"Our objective is to retake the East hill base. Our opponents will be weak and ready for our picking!

I understand you may be eager for glory and want to prove yourself, but remain patient. You may become unsatisfied if others get the limelight. However, I want everyone to follow our strategy absolutely. At any turn, if I find out you create problems in our team, you can be sure I will not spare any who jeopardise this operation.”

After a pause as George carefully looked at the faces of each of his captains he continues.

“We will begin at 0800.

My team will spearhead this operation together with our strongest forces. If we can take down those thirty E rank blue team elites, everyone stands to gain a tremendous advantage.

We will leave the defence of our camp to Kairos since his teams are still recovering from their last battle. Three more teams will be assigned to him to guard the camp.

Kairos! With thirty-six men, can you secure our base?”

“Yes, Sir.”

A prompt reply.

Good! Are all of you clear on your mission?" George looks around the war tent and confirms everyone's expression to firm and on the same page as him.

"Alright, take a break, and we will meet up again at 0600 tomorrow.

Kairos, your team, is scheduled to guard the camp, so you're not needed but come over anyway, you might be able to give us some ideas. Also, stay back a little while after this."

Soon, only the two of them are left in the war tent. Without waiting, George immediately asked, "You mentioned Berserker's pill previously? So, they did smuggle those pills in after all."

"Yes, Calculus ordered his teams to use it. Those were banned drugs?"

"Yes. I have heard that in order to achieve greater results than what they could, some of the students have purchased illegal drugs before this exam.

Although it was banned, it’s possible for Calculus to bring it in since the body checks before this training exercise is more lenient on nobles."

"Wouldn't they be punished from that?"

"I don't think so. You have no idea how some nobles can leverage on their status.

Do you know why did Calculus ask everyone to use it?

The Berserker's Pill is a rather famous pill for improving each person's ability by a large amount, but it is an expensive drug to manufacture, not only so it will cause a lot of harm to the takers."

"I think it was a matter of pride for him. Right after we defeated five of their team members, he ordered it."

"This doesn't make sense, being defeated would not cause that much a reaction from Calculus...

Wait, just how were those five defeated?"

"Well… we lured them into our formation and punched their lights out. Since weapons have the impact-absorbing gel, we used our bare fists."

"That explains it! Calculus and those nobles under him are incredibly prideful. I know that you only wanted to defeat them quickly. However, it is a great insult not to use any martial arts and even more so when they consider their social status above yours.

You better watch your back from now on; you might be their number one target."

"I see, roger that," Kairos says. Despite the warning, the expression on his face remained unchanged. The most dangerous sort of opponent is those that are unexpected.

Calculus and those nobles are already his opponents, and since he knows that they are coming, he does not feel overly concerned.

As Kairos was leaving the war tent for his rest, Sasha hurried over with a great smile on her face.

"Leader, Alan has awakened!"

He hurried to the Snowdrifts’ tent and cut through those gathered outside after hearing the good news. They let him through, opening a path for him and when he enters the meeting room, there are already a group of students crowding around Alan, who is slightly groaning in pain.

"Are you okay Alan?" Tommy says while looking concerned. It had not been long since he awakens, and they feared he is still feeling great discomfort. Depending on how severe it is, it is a possible indicator that there are hidden injuries that they did not resolve, after all, none of them are actual doctors.

*Gasp* *Goan*

"Quick! Someone fetch some water!" someone yells, but before the voice, Jim had already run for a pitcher.

*Cough* *Goan*

"What's wrong Alan? Can you talk? Can you sit up?" Edward said anxiously as Kairos rushed over.

*Gooooan*

But when Kairos came close, he found out what is wrong with just one glance.

"This is serious guys!" He said grimly.

*Cough Gasp Goooooan*

*Smack!*

Kairos' palm heartlessly landed flat on Alan's face.

"It is a really serious… Looks like he has a serious case of pranking habit. I feel like smacking him on his face" Kairos says.

"Shouldn't you say that before you smack him?" Edward asked, repeating exactly what Kairos said to him earlier on.

"Arghh. You guys are merciless," Alan complained while trying to sit up. He had taken the rare opportunity to garner some concern from his friends. Although his groans are fake, his injuries are real and even with the high-grade medical pills, his broken back is not yet fully recovered.

The guys seeing his difficulties tried to help him up.

Now that they know he is more or less recovered, some of the girls in the group started praising how heroic he was during the battle.

*slams*

The guys seeing how popular he is with the girls ‘accidentally’ dropped him.

"Arghh... Oh my god" Alan groans loudly, this time for real, "I think you girls need to leave before I get killed.

They are heartless. Demons!"

*Giggles*

"Let's leave girls. We need to recover before the next battle starts."

"One moment, please," one of the four captains suddenly stopped the others, "We would like to represent everyone here and thank your team. If not for the way you fought, G rankers like us would have been killed for sure."

“First Diversion Team captain? I just realised, we did not ask for your names previously, but we did not think you might want to be friends after this exercise either,” Kairos said seriously. It rarely happens that teams put down their rivalry and become true friends. Haven’t they tried to befriend others many times in the past and were shunted?

Without backers, without money, and without the power to fight back, they are easy targets of bullies, even before they joined Saint Cadets Academy. After entering the school, the prejudice against poor students like them has only increased.

Due to this, in their hearts, they only recognise each other as friends. However, experiencing those fights previously, something changed inside them.

"Since we are brothers now, we cannot keep calling you guys First Diversion Team’s captain and so on, right?"

"That's right! My name is John" the short, and petite captain says. At first, he had indeed felt unhappy to be sent under the command of the lowest ranked team, but when he realised the vast differences in abilities between them and noticed how such a superior group took care of them, his thoughts completely changed. When his team had joined stronger groups in the past, they had never received such concern, most of the time, they were only treated as fodder.

