“What is this?”

Spring stared blankly at the object in his hand; it looked like a gold pendent inlayed with a large ruby and was about as big as two fingers put together.

After Spring had painstakingly climbed to the roof of the cave and searched about, he finally managed to find this stone piece in a hidden crevice. From the location it was found, It seemed like the liquid that had dripped into the rock pool had originated from this object.

“What a mysterious object.”

As Spring muttered, he noticed that on the ruby, some cryptic patterns which looked like glyphs were faintly discernable.

At this juncture, besides the cryptic and profound looking glyphs on the amulet, there were no other unusual aspects. Yet Spring understood that the shining drop of red liquid he had just seen was definitely not an illusion.

“The reason why the rock pool possessed that kind of special property must have something to do with this amulet……”

Spring sunk deep into thought. Previously, he had personally seen a drop of light fall into the rock pool, and only this was the only evidence that could explain why the rock pool would possess such a miraculous property.

As Spring reasoned to himself, he realized that much time must have passed inside the cave, and decided to leave. He stuffed the amulet into his inner garments, placing it at the spot near his chest.

As he wandered around the forest, he eventually reached the clearing. From there, as he picked up his things and was about to leave for home,

“Brother, hee hee, I knew that you would be here.”

Just as Spring managed to clean up his things, a figure appeared at the entrance of the clearing. The figure was revealed to be a young girl who looked to be about 13 or 14 years old, wearing simple light colored clothes. Yet these simple clothes were unable to conceal the quick wittedness on her small face. Though the girl was rather young, her small face was rather elaborate, her huge eyes glittered, making her look extremely adorable.

“Ship!”

Spring heard a voice exclaim. The voice was somewhat arrogant and pretentious, like a noble or scholar. It was also male. Most definitely male. Very clearly male. He looked around, bewildered. Other than his sister, nobody was around.

“You hear something?”

She tilted her head, as though confused at his question.

“Never mind, then.”

{#_#}

Meanwhile, somewhere, a red haired man dressed in combat garb had his finger on his lips as he motioned his companions to keep quiet. He was muscular, yet nimble, a born warrior. Near him was a sky-blue haired man, significantly older, yet not yet ‘old’. His figure was more slight than the red haired man, but not frail, and he was dressed in a pristine, white lab coat. There was also a gigantic creature demon thing dude guy. Very, very large. Very, very bulky. His features were the color of dirt. It was basically a giant, buff, brown garchomp the size of a three story building.

“I think he can hear us.”

The red haired man took his finger off his mouth then mouthed to the blue haired one.

{#_#}

Spring shook his head, and convinced himself he was hearing things. The girl was not a member of the Grassblade Family, rather she was adopted by May not long after he was born. She was younger by Spring by just a bit, so the two of them had grown up together and their relationship was akin to that of brother and sister, extremely intimate. April was her name.

“Brother, the sky is almost dark, dad asked me to come get you.”

April laughed merrily as she approached, her small hands naturally pulling at Spring’s arm as she dragged him out of the clearing. As she walked, she mumbled: “If the sky had gotten dark, you won’t be able to navigate the forest, don’t tell me that you planned on sleeping here another night?”

Gazing beside him at April, whose voice chirped melodiously like a lark, Spring could not help laugh. Soon after, his arm moved to lightly touch his chest area. At the centre of his chest was the amulet, which was emitting a cooling sensation.

Although he did not know where this amulet came from, Spring’s intuition told him that it was definitely no ordinary thing.

As the dim light of the night shrouded the land, the cool and refreshing moonlight flowed down, washing away any remnants of heat from the day.

In the room, Spring was fast asleep. Strands of moonlight sprayed from the window, some of which shined on Spring’s body. Suddenly, the moonlight started to ripple like water, soon after a bizarre scene occurred. The moonlight unexpectedly started to gather at Spring’s chest area, as if in response, the simple amulet emitted out a bit of light, causing it to be faintly discernable at the center of the light.

As the amulet shined, the originally sleeping Spring slightly cracked opened his eyes. However, before he could fully open his eyes, a suddenly dizziness gushed forth from depths of his mind. Following which, he alarmingly found himself in a dark dark space.

There was no light here, only silence and cold.

This sudden change caused fear to rise up in Spring’s heart. No matter what, he was still a 14 year old kid.

“Snicker!”

As Spring choked in fear, a sudden voice broke the silence of the pitch-black space. Soon after, a glowing figure suddenly appeared before him. Carefully examining the figure, he realized that to his surprise, the figure looked exactly like him. However, its face did not have any signs of life, rather it was expressionless like a doll.

