Starting Cultivation

Phoenix sets up a filter in front of his dantian. His forehead begins to glow faintly as the energy from his surroundings head rush towards his spiritual sea. I think it's working! He trembles with excitement, watching the energy go through the filter, get purified, and then slam onto the barrier in his spiritual sea.

Break for me!

The pressure on his forehead grew heavier and heavier. Beads of sweat drop from his forehead as he tries to focus completely on absorbing the energy and maintaining the filter.

Crack! All of a sudden, a loud noise reverberates through Phoenix's head. The purified energy breaks through the barrier! It rushes into his dantian and fills his spiritual sea. Meanwhile, he feels his gift become slightly stronger and his spiritual sea grow slightly larger..

This feels amazing!... Did I level up?

A feeling of ecstasy flows through his entire body. He can feel his bones and muscles getting a little bit stronger. It's been so long...Phoenix felt all sorts of emotions. That's all it took to level up? Why did I give up cultivation for?

Stop. A feeling of clarity goes through his mind. There was no medicine for regret. More importantly, I have to help Xudong break through his barrier. Standing up, he goes over and sits directly in front of Xudong, who had a dark expression on his face. Opening his eyes, Xudong sees Phoenix sitting in front of him.

"Phoenix? What are you doing?"

"Shut up and trust me. Keep trying to break the barrier!"

"What? How did you know?"

"I had it too! Now shut up and do as I say!" Phoenix sends his filter to his left hand, which he places on Xudong, with the palm over his forehead.

Xudong's body begins to tremble with excitement. Phoenix could tell that it was working because he could feel his gift being at work. My gift is being put to work… He smiled sheepishly as if he had found the meaning of life. No more working on blackheads ever again.

Sitting there in silence, Tyrmes tries to interpret the movements. If I win, I don't have to run and my clothes won't be sweaty! Suddenly he hears a rustling noise.

Is someone goofing around right now?

He keeps his eyes closed and continues to comprehend the movements. A few moments later, he hears another rustling noise, like someone standing up. Okay...He continues to concentrate hoping that whoever was messing around would stop.

5 minutes later, he opens his eyes to the third rustling sound. With an annoyed expression, he turns to look at the source of the ruckus and sees a very strange scene. Phoenix was sitting directly between him and Xudong and had a hand on Xudong's head. Phoenix seems to be smiling pervertedly about something.

Phoenix leans in to whisper to Xudong as to not bother the other students.

"Are you almost done yet?"

"A little bit more… Ahhhhhh.." Xudong's body trembled as he let out a slight groan. "It worked!"

"Why did you just moan…"

"Got too excited, hahaha"

From Tyrmes's point of view, Phoenix with a perverted smile suddenly leaned forward and it looked like he had kissed Xudong. A bead of sweat rolled down Tyrmes's head. No way, Phoenix isn't like that. They're probably just talking about something in secret… As he was thinking that, Xudong let out a groan.

...Did he just moan? A small explosion goes off in Tyrmes's head. Images of Xudong in his pink cat briefs and Phoenix with his long hair and effeminate hands begin to connect.

OH MY GOD!

Believing that he just witnessed his two sworn brothers kissing, Tyrmes shivers uncontrollably as he clenches his butt and slowly backs away from the two of them. Since when did Phoenix always have this kind of hobby? Has he been holding it back for my sake?

If Pheonix and Xudong had heard Tyrmes's thoughts, they would have definitely beat him to death.

"Hey Tyrmes, do you want to try?" Pheonix and Xudong with strange smiles turn to ask Tyrmes who had gone off into his own corner.

"No! No! Never!" Disgusted and horrified by the invitation from the two perverts, Tyrmes sobs as he quickly bolts away, feeling utterly betrayed. They even want me to join them! Could it be that they were planning this all along? How did I get myself into this…

"What the heck what that?" Baffled by his reply, Phoenix watches as Tyrmes runs off into the distance. "We didn't even tell him what it was."

