-Wednesday Night, 2nd Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

"Ugh!" My eyes snap open, and I jump up. Surprised by the stinging pain attacking my body, I grit my teeth, trying to endure and figure out what's going.

'Where... am I?' I slowly take a look at my surroundings, looking for something I can recognize, 'I'm at an Inn?'

It looks the same as most of the Inn rooms that I've gotten used to in the past couple of days, two beds, a dresser, and a lamp.

Creak!

I turn my head, hearing the door open.

'He's back to normal.' I smile a little seeing the Old Man walk into the room with a bucket of water and a rag. He's back to how he was when we first met—a normal Old Man with a skinny body and a hunchback.

"You're finally awake," He greets me with a smile.

"Mm," Although I'm curious about how he turned into that strong guy, there are other things I want to ask about first, "How long was I out for?"

"You've been asleep for a few hours now," He answers while stroking his chin.

"What happened to the bandits?" Remembering our fight, I clench my fist, still angry at them for attacking us for no reason.

"Why is it that the first thing you do when you wake up is ask questions?" He sighs and shakes his head, "Your injuries from the fight aren't even healed yet, you should calm down and focus on resting so that you can get better faster instead of asking so many questions."

"But-" He cuts me off before I could talk back, "But nothing! Your health is more important than anything else!"

Looking at his worried expression, I don't feel like arguing with him, so I nod to tell him that I understand.

"Good, now come sit on the edge of the bed, I need to change your bandages." He walks over to the side of the bed and grabs his bag.

Hearing his words, I look down at my body for the first time. My shirt is gone, and my wounds are wrapped up in light brown bandages. Watching the Old Man search through his bag, a warm feeling spread through my body. I feel grateful to him for bringing me to an Inn and treating my injuries. After thinking for a moment, I tell him, "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it, Kid," He answers me without looking up from his bag, "This is it."

The Old Man takes out a flask full of a red liquid, an empty vial, and some bandages.

"A potion?" I tilt my head, looking at the familiar red liquid.

"Mm, It's a medicinal potion," The Old Man explains as he pours some of the red liquid from the flask into the vial before setting both them on the table.

"That's for my wounds?" I've never seen such a potion with such a bright red color. Mom told me that the clearer the color, the higher the grade of the potion, 'Meaning that it's more expensive.'

"It should speed up your body's recovery process by a large amount. Besides that, it has a numbing effect, so once you drink it, your wounds won't be as painful anymore. I would give you more, but it's better to save some in case anything happens later. Since you're young and healthy, it shouldn't take too long for your injuries to heal. 24 hours should be enough time.

"That's amazing, but isn't that potion really expensive?" Scratching my head, I tell him, "I'd feel bad if you used something so expensive on me."

Hearing my words, he frowns and shakes his head, "You're still too young to worry about this Old Man's pockets. This potion was expensive, but your life is worth much more. Meeting someone who will risk their life for you is even rarer than finding a few gold coins lying in the middle of the street. So don't worry about the cost of this potion and focus on getting better."

"But-" Before I can respond, he cuts me off, "But nothing! Kid, don't forget your responsibilities. You're on your way to take Arcadia's Entrance Exam, and if you're not at 100%, how do you expect to pass?"

"I...no...you're right," I can't forget what I'm trying to do right now. If I want to pass the exam, I need to give it everything I got, and I can't do that if I'm injured.

He nods at my response and hands me the vial, "Drink this first."

"...Okay." I take the potion from him and drink it. After a few seconds, a cool feeling washes over the stinging pain spreading throughout my body.

"The effects will fully kick in soon. Sit still, I'm going to change your bandages." I nod my head and stop moving.

He takes off the bandages wrapped around my waist first, revealing a bloody cut. Using a wet rag, he cleans off the blood before wrapping my waist with a new set of bandages.

"Turn around."

I follow his orders and turn around, letting him unwrap the bandages covering the wound on my back. Just like with my side, he cleans it and wraps it back up with a new set of bandages.

With all the blood cleaned off me and the cool feeling spreading through my body, I feel a lot better than when I first woke up. Since my wounds were taken care of, I thought about asking the Old Man some questions, but he shook his head.

"Go on and cultivate until you fall asleep, I'll answer your questions in the Morning," Saying that he turns away from me and starts putting the stuff away.

"Promise?" He turns back to me for a moment and smiles, "Rest assured, Kid, I have no reason to lie to you."

Seeing his smile, I nod my head and hold back the questions I want to ask. Taking a couple deep breaths, I sit on my bed and cross my legs. Closing my eyes, I chant, 'The Earth is holy, the Earth is the root of all life, the Earth gives me strength, and in return, I give myself to the Earth…'

I start drawing in the Qi from my surroundings. At some point, I stopped thinking about my surroundings and focused on gathering and refining Qi in my body. Suddenly, it started getting harder and harder to guide the Qi through my meridians. Eventually, it got so hard that I couldn't even move the Qi anymore. Feeling like I hit a wall, I frown and keep trying to push forward, but it's impossible, I can't move it.

