The whole academy was in an uproar the following morning , although the palace master and various elders didn't come down to check on the situation, it still got to them regardless. The death of two outer disciples wasn't something that would draw the palace master out but the fact that it happened in such a unique way was undeniable and the palace master had to look into the situation before it gets more complicated so he sent a core disciple to investigate the matter.
Ryu was deep within his dorm sitting in meditation, after last night's incident he had been feeling rather bloated than powerful, he didn't really understand his situation and he didn't know who to inquire from.
He observed the energy flow within himself, he could see as the energy was passively moving around his body through his cells and strengthening them all around , but right now he felt like he ate too much food.
He sat in thoughts as he tried to figure out something, he had already used the cultivation methods he read about during his visit to the library the previous day but it felt like it wasn't working. And for the first time after his change in person, he was experiencing depression. He wasn't much of a thinker and now although he felt his thinking speed has increased but it felt more like he just got more space in his brain that needed to be filled.
Two hours later it was time for his first lecture in the academy, he doned his light blue freshman uniform and stepped out of the door, his hair was brushed backwards with his fingers , a few strands just dangling on his face, his ragged blindfold was replaced with a clean white piece of cloth.
He could sense the others waiting on him and he didn't longer any longer. Finral was a lively as ever , Ginna seemed to even be more shy than the way she looked yesterday as she tied her hair up into two perfect ponytails giving her the look of a down to earth Loli.
Sasha and Zasha didn't have much of a reaction seeing him, they just moved forward while listening to the loud talks from Finral.
The moment the got into the class, the whole room fell quiet as everyone seemed to be measuring them with their gazes, the group slowed down a bit except for Ryu who seemed to even get more 'blind' at this moment and seemed oblivious to the weird atmosphere.
He went straight in and took his seat at the other end of the class and the others followed behind, while the other students seemed to focus on them a tall woman walked in.
She could only be discribed as stunning, although there were other jade beauties out there that rivalled goddesses but to this kids who seemed to still be wet behind the ears she was the perfect goddess they could imagine.
" Oh… new faces, that's nice" she said with a surprised voice and a face that showed the opposite, her voice sounded so soothing to the ears Ryu could feel all his tension fading away, he even felt like if she continued speaking he might fall asleep. Her voice was soft and smooth that it sounded like music. Ryu shook his head and sat straight while looking towards this new teacher of his.
" For the new students, I'll introduce myself again, I am Liv Necron your homeroom teacher and I'll be the one taking care of you all till the end of the year, you've got any questions or need any guidance in your cultivation you can come to me". She said with a gentle smile on her face.
Ryu's heart skipped a beat, isn't this what he needed right now? But almost immediately he shook his head as he recalled that feeling he got when she first spoke, he was sure that she had used a voice technique, although it wasn't harmful but he didn't like the feeling.
Liv was a gentle and nice teacher to her students and she taught them with a smile, received all their questions with same smile, even welcoming the snappy comments of the mischievous ones with a smile. For the next hours she taught them everything the needed to know about cultivation methods, history of the continent, cultivation realms and many other things.
It could be said to be a boring lecture because everything she taught one could find them in the palace library but she insisted on teaching on it and left no room for disapproval. Finally the class came to an end and Ryu with his gang walked back to their dorm, Finral was unusually quiet as he seemed to be lost in thought like he was trying to process the loads of information they just learnt, he could be playful and all but he also loved learning that's why he was so happy to join the academy even though…..
Liv sat in the empty classroom while staring at an empty seat quietly, her eyes seemed unfocus like she was trying to grasp on something but couldn't really get a hold on it . She stayed like that for a few more hours before getting up and leaving in defeat.
"....hah…I'll just leave it for some other time". She whispered softly as she swung her long brown hair from side to side and walked away.
Back in the dorm, Ryu remembered the methods the teacher talked about because that was what mattered to him the most. She had said " ….cultivation is the way to harness spiritual energy and using it to the benefit of oneself, using a particular pattern of movement and breathing one could control the flow of spiritual energy outside their bodies and within themselves, the spiritual foundation realm was when one learned and found the way to absorbed the spiritual energy into themselves and anchoring it within the body then connecting it to different parts of the body and opening the pathways for more spiritual energy to be able to flow around unimpeded. The core gathering realm was after you've finally created all pathways around the body and successfully connected as many meridians as you can find within the body, it is said that there are 54 major meridians around the body and 111 minor meridians , you just have to locate them and use the spiritual energy to soak it till they synergize , one can never open all meridians at the same time, it was a very huge task, but the bare minimum was 20, after opening 20 you can form a spiritual core. A spiritual core was like a battery or a stabiliser, it functions as both. It holds all the accumulated spiritual energy while also working as the point of balance for all the energy flowing through the body, it functions are similar to a human heart, pumping energy round the body while also acting a point of meeting, a storage for the spiritual energy. To form a spiritual core, one had to gather a large amount of spiritual energy, compressing it at one point below the abdomen, in the early stages it compresses into a firm gemlike stone then you connect it back to all your meridians which had successfully been opened. Then the nascent soul realm is the stage you connect this spiritual core to your brain. The brain could be said to be the mind of the body and the mind can be referred to as the soul so a link from the brain to the core was important because the soul purpose of cultivation was to achieve oneness and become the perfect image of the creator. So one had to connect the body , spirit and soul into one to be connected to the heavens, after the connection to the brain is done the soul is birthed which is called the soul birth realm and this was were cultivation slowed to a crawl, because the soul birth realm is where cultivators connects the body and soul into one, and most cultivators have to open more meridians so they could achieve a good synergy of body and soul…."
This was where Ryu was stumped, he was clueless as to how to locate the meridians, he had a shimmering dark core that sat right in the middle of his heart unlike what the teacher had said about the lower abdomen, he could see strands of dark energy that crisscrossed within himself he just didn't know how many meridians he had connected to.
