Zarion Academy

Zarion Academy is a significant place in the city. Every single nobleman will send their child to seek tutelage in Zarion Academy. As the foremost academy in the city, Zarion Academy is home to many experts. Most of whom are employed by the family running the academy, Cromwell Family.

Cromwell Family is very popular amongst the common masses due to their impartial nature. The family head, Vincent is a man of noble stature. He treats all equally and values talent to the utmost degree. While commoners typically could not enroll in prestigious academies, this changed when he rose to power 10 years ago. Vincent’s first order was to allow everyone the right to attend the academy as long as they are talented enough.

While some view this decision in disdain, mostly aristocrats that did not want to mingle with the common people, many praised this effort as revolutionary and the most important step to bolster the city’s growth. However, even with the newly instituted order many still had valid complaints. Such as the minimum cultivation requirement was Martial Practitioner level 1. While this was not a problem for aristocrats and nobles with their massive wealth, commoners even with great talent would not be able to reach that standard. Nevertheless, with its new policy, the Zarion Academy grew exponentially with its influence becoming second to none.

A group of five youths arrived at the academy grounds. Before going inside, they changed their clothes to school uniforms. The uniforms are black with green lines and on the right shoulder is an insignia of a jade dragon. This insignia is the symbol of Zarion Academy. Only one of the youths had a different insignia, it was a silver crow. This group of youths are Aron and his juniors.

They headed straight inside through the designated entrance for students and proceeded to head straight to the southern compound before they separated. The southern compound was the location of the Pill Refining division. Refining division is one of the 4 major divisions in the academy, the rest being Forgery Division, Medical Division and Duel Division. Each Division is given a large compound for them to conduct their activities.

Aron and Curt headed to a large building, the sign says “Refining Headquarters”. Aron entered and was greeted by an exceedingly handsome man. “Welcome back”, the man was dressed in a white garb that had streaks of green around the back. His aura was was graceful and exude a warm sensation. He was like the opposite of Zhang Wei, with his imposing manner and beast like aura.

“Master Vincent, your disciple greets you.”, yes this is Vincent, the head of the Cromwell Family and also the headmaster of Zarion Academy. “Did you accomplish the task that I gave you?”, Vincent inquired.

“Your disciple was fortunate to acquire the carcass, however some circumstances occurred.”, Aron proceeded to recount everything that had transpired, he recollected everything from the group being surrounded to the appearance of the White Wolf Alpha and the ‘squashing’ that occurred.

His master’s expression looked like he was deep in thought. After a solemn moment, he turned to Aron and Curt and said, “From what you have explained, this man seems to be at least on par with me. We should be courteous to him and tend to him politely.”, Vincent is a very calculative man, he would never underestimate anyone, not even a child. Based on what Aron has said, this Zhang Wei should not be provoked and must be kept on surveillance as it was highly unlikely for an expert of his level would just come for no reason.

He called for one of his attendants and passed off an order, “If you encounter a man named Zhang Wei, make sure to treat him with utmost hospitality.”, his attendant respectively bowed and left the room.

Vincent continued to discuss with his disciples, “Are you sure the man that followed you is this Zhang Wei?”, Vincent was wondering this, how could a man with no trace of spirit energy suddenly explode with power?

“Very sure. He followed us for quite a while and we recognized his attire. The weird thing is that, before we were ambushed, his presence was easily traced. However, after he helped us, it was difficult for us to keep track of his positioning with our perception.”, Aron found it weird while they were in the forest’s inner layer, they could not detect whenever Zhang Wei moved to take care of a wild beast. This proved to be quite troublesome as they had to wait for Zhang Wei to come back to them before moving.

“Very likely that he had a skill or treasure that could mask his spirit energy.”. Martial Practitioners did not inherently have the ability to conceal their spirit energy. Only with specific treasure or rare skills could they have the ability to conceal their presence and aura, one of which is [Perception Block], the inherent skill of the Assassin class.

Specialized classes were only accessible to Martial Practitioners that have reached level 6 and were very hard to acquire. Even the city only had 6 individuals with specialized classes. Vincent being one of them. However, one thing did not make sense to him. Assassin class focuses more on agility than strength. From the incident with the White Wolf Alpha, it would make more sense for Zhang Wei to be apart of the Berserker class.

As Vincent was pondering, Curt interrupted him and said, “Master, that expert wishes to meet with you.”

Vincent was quite surprised, “Meet me? Does he know me?”. While he did not know the full strength of Zhang Wei, there was no harm in meeting him to acquire more information.

“Fine, I shall meet him at once. However, before we go, tell me your opinions on him.”, he wanted to know what his youngest disciple’s impression of this man. His youngest disciple is a proud individual and was not easily amazed.

Curt looked a bit shy before saying. “Well.. I think that he is very handsome.”