In between the time of the test and the start of the academy, there was one month. Naturally Grey used this time to cultivate since he could not find anything better to do. He had reached the 3rd layer of qi gathering during this time. If he fought against the 4th layer Yan Ming at this point, he atleast would not immediately be at risk of death although with his lack of experience he definitely could not win. Of course Yan Ming probably has also increased his strength during this time and with the support of his family it would be by no means easy for Grey to catch up.
Unfortunately Grey was unable to reach the first layer of the Thrarios cultivation manual during this time or he wouldn't be worried no matter how strong Yan Ming became as his bloodline transformation skill could definitely help him overcome such a small gap. There seemed to be some mental barrier holding him back but he had yet to figure such things out.
Now that the day arrived for him to go to the academy, he stopped his cultivation leaving the wooden shack before travelling back to the upper-area where the academy is located.
Once he arrived in a hall with the other new students, Yan Ming gave him a mysterious and sinister glare which made Grey sigh inwardly. It seemed as though he was already being plotted against on his first day and he still did not have the strength to deal with such a thing.
A bearded aged man who honestly seemed fairly ordinary to the new students stood in front of them soon began to talk, they would later learn this old man was the principal of the academy and perhaps one of the current most powerful people in the kingdom. "You are now all officially members of the Lunarreach royal academy, once you receive a token you will be able to use it to record merit points. These can be used to buy techniques, materials and other useful things. You may choose two of the many subjects which we have in the academy however there will be regular tests to check your progression that can result in you being forced to give up the subject."
At this point he looked back as if he saw something incredibly entertaining before he mysteriously disappeared in front of everyones eyes. Everyone was confused for a moment until a beautiful woman walked out. She stared at his previous location in anger. "Old man. Making me do your damn job. Can't you atleast finish what you started. You know I hate doing this."
She then turned to the new students with a warm smile as if her prior anger never existed to begin with, She spoke in a calm and soothing voice, "Hello everyone, now that obnoxious old man is gone, please come receive your token and a list of the subjects. Your token will contain a residence number which you may stay at. Anyway please return tomorrow to confirm the two subjects you have chosen."
"We normally have our students complete missions every three months but now there is too much danger to send students out of the kingdom alone, so instead we will conduct group missions headed by instructors and merit points will be awarded according to each students' performance. There will also be several tournaments to test progress in cultivation with rewards for the top places. You will graduate from the academy once you reach the pinnacle of the body refining realm. That is all I hope." At this point after she sighed in relief that this was over then her anger reappeared as she stomped her foot on the ground before also mysteriouly disappearing.
One by one everyone went to grab a token. Grey honestly expected Yan Ming to try something here but much to his suprise he just peacefully grabbed a token before leaving without even looking back like nothing happened to begin with.
After shaking his head at his strange thoughts, knowing Yan Ming wouldn't let go of the matter so easily and neither would he, he grabbed his token leaving the hall and heading to the residence inscribed on the token. It was a small building replicated countless times across the scenery for the many other students.
He walked in before sitting on the bed before taking out the token. As he sent his energy in to the token, information directly appeared in his mind. He saw this was caused by the intricate runes carved inside and was truly curious. These runes had such profound and unique uses. They would be extremely useful for him to learn them.
Looking at the list of subjects he quickly realised they were named genesis, after looking at the list that nothing interested him other than this so he eventually chose to take the subjects of general combat and genesis runes. After all he had basically no combat experience so it would be extremely useful to him.
He looked at the rules of the academy. No killing was allowed other than a life and death challenge which required an elder to oversee. At his current strength this was quite useful to him as Yan Ming could not openly take action against him so he would most likely send others to attack him during the group missions or other events and other than the instructors' themself there was nobody who could prevent him from running away amongst the new students but this also meant that once he was strong enough he also could not act against Yan Ming.