The academy elder, Ma Ru Da, felt a little annoyed when this youth ignored him the first time he shouted his name, after all, he is a rank 3 Gu Master. 'Well, he is just a kid, and his life must be flashing before his eyes right now. I myself still remember the moment of my awakening, I don't envy these children.' the elder thought as he calmed his emotions and continued to observe Rue Bu walking through the Spirit Spring.
When he reached 10 steps, specks of light started to appear one after the other, and when Rue Bu reached 29 and was still walking, not showing any signs of stopping, the elder got a little excited. 'Oh, I didn't expect him to be B grade. That makes him the 4th B grade this year. It's truly disappointing that we didn't get to see an A grade talent this year as well.' he sighed and continued to observe Rue Bu, who had reached 35 steps by now and was still going, albeit with difficulty. 36, 37, 38, 39... Rue Da was dumbfounded. 'Wait, if he continues like this, isn't he...' His train of thought was cut off by Rue Bu finally stopping."
Ru Da calmed himself again and shouted to get Rue Bu's attention. "Ma Rue Bu, great job! Come here and let me check your Primeval Essence Sea." But Rue Bu didn't answer, he stood there like a statue, showing no emotion on his face. The elder tried to shout at him again, but to no avail. He had to go there and get him personally. It was a little humiliating, but the elder didn't mind it that much. 'He clearly didn't mean to disregard me, he is probably still in shock from earlier.' he thought.
He reached Rue Bu and tried to get his attention again, but there was still no response. 'Was he really that nervous? Forget it, let me check his Primeval Essence Sea first and see if he is alright while I'm doing it.' While Ru Da was checking his aperture and the rest of the students waited in anticipation to hear what his talent was, Rue Bu finally came back to his senses. "It is so... peaceful." Rue Bu murmured. The elder ignored him and then shouted.
"Ma Rue Bu, B grade, 79%!" The elder announced, feeling disappointed. Despite Rue Bu being the best talent they had encountered so far that year, he fell just short of being A grade. 'He was so close, yet still so far.' he sighed to himself and continued to oversee the awakening of the other children.
Meanwhile, Rue Bu was having the time of his life. 'I can't believe it, B grade. I got B grade, and the best of B grade at that. Me? What were the odds of that?' Rue Bu calmed himself down and reflected on what had happened when the Hope Gu entered him and awakened his aperture. According to Rue Lan, he wasn't even responding to the elder, who had to get him out of the spring personally. 'I thought that peacefulness was the effect of the Hope Gu awakening my aperture, but none of the other children experienced the same. Even the elder touching me didn't get me out of it. Wait, was that...' He remembered something that the voice spoke of 15 years ago. It was so long ago that he almost forgot about it. He asked the voice, 'Was what I experienced back there the state of peace you talked about back then?'
The voice answered him immediately, as if it was waiting for him to ask. 'Yes, the host has now awakened and can use the state of peace.'
"Remind me, what does it do again?" Rue Bu genuinely forgot about it, the voice never spoke of it again for 15 years, after all.
"Yes, as the name suggests, you will enter a state of peacefulness like you experienced back there. No one will be able to get your attention or disturb you unless they use brute force, but there is a countermeasure for that."
"Oh yeah, that's why I almost got excited back then. That countermeasure made me invincible, right?" The voice interjected before he could get excited again.
"Incorrect. The barrier can be destroyed." the voice corrected him. Rue Bu was disappointed but still asked. "How?"
"The state of peace is deployed using magi... primeval essence. So if the enemy's primeval essence quality used for the attack is better than what the host provided, the power of the enemy could damage the barrier and eventually destroy it, given that the power of the attack would be much greater than the power of the shield in that situation, but if the host provided better quality primeval essence to the shield its power would also increase." the voice explained, adjusting its words mid-sentence.
"I see, so does that mean if primeval essence quality is roughly the same, he wouldn't be able to destroy the barrier?" Rue Bu inquired, feeling disappointed about his invincible shield shattering.
"Incorrect. If the host and the enemy had roughly the same quality of primeval essence, given enough time, the enemy would eventually be able to destroy the barrier. But taking into account the duration of the state of peace, then it doesn't matter, as it would the ability would end before the barrier is destroyed." the voice analyzed the possibilities and then responded.
"So he would eventually be able to destroy the barrier, but the duration of the state of peace would end before he succeeds." Rue Bu realized, feeling that his invincible shield seemed even more fragile now. "But it doesn't really matter because in a dangerous situation, as long as my opponent wasn't strong enough to destroy the barrier in one hit, I would be able to buy myself some time." Two minutes may not seem like much, but in a life-and-death situation, every second would count, especially when the ability has another effect, which he had just experienced moments ago.
