He took the hood out of his head, showing an abnormally pale face and sunken eyes. He glanced at the sword on the floor lying at his feet, and as if answering to a call, it started hovering around him. Daniel looked at it wistfully. He owed Natasha Barnes a lot. He owed his brother a lot.

He remembered the six months he spent with Natasha helping him prepare to the compet.i.tion, feeling as if it was a long time ago.

---

"What we are going to do about your arm is simple." Natasha said with the bored look she seemed to always have. "Nothing."

Daniel was dumbstruck as he heard her words. "What do you mean by that?"

"There is nothing to be done about your arm, so we won't do anything." She didn't even look at him as she checked her perfectly filed nails, looking for flaws, "What we will do is train your Qi control."

"I understand that Qi control is important, but I am only at Body Tempering. How will that help me?"

"Words of an amateur. I expected a more insightful person, considering your childhood years." Natasha said as she lifted her gaze to his eyes. Daniel had been trained with everything that Lawrence could give before Jake was found to be incredibly talented. She truly expected him to know better.

"Why wait for Elemental Purification to train your control? Why are people stuck with such an obviously wrong concept?" Natasha seemed to be asking herself in a painful voice. She gave a sigh and made a gesture to Delia, who was waiting outside the room.

Delia promptly walked in, carrying something large bundled in cloth. She put it in the small table in Daniel's room in the Medical Pavilion, bowed deeply to Natasha and left. Natasha walked to the table and slowly removed the cloth from the bundle, as if peeling a fruit.

What she revealed to Daniel was a wooden arm. A complete model of an arm, with joints, bones, tendons and all. She gave it to Daniel with a serious look on her face. "Hold it for me for a moment, dear."

Daniel looked confused as he held the model arm with his left hand. He started examining it carefully, when suddenly the arm moved in the wooden hands grabbed his wrist. Daniel almost fell from the bed from the scare he was given and he started cursing while Natasha laughed with delight.

"How… why…" Daniel couldn't find words to say as he looked at the wooden arm, making Natasha roll her eyes at him.

"Spread your divine sense and look it up." She said with a bored voice.

Daniel promptly did so, and was surprised. Thin and glowing lines of Qi were evenly spread across the arm, s.h.i.+ning from inside the wood.

"Is this… and artifact?" Daniel asked dumbstruck.

"Yes, it is." Natasha answered. "I gave myself the trouble to carve Qi pathways that matched perfectly with the meridians in a real arm."

"Using the Qi in the meridians to execute movements instead of the muscles and tendons is a hard task. It is no more than the work of a puppeteer, and such movements will lack true strength." Natasha looked at him with a blank expression. "Still, it is doable."

Daniel didn't muster a word after hearing that. Natasha gave a sigh. Seemed he was finally catching up.

"You will use this arm to train your control over Qi. I want you to be able to execute a series of complex tasks with it." Natasha said dispa.s.sionately. "Furthermore, you can't have any physical contact with the arm as you train. All will be done through Qi control."

"After that… You might start training using your own arm." Natasha said with sad eyes. "The parts missing from your arm also affected most of your meridians. Your control will have to be even better because of that, as you will have to make up for the missing pathways for the Qi to flow."

"It will be far from perfect, especially in a fight where your focus will be divided in many other tasks, but it will be usable. I recommend you use this arm for simple tasks, nothing more." Natasha said, holding her arms behind her back.

"This… how did you think of this?" Daniel asked, looking at her with his dark eyes. "I don't think you just had this idea."

"You are right." Natasha looked up, as if reminiscing something. "I had this idea five years ago, when a friend was hurt."

"Did it work?" Daniel couldn't help but ask.

"I wouldn't know." Natasha sighed gently. "All I managed to do was tell her about the theory."

"Borgin and your father made sure to get in my way after that." A rare trace of emotion was shown in her face as it distorted into a mask of anger and her eyes turned cold. She directed those cold eyes to Daniel, making his hair stand on end.

