Chapter 50

The next morning.

“Why does class have to be so early?” Finn muttered as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. He seldom got up this early, so he was exhausted, his normal enthusiasm nowhere to be seen.

“There’s no helping it.” Zairen rubbed his eyes tiredly as well. Although Finn was tired because of the early time, Zairen was used to getting up this early - this tiredness was a rare occurrence. The previous night, he hadn’t gotten much sleep.

As he thought about why, he involuntarily blushed. In the new suite that they had stayed in, there were three beds, so instead of sharing one bed, Zairen and Alivia had slept on separate beds. The embarrassing thing was, he had actually gotten so used to Alivia’s comfortable embrace at night that suddenly not having it, he found it hard to fall asleep.

Alivia glanced at Zairen puzzedly. She understood why Finn was tired, since he didn’t often get up from bed early. However, Zairen routinely woke up early in the morning. Why was he so tired? Did he have trouble sleeping?

Sensing Alivia’s curious gaze, Zairen only tightened up more and made sure to avoid eye contact.

“Well, I’m excited,” Alivia spoke enthusiastically. “I wonder how class is going to be like.”

The previous day, after getting the brief tour from Jannie, they had traveled back to the apartment, packed their stuff, and then moved into their room at the school. After that, they had spent some time casually socializing with the other students in the gymnasium before heading back to their new room and going to bed.

Now, the three walked down the hall from their room and up the stairs, toward the training gymnasium. They were on their way to attend their first class at Black Cloud School.

Arriving at the third floor, they walked into the gymnasium.

“Oh, if it isn’t the new students!” Headmaster Yuan’s cheerful booming voice rang out. “You’re a bit late, but welcome to class!”

Headmaster Yuan was standing in the middle of the gymnasium in front a large roll-out writing board. In front of him, seated in one row, were the five original students, all sitting cross-legged on meditation mats. On cue, the seated students turned and enthusiastically waved towards the three new arrivals. “Welcome!”

Among them was Horace, who gave a cheeky grin toward Finn. Seeing this, Finn immediately grinned back and gave a thumbs up, and the two shared a playful moment. Also among them was Yinry, who made eye contact with Alivia and smiled. It seemed that the two pairs had already become friends.

The three new students walked forward and took seats behind the original students.

“Alright, let class commence! With the new students, I feel we should go over the basics,” Headmaster Yuan began with a smiling face. “Although everyone else has already heard it for the most part, it should be a helpful refresher for you guys too. I’ve also updated this lecture to make it much more comprehensive.”

From his jittery pace and great vigor, everyone could tell he had prepared well and was anxious to teach to the best of his ability. Today was the start of a new reinvented Black Cloud School! He felt a new reinvigorated motivation to teach, one that he hadn’t felt in three years.

Everyone nodded and began to closely pay attention.

Headmaster Yuan picked up a small piece of chalk and began to draw on the board. A recognizable shape gradually took form: the figure of a person. Although rough and rudimentary, it was easily recognizable.

“So… starting from the beginning.” Headmaster Yuan cleared his throat. “Since the dawn of human existence, some of us humans have been blessed to have and be able to manipulate what’s called spirit energy. About one in ten people are born with this ability. This ability is hereditary, but many people with limited ancestry have also developed it randomly. All of us here are lucky to have it, and should treasure it, as well as use it to help others who may not have this blessing.”

“This spirit energy has proven to be extremely useful: with the right methods and training, people can use it to do miraculous things. Incredible abilities to attack, defend, increase speed, increase strength, manipulate the elements, heal others, manipulate time, and even manipulate the very fabric of reality itself are all possible.”

There were several audible gasps among the students.

Headmaster Yuan smiled knowingly. “That’s right. All those things are possible! We think we know the limits of spirit energy, but time after time we are proven wrong. It’s incredibly miraculous.”

He turned toward the board and drew a small oval near the stomach area of the figure of a person. Then, he drew vein-like lines originating from this oval to all over the body.

