I reached the classroom building a little before 8. The classroom was a wide room with rows of wooden desks facing a raised platform, and there were already around twenty to thirty students inside, all in Inner Hall uniforms, most of them my age or younger.
The moment I stepped in, the noise dropped by half and the whispers started right away. Looks like the news of yesterday's cafeteria challenge had spread overnight. (Kids are the same in every world. Give them some gossip and it will travel faster than any messenger.)
Ignoring them, I walked to an empty seat near the window, picked at random, and placed my notes on the desk. Just as I settled in, I felt a gaze on me. The tall boy with sharp eyebrows from yesterday was sitting two rows ahead with his followers, looking back at me with a sneer. I just nodded at him calmly, which seemed to annoy him more than any reply would have, and he turned away with a snort.
At this time, the boy at the desk next to mine leaned slightly towards me. He had a round face and soft eyes, and the way he fidgeted with the edge of his sleeve made him look like he wasn't used to starting conversations.
He said in a small voice,
"Um... you're the new student, right? The one who challenged Hollis Brandt?"
Hearing this, I raised an eyebrow.
"Hollis Brandt? So that's his name."
Seeing that I really didn't know, he was stunned for a moment and then couldn't help but laugh softly, covering his mouth.
"You challenged him without even knowing his name? He's already at Martial Disciple stage 2, and his family runs a few of the Hall-owned shops in the West Zone, so a lot of people follow him around." He paused and then added a little shyly, "Oh, I'm Lio Fenn. Sorry, I should have said that first."
"Kael Voss," I replied with a smile. "Thanks for telling me, Lio."
Hearing my thanks, he scratched his head embarrassedly, as though he had done something big. (In my previous life, sweet kids like this were usually the first to get trampled. I made a note to keep an eye on him.)
Before we could talk more, the room suddenly went completely quiet.
An old man in grey robes came in through the door. Or rather, he floated in. His feet were a few inches above the ground, and he moved forward steadily, while his robes didn't even stir.
I was in a daze.
Reading about it in books was one thing. Seeing it with my own eyes was another. In my previous life, this existed only in the novels I read at night, and now it was right in front of me, as natural as someone walking down the street.
The others were just as stunned. A few students in the front rows whispered excitedly,
"It's Elder Corbin Hale! Elder Hale is teaching us today — a Martial Warrior!"
Hearing this, my heart thumped. A Martial Warrior — the realm right after Martial Disciple, the one everyone in this room was still struggling to even begin. And if a Martial Warrior could already do this, I couldn't imagine what a Martial Master could do.
Looking at him floating there, the memory of a life spent at other people's mercy, of being powerless while others decided everything for me, rose up again. (One day, I will stand where he stands. And then I will stand above it.)
The Elder landed lightly at the front of the room and swept his eyes over the class. His gaze passed over every student calmly, but when it reached me, it stayed a moment longer than on anyone else, as if he knew exactly who I was. Then it moved on, as though nothing had happened.
I straightened my back and pretended not to notice.
He spoke in a calm and clear voice,
"Since there is a new student today, and a few of you still haven't become Martial Disciples, we will go back to the very start. What does it actually take to step into the Martial Disciple stage?"
"Spirit energy is everywhere around you — in the air, in the earth, in the food you eat — but an ordinary person can't feel it. A martial cultivation technique teaches you how to sense it and draw it in. But drawing it in is not the goal. The first step of a Martial Disciple is to use that spirit energy to refine your skin."
"And the hardest part is not the refining. It is calming your mind, sensing the spirit energy, and letting it flow towards your skin. A restless mind can't sense anything, and if you force it, the energy will scatter before it ever reaches the surface."
"Some of you broke through in a few days. Some of you are still stuck after months." He glanced at a few students, who lowered their heads. "What decides it? Talent is one part. The foundation of your body is another — those who grew up doing hard work or eating demon meat regularly have bodies already used to a little energy. The technique itself is a third. Resources are the fourth. And the last, which most of you ignore, is understanding. If you don't understand what you are doing, you are only copying the motions."
