When Harry read notification, there were 13 challenge requests for him.
He couldn't guess their levels unless he meets them in person. He didn't have much time to prepare for the challenges.
Harry wanted to focus on his techniques and increasing level. Going outside the academy for quests or killing beasts wasn't an option anymore.
He checked the formation scrolls. They all had different elements such as fire, water, wind, earth, etc.
These scrolls can be used by pouring energy into them and couldn't be used between fights. But these could be very helpful for survival and practice.
They arrived in a training room. Liam and Blake had left for the cultivation tower.
Tyler sitting in a corner was noticing Harry and Gracie's fight. They were practicing their soul technique, Tyler was focusing on Gracie's movements.
Harry still struggling to counter Gracie's movement technique. He realized that she wasn't good at this technique while attacking.
Gracie was also happy because she knew she lacked in the attacking aspect and was using Harry as sharpening stone.
When they completed their practice, Tyler approached Gracie. "Can we practice together?" he asked.
"We can, but the teacher still didn't teach you to defend against soul attacks," Gracie reasoned while surprised by this approach
"I am not talking about that, it's about your movement technique. I want you to try it on me," Tyler said confidently.
Seeing his confidence, Gracie nodded.
Tyler focused on her movements. He could see glimpses of her future movements and move accordingly, defending against every movement precisely.
Seeing this, Gracie found the best opponent she could get. Tyler was also excited to learn about his own capabilities.
While attacking, Tyler moved according to her future movements. Gracie had a hard time finding flaws in Tyler's movements because every time she thought she saw a flaw, Tyler, being one step ahead, would remove that flaw in his movements.
Harry, seeing this, was completely perplexed because he wanted to know how Tyler was managing this. But he had no right to ask him because they never asked him about how he could cultivate both Qi and soul energy at the same time.
Seeing them enjoy their fight, Harry decided to train his iron body technique. He set a formation around him. It took around 5 minutes to set up, but now he could use different formation scrolls continuously.
He activated a fire element scroll. The temperature started rising in the formation, reaching 80 degrees Celsius.
He felt extreme heat, it became hard to breathe, and sweat continuously pouring out.
It continued for the next 30 minutes, but it was not the end. He injected energy into an ice element scroll, and the temperature started dropping. His body started changing temperature and was shaking from the cold.
After 30 minutes, wind slashes collided with his body, blood pouring out of his skin. Then it continued with water and different elements. Currently, Harry was lying in his bedroom, exhausted from the training.
Another good thing happened today was now he could keep Qi around his mind all day without noticing. That meant he had fewer chances of dying from psychic attacks.
When he closed his eyes, he was already sleeping soundly. Cultivators don't need much sleep, but exhaustion helped him to wonder off in his sweat dreams.
...
This schedule continued for around 25 days. In this time, Harry had learned to use the basic levels of soul pulse, soul drain, and soul barrier effectively. His iron body technique was also improving at a good rate.
Now he had a more refined body than others, but he hadn't mastered it yet, so there was room for improvement.
The main improvement was in his movement technique. He had almost mastered 'Phantom Stride,' and Gracie helped him the most practicing it.
Phantom Stride helped him improve his sword technique, 'Serpent's Coil.'
Throughout the time, he learned that this technique could be the foundation to learn any better techniques because it didn't have any strict rules. To use it, you had to be like flawless water, changing moves according to the opponent.
He didn't have much improvement in the shadow punch technique. Aiden also helped him learn in the battle technique class.
He also attended the Qi manipulation class, where they being taught ways to use Qi, such as manifesting Qi outside the body and defending against soul attacks by making a spiritual barrier and limitations.
Tyler also learned all techniques, but in his case, he modified them to use with his foresight. Gracie, over the time fighting with Tyler, learned to use her movement technique while attacking and trained her body.
Liam and Blake went ahead and got into the 1000 rank and went to improve their cultivation on the 2nd floor of the cultivation tower.
Harry got a Quest from the system.
[Quest: prove your dominance and ascend in top 1000 ranks.
Rewards: ???]
Harry didn't have much time to practice in the cultivation tower. Now sitting there, Harry was talking to John, with whom he had signed a soul contract.
He was showing all the students on his badge who sent him challenges. Not only him but all of his friends got several challenge requests.
He didn't want them to get hurt because of him. Gracie could fight anyone, but Tyler was a different case. He noticed that Tyler's combat skills were the best among all of them, but his cultivation level was low.
After thinking for a while, he decided to inspect every challenger and tell Tyler to fight with someone of his equal level.
Harry also had 25 challenges, so he was thinking of fighting with 9th-level individuals and gaining his level with the help of the system quest. After roaming around all day, he finally had the information related to everyone's level.
Most of the people who challenged Harry were elemental masters; only 4 of them were at level 9.
Tyler also had to fight a level 9 disciple. The same was the case for Liam and Blake. So he told them the names of whom they should fight. Tyler accepted the challenge of a disciple named Ethen.
Liam and Blake also came out of the cultivation tower. Unlike Harry they have half month left before they have to fight. Because they already had won a fight to get into 1000 rank, but they don't want to hide.
Harry had already decided to pay a visit to the 'Edward' family.
They not only challenged him but all of his friends had more than 20 challenge requests. He knew if any of them lost, they wouldn't come out without broken bones and there is chance that opponent will try to cripple them. So they never can cultivate again.
That's why Harry prepared beforehand and gave them names of those who were at level 9.
Harry himself was not sure if after improving so much, the system would give him another individual quest for fighting foundation-building level 9 cultivaters.
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