504 Training with the Rhino

Yao Jia walked through the halls with a sprint on her steps. Along the way, Alex saw many beasts that seemed to be working there, and Yao Jia found 2 very strong ones among them to come along with her.

From Alex's senses, they were all in the upper True realms, all stronger than him and the 3 others that came with him by a lot. He wondered why they were called but didn't question it.

She growled something in her beastly language that Alex couldn't understand and the other two beasts nodded.

"What's going on?" Alex asked.

"Oh, I'm just getting these two to watch over the child as he trains. We don't want him to get injured, right?" Yao Jia said.

Alex nodded and agreed. She growled towards the beasts once more and pointed towards one of the rooms. The 4 of the beasts that were with them nodded and walked to the room. Alex assumed that was the training room and walked towards it as well.

"That's not the room you'll be going to," Yao Jia said. "That's where the child will train. You will have to train in another separate room."

"Oh, okay. Pearl, go and train with these guys okay? I will go to another room to train," he said.

"Meow?" Pearl said, not wanting to be left with the strangers.

"Don't worry, I will be close by. If you need me, just call me," Alex said. Pearl reluctantly agreed and went into the room.

"Alright, they will train there for at least an hour. You will be training in that room," Yao Jia said as she pointed at one of the rooms down the hallway.

"These are just normal rooms, right? Not rooms made specifically for training?" Alex asked.

"Yes, they're just rooms where the family lived. But even so, it all has formation in it that makes it damn near impossible for even me to do anything," Yao Jia said.

The door opened, and the three of them entered. The door was big enough for even the bulky Rhino to enter, and the room was just as equally large.

The room was totally empty aside from a set of curtains on the window. The room had been empty for so long that Alex couldn't even tell where everything was kept since the start.

Alex walked to the center of the room and recognized how wide it was. Although it wasn't the same size as the training hall back at his master's manor, it was still more than half of its size.

That was big enough for him to train freely.

"Whose room did this use to be? This is quite big," Alex said.

"Hmm, I don't know. No one has lived here for the last 5000 years, so I can't know. But it's more than likely it was either one of the King's partners or his children. Definitely one of those two. Although, it could also be a guest room. I don't know," Yao Jia said.

"So, are you ready? I want to see you train," she said with a jovial tone in her voice.

"Yes, I'm ready," Alex said. He walked away from the center and to one side of the room. He took out his sword and waited for the Rhino to get to the other side.

"Hey, Hey, Hey! What are you doing? Why are you bringing out a weapon?" Yao Jia asked.

"This is how I fight though," Alex said.

"But this isn't a fight. It's a training session. What if he gets hurt," Yao Jia said as he pointed towards the Rhino.

"Uh, I'm sure he had a tough hide. Also, I will try not to hit too hard," Alex said.

"No, if he gets injured from this fight, that will be on me. Can't you train with just normal techniques?" she asked.

"Um," Alex thought about it for a bit. He wanted to learn the sword to improve his Sword Intent, but it would be a bit too hard to train the intent itself under the current situation since his training partner wasn't that much stronger.

"Alright, I will fight without any weapons," Alex said in the end as he kept back his sword.

"Good, start when you want. I'm just here for the show," Yao Jia said.

Alex nodded and looked towards the Rhino before nodding towards him as well. "Alright, I'll begin then.

He said and lightly jumped towards the Rhino with his hands in a fist. The Rhino was plenty intelligent being in the Mind Tempering realm and immediately knew what to do.

It twisted its neck a little to the left with a smug look on its face, dodging the punch and bringing it back like a snapping rubber band, hitting Alex's upper body with the side of its head.

Alex lost balance as he was sent aside by the simple attack. "Alright," he said and stood up before going back to punch once more.

The Rhino made a scoffing noise as it thought that Alex was doing the same thing again and dodge once more. However, this time Alex didn't move a step further and immediately came to a halt after the Rhino moved its head.

His other fist came from the side and punched the Rhino directly on the nose below its horn. Once the Rhino was hit, Alex returned back to his spot, preparing to attack once more.

