"The Dark Winter Field."
Vasari had no idea what to expect from this place. Well, he had some clues based on the name.
It's probably dark and most likely cold…
"Hello there young man. You seem interested in the Dark Winter Field. Would you like me to assist you?"
A middle-aged woman approached Vasari from his front.
Vasari guessed that she was tasked with overlooking the Dark Winter field. "I heard that this Dark Winter field assists cultivators control their innate yin and I want to enter this place to do so."
Hearing this, the lady nodded in understanding.
"Yes this place helps cultivators control their innate yin but it can also strengthen all forms of yin as well. Cultivators who have learnt a type of Yin-based Will come here to strengthen their Wills. So it is quite a popular field in the Outer Haven."
The lady explained the real purpose of the field to Vasari since it was quite apparent that he lacked this general piece of information.
"Hmm, I see. And I guess the Summer light field has similar effects for Yang?"
"Correct. There are also fields for all of the basic elements within the Outer Haven."
"So how do I enter this Dark Winter field?" Vasari finally asked as he faced the women.
"25 Cloud points to enter the outer region, 100 Cloud points to enter the inner region and 500 Cloud points to enter the centre where the yin energies are the most potent."
Vasari formed a slight frown when he heard the amount of sect points he had to pay in order to enter the cultivation field since it was easy to guess that the Summer Light field would use similar if not the same prices to enter.
This means he needed 50 Cloud points which he currently did not have since he used 5 Cloud points when he went out for dinner with his roommates and their friends, leaving him with 45 Cloud points.
'Ahh what a dilemma'
Vasari decided to think about the problem later and carry on with what he planned to do today.
"Where do I pay?" He asked as he took out his Cloud badge.
"Just walk through the door in front of you, there will be a receptionist on the other side. Just tell her what region you want to enter and show her your sect badge. Your points will automatically be reduced after."
The middle-aged woman was patient as she explained the process to the blind young man standing in front of her.
"Thank you for your assistance, Miss." Vasari nodded and made his way toward the entrance of the building.
"Hehe, no worries and good luck."
------
Vasari entered the building without further delay.
The interior of the building was plainly decorated and only a simple desk and 3 doors occupied the small space which looked comical considering the enormity of the building.
"Welcome to the Dark Winter Field. 25 Cloud points for the outer region, 100 for the inner region and 500 for the core region."
Vasari heard a young and uninterested voice come from his front. The young receptionist performed her practised routine lines while she applied red nail polish to her well-trimmed nails.
Vasari did not mind her attitude and took out his sect token. "Outer region," Vasari said and 25 Cloud points were automatically deducted from his cloud token.
The door closest to Vasari opened and a breeze of icy cold air assaulted his body causing him to involuntarily shiver slightly.
"You can stay in the outer region for 24 hours. once your 24 hours are up your cloud token will beep and you have 30 minutes to return to this lobby otherwise you will be punished by the sect. If you leave before the 24 hours is up then your session will end and you will not be able to return unless you pay again."
The bored receptionist informed Vasari of the rules. Vasari thanked her before walking towards the entrance of the outer region. He was feeling excited and a bit nervous which is normal when one does something for the first time.
------
Vasari walked through the door leading to the outer region of the Dark Winter field and immediately he felt a weird sensation all over his body that lasted not even a second before he abruptly felt a difference in the air temperature around him
The outer region of the Dark Winter field was exactly as one would imagine. It was constantly dark but the cultivators were still able to see although no more than 20m around them. The usual green colour of the grass was replaced by an icy blue colour and the wind was strong and heavy while carrying an icy chill that assaulted a cultivator's body.
This truly was not a place where many would willingly come to cultivate unless it required them to.
Vasari was unbothered by the limited visibility that the outer region caused for obvious reasons however the icy cold winds made him a bit uncomfortable.
'Damn, it's cold but still bearable. I can easily last 24 hours in here but I'm not here to survive but cultivate.' Vasari's mind was straight and his goal was clear.
Cultivate.
He walked for 10 minutes in a random direction and sat down in a lotus position. Clearing all of the unnecessary thoughts from his mind, Vasari entered a meditative state. By doing so he can fully control his consciousness which allows him to view his body from the inside and out. If Vasari focused with all of his efforts then not even the atoms of his body could escape his senses. This would be utterly unheard of if anybody knew he was able to do this at his low cultivation but because of his special eyes, he found it quite easy.
