Father Fan saw that his son has finished eating, so he clapped his hands and said, "Let's start now, shall we? How did your body improve in just 11 days?"

Fan Wuji has prepared himself for this.

"Look closely father!"

Fan Wuji activated his disguise, changing his aura into Baron Greed.

"And many more……"

Father Fan suddenly thought of something, "You were possessed by your soulbeast..."

Fan Wuji was at first taken aback, but then he nodded embarrassedly since he can ride on his parent's misconception, rather than explaining his hole cards, and failing miserably due to his lack of understanding.

Father Fan asked shockedly, "Which type of soulbeast is it, magical cat? Gem knight? Iron cavalier? Shadow lord? Scythe demon? Chameleonaire? Flame bear? Or, is it, the ruined king?

"None of them, it is a dr-,"

"Stop! Not me, show Ragnaros. Just let Ragnaros play with you. He has an ability you can use to explain your increase in strength."

"Fire elemental."

"DECLINED. FIRELORD OR NEVER."

"Oh, a fire elemental?"

"Correction. My soulbeast is a Firelord.."

"THE FIRELORD."

"A firelord? What makes it different from a fire elemental?"

"Father, I'll just summon the Firelord right now."

Fan Wuji said as he activated the tunnel to the outside of his beast guarding space. After the tunnel was activated, Ragnaros and his other soulbeasts will have free access to enter or exit his beast guarding space. Even when Fan Wuji is unconscious, his soulbeasts will still be able to go inside or outside at their discretion. After Ragnaros has fully completed his channeling to the outside world, he immediately...

"BY FIRE, BE PURGED!"

A small inferno blazed in the family's living room as a cute 1 meter-sized being made out of fire appeared. It has two shiny horns on it's head and it wields a little cubelike hammer with spikes on all its five square surfaces.

"God!" Father Fan looked at his most talented child in his family and he did not know whether to laugh or cry. "It is a good thing to have such a 'soulbeast', you must take care of it well."

In this regard, Fan Wuji only scratched his head and did'nt care to explain.

The floating Firelord supported itself in the air by constantly maintaining a little volcano on the ground, without even damaging the floor. Father Fan saw its precise control, and it redeemed itself inside his mind, then he asked it some questions, "Ni hao, what is your name?"

"BEHOLD, RAGNAROS!"

After taking a swift look at Ragnaros abilities. Fan Wuji said briefly to Father Fan. "Ragnaros helps me refine my body like hundreds forging steel compression technique. Ragnaros, blast wave on me please?"

"NAIVE! THIS PLACE IS TOO SMALL."

"Oh, sorry, Father, can we please find an area where Ragnaros can show you how he tempers my body?"

"Why not here, isn't it just tempering?" Father Fan was puzzled.

"It is rather violent." Fan Wuji replied.

"Hmmm, that can be arranged! Let's just go to the training base. We'll just test everything comprehensively."

Father Fan took Fan Wuji to set off for the number 40 training base in Xiguang, not forgetting to ask Ragnaros to return to the beast space.

Because his son is now a summoner, Father Fan wanted to know how strong Ragnaros' tempering is, and also test his son's total combat effectiveness in the process.

There are also a few other people who have this idea. Along the way, Fan Wuji saw groups young people on the bus terminal with him. After communicating, most of them were going to small training bases close to the wilderness.

Training bases mainly used for training summoners or cultivators of high school level and below. There are many artificially made dummies in the training base. It is suitable for low-level summoners and cultivators to improve their technique or those of their soul beasts through practice in the training ground, when their strength is still not strong.

Sitting on the No. 40 bus, Fan Wuji had a good chat with a boy named Tie Zhan on the bus.

Tie Zhan is also a third-year middle school student. He is tall for his age, close to 1.7 meters, with not so obvious muscle lines.

According to him, his soul beast is a stone ape, and it is black iron 5. Today, he just wants to see the combat power of his soul beast.

The stone ape is a common war beast, but common does not mean it is not powerful.

On the contrary, the stone ape is extremely powerful.

At the black iron stage, the stone ape's casual blows can have up to the strength of 85 men. As it enters the bronze and silver stages, the power and defense of the stone ape will be greatly enhanced.

