Fenghuang Yu ordered the same meal as last time and felt the pleasant burn as she arrived home. The girls welcomed her with hugs and told her all about what they did while she was serving her punishment.

They knew by then that it was all fake so Yu talked about what she learned about the types of missions and all that. After the stories were complete, she grabbed Bai, who was asleep in his basket, and listened while the girls were sitting and talking about their first day of combat classes. As usual, Jao Li was the most vocal and talked about how boring it was just sitting there but then spoke of the end with passion. The tiny ball of energy even did a short demonstration, unasked, which involved wind gusts that caused the girls’ robes and hair to fly everywhere. Jao Lu was more subdued but still shared. Gui Ai had private lessons of some sort that she wouldn’t talk about, which none of them had a problem with. Yu shared about hers and also about her concerns regarding her skills. The other girls’ only advice was to either speak to her master or earn points really really fast. Yu begged off and went to bed with Bai then. She fed him and they both fell asleep on the bed.

The next day’s first class was, unfortunately, water with an unfamiliar Bao elder as the teacher. And to Yu’s dismay, there was another blue-haired student who took a dislike to Yu immediately upon entry. This elder was on the shorter and plumper side with his blue hair in a topknot that failed to hide his balding pate. He did and said nothing when the beautiful blue-haired girl, surrounded by a mix of girls and boys, sneered at Yu and said in a disdainful tone, “Oh look, it is our resident luminary.”

Yu ignored her and went to stand with the others. Not getting a response was apparently not acceptable because she said, “Oh. Are you too good for us then? We too far below your mightiness”

Yu looked at her curiously and tilted her head to the side, still saying nothing.

“What? Nothing to say, oh mighty cultivator?”

Grandma Huan taught Yu about all kinds of people and personalities. People like this annoying girl thrived on attention and recognition. Thus Yu, still looking at her curiously, asked, “Who are you again?”

The girl’s face reddened and she answered with a returned sneer. “I’m Bao Meimei.”

Yu bowed her head slightly and said. “I’m Fenghuang Yu.”

Her face that was already turning red darkened further. “I know who you are, obviously. We all do.”

Yu looked curiously on and said, “Oh. Were you talking to me before then?”

“Of course I was!” Bao Meimei was stiff and clenching her fists.

Yu nodded and said politely, “Well, since you hadn’t referred to me by my name I assumed you were talking to someone else. It is only polite to introduce one’s self when speaking. I didn’t realize you had such poor manners. I figured one raised in a family as. . . prestigious. . . as yours would have been raised with basic courtesy.” Then Yu shrugged. “Ah well. We all know better now. Thank you Disciple Bao Meimei for enlightening me and the rest of the class on what to expect when speaking with you in the future.”

The rest of the class had been moving their heads between us but at my last statement, there were some hisses, whispers, and chuckles. On the other hand, halfway through her statement, the girl was shaking she was so angry. By the end she was glowing blue and Yu was staring at her with a raised eyebrow.

A roar sounded and the elder stepped forward, causing everyone to send down. Elder Bao Shi (the mysterious uncle that was going to intervene in the mission center?) gave a similar set of instructions as with the other classes except speaking about how water was all about flow and motion. He pretty much ignored Yu until he realized she hadn’t raised her hand for any of his questions about skills.

He spoke in a derisive tone when he asked, “Do you have any Water Affinity Skills, Disciple?”

Yu bowed and said, “Yes elder, but they are all Mana. I currently do not have any Aura skills in the Water Affinity.”

His lip curled and snorted. “Leave this class and not return until you have the proper skill.”

Yu blinked at him, surprised. That was a pretty extreme response. “Elder, please reconsider. I can still participate in everything except the combat exercises until I have a skill. I can use the Mana skills to study and optimize my Qi as the other disciples are doing.”

He glared at her and yelled, “Who do you think you are, questioning me? Get out of my class!”

Yu bowed stiffly and left. His lack of reason should not have been a surprise, but it was. She could have stayed and still learned. He was intentionally putting her behind and stifling her growth.