Xudong, like most of the other kids, begins to put the movements of Wind Compounding to practice. He examines his releasing of spiritual energy as he throws out a punch. "It still looks like a normal punch…" he mutters as he continues to practice.

After he helped Xudong with breaking the barrier, mental exhaustion takes over Phoenix. Why is it so draining to use my gift like this? His eyes fluttered. The urge to fall asleep gets stronger and stronger. He has to pinch his leg to stay awake.

Focus… Focus... Phoenix slowly follows the movements on the wall, letting out weak bursts of energy through his moves while also trying to stay awake.

Tyrmes finally stopped when he reached the other end of the barracks. Gasping for breath, he continues walking aimlessly. Remembering the scene that he thought he had witnessed, chills went down his spine. There's no way I can be alone with those guys anymore...Huh? Tyrmes stops in his steps.

Looking ahead, he sees a girl sitting outside the barracks on the stairs curled up into a ball. Who is this she? She is wearing a loose black hoodie which she tucked into her waist-high skinny jeans. Her curly hair is black and shiny, in a short bob that reached her neck. Tyrmes scanned her curiously as she stared off into the distance, unaware that a boy was approaching her.

"Hello! I really like your outfit!" Tyrmes smiles warmly as he sits down next to her on the stone stairs. "Are you here by yourself?" He turned, making eye contact with her and found that she was actually quite cute. From behind her bangs, her long eyelashes blink in surprise as her bright green eyes focus on the boy sitting next to her. "Yes…" She nods with a sad light in her eye, her voice is soft and melancholy, almost like a whisper.

I guess she's rather shy. Scratching his head, Tyrmes decides to learn more about her. "What are you doing sitting here by yourself? Do you have any friends here?" The girl slowly shakes her head. She thinks for a minute before speaking softly, "I don't like violence."

"Really? What a coincidence, I don't like fighting either!" Tyrmes laughs, the girl giving him a curious look…. After looking in the distance for a while with her, he furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "Wait… If you don't like violence, what are you doing at a school specialized in combat?" After asking, he turns to see her reaction, her sad eyes have a conflicted expression. … She finally speaks after a long pause. "...My dad." Tyrmes patted her on the shoulder reassuringly. "I see… your dad forced you to go here. What kind of dad would send their cute daughter to a savage combat school with all of these barbarians?" He shook his head while looking afar, not noticing how the girl's face blushed. "Ugh… I just got a strange chill just now. Must be getting cold!" He smiled warmly at her. "I'll be your friend! My name is Tyrmes, what's yours?" She looks at Tyrmes, her large green eyes widen in disbelief at his words, meeting Tyrmes's golden eyes for a moment before she averts her gaze, blushing profusely.

"...Mel." She replies, her voice as tiny as a mosquito. They continue to sit on the stone steps while Tyrmes blabbers nonstop, asking her questions and telling her how horribly his day went, one talking and one listening. Take that Xudong and Pheonix! Tyrmes cackles inwardly as he sat with his new friend. Now you can't pull me into your schemes any longer, I have an ally!

The slow process lasts an hour, but Phoenix manages to memorize the basic movements. At this point, everyone else had also memorized the movements and tried to reproduce the burst of wind that followed Lt. Dan's punch.

Phoenix closes his eyes as he tries to recall Lt. Dans's profound movements, remembering his words about using spiritual energy with physical. Was it like this? He punches out slowly, sweat dripping off his forearm. Nothing.

"Having a bit of trouble there?" A voice says condescendingly. Turning around, Phoenix sees a familiar boy with green hair, wearing fancy blue robes and a black sword. Two other boys are with him wearing similar robes. One has a short scabbard, the other has a baton.

"Bighead?" Phoenix says fearlessly. "What are you doing here?"

"For the last time, my name is Jacques!" the boy snarls as he looked at Phoenix with intense hatred. "A lowly peasant with a trash gift dares to show his face at this school?" The corners of his lips curl up into an arrogant smirk. "Aren't you afraid of… getting killed?"

"And who's going to do that? You?" Phoenix laughs while pointing at the dumbfounded boy. "Why don't you come over here and try it right now?"