“What is going on……”

Spring blankly gazed at the glowing figure in front of him, his brain somewhat paralyzed with fear by this weird sight.

While Spring was still in a daze, the glowing figure of “Spring” suddenly moved. The figure’s had adjusted its body and extended both its arms. A glyph appeared in the air in front of him, then five, then nine.

“Is this… Wind blade?”

The nine Glyphs interlocked, and mana gathered forth in the form of a blade of wind

As he gazed at the fist technique displayed by the glowing figure, Spring’s eyes opened wide in bewilderment.

“Nine glyphs.”

Just as Spring mumbled to himself, suddenly he felt a jolt of shock. A tenth glyph had appeared.

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“What…”

The glyph generated was extremely dull, and it was also hidden in the glow of the wind blade. Only because Spring was in a state of high alert within this quiet space was he able to see that last glyph.

10 glyphs!

Spring looked at the glowing figure in astonishment. He clearly knew that there were only supposed to be 9 glyphs in a wind blade, yet this glowing figure was able to generate a 10th one?!

At this point, Spring was fairly certain that even if his father personally cast the wind blade, he would not be able to generate this last glyph.

“BOOM!”

A sound cried as the wind blade blew itself across the space and into the void.

“What is going on?”

Spring was shocked at this sight. Moments later, he finally regained his composure and started to contemplate the situation. Even though he had only witnessed it once, Spring could sense that the wind blade displayed by the glowing figure was even more natural and sharp than his father’s, or perhaps, perfect.

As to why this glowing figure was able to display such unique ability, Spring was clueless. Nonetheless, he understood that this time, he had found a treasure…

As this thought crossed Spring’s mind, the glowing figure had yet to disappear. Instead, it once again displayed the same wind blade, but faster this time.

As Spring stared at the agile glowing figure, he realized that the fear that plagued him at the start had unknowingly dissipated. Feeling a little lost, he decided to gather up his spirits and concentrate onto the glowing figure. With a particularly serious expression, he watched every glyph again and again, memorizing even the most minute intricacies in each glyph.

By this time, the wind blades were being cast almost instantaneously. Suddenly, however, the figure slowed down, and the spell returned to the original casting time.

After observing for some time, Spring stretched out his arms. He begun to mimic the glowing figure and slowly cast the wind blade.

In the darkness stood two similar figures, one human shadow and one glowing shadow, tireless repeating the same spell. A series of crisp crackling sounds continuously echoed, though a majority of them were generated by the glowing shadow.

Nonetheless, Spring did not feel discouraged. An earnest expression remained on his tiny face, as he unconsciously adjusted his glyphs to resemble those of the glowing figure.

Even though these adjustments were merely minor changes, it was akin to adding the finishing touches to a masterpiece as each tiny adjustment brought about significant effect.

4 glyphs!

Both of Spring’s eyes instantly brightened! He did not expect that a few minor adjustments would cause the wind blade to improve this much.

This sensation was akin to having guidance from a legendary master. Moreover, the level of mastery attained by this mentor was a truly terrifying one.

Spring was ecstatic. He had achieved such remarkable progress in just one day that even his father’s jaw would drop after witnessing him produce 4 glyphs. In fact, his father took nearly a month of training before he could reach this stage, yet Spring managed to exceed this by more than 10 times!

After making such progress, Spring’s spirits were lifted. Without taking a break, he once again shifted in fight stance and repeated the glyphs one by one. He was determined to perfect these glyphs until they were exactly the same as the glowing figure’s…

As if time had stopped flowing, Spring continuously imitated the glowing figure within the pitch-black space. And as his sweat dripped off his body, his wind blade came to match the glowing figure’s more and more.

“Groan…”

In the middle of his room, Spring could already feel the sun’s rays shining down on his face as he struggled to open his eyes. As he glanced at the sunlight, he suddenly leaped forth from his bed. Though as his feet made contact with the floor, an extremely aching pain suddenly filled his body almost causing him to lose his footing.

“This…”

Mana depletion. Again. The second time in two chapters.

The sudden aching sensation shocked Spring. It was as if he had spent an entire night on intensive training.

“It was not a dream?!”

Suddenly, Spring seemed to have recalled something as a look of awe surfaced on his face. Immediately, he gritted his teeth and shot a wind blade at the stone floor. Looking at the proficient way the glyphs came together, it was as though he had already practiced this spell countless times. Only he knew that he had only just learnt this spell from August the day before.

5 glyphs.

