Tang Hao led the group to a very popular inn, where he had a reserved room for himself. The group sat in a circle around a large table in a wide room as dishes were brought one by one. Soon, the table was filled with exotic meals ranging from cooked variant beasts to delicious-smelling soups, seafood, pastries, etc. It had everything.
For Kaelen and Raizel, it would be their first time indulging in such an extravagant meal. They ate to their hearts' content as Tang Hao took care of the bill. While they ate, the group spoke about more serious things such as the Southern Desolate Lands, the relationships between the great factions, the mysterious soulless desert, and the treasure-filled Desert Abyss. However, they also talked about themselves; Tang Hao and Xue Qing, especially, were curious about the origin of the boys, since they were all so incredible.
When they learned more about Kaelen and Raizel's background, they were a bit surprised. However, they consoled the boys by saying their parents were probably very powerful people and should be okay.
As for Thorin, his situation was quite different, as he was currently doing a rite of passage, where young talented members of his clan are sent to different lands and tasked with returning to the clan by themselves within a specific time frame. He currently had five years left, so till he was eighteen. His case didn't surprise the two as much, since they've heard powerful clans liked to push their younger generation through hellish trials.
Then, Kaelen asked about the Tiger King, Tang Hao's uncle, and the Sundering Tiger Mountain.
The latter shared the stories of his uncle's military exploits against beast tides from the Western Wilderness and the wars against their rivals, The Black Crow Empire. "My uncle is one of our empire's generals; he's a very straightforward and steadfast man who enjoys battle wholeheartedly. His most famous moments were when he fought a general of the Black Crow Empire and defeated him, the mighty general Song Mu 'the Great Bear Axe of the Fading Night'.
They are both powerhouses at the Mortal Shedding Realm, so their clash was of heart-stopping brutality and destruction; they battled it out in the sky above the borders separating the two empires. The other time is when he pushed off a Mortal Shedding Realm monster beast king of the Western Wilderness that had plans of invading the Water Mist city that bordered the Western Continent, not far from here. When wars settled a bit in the last few years, he came to teach at Free Immortal Sect. He was then given the battle mountain that he later called after his title, the Sundering Tiger.
There's the battle arena where disciples of the sect can battle each other to their hearts' content or settle grudges. However, no death is permitted, as each match is closely overseen by an elder. There was a Life and Death stage before, but my uncle said that if one wanted to die, they should do it on the battlefield, not through settling petty grudges." Tang Hao explained.
As they listened, Kaelen and the others enjoyed the idea of the battle arena and looked forward to going there to fight other disciples. The group thoroughly enjoyed their time eating and talking, as they became a bit closer and got to know each other better.
They spent the evening together, and afterwards walked around the mountain, discovering other places.
The next day,
Kaelen was sparring with Rai and Thor. Sounds of weapons clashing could be heard as they all used mortal weapons for practice.
The tan skinned boy was fending Rai and Thor back effortlessly as the two attacked in succession.
"Take this. Dual Lightning Slash!" Wielding two short blades, Rai turned into a purple flash as he crossed his blades in a forward slash.
"Divine Guard."
Kaelen ripostled with a defensive technique of his own. His spear clashed with the two blades while Thor rushed behind him with a giant iron saber. "Great Mountain Slash." He struck with domineering might at the former's back. Feeling the incoming attack, Kaelen's ears pricked up as he did a half circle, evading it. Making Thor's attack clash with Rai's.
"Shit!".
Realizing they were pinned against each other, the two immediately took a defensive stance. With a leap, Kaelen threw two successive kicks while in mid-air, knocking back the two dozen meters away in separate directions.
He then rushed toward Thor with a ground stomp, making it cave as he lunged forward. "Hah!" With a shout, he strikes at the latter's stomach with the pommel while the latter was still flying backward from the previous attack, further accelerating his travel speed as he soon crashed on a giant boulder, spitting a mouthful of saliva.
Kaelen didn't stop there as he then did a ninety-degree turn, rushing towards Raizel next. As he approached the latter, he stomped the ground once more, leaping meters into the sky. "Heavenly Descent!" Contorting his body, making it do four quick spins, accumulating power as he swung his spear at the purple-haired boy.
Seeing the coming attack, Rai lifted his two blades and guarded against it. "Clang!!!" A sonorous clang resounded, as the weapons clashed.
The sheer power of Kaelen's strike crushed the ground underneath Raizel's feet. "Hahhh!!!" Kaelen kept putting more strength as he added power to his strike.
"Boom!!" A dozen feet wide and meters deep hole from under Raizel's, as his whole body is crushed by the former's tyrannical spear strike.
"Crack."
The two blades in his hands began to emit cracking noises as they caved under pressure. A moment later, the weapons broke apart as Rai was knocked to the ground.
Kaelen leaps back and lands on the ground away from the hole he just created. Stabbing the spear on the ground, he says. "That's three wins and one loss for me, ahahaha."
"Urgh." Thorin, who had been sent flying away on the boulder, walked towards Raizel with some difficulty.
"Hey, you are still alive?" He shouted at the pretty boy lying on the floor, as he extended his hand.
The latter opened his eyes to look at him, and with a forceful smile, he said. "Barely!" As he stood with the former's help and looked at the human shape form he left on the ground.
Turning to Kaelen, he said. "You really don't know how to hold back huh? You almost buried me on the ground, you bastards." He complained.
"Pfft, like you guys go easy on me. Anyways, better luck next time. I'm gonna go cultivate; I sense a breakthrough." Kaelen scoffed at the comment and went back into the house.
