Yan was an above average 16 year old considering his beginnings, he had managed to enter a cultivation school, he grew up from a poor life with only his mother and just felt he was lucky he wasn't a very mixed blood elf. He was a light elf.
Today would be his first day and he would not see his mother for a long time after this, so he said his goodbyes previously and began traveling, his journey had been quite a while but he was finally nearing, it was a huge school and even from very far he could feel the energy coming from it.
On the trail there was some other elfs which wore the school clothing messing with an old man on the street, it was an old beggar man with tattered clothing and a small satchel on his side
"Hey you! Knock it off why are you messing with this old guy!"
"This old impure mixed blood looked at me funny, whats it matter to you?"
"Just stop messing with him if there is no real reason."
Yan had gotten into a fighting stance and began channeling mana which started to crystalize on his fist
The other elfs saw and one started to do the same, but the others pulled him away
"Whatever let's not beat him up in public or we'll lose face for teaming up."
They walked toward the school which was not very far from this town
"Hey old guy, you okay? Why'd they do that."
"I am of very impure blood little elf, why did you come to help?"
"Just to help what's it matter, you alright?"
"I am fine thanks to you, I see you are a cultivator, why don't you take my artifact? I have had it for many many years and now have no further use for it, you can have it if you agree to use it for good."
Yan looked down to the old man's hand to see a skull which had runes and designs carved into it, and it was fashioned into a helmet.
"No problem old man."
Yan took the skull from the old man's hands and started to inspect it, it was suprisingly very, very heavy.
"Hey old man, what is this made of? My names Yan by the way."
Yan looked up to see no sign of the man he helped anywhere.
[System Uplinking]
The skull had leather laces which could wrap around his arms, this allowed him to wear it like a hood.
He continued to the school
Now made it there, they had a fist sized crystal stone which would measure mana, and a large stone in the ground which measured ki, he had ranked a Wood IV on mana and Wood II on ki, so he was placed as a Wood Rank student and pointed towards where he would get settled in, the classes would only start the next day.
The rooms were chosen by draws, after unpacking his roommate came in, around the same size in height, slightly taller, a more muscular physic with light grey skin yellow eyes and pitch black hair, he had big sideburns and long hair.
"Hello nice to meet you I am Yan."
"Same to you, I am Xu. I hope to be out of Wood Rank by the end of the half year. So in case you get too attached or fall in love with me, don't say I didn't warn you."
Yan was silent for a good three seconds before realizing it was a joke, this was due to the serious tone and face his roommate had.
"Oh, uh, haha It's good I can handle heartbreak."
This joke was not good one bit and Xu just looked at him for a bit and then began unpacking.
Yan had left the room and went into the cultivation grounds, it was beyond a tall gate and looked like a wild forest, after going a bit far he had settled down to begin cultivating his mana.
[System Uplink Complete, Initiating Sequence]
"Hallo!"
A deep voice spoke as if directly into Yan's ears
Yan jumped up from his cultivation, and looked around to see no sign of anybody near him.
"Hello? Who's there?"
"My name is Jin, I am a Knight and I will grant you the power to greatness."
"W-what do you want in return mysterious being."
"Very good, I want you to keep your promise."
Yan had remembered the old begger earlier in the day, and if the promise was just use an artifact for good
"Uh, can do."
Knowledge flooded Yans mind, it was like scriptures of powerful cultivating had been embedded in his mind
Yan had started to perform this new and mysterious way of cultivating and became lost in cultivation, night fell upon the forest
"Why'd he choose such a horrible place to cultivate?"
"Who knows, doesn't matter, we can do whatever it's fine, we can just blame it on one of the wild beasts in here."
"Alright, I saw when he was circulating mana that he was at most wood rank."
Yan got up quickly and saw three elfs, the same ones he saw earlier bullying the old beggar, they had already begun to circulate their mana so he did the same
Yan was immediately suprised to find just how much mana was circulating
"Hey I thought you said he was a wood rank? He's at least a bronze rank, no matter, let's do this."
Before Yan could react he was blasted off the ground and sideways into a tree, the three boys began to pummel Yan
"Hallo, want some help? I ca-"
"I'll do whatever help me!!"
"Haha listen to this fool, we aren't gonna help you..."
