The atmosphere stilled.

Everybody’s face froze except for one. Teacher Galanza just smiled wryly and I found myself chuckling at her reaction.

I eyed Tina and saw her face got beet red. She glared at me and stomped her feet but before she said anything, Galanza-sensei intervened.

“Well, I’m sorry Tina. It seems that you’re unsuited for the topic.”

Her calm voice instantly dissuaded any potential chaos inside the class.

When their attention was diverted away from me, I silently slipped out of the class.

With a grin on my face, I descended into the hallway.

By my classmates’ point of view, my actions are illogical and were made just to prank others. In their minds, they considered me a fool. A helpless idiot that wanted the spotlight for himself; thus, everything I did became foolish into their eyes.

Well, I can’t really blame them for it.

If they were to judge my last action, they might question why I still entered class despite ditching it halfway but reality isn’t that simple.

First is; I entered class to take a look at the subject and know what my classmates were doing.

If, for example, teacher didn’t discuss lessons and gave a surprise test instead, then my entrance wouldn’t be in vain and I won’t be missing any examinations. But she didn’t which brought me to my next course of action.

Teacher didn’t gave an exam but chose to discuss a new topic which was strange as I even made preparations for it so I needed to escape. Although I became hooked with her narration that I almost forgot to execute the plan, Tina unexpectedly made up for it.

Seeing an opportunity, I hastily seized it.

I announced my presence in front of the class to have my classmates testify that I was indeed there. When I gathered all their attention, I diverted in one fell swoop towards Tina and made her a scapegoat.

Under the cover of the commotion, I exited the stage.

Sometimes, truth is deeply covered behind a thick wall of lies. Only the most perceptive can unearth them but will swiftly realize that their efforts were pointless as the truth they sought were different from what they really assumed it to be. Truth is but a sham, a complex but simple reason that motivates people to lie. Thinking deeply about it, one can realize that even without the truth, life can go on. No one needs to know the boring reason why an action has to be taken. It was simply done because it was, just like how life needs to be lived because it was. In the end, truth is just a pretext.

Realization dawned my face but I suppressed the urge to continue diving into that train of thought. Forming a new Dao would be nothing but detrimental now that my first Dao was still consolidating.

I distracted myself by leaning on the window and observed the studentsrunning around the track field on their P.E. class.

But before I made any assessment about them, I suddenly remembered what I really wanted to do after I ditched class, to allocate my saved up skill points.

Halting in my tracks, I turned around. I made a beeline towards the rooftop.

I sat upon one of the seats there and opened my interface.

Class Available: The Fool 10/20, Healer 0/10, Aeromancer 0/25, Pyromancer 0/25

Skill Points Available: 13

In the end, I chose Aeromancer over Pyromancer. The reason was that, Aeromancer skills would be easier to grind and flexible to use. Unlike Pyromancer which will surely give destructive skills, Aeromancer mainly focuses on sneaky and silent attacks that are suited for assassinations.

Clearly, the fact that gust is already level 4 but can already uproot shrubs is a testament enough of its value. Imagine if it reached its maximum potential. I could easily uproot trees with a wave of my hand and its cost-to-efficiency ratio isn’t bad.

Also, grinding gust can even be done anywhere. Unlike the eye-catching trail of blaze, the covert nature of wind skills made it so that I can spam them indefinitely at the sky without any repercussions.

Thinking about the new skills I will be receiving upon the completion of the class, I unhesitatingly dumped all my extra points towards it.

Aeromancer 13/25

Looking at the missing 12 points, I sighed. I really need to find a way to grind my skills.

Training all of my passives takes time and I don’t even know how to train Healing Magic Mastery so I set aside the idea and turned towards my actives.

Some of my actives were eye-catching so I immediately crossed them out. The only inconspicuous skills I currently had were Meditation, Cultivation, Gust, Chakra and Qi Circulation, Beacon of Life and Sprint.

I eliminated Meditation and Cultivation with the same reason as my passives; it takes too much time. On the other hand, Sprint is a no go because of how limited the rooftop is.

After a long consideration, the skills: Chakra and Qi circulation, Beacon of Life, Touch of Life and Gust remained.

Thus, I released my aura and let Touch of Life spread through the surroundings. Meanwhile, I didn’t circulate chakra and qi at the same time because I was afraid of the effects when the two different energies to mix so I opted to try chakra circulation first.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Chakra flooded my chakra pathways and rotated ever slowly as to get a feel for it. When the bear attacked, I forced my chakra to rotate so I immediately lost 2 chakra. If I hadn’t pushed my body at that time, my chakra expenditure would lessen down to 1.

For several minutes, I observed how chakra circulated through my body.

The only thing I learned is that, I learned nothing at all.

Strange twist and turns were present throughout my whole body and the erratic movements of chakra added to my growing confusion.

Without anything to do, I started spamming gust above me and absentmindedly watched the middle schoolers playing volleyball below.

“Hoh, so Hannah knew how to play volleyball.”

At the middle of the field, I saw Hannah block a spike.

I observed her for a couple of minutes to look for signs of trauma. Having found none, I sighed in relief.

The game was getting close to its conclusion so I watched them go at it for a couple of minutes while maintaining chakra circulation and spamming gusts.

Halfway through their game, one of Hannah’s teammate suddenly stopped as she looked over here and pointed at me.

I was puzzled by her actions until I finally noticed my mana was already depleted.

Turning around, what I saw made me gasp.

Mists of yellow green filled my vision and I couldn’t help but stare at it, dumbstrucked.

My mind spun and created piles of conjectures and slowly sifted through them until I found what I wanted to look for.