“This spirit energy is gathered in what’s called the dantian, near the stomach area of the human body.” He tapped the oval in the human figure he had drawn. “This dantian is extremely important, and must be heavily defended. It stores nearly all of the body’s source of spirit energy. Any injury to it can be fatal.”

He paused and looked meaningfully over the students, emphasizing his point.

“Then, from the dantian, the spirit energy is channeled through specialized ethereal channels to the twelve main meridians, which collectively transform it into a form that the body can use.” He eyed his students with a questioning gaze. “Can anyone remind me what these main meridians are?”

“Lungs, liver, heart, heart protector, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, tissue network, spleen, kidney, bladder, and gallbladder!” Horace blurted out.

“Good!” Headmaster Yuan praised. “Remember, these twelve meridians are all extremely important… Any major injury to any of them can completely ruin the body’s spirit energy channeling system, causing one to lose the ability to channel it at all.”

As he spoke, his eyes suddenly dropped, as if he was remembering something sad.

“These inner injuries are pretty much impossible to cure. Since they are inner organs, they are incredibly hard to treat.” Headmaster Yuan gave a rueful smile. “So be careful, especially with your cultivation. If you push yourself too hard, you could injure yourself.”

Everyone seemed to sense the mood, and the room turned silent.

“Anyways, moving on.” Headmaster Yuan cleared his throat. “Most of this spirit energy is externally channeled through the hands during use, as it’s the most easily accessed external body part and is usually the most useful. However, it can be channeled out from any place on the body, although possibly less efficiently. Commonly, people train to be able to channel it from out of the feet as well, to increase dexterity.”

Everyone nodded. This made sense - they all used their hands instinctively to channel their spirit energy, and by channeling from the feet, they could increase speed and change directions easier.

“There are many different types of spirit energy. Although nearly everyone has elementless spirit energy, some are born with the ability to gather spirit energy of a specific elemental type - an elemental spirit affinity. These people are extremely rare: they number about one in every fifty thousand spirit energy cultivators, and those who have strong elemental spirit affinities are even rarer. Can someone tell me what some of these different elemental affinities are?”

“Ooh, me!” Horace hurriedly raised his hand. However, this time, he was less confident. “Um… Earth, water, wind, fire, lightning… gold…uh… there are countless other basic ones. As for the special ones… uh...” Rubbing his forehead, he started to trail off, clearly having a lapse in his memory. “Um… I know them.”

“Light, dark, chaos, and nether,” Yinry’s voice rang out, cutting Horace off.

“Good!” Headmaster Yuan smiled at Yinry. “That’s correct.”

“Not fair!” Horace turned to glare at Yinry and instantly began to whine. After thinking for a moment, he had another outburst. “You know that? Those don’t count. No one knows anyone who possesses them. They might not even be real.”

Headmaster Yuan smiled humorously and gave a little shrug.

In truth, Horace’s words had some credence to them. Even he, a headmaster who had lived for many decades, had never witnessed anyone who had possessed one of those four mythical spirit affinities. Apparently, they were so powerful that not even other spirit affinities could match up. However, this was knowledge that had been established by ancient experts much more knowledgeable than him, so he didn’t dare doubt it.

“Anyway, let’s continue on,” he promptly continued, commanding the attention of the class once again. “There is a reason these people who possess spirit affinities are so envied and considered geniuses. With the ability to control spirit energy of a specific element, they have the potential to be much more powerful and have much more versatile and unique abilities. Furthermore, with their purer spirit energy, they also commonly progress much faster than normal.”

“Alright, now I have a question for you all. I’ve talked a lot about spirit energy all this time, but does anyone know what spirit energy actually is? What is it composed of, and how do we use it?” He looked toward the students with a questioning gaze.

‘Hm?’ Everyone was a bit surprised.

‘What it actually is?’ They suddenly found that they had never actually thought about this. Spirit energy was so ubiquitous that it almost seemed like air.

