Even though Alex was in a good mood, changing clothes was a painful endeavor that took almost half an hour. Afterwards he stepped out the house, but realized that not only his clothing was dirty – he probably stank like sh*t as well.

Thus during the next hour he slowly walked down the Southern peak towards the river and when he got there – directly sat down in the water letting the quick stream wash him. During the process he performed the basic Qi technique and continued after getting to the shore to dry his clothes in the warm rays of the sun.

After another hour Alex got up and slowly walked towards the Central peak. Soon he met other students who stared back at him in disbelief. Everyone knew he suffered from Qi deprivation, but for some reason this guy was out for a stroll as if nothing happened. He walked with his hands in pockets, whistling a foreign, but joyful tune.

Alex, of course, was in terrible pain and every move made him wish he was dead, but there was no way he would show it on his face. Thus the only thing he could do was to whistle the good old ‘Don't worry be happy’ while pretending to be fine.

The walk to the library that usually took him few minutes this time lasted for over an hour. Multiple times Alex considered sitting down and resting, but he just couldn’t allow himself to show any weakness to the onlookers. Not because of a pride, obviously, but because he’ll have to win another ten challenges during the upcoming months and with how he currently was – he had no chance, but no one had to know.

“You owe me twelve days of work!” Adil angrily greeted him the moment Alex stepped in the library.

“I’m sorry, your sainthood! I’ll get right to it!” Alex noticed few students who were reading at the tables in the hall and played along.

“Hmph! Follow me!” Adil ordered and slowly went up the stairs, but even then Alex found it impossible to keep up.

With teary eyes he barely managed to get to the second floor where they could finally speak without anyone overhearing.

“Twelve days, huh?” Alex said while gasping for air.

“Ye, I thought you’ll die.” Adil nodded.

“Mhm, I also thought so.” Alex agreed, “If I’m not wrong, I owe you my life, old man and a simple ‘thank you; won’t cut it this time.”

“Not only me. There were few more who stood on your side. But from now on you’ll have to be careful – accidents might happen, you know.” Adil said, but then his expression changed in to one full of annoyance and he asked, “Do you understand why it happened?”

“I got cocky.” Alex said, “I shouldn’t have postponed the challenges to the last day.”

“No, you idiot!” Adil wanted to slap him, but held back, “It’s because you neglected your training! Only a strong body can house a strong mind! You got weak!”

Alex was surprised by the outburst, but what the old man said also made sense. Except, he didn’t enjoy the physical training as much as the peace in the library, but that might been caused by the experiences during his last life.

“Ok, I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.” Alex said with a smile – after all the saint was trying to help him out.

“Thank you, shmank you! He’ll keep in mind, ye, right!” Adil grumbled under his nose, “How do you actually feel?”

“Oh, I’m completely f*cked.” Alex honestly said, “On my way here I barely managed to remain conscious and truth to be told, I’m not certain I can make it back.”

“Suits you well! Next time you’ll think twice before killing a saint.” Adil seriously said, but a wide grin hinted at the intended sarcasm.

“Ye, who would’ve thought that his rib cage is so peculiar.” Alex played along, “I have a question though – is it really possible for a non saint to use mind abilities?”

“The second one did?” Adil asked.

“He or someone else, but I was blanked out from the start of the fight.” Alex said.

“It must have been him. A saint wouldn’t lower to such a childish play – there are better ways to make you suffer.” Adil said, “But you shouldn’t have killed him.”

“Oh? I didn’t know I did. But at the time I had no clue where I was, much less what I was doing.” Alex nonchalantly shrugged ignoring the fact he killed two people in one day, “And my body acted purely out of reflex.”

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“And that is the story you will stick to if you value your life.” Adil seriously said poking Alex’s forehead, “And I still need you to copy few thousands of works, so don’t you dare to die prematurely!”

“Yes, sir! Thank you!” Alex smiled back even though the poke was painful.

They chatted for few more minutes, then after an hour of rest Alex went back to his residence – again outwardly looking careless and happy.

For the next month he kept going to the library in the early morning and leaving only before the sunset. From outsiders perspective it seemed as if he was working overtime trying to compensate for the lost time, but in reality he was just meditating on the fourth floor where the other students were not allowed. In fact, he couldn’t even write a single sentence, to not speak about copying someone’s work.

Only at the end of the second month Alex was finally capable of light physical exercises. While trying to maintain the illusion of him being fine, every day before the sunrise he went over the bridge at the main entrance and jogged along the river upstream. At first it was more walking than running, but soon he could run a couple of kilometers without needing to stop in order to catch his breath.