Sighing, I accidentally took a whiff of the strange gas. Every single one of my thoughts halted and I found myself surrounded by serenity. I was shrouded by calmness and I embraced it with open arms...

Wait, something’s wrong! My mind reeled back until I regained proper control of my consciousness.

I immediately broke into cold sweat.

This strange gas is the accumulation of my passive skill, Touch of Life. In any normal scenario, this wouldn’t be possible but with the propulsion of innumerable gusts, the aura was condensed and became corporeal. This would be the first time magic has interacted with Qi so I was surprised and didn’t know how to deal with this situation.

Thinking about all the reaction, the staff would do about this strange phenomenon, I rapidly created a way to solve it. But a student had already seen it and if someone comes here and investigates...

I hastily abandoned all notions to eradicate the problem and simply let it be, hoping it would disperse on its own.

Thus, I exited the rooftop and activated Beacon of Light while skimming through my interface.

From that incident I gained a level in Chakra Circulation, and 2 levels in Gust and Touch of Life respectively.

The points I just recently gained goes to the completion of my class, slightly raising it to18.

With nothing to do, I headed down the stairs until I heard the speakers announced.

“Emergency! A poisonous chemical has spread at the school’s rooftop, please evacuate the school immediately. I repeat, a poisonous chemical has spread at the school’s rooftop, please evacuate the school immediately”

The blaring of the alarms signaled the start of mayhem.

Students and teachers alike burst out of the rooms and flooded the hallways. My senses were flooded by the influx of life energies and I froze. At that second where my body wasn’t my own, I was easily dragged by the stampede.

Gritting my teeth, I turned the skill off and followed the crowd.

***

At a distance, the rooftop looked like it was enveloped by a strange roiling yellowish green cloud.

The students watching the spectacle felt theirs scalps numb. It was like the rooftop was devoured by a illusionary forest.

Seeing the mirage of a forest gradually coalescing at the rooftop, I felt my eyes twitch.

“The hell is this!” I inevitably shouted.

The people at the vicinity gave me weird looks but I ignored them. What I was talking about is the strange effect of qi mixing with mana.

Although I expected some complications to happen but not like this.It went beyond everything I imagined. Thankfully, I didn’t try circulating qi and chakra simultaneously earlier or else. At the very least, it would lead to a simple explosion or at worst, perhaps a trip to another world?

Thinking about it, I once again broke into cold sweat. I made up my mind to never try mixing these strange energies until I have absolute control over them.

I sighed once again.

“Couldn’t this day get any worse?”

Which, in fact, will.

***

“Ojou-chan, it’s him.”

My trustworthy butler said.

Although he looks old enough to be my grandfather, he is without a doubt my butler.

He was adopted by my biological grandfather and was raised as his own son. My grandfather also taught him our secrets, taught him our martial arts and nurtured him in cultivation.

That’s right. Our clan is a family of cultivator that secretly helps the government from the shadows.

Through cultivation, he acquired power no mortal can imagine but even so, he was very loyal to our family.

But why would an elder of the fabled 6th stage of qi condensation denounce himself as a butler of a young brat like me?

In reality, he was my godfather.

It was him who watched me grow up, taught me things in life and silently protected me. He was a father-figure to me.

Thus, I didn’t even once question his ability.

But now, I reconsidered the situation.

On one hand, a qi outbreak happened at our school. Qi outbreaks are basically leaks of dense qi that it started coalescing into a corporeal form.

Cultivators can also do this as evident from the qi strips from their dantian.

But qi outbreaks were different. They occurred outside of a cultivator’s body so it can potentially harm every single person on the vicinity. Its effects ranged from a simple qi backlash up to a serious case of qi poisoning that can kill somebody in seconds if not carefully treated.

Although it is dangerous for mortals, for cultivators like us, unless the outbreak penetrates deep into our bones, we would be safe due to our body’s natural affinity to it. So if a simple qi outbreak were to transpire it wouldn’t be a big of a case but that’s where the problem lies.

The recent qi outbreak was anything but normal. If a normal qi coalesces, it forms a white foggy mist but the one that emerged isn’t white. It was yellowish green!

Our experts already scouted the area and they reported strange sightings where illusory vines and trees appeared inside.

There was even one who entered but after a couple of minutes, he came out with his hands and feet replaced by barks.

He didn’t notice his transformation until he came out. He even said that inside was like a paradise where all of your worries would vanish like smoke.

After that incident, we forbade anyone to enter and the unlucky fellow got immediately brought back to the clan to be treated.

We inferred that the fog induces illusions and slowly transmogrifies the inhaler to trees.

And the most ridiculous thing about it is that the perpetuator was actually a kid.

I gritted my teeth and replied.

“Are you sure? No matter how I saw it, he shouldn’t even be a cultivator.”

“Yes ojou-chan. This old man also couldn’t believe it at first but when I scanned him, he appeared to be a cultivator at the 2nd stage. Yet, he already accomplished something beyond our means. I suggest recruiting him into our clan. Although still far from ojou-chan who is at the 3rd stage, his cultivation at his age is still remarkable.”

The information sent my mind reeling and I almost stumbled.

“What? How can someone like him without a strong backing like ours managed to reach the 2nd stage?”

“That, I do not know.” replied Alfred.

I gritted my teeth and said the word I wished I never uttered.

“Then what are we doing? Let’s visit him.”

Obeying my commands, Alfred and I simultaneously jumped over our target.

Noticing our arrival, our target swiftly faced us with his signature sheepish smile and greeted me in a friendly manner.

“Oh, hello there Jean!”