“How could I have mastered it so quickly…”

Spring muttered to himself as he gazed at his palms. He could feel that five glyphs was definitely not his limit. In fact, if he wished to, he could easily produce seven glyphs now!

This training progress bewildered Spring. Among the younger generation in the Grassblade Family, there were several others who practiced wind magic as well. Nonetheless, he was one of the rare few that could produce seven glyphs at such a tender age.

“How did this happen?”

Spring frowned, the eyebrows on his face knitting together. Moments later, his hand moved to his chest area and retrieved the mysterious amulet hidden in an inner pocket. This was the object that he retrieved from the cave yesterday.

If there were any items worthy of suspicion on Spring’s body, then this amulet will definitely be at the top of the list.

“This object, is it really this powerful?”

As Spring held the amulet, he felt a cooling sensation spreading out from his palm. Thanks to this sensation, the aching pain in his body was slightly soothed.

Swallowing the churning emotions in his heart, Spring carefully hid the amulet back into the inner pocket. His intuition told him that this amulet possessed extraordinary powers and he knew that if news of this discovery got out, it would definitely invite a catastrophe. Therefore, it would be much better if no one else knew about it.

After he kept the amulet, Spring opened the door and left his room. First, he proceeded to eat some breakfast prepared by May before he slipped off back to the rock cave. Currently, his body was aching with pain, he knew that if he continued to his intensive practice now, it would definitely injure his body. Thankfully, he had discovered the miraculous properties of the rock pool, thus this was not an issue for Spring.

Dripping fresh blood into the rock pool, Spring enjoyed a half hour soak before he finally got out. The ache in his body had disappeared without a trace and his body had returned to its peak condition.

He felt the skin on his body, revelling at the fact that it had toughened substantially once again. This brought a smile to Spring’s tiny face as he knew that at this speed, he could officially advance to the 4th layer within the next ten days.

Climbing out of the rock pool, Spring decided to cast a wind blade again. This time, he used all his power, holding nothing back.

Seven glyphs!

As his hand fell to indicate the end of this session, Spring’s tiny face flushed red with excitement. Armed with this wind blade, he was confident that if he met Grassblade Shan again, it would definitely not be a repeat of their last encounter. He would not be so easily beaten without a chance to retaliate again.

Spring’s excitement finally faded as he once again regained his calm. Chuckling at himself, he climbed out of the cave and started his daily intensive training.

A day of training passed. Some time in the evening, a stern-looking August came around to inspect the Spring’s progress. With regards to Spring’s training, he was often extremely harsh and strict.

However, after witnessing Spring produce three glyphs, even though he tried to maintain a strict expression, a slight trace of surprise and satisfaction leaked out onto his face.

Seeing the expression on his father’s face, Spring’s secretly heaved a sigh of relief. In his mind, he chuckled to himself as he imaged what August’s expression will be if he knew that Spring could already produce seven glyphs?

In the midst of the summer heat, every single member of the academy was earnestly training. They understood that the Academy Competition that was coming up in six months was extremely important for them.

As the Grassblade Family was not an extremely powerful or reputable family, they were unable to provide every member with the best kind of treatment. Therefore, if one wants to obtain the best spells and potions from the Grassblade Family, one must prove himself to be exceptional.

Therefore this Academy Competition was a chance for them to showcase their talent and stand above the crowd. For most of them, this was also their first ever competition, yet on some levels, the results of this competition determined their fates for the rest of their lives.

A man that was heavily groomed by the family will definitely progress much faster in his training as compared to training by himself. Of course, there were some special exceptions…

As everyone was intensively preparing for the upcoming Academy Competition, Spring did not encounter much trouble during this period. And for the next ten nights after he fell asleep, he would find a perfect “teacher” waiting for him in the dark space.

It was increasingly difficult to produce the next glyph. Especially after the seventh one, the difficulty soared exponentially. Therefore, even after ten days of intensive training, Spring was barely able to produce the ninth glyph. Moreover, he was still clueless on how to produce the final tenth one.

Nonetheless, he was not discouraged. He clearly knew that being able to produce nine glyphs after just ten days of training, was already a terrifying feat.

He knew this fact from August’s expression when he assessed his son’s training progress. After Spring showed his father six glyphs, August’s started to look at his son with a strange gaze. When he first started training Penetrating Fist, it took him two whole months before he was able to reach this stage. Yet, Spring took only ten days to match that feat. Hence, upon witnessing his remarkable progress, August was at a loss for words.

Even though his training was painful and exhausting, its effects were extremely clear.

Based on this speed, it will only be a short while before he finally reaches 4th Layer…