“Come on Zhao Chen, be reasonable! I haven’t witnessed your power first hand, but I know that you’re strong. But at the end of the day not even you can jump a major rank to battle!” Biyu Liu cried out as she jogged behind Zhao Chen.
Her constant bickering had already annoyed Zhao Chen to the point that he chose to no longer respond at all. He knew that she meant well, but he had already made up his mind, and there was no going back. And as for those students at the Foundational Harmony realm, Zhao Chen wasn’t all that concerned.
However, there was something else that was weighing on Zhao Chens mind.
‘You’ll see once we get there.’
‘Baifun.’ Zhao Chen called out.
‘If it’s nothing important, I’d rather you don’t wake me up.’ Baifun replied, his tone no different from before, which was exactly what Zhao Chen was curious about.
‘Are you sure… that it’s just you inside of me?’ Zhao Chen thought up the best possible words. It had become apparent from the last few conversations that they had, that Baifun’s personality wasn’t what most would call stable.
Sometimes he would be kind, sometimes annoying, and even sometimes downright horrendous to talk to. And then there was the whole ordeal with Yue Mengli, which pained Zhao Chen to think about. But from looking at all the evidence, Zhao Chen had thought up two possible answers.
The first, and the worst possible outcome, was that there were somehow more spirits than just Baifun, living inside him. As for the other possibility, Zhao Chen thought that maybe Baifun really was just a mentally unstable individual, or mentally unstable spirit that inhabits random peoples bodies.
‘Don’t phrase it like that you weirdo. I don’t live inside you, my soul is attached to yours, that’s why I live in your sea of consciousness. As for your actual question, yes, it’s just me.’
As usual Baifun immediately stopped talking after answering the question given to him, which had become a routine that greatly infuriated Zhao Chen. However, he was relieved that it was just Baifun, in reality he wasn’t sure how he would react had he found out that there were others.
‘So he is just a weirdo. Check’s out I guess.’
“Zhao Chen. Zhao Chen. Zhao Chen!” Biyu Liu pulled on Zhao Chens shoulders from behind.
In that moment Zhao Chen snapped back to reality and noticed that he had arrived in front of the dorms, and that he was a step away from walking face first into the front doors. He turned to face Biyu Liu.
“I know you mean well, but trust me when I say this, I’ll be fine. Now it’s been a pretty long and frustrating day, so I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight Ms.Liu” Zhao Chen said jokingly, before turning to open the doors.
“Fine, it’s your funeral, dummy.” Biyu Liu stomped her feet in anger as she watched Zhao Chen chuckle and walk inside the building. She waited for a few minutes, then she turned to walk towards the girls' dorms.
Inside Zhao Chens room, he was once again examining the bracelet-sabre, in an attempt to understand the inscription.
“A warrior follows the sun, a king follows the clouds… Obviously this has to do with a follower and a leader, but they're both following something. Just what does it mean?”
Clank! Clttur!
Zhao Chen threw the sabre to the ground in frustration, laying back on his bed, covering his eyes in frustration,
“Stupid sabre.” He muttered under his breath.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
“Zhao Chen you in there? It’s me.” A familiar voice sounded out from the opposing side of Zhao Chens door.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Yeah just one second! I need to… clean up!” Zhao Chen responded frantically as he grabbed the sabre off the ground. He turned it back into its bracelet form and put it in the top drawer of his nightstand. He quickly tidied up his room before going to open the door.
“You do know we have a strict curfew, right?” He smiled as the figure pushed past him and plopped down on his bed.
“Oh shut up, I need to get out of my room. My roommate would not stop talking. I’m considering gagging him.” Zi Qingyun cried out in annoyance.
Zhao Chen let out a small chuckle before being hit with a realization.
“Roomate?” He asked in confusion.
“Yeah my roommate. This little nerd named Sun Lei. What about-” Zi Qingyun paused as he looked around the room. Noticing there was only one bed in the room. Accompanied by one dresser, and one night stand. He then turned to Zhao Chen with a blank look on his face.
“You don’t have a roommate!?”
“Well obviously not, I thought everyone was on their own.” Zhao Chen never questioned that he was on his own in the room, both because he thought it just made sense for such a large academy to have enough space for everyone to have their own room, and because the rooms were small enough to begin with. Zhao Chen couldn’t even fathom trying to live with someone else in such an enclosed space.
“You lucky bastard! You get this whole room to yourself, while my roommate takes up half the space in our room with stupid posters and other weird items. He’s some super fanboy of this fictional warrior.” Zi Qingyun ranted for several minutes about his roommate.
