The loud clatter of cutlery clashing against plates echoed as hungry inmates attacked their food, the incessant murmur of blurred voices accompanying it.

  Baiyun glanced at the dining hall as Stone led him by, furrowing his eyes from the stench. It smelled of unwashed men and terrible food. Once a cultivator reached the Foundational level or a similar equivalent, they would have finally taken the first step to immortality, losing their mortal stench and no longer needing oxygen.

  That smelt meant there must be many inmates still at Qi-Gathering. Was that truly sufficient? He suppose if nothing it was almost a good sign; if those with such low cultivation could survive, it implied the border was less dangerous than he expected.

  "Young friend, are you hungry? We can stop for a bite if needed." Stone said, noticing Baiyun's pause.

  Baiyun shook his head and took out a grain ball, munching on it instead. The monk stared quizzically but continued onwards, and they soon arrived at a training room of sorts.

  He tapped his walking stick on the floor, and sensed battered wooden dummies strewn all over. Some were even broken into half or even completely obliterated, splintered and fragmented wood dusting the ground lightly.

  Many weapon rack lined the walls of the room, and beside them sat a young boy clutching his knees listlessly. While Baiyun couldn't extend divine touch over without being caught, the kid had a weak presence that made it seem unlikely he was the cause of the surrounding havoc.

  "Gale!" the monk called out. "We have another recruit. He seemed to be around your age even!"

  "Stone!" the eyes of the kid lit up.

  Perhaps because most of the inmates here were frightening grown men, Gale seemed almost hopeful as he turned over. The joy in his eyes quickly turned into a gasp as he backed away.

  Baiyun sighed inwardly. How did such a timid kid end up in a place like this? It was unlikely there was another insane situation like that of the centipede den. Perhaps WanLing was more corrupt than he imagined.

  "Young friend... you'll hurt the feelings of our newcomer like that." Stone shook his head.

  "Oh..." Gale muttered. "Sorry."

  Stone patted both of them on the shoulder.

  "It would be confusing if we didn't have a name for the newcomer, so let's come up with one quickly."

  Nicknames? What a childish thing, Baiyun grumbled inwardly. He decided to quickly get it over with.

  "I'm not too particular about nicknames." he said. "Blindfold, one-armed, call me whatever you want."

  "That's a dangerous attitude... You realise you'd have to live with your name here for years? You really should think it through more." Stone smiled awkwardly. "But we can call you Blindfold for now then. Is that acceptable?"

  "Fine by me." Baiyun said.

  He glanced to the side at Gale, who seemed rather cautious of him.

  After all the events at the hunting party, he had grown somewhat tired of dealing with children. Gale seemed rather attached to the monk, so he would let him shoulder the burden instead.

  Baiyun decided not to talk to the kid. If the kid grew attached and followed him around, he would have to be responsible for protecting him. He did not want a repeat of Jingfeng's situation. It was an almost callous thought that made him sigh inwardly. But ultimately, his own life was still the most important.

  Stone and Gale slowly talked, while Baiyun sat to the side and listened in silence. Minute by minute passed, and he became slightly annoyed. He thought he was going to be trained or faced with some sort of orientation, but he had been dragged away from his textbooks for this?

  As Baiyun mused inwardly, the door soon swung open as a graceful figure walked in.

  "Crow. You're here." Stone nodded.

  While Gale took a step back cautiously, Baiyun raised his head in interest and listened carefully in an attempt to examine the person. But when the winds were still in an enclosed rooms, his enhanced but ultimately still human ears couldn't glean a thing. He began to wish he found an excuse to drag the rabbit along.

  Crow glanced at him and Gale, the sensation something he felt somehow.

  "You're kidding..." a young woman said in disbelief. "These are our new recruits?"

  It was hard to tell if her voice was scornful at the sight of them or pitying, perhaps due to the elegance it had befitting even that of nobility.

  Baiyun couldn't blame her. How else was one supposed to react when new recruits for a potential war were two kids, one even crippled?

  "Two children sent here in the same week... Did the higher ups at WanLing have a stroke?"

  Crow rubbed her temple and sighed deeply.

  "The young ones never last long..."

  Her words were nearly inaudible, but Baiyun caught it with his heightened senses. Gale must have heard it as well, because he clutched Stone's arm tightly as he trembled.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  It wasn't a surprise children died quickly in war. In the brief moment they walked past the dining hall, all he heard was the laughter of grown men and the breathing of large statures. It was possible he and Gale were the only two as young as they were.

  Crow shook off her headache.

  "Alright. Show me your moves. We'll have to train you thoroughly if you want the slightest hope of surviving."

  She glanced briefly at Baiyun, then turned her gaze towards the other kid. There was no need to pay attention to a crippled servant, who could not even serve as cannon fodder.

  Gale looked nervously at Stone, who stared back and nodded with an encouraging smile. With no choice, he could only step forward and begin his demonstration.

  "This is all I can do... it's not much." he mumbled.

  Veils of wind surrounded him as he waved his hands, bending down to brace himself. With a few running steps and a bound, he launched himself towards a wall with great force, angling himself midair and landing against it with a squat.

  From wall to wall to ceiling, he shot across the room in a random blur for a few seconds, finally landing on the ground with shaky steps.

  "Urgh..." he groaned.

  Crow quickly backed off as she sensed something wrong, just as Gale barfed all over the floor.

  "Oh dear." Stone said.

  Baiyun was speechless, though he wasn't exactly one to judge after the wolf fight.

  "I asked you to show off your combat moves, not whatever that was." Crow sighed.

  "I don't know how to fight..." Gale said as he crumbled backwards.