With his hand rested on the handle of his sword, trembling in anger, Jacques nearly threw himself at Phoenix. The boy with the scabbard stopped Jacques, putting a hand on his shoulder. "He's baiting you. The teacher is watching." Jacques lets go of his sword and let out a deep breath. "Thank you Muni." The boy with a scabbard let go as Jacques regains his composure. He looked at Phoenix, who stops taunting him, but his face remains extremely condescending and mocking. "How about we exchange pointers, my dear friend? What have you learned so far about Wind Compounding?" Phoenix looks at him closely, as if he was scrutinizing every detail of him. Jacques stares back, waiting for a reply.

…

After a long awkward pause, instead of responding to Jacques, Phoenix walks away and sits down elsewhere, before going back to practice. Seeing this, Jacques's face becomes bright red. Gritting his teeth, he storms off, the two other boys closely following him.

"So that's Bighead, huh. He seems pretty easily riled," Xudong commented. "Yeah," Phoenix said, "Just as I thought. He's all bark and no bite. Although if we were to have fought right now, I probably would have gotten beaten senseless." He laughs in a carefree manner. They return to their practice. Phoenix closing his eyes to feel the energy flow through his movements while picturing Lt. Dan's movements. Just like Lt. Dan… Just like Lt. Dan...

Whoosh! A low hollow whistle reverberates from Phoenix's punch. His eyes widen as he feels a gust flow along with his body. He doesn't stop, instead, he continues to build up the wind current.

Huh? Lt. Dan stood up as he heard the low whistling noise. Nobody was supposed to have gotten it by today. He back in the day had to practice for 5 days to produce a whistling noise. As he is perched on the roof, he looks down at the courtyard to see a boy with an atrocious sense of fashion gathering wind around his body. With a curious expression, he continues to watch the boy.

Phoenix's eyes remain closed, his mind had forgotten all about his surroundings as he tried to fully understand the essence of the technique. As his proficiency increased, the wind around him became stronger and stronger.

Suddenly a voice spoke in Phoenix's head. "Listen to me, or you'll end up heavily injured. Punch out to your left side." Startled, but still clear-minded, Phoenix does what the voice says and punches out towards his left side. Opening his eyes, he finds Lt. Dan, who had stopped his punch with a single extended finger. The wind passes Lt. Dan, howling and roaring. Looking around, Phoenix realizes that he was receiving strange looks from everyone in the class.

"Careful with that maggot, your body isn't strong enough to handle the wind current to that extent yet." Lt. Dan taps on Phoenix's left shoulder which was dislocated and it shoots right back into the socket. Crack! Phoenix grits his teeth as the pain shoot through his arm. When did my arm get dislocated? "Thank you, sir!" he said respectfully as he bowed. His oversized shirt looked warped and stretched in some places.

"What's your gift?"

"Filter, sir!"

"..." Lt. Dan's eyebrows furrowed as he shook his head inwardly. What a shame… He looked around at the other kids. "Time's up. Does anyone else think they can top this maggot?" The entire class stayed silent… "Okay then… go run your fifty laps."

"Sir yes, sir!" The kids started running. "You too." Lt. Dan looked at Phoenix. "Sir yes, sir!" He said as he sprinted to catch up with the rest of the kids.

After all fifty laps are done, the kids collapsed all over the entrance. Lt. Dan dismisses them from the class before leaving. Phoenix's and Xudong's shirts are soaking wet, their knees trembling as they leave the training facility. "Oh there you guys are!" Tyrmes notices the two exiting along with the other people in the class. "What took you so long?" he asks innocently as the two look at him with grim expressions.

"Where...have you been...this whole time..." Pheonix says through gritted teeth. "Seeing it as you've had enough fun out here, I guess you can forget about having dinner." He leans on the wall for support, as he is still sweating from the run. Xudong said nothing as he looked at Tyrmes, giving him shivers. "I-I was out here with Mel!" He grabbed Mel, who was sitting out of sight and propped her in front of Xudong and Phoenix. "She's a new friend that I made! Mel, this is Pheonix." He gestured to Phoenix who has a peculiar expression on his face and then gestured to the other boy who looked equally confused. "And this is Xudong" She looked at the two standing in front of her, after hearing that they were Tyrmes's friends bowed politely to them both. "I'm… Mel" She said softly.

