Straw@hat publication; Chapter -7; Training::

Outside Huo ling's courtyard home:

" I have trained this combat technique from childhood but that was only the outer shell of it and now that I am doing it with celestial essence , it feels amazing and more complete" he was enjoying this new feeling.

He stood in a stance, a small stream of essence from his celestial sea seeped out and began to spread out to his muscles , he could feel his strength raising.

But after some time he felt his muscles becoming sore and an intense pain invading his body this was normal for people who tried it for the first time as their muscles were not adapted to essence flowing within them.

Huo ling gritted his teeth and preserved the pain.

"It should be enough for today, now I should focus maximum of my time on cultivation" saying so he beagan to cultivate .

This routine followed for a week and he also visited the library sometimes to broaden his horizons and to gain more knowledge about the northern forest.

One week later :

"I am now able to fully control the essence in my muscles. Next step should be making it concentrated at one body parts specially fists to deal damage. I should also practice my Swift gale celestial worm too" thinking so he went to take a bath.

" My muscles seem more smooth and defined now" he thought looking at his reflection in water.

He was a tall and well built teenager. His body was not bulky but muscles were well defined and trained to get maximum strength from them. He had a long face with deep eyes and cutting edges. In terms of looks he was not extremely pretty or something but had a handsome appearance.

At the library:

Huo ling was reading a book about combat technique when something interesting caught his eye " so I can use a sword made of wood of certain trees which allow essence to pass through them and increase my damage and attack range when fighting " he looked at the names and feng tree was one of them.

"It will be very helpful to have a weapon to use in the wild, i guess I will have to find a feng tree in the forest to collect food for my Swift gale celestial and to make a sword at the same time" he said to himself.

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" I have free time today , i should attend the class."

At the classroom Elder Yang was giving his lecture and disciples were listening and nodding at some times. At the end of the class he pointed to Huo ling and said :

" Boy I suggest you to not waste time and attend classes regularly, including you there are only five disciples in the whole acadmy with average grade of lower phase, it is not even middle phase average grade. With your talent you can't even reach the third stage of cultivation"

Huo ling was shocked to hear this and nervously asked: " can lower phase average grade talents not reach third stage in their life time? "

Seeing the sincere look in his eyes elder Yang sighed and said " Every talent has different speed of gathering essence from nature and at a major breakthrough Celestial master has to collect a lot of essence together. And your level of talent can't gather enough essence in the given time to breakthrough so remain at second stage upper rank."

" But heavens do not seal all paths , it is a fact that lower phase average grade talents can't reach stage 3 on their own but there are many natural treasures and celestial worms which can provide external help to make it happen, but these are extremely rare and found coexisting with danger".

Huo ling heard all this and his face sank, this lower talent was a bigger problem then he thought.

" That is why i am telling you to not slack and improve your strength if you could come in the top 20 students in field of cultivation at the end of your second year in the acedmy, you will get a quota to enter a sect in eastern state's capital and you can buy such a treasure with merits there" his eyes shine of admiration when he thought about the sects at the capital.

Huo ling heard it and developed some respect towards this elder of the academy " this disciple thanks the elder for opening my eyes. I will not slack and practice with heart. " After thanking him Huo ling went to his cultivation.

At a hall in the courtyard Huo ling was cultivating tiny dust like droplets of natural essence entered his body he could feel them moving towards his Celestial sea. Finally converging with the already present gray Celestial essence and making it a little thicker.

Huo oing opened his eyes and thought " I have to speed up my cultivation or I won't be able to get into top 20 in the end of the second year. If i donot get the quota it will be very hard for me to reach stage three".

From the next day he intensified his training and began to work harder.

After some days, huo ling was practicing his combat skills ..,

" Tomorrow is the competition between new classes. I am definitely among the top 5 in terms of strength among the new students with the help of my fast movement , also my attack power could alos be considered decent. But if i fight my Celestial Worm will need food to recover and i will run out of stock before next month's allowance" he bitterly smiled.

His swift gale worm was a peak 1st rank Celestial and consumed more food compared to others also he was in class three so recieved less resources to feed it. Other disciples who could have potentially chosen such a worm were in first class and recieved many resources.

Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his arm " damn it i was distracted and let the essence run wild ,it is good that it didn't happen to create a serious injury" he sighed and continued his practice.

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