Chapter 19: C Class

Zen watched as everyone returned to their conversations, probably speaking about him and his killing intent directed towards Jian. He could only imagine what rumours would erupt out of this. Until that very moment, Zen did not know he could even emit a killing intent. He made a mental note to learn to control it, as he did not want to offend a powerful person by mistakenly emitting his killing intent towards them.

“Hey, what do you have there?” Fuu said, gazing at the card in his hand in curiosity.

Zen looked at the card which had Chen Jian’s information, realising that Hue Yi had left it behind. “N-Nothing,” he said.

“Come one let me see!” Fuu reached out for it and Zen unsuccessfully kept it away from her questing hands. She was able to snitch it and frowned as she stared at it. “It’s blank.” She handed it over to her brother so he could inspect it.

Cong stared at it and was about to say something until his sister spoke up.

“We heard about the match yesterday.” Fuu said.

“Oh joy,” Zen said, under his breath.

“What were you thinking?” Fuu scolded. “Challenging someone who’s that much more powerful talented than you.”

Zen scrunched his face up in disgust. “At least I was brave enough to try!”

Fu smiled, not a humorous smile but mocking one. “So that’s where the saying comes from. You know, the saying about what the difference between courage and stupidity? It comes from people like you.”

“If I want your nagging Fuu, I’ll ask for it.” Zen said, as he and his cousin glare at each other. “Otherwise, keep your stupid opinions to yourself!” Zen turned on his heels and stomped off.

“What a brat!” Fuu folded her arms over her chest.

-

Zen stood alone for a few more minutes before being joined by Bao and his gang.

“Wang Zen, good to see you’re alright!” Bao said, patting him on the back.

“Yeah,” Zen said sourly.

“Don’t worry, buddy.” Bao said. “The year is still ahead of us. Stick with me and you’ll get your revenge.”

Zen perked up at this, and Bao smiled at him.

“All we have to do is keep an eye on him,” Boa looked at Jian. “We learn all his secrets and then we beat this foolish commoner to the ground.”

Zen nodded, committing himself to a vendetta against the Chen Jian.

A teacher came out a few minutes later, with a clipboard in his hands. “Alright, I will call out names, first for the A-Class, and then the B-Classes and the C-Classes will be last.” The teacher said.

Zen did not wait with bated breath. Like the examiner said, he was technically the weakest guy of this year, probably the weakest student in the whole school, so he knew he would be in the C-Class. And so, he waited patiently as Chen Jian, Jao Fuu and Xao Bao were called into the A-Class. Jao Cong, Deng Ai and Li Ao were called into the B-Classes and finally, Zen was called into the C-Classes.

Zen sat alone in his new class of students. In total, there was a single A-Class, two B-Classes and three C-Classes, with Zen in the bottom ranked C-Class. He sat alone, until someone stopped at a seat next to him.

“Hey, Wang Zen!”

Wang Zen looked at the boy beside him. He was dressed in simple grey pants and shirt and had brown eyes with black hair cut short on his sculp. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“Oh, we weren’t introduced.” He said. “My name is Chu Jiahai. We hung out with Bao.”

“Oh!” Zen realised he must be one of Bao’s posse.

“May I sit here?”

“Yes!” Zen said before the boy sat beside him. He was thankful that there was someone sitting with him. The other students seemed to be avoiding him, probably because of the rumours going around.

Their lecturer walked in. “Alright class, I’ll explain how this school works without wasting any time. You have to choose 12 subjects to study for an Academy Period. A single Academy period is 2 years long and when you fail a period, unless you have special allowances, you are expelled from the academy. Now, there are three ways to pass a period. The most common and easiest way to pass a period is to get at least 9 approvals from the lecturers of each subject. So you get 9 approvals out of 13 subjects and you may continue. The other two, are… harder and trickier. First, you can learn and master a technique called the Sparkling Jab.”

There was a swarm of black balls of light before each student. A scroll appeared in front of them.

“Now, the instructions on how to perform the technique are within these scrolls.”

“Hmm, sounds easy enough,” Jiahai said.

Zen nodded in agreement before opening his scroll alongside Jiahai. Zen froze, unable to read the crowded, foreign text on the scroll.

“The scroll is inscribed in a few ancient dialects in a coded pattern.” The lecturer continued. “Now you know how archaeologists and historians feel when they try to decode ancient text. Decoding the scroll is only the first step. Sparkling Jab is a high level move, so you may have a tough time actually learning it, let alone mastering it, for it will be tested.”

“I guess that’s out of the window,” Zen said, putting the scroll down.

“Now, the last option looks at your growth as a cultivator.” The lecturer said. “First, you’ll have to completely pass the Intermediary Level. Then we’ll see how far you’ve gotten into Novice, depending on the average ranking in the Novice level, you’ll either move on to the next period or not. If you’re a single rank below the average, then you fail.”

“I guess it’s possible to pass all 10 Ranks of Intermediary in two years but going far into Novice? It would take a genius to go beyond the first rank.”

“Man, it’s like they want us to fail.” Zen complained.

-

After the lecture, the students of Class C3, were allowed to choose the 13 subjects out of a possible 18. Zen was disappointed to see that there were some options that were not available to him because he was in the C-Class, as A and B-Class students had a wider range of subjects to choose from. He felt as if they were placing little importance to their education because they were at the bottom of the barrel and therefore would not last long in the academy. Avoiding theory based classes, Zen chose as many martial arts classes and a few qi control classes. He was disappointed that there were no martial arts classes that focused on weapon using, other than the basic archery class.

He’s first day of training was difficult. He was not expecting so much physical activity, so much so, that he collapsed against his bed at the end of the day.

“How am I going to survive 2 years of this?!”