Robert was relaxing on the bed, shaking his legs and humming a song, when Edward suddenly opened the door from outside and entered the room.
"Change of plans. You need to start a new training regiment.", Edward said as soon as he entered the room.
"Why so sudden? What happened?", Robert asked.
"The entire four great academy tournament changed. It has now become the Grand Academy Tournament.", Edward said.
"What? Grand Academy Tournament?", Robert was caught unprepared by this news.
"Yes. All the academies of every single one of the 100 countries will participate. First, each country will choose a team of five members by selecting their best students from all their academies. Then, the teams will be managed by the Royal Academy and Royal Family of their respective countries. The finals will be held in the Grand Sky Empire. Which means we get to go there earlier than we've planned."
"What? The Grand Sky Empire? Is this really true?", Robert was both shocked and excited.
"Yeah. This is true. It has indeed shocked me too. The existence of the Grand Sky Empire has always been a vague and unclear thing for the people of the hundred countries under it. Only the core members of the royal families of each country were supposed to know. But now, The Grand Sky Empire has suddenly declared their existence in front of everyone. Not only that, but they are also holding such a big public event like the Grand Academy Tournament. They are definitely after something. It's either a showcase of power or they are in need of a lot of young, talented people."
"Why would they need young, talented people for?"
"To strengthen their army, of course. Either they want to just strengthen their military might or...", Edward suddenly paused.
"Or what?", Robert asked.
"Nothing. Maybe I'm thinking into things too much.", Edward said. He didn't want to say it out loud that this might be a sign of war. Was the Grand Sky Empire at war against one of the other three great empires? He couldn't think things through.
"Anyway, what matters now is that you need to train. Now that things have escalated, your current strength won't be that much in this grand event. But luckily, we have about three weeks to do some training.", Edward pointed out.
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"You are right. But in three weeks, I can break through one more level at most."
"I plan to have you breakthrough to the peak of the Shell Shattering Realm by the end of this three-week training session.", Edward said.
"How?", Robert asked.
"By merging your Physical Essence with Life Energy. I will do this with the help of the Seed of Origin Life. Your Physical Essence will become something else, something more powerful. Other cultivators at the same level as you won't survive a single strike from you once I'm done. Also, you will gain tremendous healing and recovering capabilities, although not nearly as powerful as mine. Any fatal wound can be healed within moments, and fatigue can be removed in a few minutes. But healing or recovering will spend your Physical Essence, which you won't be able to recover so fast as I could. After all, you don't have the Seed of Origin Life as a source. But the upside is, as long as I'm nearby, I can help you recover your physical essence or even regrow your broken limbs by sharing the life energy from the Seed of Origin Life with you."
"This is great, But why haven't you helped me this way until now?", Robert knew there must've been a reason, so he asked.
"Good question. First of all, although I had the Seed of Origin Life during our five months training session in the Hundred Beasts Mountain Range, I wasn't proficient enough with the Seed of Origin Life to do so. Secondly, I still can't control the life energy inside the Seed of Origin Life properly, so there is a chance that I fail to manage the life energy during the transfer process and the life energy rejects your body as a host. After all, you are not me who is the original owner of the Seed of Origin Life, so there is a chance that the life energy might reject to fuse with your physical essence and fight against it. That will wreck your body from the inside. But now that you are way stronger than you were five months ago, I believe your body can handle the strain. There are still quite some risks though.", Edward explained.
"So, that's it. Well, how can I gain without having to endure pain? This is the martial path, after all, everything is a challenge. So bring it on. Let me have it.", Robert said with determination.
"Are you sure?", Edward asked once again. This was a test from him to Robert, to see that he can stick to his words or not.
"Absolutely.", Robert said without any hesitation.
"Ok then. Here it goes.", Edward pressed his thumb on Robert's left chest, exactly where his heart was, as he channeled the Life Energy inside him.
"The heart is the source. Let your heart absorb it, and pump it through your whole body.", Edward whispered into Robert's ears. After that, he removed his hand from there.
Robert sat in a meditative position as he let the life energy flow through his body. At first, it was a soothing feeling but soon, a dull pain began to spread in his whole body. As time passed, the pain turned more and more intense.
"It has begun. Now, how far you can go, will depend only and only upon you. See you when you overcome this challenge, mate.", Edward closed the door and left the room as he said that.
After leaving his room, he started to walk towards the mountains at the backside of the academy. On one of his hands, he was carrying the manual on the Qi Accumulation Realm given to him by Old Summer. As Robert was facing his current challenge, growing stronger, Edward too, had his own challenges to face. For him, this was the beginning of a new grand showdown.