Xiaoxia immediately took a liking Instructor Wei’s brother, he was an extremely easy-going guy and had an overwhelming brotherly feeling to him, even more so than Maling.

However they only spent a few minutes in conversation, before Xiaoxia realized the time and rushed off to meet Winfrey and friends. Before leaving, Jay the name of Instructor Wei’s brother, told him specifically not to tell anyone what happened to the room. After agreeing, they both parted ways.

Xiaoxia almost missed Winfrey and friends who were starting to leave after eating. However they decided to stay after he arrived. Xiaoxia enjoyed his meal even as the others chatted incessantly about the day's events.

During the conversation, he found out they were all in the Academy’s freshmen class of 1B-1892. Libby has some special abilities that allowed her to be part of the freshmen class usually meant for students with Titled Ki talents.

This was not uncommon as many exceptional Gold Class students were also allowed to join these. When they asked Xiaoxia about his class, he honestly replied he did not know. He was still hiding his chevron beneath the shawl Instructor Wei had gave him.

Much to his relief, they did not pursue the matter, but continued chatting after they left the restaurant. While they were shopping, Xiaoxia had to leave for the training hall.

As usual, besides Corian and Sima, the rest of them were pretty amazed he had a high grade personal spatial transportation device* (HG PTD). This time Charlotte and Libby were there as well.

(*Author’s note: updated compendium for acronyms, please check the blog)

He arrived back at the training hall and manage to change into his training attire before Instructor Wei appeared.

Upon asking was there any progress by Instructor Wei, he showed her the results of what he achieved earlier. She was visibly impressed and instructed him proceed with his training.

The remaining of the lesson was used to practice limiting his Ki to the Ki vessels on more than a few parts of his body. This took a tremendous effort and he did not last a few minutes each time.

The rest interval between practices increased, as his Ki depleted at a rapid rate. On the other hand he kept feeling more and more invigorated due to the rush of adrenaline and endorphins.

Instructor Wei had quickly caught on to this and gave a warning; since the adrenaline and endorphins will mask his weariness from Ki depletion, if he did not monitor his Ki reservoir, there is a high chance it would kill him.

Hence ever since then, no matter what he did, he was also training to passively monitor his Ki reservoir, and the restrictions he placed to prevent Ki leakages.

**********

More than a month has passed since then, Xiaoxia was becoming well adapted to his training. He gradually learnt to maintain the Ki vessels proportional to his level.

After classes he usually joined Winfrey and the others at the restaurant, sometimes they ate at other outlets. By now, Xiaoxia made it a habit to remove the token as well as the chevron from his uniform.

He almost revealed his chevron one time when the shawl hiding it got hooked away onto a passing senior’s bag. Now he doesn’t wear the shawl and when asked, he lied citing the long process as well as cost to replace it.

He removed the token after his meeting with Jay, realizing how easily recognizable it was. The group did not bother him about it as they do not have any mentor, and did not recognize it for what it was. However the older students were passing some curious glances wherever he went.

The friendship among the group was getting better and he became quite close to them. Charlotte and Libby were constantly teasing him while the others teased them back. They always stayed together till late after the girls did their daily shopping, and Xiaoxia joined them whenever he could.

All this while Xiaoxia had wanted to personally send the package to the girl he rescued, but eventually left Fred to deliver the package. Fred had left his own personal contact in case she replied, but no replies ever came.

Today he received word from Fred to meet Instructor Wei at the first room on the right side of the hall. They had previously trained on the left side.

As usual he arrived there early and took the opportunity to cultivate his Ki. Xiaoxia still cultivated Ki during his free time in his dorm, however the quality and saturation was not as high when compared to the training room.

Moreover, as per Instructor Wei’s instructions, it was better for him to be able to totally control his Ki before starting to rigorously cultivate his Ki again. So he did it sparingly.

As he sat there in the training room, he could feel the higher quality of Ki being absorb, his Ki reservoir has also increase slightly. Satisfied, he did some exercises circulating his Ki around his body.

About a few minutes later, Instructor Wei arrive at the room. She passed her right hand over a panel and training dummies appeared in the room.

“Xiaoxia, it’s only another 32 days to the freshmen competition,” Instructor Wei informed him and continued, “to capitalize on your natural physique, you should also start to learn some form of actual combat.”

“Before that, I want you to show me what you have learnt so far,” Instructor Wei said.

“Yes Instructor,” Xiaoxia answered.

