SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 672: The Opening She Expected

Ji gave him three days to rest before calling him to a practice chamber.

”Report first,” she said. ”Then show me.”

”Fourteen subjective weeks in all. Six preparing the supply, two testing the feed, and six cultivating. I corrected the developing layer twice before it stabilised.”

”And the stored energy?”

”Clean throughout. I disconnected the extraction line before beginning. The array only fed what I’d already prepared.”

”Good.” Ji moved to the centre of the chamber. ”What did you notice during testing?”

”Heat in the Earth branch when I raised the feed and changed affinity quickly. It settled when I slowed down. I recorded the setting and the transition.”

”Then we’ll look at that as well.”

Leon left his outer robe on the bench. There was no audience, no elder waiting to judge his performance, and no rival with something to prove. Somehow, that made him more conscious of wanting to do well.

Ji stood with her hands loose at her sides.

”Begin.”

Her first attack was a narrow line of pressure aimed at his shoulder.

Leon raised ice to meet it. The barrier split, and he moved behind the falling fragments before the pressure reached him.

A second strike came low. He turned it aside with a sloping sheet of ice and sent lightning toward Ji’s wrist. She dispersed it with a small movement of her hand.

”Again,” she said.

He had expected to be outmatched. It was still irritating how little she needed to do.

For the next few exchanges, she let him choose the response. Whenever he repeated something out of convenience, she pressed the weakness in it until he changed.

Then she began setting the sequence.

”Ice. Hold it.”

He built a barrier and maintained it against her pressure.

”Lightning.”

Leon let the ice fall and sent the next current through the neutral centre. Lightning gathered along his hand before the last fragments struck the floor.

Ji’s answering pressure passed across his sleeve. It had been aimed at the short interval between his techniques, but his second attack was already complete.

She stopped.

”Repeat it.”

He did. Ji used the same pressure and the same timing, watching the exchange rather than trying to defeat it. The lightning formed before her interruption arrived.

On the third attempt, she adjusted.

Her pressure caught his wrist during the transition and turned his attack into the floor beside him. Leon stepped to recover, and a second touch behind his knee put him down.

He lay there for a moment, looking at the ceiling.

There she is.

”Up,” Ji said. ”Do you know what changed?”

”The gap is smaller.”

”Yes. Again, and pay attention to the return.”

By the time she let him stop, Leon could feel the difference clearly.

The Early layer had already reduced the loss when he switched affinities. Mid Qi Refinement carried the change more smoothly through the whole circulation. He spent less effort clearing one current before directing the next, and the returning energy settled sooner.

Ji sat on the low bench while he worked the stiffness out of his shoulder.

”You were right to bring me this,” she said. ”The improvement is real.”

Leon stopped rubbing his arm.

”It feels faster in practice. I wasn’t sure how much of that would survive pressure.”

”Enough to matter. Someone accustomed to your previous timing will need to adjust. You should expect a capable opponent to do so.”

”As you just demonstrated.”

”Several times.”

He laughed, despite himself.

Ji waited until he had caught his breath, then pointed to the space in front of her.

”Now Earth into Lightning. Slowly first.”

The slow transition was clean.

When she made him repeat it under pressure, heat began gathering at the same point he had noted during testing.

”Stop there,” Ji said.

Leon cut the next attack and allowed the current to settle.

”Your layer is holding,” she told him. ”But you’re still bracing the Earth technique after you’ve begun calling Lightning. Why?”

”To keep the defence from weakening during the change.”

”An old habit. It made sense when the transition took longer. Now you’re maintaining the brace after you need it.”

She had him repeat the movement without an incoming attack. At her direction, he released the last hold earlier.

The warmth diminished.

Leon tried again, this time with a little pressure against the defence. His instinct was to keep reinforcing it. He caught himself and let the current move on.

The transition completed cleanly.

”Oh,” he said.

Ji watched him repeat it twice more.

”The array exposed the habit when you increased the feed. You were right to reduce the setting until you understood it.”

”I was going to examine the branch again.”

”You still should. But check what you’re asking a sound structure to do before rebuilding it.”

That advice was going to be unpleasantly useful.

Leon looked down at his hands. ”How long until the new timing feels natural?”

”Practice will tell you. Stop before fatigue makes you careless, and don’t compensate by forcing more energy through it.”

He nodded. This time, he knew exactly what he would be practising.

”There is somewhere suitable for testing it,” Ji said as he retrieved his robe.

Leon turned back.

”The Tempering Hall, on the northern face. Its formations produce opponents for staged combat trials. You may request an assessment and enter the course appropriate to your actual strength.”

”How far does the course go?”

”Further than you’re ready to clear. The upper stages of the disciple course have not been completed by an eligible challenger in two hundred years.”

”Eligible?”

”There are entry conditions. An elder cannot walk through and claim the disciples’ rewards.” She took a small jade from her sleeve. ”First clears earn contribution. Repeating a stage is useful practice, but earns no additional payment.”

Leon accepted the jade.

”What can the contribution buy?”

”Cultivation materials, medicine court services, and access to approved vault stock. The hall steward will give you the current schedule.”

He was already thinking about the remaining cores, the reservoir, and how much more convenient it would be to prepare the next session with suitable resources waiting beside him.

Ji noticed.

”You may read the reward schedule before you enter,” she said. ”You must also read the withdrawal conditions. The formation has safeguards, but you are expected to stop when you can no longer continue safely.”

”I will.”

”Your permission covers your assessment and entry. It does not admit your attendants as contestants.”

”I’ll tell them.”

Ji rose. ”Rest today. Work on that Earth transition tomorrow, then arrange the assessment when you’re satisfied with it.”

Leon bowed before leaving.

”Thank you, Master. For the array as well.”

”You used it properly,” she said. ”That’s enough.”

Ira was the first to react when he told them that evening.

”A hall full of things we can hit?”

”Things I can hit,” Leon said. ”The permission is for me.”

Her disappointment was immediate. ”That’s unfortunate.”

”For the hall?” Seraphine asked.

”For me. The hall sounds well made.”

Leon sat beside her and let her inspect the permission jade. Vyra asked for the reward schedule, and he promised to bring it back before spending any contribution.

”Bring the medicine list too,” Loriel said. ”There may be things I can grow more cheaply than we can keep buying.”

”I haven’t earned anything yet.”

”We’re giving you reasons,” Ira told him, handing back the jade.

Seraphine waited until the others had finished asking questions.

”And the assessment with Ji?” she asked.

”She found the improvement immediately. Then she put me on the floor.”

”Only once?”

”I’m not giving you a number.”

Seraphine smiled. ”Did she find the Earth problem?”

”An old defensive habit. I was holding the brace too long during the transition.”

”I can help you practise that tomorrow.”

Leon nodded. He would enjoy having an opponent whose smallest movement did not make him reconsider his life.

He turned the jade over in his palm once more, then put it away and drew Ira closer.

The next place he was going would have opponents he could fight openly, a result he could measure, and rewards he could use. After weeks spent looking for people who wanted to remain hidden, he was looking forward to it.

[If you have bought privilege, thank you so much; if you haven’t, please do that would help me a lot]