“It seems that none of you have a clue.” Headmaster Yuan chuckled. “The truth is, I don’t know either! Neither do the experts at big famous schools. Spirit energy has been a mystery to people for an extremely long time. Although some experts can guess and may have some more insight than me, no one really knows for sure. Isn’t that amazing? We’ve been using it for thousands of years for so many things, but we don’t have a clear idea of what it actually is!”

“Whoa…” All the students were stunned. Spirit energy was still a mystery? After all this time and so many experts?

“Well, we have some clues, right?” Zairen spoke up.

A bit startled, Headmaster Yuan looked puzzedly at Zairen. This was the first time Zairen had spoken. “What do you mean?”

“Well, we have some clues as to its nature, don’t we?” Zairen continued. “In fact, what you said earlier wasn’t entirely correct. You said one in ten people have spirit energy, but in fact, everyone has spirit energy, don’t they? Everyone has a dantian, the ethereal channels, and the twelve meridians - they’re a basic part of anatomy. In everyone, spirit energy gathers in the dantian. The only difference is that nine out of ten people are unable to transform it into a form the body can consciously use.”

Everyone listening opened their mouth agape. Was this true?

“Since it exists in everyone, and any injury to the dantian can be completely fatal, even to supposedly normal people, we can extrapolate that it is extremely important to human life. Without it, humans can’t live long, and every human has it. It’s as essential as blood. Furthermore, spirit energy has a strengthening and healing effect in all humans, not only in ones who can manipulate it freely.”

He paused to look up at everyone, who was staring at him in an amazed fashion. “With all this information, what do you suppose the true nature of spirit energy is?”

Everyone was silent, and looked puzzledly at each other. With this new information, what was it?

Even Headmaster Yuan seemed puzzled.

“It’s life energy,” Zairen stated. “Spirit energy is life energy. That’s what it seems to be, right? It’s present in all nature and life. It’s essential for life, really. Life itself is extremely versatile, varying, and miraculous, just like spirit energy is. Doesn’t this indicate that spirit energy could be the source of life itself?”

“...whoa…” Everyone was amazed as they all had revelations. This explanation made a lot of sense, and almost had a profound feeling to it, as if it was a divine truth.

“Not only that, but we have evidence that the existence of spirit energy is ancient, and dates back to before even the first signs of primitive life, billions of years ago. It may have been created alongside the creation of the universe itself!” Zairen made a few grand gestures with his hands. “Couldn’t this mean that spirit energy is the basis of life? All life itself may have originated from spirit energy. Spirit energy is the origin of life!”

Everyone stared at Zairen with wide eyes.

Spellbound, they were completely spellbound! This explanation just seemed to have an ethereal ring to it, like it was a complete truth, a law of the world. They all felt a tingling in their body, like they had an advancement in their wisdom.

“How do you know all this?” Headmaster Yuan asked a bit dazedly. Was this boy really seven years old? He spoke so eloquently and beautifully!

“Some of it was taught to me, some of it is from observations I’ve made,” Zairen explained casually. “But it’s important to remember, this is just an interpretation - it’s not necessarily correct. I don’t have proof to back it up, and others could absolutely prove me wrong. It’s only a hypothesis. It’s important to keep an open mind with these things. Only that way can you truly come close to uncovering the secrets of the universe!” Zairen spoke passionately, his eyes burning with a fiery energy.

“...amazing…!” Everyone seemed to be influenced by his passion and get pumped up as well.

Their opinion of Zairen was immediately drastically shaped. They had not known him well before, as he had not talked much, and had just assumed he was a quiet, talented little child, having awakened his spirit energy so young. After hearing these incredibly wise words, however, they automatically started to unconsciously respect him more.

Someone so young and so wise, he couldn’t be ordinary!

“Wowwww!” At that moment, Madam Sue’s sarcastic voice rang out in Zairen’s head. “How insightful. How passionate. That’s my type of man.”

Zairen’s eye twitched.

Inwardly, however, Madam Sue looked at Zairen with a bit of surprise. Although she had put on an indifferent front, in reality, she was actually impressed - it seemed Zairen was more knowledgeable than she had expected.

