“You’re still far too rigid! You perform the forms much better in practice, why are you still struggling so much?” Marina sighed helplessly while leaning on the spear she’d used for this session.

Raul could only clench his teeth while taking his spot on the floor because he really didn’t know why. He’d spent the last five days getting his ass kicked and only received marginal improvements.

“Fine, I don’t really expect you to have an answer for that, but you should at least be able to tell me why you’re not using your offensive skills.” She narrowed her eyes at him.

Raul automatically avoided her sharp gaze. He actually did know the reason for that one.

He only every used the offensive techniques of the Four Seasonal Winds for zoning and mostly relied on the defensive and speed techniques instead.

“… Are you looking down on me?” A dangerous aura started leaking off her, yet Raul refused to look at her.

He wasn’t naïve enough to still worry about Marina’s safety when she was clearly much more skilled than him. He understood in his head that it was perfectly safe for him to fight all out against her.

But even so, he just couldn’t put his heart into it when striking at her. Even when he recalled all the bad and painful things she’d done to him he just couldn’t muster up any battle intent towards her.

On a side note, Marina had no trouble attacking him seriously. Even though she acted the same afterwards, he even detected a sense of refreshment from her after she was done beating him up. Not that it made him depressed at all, he was sure it was all just in his imagination anyhow…

‘Sigh, this isn’t working.’ Marina started massaging her temples. She’d picked a balanced technique like the Four Seasonal Winds because it would give her more insight into Raul’s style as a fighter and make creating his Dao Weapon easier later, but that intent was smashed by his irregular fighting.

She couldn’t collect any useful data when his fighting was so clearly below his actual level. Her serving as his sparring partner was a dead end.

“Here.” She tossed him a couple healing pills. “Take those and use the healing circulation, I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Hey wa-“ She was gone before he could get the words out. “Great.” He sighed in disappointment before taking the pills. Marina wasn’t the only one disappointed in his performance, he was pretty bummed about it himself.

The power of his forms in practice had improved by leaps and bounds, but once it came down to an actual battle he always felt like his body was being shackled by the forms. Like his mind wanted to move one way but the forms dictated he move another.

‘Ahhh, guess I’ll read a bit.’ He brought out the sealing book. He didn’t know if they’d be sparing as soon as she got back, so he didn’t want to use up his remaining qi that was already only a bit over half full.

Even though he was a bit down about it he was far from feeling hopeless about it. It’d only been five days, if his confidence was that easy to crack, he could’ve never endured his attempts to cultivate until he was twenty.

It was more than just hellish pain, the constant disappointment of never improving drove Raul to the edge of defeat countless times, but he’d persevered through it all. As far as he was concerned, this minor setback couldn’t even compare.

…

As usual, Marina didn’t have to go far before a guard stopped her. What was unusual was that she requested to be brought to Tai instead of calling him over.

What she needed could’ve honestly been asked over the mirror or through the guard, but she wanted a little space from Raul to cool her head. His refusal to use offensive moves irritated her much more than it should.

She didn’t want him to show kindness to her, it only made the trials she planned to put him through harder to execute.

Ordinarily the guard would be weary of such a request and ask for further instructions before acting, but Tai recently told them to be accommodating within reason, so it wasn’t long before Marina found herself sitting in a comfortable waiting room.

A few minutes passed before a shadow bloated up in the corner of the room and popped to reveal a cute, lithe girl, with long curly auburn hair.

“Tai’s a bit wrapped up right now, but I can help you with anything you need Marina.”  Ellen’s usually cheerful voice was tinged with a bit of nervousness.

She usually acted more professionally when she was on the job, but Tai specifically told her to be casual around Marina. Even though she had permission, she still felt like she was breaking some sort of taboo.

Luckily Marina was too entranced by her entrance to notice her nervousness. ‘A Shadow Attribute user!’ She was pleasantly surprised to find such a talented user of a rare attribute in the Vault Family.

Strings of Creation had a high sensory ability. The moment Ellen appeared from the shadows, Marina could tell she was in the higher levels of the Spirit Ascension Realm, the same realm Marina was before she abandoned her cultivation.

Though they were a similar age, the difference in resources between a prominent member of a continental household and a guard of a regional household was massive.

This display of talent and rare attribute immediately gave Marina ideas of nurturing her.

“Hello. I’m sorry, but I’m not sure we’ve met before.” Marina tilted her head quizzically at Ellen’s familiar use of her name. While she couldn’t quite pull off a smile the coldness that naturally surrounded her seemed to ease a bit.

