I can barely manage more than a few short leaps,
maybe three meters or five on a good day.
Anything more than that feels like trying to breathe underwater.
Not like I haven't tried. Before I was discharged from the hospital, I jumped out of the window to check if I... in Han's body, could probably fly.
Since Han himself couldn't do it, and I managed to stay midair for about five seconds.
I was supposed to leap to something, right? Well, that was impossible because my body gave out before I could find a way to cushion my fall.
Thus, why my wound is barely healed.
The breathing technique Bai Lin mentioned.
Spiritual Harmonization, meridian alignment, and I saw something about dragon vein resonance in a book.
Whatever people used here, I wasn't doing it right.
Then it dawned on me that the Eastern continent focused on cultivation. There was nothing like a mana pool.
Even if there was, it would be for people who got transferred here from the other continent.
Main example was the cadets transferred here. I included.
I may be from the East, but I was birthed by a human from the North, so I could do both, but more of cultivation.
Over here, cultivation is just harnessing and utilizing your internal spiritual energy to enhance physical abilities or perform... how do I put this... abnormal stuff beyond normal human capabilities.
If you could manipulate Qi, the energy that flows through all living things, then you can take on cultivation.
Unless you were not a living being, or a being without Qi, which I doubt is possible.
Then combat training.
That was less of a problem.
Unless I was up against someone twice my size, someone with attacks I could easily dodge, or someone with unresolved parental issues.
I considered just observing from the sidelines, maybe pretending to meditate. But that would definitely get the instructor's attention, since it's my first day here.
Or worse, it would make the Emperor look bad for choosing me, and there's the case of looking like I thought I was above it all.
I was just weak. For now, anyway.
I blinked out of my daze and realized the group had already started moving. The line was breaking apart into pairs.
I slipped off to the edge of the yard, beneath the shade of the stone pavilion.
From there, I could watch without standing out too much. I still needed to understand how they moved, fought, before thinking about facing anyone.
The thought of even being paired with a crazed, fight-obsessed kid was already exhausting.
Two cadets stepped out from the formation. They both unsheathed their weapons and took their stances.
The one on the left was tall, lean, and had a lazy smirk. His sword had a chipped guard... well-used, not ceremonial.
The other looked younger, and he wore the undergarment meant for a hanfu, kimono, or haori.
However, unlike the tall one with the lazy smirk, this kid had a stoic expression, gazing up at someone twice his height. He didn't even look fazed.
If anything, he stared like that was just an overgrown cockroach, and I would agree with him.
Then they finally moved.
I barely caught the beginning, but I saw sparks scatter, then steel flashing, before they separated and they were already sweating.
That meant my eyes couldn't capture their movements due to their speed.
"Impressive," I thought, my gaze focused on the duo, as I also became determined to catch every move.
They moved again, this time the smaller one just went low, with his usual stance.
Legs apart, both hands at his side, one on the hilt of his sword and the other holding his sheath, and his head was awfully low for such a stance.
The taller one swiped upwards, like he had already known, but the kid slowly dragged his sword out of the sheath and moved.
My jaw dropped, I'm afraid to say, when my eyes managed to stay on him. It would look slow, yes, but the speed was on another level.
Like a fog, he moved past the tall one's sword, appeared on his other side, slashed his hanfu, and kicked him.
Their footwork was impressive. Not perfect like what experienced swordsmen or the high-level cadets would do,
But it was impressive.
The taller kid didn't have time to react, so he spun around before hitting the ground.
Yet despite his efforts, before he could balance himself, the short kid leveled his blade at the boy's throat, causing him to fall back eventually.
"I win," the kid said in a low, calm tone, before returning his sword into the sheath.
The instructor nodded, very much impressed. "Good work, Cadet Ling."
The boy nodded slightly and stepped back into the formation.
"Next!" the instructor announced, and another boy stepped out.
Broad shoulders, he was tall, and had enough muscle mass to make the floor of my room rumble beneath his feet if he applied pressure.
His hair was white, but quite dull. He wore no robe, no hanfu like the majority of us.
Instead, he wore a loose black shirt, tucked into baggy trousers, sleeves rolled up to the elbows.
The casual Eastern style, which I knew we were supposed to wear off-duty.
I heard the instructor say that the Emperor personally approved his outfit, so his case was different.
I glanced down at my own clothes,the long innerwear with the massive sleeves, and the hanfu on top, wrapped collar, I suddenly felt overdressed.
"What's his name?" I asked a nearby cadet.
"Kai," he said, as if that explained everything.
That was the first time I've heard a Western name in this place. Most names here sounded like mine, or at least not English.
I might have written Western characters, but not sure I wrote they'd be posted to non-Western places.
Kai drew a massive sword from his back, more a slab of metal than a blade, and stepped into the circle.
His opponent was a timid girl with twin daggers. She had violet eyes and pointy ears, already giving me an idea of what she was.
Which was rare.
She dashed forward, going straight for his blind spots.
Kai didn't flinch. He just swung once, and the impact sent a burst of wind across the yard.
Her daggers flew from her hands as she was thrown backward into the sand. She wasn't injured, but I could tell she was terrified of one single attack that would've killed her.
Kai rolled his shoulders. "Next?"
The instructor turned to me.
I almost objected, but I stepped forward anyway.
I unsheathed one of my swords, Heimēi—the lighter one, since I was still new to holding swords as light as that and moved into a loose guard stance.
I didn't have much spiritual energy left. My side still ached from the accident. However, there was no walking away now.
He didn't even wait.
Kai charged with surprising speed, his blade cutting down like a falling tree. I twisted and sidestepped, barely avoiding the full impact.
Sand exploded behind me. That's when I realized I was fighting a berserker.
I countered with a flurry of strikes, light, precise, aiming for weak spots.
They bounced off his sword.
I ducked under a horizontal slash, swept his leg, but he didn't move. It was like trying to trip a wall.
Then I felt a sharp pain on my ribs. It reopened, again.
The warm liquid trickled under my uniform, but just as the pain came, it vanished. Probably adrenaline.
I still held my stance. My sword low, while I tried to control my breathing.
He came again, and this time I couldn't dodge fully.
"Han, right?" I heard him say as he put in more strength to push me back. "You're quite frail-looking for someone your age. You sure you're cadet material?"
A scoff almost escaped my lips. Staying in the hospital and running on only liquid was what even got me looking so thin, but I dared not say that.
I only stared at him silently and smiled.