"You can call me Long. The same word as in being very long" the lanky Second Diversion Team’s Captain says. Long did not think much, and happily accepted everything.

"My name is Silvers," the baby-faced First Covert Team’s captain says.

The last captain, a handsome and swarthy one, walked forward and very formally bowed.

"And, my name is Sasha."

"Whaaaattttt…. why do you have such a girly name dudeeeee?" Alan asked, his eyes wide with shock.

"No... I'm really a girl...." Sasha says shyly.

"What, really? I thought that all the four captains are guys?" someone else in the group says.

"No... Seriously. I'm a girl!" Sasha pouts.

The other three captains laughed heartily at how the others reacted. They had also thought at first that Sasha was a guy until she told them her name. Her complexion and dressing had made her look more masculine, serious and full of righteous appearance, than the rest. And at the age of twelve, boys and girls are actually about the same height, no wonder everyone had mistaken her for a boy.

*cough cough cough*

Alan who hasn't yet recovered laughed himself into a series of uncontrollable coughing that quickly became severe. Everyone wore expressions of concern on their faces again until he dismissed them with a gesture of his hand saying that he is alright.

“Thank you all, once again,” Sasha says with a brilliant smile. They looked at her carefully this time, and all agree that no matter male or female, she is a handsome person.

The guys quickly left the room so that Alan may rest, and soon only the five of them are left.

“By the way, do you guys feel my arms have grown longer somehow?” Alan asks while looking at his bandaged arms. His bones have mended more or less now thanks to his friends infusing in a large amount of energy, and George gave him the best medicines without sparing any costs.

“Nope,” Kairos replied normally.

“Nope,” Tommy says suspiciously quickly and a little guiltily.

“Ahem, now that Alan is awake, I want to share something with you guys” Edward immediately changed the subject, "Do you guys remember during our last battle, I shot a shiny arrow out?"

“Right! I wanted to ask you how you did that as well!” Alan asked excitedly, nodding his head several times and already forgotten about his arms.

"Yeah! It was incredible! The Orc went oomph and the floor Boom!!" Jim exclaims waving his arms around.

“Well actually after getting struck, I was already semi-unconscious.

At that time, I think I have slipped into the selfless cultivation method that Kairos has mentioned once before. Now I can understand why you said it is a state that one can only enter by luck and not by will.

At that time it felt as though I was wandering in a dream. I was aware of what's happening yet I was like a third party, looking in from the outside. And then suddenly, information that I shouldn’t know started pouring into me.

No… It's not just simply… information, but I could feel the life force of everything around me and all creations in my surrounding. Even nature herself seemed to be whispering to me.

I could hear their voices and of them offering me their power and friendship,” He said, almost in a trance as if he is reminiscing his experience.

“Then what happened?” Tommy asked very quickly.

“Hold on a minute,” Kairos interjected, “you’re saying that you entered selfless cultivation in the middle of combat? But how can you even fight in that state?

I recall when I entered selfless cultivation, it felt as if I had ceased to exist and became a part of my surrounding. At that time I could not lift a finger even if I wanted to.”

There are still many things they do not understand about normal cultivation and soul cultivation.

“It sure is odd, just like you said in that state, it felt as if I have become one with my surroundings.

Maybe it is because I was in combat when I entered that selfless cultivation that the whispers I taught me how to defeat him. In that instance, I learned an incantation cultivation method (武功心法)."

"What's that?" The guys asked this is not the first time that they had heard of it, but no one bothered to explain this to them previously.

"It's the reason why we do not have a proper martial art!

The incantation taught me the way to circulate my internal energy and the different stances I needed. Right after that, I fired that impossibly powerful shot!”

“You mean that final arrow that you fired through the Orc ranks was a martial arts technique?” Jim asked. Kairos, Tommy and Alan were also silently thinking as well, but their eyes all shone with excitement.

This is the first martial arts that the group have!

“I believe so! Since you can't really use my incantation, I’ll tell you all about the essences so you guys can create your own martial arts!” Edward says excitedly.

“YES! Finally! Will I be able to use other moves than shooting a glowing arrow?” Jim asked naively, but it was Kairos that answered.

“I have a feeling you can because every incantation is only a small piece of the picture, just like making a jigsaw puzzle. Though each person’s insight is unique, yet at the same time, everything is linked.

As we learn or uncover new things, we will be able to find the path of Dao and walk further on it,” Kairos said this almost instinctively. His previous cultivation experiences had embedded a deep-rooted understanding of the world in him.

Edward’s incantation became their first contact with an actual martial art. The methods they learned from him taught them how to use different meridian channels and what type of energy to use as a source.

For his own martial art, he summoned eight different elements, half of all the known elements. These many affinities proved how talented he was; it was almost as if the attributes loved him.

The four of them learned from him and tried to create their own techniques using his insight. The way they are fighting now is no different from savages relying on their brute strength and agility, but with a proper martial art, they will be able to infuse Ki into their attacks and vastly improve their power. Even Edward started exploring if he could derive a new technique.

However, they know that this is only their first step in the infinite Dao. Just one set of incantation out of the countless out there.

Finally, they have begun to tread the path of true martial arts!

. . . . .

After a whole night of practice, when everyone is getting ready for bed, Alan stood up barring the exit. There was something on the edge of his mind bothering him.

“Wait, guys, somehow I feel my arms are longer than before. Am I imagining things?”

“They look normal to me,” Kairos says coolly.

“Yep. For sureee,” Jim says in a suspicious tone.

“NORMAL!” Tommy says quickly and loudly.

“Edward?” Alan asked.

Edward looks away.

“I’m sure it’s longer than before. My arms used to reach my thighs when I hang them by my sides, but now they are almost able to touch my knees without me bending my back!”

Edward turns about completely.