Straw@hat publication: Chapter - 9; Reaching Middle Phase::

At third class:

" I am considering you guys got to know about the difference resources can have on ones strength from yesterday. Many of the class two and class three students have almost same talent grade but you still lost so miserably to them." Elder Yang laughed.

His face then became serious as he said " this was only a friendly competition but in future there will be battles with resources at stake and you have to fight for them yourselves. Also you have to fight with other academies in future to preserve our honor in the region, and I don't want you to ruin my face there so work hard and try to improve "

All the disciples including Huo Ling felt a shiver in their bodies.

" I will have to ensure all my factors before these battles or I will lose, good opportunities to grow" Huo ling said to himself.

Before Huo lings courtyard he finished his combat practice and went to cultivation.

"Today my essence gathering was a little smoother. I think it is due to my body being very familiar to it with the training. It didn't have much effect on the rate of essence I gather ,but the feeling has improved a lot". Like this days passed.

Huo ling was sitting in his cultivation posture and looking at the essence stone he got from the academy:

" It has been about five days above a month from my first day at the academy and finally my Celestial sea is feeling saturated. I think in ten more days I can breakthrough to middle phase , but I recieved another essence stone for this month's allowance and now I have two " he smiled and started absorbing the essence stone.

Instantly he felt a bolt of essence entering his body he concentrated his mind and guided the essence to his celestial sea.

The essence stones are condensed form of natural essence formed in nature they are naturally obtained from veins and are pure so can be absorbed and provide instant accumulation of essence in the celestial sea.

Huo ling felt disturbances in his Celestial sea . The light grey essence was condensing with the help of the intruding essence and the celestial sea was shaking due to the movement.

Suddenly a burst happened in the bottom of the sea and a drop of smokey gray essence formed there.

"It feels amazing i can feel the power and quantity of my essence increasing rapidly" he was amazed.

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" The sise of my celestial sea has also increased by a little "

He concentrated the surrounding light gray essence into the smokey gray bubble and when all of it went inside the bubble burst open and all of the celestial sea was now filled with smokey gray essence.

Hul ling was very happy as he opened his eyes , one can see the excitement in his eyes. " I finally made it , and I made it before maximum of the average grade talents. I should be among the top 20 right now in terms of cultivation level" he thought while standing.

He guided his essence into the Swift Gale celestial and dodged to his side with a very fast speed. His face glowed with smile, " before the breakthrough i would run out of essence just using it once and now i can easily use it three times and still have essence left for the long distance running".

He was getting used to his new strength and feeling it.

" Compared to before I feel a lot stronger and my combat strength has also increased a little" he said to himself.

" Now lets go buy the stealth type Celestial tomorrow, the academy takes good care of students . For my breakthrough i can get get it for only one essence stone. In the market it should be above 30."

Net day at the celestial hall of academy " this one seems right, it has a great disadvantage but in forest i think it can do with proper plan" he was looking at the description of a celestial worm.

He had already researched about different stealth type Celestial worms already in the Library and this one looked very fitting for his current situation.

" Silent Shadow celestial worm, it has a very strong concealment effect. When used it can hide the presence completely, until the opponent has a rank two middle phase or above scouting celestial he cannot figure out this Celestial. But it has a limitation , it could only conceal the user when he is in a shadow, if he steps out of the shadow area the effect will be cancelled".

It was a rank 1 middle phase celestial and had a powerful concealment effect but was not used by anyone in the academy as there was no point of using it , there were no shadows on the battle stage. It woul only be an added expense without any use despite having the strongest concealment.

But Huo lings situation was different as he had to travel in a forest and had to be aware of many strong foes so he needed very reliable concealment.

" I could find shadows at the forest and it will be very useful at night time." He concluded and bought it.

After paying the essence stone he recieved the celestial, there was one more reason for which he chose this worm. It was because it was very easy to feed. It just has to be left in dark shadow to recover its hunger and injuries .

A celestial master has to choose his worms carefully or he would run out of resources and all his worms will die. In the wild it would be difficult to carry much too.

Huo ling went straight to the classroom.

" You coward dare to come to class after surendering without fight , you believe i won't beat you " some one shouted at him.

Other disciples also began laughing and gossiping.

Ignoring them Huo ling reached his seat and sat down. Soon after elder Yang entered and looked at every one. His eyes stopped at Hul Ling and he smiled with shock.

" You reached middle phase so quickly despite your talent , good " he laughed while praising Huo ling a little.

Everyone in the class was shocked and started gasping.

" Is elder Yang making a joke , isn't that the guy who surrendered of fear "

" What do you think , have you seen elder Yang joke before "

The disciple was stunned and looked towards another disciple. While laughing he said :

" Tian Lang , you should pray about not meeting him alone after saying that or i don't know about you beating him but he will surely give you a good trashing"

Ha , ha , ha the disciples who heard him began to laugh. And Tian Lang expression was spectacular.

Elder Yang coughed and said " You other disciples should also work hard and reach middle phase soon or you will be trampled by other classes in a two or so weeks"

He then continued the class.

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