CHAPTER 2

After using his eyes, he discovered the difference without trouble. Those martial cultivators all had one more organ. Fortunately, Mir had trained his eyes and controlled them perfectly now. More than just seeing through everything, he was also able to comprehend it all. The name of this organ and all kinds of information related to it entered his brain as if it had always been there. This organ was named as the Core. It was under the heart and existed to stock the martial power of an individual. It was close to the heart so that using the veins, the core could send the martial power through one’s body. It was very fascinating. Thus, Mir was amazed by this organ. After a day of looking for an inn, he had observed many different cultivators, be they young or old. He found out that there were many realms and levels of cultivators. There were also many ways for one to temper with this core. However, when he arrived at the inn and looked at himself through a mirror, he discovered he had no core… Just like his dad and the other farmers. It made him experience the sadness of reality once more. There are things one will have from the start while others will only be able to dream of it till the end without ever grasping it. He felt dispirited. Seeing that, his father took him outside for a night stroll. Of course, Boras didn’t know the reason Mir was feeling down but as his father, he wanted him to be happy. So, experiencing the bustling night of the festival couldn’t be too bad. They walked and laughed and enjoyed the atmosphere for hours. And, at a time, they stumbled across something rare. An ‘awakening’. A little girl around seven years old was growing a core. That’s when Mir learnt that everyone was born without a core and it only appeared later. as for when it appeared, it was random. Or was it? Through his eyes, Mir observed the phenomenon. Even after an hour, he refused to go back so his father decided to let him watch a bit longer. After all, his son’s eyes were shining like never before. And he was smiling more than ever. Of course, such an event was bound to attract a crowd but not that many people were interested. Most of them had already seen and admired such a sight previously. Not Mir. And compared to them, he could comprehend it to the utmost level. After thirty more minutes, a bright light shone from the little girl’s body and the awakening had ended. She now passed the requirements to cultivate. Everyone around showed her smiles and congratulated her. It wasn’t much to become a martial cultivator in the crowd’s mind. After all they were inside a martial school right now and an important one. But it was still a joyous event. And the little girl was quite happy about it as well. Then, Mir, stood up and walked out from the crowd to the girl. Then he bowed and said: “Thank you for letting me witness your awakening”. Then he walked back to his father and they returned to their inn. It left the little girl quite awkward. While receiving a few applauses for it was ordinary, this little kid younger than her had been so courteous it was a bit of a shock. But she soon forgot about it and bathed into the joy of awakening with her parents. It was a time to party.

After going back to the inn, Mir didn’t go to sleep. He went out of the room and went to hide in a locker room of the inn. Then, he began his work. He decided to awaken. Right now. He grasped the way to turn this random luck into a sure happening. His eyes had seen through it. He stripped and started to draw on his naked body with some pencils he found around. He traced strange symbols all over his body. He had no idea what they meant nor their use but he knew the combination of it all would awaken his core. It was a scriptural formation called the ‘Awakening Origin Formation’. It was something present inside the DNA of every martial cultivator. They were most likely descendants of a previous cultivator and so on. However, the first ones used the scriptural formation. It meant that what Mir was doing was akin to tampering with his DNA and directly twisting fate. He was forcibly integrating the scripture DNA inside himself. And sure enough, once he had finished writing everything, it started. For one hour and a half, he was struggling on the ground subject to atrocious pain. It felt as if he was being crushed repetitively in the chest by a very strong pressure. He spitted blood many times from his small and frail body. Then, he passed out. He woke up the next morning with a small pain in the heart section of his body. Looking down, he used his eyes and discovered that it worked. He had managed to forcefully develop a core for himself. Overjoyed he jumped around for some time and then went back to his room in the inn. He was lucky no one found out about what happened during the night.

As soon as he entered the room, his father took him in his arm, he was on the verge of crying. Then, an elderly man laughingly said:

“See? What did we tell you Boras? The kid would come back. You probably just went to the bathroom right kiddo?

-Ah…Yeah.”

After getting ready, they decided to go out. The genius tournament would go on for a whole three-weeks’ time and it is not like they had enough money to assist to every match…So, during the day, they would go and enjoy the festivities around. There are many events held all around in the mountain to entertain the guests that came from far and couldn’t buy a ticket for the day’s matches. It was also to liven up things and the school itself was going to reward the disciples who would create the most entertaining event so there were many things to do. The group was going to go their separate ways for the day and they would meet up later for dinner. It was still morning and Boras asked Mir:

“So, Mir, what do you want to do? The Air Pool maybe? Or, the sandcastle?

-Can I see the pamphlet for today’s activities?

-Sure, here you go Mir.”

Every day, the inn would receive pamphlets to distribute. On them, the activities proposed for the day would be written. And from there, one could decide on where to go. Mir looked at the pamphlet:

GENIUS TOURNAMENT 3rd DAY

Activities Planning

Casino Games : Be rich! – Zone 3, Allegiance Group Casino

Astral Divination : Discover your fate early ! – Zone 5, Star seeker’s Café

Martial Bowling : Using a boulder and trees to bowl, come join us ! [Rank 1, fifth realm minimum] – Outside zone, East Gate

Waterfall Diving Contest : Enjoy the dive ! [Rank 1, second realm required] – Outside zone, North Gate

MARTIAL QUIZ : Great prizes ! – zone 2, herbalist group Maple tavern

…

Mir only looked through the first activities mentioned. There was no need to go further. He had already made his choice: the casino. When he was in his world, he always loved to play cards and betting was always enjoyable. However, as soon as he turned around and saw his father’s smile he remembered.

