Much to Wang Jin's dismay, the Body Edition wasn't going to complete itself. He had to find the other units.
Thankfully, he had a rough idea of where to look. The last page of the first edition book had a handwritten note stuck to the cover. It read as follows:
"Disciple, good job on completing the first edition of Body Techniques. The entire Body Techniques group consists of five units, but do not fret if you only contain this one. If you wish to know where they are, offer a drop of your blood to the note, and the writing here will disappear, and reveal a map."
It sounded like the gateway to a demonic ritual, but Wang Jin was certainly not the type to let that scare him, aware of it or not.
Maybe the note only reacted to the blood of those from the Jin clan.
Doing as the book said, Wang Jin allowed his wind magic to form a small blade, on which he placed his middle finger.
The blade cut through his finger easily, and a few drops of blood landed on the note.
And just as it said, the words written on the note magically began disappearing, as if they weren't even written in the first place. Then, in its place, a very detailed map of the world appeared.
It showed the five continents. Regalian stood in the middle, surrounded by the other four. To its left, the continent of Tthur was there, colored a dark green to highlight how much of it was swamps.
To its north, Throll was menacingly drawn. It was twice the size of Regalian, the second largest continent, and dwarfed the others in comparison. It was colored a snow white to highlight its cold climate and its high rise mountains.
To the south, the Beast Continent was drawn in all its terrifying glory. It was divided between the colors of white, brown, green, orange, and even black, to show off just how dangerous it was.
Finally, to the east, the Sky Continent floated over the seemingly empty Sea Of Ghosts. Like Regalian, it was colored green, recognized by its relatively untouched nature and perfect habitat for cultivators.
In one part of the map, namely on Tthur, there was a small circle that encompassed the few bits of brownish-gold. This was Sahara City, the city of the desert.
It seemed like this was where Wang Jin's journey would next take him. With a clear goal in mind, he began preparing for the adventure.
But first, he was going to have to think of a way to escape from the school. As everyone knew, the Academy didn't allow any of its students from venturing outside of its grounds.
"Isabella, where are you!"
It was almost as if Isabella was the solution to every solution Wang Jin had. But help or not, he figured it would be good to actually meet her again before he left the school.
***
It was now night. Normally, all students would be asleep, but the night owls had changed that. The few who stayed up at night were currently walking around the district, finding ways to keep themselves from sleeping.
They were unaware. Unaware that someone had managed to sneak inside the Academy.
"This certainly took longer than it needed to be. Now then, where is Wang Jin?"
The man walked out of the shadows, and began blending in with the evening crowd. He acted as if he was a student, and browsed the district's shops for a bit to cement his identity as just another night owl.
Finding a girl in an alley drinking coffee, the man approached her. He pulled up his phone, and showed a picture of Wang Jin.
"Excuse me. Do you know this person?"
The girl looked at the photo for a bit, before shaking her head sideways.
"Oh, okay. Die, then."
In an instant, the girl had passed out, seemingly from nothing. Taking out a small knife from his pockets, the man instantly stabbed the girl in the back of her head, killing her.
"That's what you get for being so useless. Now then, who should I ask next?"
"But I need to find the book too… fucking greedy elders. They sent me here to kill Wang Jin, but they also want me to find the first edition of Body Techniques. Seriously, what kind of clan leaders don't even know where their own techniques are located?"
"Still, I wonder what happened to Wang Jin. He was the weakest out of all of us, but he still managed to kill Kruos. And to think he's the brother of Lord— yeah, I shouldn't say his name out loud."
"I brought the page that contains one of the skills so I could train my techniques, but I didn't think this mission would take this long. Just traveling from Sky to Regalian took a month's worth of time, and having to search for that idiot Wang will only take more time."
"Ehh… but the old fogeys did promise me money, fame, and more techniques if I managed to kill him, so there's a silver lining to all of this."
"I just need to finish this and brave the journey back home."
***
The next day, Wang Jin made his way to school. Once classes were over, he headed for Class 1-AL, where Isabella supposedly was.
There, he found the girl in question working on brewing a potion. She carefully poured some ingredients into a flask, and began shaking it rapidly.
Approaching her, Wang Jin spoke up. "I thought you didn't do potions anymore."
"Ah! Wang Jin. Welcome! Sorry, it's a bit messy, but take a seat. And, yeah, I figured I could have another crack at it. And surprisingly, it's going pretty well!"
"Hey, at least it isn't exploding in your face." He replied.
"Heehee, you're right! I'm thankful for that. Anyway, what did you come here for? I'll try to help you if I can."
"Cool. Then, can you help me get out of school? All I need is to be your alchemical partner."
Talk about playing with their luck. The moment Wang Jin said this, the potion Isabella was brewing blew up in her face, covering her head in a purplish goo.
Perhaps too focused on what Wang Jin said to even register her failed potion, Isabella asked him, "Sorry, you said you wanted to leave the school? What's wrong? Do you not like it here?"
"Huh? No, it's not like that. I want to leave because I wanted to do some research outside of the school."
Of course, Wang Jin couldn't tell her the actual reason. Telling her he was going to another continent to (possibly) dungeon dive in order to look for combat techniques that belonged to the Jin Clan wasn't exactly going to help his case.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can help you there! I really can't."
"Why not? I heard alchemists can have partners who exit the school and retrieve ingredients."
"That's true, but all the ingredients I need are accessible from the school itself. Anything I require is provided, so there is no reason for me to apply for a temporary leave."
"Damn it… what should I do then?"
"Well, now that I think about it… there might be a way."
"Really? Tell me, please! I'll love you to the ends of the earth and beyond if you do!"
Of course, this was just a joke. But with how desperate Wang Jin was, he was going to take any option available to him, even if it meant professing false love.
"That's wonderful of you, but no thanks! As for how we can get you outside of the school, I think you should try speaking to Miss Shiloh. She's a good friend of mine!"
"I don't think she'll approve of me asking for a partner in alchemy, especially if it's a boy, but I'm sure she'll accept if I request anything else!
"Wah, I really appreciate it! But uh, first, maybe wipe the goo off your face."
"Huh?" Placing her hand on her face, Isabella was surprised to find that there was a sticky pinking substance that had stuck to her face.
"Oh, heehee, my bad!"