At the same time, compared to other soul beasts, the stone ape is also more intelligent, and some well-trained stone apes can even use weapons.

However, the upper limit of ordinary stone apes is platinum, but only few can reach this level at most. Without proper training and nutrition, it is extremely difficult for soul beasts to grow to the racial limit.

But no matter what, the stone ape can be called an extremely good melee fighter among its level.

About an hour later, father and son finally arrived at this small training base.

Walking inside the base's lobby, a young guide walked towards them with a smile.

"Welcome, are you summoners?"

"Yes." The two nodded at the same time. Father Fan shook his head.

"Do you need an assistant or are you training alone?"

"Training alone."

"Training with my father."

Whether it's Fan Wuji or Tie Zhan, the purpose of their visit is different, so they must choose to train separately.

"Okay, this is the quotation from our training ground. After the three of you have made your choice, you can pay the fee."

The guide handed the two pamphlets into their hands.

Father Fan and Wuji opened the booklet and looked at the quotation above.

Black Iron materials

Room rental- 199 credits/1 hour

1.4 ton black iron dummy (corresponds to average cultivator with no refinements) 499 credits/dummy

900 kilo black iron plastic armor (average mental energy protection of support cultivator with no refinements) 999 credits/armor

4 ton black iron 1 dummy (soulbeast class) 1299 credits/dummy

7 ton bronze iron alloy 5 star herald dummy (monster class) 2899 credits/dummy

Training orb with 400 pounds of uncompressed energy (cultivator) 699 credits/orb

Training orb with 1.1 short tons of class 0 mana (soulbeast) 1499 credits/orb

Training orb with 2.1 short tons of herald class mana (monster) 3099 credits/orb

76-240 manpower automatic ball launcher (black iron soulbeast class) 2099 credits/hour

350-750 minotaurpower automatic ball launcher (5 star herald monster class) 3299 credits/hour

Complete arsenal package- avail of our entire arsenal of weapons for only 9999 credits a month, ammunition cost not included

Motion detector machine- free usage once you have purchased materials worth of 2001 credits or more

Energy detector machine- free usage once you have purchased materials worth of 4001 credits or more

Personal guidance/mentorship from silver rank trainer- can avail once you have purchased materials worth of 10,001 credits or more, mentorship prices per trainer may vary

……

This small training ground provides a sparring area for all ranks below silver. There are many kinds of tools developed by humans in here. Although the tools cannot simulate the real fighting that happens in the wild against monsters, you can't deny that this will at least lower the casualty rates for novices. This tools are the most authoritative in the testing of combat effectiveness, gained from the efforts and sacrifice of countless predecessors.

However, the training ground's prices are really high for ordinary families. The average monthly income of each family in Xiguang is about 10,000 credits, so it is difficult to afford the training expenses.

And if you also hire an assistant during training, you need to also pay for their time.

Before going out, Fan Father and son told mother Fan the purpose of the day, so she transferred 5,000 credits to Father Fan.

"Mr. Guide, how much is the rental just for the Skana?" Father Fan asked.

"Well, the Skana is free, Mister."

"Guide-kun, do you have any fist weapons here?" Fan Wuji added.

"Let me check first. I'm not really sure."

"Oh, brother Wuji cultivates the body?"

"Learning to fight hand to hand for self protection. We can't always depend on our soulbeasts to protect us all the time." Fan Wuji replied.

"True, but ever since guns were... You know, invented, we summoners don't really need to fight hand to hand anymore."

"What you said is correct, kid. But once you run out of ammunition, do you really think monsters will let a summoner like you run away?" Father Fan can't help but interject.

"You have a point, but don't we still have the melee corps to fight tooth and nail for it?"

Wherever there are humans, there are classes, and people will always have to be mindful of their status. For generations upon generations of human civilization in Ralos, not everybody can become a summoner. And for these people who can't be summoners, they still have cultivation to fall back on, especially since every able person will have to be ready for mobilization anytime. With the creation of guns, people who are well off can buy some for themselves. But for those unfortunate enough to only live day by day with their meager salary, there is a special place in the society for them. The melee corps. And Father Fan belongs to this unfortunate lot. With only enough money to maintain two ballistica crossbows for his wife and eldest son, Father Fan has to tighten his belt and train with the shashka-like Skana for his life depended on it.