After taking some deep breaths, Phoenix was finally able to control his breathing again. "Nice to meet you, Mel, I'm sorry if Tyrmes here caused you any trouble." He bowed to Mel, who looked at Tyrmes and flurriedly waved her hands as if to say "No! He's not causing any trouble at all!"

"Let's head to the cafeteria for lunch!" Tyrmes proposed since Phoenix clearly wasn't fit to cook. As they walked off, Mel stands there, watching them leave silently, not knowing what to do. "Let's go Mel, you're coming with us!" Tyrmes runs back, grabbing her slender white hand that was half-covered by her hoodie's long sleeve as he drags her with the group. "It seems like our little bro Tyrmes has grown up hehe," Pheonix and Xudong chuckle as they watch Tyrmes go back for Mel. Mel's face is flustered as she lets herself be dragged along by Tyrmes.

The cafeteria was spacious and full of students as they went in for lunchtime. The food was served buffet-style, all sorts of dazzling beasts and spirit vegetables were served by lunch workers. Xudong scares the workers by piling his tray with a mountain of food. "This looks great!" Tyrmes says as he starts to eat his spirit salad with savory chicken cubes. "Don't try and change the subject," Pheonix threw a dark expression at Tyrmes as they settle down at a table. "You're going to practice with us tomorrow. No shirking. And bring Mel along with you. She needs to practice as well." Tyrmes nodded guiltily as he listened to Phoenix nag. Mel sat next to Tyrmes, silently enjoying a salad while watching the three boys bicker with each other.

Pheonix, intrigued by how the dishes were prepared, hits up a conversation with some of the lunch ladies, instantly making him the most popular student with the lunch workers. They invite him into the kitchen, where he immediately picks up an apron and helps them prepare some meals. "Thanks!" He laughs, nodding his head slightly as he waves at the lunch ladies. "Thanks, aunties! I'll come back later to pick up leftover ingredients."

The lunch ladies blush as they see him wave back, instantly starting to gossip as he leaves their view. "What a bright young man!" "I've never seen such a responsible boy before, his mother must be so lucky!" "Some girl out there is gonna be a lucky wife, with a dashing young man who can cook."

After lunch was homeroom, which was separated into their grades. The four kids walk into a large courtyard where the class is said to be. The courtyard is empty, with an exception for a single stone table on the side. Various plants and greenery grew around the pond that sat in the corner nearest to the table. A boy wearing a grey robe with curly orange hair sitting in the courtyard turns as he hears them approaching. His eyes widen, and he smiles and waves at them. "You guys are late! I've been waiting all this time."

"Are you the teacher?" Tyrmes asks, scanning him from head to toe with a confused look. "No… why?" the boy asked, with a puzzled expression. "Because…" Tyrmes looks at him closely, as he paces around the boy in circles, "Why are you acting so familiar with us. Like you know us?... Confess! Who are you?"

The boy gasps as he looks taken aback. "It's me, Ceylon! We live in the same dorm and I've had two classes with you guys! How do you not know me?"

"Huh?" the Tyrmes, Phoenix, and Xudong all exclaim with dumbfounded looks…. There is a long period of silence as the boys comb through their memories for any trace of the orange-haired boy. Tyrmes squints at him suspiciously. "No… freakin... way… We've walked up and down our dorms and in and out of classrooms. We have never spoken to each other before! Is your gift invisibility?"

Ceylon leans back, looking like a wounded puppy, his eyes begin to water a little bit. "I'm not lying! I even heard you talking about your sad past and even smelled the fish soup!" Phoenix gives Ceylon a very strange look. "So what I'm hearing is.... when you decided to eavesdrop on us, you couldn't just… knock on the door and say hi?"

