Aurelie had become the center of information in the two weeks since the pseudo battle. If you needed to know anything, you talked to her. She was welcome everywhere she went, and all sorts of knowledge flowed to her. This was true not only in Lejus, but in Meir as well.

Both Kadaras and Dansel relied on her to keep them up to date on any serious problems. She had quickly become a person of power in both villages, able to directly access either Village Head or any of their commanders whenever she wished for it. Kadaras started his closed door cultivation tomorrow, though, so that was going to change.

In the end, Kadaras ended up postponing his cultivation. This was because of an incident that happened during their final meeting. A man from Meir burst into the room.

“There are people from the Seven Heavens Academy coming towards Lejus and Meir!” He yelled. Everyone jumped up, even Aurelie. The Seven Heavens Academy was one of the best cultivation schools in the entire country. You needed an incredible amount of talent to enter, and everyone who graduated eventually became world-renowned. Actually, Kadaras and Padan had been talking about sending Farn and Mellana to a cultivation school. The two of them had plenty of talent and a school would be able to polish that talent far more than they could. So the arrival of the Seven Heavens Academy was very well-timed. Maybe, if they impressed the representatives, they could send their children there! Farn and Mellana, knowing what their parents had been discussing, were thinking the same thing.

Aurelie was fairly curious about the school as well. She needed to find a place where she could get strong, and do it fast. The stronger she got, the faster she could get out of here!

~~~~~~~

The people from the Seven Heavens Academy were a young, female teacher, a female student, and a male student. Both the teacher and the male were calm and composed, but the girl was frowning and sneering. Aurelie figured that the reason was due to power. The female student was the weakest, and was therefore feeling insecure about her position, leading her to look down at anyone who was weaker to make herself feel better. Typical behavior on both Earth and Sorainella. She just loved to find similarities.

The three were seated in the dining hall, along with the rest of the gang. A serving boy walked up to Aurelie, spooning some food onto her plate. She smiled at him.

“Thank you, this looks very… purple.” She made a face at the food. Thankfully, she had the hood of her cloak up so nobody noticed it. She didn’t want the new guys to freak out when they saw her red hair and drag her off to who knows where.

Unfortunately, one of them wasn’t content with that. The female student, named Cailysi, sneered at her.

“Don’t you know that it’s stupid to eat with your hood on? Are you a retard?” Aurelie wasn’t quite sure what that last word the girl had said was, but it obviously wasn’t a compliment. She leaned back in her chair, tilting her face so that her mouth was visible, and smirked. She had more ways to retaliate to an insult than fighting, death, and elaborate plans. In the end, she was still a high school girl. She could be incredibly catty if the occasion arose. Kadaras stiffened, watching the proceedings. He didn’t like the girl or her attitude, but in the end, she was a student of the Seven Heavens Academy. If they offended her, and she was someone important or knew someone important, it could cause the entire school to attack their village. If Aurelie decided to do something, then he would need to stop her. He ignored the niggling doubt in the back of his mind which asked whether or not he could actually stop her.

Cailysi jumped across the table and charged at Aurelie, who grabbed the back of her chair and used it to flip herself over it, landing on her feet behind it. She was shocked. Cailysi’s speed revealed that she was at least a sixth stage Grandmaster. She could barely even see the other girl, and had been reacting on pure instinct when she had flipped. The same instinct which was now telling her to jump to the right. She did so. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, and she was panting. Although her instincts were serving her well now, they weren’t always absolutely reliable, and she wasn’t sure at all whether or not she would be able to keep up for much longer.

Right as she thought this, she made a basic error. She was so focussed on the fight, she disregarded her surroundings and slid on some food that had been thrown to the floor when Cailysi jumped over the table, landing in an empty chair. She quickly curled into a ball, caressing the ring on her finger, a present given to her by Kadaras. The ring glowed and one of her combat knives solidified in her hand.

