Chapter 11

Ideally, Li Jie and Zhu Hao would have asked their master to teach them the basic knowledge about their world, but he was busy catching up on the backlog of tasks that had piled up in his long absence. Thus the two found themselves sitting in the back row of a regular classroom along with Lily. Although classes were completely optional, quite a few cultivators chose to attend. Except a certain heiress to a rich clan, all of them were lower class cultivators who had been lucky enough to be born with enough talent to join the sect.

Ever since the three entered the classroom, people started whispering and glancing back at them.

“Red hair and blue eyes! Do you think that’s him?”

“I think so, and there’s also that silver haired guy with him.”

“Who’s that girl next to them? She’s actually kinda cute.”

“I heard she’s the heiress to the Yao Clan. I can’t believe those two are friends with her. She’s got a lot of muscle for a girl though.”

Lily, who clearly heard this last statement, felt a vein popping in her head out of anger but refrained from beating the living crap out of the guy who said it. Li Jie saw that she restrained herself and bitterly asked her, “How come you don’t beat up others when they make you angry? Why is it just me?!”

His foot was promptly smashed by Lily’s foot that descended with the weight of a sledgehammer. Li Jie fell out of his chair clutching his throbbing foot causing the entire class to stare at the three of them.

Zhu Hao was just leaning back in his chair, whistling as if he nothing to do with it. Despite being the least talented among the three, he already had his own fanclub in the outer court. His silver hair and long bangs, along with his tall, lean build and messy hair gave him the ultimate bad boy look. His popularity with females in the outer court could be ranked in the top 10 among the tens of thousands of cultivators.

Lily had a slightly regretful look on her face, as if she thought she went too far. Noticing all the stares directed towards her, her face turned slightly red as she looked down into her desk. She wasn’t bad looking by any means, her soft, short orange hair gave her a distinct look. Her facial features fit the standard of beautiful. Thin arching eyebrows with a perfectly proportioned oval face, she was the kind of girl who didn’t dazzle at first but became gorgeous the more you looked at her. Not to mention she was still hadn’t displayed her full beauty since she was still maturing. She amazed the entire sect with her talent and her use of the Yao Clan Sword Arts. Techniques that could allow a Nascent Realm cultivator to materialize qi into something like a sword were few and rare under the Heavens.

Li Jie, still rolling around on the floor on his back in pain, truthfully looked like the stupidest among the three. His fiery red hair and sky blue eyes stuck out like a sore thumb anywhere he went, and he often was seen getting beaten up by Lily for saying silly things. Many knew of his talent, but since he had lost to Lily, they assumed Lily was the boss of the gang.

He finally climbed back into his chair muttering to himself, “I didn’t even insult you that time and you still hit me...”’

All this time, Zhu Hao was trying his best not to laugh. But it was all for naught since one cultivator broke out into laughter and then another, followed by another. They had heard what Li Jie said to Lily and saw Lily pulverizing Li Jie’s foot. To them, that simple interaction made them realize that the three were just normal teenagers like themselves.

The mood immediately lightened up as everyone began introducing themselves to each other and chatting a bit. Excluding Lily, since they were all lower class cultivators, they already subconsciously felt at ease with each other.

As the middle-aged female teacher walked into the room, everyone returned to their seats and quieted down.

-----

Less than five minutes into the class, Lily had her face flat on her desk, drool coming out of the side of her mouth. Even Li Jie didn’t expect her to fall asleep that fast.

The teacher noticed Lily sleeping but ignored her and continued with the lecture.

“There are currently six known cultivation realms. Going from lowest to highest is: Nascent, Flowering, Forging, Refining, Immortal, and Exalted.”

She paused for a second to adjust her glasses, “There are no special traits of the Nascent Realm, it is simply the beginning of one’s cultivation. Ding Bai, can you tell me what the special trait of the Flowering Realm is?”

A bald young man who looked like a monk responded, “With a few rare exceptions, the Flowering Realm is the first realm where cultivators can materialize their qi at will.”

“Correct. This is why we call it the ‘Flowering’ Realm. Just like how a flower blossoms and unveils itself to the world, your qi will be able to materialize into a myriad of forms. The vast majority of cultivators get stuck in this realm, but for talented ones like yourselves, it is but a stepping stone.