Others would not be able to perform this feat and the reason that many would take a long time trying to control their innate yin or yang energies was because they struggled to separate these energies from the Qi they absorbed. Trying to control the yin energies in Qi was much more difficult than trying to control natural yin energies found in the physical body. Vasari did not have this problem since he was able to view his body like an open book so finding and identifying different energies was practically child's play for him.
Vasari scoured his body in search of his innate yin and found it pretty easily since it was basically in his blood, skin, tendons, veins and genitalia. Yin was not just composed of water, ice and wind elements but it also represented blood, gentleness and flexibility.
However finding it was the easy part, actually being able to control it was the difficult part. Average cultivators could spend years trying to control their innate yin and cultivation havens like the Dark Winter field were rare to come across for the average cultivator.
Vasari was stumped.
No matter how hard he tried he was unable to control his innate yin. After struggling for 3 hours, Vasari realized that he had to look at the problem from a different angle because clearly the way he was going about it was wrong.
Vasari heavily breathed in to clear his mind once again but instantly regretted his actions as he breathed in a mouthful of icy cold wind. He wanted to curse out loud but he suddenly felt something off and decided to examine the ice-cold air molecules floating in his body.
He followed it as it went through his skin, veins, tendons and blood. By continuing to follow its movements, Vasari came up with a solution to his problem.
All this time he was trying to force his control over his innate yin energies but seeing how the air molecules moved and behaved clearly illustrated that instead of forcing his innate yin he had to guide it along, acting like an usher. Vasari remembered one of the main properties of yin...gentleness. Gentleness was the key to successfully controlling one's innate yin energies
And so Vasari continued cultivating but this time he tried his new theory.
A satisfied smile adorned his handsome face when only after 5 minutes of testing his new theory he was able to control a small portion of his innate yin energies.
Immediately Vasari noticed that he did not feel as cold as before and his body felt more relaxed and flexible.
'This must be the benefits of being able to control your yin energies.' Vasari's thoughts were spot on and it made him excited about the future.
'Don't become addicted to cultivating, rather become addicted to the gains earned from cultivating.' This piece of advice was not something Vasari understood until just now but feeling his body becoming stronger was truly a moreish experience.
'What benefits would controlling my yang give me?'
With those thoughts, Vasari made his way towards the exit of the Dark Winter field.
-----
"Poor guy...he was only in there for just over 3 hours before he came out. He probably underestimated how harsh the conditions of this place are."
The lazy receptionist mumbled as she glanced at the broad back of Vasari, pitying him for his ignorance.
-----
Vasari had a hop in his step as he made his way back to his residence. He arrived at his shared home with his roommates already asleep.
'I wonder how Asher and Timo are going to be able to afford to enter the Dark Winter field and the Summer Light field when they spend all their cloud points on alcohol and food.'
Vasari chuckled at the thought of their surprised faces when they realize their lack of cloud points.
As he lay in his bed he also made a mental note to find ways to get cloud points besides doing well in tests since it will still be a while until the first test.
------
The next day in class, Miss Covington was in the middle of a lesson.
"So if you ever find yourself fighting against an Infernal Beast, it would be best to avoid using martial techniques that use the fire element as they are practically 100 percent resistant to most types of fire. Any questions regarding this topic?"
Miss Covington sat at her desk after she finished her planned lesson for today and waited for any questions that might come her way.
And as she expected a few students put their hands up.
"Yes Rena, what is your question?"
Miss Covington focused on the young woman with her hand in the air with a friendly smile. She already identified this young girl to be the nerd of the class. She always had a question on the topics and took everything she heard seriously. Miss Covington found her to be cute.
Rena stood up from her seat drawing everyone's attention towards her. Although her appearance was not as breathtaking as Talia or Witney, she had her own cute and nerdy charm that attracted some of the boys' interests. Short brown hair cut and styled into a bob with a fringe dropping to just above her well-groomed eyebrows with clear brown eyes sitting pretty beneath it. A small nose and chubby cheeks which was home to a cluster of light freckles amplifying her nerdy cuteness. Her lips were small and looked as if she was constantly pouting slightly. Her sect robes hid most of her body features but her height of 155cm (5ft) and wide hips made it easy to imagine the plumpness underneath.
"Teacher, would it be correct to assume that Water and ice-type martial techniques would be effective against Infernal Beasts?"
"Yes, I wanted someone to ask this question. Infernal Beasts are weak against water, ice and earth techniques. It is also advisable to avoid any hand-to-hand combat with them and only use medium to long-range weapons and techniques."
Rena nodded in understanding and thanked Miss Covington before she sat back in her seat.