"When the 2 minutes end, would I be able to deploy it again?" Still holding to a last hope he inquired.
"The host would need to wait six hours after the 2 minutes duration end to be able to use state of peace again." The voice shattered that last hope with its brutal words.
While cursing the voice and his luck, Rue Bu noticed that the elder was done shouting names. "Now that we've finally finished, let me tell you something. Starting tomorrow, every one of you who managed to awaken their aperture will be required to go to the academy. You will learn about the ways of a Gu Master, choose a Gu, and hone your ability to fight. Don't expect to slack off just because you got a lower talent. Finally, any absenteeism throughout the year will be met with severe punishment. Do you understand?" The children, now a little calmer after knowing their fate, shouted. "Yes, sir!"
"So this year was roughly the same as last year after all. We got 267 D grades, 41 C, and just 4 B grades, myself included," Rue Bu remarked as he asked Rue Lan about the results, because when he was feeling anxious he realised that he didn't focus on what on what the elder said that much after the first 10 kids or so. "Rue Lan got a C grade, and that brat... I can't believe he is B grade too." he said, referring to Rue Gang.
After sorting out his thoughts, he finally went home. His parents were in the living room, staring at the door, waiting for him to return. Anxiety, nervousness, and silence suffocated the room. His father couldn't take it anymore and muttered in a low voice, "Just don't let him be a mortal for his sake, please..." His wife wanted to say something like, "He is our son, even if he is a mortal, so what?" But she knew what he meant. Her husband wasn't that influential, and neither was she. So for their son to at least live a normal life in the tribe, he needed to get at least a D grade, like both of them.
Finally, the door was pushed open, and a youth with black hair and blue eyes came running to them, shouting in a loud voice, "Mom, mom, see, I told you I would get a better talent than both of you and dad, hahahaha..." They were stunned for a moment; they had never seen their son this happy before.
"Slow down, kid. What do you mean, what grade did you get?" his father's face beamed with light, he obviously heard him basically screaming, "I got a better talent than both of you." so he at least wasn't a mortal. His was even better than theirs. 'Did he get a C grade, to be this happy?' he thought to himself, getting a little bit excited.
"Oh, dad, you're here too! Hahaha, look, come check it out, you will be shocked! Hahaha..." he pretended not to see his dad at first, then continued to laugh.
"Just tell us already." his mother shouted at him, while his father was already checking his primeval essence sea, his jaw dropping the moment he finished.
"What's wrong? Is he a C grade?" Ren Shi wasn't having it anymore, her husband just stared at their son, and their son just laughed, so she went and checked his primeval essence sea too. 'I will teach both of you a lesson, you will see lat....'
"Wait, wait, what? Am I dreaming?" She cut her own train of thoughts, She was shocked. Her son's talent was. "B grade! You actually have a B grade talent, and your aperture is filled 79% with primeval essence. I can't believe it!" She was speaking absentmindedly to herself. Rue Sa was still just staring at him, and he continued laughing.
"Hahaha, I told you." he stopped laughing and said to her, bringing her and his father back to their senses.
They looked at each other and then looked at him again. Then, hugging him, they said. "Well done, Rue Bu! We're so proud of you." Ren Shi even started crying when she realized that her son would eventually be an elder of the clan. She wasn't really interested in the influence behind the title, but she was very happy for her son.
After celebrating a little, eating and drinking to their heart's content, his father suddenly remembered and asked. "How did your cousins do?" He wasn't expecting them to be that talented too, especially that brute of a kid, Rue Gang, but was astonished when he heard their talents. "Our family is really blessed this year, two B grades and a C grade. My brothers must be very happy right now, especially Rue Hong, since he wasn't lucky enough to awaken his aperture."
He felt very sad when he remembered his brother's situation, but no one could do anything about it really. "And Rue He must be even more ecstatic, his son is a B grade after all. Well, they aren't as talented as my son, though, hahaha..." he started laughing proudly when he remembered his son's talent.
Ren Shi hit him on the head and said, "Stop laughing. What would you do if Rue Hong heard you like that? Think about his feelings." She felt proud too, obviously, but she remembered how she felt a couple of hours ago and could relate a little to Rue Hong.
"What do you mean? He is going to be the happiest out of all of us. With 58%, his daughter is going to be in a better situation than all of her peers except the B grades. Besides, we are brothers anyway." She sighed, giving up and changing the subject.
"You are going to the academy tomorrow, you shouldn't stay up late tonight, understand?" she said to Rue Bu, who just nodded at her.