  Stone's giant palm caught his fall, picking him up as if he was a small animal.

  "Then make use of your speed. Hold out a blade as you rush past your foe and let your momentum cut with great force." Crow said. "Practice hard and overcome motion sickness."

  "Okay..." Gale nodded weakly.

  Baiyun found her advice sound. Even blind, he still could sense Gale's movement across the room from the violent winds as he shot through the air, and the thuds of him landing from wall to wall.

  This was still light jostling by a Qi-Gatherer's standards, implying the dizziness was mostly psychological.

  "Rest for now." Crow said. "As for you..."

  Her gaze turned to Baiyun harshly.

  "I would say we could find you a spot in the kitchen as a helper, but even that would be unsuitable." she said. "Whatever they've done to you is practically a death sentence; there is no joy in living such a life. If you'd like, I can put you out of your misery right now."

  Baiyun's eyes constricted.

  Crow unsheathed her sword in a flash, but he had already reacted. A loud clang sounded out as he swung his walking stick, barely deflecting the blade as he tumbled backwards, rolling once before landing on his feet.

  Such force... the momentum of his parry alone pushed him more a meter away. The two of them stood in silence as they clutched their weapons.

  "Hoh!" Stone laughed. "Well if that isn't something!"

  Gale screamed a moment too slow as Crow stood stunned, the momentum to her offer of "mercy" interrupted.

  But Baiyun was just as shocked. How had his body moved so quickly? It was as if the delay to his body suddenly vanished, moving in accordance to his thoughts like before!

  He opened and closed his palm carefully, but the delay had already returned, his fingers slow as ever. Was this supposed to be a sign of recovery, or just a reflex against death? He never thought he would feel so perplexed by the human body after so many centuries of anatomy study in his past life.

  "Impressive." Crow finally said. "I had no intent to cut you down and only planned to hold my sword before your face, but you reacted in the blink of an eye. It seems I have overstepped."

  Baiyun lowered his walking stick.

  If not for the unexpectedly fast reaction of his body and the loud sound of the curved blade cutting through air, he would have been helpless. He was aware he was being overestimated, but he decided to play into it anyway.

  "I can still fight." he said. "You can think of me as a combat servant."

  "A combat servant?" Stone frowned. "They begin training that young? I suppose that explains your story from before."

  Ah. Stone must have been wondering how he managed to survive while dragging Yingtao away, when he explained the story of his arrest earlier.

  "Story?" Gale asked. "What happened?"

  "I'll tell you later." Stone whispered.

  Crow rubbed her head, seemingly frustrated for some reason.

  "Okay. Then, you with the blindfold." she said. "Since you've proven yourself, you're up next. Show me what you can do."

  What he could do... truthfully, there was not much he could show aside from his accuracy with his bow and an incomplete Whirlwind Art, but it wasn't exactly easy to fire an arrow with a missing arm. All he could do was showcase the former.

  Baiyun nudged his walking stick against various wooden dummies as he trotted around, sensing their composition carefully.

  As different levels of cultivators were imprisoned, spirit wood of ascending tiers were used, most with durability far beyond his strength. With divine touch, he could pick out the weakest dummies.

  He wondered for a moment if it would be too conspicuous if he only targeted the dummies of ordinary wood. While his faked Unparalleled Insight constitution was an explanation, there was not much reason to reveal his sharp senses.

  So be it. It wasn't as if he needed to contest the property damage.

  Baiyun braced himself against the ground before lunging at the nearest dummy, launching a spinning kick towards its face. A loud bang echoed, but the powerful wood only wobbled slightly as it launched him backwards.

  A sharp pain shot through his foot after the impact against the Core-Shaping tier wood, but he bent his abdomen and converted the rebound into spin.

  He shot across the room, striking and bouncing from dummy to dummy in a manner superficially similar to Gale.

  After facing the wolf in a fight and testing the Whirlwind art out, he now had a feel for the limits of momentum he could take. He would push it further this time. Every strike made him blur through the air faster, and the familiar nausea soon returned.

  Baiyun's head spun and he felt his mortal brain toe the line of unconscious. He would have to unleash the momentum now!

  The accumulated force slammed straight into an ordinary dummy he reserved for last, both his heels smashing straight into it.

  Brief resistance met his strike, then crumpled like paper as the force ripped straight through the entirety of the wood! The shockwave spread through the rest of the dummy, pulverising it until nothing but splinters remained.

  He slammed into the ground and skidded to a stop against the wall, panting heavily. Both his legs were bruised and bleeding slightly, leaving a faint trail of red along the ground. If he dared to use this attack against spirit wood... it was safe to say both his legs would have flown clean off.

  To the side, Gale stared agape at the sight. Crow however shook her head while Stone winced slightly.

  "Why push yourself to this extent?" she said. "You injured yourself for no reason."

  "Young friend. Is this an attempt to weasel out of service?" Stone followed. "You don't have to go so far. I can protect you during our patrols."

  Baiyun could only smile awkwardly as he wiped the wooden fragments off his bloodied legs. Some splinters pierced into his flesh slightly, but the sheer durability of Black Earth only let them break the surface of his skin.

  Now that he was in a place like this, the last thing he wanted was to be tossed into some obscure corner with nothing but menial tasks to look forward too. If the inmates here could be rewarded for slaying beasts, he needed to show he was capable of joining the front lines.

  This was an unprecedented opportunity for him to gather resources, both for alchemy and cultivation.

  If the way the border worked was as he deduced, he had a feeling it would not be long before he reached the peak of Qi Gathering. Though how he would hide his breakthrough into Elixir Condensation from the heavens... that was still something that worried him greatly.