"I never found the right time!" he cries indignantly. His eyes began to get a little watery once again. The other three boys look speechless as they see the boy about to break down. "It's okay..." a soft voice speaks out. Everyone looks at Mel, who hadn't said anything the entire time. Her face reddens from all the surprized gazes on her. "We're friends now." Ceylon's watery eyes widen, looking at Mel like a benevolent goddess who had saved him. "Thank you, big sister, uuuuuuu..." He tries to give her a hug but is stopped by Tyrmes. "Hold it right there, bucko." He looks pitifully at Ceylon, keeping him at bay with one hand on his shoulder. Tyrmes's eye twitches as he sees the snot drip from Ceylon's face, regretting slightly how he put his hand out to stop him. "Are you trying to soil her precious hoodie? Get yourself together man." He ushers Ceylon off to wash his face as he takes out his bottle of hand sanitizer and begins to rub his hands furiously.

"Well, I guess if Mel says it... I guess we're friends with him now." Tyrmes says, glancing teasingly at Mel, whose face was blushing. "Any objections?" Phoenix and Xudong shake their heads, as they give Mel a curious look. "Mel is right" Pheonix added as he lay down on a shady patch of grass, "I honestly feel kind of bad for him, haha… Some people are more socially anxious." As he lay there, a question pops up in his head, he turns to look at Mel worriedly, "Wait… are you in our class as well Mel?"

"Don't worry Phoenix, we didn't kidnap her from another class. She's lives in the girls' dorm for Class F. She's one of us!" Tyrmes replies for Mel.

"Oh? What's your gift Mel?"

"It's no use. She wouldn't tell me no matter what. She probably has a reason so try not to bring it up again." Tyrmes interjected again as he looks at Mel with a warm smile. She gives Tyrmes a grateful look.

"I'm back!" Ceylon announces as he returns, his shirt slightly damp from what they guessed was him wiping his hands after washing his face.

"Ceylon, what's your gift?" Pheonix asks out of curiosity.

"...Bloom…" Ceylon says sheepishly as he looks at the ground. He raised his hand, gesturing to a nearby patch of grass. The green grass shimmered as it began to grow at a visible pace. The fibers began to wrap around each other, making a thick grass vine. Beautiful pink flowers began to grow from the vine.

"Woow… I didn't know grass could sprout flowers." Tyrmes said in surprise.

"They can't. I asked the grass to change it's properties." Ceylon said. "But that's basically it. There's no combat strength behind it. The vines grow too slow to do anything. Also, I need plants around for my gift to do anything." Everyone looks at the little vine curiously. Phoenix looks at Ceylon and asks.

"Lemme guess… Farmer?"

"Yeah…" There was a sad look in his eye. "I ran away because I didn't want to be a farmer like everyone in my village expected me to. I heard this school was free and it might give me a chance to make something of myself."

Tyrmes looked at Ceylon's elaborate grey robe curiously. He stepped closer to Ceylon and felt the collar of his robe, with two fingers. "Hmmm, this material is not bad. You aren't dressed like a farmer though."

"That's because I made this robe…"

"Huh? You know how to sew!" Pheonix's eyes light up as he wraps his arm around in a friendly manner around Ceylon's shoulder, "Why didn't you tell us earlier? Hahaha, we fellow craftsmen should stick together"

"Huh? You made this fashionable robe yourself?" Tyrmes's eyes light up nearly at the same time Phoenix did as he wraps his around Ceylon's other side in a friendly manner, "I could tell that you were a fellow cultured man at the first glance. It's good to have you, brother."

Ceylon looks dizzy as he is suddenly the center of attention, and being joshed around by Phoenix and Tyrmes as they all laugh.

Hearing footsteps in the background, all five kids turn to see a stunningly beautiful girl enter the courtyard. All of the boys' jaws drop as she walks in. She has large innocent eyes and a pretty little nose, with slightly rosy cheeks. She wears black knee-high boots that accentuate her long slender legs, a black skirt, and a grey and pink sweater. Her pink hair, with bluish-turquoise ends flows down to her upper back. She smiles sweetly as she arrives in front of Phoenix and Xudong.