“Oh, that’s right, in this life, I’m starting as a poor sap… Can’t go to the casino with no money…Then…Let’s see…”

In the end, one must start with something small. After looking through all the morning activities, Mir ended up making a new choice. And this time, he turned around with a grin on his face. Then he said to his father :

“Let’s go do the Martial Quiz !”

His father was stunned for a moment. Then, he scratched his head and looked at the pamphlet himself. He looked at the price of entering the contest…He sighed. It was a lot of money to him. He hoped his son would go for something free. But when he was faced with the cute smile of his child, he could only give up. He wouldn’t eat today… He smiled in return, took his son’s hand and said :

“Let’s go, Mir”

It took them one hour and a half to reach the Maple Tavern where the quiz would be hosted. The Imposing thunder mountain school had a vast territory. And even though this was just the outer zone of the school, it was immense. They still managed to arrive on time and register for the quiz. It was obviously organized by disciples from the Imposing Thunder Mountain School. They were wearing their brown robe with the yellow lightning on the back and looked very amiable. What’s more, all the disciples from the Maple Tavern had an armband with a green leaf on it. One of the disciples stopped Mir and his father at the entrance of the tavern and smiling, he asked them :

“Would you be perhaps interested in participating in our Martial Quiz ?

-Yes, we saw it on the pamphlet.

“Really ? That’s great ! Welcome ! So, it’s free for children under nine so you don’t have to pay little boy ahah and for you, uncle, it would be one silver coin please.

-…Here.

-Thank you ! Just wait a second please !”

Mir couldn’t do as if he did not see the reluctance on his old man’s face when he handed the silver coin. It was a lot of wealth to a farmer. A whole week of work disappeared just like that… Mir had lived for a long time but he was never poor. When he became poor, he didn’t even bother trying and ended his life after all. However, right now, as a child, he was seeing his father being poorer than poor. It was heart tearing. He swore he would get back his father’s money. After a few seconds, the disciple came back and handed Boras a small sign with the number fifty-five on it. Then he led us to a table with a few guests and sat down with us, the table was full. There were ten people at the table and only one disciple out of them. The disciple started speaking :

“Good morning again everyone and welcome to the Maple Tavern. First, let me introduce myself. My name is Gabot. I am obviously a disciple of the Imposing Thunder Mountain school. An outer disciple to tell the truth. You probably already know this but the school authorize the disciples to form groups and compete. During this genius tournament, for us who can’t participate, the school organized a group competition. The ones making the greatest events are rewarded. And so, here you are going to participate at such an event ! We are the Herbalist Group and you are here inside our tavern, the Maple tavern ! That’s about it for the introduction. Is there someone with a question regarding what I said ?”

Gabot was quite young. Around thirteen years old. He was quite the excited type and it felt like he was a warm person. He seemed like a nice kid and he was enthusiastic. His introduction was also more than enough to get Mir a better understanding of the situation. It seemed like Boras was also quite excited about it all. However, an old man sitting in front of the kid asked him :

“Kid, your Herbalist Group, what’s his rank in the Group Rankings ?

“Ah, senior, that’s…”

The kid furrowed his brows for a time, then smiled again and started :

“Senior, I don’t think everyone here is as knowledgeable as you so let me first explain the Group Rankings to all. It is simply a system to class the groups depending on their powers. There are two classification. One for outer disciple’s groups and one for inner disciple’s group. As of now, there are millions of disciples in the Imposing Thunder Mountain school. Most of them are in the outer zone and they are outer disciples. Because there are so many people, there are also many groups. Because there are too many groups, the ranking only goes down to fifty. So, only the fifty greatest groups are part of the rankings. Unfortunately, our Herbalist Group isn’t one of them. We’re only a small group composed of plants lovers. We have 53 members from the outer zone and two from the inner zone but it is not enough to take part in the competition to enter those rankings.”

The kid was depicting it as if it was incredible to be part of the fifty first groups. And considering the number of disciples, it might just be like that. After the disciple had spoken, the old man didn’t say anything. It was obvious he had a look of contempt in his eyes. He probably didn’t put the kid in his eyes anymore. The kid might have felt it and he was rather awkward but he soon came back to life and continued with a smile :

“Now, I will tell you all about what the quiz is and its rules ! at the entrance, I gave you a sign with a number. When you have the answer to the question, you need to place that sign on top of the stone in front of your seats. It will light up and synch with the stone over there on the scene. The stone on the scene will display the number from the fastest one to place his plate on the rock and he will be able to give an answer. If he fails, the stone will display the number of the second fastest and so on until we have the right answer ! As to what the questions will be… You will all see when it starts ! But please, remain calm and make sure you don’t offend anyone, it is a fair competition after all ! … We should start in an hour so let’s wait until then. You can order any drinks you’d like, it’s free during the event!”