But the blow she was waiting for never came. When she opened her eyes, Cailysi’s teacher was holding her pupil back, a disapproving look on her face.

“But Mrs. Dreslin…” She whined. She knew better than to struggle against her teacher’s grip, though, remaining motionless. The boy had stood up as well, glaring at Cailysi. Aurelie sat up, and her hood promptly fell down. She immediately pulled it back up. But it was too late. All three of them stared at her. She sighed. No point in keeping her hood up now, so she pulled it down and let them openly stare.

“You aren’t an Elemental Apprentice.” Mrs. Dreslin said, staring at her.

“No, I was born this way. It usually causes a lot of problems if other people see my hair and eye color, so I usually wear a cloak when I’m near people who don’t know.”

The teacher nodded then asked, “Where are your parents?”

Aurelie shrugged. “I have no idea and, quite frankly, I don’t care.” It wasn’t a lie. She hadn’t met her parents after… after. But she did go on and tell the teacher the same story she told everyone else, without all the grammatical mistakes this time, for the simple reason that she wanted to see whether or not she could get away with it. Kadaras and the others had bought it, but honestly speaking, Lejus Village was fairly secluded, and didn’t have as much information. She wanted to see if she could still tell the same fib outside of this village. If it didn’t work, and they found her suspicious, then she would probably have to shoot her way out.

Luckily, it didn’t come to that. The teacher just nodded. “The world is indeed vast. The existence of another continent is not impossible.”

‘Thank god satellite technology doesn’t exist yet.’ Aurelie thought in her head.

Mrs. Dreslin looked at the Heads of both villages. “The reason we have come is that the academy has decided to scout children from all over the country. They will battle against each other, and the top forty children can enter the academy. The only requirement is that they be twenty years old or younger. Two children will be accepted from each village. Please make the necessary arrangements.”

Kadaras smiled. “Actually, our two most powerful are right here. Farn, my son, is a fourth stage Master Realm practitioner, and Mellana is also a fourth stage Master Realm practitioner. Both of them are nineteen.”

Mrs. Dreslin nodded, a surprised look in her eyes. Frankly speaking, the two before her were the most powerful kids she’d met in the scouting mission. Being able to get such a high cultivation without using alchemy pills or other cultivation boosting materials at such a young age was incredible. She had a good feeling about them.

Meanwhile, Dansel was shaking his head. “In our village, there is no one who can fight Farn and Mellana, forget other kids at the same level of power. I will send the most powerful kid from my village, but I would also like to use one of Meir’s slots to send Aurelie. She is a third level Master Realm practitioner, and is… how old are you?”

“Sixteen.” Aurelie replied. She was rather surprised. She had been under the impression that her friends were her age. They didn’t look nineteen… and then she realized that none of them did. Even their parents looked really young. She had only ever seen someone old at the festival, and even then there were very few. A seed of an idea took root in her head, and she looked up to confirm it. What she saw was that shock had spread across the room, with everyone staring at her open-mouthed at her. She looked back, confused.

“No wonder you would send her, such a young but powerful girl.” Dreslin said, clearing her throat. Dansel looked sheepish. “I had no idea about her age. Actually…” and he went on to recount the events leading up to the battle, and Aurelie’s manipulations. When he had finished, the three newcomers were back to staring at Aurelie, who grinned back at them.

‘I do believe that this is going to be a most interesting few weeks.’ Dreslin thought to herself.

~~~~~~~

Gradas looked around at the dead bodies on the forest floor, littered with the corpses of Spirit Beasts, which were animals that could also cultivate. He then looked at his hands, feeling the power coursing through him and began to laugh. He had done it, a forbidden method that raised his strength to that of an Elemental Apprentice. It had required the heartblood of one thousand and one Spirit Beasts and that of an infant child, but he had done it! Now, no one in either Meir nor Lejus Village could touch him. He could easily kill that insolent little girl, and then take over both villages!

He cackled, the images of bloody corpses and palaces of luxury filling his head.