James was still sitting on the floor, observing the changes in himself.

He could feel that he was much stronger and much faster than before as he felt that his entire body had made a qualitative leap with the break through.

He put his right hand forward and opened his palm. With a bit of concentration an Azure glow enveloped the palm and an unstable amount of qi was released outward.

"It seems that I can use qi but I cannot manipulate it well yet" muttered James.

He got up and after a bath and a quick change of clothes he decided to go out. As he opened the door he saw the skies were turning dark.

Just then the door beside his room opened and Gus came out.

"You finally came out! I've been waiting since yesterday for you. Forget the semis you even missed the finals! "

" And what a match that was! Senior Edward and senior Blake battled it out hard! Both with their Beast marks and elemental powers! The whole ring was destroyed at the final clash! " said Gus, his eyes glittering as he recalled the events.

" You sure as hell took your time. If only you had awakened a few hours earlier you would have seen the finals. "

" But congratulations on breaking through man! Can't say that I am not jealous but I am more glad about it! "

" Thanks bro! I think you might be breaking through soon as well."

"Haha yeah I will, I actually have been feeling quite pumped up inside after the finals and so will be meditating tonight. "

" Apart from you I think only 3 others have broken through yet. The 2 girls Dorsa, Mendes and a guy named Luke. I heard he is from the royal family and even ranked 2nd overall in the entrance exam. "

" I see. They sure are strong"

"Don't worry we'll catch up" said Gus with his arms behind his head looking up.

"Let's get some dinner! I want to eat well before I start meditating, seeing the time you took I don't want to stay hungry when I break through. " grinned Gus and they left for the cafeteria in their hover discs.

After having their dinner they went back to their rooms. Gus was going to try to break through so he quickly went in to meditate while James left for the training facility. He wanted to measure the increase in his strength and speed.

The training facility had many halls with various equipment for different purposes. The facility was open 24 hours a day but only some rooms and some specific equipments were allowed to be used by students at any given time without a need for permission.

James went inside the gym walking towards a barbell. The gym was open to all and didn't require any permission. He picked up a 250 kg barbell and surprisingly lifted it with not much difficulty.

He went further by picking up 300 kgs this time. He again succeeded but felt he had to apply quite a bit of force. He didn't stop and went ahead adjusting the weight to 350 kg. This time it required all of his strength just to lift it a bit above his head before dropping it.

Before breaking through he could pick up a 150 kg barbell but currently his strength had more than doubled. Next he decided to test his speed.

He chose the 100 meter track outside in the field and set his watch to determine the speed. With a jolt he moved and as he reached the finishing point the watch displayed a speed of 20m/s! His previous speed was only about 10.2 m/s in comparison!

James was happy with the result. The gap between a 4th stage Form realm and an Azure realm cultivator was certainly quite huge.

He returned back to his room and from his ring he took out a book. It was the technique that his father had gifted him on his birthday, 'Wind Enforcer'. Now that he was an Azure realm cultivator he could practice this technique.

He sat down with the book reading through the basic workings and the insights provided by his father. After an hour he was able to gather that the technique utilized using qi as a force against the wind to increase the speed of the body.

The technique had 3 stages the first was the beginner stage which was achieved when the cultivator was able to increase his body's movement by releasing qi from his limbs as a force against the wind thereby accelerating himself further. The force generated was known as qi force.

The technique also strengthened the next attack if the cultivator moved towards a target as with greater speed the momentum gained could be used as extra force thereby increasing the power of the next attack.

The second stage known as the mid stage was achieved when the cultivator was able control the rate of qi flowing out from his body thereby controlling the qi force generated with which the cultivator will be able to efficiently increase or decrease his speed as he moved.

The third stage which was the peak stage was achieved when the qi force generated was in sync with the air particles. Since the air did not have a form, it's atoms weren't densely packed and instead free flowing.

Only when the cultivator could come in contact with each such particle and use qi force against it, will he be able to efficiently move like the flowing wind.

With what James could surmise, he understood that this movement technique was a powerful one and that he would not need to focus on any other for a long time.

It was no wonder that the kingdoms special force the Emerald Corps to which his father belonged were given this technique.

He first needed to learn to properly manipulate his qi in the direction he desired for which he needed to understand the concept of qi better.

He spent the night meditating, absorbing and observing the qi inside his body. There were no classes for another 4 days as the academy expected the junior batch to break through to the Azure realm by the end of January as it had seen every year.