The boys had gone into a cold sweat and took several steps back
The skull helmet that was on Yan's back was now part of a scary being, it was now a shimmering blood red and black metallic color, as was the being wearing it, the grin on what used to be Yan's face was like a monster
"Hey! Stop that!"
The three boys had gotten very scared now, one decided he would turn and bolt away, his two friends saw him run past bushes and could no longer hear him, they had started to gain hope to run, and in that same instant the Yan-like creature had blood dripping from it's shimmering hands.
"Please spare me, please please forgive me I will give you anything you want."
The Yan-like creature leaped onto the boy pinning his shoulders onto the ground so hard that the bones could be heard crunching, and blood had began dripping out from his clothes
The boy had began to let out a shriek and the creatures hands were bloodied again holding a piece of the boys spine, which had been ripped from his neck
The third boy already knew running and pleading didn't work, he also knew that a fight would be useless, as tears ran down his cheeks he began to pray when he heard a double-like voice speaking, one was the boy he attacked and one was deep and unknown
"If you want to pray me away, I am afraid to say the Hells cannot contain me and the Heavens praise me."
Yan woke up under the tree where he was cultivating and then ambushed earlier. The ground and trees around were wilted and aged
"Hello? Knight?"
"Hallo Yan!"
"What happened? How'd you get rid of them?"
"Oh Yan, the thing is I could only help just then but now I will have to rest, I spent so much energy mending your physique that I need a break, also I feel I should say now that your goal should be finding a place with more soul power so you can cultivate better, alrighty that's all bye bye."
"Wait!"
"Yes?"
"Oh that actually worked, uh, what happened you didn't tell me."
"Oh yeah I gave you a weapon for breaking swords, I have bound it to your soul if you feel around you should be able to bring it out. Bye bye!"
"Knight?"
"Oh no I'm late for my class!"
Yan rushed out of the cultivation area and ran all the way to his class
"Welcome, you are an hour late, I hope this will not be any example of future behavior, have a seat."
The teacher was a tall older Oak Elf, with a long mustache which was amazingly well groomed
"Sorry.."
Yan had sat down next to a larger Grey Elf who seemed more interested in doodling than the class, Yan peeked over to see what it was and it was a really, really bad dragon. It looked more like a fat toad
The teacher had continued to speak of cultivation, but compared to the knowledge in Yan's head it seemed like child's play
"I will ask, Mo, Yan, and Chung to come up here for a visual demonstration on what cultivating your mana is."
Mo was actually the boy sitting next to Yan, the teacher had picked these two students because they were slacking off, and had chosen Chung because he was already near advancement to bronze rank and was already known to be quite skilled, he believed that after losing face and feeling shame would humble these slackers
"Here you, stand here, you here...
Alright, I will release glow mana into the classroom, and when I say to, you will begin cultivation okay Chung?"
Elements can be infused into mana giving it a visual appearance to those who aren't skilled enough to normally see mana, and even non cultivators, and mana can be released like dust by just about anyone with mana, but only released in condensed form with skills.
After releasing it and everyone looking at it spread throughout the room with awe, the teacher had given him the go, and he began cultivating, the mana within a four feet radius of him had slowly began circling and then covering his body and disappearing
Some students applauded and many were impressed just with how pretty it was
The teacher redid the requirements and then gave Chung the go, immediately everybody saw the difference, all the mana in the room had slowly swirled closer and covered him before disappearing
Mo was especially impressed
"Wow good job! Give me pointers sometime!"
Many classmates had agreed and shouted for him to give pointers after class
The teacher redid the requirements and turnes to Yan with a smug look
"Your turn now Yan."
(I already learned a load from that skull knight guy, I am sure I got this in the back)
Yan began cultivating
Everyone was silent, nothing was happening, all the glowing mana was staying still.
"Hey bud it'll be okay not everyone is meant for cultivating."
Students in the crowd laughed at him, some just felt bad for the kid, but the teacher was in awe
The wood that the building was made out of began to rot as it was stripped bare of it's mana, the teacher saw this clearly and was in shock..
But then, the teacher looked around, it did not take mana that was released but it began to take it straight from the source, the teacher, and it also started to do so from the students. In just a few seconds some students already were knocked out and the teacher went into action, knocking out Yan.