The next morning, I woke up with a big stretch and yawn.
"Yet another boring day," I muttered to myself. "All one ever does is study and cultivate! How does this world still even exist?!"
Pushing the bedclothes off me, I dashed to Dorothy's door, giving it three heavy pangs with the side of my folded fingers.
'Boom boom boom!'
"The heck men..." came the response. "I'm cultivating here!"
"That's the point!" I hollaed.
"What's the point?" the other party groaned.
"I came here for the holiday, not to swap into a boarding school!"
"Pff." There was a moment of silence after that, until... the door screeched open, revealing a red-eyed teenager who looked like she'd been awake since the creation of the world, not blinking for a second. "What do you want, coz?"
"Simple," I began, with the most gracious smile.
* * *
There is a saying that the real part of a city, is its market, and that's just where we went to.
The Desolate Grounds City's market was bustling with people. Due to how silent I'd observed our courtyard to be, I'd previously come to a conjecture of the city having a little population. However, this... this was beyond my expectations!
"Hey, Handsome mister, this is the Yin Energy Ointment, you should buy some for your spouse for just an affordable price. Why don't you give it a try?"
"We have a low-tier savage beast just hunted last night, rich in spiritual energy. Buy one for tonight's dinner, eh Miss?"
"This is a thousand-year-old Cactus Eternal herb, and it'd add to your years of living by twenty percent. It's been tested and confirmed even by the our best appraisers. Why not get this rare herb before it's too late?"
"This is an Immortal Healing Pill! You know what they say, 'Your enemy cuts one, you survive by cutting ten!' But how can you retaliate when you're just as injured? Ask no further, this pill's got your back!"
. . .
All sorts of bizarre herbs and pills were on exhibition. What was worse was the over exaggeration that came from the sellers. It's true that there were lots of good pills there, but it was a certainty that counterfeit ones were sold side-by-side with these.
If one lacked discreet eyes in what one wanted, it was inevitable that one would be scammed.
"Steph, I want to show you something."
As we traveled through the sea of people in the market, Dorothy suddenly held my hand and took me through the an alternative street where a few people were this time.
"Where're we going?"
"Just hang on," she replied with a reassuring smile.
We kept walking for ten more minutes before reaching out destination.
"You've always wanted something fun, right? Check this out!"
"Huhn?" I raised my head up to a plate over a door that read...
"Martial Arts School!"
* * *
After paying the gate fee, since we didn't have the student token, we walked in.
The grounds of the Martial Arts School was quite impressively large.
What was even peculiar about it was their usage of spirit essence. The black-and-white robed students of the school did not walk about with their cultivation reined in like most people did, so I could easily identify the cultivation realm of a few.
"Let's hurry, I heard that Senior Bai and Senior Sun are having a duel!"
"Senior B-bai? Which Senior Bai?"
"Which other senior has 'Bai' as surname, idiot! Of course it's Bai Xun!"
"Jeez... and he's fighting against Senior Sun Xao? Hmm... to think of it, I've always been curious to know who's stronger. I thought Senior Xao and Senior Bai went into seclusion..."
"Not only so, I overheard some seniors saying that they were both able to make a breakthrough into Transcendent Mortal realm primary stage, by the time they came out from seclusion!"
"What? Impossible! Wasn't it last month they made breakthroughs into Transient Mortal realm primary stage? How did they leap a whole realm?"
"You never can gauge experts by common sense."
. . .
Proceeding on, we were able to eavesdrop into the conversation of two students right ahead of us, hurrying towards a direction.
"Do you want to head over?" Dorothy asked with a smile.
"Do you have to ask? I'm curious! I want to see what it's like for cultivators to fight."
She didn't say anything more. Together, we followed the hurrying students.
Roughly a minute or two later, we arrived in a large hall with a big platform used for sparring in its centre, but no ceiling. On the sparring ground were two boys warming up.
All sorts of conversation could be heard from the anticipating students gathered around.
Someone pointed forward with a sharp voice, "Look, it's starting!"
Immediately after that was said, everywhere became dead silent, as if a little increase in sound could foil the battle between the duo above the sparring ground.
One of the boys above was wearing a gray robe, while the other was wearing a black one.
After circling for a moment, the black-robbed senior crooked all his fingers in combat, before channeling heavy spiritual essence in a peculiar circulation method. It made one feel as if one was before a mighty tiger; raising goosebumps all over one's body.
"I-it's S-senior Bai's Golden Tiger Claws!" a student stammered, completely frazzled.
Soon, hushed murmuring could be heard from every student.
"I heard this fist technique was created by an elder of the Bai clan when he observed the movements of a tiger in a fight. It was said that through that technique, he was able to kill a cross-breeded inferno-phoenix bird!"
"Jeez... I also heard of that feat! Did anyone notice that he has reached minor accomplishment in it? Every battle technique has a sequential stage of mastery: novice, minor accomplishment, major accomplishment and quintessence. Just how smart is he to master it up to stage two?"
"Oh, no, Senior Sun Xao is a goner!"
"Humph, don't you dare bring Senior Sun down, idiots!"
"Zhang Zhaoya! We all know you idolise him, but isn't the fate of this fight clear..."
"Shut up, you two!"
On the stage, Bai Xun's lips curved up as he heard appraisals from his juniors and mates from below the platform.
"Humph, don't be in such a glee yet, we haven't even started," his opponent said with a calm expression on his face. Slowly, he drew out a sword from its sheath.