"I'll have to talk to miss Liv tomorrow.." he said to himself as he gave up thinking about cultivation and started thinking of the incident that happened last night.
His thoughts were interupted by Finral who came to invite him so they could go to the cafeteria together.
After a quiet and gentle meal they both came back and went to rest because the next day was going to be their first day in combat classes.
He was quite eager to start his combat training because after seeing the way the others moved during the assessment he had come to a conclusion that they all had good training before coming for the admission.
Early morning the next day he was out again, looking neat and calm as usual, he stood outside his door waiting for the others to finish their preparations before heading to the training room together.
Once again miss Liv happened to be their teacher in combat.
"Now all of you get to your positions as usual and for the newbies come with me to get your techniques"
She voiced out and immediately the whole class followed her orders, Ryu and his gang went forward to follow miss Liv to the shelves where they could pick their battle techniques.
Miss Liv was dressed in a outfit that looked like a typical Japanese Samurai outfit and a Katana hung from her waist by her left hand side, she suddenly stopped and turned facing Ryu and his colleagues.
"Oh I didn't get to see your performances during the assessment so you'll have to show me what you've got so I can suggest a fitting technique to you" she said to them with a smile.
"Get I pairs and battle, don't hurt each other but don't go easy on each other" .
Her words brought a frown on Ryu's face while Finral seemed to choke on his own saliva while backing off slowly, Ginna who was always shy went towards Sasha immediately and Finral rushed to pick Zasha, although Zasha wanted to fight Ryu so much but she knew he couldn't give his all in this fight so she lost interest and went along with Finral.
Miss Liv raised a her brows with an 'oh' expression on her faces, she could see the reaction the others had when they were to pair with each other, except for Zasha the others seemed to be running from Ryu.
"So you're left with me, but hold on, when I'm done with the others I'll test you myself". She said and Ryu nodded as the frown eased from his face.
Miss Liv turned back to the others to observe.
" You are good at sudden burst of attacks, you can make do with an assassin type skill"
"Hmm, your battle sense is amazing, although you're good at close combat your battle style is tricky, something like the [raging Dragon claw] skill will be good for you, but a fist technique and a set of movement technique or a footwork technique , hmmm, I think I know something that will be good for you"
She carefully assessed both Ginna and Finral while turning to the twins.
The both seemed like the same person the only difference was one was oozing with excess heat while the other was emitting frost, they were both sword users and miss Liv could admit that this set were the best she had for this year's freshmen.
Although she hadn't seen Ryu's battle yet, she was sure of the monster he was now because seeing how good the others were but they still had such a reaction pairing with him, she grew more curious about him.
"Ok now it's your turn, you can come when you're ready" she stood casually ready to welcome him.
The others shifted a distance away, which made the other students turned their attention towards their direction.
"Does he want to battle miss Liv??"
" Idiot isn't that obvious?".
"He's just looking for a beating chhee"
"Haha !! What an idiot"
They whispered all sorts of comments while coming closer to watch, miss Liv didn't bother with them as she stared at Ryu who seemed to be trembling?? She wasn't quite sure.
"Here I come" his soft voice drifted towards miss Liv's ear and she raised her hand to the left to catch a fist that was rushing towards her cheek.
" Oof, you want a hit a lady in the face?? How rude. tsk tsk". She commented and shifted backwards with a step just for feet to wipe past her.
Miss Liv looked casual on the outside but inside she was shaken.
"Such strength and flexibility…" she said to herself and she looked towards Ryu who had stopped attacking now.
His first two attacks failed so he stopped, he had expected that result but he still did it so he wouldn't make a mistake of drawing her blood and then start fighting against bloodthirst.
"I'll get serious now, be ready"
" How arrogant"
The two clashed again, miss Liv didn't move from her position as she welcomed his attacks calmly.
Ryu leapt up in the air and descended with a rolling kick that was blocked with a soft palm and he instead pushed on the palm sending himself to the opposite direction so his body could recoil and pounce with a fist to her abdomen which she also side stepped yet the fist folded into an elbow attack that was also brushed to the side but his back foot came towards her nose from above ….
"What a troublesome fellow". His battle style had no rhythm, it was so random that if he had a way to send energy into each attack then it would be really devastating.
He was like a pesky fly that no matter how many times you shoo off, it would still come flying towards you.
After a few more minutes they separated, the students were totally floored, they didn't understand how someone as young as that could have such skills. The way he fought wasn't very refined or anything, they were just simple random attacks that were sent on a whim but that was where the skill laid.
The ability to think of immediate counters and to continue attacking living no room for a counter attack, it was a very deadly way of fighting.
"Your way of battling is quite unique,if you learn a technique now without refining your skills first then you'll only bring yourself down, each battle technique has a unique way of energy circulation so you can't cut of a circulation in the middle to perform another circulation, that will cause your meridians to implode and then the backlash might bring harm to your core, so you'll have to train properly and I'll be taking care of that"
Ryu nodded he understood the problem quite well the more he battled with miss Liv, the gap in cultivation between them was too large, although his strength was much, it wasn't enough to pose a threat to her so he observed his attack properly this time, some of his attacks lost their power before they even landed so he very much wanted to learn.
The combat lessons went on till it was evening and everyone left to their forms but Ryu was held back by miss Liv.
She was sure he didn't have a single drop of spiritual energy in him, so she was confused and wanted to use this opportunity to clear her confusion.
As for Ryu he also wanted cultivation guidance but what she said next made his blood run cold and his bloodthirst seemed to become tangible in the air.
" You're not human are you??" Miss Liv asked with a cold look on her face, her hand firmly gripped on the hilt of her Katana ready to be unsheathed if Ryu made a single wrong turn