Listening to this, I compared it with what I had read at home. The books had only said that spirit energy is absorbed through techniques — none of them said the real difficulty was in calming the mind and guiding the energy. (Demon meat — so growing up in a butcher shop actually counts for something.) I couldn't help but smile a little.
The Elder continued,
"The Martial Disciple realm has nine stages, and in them you temper your body in order — skin, blood, bones, and organs. The skin comes first, because it is the outermost layer and the easiest for spirit energy to reach."
"When you temper the skin, you let the energy wash through it again and again. At first it will feel like needles, then like burning. Impurities will come out through your pores — black, sticky, and foul-smelling. Each time, your skin becomes a little tighter and tougher. A disciple who has properly tempered his skin can take a punch from an ordinary man without feeling it, and an ordinary knife will struggle to cut him. Rush it, and your skin will crack and bleed, and you will have to start over."
"Once the skin is done, the energy goes inwards, into the blood. Blood tempering makes your blood flow stronger and cleaner, so your strength lasts longer and your wounds close faster. It is more dangerous, because if you lose control, the energy goes wherever your blood goes. We will talk about it properly when more of you reach it."
I wrote down every point. The books had only listed "skin, blood, bones, organs", as though it was as simple as eating four meals. Hearing about needles, burning, and cracked skin made it real.
After this, the Elder clasped his hands behind his back and said,
"Every one of you here is an Inner Hall student, which means every one of you has already chosen a martial cultivation technique from the second floor of the library. And every technique has its own distinct properties."
"Some favour certain bodies — a strong frame, quick reflexes, flexible bones. Some favour certain kinds of energy — fire, water, earth, wind. Some are fast and will push you through the stages quickly, but leave your foundation thin. Others are slow and will make you suffer in each stage, but what they build will be solid. In the end, the technique you choose shapes what kind of fighter you become."
He pointed at a girl in the front row, who said hers was a water-based technique, slow but steady. The Elder nodded and said it would suit someone patient — she would fall behind at first but catch up later. He then asked Hollis Brandt, who stood up proudly and said his was an earth-based technique that favoured a heavy body. The Elder said it would make him hard to knock down, but that he would have to train his speed separately, and Hollis's proud face stiffened slightly as he sat down.
He asked two or three more students, and that was when it hit me.
Everyone in this room had already chosen one. I was the only one who hadn't.
As if he had heard my thoughts, the Elder's eyes turned towards me.
"You, the new one. Choose your technique before the next class."
Feeling the whole class looking at me, I stood up and bowed.
"Yes, Elder."
(Right after class, then. The library's second floor.)
...
The moment class ended, I said goodbye to Lio and headed straight for the Martial Library.
At the entrance sat an old man behind a counter, with messy white hair and thick glasses, humming to himself while flipping through a book upside down. Seeing me, he peered at my uniform.
"New face. Inner Hall? I'm Elder Tobber, the keeper here. First floor — books you can take out for 3 Days Maximum,or you can read here. Depends on you. Second floor, one cultivation technique and one martial art, choose carefully." He smiled gently, then returned to his upside-down book as if I had disappeared.
(An odd one.) I thought, as I thanked him and walked in. (Depends on who's reading it — so even borrowing a book here has its own rules about who you are.)
The first floor took my breath away. Shelves rose up to the ceiling, packed with books of every size — some new, some so old their spines were falling apart. Compared to the few books I had read at home, this was an ocean. Even so, I forced myself to turn away. (Later. I will come back for all of you later.)
The second floor had far fewer books than the first, but the moment I stepped in, I could tell the quality was on another level. Each manual was placed separately, with a small plaque below it.
Walking towards the cultivation technique shelves, I scanned the names one by one, and picked the one closest to me.
Burning Heaven Art.
A fire-based cultivation technique. Taking it down, I opened it and started to read the first few pages.
And as I continued to browse through it, my eyes began to shine faintly, while at the same time a few disorderly images started appearing in my mind, one after another.