As he turned towards the dummies, he noticed that they did not looked like the previous ones he was training with. These dummies had limbs and looked like they were standing without supports.

Not really bothered by it, he proceeded to demonstrate the lessons Instructor Wei had taught him.

Quickly filling the Ki vessels between the meridians, he directed the Ki to his left index finger, while focusing it before releasing the Ki in a short burst.

“Poom!”

There was a sharp bang on the wall at the other end of the room, he had completely missed the target.

“Huh?” Xiaoxia was confused, seeing the dummy standing now a little to the right from its original spot.

“This is a battle room, the dummies here will not be stationary like the others in the training room,” Instructor Wei informed him.

“That is beside the point, your Ki manipulation has improved by a wide margin since I last taught you this skill,” she added.

Two weeks after Xiaoxia successfully stopped the Ki leakage, Instructor Wei had taught him other techniques as well as how to hone the output of his Ki. This enable the Ki to become more focus upon release. Instead of the energy dispersing over a wide area, the same energy was concentrated into a single point.

“Still too much force, it will kill your opponent, you need to reduce it,” she instructed.

This time following the same sequence, he reduced the Ki in the Ki vessels to just a fraction it was before and released it.

“Piok!”

The sound was less sharp as compared to the first one, again the dummy moved to avoid the energy, and it landed on the wall behind.

“Not bad, this should suffice. Only use this if you need to break the Ki defense of an opponent, which is not likely as most freshmen have not yet learn to do it. Unfortunately there are some troublesome freshmen who have already advanced to that stage by help of their Martial Alliance,” Instructor Wei complimented him and provide a little more information.

Instructor Wei began gathering information ever since Menon’s visit. She uncovered certain irregularities in the training for the freshmen, and found out certain Martial Alliances had trained these freshmen in areas where the Academy has not.

It was against regulations, but the Academy did not enforce it due to the influence and power of the Alliances.

This information was passed on to Xiaoxia, and his training was adjusted accordingly. Instructor Wei was taking a more direct approach to his training in comparison to the first two weeks, when she just left him to cultivate Ki by himself.

“Now put up a defense,” Instructor Wei ordered.

This time Xiaoxia filled all the 12 minor musculoskeletal meridians and a vague aura could be seen around his entire body.

Xiaoxia was not yet a Master Realm pugilist, who have their 12 minor musculoskeletal Ki vessels and meridians constantly filled with Ki, thus making Ki defense easier to activate. They could also maintain it without cultivating Ki.

He is only Duelist Realm 7th tier and only manage to constantly maintain 5 of the meridians and Ki vessels. In order to achieve 12 of them, more effort was needed and it increased the rate of Ki depletion. He could not maintain them without cultivating Ki every now and then, or faced total Ki exhaustion.

“Begin,” Instructor Wei said to no one in particular.

Without a word, the dummies suddenly started attacking him.

“Wham! Bam! Piak! Pok! Wham!”

He was shocked initially, and got hit various times before he recovered and started moving. Even as he avoided some, most still hit their marks.

“Stop!” all the dummies suddenly ceased their movements.

“Look and learn,” Instructor Wei told him.

Xiaoxia nodded, the familiar invigorating feeling coming back. He was not bleeding nor were there any physical signs of injury. However he was a little winded and his body was aching from the various hits he took.

The dummies really had powerful blows, being a child, he would have already been pummeled to a pulp if he was not taught Ki defense by Instructor Wei.

Xiaoxia saw Ki gathering at Instructor Wei’s feet, at the same time there was no aura around her the rest of her body.

“Begin,” she said and immediately started moving.

Whenever she blocked a blow, Xiaoxia could sense a surge in Ki as an aura immediately appeared at the part of her body she used to block.

She moved about the room at astonishing speeds, some times it seems like she was floating, other times as if she was sliding.

This continued for another 5 minutes and every time she blocked, she immediately counter attacked with various techniques. Of all the techniques she used, Xiaoxia only knew of the four she had taught him, palm, fist, finger and foot.

“Stop!” she shouted, and immediately all the dummies froze.

“Xiaoxia, did you see what happened?” Instructor Wei asked.

“Yes Instructor, you applied Ki to your feet to move around avoiding being surrounded by dummies. At the same time you did not put up any defense, only using them on where you want the enemy to hit,” Xiaoxia replied.

“Good you are very perceptive, but the dummies are not alive, they will hit based on what they can. People on the other hand do not always do that. So on top of putting up a defense the moment before impact, you have to predict the point where your opponent will attack,” she said.