“Next is the Forging Realm. In order to enter this realm, one must forge their soul in a way such that they can directly tap into the natural energy of the Heavens. This Heavenly Soul will hopefully one day become an Immortal Soul. Once you forge your Heavenly Soul and enter the Forging Realm, you gain the ability to fly in the air without the use of any special martial skills.

“After forging the soul, one must refine it. This is the Refining Realm. Your understanding of nature and of the Heavens’ ‘way’ must be immense otherwise you will be unable to refine your soul. However quite a few people who make it into the Forging Realm also make it into the Refining Realm. The biggest problem is entering the Immortal Realm.”

She stopped to let her gaze sweep over all her students. They stared back at her, listening with rapt attention. The words “Immortal Realm” had been enough to light a fire in their hearts.

“Li Jie, can you take a guess as to how many Immortal Realm cultivators there are in the city--no, in the entire empire?”

Li Jie, taking a completely random guess, said, “I don’t know, maybe 100?”

“Zero. There has not been a single Immortal Realm cultivator for the past few centuries. Of course there’s always the possibility of some hidden cultivators who are unimaginably strong, but it’s highly unlikely. The reason why the Immortal Realm is so difficult to reach is because of the Immortal Soul. At the peak of the Refining Realm, a cultivator has a completely refined Heavenly Soul. However he must turn this into an Immortal Soul, an utterly different existence.

“What does it mean to be immortal? All cultivators in our era can only dream of it. Perhaps it is because our inevitable deaths have been so strongly imprinted on our souls that we can no longer figure out how to transcend death itself.”

She seemed to be thinking about something before shaking her head and concluding the lecture.

“The realm above that is only mentioned in ancient records. The Exalted Realm. Not much else is stated about it other than the fact that it had something to with Dao, a concept that will not be taught in the outer court. Many have attempted to research further into the matter but there simply was not enough information.

“Ahh one last thing before I dismiss class. Let me quickly explain martial skills. Martial skills are ranked from 1 through 6, 6 being the strongest. The ranks are determined by the overall strength of the skill if used at an average level. There are, however, exceptions. Rank 5 and 6 skills are so rare and difficult to utilize, thus those ranks, especially rank 6, are not absolute measures of power. Also there are skills that can jump ranks depending on how they are used, such as our sect’s rank 2 Detonate Accel which can approach a rank 5 skill if mastered. Okay that’s all for today, dismissed!”

-----

The three friends walked out of class, Lily still half-asleep dragging her feet along the ground.

“Hey, want to check out the arena?” Zhu Hao suddenly suggested, “I want to try out some of the new skills master gave me.”

“You already learned them? Master only gave them to us yesterday! I’ve only managed to learn one of them!”

“Yeah I don’t really know why? It’s just that... It felt like the abilities kinda belonged to me in the first place, y’know what I mean? It’s hard to explain... But it was crazy. All the scrolls of the skills had this qi that felt like it belonged to me the whole time...”

Li Jie who had some experience with innate skills like his Phantom Blazing Step, nodded in understanding. He still, however, wondered just what kinds of skills master gave Zhu Hao.

He grabbed the sleepy Lily’s hand and pulled her along, following Zhu Hao to the arena.

The arena actually comprised many different stages. The main and largest one situated itself in the side of a hill, thousands of stone seats carved from the hill itself oversaw the grand amphitheatre-like stage. Only during important functions like major tournaments did the sect use this stage. Off to the side, many similar stone arenas jutted from the ground, each labeled by one of three different colored banners. The majority of the arenas were sparring stages where the first one to get hit lost. There were some combat stages where everything was allowed except permanently injuring or killing your opponent. And finally, marked by an ominous black banner, a single stage where death duels took place. It was designed for cultivators who had a blood feud with another or simply crazy cultivators who wished to gain strength by straddling the line between life and death. Of course, it was empty at the moment.

From one of the combat stages, they heard a beastial roar and saw a bloodied body fly through the air and crash into the ground outside the arena. Medical staff, who were always on standby in the arena, went over and carried the unconscious cultivator toward the medical ward.

“DOES ANYONE DARE CHALLENGE THE GREAT JIAN NIU?”

