After cultivating for half a day, Grey suddenly felt a burst of energy rush throughout his body circulating through his meridians before finally ending their cycle returning into his dantian. His entire body felt completely refreshed and his expression turned to one filled with a rare joy which hadn't been seen since 4 years ago. He jumped to his feet revelling in the exhilarating feeling of the beginning of his cultivation.
'Ahhh, at this rate it'll take forever to reach fathers' level. At that point something bad might have happened to him. I really need some of those pills or other auxillary items that can increase the speed of ones cultivation' He thought to himself after his excitement had finally worn down.
With this thought he decided to go ask where he could obtain these materials from the people in the city.
As he began to walk through the city, this time in a much better mood than the first place although he still maintained an unnaturally cold expression for a child, he came across the shop of the kind shopkeeper who gifted him his clothes.
"Excuse me shopkeeper, do you know where i can learn to cultivate?" he said trying his best to sound like an innocent child who simply has dreams of such things.
The shopkeeper turned around with a smile "Who in Lunarreach city doesn't know such things? Especially when no outsiders are even allowed near the city." He remarked with a slight chuckle.
Grey fumbled slightly as he almost directly fell to the floor. Realising how stupid his question was he quickly tried to come up with an explanation. "umm.. I..."
But the shopkeeper quickly cut him off from his embarassment, "Don't worry i'm just a shopkeeper, such things have no meaning to me."
He seemed lost in thought for a second before continuing, "The best place in the Lunarreach kingdom to learn to cultivate is naturally the Lunarreach Royal Academy however to join you have to be quite talented and also have the ability to pass some tests."
"Also without a letter of recommendation from the academy, one will have to sign a blood oath to serve in the kingdoms army for atleast 1 year. Anyway be careful. " He looked towards Grey meaningfully. Grey however had already decided to join the academy. "If you want to go you should go now the testing period happens to be today." He said with a sigh.
'Only one year in exchange for the chance to dramatically increase my cultivation, of course i'll take it. I'll have to fight others anyway what does being in the army matter.'
"Thank you shopkeeper." Grey waved without turning back.
After asking around for a while, Grey discovered that to join the academy he had to go to the recruitment centre in the upper class area. So he began to travel towards it, secretly unimpressed with the so called 'upper area' after all with his status he had naturally seen many more grand locations.
Once he arrived, he saw many others lining up to prepare for the recruitment test. Some exuding confidence while others clenched their fists in order to deal with their nerves.
"Ahem, everyone quiet!" shouted a relatively young looking man to catch everyones attention who atop a stage in the centre. "It appears that there is enough people who have arrived now so we shall now begin."
"I am the Lunarreach academy examiner for the test. As for how the test will work, one by one you will come up to the stage, sign a blood oath to serve in the Lunarreach army for 1 year before proceeding to the talent test which will determine your elemental affinity and a grade for your talent. Only those who are C grade and up will be accepted in to the academy. That simple."
"I'm sure most of you know this but in case of otherwise, the penanlty of reneging a blood oath is death." Luckily everyone who came was already prepared for this or this definitely would have caused an outrage within the participants.
Grey however was actually quite suprised by this and also the complete lack of reaction from others but his expression still remained the same as before not showing this at all.
One by one the participants went up to the stage and took the talent test. The test first estabilished a grade of F-A which would determine ones potential and cultivation speed in the future. There were also far higher grades but this small kingdom only posessed a low grade testing rune and thus was unable to determine such things.
A good amount of participants had C grade talents but only a few had B grade and so far nobody had an A grade talent.
"Participant Grey, Please come up to the stage." Grey, with a small jump, climbed up to the stage when the examiner passed a scroll to him. "Grey, please use your blood to sign the contract."
As he was told Grey picked up the small knife prepared and cut his finger before signing the contract with his name. As he finished, the contract turned into a speck of light before entering his body. It felt as though chains wrapped every inch of his body and he knew that if he really refused to serve in the army then the contract would seriously kill him, it was a truly uncomfortable feeling. That feeling soon disappead however as he regained his movement ability before looking towards the examiner.
The examiner simply returned his look with a smile before motioning towards the rock imprinted with a rune. As he did this though, a large commotion appeared from behind the crowd. An arrogant looking young man sat in an exquisite golden chair being carried by four others as the crowd split to make way for their entourage.
The young man was carried all the way to the stage before jumping out of his chair in an ostentatious manner before landing in front of the examiner. "You. Can I take the test now."
The examiner simply gave a smile. "Young master Yan Ming, please go ahead."
The young man named Yan Ming looked towards Grey. "You, get out of the way."
Grey glanced back at his with clear disdain in his expression but unwilling to cause trouble for himself moved to the side. Unfortunately Yan Ming clearly saw his instinctive expression. He was now determined to kill this kid in front of him. Who in the entire Lunarreach country dared to look at him like this! Even the king would be respectful to him because of his fathers strength, yet this mere peasant looked at him like he was a piece of trash on the side of the road.
In his anger he drew his sword before slashing towards grey. With his strength at the fourth layer of Qi gathering, the first layer grey was completely not his match.
Grey was completely in shock at the suprise attack. He even moved out of the way but this arrogant kid still made trouble for him. He knew that he could not release his demonic energy as that would take too much time and he would still be killed by the academy. In a panic he simply attempted to jump backwards in hopes of dodging the attack.
The attack was simply too fast for the current Grey to handle. Even if he did manage to evade a fatal attack he would still be gravely injured. His expression turned completely cold as he vowed to himself that if he survived this, he would kill this Yan Ming in the future no matter who he is.