Seeing that other students dropped their raised hands, Miss Covington assumed that they had similar questions to Rena.
"I would like to add that although Infernal Beasts are powerful they are also extremely reclusive and their population is dwindling due to their low production rate. It is unlikely for you to run into an Infernal Beast on our continent. Ah, I forgot to mention that there are also Infernal Lords. If you ever run into one of them then it would be best to prepare yourself for death. An Infernal Lord is equal if not stronger than one of the Core Elders of our sect."
"How do we tell the difference between an Infernal Beast and an Infernal Lord?" This time it was Jude who asked a question.
Not minding that he did not raise his hand, Miss Covington continued, "Infernal Lords are more humanoid in appearance and they have enough intelligence to communicate with other species."
"That is enough for today. You may all leave." Miss Covington dismissed her students who did not need to be told twice as they all rushed out of the classroom after respectfully greeting Miss Covington farewell.
"Vasari wait for a moment." Miss Covington stopped Vasari before he left the class much to the displeasure of Talia and Witney but they remained silent and decided to wait for Vasari outside the school.
Once only Vasari and Miss Covington remained in the class Miss Covington started the conversation.
"Congratulations on breaking through to the Yin Yang Control stage."
"It is thanks to teacher that I was able to break through so quickly. The Dark Winter field that teacher suggested helped a lot."
Miss Covington smiled sweetly as she was being thanked by Vasari who unfortunately could not witness the beautiful image in front of him.
"Still, it is quite an accomplishment. Not many can break through to the Yin Yang control stage in the time you did and with you controlling your innate yin first which is many times harder for males than it is for females. I am impressed."
Miss Covington genuinely praised as she was truly impressed and she could feel that his control over his Yin energies was exceptional for his age and cultivation. It was comparable to some outer cloud disciples who specialized in Yin-based techniques although only the weaker ones but with time she knew that he would improve his control.
"When do you plan on attempting to control your innate yang energies?"
"I would like to practice a bit more on my control over my yin for the next week before I move on to controlling yang but I want to enter the Summer Light field to do so. However, I do not have enough Cloud points so I was going to look for ways to earn some." Vasari answered honestly as he felt his control over his Yin energies was only at 10% at the moment. If Miss Covington heard his thoughts she would bonk his head for his absurdness.
"Hmm, You probably do not want to wait for the tests to earn cloud points right?" Miss Covington asked and Vasari nodded, "There are not many ways for a student to earn cloud points but you could try looking at the Mission Hall for any miscellaneous jobs like garden cleaning or pet sitting. They normally pay between 1 cloud point and 10 cloud points."
"I see, thank you, teacher." Vasari bowed his head slightly in gratitude.
"No need to thank me, Vasari, it is my job to help you."
Vasari smiled and nodded his head before leaving the classroom.
Now sitting all alone in the classroom Miss Covington sighed to herself and mumbled under her breath, "I can't imagine living my entire life in darkness and yet he always has a smile on his face. I only hope he will be able to keep that smile in the future."
-----
"Vasari, why did Miss Covington keep you behind? She didn't do anything naughty to you did she?" Witney asked as she inspected Vasari for any injuries or any signs of struggle.
Vasari found her over-protectiveness quite amusing, not finding it annoying as many others would.
"Hehe calm down, she just wanted to congratulate me on breaking through to the Yin Yang Control stage."
"Oh, you broke through already? Congratulations," This time it was Talia who spoke as she walked closely next to him.
"Thanks, I'm sure you two are not far away from doing the same," Vasari said, he could tell that they were both close to being able to control their innate yin energies. It was one of the perks of his perfect foundation.
"Hmm, We were thinking of going to the Dark Winter field but decided to use our cloud points to enter the Summer Light field instead." Witney answered as she finished 'inspecting' Vasari's body for any injuries and took his left arm into her embrace as they carried on walking.
"Don't tell me you spent your cloud points at the cloud bar." Talia and Witney could feel the slight admonishment in his tone causing them to feel embarrassed.
"W-well none of the girls know how to cook so we have to go to the cloud bar to eat," Talia answered, embarrassed at admitting their inability to cook. What husband would want a wife that can't cook?
"Hahahahaha let's head to the Missions Hall then. Teacher said there are easy jobs we can do to earn cloud points. It would help if you experience the Dark Winter field before your breakthrough, it is quite a unique experience."
Witney and Talia's eyes lit up when they heard what he said. A way to earn cloud points besides earning them from tests? Sign me up!
Both girls had the same thoughts as they walked side by side next to Vasari. The trio began their search for the missions hall.