"Resolve"
"Without the resolve to constantly put your body through the strenuous task of creating Inner Energy, even the most talented practitioner wouldn't get far on the road of Martial Arts.
The ancient legends tell of a time filled with numerous exalted Immortals capable of destroying mountains and creating seas, living in this continent many thousands of years ago.
It is said that the current Martial Arts Inner Energy techniques that we used were known as mortal techniques back in the ancient era, and were widely spread..."
Inside the lecture hall that was designed in an ancient eastern style, made from unknown materials, Deacon Tang Qinghe was giving a lecture about the history of martial arts.
Seated in the lecture room were the newly recruited batch of Outer Disciples, they all wore grey robes lined with one black line at the abdominal area, excluding four talented students that instead wore robes with two lines. Each line represented the level of the Martial Artist.
Those four were the only ones that managed to reach level 2 in the Martial Disciple stage in the short timespan of a year since they enrolled in the sect and began practicing Martial Arts.
They were, Dian, Wu Xuefeng who was Dian's friend, a young girl of privileged disposition named Liu Yue, and her brother Liu Yunjian, who instead of being a haughty person like his sister, seemed to be the type that simply ignore those he doesn't find worthy of his attention. Both came from a large Martial family line, so they both developed their own unique senses of arrogance.
Unlike the others, Dian enrolled in the sect half a year late, when Tian Bai took the new recruits for training to gain experience and chanced upon Dian's village and took him as a disciple. The journey back to the sect took a whole two months, some days spent walking, and some spent on carriages, once they left the forest areas.
currently, Dian was sitting at the lecture hall, he had arrived at the sect 2 months ago, and it was already 2 years and a bit since he came to this world.
Even though he enrolled later, and started practicing the Raging Sword Arts almost half a year after the rest, he was the first of them to reach level 2, before the Liu twins who reached level 2 a month after him, and Wu Xuefeng who reached level 2 not long ago.
Dian, who had already received some books about the history of Martial Arts from his master, had spent his time reading them at his own courtyard, so he already knew what the Deacon taught in the lecture.
The strict rules of the sect say that every student must attend at least a total of 5 hours in the lecture hall every week. Dian didn't mind it because he personally believed that with knowledge comes strength, and with strength comes power.
Learning more about the different, unique implications of the Martial Arts culture in this world, coupled with his understanding of Garia's history and hunting culture, allowed him to broaden his horizons when it comes to the many different types of techniques people could practice to gain strength.
Dian's routine of practicing both Garia's Military Martial Arts and the Raging Sword Arts allowed him to gain a great deal of strength at speeds untold of before.
Currently, he was already a mastered stage level 2 Martial Disciple, and he only needed to continue training for a short while to break through to the next stage and official become an inner disciple of the sect.
Once the Deacon was wrapping up the lecture, Wu Xuefeng said to Dian, "The bi-yearly outer sect tournament is coming up, you better not slack off! because I'm starting to catch up to you and next time we fight I won't necessarily lose"
"You wish!" Dian laughed and said.
The way to enter the inner sect, and become an inner disciple, is through placing in the top three of the disciples in the outer sect tournament that happens once every two years.
Usually, only disciples who have been in the outer sect for a long while, and slowly grew their strength to the pinnacle of level 2 can place in the top ten.
But the new batch of disciples this year is particularly talented and, already, four of them managed to reach level 2, something that rarely happened in the long history of the sect.
At the same time, inside a richly decorated hall, the higher ups of the sect have gathered, the atmosphere was tense, and they seemed to be discussing an important matter.
They all sat on the floor while opposite to them sat a figure on top of a slightly raised platform, even though his appearance was that of a wrinkly old man, his body was flowing with Inner Energy, and he gave off a mighty aura, and a feeling of suppression.
The man was the Raging Sword Sect's only Martial Warrior, his name was Wei Tianfeng.
[AN: feel free to respond to any of my Author Notes with suggestions and opinions, currently I'm busy with life stuff, so I slowed down on chapters and also, motivation is depleting. but hopefully it won't be for long.]
[AN: also, power stones really help in pushing the book up in the rankings, so that more people could find it, so do with that what you will.]
[AN: if anyone has any suggestions for the story, or any opinions you want to share, reply to this paragraph with them, I will try to implement any good ideas into the story!]