“Ah!” Ellen realized her mistake. She’d technically seen Marina twice, once during the wedding, and again when Marina passed out, but Marina never saw her. That, and the months she’d spend digging into her background caused her to act overly familiar.

She ordinarily would’ve never made such a mistake, but being told to act casual in a situation where she normally wouldn’t was throwing her off her game.

“Sorry about that! I was called over the day you collapsed. Raul was super worried about you and talked a lot about your time together, so I guess I got a bit too familiar, ahahaha. Ah, my name is Ellen by the way.” Ellen smoothly explained away her blunder while introducing herself and attempting to score Raul some brownie points.

Ellen wasn’t dumb. She understood Tai’s intentions to strengthen Marina’s ties to the Vault Family. Whether Marina could become friends with her or grow closer to Raul, either would fulfill the goal.

Recognition and disappointment flitted through Marina’s eyes before being submerged by their usual frozen calm.

Raul mentioned Ellen quite a few times during their talks, so she knew Ellen’s bond with the Vault family was ironclad. Her plans of turning her into her right hand shattered before the could even fully form.

It was just her wishful thinking anyway. Given that Ellen was representing the young master of the Vault family, there was no way her talents were unrecognized. Even so, Marina still planned to provide some guidance.

Raul’s ties to the Vault Family were too strong, and she couldn’t be certain she’d get a chance to sever them. She didn’t even dare bring it up as it would immediately drive a huge wedge between them.

Her goals required Raul to have a strong organization at his back, and if she couldn’t get him to switch to a stronger one then she’d have to make the Vault Family as a whole stronger.

The Academy was the perfect place for her to gather fresh blood to empower and control the Vault Family. That said, she didn’t mind expending a little effort to grow the gifted members that already resided in the family.

“I understand, he can really be quite a chatterbox. Raul’s mentioned you a lot of times too, and I’m glad to finally meet you.” Marina nodded in recognition.

Ellen released the breath she was holding and said, “Thanks for your understanding Madam,” in a more formal tone. Rather than risk another blunder, she decided to switch to a more comfortable tone for the situation.  

Even excluding Marina’s own identity, Raul’s father was a powerful elder when he was alive, and the patriarch was his official guardian. Even though he had no actual power, his status was fairly high.

“Please, call me Marina. Since you’re friends with my husband I would love if we could be friends as well.”

“I would absolutely love that Marina.” Ellen smiled genuinely while switching back to her informal tone. She could barely contain her excitement at Marina’s response.

Ellen was over the moon not because she thought this was some miracle caused by her personal charm, but rather because she thought Marina understood Tai’s intentions and was showing her own intention to strengthen her bond with the Vault Family beyond Raul.

The two christened their new friendship by talking about minor matters for half an hour before circling back to the matter at hand.

“Sorry to take up so much of your time Ellen, I’d completely forgotten what I’d come here for.”

“Trust me, it’s fine. Talking to you is a lot more fun than organizing paperwork. In fact, if you could keep me all day, you’d be doing me a favor.” Ellen said seriously while shuddering at the thought of the unending paper pile.

There was a lot of preparations and transfers Tai needed to make to keep the place running while gone, at least until his father started working again. As his personal guard/secretary, this had Ellen dealing with enough papers to see them in her nightmares. She sincerely wished she was back out gathering information again.

Marina nodded thoughtfully and said, “I might take you up on that. The reason I came was that I need a sparring partner for Raul’s training.”

“Eh? If that’s all you need then I really can do it. I may not look it, but I’m pretty good at training.” Ellen puffed out her chest proudly.

“No, you won’t do.” Marina denied with zero hesitation.

“Wa, why!? I really am good at it you know? my profession is even Beast Master.” It was rare for a Qi Refining Realm cultivator to have a profession, but most Spirit Ascension cultivators with some cash in their pocket picked up one.

‘An advanced profession too.’ Marina filed this useful knowledge in her head while raising her evaluation of Ellen, but still firmly shook her head.

“I’m not questioning your abilities Ellen, it’s a problem with Raul. I need an opponent who’ll bring out his fighting intent and I think he’s too close to you for it to work.”

“I think you might be overthinking it…” Ellen mumbled. She’d won quite a few prank wars against Raul over the years, she was certain he nursed a grudge over some of them. But explaining that might make Raul look petty, so she didn't push her point.

Marina shook her head and held her hands together and string started to mix and mold between them. She pulled them apart and a portrait formed. “I don’t know his name, but this person is undoubtedly the best person to bring out Raul’s ferocity.”