She angrily decided two hours was too much to waste so she headed to the courtyard to practice by herself with a Mana skill. There was no reason for her to leave and come back for her next class just because of that pompous ass.

When Yu found her way there, she was surprised again. Unlike Fire Mountain which was a flat ash-covered, blackened, and cracked ground, in front of her were shallow pools of white stone seemingly naturally carved by the flow of the water. It poured in from a small stepped waterfall and offered a pleasantly peaceful environment to simply rest and meditate. The same twenty practice dummies were set up similarly. Yu ignored them and sat at the edge of the pool, watching the water flow and listening to it bubble. She breathed and tried to let go of her angst and anger at her last teacher. Yu was determined to not let herself fall behind. She raised her hand and called forth a fingernail-sized ball of water from the pool using her only non-healing Water skill, the Mana-powered Water Control. It was a very limited skill in that the water had to start and stay very close to her, moved slowly and the mana increased at a rate greater than the growth of the size of the construct.

Yu spent the next hour the same as she did with Fire, trying to understand and study her Qi. She still couldn’t understand what her teachers were saying about the Qi resembling their affinities, but she kept trying. As with the Fire Summoning skill, Yu had to stop and gather Qi occasionally to keep going. She did until she heard voices and many footsteps approaching. She looked over to see her previous class coming for the combat portion of the class. Yu stood and turned to head to the far door, prepared to leave.

“You’re not allowed here anymore. Get lost,” said a familiar sneering voice from behind Yu.

She stopped and turned back at Bao Meimei’s sneering face only two paces away. “You can’t order me around. Go bother one of the sycophants who cares what you say or think.” Then Yu turned her back to the girl and started to walk away, as was her intention from the beginning.

“Disciple Yu, why are you here?” That came from the elder.

Yu turned back again and said, “Elder, I was working to view and understand my Water Affinity Qi so I can grow.”

“This area is only available to students of a current class.”

Yu nodded and said, “I understand that, elder. That is why I was practicing. I will have an Aura skill for Water in the future after all.”

He glared at her and said, “Get out. You are disturbing my class.”

Yu bowed and left. He knew his class was not her only one here so he couldn’t forbid her from using the space. But he could stop her from using it while his class was there so she left willingly. Truthfully, she didn’t wish to disturb the other cultivators trying to grow any more than he did.

Yu headed to where her Mana class was supposed to be. She was early so she simply waited and meditated, restoring her Qi from her earlier practice. Thankfully, neither the elder nor any students were Bao’s, although she assumed Bao Qing would have been in there had she not broken him. Yu received what she was getting used to as the normal level of attention, but otherwise it was a good class.

It baffled her, and other students, how to use the Water Control skill as an offensive tool resulting in the teacher admitting it really couldn’t be used that way. She was a young woman, barely appearing in the mid-20s in mortal years, and shared that few grade 1 Water Mana skills could be used offensively.

It turned out the one Bao Qing used in their match was grade 2, incredibly inefficient, had a low meridian ceiling, and was considered more of a training tool that wasn’t truly deadly to even weak demonic beasts. He was such an idiot.

Yu met the girls for lunch, spent some time with Bai who still refused to eat anything but her Qi, and headed to the Earth Mountain. Unsurprisingly, a large stone door blocked the way and let her pass by sliding down and vanishing into the stone floor. The buildings on that mountain were entirely stone and dirt. Her classroom wasn’t so much a room as it was a cave and the instructor, Elder Ying, was a gruff old man who somehow seemed hard as a rock while leaning slumped over a cane and banging it on the ground every once in a while. He was what Yu figured Grandma Huan would be as a man.

Elder Ying described Earth Qi as you might expect stone to be, solid and unforgiving. Again, Yu made no progress on visualizing her Earth Affinity Qi’s unique nature but she did enjoy the beating she gave the target dummy while encased in the Earthen Armor. That earned her a few points since she caused the most damage out of the disciples.

Her mana class was similar but with a younger teacher and using Stone Spike. Yu performed close to the same as the rest of the class, which was ok in her mind as she had drained a lot of her Qi in the prior class. She really needed to learn to manage that. Maybe her brother would have an idea.