“As expected of my master!” Finn exclaimed, turning and looking worshippingly at Zairen. “So wise and insightful!”

Zairen only glanced a bit exasperatedly back at Finn. Why use that term?

“Hm?” Listening to Finn, Horace was surprised. He turned toward him and curiously asked: “Master? Brother Finn, he’s your master? But he’s younger than you!”

“Don’t be misled by that, brother Horace,” Finn responded matter-of-factly. “Zairen doesn’t advertise himself much, but he’s much wiser and more powerful than any of us!”

“Really?” Horace glanced over at Zairen.

He had seemed like just an ordinary little boy.

However, after hearing Zairen’s incredibly insightful addition to the conversation, he suddenly felt that Finn’s words probably had some truth to them.

“That’s enough,” Zairen spoke calmly. “I’m sorry for talking so long. We should let Headmaster Yuan continue.”

Everyone nodded and then quickly turned their attention back to Headmaster Yuan. This lecture was so interesting!

“Alright. Now where was I…” Headmaster Yuan picked up where he left off.

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Headmaster Yuan went on to lecture for another hour about spirit energy, the body, and basic training methods.

After he had finished, he assigned all the students to stay in the gymnasium to practice training with the methods he had described.

“Wow! That was great,” Finn exclaimed as he sat cross-legged on a meditation mat. “I feel like I’ve learned so much.”

“Yeah, I shouldn’t have doubted him,” Alivia added on, also sitting on a meditation mat next to him. “He was a great teacher, and so knowledgeable. I can’t wait until next class!”

Zairen smiled. He was glad he had judged right: Headmaster Yuan was not to be underestimated. Truthfully, he was also surprised at how good Headmaster Yuan was at teaching. His teachings had a sort of intriguing “storyline” to them that kept everyone engaged. Furthermore, everything he taught was very useful and had little inconsistencies - his tireless effort had shown through. It was a very ideal beginner lecture.

“Master,” Finn suddenly waved his hand in Zairen’s face, getting his attention. His face was excited, like he was about to reveal something amazing. “I’ve been wanting to show you. You haven’t been paying as much attention to us lately, but I’ve been working hard. Do you want to see my progress?”

“Hm?” Zairen looked over at Finn curiously. What was this about?

Holding his hand out, Finn closed his eyes. A moment later, some activity started to appear in his palm, a steady flow of earth affinity spirit energy appearing.

A few moments later, the earth affinity spirit energy began to consolidate, slowly solidifying in the form of a small cloud. A few more moments later, a small, intricate clay cloud figure had formed.

“What do you think, master?” Finn smiled widely. “I’ve been working on my control as you’ve said. See what I can do now?”

“...wha…” Zairen’s mouth gaped open. He stared wide-eyed at the clay cloud.

He didn’t know how this little genius could have shocked him more, after the first time, but he just had.

A few days, that was it. Only a few short days, and Finn had already progressed this far - now, he could not only solidify his spirit energy, but create such a detailed figurine? Back then, he had only been able to channel his spirit energy a little bit. Now, he could make a fully formed detailed cloud figure?

What was this situation?

Seeing Finn capturing Zairen’s attention, Alivia suddenly piped up too, slapping Zairen on the back to get his attention as well. “You think that’s anything? Watch this!”

Alivia was now also holding out her hand and channeling her spirit energy. A few moments later, surging amounts of fire affinity spirit energy began to manifest in her palm, forming small, controlled flames. Then, the flames began to swirl and whirl around, forming a coordinated pattern.

At this moment, some of the other children in the gymnasium noticed the flash of light.

“Whoa! What’s that?!”

A loud commotion began, the students stopping their meditation and running over. Soon enough, everyone had gathered around the new students.

“Oh this?” Alivia glanced down at the swirling flames in her palm and giggled giddily. “This is just…”

She paused for dramatic effect, panning her fierce gaze around at the crowd.

“My fire affinity spirit energy!”

