Aka left the steward's side and, upon receiving the news, went happily to Wang Chen. Wang Chen was now officially Aka's disciple, and this was the very first moment he learned of it. Yet he neither refused nor hesitated; instead, he clasped his hands together and bowed to Aka in respect. Aka asked about his condition, and when he learned that Chen was well enough to move, they headed together toward the palace's training hall.
With the Palace Lord's approval, this training ground had already been assigned to them. Aka was ordered to use as many herbs as he wished and prepare medicines; with these, the exhausted Wang Chen would be healed and able to continue training. Aka also stopped addressing him by the Wang family name and called him simply Chen. What he expected from him was to grow stronger as quickly as possible and earn the right to reclaim his family name.
When training began, Aka first attempted to teach Chen his own dirty fighting style. However, he soon abandoned the idea, realizing that such a way of fighting would not suit someone expected to become a future family head. Instead of dirty tactics, Aka focused on training Chen to gain mastery over a wide variety of weapons.
Their training days generally followed the same pattern. Every morning, Chen would wake up on an empty stomach, go to the training ground, and practice with a weapon of his choosing. Aka would watch him and beat him until all his incorrect movements were corrected. Once Chen could no longer fight, Aka would soothe him with a fatigue-relieving medicine and take him to eat. After the meal, he would make Chen sit in the training field and focus on his energy until inspiration struck. When it did, Chen would fight Aka using everything he had, without even knowing what he was doing, until he collapsed unconscious—thus tempering his vessel. Aka measured the growth of this vessel by how much longer Chen endured compared to the previous time, allowing him to estimate his progress roughly.
After a week of this training, Aka decided that Chen was ready and gave him a warning. From now on, Aka could attack him at any moment—even while he slept. These attacks would never kill him, but they would bring him very close to death, as Aka had received permission for this. Only two days passed before Chen's left arm had already been torn off three times, his right arm once, his left leg once, and his right leg twice. After every loss of a limb, Chen would faint from the pain—but little by little, he would grow accustomed to it.
The permission Aka had received was valid only as long as the healing medicines lasted. Fortunately, Lord Wang had promised to renew the medicine stock every week for the sake of his son's growth. In exchange for such freedom, he asked only one thing: within six months, Chen was to defeat his currently designated heir brother in combat. This was because, within the Wang family, the position of heir belonged to the strongest among the current leader's children. The heir was also obligated to accept every challenge issued by their siblings; refusal meant immediate disqualification from the succession. Naturally, fighting by proxy or killing a sibling was forbidden, and the punishment was expulsion from the family.
During this time, without Chen even realizing it, Aka did not neglect to absorb all of Chen's techniques and incorporate them into his own body. Because of this, his martial arts grew even more refined. In particular, Chen's step techniques—which made it seem as though he were dancing while fighting—would become extremely lethal when combined with Aka's poison.
As Chen's training continued, his sensitivity increased tremendously. Even while sleeping, he remained alert and could evade Aka's attacks—at least three out of every ten. This was already impressive, but even more remarkable was that Chen's sensitivity to pain had greatly diminished. He could now continue fighting even after Aka stabbed him with a knife. Aka also removed both the pre-meal weapon training and the post-meal physical energy training; instead, Chen now distributed his physical energy throughout his body and fought Aka both morning and evening.
Through this training method, Aka took every technique Chen possessed. Although he told Lord Wang that the medicines were solely for his son, he secretly took varying amounts of each to conduct experiments. Through these experiments, he created various poisons and medicines. The most important of these was a blade-applied substance he called Powder, a stunning and muscle-relaxing agent that acted within a very short time on a small area around the wound. Its rapid effect would make a crucial difference in combat. His most significant creation, however, was a medicine that could restore physical energy in an instant. He named it Precaution, as it was extremely useful in battle for both surprising opponents and acting quickly.
By the time their training reached this point, the first month had already ended. Aka spoke with the Palace Lord and received permission to move on to the next stage. In this phase, Chen would fight one criminal every week and would be required to kill them. Aka would never interfere unless it was certain that the criminal would win and kill Chen. This plan was meant to ensure that Chen developed the ability to survive on his own.
The first day of this phase arrived, and a female criminal was brought before Chen. She was small and frail, clearly very fast by her appearance, and wielded twin daggers. Like Chen, she had not yet performed her second ritual and thus possessed no special power. Unlike him, however, she also lacked physical strength.
The criminal was released and immediately lunged at Chen. Unprepared for such speed, Chen was caught off guard, but thanks to the heightened senses Aka had drilled into him, he escaped with only a shallow scratch on his arm. He attempted to trip the weak-looking woman, but she anticipated it, leapt into the air, and delivered a powerful kick to Chen's head, leaving him stunned.
Chen stood there defenseless, as if his mind had stopped working. Seizing the opportunity, the woman quickly swung one of her daggers toward his neck. Yet, driven by the heightened awareness that came with nearing death, Chen snapped back to his senses, struck her arm, and knocked the dagger from her hand. What he did not realize was that he had grown so accustomed to fighting with raw physical strength that he had lost all sense of his own power. What felt normal to him was enough to completely shatter the bones in the woman's arm.
Believing her opponent to be strong but slow, the woman retreated to create distance and think of a plan. At that moment, a man descended from the top of the wall, handed Chen a two-handed sword, and leapt back up the wall in a single motion. The woman was not overly frightened by this, as the Palace Lord himself had promised that their crimes would be forgiven if they won their fights.
Forming a plan, the woman charged at Chen once more.
If you've read or taken a look, thank you so much. If you have any thoughts — good or bad — please leave a comment. I'll probably see and reply right away. Thanks again, and I wish you a great day.