James spent the next 4 days locked up in his room trying to get insights in to qi manipulation. He could now conjure qi above his palm stably by guiding it's direction instead of letting it run rampant.

He had tried to accelerate himself but he was still unable to properly release qi from his limbs much less force the wind.

Soon the days passed and the classes began again. James left for class after meeting up with Gus who had a huge smile on his face as he had achieved his break through.

But they were both surprised when they attended class as they saw that everyone had broken through to the Azure realm in this period of time. They were all worthy of being called the top 100 geniuses in the kingdom.

Their classes now consisted of Qi manipulation and combat training where they learnt and practiced fighting with their weapons.

The academy gave specific classes to students after attaining specific cultivation points. For example if a cultivator reached the mid stages then the academy would add another class for him where he would be taught the sealing technique to form his Beast Mark.

The academy gave full freedom to its students in the way of cultivation. Students could cultivate using personal skills and techniques and could pick up missions to gain experience.

Classes were kept less to give more time to the student for his personal training.

James attended all his classes as he needed to learn both qi manipulation and the ways of the sword. He temporarily gave up on concentration on his physical body and instead focused on learning the Wind Enforcer and the sword techniques.

In the qi manipulation class Prof. Kroft often emphasized directing qi by using the will. He used to say,

"To manipulate the qi inside your body and make it come in contact with outside elements to influence them, you need to concentrate first on the flow of the qi inside. You need to concentrate and 'will' your qi to move in the direction you want. "

" Your will is absolute to you and so the qi will obey it moving towards the desired direction. "

He then made the students close their eyes and concentrate on their qi urging them to manipulate it outside their body.

" The various techniques you will learn are nothing but the interaction of qi with the outside elements and they key is proper manipulation! " he used to say.

Through Prof. Kroft's teachings James was able to learn how to direct his qi. The energy reacted to James command as he willed it. With constant practice in 2 months time he had a firm grasp of it and was able to enter the beginner stage of Wind Enforcer.

He was finally able to release qi from his limbs and use it as a force against the wind to speed himself up to 26 m/s from his now normal 21 m/s speed.

Apart from this James also learnt how to fight with a sword through instructor Dave's teachings. With constant sparring with his classmates and constant practicing under Dave's schedule he was able to increase his proficiency with the sword and advanced to learning sword techniques.

He was able to infuse the sword with a bit of his qi increasing its attack.

Apart from him Gus had advanced a lot as well. He was very proficient with the spear and used it more like a staff by jumping and defending with it like a monkey. However his attacks were no joke, James had seen him defeating others with his spear thrust in the class matches.

Gus practiced his own movement technique one that was related to the land.

The academy gave each student a chance to choose a cultivation technique from the Grand Library upon reaching the Azure realm.

James already has a movement technique so he decided to choose a sword technique to go with his training. He choose the "Gale Slash".

It required the cultivator to send a sword slash with a qi wave which would launch like an outburst of rampant energy harming the target.

Gus chose the "Shattering Earth" spear technique which required infusing qi towards the spearhead to launch a devastating attack.

Another month had passed away. James and Gus sat in the cafeteria eating and discussing various events in the academy.

"Hey man next week we will have the Virtual Test. I hear the prizes each year are pretty great but only 1 or 2 people each year are able to clear it. "

" I heard about it too. They will transport us to some place in the virtual world and give us a task to complete. " said James.

" Will be fun! I've been getting bored with all the training. Let's team up! I'm pretty sure we both can handle anything together. "

" Mmh! " nodded James with his mouth full with food.

------------------------

I even wanted to introduce a body cultivation technique for our Mc but thing is when I read that stuff in other xianxia CN novels I see that the Mc there converts the qi into devil qi or elephant qi or whatever somehow with no dam explanation automatically. Now as a cn xianxia reader I have come to accept this fact that enjoy the ride and keep the brains out. But when I was about to write about it here I just couldn't write that the Mc illogically with no dam explanation transforms his qi into something and strengthens the body. It just didn't feel right. Any suggestions?

And yay for 3k+ viewers! But no responses yet... :( please comment and help!

Also a huge shout out to the person who rated my novel yesterday. Got 4.5 I am happy you like it so much. I will try my best to keep improving the quality of this fic. Now that we are 15 chapters in, I know that some people would want to review now, you may but I would like it of you update your review after a few chapters as this will be a long novel and the first batch of reviews will affect it's readership tremendously in a good or bad way as the case maybe.