Once he returned to his housing inside the academy Grey looked towards the Genesis Rune he was tasked to draw. He practiced for hours on end yet was never able to finish the Rune.
The rune was called 'Flying Wind Rune'. It could provide the user with speed equaling 1 layer higher than them in the Qi Gathering realm.
Although the Premise Grade version could only work in the Qi Gathering realm and therefore was useless in the Rody Refining realm and above it was still incredibly useful. It would also consume large amount of the users energy exhausting them mut faster than fighting normally.
After memorising all the intricate lines required, Grey began trying to draw the rune. His soul energy tighly wrapped around a small ball of Profound Qi at the end of his finger.
He lightly dragged this sphere of Qi across the thin paper used to practice Genesis Runes causing extremely precise lines to gradually appear one by one. Each line was emitting a faint glow which caused the sweat dripping from his face to become faintly discernible even in the darkness of night.
Each line added caused his soul energy to be further depleted, his hands started to tremble as they struggled to maintain the previous precision, he felt as though weights had been added to his eyelids as he strained himself to keep the open.
'Just a little more and it'll be finished' he thought over and over again to prevent himself from fainting. CRACK! To his displeasure a crack had appeared in the rune. It slowly began to spread from line to line before finally shattering. Like a firework spread throughout his room, sparkles of light flickered before finally returning to darkness.
'Ahhhh, I was so close as well' He sighed falling back onto his bed, 'No wonder most people give up Genesis Runes to focus on cultivation, this is truly exhausting. If I tried to practice anymore I probably couldn't bring myself to cultivate.'
Although not disheartened, Grey's mood had still lowered considerably at his inability to complete a Genesis Rune so he decided to go on a walk.
A cold yet refreshing breeze blew against his face allowing his long hair to float in the wind. He had not realised before but the housing area was truly quite an appealing place.
He simply didn't care to look while it was filled with people as maybe intentionally or unintentionally he was avoiding them. Due to the 4 years of darkness and solitude his personality had gradually become more cold and uncaring towards others.
Even if someone wished to befriend him he would most likely refuse them after all the reason he was in this situation is because his father was betrayed by those he trusted.
Scaring him out of his thoughts a voice sounded behind him,
"Exhuasting yourself till the midst of the night to practice, abnormal behaviour for a young man I must say."
Grey reflexively jumped back in shock at this old man he didn't notice while looking around before. This is the same old man he saw when he arrived at the academy introducing the new students.
"Hoho, No need to be so scared, just my curiosity got the better of me so I couldn't resist coming to see you." He pointed to a chair across from him cheerfully, "Please, sit with me."
Naturally after recognising the man Grey was far less wary as he didn't believe someone from the academy would harm him. Now sitting in the chair Grey looked up at the old man. "Senior, is there anything I can help with?"
"Of course, of course." He laughed jovially yet his words made Grey shake nervously, "I was just wondering how suddenly an extremely talented child suddenly appeared in the kingdom with no prior background while there is nobody allowed through the gates, although it is fine if you don't want to answer. After taking the blood oath there isn't a problem either way."
Grey simply gave a strange smile, there was no way he could tell him that he was sent through space and coincidentally landed in the Lunarreach kingdom. "Senior, I don't think I can answer this."
The old man just laughed in response, "That was what i expected, don't worry after you have taken the blood oath I have no reason to doubt you either way and you don't have the cultivation to remove it."
Curious, Grey asked, "What cultivation would that be, Senior?"
"Well, you would have to be stronger than the one who created the contract, which would be me, so you would have to reach the True Foundation realm."
Grey scratched his head awkwardly realising that he didn't actually know the cultivation realms, "Umm Senior, can you tell me about the cultivation realms?"
The old man looked at him for a second before bursting into laughter, "hahahaha, Of course. Why not, why not. First is the Qi Gathering realm, at this realm you will gather Profound Qi condensing it in the dantian. Here you can at most use the Profound Qi to enhance your strength or speed.
Next, once one has sufficiently gathered Profound Qi in their dantian, is the Body Refining realm. The cultivator will begin to circulate their Profound Qi strengthening their body. This is the limit to most of the cultivators in our small Lunarreach kingdom as the martial alliance limits the cultivation techniques and materials we were allowed whilst we still accepted being under them.
This makes it difficult to break through so most will be stuck at this realm. Third is the Qi Flowing realm. At this realm the cultivators can start to channel their Profound Qi into different element based techniques for attack, defense, movement and other uses.
Then fourth is True foundation realm, which is simply an overall increase in all abilities. This is the realm at the pinnacle of the Lunarreach kingdom and the realm that I, as the principal of the Royal Academy have reached."
At this point Grey stared at him in shock, "You're the principal!"
But the old man just laughed even more than before, "Why is that such a shock, do I not look the part?"