This was her grand reveal, the start of her legacy! After listening to Headmaster Yuan’s lecture, she now fully understood how much of a blessing her spirit affinity was, and couldn’t wait to show it off!

“Hah?!” The original students let out shocked cries, their eyes bulging. “F-f-fire… fire spirit affinity?!”

What?!

All of them were completely and utterly mind-boggled.

Fire spirit affinity? The term was almost foreign to them. It was completely out of left field!

Even seeing the flame, many of them legitimately thought that they were hallucinating.

They had all casually ran over just to check out something interesting... but this was much more than they had bargained for!

“Hey!” Finn frowned and aggressively elbowed Alivia, trying to move her out of the way - she was hogging all of the attention!

“Look at me! I have a spirit affinity too! Earth spirit affinity!” He raised his hands up. A moment later, a puff of flowing earth energy shot out.

Poof.

It was brown, like a turd.

“E-earth energy!!!” The children screamed out again. Horace was especially shocked, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head.

Yet before they had time to process their shock, Alivia was capturing their attention once again, wielding flames swirling around each other in intricate designs. “Mine’s better!”

She made a movement, and the flames neatly danced in a checkerboard pattern.

Fuoosh!

Not to be outdone, Finn immediately screamed back. “No, mine’s better!”

Poof! Poof!

He promptly sent out more puffs of earth affinity spirit energy.

Everyone’s heads darted back and forth as if they were on swivels. There was a constant light show - there was too much to look at!

Truly, they were inundated. Even their breaths had stopped.

It was like if you suddenly gave an impoverished youth that was worrying about their next meal a wagon of pure gold bars. They wouldn't even know what to do with themselves. The disparity was just too large, and there was way too much at once!

A split second later, their attention landed on Alivia and they instinctively exclaimed out: “Dragon!”

In Alivia’s palm, the indistinguishable figure of a fire dragon had formed, with a fully formed head, mouth, and wings.

Zairen stared on with wide eyes. The flame dragon was detailed. With all the flame parts of it dynamically burning, it almost seemed alive.

“That’s not all!” Alivia smiled knowingly. She twitched her palm a bit, and the dragon suddenly became animated, its wings moving! The next moment, it rose in the air and began to fly, flapping its wings rigorously.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Alivia moved her hand around, and although a bit rickety, the dragon immediately began to move, picking up speed and dipping and weaving in the air. Soon enough, it was gliding in between all the students.

Everyone was completely spellbound at this display, dazedly following this little fire dragon around with their eyes. No one paid attention to Finn.

“Alivia! You... you show-off!” Finn pouted, completely fuming. He panickedly attempted to regain everyone’s attention. “Guys… guys! Look at me! Look at me, guys! I’m just as good!”

He made a determined face. “Earth energy… SPRAY!!!”

Raising his hands, he began pumping out large amounts of earth spirit energy, obnoxiously spraying it around as if it was a hose. Brown misty matter filled the air, clouding everyone’s breathing space.

It was just like Finn - in your face and obnoxious. Just by being near him, you would have to breath some of him in.

Unperturbed and smirking, Alivia continued her flashy show, knowing it was more eye catching.

After continuing for another few moments, she closed her hand into a fist. Her dragon paused in the air and then dissipated.

She looked around and smiled.

At this moment, Finn was still haphazardly shooting earth spirit energy all over the place. Noticing Alivia had stopped, he shot out one last brown blob before lowering his hands.

Silence.

Everyone around them were standing still as statues, mouths completely gaping. Had they just imagined that display? What was going on?

“Spirit affinities!!! You two have spirit affinities!” They finally yelled out, pointing toward Finn and Alivia, as if accusing them of witchcraft.

Incredulous thoughts echoed in many of their heads. What the hell was going on?

This was too unbelievable, wasn’t it? Were they dreaming?

“Yup!” Alivia and Finn nodded proudly. They didn’t realize before, but after the lecture from the morning, they now had context for how rare their abilities were! They now could hold their chins up high!

The surrounding students had no response, their fingers trembling.