"You better make that b.a.s.t.a.r.d suffer a loss." She said in a chilling voice.

Talking about such matter had made Natasha lose her calm for a moment, but it was enough for Daniel to see how deep her hatred for Lawrence ran. He gazed at her calmly as he nodded firmly.

"You can be sure that I won't let him feel the least bit of satisfaction from this." Daniel said in a serious tone. Natasha sent him another piercing glance before her face returned to the usual bored expression.

"You can train on your own. How you will use what you get from this experience is up to you." Natasha slowly made her way to the door. "Delia will help you with anything you need. I will visit you every day to guide you through physiotherapy and check on your progress. You might also start training to use your left arm as your dominant one."

She turned around, looking at Daniel one last time. "I expect nothing but total dedication on your part."

"You can rest a.s.sured about that." Daniel said, making Natasha nod quietly.

"Thank you for saving Amon Skoller." She said in an unusual gentle tone before turning her back away and leaving.

Daniel looked at the wooden arm he was holding in a daze. He looked at it in silence for a long time, pondering something. He then took a deep breath, and spread his divine sense.

---

Daniel's sword was still hovering next to him. Looking uninterested, he sent it flying through the room. In the dark room, the sword seemed to glow as numerous strings of light were tightly bound around it as the sword moved in a stream of complex strikes. They lacked strength, but were more than enough to draw blood in a sneak attack.

Natasha had been right. Using the Qi to forcefully move his right arm made it lack strength and finesse. Still, just as she said, it was enough for simple movements. Because of that, Daniel had decided to use a s.h.i.+eld. Not only would he cover for the weakness in his right side, he would also be able properly use it with his arm.

He could also use the Qi to directly move the s.h.i.+eld in dire situations, instead of using his arm. It was a good way to hide the deficiencies he had.

He looked at his left arm, trying to close his fingers. A stinging pain made him give up on the idea, but he couldn't help but smile. He had bluffed when Clara broke his wrist. He had used Qi to control his sword and pretend he had grabbed it with his injured hand. It had been enough to confuse her and give him an opening.

Daniel closed his eyes, looking tired. Still, he couldn't rest yet. Soon enough there would be the final phase of the second round, where the winners of the first phase would draw lots again, to fight and decided the top eight.

He gave a sight. He needed to win this Promotion Compet.i.tion no matter what. But as he thought of this, a youthful face made its way into his mind.

"What happened to you, Amon?" Daniel couldn't help but ask. When he saw the boy in the waiting hall, he had to make an incredible effort to hide agitation. The boy was too different from what he remembered.

He didn't dye his hair black anymore, and he walked with his head raised, carefully a.n.a.lyzing everything around him as if he were a seasoned warrior. His golden eyes had a confidence in them that hadn't been there in all the years Daniel knew him.

Not only that, but he somehow managed to get into Body Tempering and, considering how he had made his way to the second round of the Promotion Compet.i.tion, it had not been a trivial tempering. Daniel was confused. How could he have changed so much in less than a year?

Amon Skoller was like a different person. Nevertheless, Daniel didn't feel it was a bad thing. He was happy that Amon was growing up.

Unfortunately, Daniel had no wish to talk to him until the compet.i.tion was over. Daniel had to send his father a message, and he would. He would win the compet.i.tion and get to the Inner Sect, but he was going to be sure that no one knew his name.

Sure, the Elders and the people with access to the records of the compet.i.tion would know, but no one else would. For the crowd, for the thousands of people of the Outer Sect and for the disciples of the Inner Sect he would be a mystery and that was what Daniel wanted. He refused to play his father's game and let him profit from it.

It would be an empty victory. A dull one. Nothing but a childish move, but Daniel didn't mind. A victory over his father was a victory nonetheless. If this ruse could make his father knit his brows for even a second, it would have been worth it.

Because Daniel had grown to hate his father.

For the first time since he was born, he wished nothing but misery to one person.