Before all other weapons, every human had to master the Skana. This simple blade becomes immensely powerful in the hands of a master. For humans, it is the foundation of their fighting style and a pillar of their culture.

Before Ralos, before the cataclysm, a long, long time ago, there was still the heavens blocking the sky. Stopping the path for most of humanity and preventing the aura of the universe from being absorbed by the people. One man took it upon himself to split the heavens open, releasing the enslaved humans from the chains of heaven, opening the road of cultivation for all. The man soon left the world in order to pursue an even bigger road, but on that day, just for that time, everybody saw the swordlight, that famed swordlight which signified freedom from slavery and oppression. That slash not only opened a wound in the heavens for 600 years, but also opened a new era. Many blacksmiths crafted swords in the likewise of the wound in the heavens, which kept bleeding aura by the way.

Swords became the trend of that era, and Skana, which is not the strongest, nor the fastest, nor the most famous sword became the best. It is the best, because it is the cheapest and easiest to manufacture, and it is as hardy and stubborn as the pioneers who carry them. Along with Skana, cultivation of swords became the norm, and the last peerless tianjiao to advance while heaven was still alive, used its final life force to create a cultivation technique which is of the same quality as the Skana. After consulting with various sword experts and peerless tianjiao, this expert refined the last breath of the heavens in order to create the first cultivation technique of the human race. Upon creating the Excalibur cultivation manual, he shared it to every human hiding place he can find, and the humans he shared it with also kept their promise as they also spread the knowledge to the other humans they can reach. Thanks to this tianjiao's generosity, humanity sounded the horn of counterattack against the monsters and were able to kindle and feed the fire in the torch during this most trying time in human history.

At present, the descendants of this last peerless tianjiao is one of the biggest powers in the world, its foundation and investment lies not in gold and treasure inside banks but in people. They are the biggest shareholders of the global organization S.W.O.R.D. which stands for Strategic Worldwide Organization of Reservists Defense. Partnered with the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and industrial tycoon Tony Spark, they have their roots in every human settlement. With the vision of 'A Skana for every warrior', the mission of 'Every human a cultivator' and a goal of 'Make humanity great again', they are the de facto leader of humanity's grassroots level.

Along with the Excalibur training manual, they also have two other training manuals on open access. One is the Mag training manual, the mental counterpart to the physical Excalibur training manual. War is about logistics, so the Mag training manual's usefulness is in training a readymade group of factory workers in peacetime efficiently with little to no cost at all. This is also the cultivation method of Fan Wuji's mother and eldest brother.

The last training manual is the Volt training manual. It's a very famous spiritual manual, well known for its utility and its ability to create an electric shield is worthy of note. The shield of lightning allows bullets and projectiles that pass from it's own side to become energized, while at the same time it provides cover for it's own side. It is noteworthy since it seeks to benefit a select group of people. And I'm sure you know who is benefitting the most from the popularity of this training manual. Of course, it's Tony Spark, not only is he the descendant of the Edison Spark, famous inventor of Volt training manual but only slight well known is this, the inventor has a disciple that goes by the name of Tesla. Enough of that gossip, what's even more important is the fact that Tony can make more money from this since he is the largest arms and munitions dealer in the world. The strength of the Volt training manual is that it caters to the people who just want practicality, like the military, frontline resistance fighters, mercenaries and other people who can afford to train like this.

It can be seen from his words that Tie Zhan is rather well off, but not to the point that he is able to break away from the influence of S.W.O.R.D. Seeing that Tie Zhan is that kind of person, father and son just waited for the assistant to return. Thankfully, the assistant returned at the right time, earlier and it would be a gossip, later and it would be awkward. Since it was just right, its great.

Assistant returned with a well made Skana and an old Tekko."Sorry, we're phasing out fist weapons already. Thankfully, I managed to sneak this Tekko out of the donation box. You can even bring this home if you want, nobody will notice a missing Tekko that is supposed to be donated anyway."

"Many thanks, senior Guide."

