When the children emerged from the forest, they boarded carriages sent by the estate for their return trip instead of marching back. Because the children were terribly exhausted and had also exceeded the instructors' expectations, this was their reward.
Since a carriage could only hold five or six people, nearly a hundred carriages were gathered in front of the forest, making for a peculiar sight.
And of course, Leonard boarded the first one.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Somehow, No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 were riding with him. The atmosphere inside the vehicle was impossibly awkward.
No. 1 had his eyes closed and arms crossed. No. 2 sat next to him and kept sending dirty looks. No. 3 glared at everyone except for Leonard. No. 4 smiled sheepishly.
"So," Leonard said, unable to stand it any longer. "Why are you all here?"
The carriages weren't designated by rank, so other than Leonard, everyone had come here on purpose. He understood why No. 3 might join him because they'd fought as Group 6 together, but he didn't know what the other three were thinking when they had boarded.
No. 2 was the first to respond. "You're the star of today's show, no?"
No. 4 nodded in agreement. "You have ascended from 381st to 1st in merely a month. I cannot help but be curious about you."
"Our boss isn't just some source of gossip!" No. 3 glared daggers at the two. "He's way more impressive than little losers like you!"
No. 2 and No. 4 blinked. They couldn't believe their ears. The No. 3 they knew was a girl who was always prickly and would growl like a beast at the mere sight of them. But now she was not only defending but also praising someone? And a boy at that?
"You are not quite like the No. 3 I know. Did something nice happen in the forest?" No. 4 asked innocently.
"What?" It took a moment for her to realize what he was implying, and her face grew red. "Of course not! You moron!"
They bickered in front of the very person they'd been talking about, and then they grew silent and looked toward No. 1. He was the most puzzling of all. He'd always had that unwavering belief that he was the strongest and the best, and he was supposed to be the incarnation of pride itself. Wasn't he?
"Except for No. 25, all of you are nobodies who lost to me. You're not even worthy of my attention," he scoffed, as if the very notion was ridiculous. He glanced at them and sneered.
No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 immediately exploded.
"You're just a spoiled little brat!" No. 2 throttled him by the collar.
"The victor always gets the last laugh! Don't you even know that?!" No. 3 shouted so hard she spat.
"All I did was surrender to No. 25. No matter how I try, I simply cannot recall losing to you." No. 4 barely managed to stay polite.
This was a side the children usually never showed to anyone. The children had been forced to mature early due to their talent, and now they were finally acting their age. Part of the reason was that they all subconsciously let down their strong front when they were with Leonard.
They're so noisy. And I can't even chase them out.
Leonard didn't know why they were causing such a pointless scene in his carriage. He was already mentally worn out from creating the Beast Soul Essence Bond, and the commotion was about to give him a headache.
Thankfully, it didn't take long for them to stop.
"I know you're excited that the mission is over, but if you keep jabbering like that, you'll have to get off the carriage and walk the rest of the way," Bruno interjected, sticking his head through the window.
"I'm sorry," they said in unison before clamping their mouths shut. They couldn't even blame someone else for starting the quarrel.
Finally, peace and quiet. Leonard closed his eyes, savoring the tranquility. It didn't take long for him to recover his mental energy. He hadn't sustained any internal injuries or needed to overexert himself, having created the Bond very quickly.
In a world with so much naturally produced energy, the wolf just might become as strong as an intermediate-rank spiritual animal in a matter of years.
Leonard turned his thoughts away from the wolf. "Hey, No. 1."
Everyone sat up in surprise, having gone silent after Bruno's chiding. The most astonished was No. 1 himself, who never thought No. 25 would speak to him.
"What?"
"I'm curious about what our next stage of training is. Do you know anything about it?" Leonard asked.
No. 1's eyes, and even No. 2's and No. 4's, widened at Leonard's straightforward question. The three knew exactly what he was implying. Only No. 3 looked confused. She leaned in to listen.
"Of course. You must have heard about it as well," No. 1 began. "Tomorrow, we will receive the appropriate training supplies based on how we scored in the training program and begin our real training, setting out to become true descendants of the Cardenas family—"
No. 2 cut him off and butted in. "We have to explain the Blood Awakening Ceremony to him, don't we, No. 1? You didn't happen to leave it out on purpose, hm?"
"Be quiet, No. 2. I was just about to tell him," No. 1 scowled.
Leonard's eyes narrowed. That was an unfamiliar term. Blood Awakening Ceremony?
His question was answered soon enough. "It is said that members of the Cardenas bloodline are born with an additional latent organ that others don't have. Once you activate it through a special ceremony and train in its use, the rate at which you grow stronger will become several times—several dozens of times—faster."
"So you're talking about qi—I mean, mana?"
"Indeed," No. 1 said shortly. "That is why the children of the Cardenas family are not allowed to train in mana until they reach the age at which they can undergo the ceremony and develop their organ."
Leonard carefully used his visualization to scan every crevice of his body, but he didn't see anything that could be this so-called organ. It appeared that it wouldn't be visible until he underwent this Blood Awakening Ceremony. He wondered if it was some type of demonic art or malefic art, but he had yet to see either such powers in this world. In fact, this might not be something he could understand in terms of murim.
I must go through the ceremony, Leonard thought.
No. 3's voice came from beside him. Several years' worth of questions had been answered for her. "A-ha! So that's why we aren't allowed to eat mana fruits and mana stones?"
"Apparently, if you accumulate mana before you undergo the Blood Awakening Ceremony, it can become an obstacle during your training. I don't know much more, but that must be the reason."
"I always wondered why they always had so many training supplies but never let us eat any. I guess everything has a reason."
