Rebound

21

Lan Zhan seemed annoyed after speaking with his brother, "did you know want some time alone?" I asked him.

He looked at me and his expression softened, "No, I do better beside you," he told me.

I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck, "then I forbid you to be away from me today," I told him and placed a kiss on his lips, "that is an order from your husband."

"Yes sir," he replied and smiled at me. His arms were wrapped around my waist, "then you cannot go anywhere today."

"Hmm, does training count?" I asked.

"I suppose not, because I can train with you," he answered.

"Well, let's go train then," I said, "Wai Po set up the course today."

"Are we betting again?" Lan Zhan asked.

"Hmm, do you want to? You have yet to beat me," I told him.

"If I win, I want to bind you and do whatever I want to you," he said shamelessly.

I laughed, "even if you didn't win, I might just take you up on that."

"Then if I lose, you get to decide if I can do that," he said.

"Alright," I said.

Lan Zhan and I went out to the training field and she set up a set of obstacles. The object is to see who can get the most sheets of red paper. There were twelve places where the paper was stationed and each one has an obstacle to try and pass. The big obstacle was the center. It was a tall tower with pegs and different levels of traps. There were six sheets of paper to grab from the tower. Lan Zhan and I would be races through the course to see who can not only get through it the fastest but get the most paper. The first to get the paper wins the section of the course. Even if someone doesn't get the paper, they have a chance at the next section.

This course will test a lot of our skills. Our strength, our endurance, our, speed, and our agility. Some of these things Lan Zhan has more advantages in and there are some where I have the advantage. It is all to test our skills and see where we need to improve. It is also a way to have some fun while training. Baoshan would be spectating and she looked very intrigued to see how this would all go.

"Lan Zhan, if we tie, we will decide the winner through a spar," I said.

"That sounds like the best way to solve a tie," he said.

"Shall we begin?" I asked.

He nodded.

We then started the training. The very first course involved water. We had to make sure not to fall in. There was a narrow beam that we would have to walk over and keep our balance. There were contraptions that would make it difficult to stay up, such as arrows, and logs barreling over to knock us off. There were also spinning pillars that could hit you off. The water below was not clean either. It was more mud than water. For experienced cultivators, this course should be easy. But the challenge is Lan Zhan and I were both blindfolded. We each had a beam to walk over so we don't have to compete that front. Just trying to get through this as fast as possible.

As my core was still settling back into my body, my senses were still not as strong as they used to be. My body is trying to work hard to get back to its original strength so this was going to be more of a challenge for me. So I ended up taking more time getting through the course. In the end, I fell at the last second from an arrow to the arm. These arrows were just practice arrows so they cannot penetrate the skin. They do hurt upon impact and they can cause a person to fall if hit by it just right. I was covered head to toe with mud. I was able to clean up a little bit, but otherwise, I had to stay like this for the rest of the course. It was to add to the challenge and adapt. No matter what state you are in, a cultivator must be able to continue forward and fight.

I wasn't bothered really. The next competition was archery. Still blindfolded, there was a contraption that launched clay spheres in the air and we were to hit them. Lan Zhan and I could shoot together because they'd launch enough for both of us. Each sphere had red paper in it, so it would tally how many pots we hit based off the paper. We tied this one though, as I expected. Lan Zhan was excellent in archery. There was almost nothing he was not good at. So these challenges were just to see what we needed to really nitpick about our skills.

Through each course, I would win some, then he'd win, or then we would tie. When we reached the center course, we were tied. This could be the one to break the tie. Before we began, Baoshan used a spell and had water running over everything on the course. So we had to climbed this tower while water was pouring down. It could make things slippery, or it could just make it difficult to move around in general.

"Is Wei Ying doubting his ability?" Lan Zhan asked in a tease.

He and I were already covered in dirt, mud, grass, and grime. Water was nothing at this point. Growing up in Lotus Pier, I had the advantage of training around water, so this was actually nothing much for me. I smiled, "This, I will be perfectly fine, but are you doubting me?" I asked.

"I would never," He said, "I know you are excellent as it is. I could never doubt you."

"That's good to know, and I don't doubt you either. But good luck," I walked by him to get in place and whispered in his ear, "Husband."

I heard him growl. I giggled as I jogged away, but he managed to smack my butt before I got too far away. That got him wired up. I can tell when I call him that, he gets very excited...maybe even a bit aroused. Once we got into place, we were able to start.