"Well, seriously kid, why do you have to use fist weapons? There is the Skana which you can find everywhere, not to mention the Excalibur manual you'll soon cultivate in high school will go well with it. Fist weapons are not really good and only boxers in dojos train fist weapons. Besides, fists weapons are only useful in fighting on specific situations, yet some other weapons are more suited for these jobs even more. Like sparring weapons perhaps? Having more body parts to work with is much more better than say, just only fists. But anyways, what else can I get you?"

"Thanks for the advice, guide kun. I'll keep that in mind. We're going to get a cultivator dummy with armor, a cultivator energy orb, no refinements or energy compression please. We also need to borrow the soulbeast class launcher for one hour. Room duration, three hours should be enough."

Tie Zhan also said, "Me too, but double everything of what he ordered, and I've changed my mind. I'll take up on your offer of an assistant."

"Cough."

Fan Wuji coughed, he really did not guess wrong, Tie Zhan this goon, is a supremacist!

"Okay, after paying the credit costs, we'll deliver your materials to your corresponding rooms. Oh, and by the way, since your total purchases are over 4001 credits, you can avail of our free testing from our motion and energy detector machines. Just show the virtual receipt to the main lobby to learn the top speed and max energy values of yourself and your soulbeasts. Also, in case you want to earn the corresponding cultivator certificate for your ranks, our training base also has a complete set of assessments for aspiring lvl 1 to lvl 10 cultivators."

After paying the credit cost, Fan Wuji and Tie Zhan each got a key.

There are more than a hundred independent closed training rooms in the training base, which is to protect the privacy of people.

The door to the training room can only be opened by holding the key. Tie Zhan waited for his assitant, so the Fan duo just bade goodbye to him and they left the lobby to proceed to their destination.

Father and son Fan followed the directions above his head and found their training room.

Room 69, here it is.

Opening the door, an empty room came into view.

The room is ten meters high and nearly 20 meters long and wide. Several rows of incandescent lamps are embedded on the top of the wall, emitting a bright but not dazzling light.

There is a 1.5-meter-high robot in the corner. Beside the robot, is a thick metal alloy vault used to store personal belongings and other materials.

That's the communication robot in the training room. It also doubles as mental energy sparring partner for it needs to use the mana inside the training orbs to fulfill the customers ability needs. In order to be of convenience to customer, once the customer finds that he needs something, it can also communicate with the main lobby. The voice-controlled robot will immediately record the customer's voice after hearing it, and will relay the recording to the motherboard.

After a few minutes, while father and son waited, the things Fan Wuji ordered has arrived.

"Order confirmed. Be aware that the ball launcher will start ticking down from when it is first activated. The time will last for one hour, so in case you want to try other stuff, you should pause it's countdown first before deactivating the machine. The machine will still reduce the time even when it is deactivated, you must remember that. Oh, and I'm sure you know what to do with the energy orb, it's rather unstable, so it can only use 1 ability continuously, so you better choose the correct ability before you start manipulating it, don't waste all your hard earned money."

Father Fan nodded gratefully. Of course, he can see that the employee of this training base who delivered the goods is of the same status as him. That's why his reminder was really timely for training bases are known for doing these unscrupulous tricks in order to rip off some ignorant customers.

"Start with the tempering technique. I wanna see how your soulbeast does his hundreds steel forging something something." Father Fan said to Wuji standing in front of him. They have already changed to their training clothes and have hidden the other stuff, including the recently ordered objects in the metal vault made up of an unknown alloy.

Fan Wuji nodded and took a deep breath. He assumed the baron Greed disguise and called for Ragnaros with a weird sounding voice, it sounded like two ogre's speaking at the same time, making it sound incomprehensible to the onlooker Father Fan.

"Come and aid us!" "Assist us! Lend us your power!"

Ragnaros soon appeared in the front of the two in a blaze of fire. The first thing that happened was that Fan Wuji was lit aflame. After receiving the buff from Ragnaros, Fan Wuji felt an irresistible urge burning from within him, lightening his body and making him feel like he can do anything. After a moment, an explosion happened with Fan Wuji as the epicenter.

'Boom!'

Father Fan was surprised as he defended himself from the explosion that happened with the Skana. He thought in his mind. "Thankfully, the soulbeast is rather smart and did'nt use this at home. If he did, would'nt we be homeless right now?"

