Jin Li quickly stole the attention of the Teachers, senior students and applicants after he stepped up upon the platform for the martial arts students. The man... youth (Leon still had trouble accepting that he was younger than him) favoured the sword, so a senior who was skilled in this proficiency was selected to greet him.
Their stances differed, but both warily eyed the other, attempting to evaluate the person before them. This surprised Leon, he had always viewed Jin Li as impulse and without hold upon his temper. Clearly, his opinion had been too narrow, but then, he had never actually seen Jin Li do much but bluster and eat. He placed his thoughts aside and watched with new eyes as Jin Li easily blocked the tentative slice of the sword that came his way.
As if that slash was an invitation to duel, the pair swiftly engaged in a more frantic battle that even more quickly evolved into a deadly dance. As neither was attempting to hurt the other, Leon began to find the duel between the pair mesmerising. Others crowded beside him, some enjoying the entertainment as much as he, others still sneering in clear jealousy or baying for blood.
"I could do such moves if I had half the chance," muttered one fellow. These words were spoken by the young master who had fallen as Leon, Jin Li and Pike had entered the pavilion. Leon did not hear him speak these words as he was too caught up in watching Jin Li thrive in his element. Pike, however, turned to eye the young master and clearly found him lacking. He suspected that the boy had never lost a fight before as his opponents had always had to lose or surrender, not because of his skills, but because of his background. Such false ego would only be his downfall in the long run. But who was he to judge, he had been much the same, until a senior had beaten the snot out of him. Fortunately, Pike had not been one to snivel and whinge for long and had risen through hard work and unexpected talent to be where he was; a part of the inner school and under the apprenticeship of a Master.
After ten minutes, the Teacher who was standing in judgement, used his own sword to end their battle. Jin Li looked a little frustrated, but Leon could clearly see this was not directed at his opponent. Jin Li and the senior gracefully bowed in expressed appreciation of the other, the senior added that he would look forward to sparring with Jin Li again in the future. Jin Li nodded in agreement.
"Your friend is very good," Pike complimented.
"Y-yeah," Leon replied, just coming out of the daze that had trapped him, his face a little flustered as the swell of unfamiliar feelings slowly dissipated.
"I hope he joins our school of marital arts," Pike mused. Actually, this was practically a given. The small beasts of the taming school were either intimidated by him or simply loathed him, either way, none would interact with him and Jin Li had no patience for them. His spiritual root was Lightning, considered a minor root, despite its offensive strength, but mages tended to favour long distance combat and Jin Li felt this was weak, although he would begrudgingly admit that a strong Mage of similar level to his could easily challenge him and win. He would not choose to join the magic school. Both the other schools taught non-combative skills, he was not interested in either.
Jin Li was temporarily admitted to the outer circle of the martial arts school. This was due to questions over his cultivation level. An ordinary seventeen year old Cultivator might at most be at the peak of the primary level or having not long broken through to secondary, those who had broken through to secondary level at an earlier age considered talented. But even prodigies seldom reached tertiary level until the age of 21, most usually, those to reach tertiary were around 25. Of course, this was the common knowledge of cultivators in the middle realms.
Leon left him in Pike's care, for which the seventeen year old was less than pleased with, before returning to Mino and apologising for the wait. Leon still had more shopping to do; fabrics, needles and more dried food stuffs were on his list as well as vegetable seeds. And then, he was looking forward to being able to sleep on a bed by himself.