"That guy is really abnormal." Thorin said on the side.
"Yea, no shit! Let's go as well; if we breakthrough after him, we'll lose our edge; we must always be a stage or two above him or else we're going to have a hard time winning ever." The two quickly followed Kaelen as they went inside the house to cultivate as well.
A week later, Kaelen was cultivating in his rooms. He had broken through the second stage of Xiantian six days ago, and now he was charging toward the next stage. The third stage was the last stage in which you refined the muscles; next would be stages 4-6 where you refine the bones, and finally, vital organs in stages 7 to 9. He circulated his qi through his body, compressing it into his muscles all at once. He felt tremendous pain but willed through.
The pain was much more manageable than what he felt when he refined his heart. Time passed as he would go through rounds of refinement, exhausting his qi and using Source stones to recover it at much faster speeds before starting the next round of refinement. He found out the wondrous use of the stones when using them for his last breakthrough. It made his progress much faster as he didn't spend a lot of time recovering his Qi. Thanks to that, he advanced at a lightning-fast speed.
Of course, he gave stones to the others as well so they could make use of them. The stones were of high grades so he could use one to recover his Qi a few times before exhausting his Qi. He guessed that if it were lower grades, even one wouldn't be enough as the efficacy difference was equivalent to the cost difference. The three all made great progress.
…
Three months later,
Kaelen was walking in a beautiful starry night-looking hall. The walls of the hall were a dark purple, and books protected by orbs of lights of different colors floated in the air. Occasionally, Kaelen would reach towards a book, the barrier disappearing as it slowly landed in his grasp. Here was the scripture pavilion.
The last three months, Kaelen celebrated his fourteenth birthday, as well as Rai; the two were separated by only a month. His realm had grown a lot, reaching the 8th Stage of Xiantian, and his True Heart Sutra mastery advanced as well, as his bronze heart spirit solidified a bit, going from an early bronze stage to a peak-mid bronze stage,; it could further enhance his attack power.
Today, the class was brought here by Teacher Long for students to get three type of martial skills: movement skill, martial art, and weapon art. According to him, the color represented the type of art it was, and the higher the manual floated and the deeper the color, the higher its grade. So, the manuals within reach were mostly lower-grade martial arts.
The movement arts were purple, martial arts were red, and weapon arts were blue. The colors ranged from light to medium to dark, which corresponded to the profound, earth, and heavenly levels.
The book Kaelen reached for was a light purple book, entitled the 'Floating Cloud Step movement art. It was a profound mid-grade skill.
"Steps as floating clouds, soaring high in the sky with each step. At full mastery, one gains the ability to float in the air for a few minutes with every step." Reading the description, Kaelen decided to keep the book, but he wasn't yet sure if it was what he would go out with.
"I'll look for three of each type and decide amongst them." He thought. He walked around the great hall; many other disciples beside his classmates were there, but the hall was huge enough to move around without stumbling on others.
He looked around for a few minutes and found two more purple orbs, one light, one medium. "The Heavenly Crane Movement Art. High-grade profound art. Nimble and agile like a crane, one's movement becomes graceful and elusive. Great for a more balanced fighter."
"The Exploding Flame Step. Low-grade Earthly art. Fast and explosive, each step using elemental energy to burst forward at extreme speed, creating a fiery explosion on the ground. For a more aggressive fighting style. Most effective if used together with fire elemental energy but can be used with any elemental energy or blood Qi; however, the art level will be equivalent to a top-level profound art."
Reading the description of each manual, Kaelen decided to make a decision among those three. "Hmm, the Exploding Sun Step is the highest grade, but it's quite forceful. While the spear requires fierceness, it also requires balance and agility, especially to reduce the drawback of its length at close quarters. The Floating Cloud Step is agile, but it's too focused on floating; if I need to quickly reach the enemy for a quick strike, it will slow me down instead. The Heavenly Crane is the most balanced of the three, combining speed and agility, however, it missed that little bit of explosion."
Thinking, Kaelen fell into deep thoughts as he assessed the usefulness of each skill. "If I could merge the Exploding Flame Step with the Heavenly Crane Art, it would be ideal." He mumbled with a grimace; a bit reluctant to settle.
As if hearing him, a floating dark purple orb suddenly fell from high above the ground, falling straight into his grasp, pushing the other three books away as if it had some spirituality. The orb around them reappeared as they floated back amongst the other books. Kaelen looked at the book that had fallen from the sky, a bit shocked.
"This…" "The Golden Crow's Divine Ascension." He read the name of the book and opened the first page to read its description.
"Move like the sacred beast 'the Three-Legged Golden Crow.' With the unparalleled nimbleness of the divine crow and the explosiveness of the sun. Soar through the heavens like the majestic beast, leaving a trail of flames on your path. A balance of agility and explosive speed." Kaelen's eyes lit up as he read the description of the movement art.
"Hm?" Below the description on the first page, were red inscriptions that read:
"Caution: Its origins are unknown, and it is incomplete; however, the available stages are enough to consider it a mid-grade heavenly Art. The art's true level is unknown. Do not practice if you do not have a minimum peak-grade Heavenly bloodline of the beast or strength type, as the physical strain may be too much to bear or even cripple you. Practicing the art without flame elemental energy will drop the grade by a whole level. Thread with caution."
Reading the disclaimer, Kaelen's eyes brightened even more. "I'll choose this. Although I won't be able to fully use it before Elemental resonance and up, It's still much better than the other three. Alright. Now for martial art and weapon art." Placing the manual in the storage ring, he began looking for a martial art.