"Uh…my stomach…" One heard a loud stomach growling coming from inside the lodge.
"Where… the hell am I now?" Gaining his consciousness again, Zayn felt more energized than before.
He found himself in an unknown room, in an unknown bed. The bed felt comfortable and his hunger dimmed from before. Someone must have carried him to the bed. But who?
'Right the man behind me! What does he want to do with me? Don't tell me… No, I don't want to!'
He stood up and sneaked around the room. One could see his terrified face, he started to imagine many kinds of scenarios. As there was not a window inside the room he walked slowly to the door of the room. Opening it as quiet as he could, he saw the man there.
"You are awake. Good. Sit down and eat Zayn."
"Ho-How do you know… my name?"
"Your name? It's in the letter."
Zayn started to search for the letter on him. The man saw him searching and raised his arm, showing
the letter.
"Don't worry Zayn. I am a teacher at the academy. Vown's the name. Sit down, eat something. We can talk after that."
"No thank you! I am not hungry."
As he said it, his stomach growled, again. Vown just started laughing his ass off. While he was laughing, Zayn walked to the table and sat down, not daring to look Vown into the face. His face turned red, he did not utter any other words, he just started eating.
'Instant Noodles, my savior!'
"So, Vernon, I mean the Thunder Head Sect Patriarch recommended you, to go to this school? Why? You are only a mere 1-Star Body Refinement Realm Cultivator."
"… Ai chon't tnow!" (… I don't know!)
Speaking with his mouth full, he just brushed off the question. Daisy told him that the letter will let him enroll in the academy and that these kinds of letters could not be faked. Not giving a clear answer should do the trick, he still should be enrolled.
"Zayn, where are you from? Any big sect or secret family behind you?"
"No. ai jam grom shomlasch kar oway!" (No. I am from someplace far away!)
Vown was skeptical about the recommendation letter. There should be a reason behind the recommendation letter. The only possible explanations, he had, were either that Zayn had strength not bounded to his cultivation stage or that he is from a big sect or a secret influential family. Zayn's clothes made him look rich and with a deep background. Both explanations still did not give him an explanation as to why the patriarch sent him here. Zayn could have attended the academy at the capital.
'What was the reason? Why?... Wait. Maybe… only maybe… I have to verify that!'
"Zayn eat up! We will enter the academy."
.
Inside the academy Zayn was amazed. The buildings inside the academy were far more modern-like than any in the city. They looked like the universities on earth. Vown explained that inside the academy were the teaching quarters, the most modern-like building, the dorms, the training ground, the cultivation quarters, and the Martial Skill House. Passing the cultivation quarters and the Martial Skill House, Zayn noticed that these two buildings looked out of the ordinary. They were far more fantasy-like than any other building in the academy. They gave him a feeling of mystery.
The academy was also bustling with life. The academy easily housed hundreds of students. Everyone here was busy. They rushed to the different quarters. Many of them were quite arrogant. They stared at Zayn and gave him looks of disgust. He himself did not know why. Maybe his clothes were too weird for the students here. Each and every one of the students wore robe-like clothes with purples stripes on their sleeves and a purple logo, resembling thunder, on their left chest. This was apparently the school uniform. Vown wore a black suit-like robe with nothing else on it.
"Listen inside the academy, the students can choose their teacher themselves. You won't visit any other classes then. Only the classes from your corresponding teacher. This allows a better guidance and a better relationship between student and teacher. Teachers won't accept every student who is interested. They can only have a limited number of students. This causes competition between the students and also between the teachers. The students want the best teacher available and the teachers also fight for the best students. I myself did not accept any student at all. Every student here is just a weakling. But this can change today. You will have the chance to fight for being my student. You only need to pass my tests!"
As he said that a cold shivering smile appeared on Vown's face. The smile gave Zayn immediately chills. He knew that something was wrong with the tests.
"Do we really need to test me? I thought I could just enter with the recommendation letter."
"Well, if you don't want to become my student, then that's fine."
"All right! Great talk. See you later."
"Wait! I promise you, you won't find any teacher here at this academy that would compare with my strength. In terms of teaching and strength, I am the best choice here."
"Yeah, well… I guess... I can try it."
"Great! … I mean, yeah whatever…"
Walking to the training ground, they saw many students there. The training ground was just an open area. Surrounding the area was a building shaped like a square. Many were sparring, others were training with the sword and others were just jumping around. Zayn could not figure out what these people were trying to do. They jumped around in the same pattern every time, almost like a dance.
"What the hell are these guys doing?"
"Are you serious? Can't you recognize Movement Arts? They are practicing the Snake Steps."
"What's a Movement Art?"
"You are serious, right? Urgh... Let's drop this matter for now and first complete the tests. It looks like I need to teach you a lot."
Inside the training ground, they entered the building there and walked to a room with cultivation equipment, from wooden swords to real spears to dummies. Vown walked up to a pillar-like equipment.
"This is the Strength Pillar. It can test a Body Refinement Cultivators strength. Many cultivators will eventually start rushing their cultivation, this will result in a strength drop. With this Strength Pillar, we are testing the student's strength and their cultivation foundation. If their foundation is perfect, they can even have strength surpassing their star."
What Vown did not tell him, was that to reach a perfect foundation one would have to be a genius. Only those genius could build up a perfect foundation and have strength surpassing one star or even two stars. One in ten thousand people could achieve that. This was in no way an easy feat. It was a hard and tiring task.
"Wait, how many stars are there in the Body Refinement Realm?"
"Are you serious?!?"
"I know that there are at least three stars."
Even though Zayn started to learn the Infinite Star Arts, he still only comprehended the first chapter. Through that, he only learned the basic of cultivation. Sensing and absorbing qi. Anything above that is new to him. As Daisy created the Quest "Reach the 3-Star Body Refinement Realm" he knew that the realm has at least three stars.
"There are in total ten stars in each realm. You do know what the stars stand for, right?"
"Yeah, they are like a level up."
"A what? The stars symbolize the different stages of a realm. Each star is in its principle the same in the realm, they only signalize advancement in the realm. This advancement allows you to be stronger than before."
"Listen, kid, you only need to reach the strength of the 3-Star of the Body Refinement realm. If you can achieve that we can go to the next round."
"Wait, I am still in the 1-Star of the Body Refinement realm. Isn't that like skipping two stars?"
"Yeah, yeah it's not that hard. Just try it."
For Zayn, this world was something completely new. He was basically on his own here with no knowledge about it. The only helping he had was from the Infinite Star Arts and from Daisy. But both of them were right now not easily available. So, he just believed what Vown told him.
Zayn prepared himself. He used his full force this time. Even he was curious as to how strong he really is. Though he did not have a clue about the strength disparity between each star, he thought that having a higher star would mean that he is stronger. He was not wrong. The higher the stars were, the stronger he would be. But how strong was also a question to be answered.
Punching, his fist flew against the pillar. The air around his fist was bending around it, adding to its might. It looked like small bandages wrapping around him. A light shrill sound could be heard coming from his fist.
*BOOM*
A light started to rise from the strength pillar. Easily passing the 1-Star mark.
2-Star
3-Star
Now slight resistance could be seen, and the light slowed, but it did not end.
4-Star
It was still slowly rising.
5-Star
The light stopped at the 5-Star mark as if it was stopped by a wall.
"What the hell?!?"