Today was just the beginning of his journey. He was excited for tomorrow, excited for the future, and what it would bring with it.
The next day, first thing in the morning after filling his stomach with whatever his mother gave him, he proceeded to the academy. He expected it to be huge, but located behind the tribe leader's residence, stood three buildings, and in front of them an open space with a ring in the middle looking like a battle ring. The buildings were big but not as huge as he imagined them to be. He saw a few children standing in the ring and proceeded to them, thinking. 'I must be early.'
When he reached them and asked what was going on, someone who seemed to recognize him from yesterday answered. "The elder told us to wait for the others here, and he will come when all of us are here." He understood the situation and just waited. Eventually, Rue Gang and Rue Lan came and stood with him, discussing what happened yesterday and what the elder and tribe leader's words meant.
When all of them were finally there, the elder came out and started speaking. "While our tribe cares about talent and aptitude, it also cares about real strength and combat capabilities. So every day that you come to the academy in, you will fight each other, and we will rank you according to the results of the fights. The fights will be without the use of Gu but raw combat abilities, as most real Gu master vs Gu master end up eventually when they use all their primeval essence. These fights are just to hone your skills in close combat, as I said yesterday."
They thought that was it, but the elder continued. "But that's just the worst-case scenario in real fights. Even though we have to train you for that, so you won't end up dead in some random battle because you couldn't at least defend yourself without primeval essence, we have to train you in how to use Gu to be able to reach that point in the first place. So, besides the daily fights, there will be a fight on the last day you come to the academy in every week, and this one will be different. You will be allowed to use your Gu, and your rankings in these fights will determine how much allowance the academy will give to each one of you."
Most of them knew that already, but some of them, mostly those who didn't have any Gu master in their family, were astonished when they heard the elder's words. 'This year is going to be hell.' all of them thought the same thing.
After that, the elder took them to their classes where they were going to learn theory regarding combat, refining path, strength path, fire path, and other random stuff. Strength and fire were the main paths, in their tribe, almost no Gu master used any Gu as their vital Gu outside of these paths.
After the first introductory class was finished, which confirmed some stuff that he and the voice had already guessed and corrected others, they went straight to the battle ring. Today was an academy day, after all. 'So, there will be four fights like this one every week, and on the fifth day of the academy, we will fight using our Gu. The winner of that fight will get 10 primeval stones every day until the next fight, so 50 in total. The second will get 9, so 45 in total, the third will get 8, so 40 in total, and so on until the 9th and below would take just 10 primeval essence stones every week.'
Every primeval essence stone counted, especially in the first days of cultivation, so even though the difference between 1 and 2 was just 5 primeval essence stones, it was a huge difference.
'I was just planning to lose on purpose around 5 or 6 until I get reasonably strong and no one could question how I won, but if I want to cultivate properly without worrying about feeding my future Gu and replenishing my primeval essence stones while nourishing my aperture walls, I should go for first place.' he analyzed his situation. With how poor his family is, he had to get that first place no matter what. 'The tribe wouldn't mind a talented student in all fields now, would they?' No, they wouldn't, especially a student like him with 79% of his aperture filled. They would want him to be talented in all aspects, not just aptitude.
The elder gathered them together and with a box filled with their names, he made them choose an opponent randomly. "Today's fight is the only one that would be done randomly like this. From the next fight onwards, you will always have to fight the one above you in rank. So let's say 42nd fights against 43rd. If 42nd wins, then they will switch ranks. But if 43rd wins and feels like he can continue and fight against 44th, when his primeval essence regenerates in the fights with your Gu, then he will be allowed to. The same applies to 44th, he has to wait for the fight between 42nd and 43rd to end and see, If 43rd feels like he is 100% going to lose to 44th and chooses not to fight, then 44th would fight against 45th, but if 43rd chooses to fight, then 45th will have to wait, and so on. And to avoid making the whole day just fights, you will be divided into groups of 50s, according to your ranks again, so that we have 6 fights going on at the same time. Any questions?" He knew there would be, so he just stood there for a minute or two and let them process the information. Finally, someone asked.
"So if I understand correctly, number 50 will have to wait until 49th's fight before he can fight 51st, but 51st is going to be fighting against 52nd already. Isn't that unfair to 51st? His future opponent will know how he fights before they could even start." It was a good point, and it applied to at least 5 people.