Leonard felt that something was off. Even as he flipped through No. 1's and 3's words in his head, there was nothing out of the ordinary. So why did the Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk feel bothered?
Mana fruit? Mana stones? Eating training supplies? What did any of that have to do with learning basic cultivation methods?
"Hey, No. 1," Leonard said faintly.
"What?"
"How do you typically accumulate mana within yourself?" he asked.
All four of them stared at him in shock. They didn't know why he was asking something so obvious. It was common sense.
No. 2 spoke before No. 1 could. "If it's before you've developed your mana hall, you simply consume potions or fruits that are abundant in mana, no? There are mana stones as well, but those are difficult to process because they're so dense."
"Once your mana hall has developed, it is said that its capacity increases every time you empty it and fill it back up," No. 4 added. Leonard waited for No. 4 to finish, but he said nothing else.
That was all.
The only way to obtain mana in this world was to consume items that contained it. A person couldn't even use any basic breathing techniques, let alone proper cultivation methods. This thought shook the Sword Emperor to his core.
Is that possible? How?
It was very difficult to shake up a Creation Realm martial artist like that. For that reason, the market price of assassinating someone in the Apex Realm or higher was astronomical, and some refused the job outright. Those who reached that stage were monsters who could sense an ambush in their sleep and respond in time.
They could purify thousands of poisons simply by circulating their qi, could block explosions from bombs with protective qi, and could use their augmented qi as both a sword and a shield. Their qi made them nearly invincible.
That was dangerous. I almost had a qi deviation.
Despite the difficulty of shaking up a Creation Realm martial artist, hearing the children's words made Leonard feel as if a sword were stabbing through his heart. If someone had decided to attack him at that moment, they could have killed him, even if they were several realms below him.
There were no internal cultivation methods? To a martial artist, that was like saying someone had built a house without a foundation or columns.
No, wait. It might have been that I've taken the wrong perspective this whole time.
Leonard managed to regain his composure and thought about the differences between this world and his old one. And then it occurred him.
Ha! I was an idiot!
He immediately realized that the children were right. There was no possibility that this world's qi, or mana, could be cultivated the same way.
The naturally occurring qi is too abundant and powerful, so anyone below the Creation Realm won't even be able to use something as simple as the Breath Control Technique.
While Leonard had been rifling through the memories of his past life, his upper dantian opened and his perception shifted to the Creation Realm. It was a dimension perceived solely by his mind, not by physical sensations or qi. Those who had this sight could use any amount of naturally occurring qi at will. That was why he hadn't found it difficult to gather the energy and imbue it into the wolf.
But for someone new to cultivation... they can't even take in natural qi.
Even those with Divine Bodies that could cultivate qi just by breathing air would be the same as everyone else if they were born into this world.
Additionally, even if a person could use natural mana, there would be issues. Compared to the Central Plains, the energy here was so powerful that it was like trying to water a rice paddy field with a river, an action that would no doubt lead to flooding. If a person lost control of the energy the slightest, it would rip through their eight extraordinary meridians and tear up their insides.
So creating the Beast Soul Essence Bond with the wolf was dangerous too. Luckily, that cultivation art only needs to be used once before the circulation becomes automatic, so there shouldn't be any aftereffects. But if I had failed—
Leonard pushed away the dark thoughts and considered this new information. If cultivation methods really didn't exist here, didn't that mean he was the only one who could use mana in this way and therefore had a great advantage? He could obtain mana without having to use those "training supplies" and could use the supplies to reach the next stage.
Crack. Leonard stopped there and cracked his knuckles to prevent himself from getting carried away.
It's true that I have an edge. But there are a substantial number of martial artists in this family who have reached a formidable level of skill without cultivation methods. There's a high probability that they've developed their own systems of martial arts.
He couldn't believe how lucky he was to be born as a Cardenas. The knowledge he could acquire and the experiences he could go through here were incomparably valuable and more impressive than anything he could acquire anywhere else.
The Blood Awakening Ceremony was one of those things. It was a secret that no outsider could even access.
The carriages creaked to a stop one by one as they arrived at the facility. The horses whinnied and stomped on the ground.
"We've arrived. I suppose today is the last time we'll see each other," No. 1 said.
No. 2's face scrunched in annoyance, and she grumbled, "Sigh. Things will only get more tiring and annoying starting tomorrow."
"Well, I'm excited to see what this Blood Awakening Ceremony is!" No. 3 exclaimed. Unlike the other girl, she was excited by the prospect of getting stronger.
"I am sure you will find out tomorrow. Good work, everyone." And as always, No. 4 bid a courteous farewell.
Then, all four children turned to Leonard in unison.
"My name is William, No. 25. Remember it." With that, No. 1 hopped out of the carriage.
"Tsk, that brat is acting all high and mighty to the very end. Anyway, I'm Belita. But you can call me Betty," said No. 2.
"My name is Dillon," said No. 4. "And I do not have any other monikers or nicknames."
No. 2 and No. 4 also gave Leonard their real names. They knew that they would start calling each other by name instead of number the next day, so they introduced themselves ahead of time.
"And I'm Heather! I'll help you out next time, Boss!"
Their clumsy introductions made Leonard smile. He nodded in response.
It was fate that had brought them together like this.
"Leonard. That's my name."
Yeon Mu-Hyuk was dead. Leonard was the one who lived on, and the Sword Emperor was merely a gust guiding him with his past experiences and powers. If he let his stubbornness get the best of him, he could end up falling into the previous predicament as last time.
Leonard stepped out of the carriage. As always, he didn't look back.
He went to his bedroom. This was the last day he'd spend here.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
Thus, he spent the last night at this training facility.