He verbally said to Fan Wuji. "Okay, okay. Stop. That explosion just felt like almost thrice the power of my slash with a Skana. Do you feel anything else?"

"Well, father, as you can see, the explosion is so big that it will really temper the body of the person affected by it."

"Well, then, how long can Ragnaros keep this up for, and when can he do it again?"

Fan Wuji first looked at Ragnaros. The little firelord nodded to him signifying compliance and tacit understanding. Seeing that Ragnaros was amiable to him and he finally was able to take an advantage from this fella, Fan Wuji smiled to his father and told him the true extent of Ragnaros' blast wave.

"Well, Ragnaros can do it every 9 seconds, and he can keep this up for a long time."

Fan Wuji remembered when he first picked Ragnaros talents during their trip to this training base. He remembered that Ragnaros has three cards to choose from and that he can only choose one. In order to make his alibi more believable, he obviously chose the only card that can upgrade blast wave.

Sulfuras Hungers (Level 1)Ragnaros

Quest: Every time Empower Sulfuras kills a Minion, its damage is increased by 1, up to 25.

Reward: After killing 25 Minions, increase its damage by an additional 100.

Shifting Meteor (Level 1)Ragnaros

Each time an enemy is hit by the same Living Meteor, they take 6% increased damage from it.

Quest: Hit 75 Heroes with Living Meteor.

Reward: After hitting 75 Heroes with Living Meteor, its duration is increased to 2.25 seconds, and it can be reactivated to change its direction once per use.

Engulfing Flame (Level 1)Ragnaros

Increase Blast Wave's damage by 75% and its radius by 15%.

After hearing what his son said, he asked Fan Wuji whether he can try this technique. Fan Wuji complied and asked Ragnaros to try it with his father. A few seconds later...

'Boom!'

Fan Wuji shrugged off the little damage from blast wave with his physique strengthened by Greed and the passive defense ogre hide which reduces all the damage he received by one-fourth.

"How is it father?"

Father Fan first felt the lightness effect of the first part after activation but after the second part took effect, he noticed something was amiss. Even though the power of the explosion is very strong, it did'nt do any form of damage or injury to his body, meaning that tempering isn't possible. He scrutinized the look in his son's face, hoping to see anything suspicious but he did'nt find anything like that. Only concern and hope for his father's wellbeing.

He concluded that the tempering must only be effective for the summoner so he just regarded it as just that. His mood turned gloomy for his hopes were so easily dashed, so he just turned this hatred into motivation to 'lecture' his lucky son.

"Your strength is extremely unstable since you have only acquired it recently. You must relax your mind, use basic fighting techniques first, and get familiar with your strength as soon as possible."

Father and son Fan removed the cultivator sized dummy and its matching armor from the vault. They assembled it in the center of the room so that Fan Wuji will be able to use his martial arts on it, thus achieving mastery over his body.

"Yes, father."

Fan Wuji nodded and replaced his agenda into learning basic fighting techniques so that he can better control his own strength.

Father Fan lectured Fan Wuji on the the martial arts of fighting with his fist.

"There are three boxing methods of fighting with fists. I have only a minimal understanding on each of them and what I can tell you is only hearsay and you'll soon learn more about these in high school, but it is not bad to learn this three sooner rather than later."

"First is the boxing art, Gaia's Tragedy. It is a fist art that focuses on slow, powerful strikes. Next is the fist art Fracturing Wind. It incorporates fast, multi-hit strikes with powerful finishers. Masters of this art can deliver a barrage of fast punches and deliver powerful knockdowns. The last is Seismic Palm, it has methodical strikes with reaching combos, and are able to stagger and knockdown opponents that are of nearly the same size as the practitioner. Now, which fist art do you prefer? You must train according to your own preference. Think of that Tekko as only a training weapon and you must follow your own path. You don't need to learn a specific art just because you have a Tekko right now."

"I have been taught, Father. I want to learn more about this Gaia's tragedy. Slow, powerful strikes fit my style."

"Are you sure? Then you must practice on those two contrasting words, slow but powerful. You must comprehend their secrets yourself. Hajime!"

"Osu!"