A Failure's hopeful Journey

While You Xi Wang was sitting down on the ground, lost in the knowledge's comprehension of the arrays in his mind. The team was going through brutal training. At first, things looked not as so serious, but after the first day, they experienced what true cruelty was. The process was more suitable to be called 'HARASSMENT' rather than training. Their cozy beds in the mansion were replaced by tents in the training field. Imagine sleeping in tents when the temperature at night is low enough to freeze boil water in a matter of seconds. 

In the morning, when they finally experienced some rise in the temperature. A man would come and yell in their ears. They would all awaken in a panic. Only You Zhichi and the phantoms were alert and would awake as soon as someone approaches them. You Zhichi had trained herself in the past. She ventured out alone for a week in the whispering willow forest. She may look like a doll but she can switch into a battle angel in a blink. As for the phantoms, it was the credit to the minimal beast instinct they got from sharing a spiritual bond with the wolf pups. The rest were not so fortunate, so they all suffered. 

The tragedy was that as soon as the instructor announced the break time and the team wanted to relax, someone would shoot them with rubber bullets. It was a group of snipers who were arranged by the instructors to interrupt the rest of the trainees. They did not know that the trouble was about to increase. They were all asked to run through the obstacle course. This course was created by the family to stimulate the body of the practitioners. The body of the cultivators must be firm and flexible. But even when they were running the obstacle course some of them tripped because of a spirit-trip wire, some fell inside deep pits suddenly appearing on the ground out of thin air.

The team had some sort of restraint shackles on their hands. This shackle sealed 90% of their spiritual essence. They were just slightly powerful than normal humans. The second day has just ended and the instructor announced that they can go to rest now. They dragged their tired bodies to the bathing area to clean themselves. Rafael took off his dirty clothes and started the tap. Since they were not allowed inside the mansion, they used a wooden barrel as a bathtub. The boy jumped down inside the barrel and he yelled, "Hercules, light it up for me."

Hercules was a guy with fire element affinity. So he lit up the fire beneath the barrel so that the water can heat. Hercules came to the barrel and said senior Rafael, where is the captain?" as used the meager spiritual energy to light up the fire beneath the barrel. 

The water heated slowly and Rafael said, "I don't know where he is but one thing is for sure. He is not resting. You have witnessed his potential. How can a monster be training with us humans?" as soon as these words came out of his mouth, a spark of lightning flew up and landed inside the barrel. Big mouthed Rafael realized two things at this moment. First, water is a good conductor of electricity. Second, the attacker was cruel this time. His body first turned numb and then he wailed in pain. The brain takes a bit to register the pain caused by electricity. 

Hercules hastily pulled him out of the barrel. He looked around and found nobody. They had dropped their guard just now while they were conversing. This was the 9th time today that Rafael had suffered. Yet his vigilance was still not good enough. If he is a cultivator, then the attacker is also a cultivator. The other party is an experienced veteran in a way, so how can a noob detect them with just one day's torment? 

Hercules carried a twitching Rafael back to the camp. The others all gathered when Rafael recovered and ate a healing pill. He spoke, "I called this meeting so we can come up with some plan to reduce the amount of our torment. Just in one day, we have suffered an average of 7 attacks on a person. Only the vice-captain successfully avoided 3 attacks, yet she was still hit 6 times. What do you guys suggest we do? Because if this continued, let alone proving the captain wrong our daily performance will fall."

Lena spoke, "How about taking night watches? We can do it one by one. In a cycle, it can help us guard each other and our performance will also not drop."

The others thought about it and agreed. The night watch started. It started with one person at a time. How could one person keep watch against multiple enemies who would sneak in the camp area and slap you awake when you get into a state of deep sleep? The watchmen increased every night for 6 days from 1 to 6 at a time. They suffered fewer attacks with this strategy. On the 8th day of training (the 7th day since they started night watch), the people on watch duty turned their backs and were about to wake up the others. 

BONK, BONK, BONK, BONK, BONK, BONK...

They all were knocked out from behind. Then the attackers entered the tents and woke the people up by slapping them up. You Zhichi, Snow, and Neo were the few people who woke up just as the assailant was about to enter their tents. Though they still could not save others from being slapped. These attacks showed that if an enemy attacked at night when they were resting, then they are all dead before they could even react. They all gathered again. 

Hercules rubbed the back of his head and said, "Man, this really feels shameful. Now that we can avoid some attacks during the day and at night, this new strategy of attacks messed us up again. What to do now?"

Fenny spoke, "Change guards one by one instead of all at once. Also, don't lose morale they are trying to harm our will powers."

They all understood this. They were all geniuses to a certain degree. The day when You Xi Wang wiped the floor with them is still fresh in their minds. They realized that the attack tonight could have happened on the previous night or even early, but the assailants waited till the team had full confidence before stabbing right in the chink to lose both their defenses and morale.

They all revised the strategy and continued on. Time passed and they all gradually developed a reflex towards surprise attacks and other traps. By the 15th day of the training, they suffered no more than two attacks. That too was only concentrated to a quarter of the team. They thought that they were getting closer to their goal of defeating You Xi Wang. 

On the other side of the ground sat a figure covered with snowflakes. This figure was You Xi Wang, he had been occupied with the comprehension of the array left inside his mind by Animus. 15 days have passed since then and Maya has always been guarding beside him. You Xi Wang's body trembled lightly, Maya who sat beside him stood up and sat down on her hind legs. You Xi Wang slowly opened his eyes. Maya rubbed her head gently on his shoulder. 

You Xi Wang's eyes were clearer than before. He felt Maya's head rubbing against his shoulder, so he also patted her head. He stood up while brushing off the snow on his body. He spoke, "How many days have passed?"

Maya replied, "15 days, brother Xi Wang."

You Xi Wang nodded and walked up to the camp. He saw that some people were standing guard while the others slept. He liked this 'play for the team attitude.'

Sensing his gaze, the guard turned to face him. You Xi Wang spoke, "Relax, it is just me."

The boy on the duty was the gunner, Illahi. He relaxed when he heard the voice. You Xi Wang walked over and said, "You guys look good."

The others also heard him coming, but they did not leave their positions. You Xi Wang nodded in satisfaction when he saw this. The gunner spoke up with a bitter smile, "Captain, you still say we look good." when he smiled he was missing three teeth. 

You Xi Wang had an urge to laugh, but he controlled himself. He spoke to Illahi, "Tell everyone to get ready. Tomorrow I will fight you all with my team."

Illahi was shocked at first, but then he was confused. He asked, "Captain, what team? Do you mean the Phantoms?"

You Xi Wang shook his head and said, "You will know in the morning. Tell everyone that this time it might hurt. I will not go easy on you guys." without waiting for any answers, he turned around and left the way he came. The team in his mouth was all the spirit beasts. Shadow, Luna, Shroud, and snowflake. All four of them had not undergone the baptism of the Body forging paste. He was going to use them as his teammates. If others knew this outside, they will all call him a maniac, but You Xi Wang did not care at all. He decided to fight the team with all he has got.