manage a dry laugh. Bai Fanxian, reading her face, continued:
"These talismans run on qi. But the person who uses them doesn't have to be the one who charges them. Understand?"
She nodded hard, a thought already forming.
Does that mean I can ask Uncle Liu or Grandpa Zheng to charge them for me?
"Each talisman attack I'll only count as one target. I've also set it so only one is destroyed per activation."
Bai Fanxian knew exactly what the girl was thinking. She had a feeling that the qi reserves of Liu Yianfei and Zheng Renyi would be unusually low these days. She let out a quiet sigh and traced a few strokes through the air. Another string of characters rose and sank into the room wall. With a sideways glance at Tang Yeye, she went on:
"Your training is to destroy all one hundred twenty-four targets in order. I don't care what method you use — as long as it's all long-range."
"That doesn't sound too difficult..."
Tang Yeye looked around at the weapons. With enough practice, it seemed doable. Bai Fanxian smiled faintly. The girl was missing something.
If that were all there was to it, this wouldn't be the Training Tower.
"...From the first target to the last."
"You have twenty seconds."
This was truly worthy of the Training Tower!