"First of all, life is unfair, and you never know when you're going to be put in a situation like that in real life. Second, you think it's unfair, but that is just dumb of you. If you already know your opponents a week prior and don't even study him - how he fights, how he talks, how he runs, and how he walks - then you deserve to lose already. And finally, you all should be wary of each other anyway, because you don't know how the rankings will change from week to week, and trust me, it will somewhat change every week. So, you won't know who your opponent might be the week after that. But if you think and eliminate based on what you observe in the fights and how they progress throughout the weeks, then you can somewhat guess your opponents for a long while, until something unexpected happens at least." Elder Ru Da explained to them. Some understood, and some didn't, still thinking it was unfair to whoever gets in those 5 spots.
"If you still don't understand me or don't believe it, then work on avoiding those spots. You should be able to do that at the very least if you want to be an experienced Gu master. Any other questions?" Elder Ru Da stated firmly. No one could think of anything else, so the elder signaled for the fights to begin.
Today's fights were just random, so it didn't really matter, and the fight at the end of the week would use their latest rankings. Rue Bu's first opponent was just some random girl with a D grade, not that it really mattered today. So he figured it would be pretty easy, and he was indeed right. The girl clearly didn't get any training prior to the academy, she just started running at him while swinging her arms in the air like an amateur kid who didn't know what he was doing. Well, that was basically her. He just waited for her to come, dodged the clumsy attacks, and struck her in the stomach hard enough to make her surrender.
The rest of the fights continued in a similar fashion, but when it was down to just 10 people left, Rue Bu met someone he recognized by name: Ma Fen Fu, the child of a famous Gu master who had just reached rank 3 this year and became a new elder, Elder Ma Fen Bao. Fen Fu had a C grade talent with a 57% filled aperture. Not that their talents mattered in the combat fights, but their families did. Obviously, if your parents were influential in the tribe, you would be more likely to have had better training than those with normal Gu masters as parents or even no Gu master in their family at all. So, Rue Bu was going to take this fight a little more seriously.
Fen Fu started running towards him. Rue Bu, again, stood in his place like he did in all the fights before this one, waiting for his opponent to come to him. But then, Fen Fu stopped midway and stared at him, then said in a loud enough voice, "What a coward! How can a coward like you have a B grade? You should be ashamed of yourself...." Rue Bu didn't reply and entertain him. He understood what he meant, though. So, without letting him continue, he closed the distance himself.
'What? Is he an idiot? I was taunting him to make him leave his defensive position and attack me, since he is obviously better at defense according to his last fights. I didn't think he would abandon his advantage like that. He must be an idiot.' Fen Fu thought to himself while preparing for the attack.
The moment Rue Bu was about to reach him, Fen Fu observed his body to see how he was going to attack, as he had learned to do from his private instructor in a defensive position. But he didn't see any changes in Rue Bu's body. It was almost like he wasn't going to attack him. Fen Fu got nervous and didn't know what to do. 'Fuck! Is he not attacking? Do I defend my head? Stomach? Lower body? How strong is he going to hit me? Fuck! Is he going to use his fists or his le...' His train of thought was cut off when he received a punch in the face while he was defending his stomach. Falling to the ground, he tried to get back up quickly, but Rue Bu noticed and didn't give him the chance. He started kicking Fen Fu on the ground like a dead dog.
'I thought he wouldn't try to get up. Is he trying to give a better performance because of his father's new position? Well, sorry, but I already dec...' He was still kicking him when the teacher observing their fight intervened and stopped him, cutting off Rue Bu's train of thought and saving Fen Fu.
'Did I overdo it?' Rue Bu apologized to the teacher and Fen Fu to avoid getting punched or something, but the teacher smiled at him and said, "You don't have to apologize. Be proud of your strength. All of you will be heroes of our tribe eventually, and heroes don't apologize."
'What logic is that? You must have a different definition of what a hero is.' Rue Bu thought, while telling the teacher he understood.
After this fight, there were just five of them left: himself, Rue Gang, Chen Cheng, Long Mei, and Dong Min. He expected Rue Gang to be here because even though both of them didn't have the best training before the academy, Rue Gang was a monster, almost 2 meters tall at just 15 years old. Meanwhile, Rue Bu, having been a soldier for almost 50 years in his previous life, defeating some little kids wasn't that hard. Long Mei was a B grade, Cheng Cheng was the last B grade of the four, while Dong Min was a C grade.
'Two grandchildren of two elders, both with B grade, probably with prior excellent training. If I end up fighting any of them, it would be kind of boring, though. But Dong Min on the other hand, is just a child of a mortal family who managed to come here by brute force. Even though she got lucky and didn't encounter people with prior good training that much, when she did, she would just take the hits from them and continue fighting until they surrendered. It's going to be fun if I end up fighting her.' he thought while analyzing the situation.