The Rhino shook its head as a slight stinging pain emanated from its nose. Despite the difference in cultivation, it had taken damage from Alex. It got a little irritated and decided to attack seriously now.

Alex dashed forward once more, but the Rhino didn't bother dodging at all. Instead, it also dashed forward at an incredible speed as its horn started glowing green in color.

Alex could see a barrier appear around the front of the Rhino, like a shield protecting the front side. However, the Rhino was using that shield to attack.

With the rhino already being massive, and the shield being even bigger than it, Alex didn't have much space to maneuver in. He wanted to teleport out, but the amount of light in the room wasn't enough to make any distinct shadows for him to teleport to.

So, with no other choice, he quickly started both of his defensive techniques. His skin started showing a marbled pattern, and a barrier made up of multicolored light appeared in front of him.

As the Rhino's barrier passed his own, the Rhino's barrier lost the majority of its green light and what slammed at Alex was only part of it.

A rather loud sound emerged from the two of them colliding, but neither of them was at an advantage during the clash.

The Rhino came to a full stop and Alex himself didn't move a bit.

"Ooh! That was nice. You use so many techniques all at once. I saw like 3. Those aren't memories of your parents right?" Yao Jia asked from the side.

"No, this is what we learn after training," Alex said. "We never get anything from the start."

Yao Jia thought for a bit and asked, "Can you teach me?"

"Um… I don't think so. I know there are techniques that you can learn, but I don't have any. I had looked through a few to teach Pearl, but all of them looked terrible. Maybe there are good ones in the sects that primarily focus on beast taming," Alex said.

"Sigh, that's unfortunate. Continue your training," Yao Jia said.

Alex nodded and got back to his training. Throughout the next half an hour, he showed many of the abilities he had that didn't require the use of a sword.

This also helped him realize that he was way too reliant on the sword itself. In the case, if he ever had to fight without a sword, his survival rate would go down by a lot.

'I need to become stronger even when I'm not using the sword,' he thought.

The training was hard, but Alex was also not using all of his abilities, so that could be improved upon.

The Rhino sent a gale of air flying towards him, which he dodged by moving around it with seemingly no resistance in the air.

He then very quickly went behind the Rhino and kicked at it. The Rhino bulked up until its body and got extra sturdy such that Alex's attack didn't do much damage to it at all.

Alex was about to go for another attack when Yao Jia suddenly spoke up. "Alright, that's enough," she said.

Alex stopped and turned around with a confused face. "But it's only been half an hour," he said. "Can't we do this for a little longer?"

"Oh, I'm not stopping the training session," Yao Jia said. "I'm just changing your partner."

"Changing my partner?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, I didn't expect his lack of maneuverability to be a factor in this training, but it seems you are getting a lot of hits off just because he isn't as flexible as you," Yao Jia said as she gestured towards the Rhino.

The Rhino said something in return while bowing his head, and Yao Jia replied in the same language that Alex couldn't understand.

She said something, to which the Rhino bowed once more and left out of the room.

"What did you say to him?" Alex asked.

"Oh, I just told him he was no longer needed here," Yao Jia said.

"I see," Alex said. "Should we go check on Pearl while we wait for my next partner then?" Alex asked.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. Your training partner is already here," Yao Jia said with a big smile.

Alex slowly turned his head towards her as a thought came to his mind. "Uhh… by my training partner, you don't mean… you, right?" he asked.

"Of course I mean myself. Who else could I be referring to?" she asked with a laugh.

"But you're so strong. Will this even be a training?" Alex asked.

"Oh, don't worry. I won't fight back at all," she said. "I'm way too eager to see how you fare against someone clearly out of your range."

Alex thought for a moment and said, "That's not a bad idea, honestly. I would love to fight someone strong so that I know where I'm failing. Also, I should be able to use my abilities without holding back at all"

"Right? You can also use your sword if you want. I can take those hits without a problem," Yao Jia said smugly.

"I would rather not use my sword right now. I would like to fight the best I can without any weapons," he said.

Yao Jia smiled and said, "Suit yourself. now come, let's train."