Chapter 6: The Unwanted Mentor
The mocking laughter started before Li Wei had taken ten steps from the registration table. It followed him like a wave, crashing against his back as he walked toward the outer grounds. He kept his head high, his back straight, the image of the cold, humming energy within him a shield against their scorn.
He was almost to the safety of the herb-gatherers' path when a figure fell into step beside him.
It was an old man. Not an Elder with fine robes and a severe posture, but a stooped, wizened man with a broom in his hand, his face a roadmap of wrinkles. His eyes, however, were not cloudy. They were sharp, clear pools of intelligence that seemed to see right through Li Wei's fragile composure.
"You have a death wish, boy?" the old man asked, his voice a dry rustle like autumn leaves. He was one of the countless silent servants who kept the sect clean, invisible to the proud disciples.
Li Wei didn't answer. He kept walking.
The old man kept pace with surprising ease. "Or is it just arrogance? The shattered prodigy thinks he can challenge the heavens with a rusty sickle and a prayer?"
That made Li Wei stop. He turned, his temper flaring. "What do you know about it?"
"I know that a tree that stands alone in a storm gets struck down," the old man said, tapping his broom handle on the ground for emphasis. "Zhang Feng will not fight you with honor. He will break you, and the Elders will look the other way. They have too much invested in him."
"And what would you have me do?" Li Wei snapped, the frustration of the last weeks boiling over. "Stay in the dirt where they put me?"
The old man leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I would have you learn to bend. Your new way... it is all force. All push and shatter. It is a hammer. But a fight is not just nails to be pounded."
Li Wei's blood ran cold. *Your new way.* How could this old sweeper know?
The man saw the shock in his eyes and gave a thin, knowing smile. "The earth has ears, boy. And some of us have been listening for a long, long time for a different song." He gestured with his head. "Come. The woods are quieter than these walls."
Suspicion warred with a desperate curiosity inside Li Wei. He was a secret, yet this stranger seemed to know him. Against his better judgment, he followed the old man off the main path and into a secluded grove of bamboo, hidden from view.
The old man leaned his broom against a tree and turned. "Show me," he said simply.
"Show you what?"
"Your power. Not the one they broke. The new one. Hit me."
Li Wei stared. "I'm not going to hit an old man."
The old man sighed, a sound of profound exasperation. "Your problem is not your shattered core, boy. It is your rigid thinking." In a movement faster than Li Wei's eyes could follow, the old man's broom handle whistled through the air and tapped him sharply on the shoulder.
It was a light strike, but it stung. On instinct, Li Wei's new power flared, absorbing the tiny impact.
Kinetic Energy Harvested: 0.5 Joules.
The old man's eyebrows rose. "Ah. So it is true. You do not cultivate. You... collect." He circled Li Wei slowly. "A hammer. You see a strike, and you prepare to meet it. But what if the strike is a feint?" The broom handle darted forward, aiming for his chest. Li Wei braced, but at the last second, the old man twisted his wrist. The handle swept sideways, hooking behind Li Wei's ankle and pulling sharply.
Li Wei crashed to the ground, the wind knocked out of him. He hadn't even thought to absorb the energy of a pull.
"See?" the old man said, standing over him. "You are a wall. A wall can be strong, but it can also be climbed, or gone around. You need to be water. Water flows, water adapts. It does not simply wait to be struck."
He offered a gnarled hand and pulled Li Wei to his feet. "Your enemy will not tap you with a broomstick. He will come at you with the Flowing Cloud Sword Art. It is all misdirection and soft, entangling force. If you stand like a wall against it, he will wrap around you and shatter you from ten different angles at once."
Li Wei brushed the dirt from his robes, his mind reeling. The old man was right. His power was reactive. He needed to be proactive. He needed to *use* the energy, not just weather the storm.
"How do you know these things?" Li Wei asked, his voice full of awe.
The old man's face grew distant, a shadow of old pain passing behind his eyes. "I was not always a sweeper of floors. Once, a long time ago, I asked questions the Elders did not like. Now, I listen for others who ask them." He picked up his broom. "Meet me here at dawn. We have less than a month. And you, boy, have much to learn if you do not wish to be a bloody stain on the tournament stage."
He turned and shuffled away, disappearing into the bamboo as silently as he had appeared.
Li Wei stood alone in the grove, the old man's words echoing in his mind. *Be water.*
For the first time since he had signed his name, a flicker of genuine strategy ignited within him. He had a power no one understood. And now, it seemed, he had a teacher.