“You said a whole lot of nothing you know. I mean there’s nothing wrong with looking up to somebody. Have you even tried to have a normal conversation with him?”
In a sense Zhao Chen was a hypocrite. He wasn’t the trusting or sociable type, but he would alway encourage others to spread their wings. He knew the importance of making and maintaining relationships with people, but he himself would never practice what he preached.
“Well, no, but, you know…”
“You’re fumfering.”
“I know I’m fumfering!”
Zi Qingyun laid his head back on the pillows behind him and stretched out his legs, attempting to let his pent up anger flow out of his body and be replaced by a relaxed sensation.
“Whatever, what about? How was your official first day.” He spoke with his eyes closed, which made Zhao Chen unsure if he was actually listening or not.
“Well my fundamentals of alchemy teacher has assigned us two major writing assignments and has pushed our test from the first class to the second. And then I found out that you can only take on requests or missions, whatever they're called, you can only take them on if they're of the same rank. So now I have to reach earth rank in a month.”
Day by day, it seemed that Zhao Chen was mastering the art of rambling on endlessly, causing a great feeling of pride to swell up in Zi Qingyun.
“Uh huh.” Zi Qingyun added in response, shocking Zhao Chen.
He had expected him to react the same way as Biyu Liu, expecting Zi Qingyun to shoot up and immdiately tell Zhao Chen that he was being incomperably stupid. However when he thought about it, Zhao Chen was relieved he didn’t have one more person nagging him.
“One problem with your little plan.” Zi Qingyun continued, rolling over to face Zhao Chen.
“Knowing you, I’m betting you want to do that by fighting your way to the top, correct?”
“Naturally.”
“Haha, great. Problem is, you’re only allowed to issue a promotion challenge once a month.”
“What!” Zhao Chen stood up in bewilderment. He had never heard of such a moronic rule.
“Are you sure about this? You’re not just messing with me?” Seeing the satisfied smile on Zi Qingyun’s face, Zhao Chen was unconvinced that he was truly only allowed to rank up once a month.
“Swear it on my honor,milord.” Zi Qingyun responded, with one hand over his chest and another raised in the air. The mocking only made Zhao Chen more annoyed.
He could tell that, although Zi Qingyun wasn’t taking the situation seriously, he hadn’t lied. That meant that Zhao Chens plans would be greatly set back.
‘That means, at bare minimum it would take me 5 months to reach heaven rank and even then, that’s if there’s no interruptions. To actually get any use out of coming here I need to be at heaven rank and I need to get there fast. If it was just my realm that was lacking I could just stuff myself with pills, but that won’t help me here.’
“You know there’s another way to rank up right?”
Like a knight in shining armor, Zi Qingyun had come to help Zhao Chen in his hour of need.
Zhao Chen pounced onto Zi Qingyun, placing his hands ontop of Zi Qingyuns.
“How?”
“Alright calm down. You can always go to the Tower of Advancements.”
“The what?”
Zi Qingyun paused once more, in disbelief at how a person like Zhao Chen was so against listening to others or even picking up a book.
“The tower of advancements? That big azure tower near the lecture hall? You know with the Twin Yin Wolves Formation?” Zi Qingyun spoke slowly, as if he had to explain what he was saying to a toddler.
“You’re right! That old guy said something about being able to rank up based on our achievements in that place right?”
“Old man? … You mean the Dean!?”
‘My head just isn’t screwed on right today.’
“Sorry, yes the Dean. But he didn’t actually explain how that place worked.”
“Don’t look at me, I’m just trying to enjoy my life for now, that number one spot is mine anyways.” Zi Qingyun shrugged his shoulders and flashed a smile at Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen took a second to consider his options. Although 5 months was a long time, it did also give Zhao Chen the time to actually focus on his cultivation, as to ensure he doesn’t make any mistakes that would hinder him in the future. But at the same time, the tower did pose both a challenge he had never faced before and a quicker way to rank up.
After several minutes of silence, Zhao Chen had decided. As soon as his classes finished the next day, Zhao Chen would be taking on the Tower of Advancements.
“Well I had a feeling that you’d do something like that. But, I believe in you.” Zi Qingyun rose to his feet and raised his fist in the air.
Zhao Chen responded by smacking his own fist against Zi Qingyun’s, and flashing the boy a smile.
After Zi Qingyun left the room, Zhao Chen lay down in bed but he was unable to fall asleep. The anticipation of what trials he would have to overcome from Tower had gotten him too energetic!