“This will save a very large quantity of Ki as compared to constantly having put up a defense regardless of the situation. Once the Ki is in the Ki vessels at the 12 minor musculoskeletal meridians, keep it contained in the vessel and release it from the meridians only when necessary,” she added and continued,

“Like this even without having reached higher Ki Realms, you would have attained some form of defense. By properly training this, you would be able to do what I just did,” she concluded.

“Yes Instructor,” Xiaoxia acknowledged, while something came to his mind at this moment.

“Instructor Wei, how many types of training rooms are there?” he asked.

“Why?” she asked.

“I could not help but notice there are some others at the end of the hall, which seems larger and more heavily fortified,” he said, while keeping mum about meeting Jay.

“The one we are in now is the basic battle room, as you move towards the end of the hall, their difficulties increases. Most of them are only used by older S Class students who have achieved higher Ki Realms. The final and last room is where one of the exams before graduation is held, you need to last 30 seconds to pass,” she informed him.

Xiaoxia was literally in admiration of Jay after hearing that. Jay was in the last room for more than a few minutes and he was not even scratched.

“Set at the highest difficulty level, it rivals some of the most dangerous creatures in Yuan Zhong, even I would not be able to leave fully intact after a few minutes,” she added.

Now he was feeling a sensation of absurdness, wondering how much powerful can Jay be, compared to his sister.

“Siiiiiisssssstttteeeerrr!!!” an immediately recognizable voice could be heard coming from the door.

“Jay!” Xiaoxia exclaimed at once knowing who is was.

“Psst call me Instructor Jay in front of her, she is too up tied for her own good,” Jay immediately whispered to Xiaoxia as he walked past and towards his sister.

“Idiot Brother, what do you want?” Instructor Wei was actually smiling sincerely when she greeted him.

“Awwww, is this how you greet your dearest brother?” he replied.

“C’mere! Give me a hug,” Jay called out while spreading his arms open.

“Ooooof!”

In respond to this, Instructor Wei’s right foot was planted on Jay’s face.

“Don't touch me with your dirty hands, pervert brother, sick brother, rotten brother, psycho brother,” Instructor Wei mouthed off, oddly still smiling in fondness rather than anger.

“After all I have done for you? Why Heavens!! You have no eyes!! Sob Sob!” Jay faked some tears.

“So how do you know each other?” Instructor Wei immediately caught on when Xiaoxia called out Jay’s name.

“Oh well, I met this chap sometime back at this training hall,” Jay replied, obviously forgetting his agreement with Xiaoxia.

“Huh?” Instructed Wei was a little surprised and turn to Xiaoxia asking, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“He asked me to keep quiet about it, since he destroyed the last room,” Xiaoxia defended himself without hesitation, since the cat was already out of the bag.

“Oh! Damn, I forgot! My bad young fella,” Jay replied and admitted, however his demeanor was really carefree and no one knew if he meant it.

“Showing off again in front of students? Didn’t you get into trouble the last time that happened? You promised not to do it again, when will you ever learn?” Instructor Wei chided Jay.

“Hey it was not as if I did that on purpose, there was not a single soul around when I started, besides it was after classes,” Jay argued.

“Ah forget it,” Instructor Wei said with a tone of resignation.

“Why are you here then?” she asked.

“Can’t an elder brother pay a visit to his darl’n sister with no reasons?” Jay asked with a playful smirked.

“Sure, but you never appear whenever I need your help, so why now?” Instructor Wei insisted for a truthful answer.

“Well, not going to lie to you, I was a little curious about this fella over here, and since I already found what you messaged me for, I took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone,” he answered.

“This fella is none of your concern, it’s between me and MeisterSchloss,” she did not bother to explain to him.

“You are making me more curious,” Jay stated for that matter.

“Sorry to interrupt Instructors,” Xiaoxia quickly interjected, “But Instructor Jay, since you are here, can you tell me what techniques you were using that day?”

“Young fella, they are unique skills, no one else has them,” Jay replied, temporarily dropping the issue with his sister.

Xiaoxia understood from past conversations with others, that each individual who have attained Unknown Realm could create their own unique skills.

“If you are really interested, you can request for discipleship under me,” Jay grinned widely. Much like Instructor Wei, only his mouth could be seen, otherwise his other features were hidden.

“You can dream all you like, he is MY disciple,” Instructor Wei objected, causing Xiaoxia to widen his eyes at the implication of what was just said.

Copyright © 2015, Loke Weng Tuck. All Rights Reserved.