'I'm almost there, just a little more, just a little more, and I can breakthrough,' Thinking this, I gather as much Qi as I can inside of one of my meridians, building it up to the point that my meridian starts to ache, 'One last push, I need to breakthrough in one move.'

I shape the Qi like a sword and try moving it again. I put all my focus into the sword and forced it against the wall, blocking me from moving forward.

Crack!

As I push the sword against the wall, I start to hear cracking sounds.

Crack! Crack! Burst!

As I break through the wall, a large amount of Qi enters my body. With the wall gone, I'm able to circulate it normally again. Eventually, I open my eyes and smile.

'I did it! I broke through to the 4th layer!' I clench my fist, feeling more confident than before, 'I should get some rest so we can leave early tomorrow morning and get back on the road to make up for the lost time.'

●●●

-Thursday Morning, 3rd Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

When I opened my eyes, the Old Man was already up looking out the window. We greeted each other as usual, and he changed my bandages again before packing up to leave. After I was done getting dressed, we went downstairs to eat breakfast in the Inn's dining room, before getting on the carriage and continuing our trip.

I stop circulating my Qi after a couple of hours, taking a break from solidifying my realm. Remembering that he promised to answer my questions yesterday, I ask him, "What happened to the bandits from yesterday?"

He doesn't reply for a moment before telling me, "I'm not certain, but I left them all there, so they might have been eaten by a wild beast or robbed by other bandits."

"I see," I don't feel any sympathy for the Bandits who tried to kill and rob us. Part of me would be happy if they really did die. But I don't want to keep thinking like that, so I circulate my Qi a little to clear my head.

"Is something the matter?" He must have felt my Qi move because he turns his head back for a moment to check on me.

"No, it's nothing. I was just feeling a little weird, so I decided to circulate my Qi a little to calm myself down," I tell him, not wanting him to worry.

"That's a good habit you made for yourself Kid," He praises me before turning back to the road.

"It's nothing like that," I shake my head, "Can I ask another question?"

"What is it?"

"That change you made yesterday, what was it? You suddenly turned into a really strong-looking guy out of nowhere," I can't forget the image of him yesterday and how strong he was. He easily knocked all those bandits out, while I got injured by a couple of them. That wind kind of reminded me of one of those powers I saw in my dream, but a little weaker, I think.

"It's due to an Item. In a way, what you saw yesterday was my true strength, but the form I took was more like a side-effect of the item," He explains.

"An item?"

"It's known as the Necklace of Restraint." He takes one hand from the reins and points at the plain-looking Silver Necklace with a cross, hanging around his neck, "It's a High-Grade Mystic Armament that restrains my Ether and Qi preventing me from cultivating and using either of them."

"Can't you take it off?" Otherwise, how did he change yesterday?

"I can't," he shakes his head and explains, "For a short moment of time, I can overpower the restraining effect it has placed on me, allowing me to temporarily use my Ether and Qi."

"You've been mentioning Ether a lot, but what is it? How is it different from Qi?" My parents never talked about it before, so I don't know anything about it.

"You've never heard of it? Well, I think it's better that you learn about it in school, but I'll tell you this, it is not the same as Qi, the two energies are in completely different leagues."

'A different league…' I drifted off after hearing that. Ever since I started cultivating, I've had a vague awareness of leagues. I know that I'm increasing my league by cultivating, but I don't understand how or why, or what league is in general.

●●●

After that, we continued our trip to Synthasia without any other interruptions. Over the days, I grew closer to the Old Man, and we talked a lot. Whenever I had a question, he normally had an answer. Sometimes he would ask about my parents and me, but he never asked about where I lived or my eyepatch, so I was happy to tell him about me.

Eventually, we reached our destination, Synthasia, The City Of Knowledge and Opportunity.

●●●

-Sunday Morning, 6th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

Up ahead, I see a large gray stone wall way bigger than the wooden fence surrounding Cara Village.

"Ryner, behind that wall is Synthasia City." Hearing his words, I gasp. I knew that it was bigger than Cara Village, but this goes way past my imagination.

"Overwhelming, isn't it?" I could only nod my head looking at the tall city wall, "You'll get used to it soon after all this will be your new home for the next eight years once you pass the Entrance exam."

I circulate my Qi to help me calm down, "I haven't even registered yet, I don't think that we should look that far ahead yet Gramps."

"If that's what you want, then I'll stop talking about it, but I don't believe that you'll fail," Gramps shakes his head and laughs.

"I'll do my best!" I smile at Gramps, not wanting to disappoint him or my parents.