A young man with a body resembling an ox threw out a challenge to all that could hear him. His eyes were bloodshot and his clothes covered in blood, none of it his own.

“That’s Jian Niu! I’ve heard that every opponent that faces him ends up in the medical ward!”

“Yeah I heard that he tries to injure them as much as he can without breaking the rules. And he’s at the 6th level of the Nascent Realm!”

People whispered excitedly each other, looking to see if anyone would take up the challenge. But they didn’t have to wait long. Zhu Hao leapt onto the stage. He lowered his body into a fighting stance and beckoned with his palm, uttering only one word, “Come.”

Jian Niu stared hungrily at his new prey, but a brief look of surprise appeared on his face.

“Ehh?” He said, probing Zhu Hao’s cultivation base with his spiritual sense, “A brat of the 4th level wants to challenge me?”

It should be known that defeating cultivators at a higher cultivation level was rare in this world, much less cultivators two levels higher. After all, each level represented a noticeable difference in power, speed, and amount of qi. The difference was not as pronounced in the Nascent Realm as it was in other realms, but it still should be an impossible fight for Zhu Hao to win.

A relatively large audience had formed by now, looking at Zhu Hao with pity in their eyes. For them, it looked like he was just a new disciple who didn’t understand how the world worked. Some recognized his identity and thought that it was a shame that someone with his talent was about to be beaten down brutally.

Seeing that Zhu Hao hadn’t responded and was only staring back at him, Jian Niu bellowed, “Fine! Don’t blame me if you lose a limb or two!”

He pushed off the ground and dashed forward to crush Zhu Hao. The silver haired cultivator responded by closing his eyes. After less than a second, he reopened them and to everyone’s surprise, his pale yellow eyes had turned into a resplendent pair of yellow suns. He roared, “Heaven’s Edict: Eternal Throne!”

Parallel to his imposing roar, the onlookers heard the roar of a tiger intertwining with Zhu Hao’s powerful words. Tens of meters above him, the faint shape of an intricate throne began to take shape. It was massive, nearly 10 meters wide and dozens of meters tall. Some of the more observant cultivators could make out ferocious patterns of tigers engraved all over the illusory throne. From the throne, a white light shined onto Zhu Hao, gathering into milky white qi that surrounded Zhu Hao’s entire body, sticking to him like a second skin.

Fear initially filled Jian Niu’s eyes, but he convinced himself that all of this was an illusion. Normally he would have been right, but he had the misfortune of facing Zhu Hao as his opponent.

By now, the two were in range to fight. Jian Niu brought both of his arms down to perform a tyrannical overhand smash, forcing Zhu Hao to block.

*BAM*

The attack sent a shockwave throughout the arena, leaving deep gashes into in the stone arena. Amazingly Jian Niu was forced to take three steps backwards. But Zhu Hao had been forced to take 10 steps backwards and had blood leaking from his mouth.

‘Dammit, is this still not enough to beat him?’ He thought, spitting out some blood.

His opponent grinned at seeing Zhu Hao’s condition. It was already surprising that a 4th level cultivator could take a single full power blow from a 6th level cultivator. He decided to end the fight quickly; his instincts told him that Zhu Hao was dangerous. Despite possessing the strength of a mouse compared to Jian Niu, the wounded cultivator’s domineering aura was more reminiscent of a tiger.

Jian Niu gathered fists in his qi for the killing blow while Zhu Hao silently watched.

“You probably won’t die from this, but you sure as hell won’t be getting out of bed for the next few weeks! Have a taste of my Thunder God’s Clap!”

He brought his hands together and created a deafening boom. Multiple layers of shock waves propagated from his fists directly toward Zhu Hao. Each one of the waves felt powerful enough to pulverize a man-sized boulder into dust.

Li Jie remained sitting down throughout the entire fight. It wasn’t because he was calm due to his confidence in Zhu Hao. He was quite worried about his friend. Rather, it was because of the orange haired girl using his lap as a pillow, drooling all over his robes. A smile occasionally appeared on her face, as if she were having a nice dream.

‘At least this idiot’s enjoying the fight.’ He sighed, returning his attention to the fight where the decisive exchange was about to take place.