This was not purely a physical exercise. After the second fight in arena Jamil gave him idea – it was highly likely that the Qi that flowed from the mountains not only thickened around the five peaks of the academy or just on the Western peak. When the lake was still there Qi might have gathered at the bottom of it or even below it. Either way Alex hoped to find a place that resembled the cave he lived in together with the two boys during his last life. In addition, the peculiarity of the current area hinted at a place with even more concentrated Qi, potentially, of course.

With all that in mind Alex jogged along the river paying close attention to the stream, looking for irregularities. Unfortunately after twenty days of running along both – northern and southern streams, he didn’t find anything. He wasn’t discouraged though and thought of another exercise. He ran even further upstream, threw in a piece of wood and followed it until it passed the academy.

At this point Alex was already fit enough to start working in the library again and thus basically went back to his old routine with only one exception – he never returned to the training grounds. The other students also slowly got used to him and only a rare hateful stare would remind of what happened in the arena.

Days flew by and there were only two months left till the end of semester. By now Alex already knew he was not going to remain in the academy because there was no way for him to complete the combat challenges. Even though he was fit, it was only compared to other regular youths, not the students from the Academy of saints. He felt a bit sad about it, but since there was nothing he could do, he didn’t bother much and concentrated on solving the puzzle he created for himself – finding out if there really was a mysterious Qi gathering spot under the Western peak.

Alex knew the river from the top of his head – every rock, every whirlpool, but there were no notable hints on the existence of a stream separating and going deeper underground. To add to the regular exercises, he several times climbed the nearby mountains in order to take a look at the river from another perspective, but it didn’t give any results as well.

In addition to that, the frequent autumn rains made the river muddy and even more unruly. While the weather was still warm, the conditions were not suitable for the type of exploration he was doing and in the end Alex was forced to give up.

After climbing another mountain for the last time Alex burned the picturesque view on the academy and its five peaks to his memory. Even the heavy rain didn’t spoil the atmosphere, but in some sense the ‘crying heaven’ made him feel more nostalgic. The time he spent here was interesting from the perspective of his personal growth, but sadly he’ll have to leave soon.

Lost in thoughts Alex descended from the mountain, but got caught in a light landslide half way down. He wasn’t worried though. As per usual when getting in a critical situation he concentrated on the ‘plan b’ – focusing on the right thoughts to make sure he was reborn in a better place while jumping on a trunk of a tree that was carried along with the mud and rocks.

It was not the first time he saw such landslides and usually after fifty or hundred meters they stopped. But probably because of the heavy rainfall during the past days, this particular one became more like an unstoppable avalanche. Realizing he was in deep sh*t, Alex stood up on the tree trunk as if it was a surfboard and slid down the mountain loudly shouting almost like enjoying a real ocean wave.

The excitement lasted for almost half a minute until Alex caught the sight of the river rapidly approaching. He immediately focused on the plan ‘b’ again and revolved his tiny Qi reserves preparing for the inevitable crash that followed few seconds later.

Judging from aside one could question his sanity, but considering his monotonous days it was inevitable he thirsted for some action. Of course, Alex himself regretted this urge the moment he was thrown around like a small pebble, mud and water squeezing in through all his orifices. Painful collisions with larger rocks reminded him his body was still made of flesh, but no matter how bad it got, Alex did his best to concentrate on the plan ‘b’.

Another minute and few broken bones later, he began to wonder how come he had not lost his consciousness. Theoretically he already was carried by the wild river, but its waters were very much like the mud of the landslide he was just the part of. Suddenly he realized he had no clue how long he could actually hold his breath! Drowning while conscious or unconscious were two completely different things! Luckily he felt comfortable for now, at least in that regard.

Another stroke of luck came a moment later when the muddy waters threw him at a larger rock. Alex felt how after the collision his consciousness faded away and inwardly smiled, but for some reason he didn’t completely black out. The feeling of the wild, muddy stream carrying him remained and at some point transformed into a sensation of free fall.

‘Strange.’ Alex analyzed while partially floating in a dream-like state, ‘I’m pretty certain there are no waterfalls in this area. And it’s impossible for me to be already past the academy. I’m obviously hallucinating.’

But before he could think of anything else, his body heavily slammed in a large mass of water.

‘So not an illusion after all, huh?’ Alex inwardly sighed.

He was not clear if he was disappointed at being alive or happy, but since the stream was now much calmer, he was able to use the right arm and paddle up to the surface. After taking a breath of fresh air, he coughed for a bit, but contrary to the time he was shipwrecked, there was no sand in his throat – only his nose and ears.

The biggest problem was – it was completely dark. Well, it actually was only the second biggest problem. The first one was – his left arm was broken along with the left leg.