The Qi stayed inside Cross like it had been with his cultivation before. Seeing that his thought had worked, Curo smiled widely. “Seems like I can store Qi in the Cross and withdraw it when I have a need for it.” When Curo thought that to himself, he felt incredibly happy. He had made many gains today, his cultivation was now firmly stable in the Peak Palace Building Stage and he hadn’t lost a trump card of his.
Instead, the trump card became more flexible to the situation and could grow stronger the more he sealed Qi inside the Cross. This truly made him happy. When he had calmed down a bit, he rotated his Qi in order to help quicken his healing. After an hour of silent meditation, he had fully healed all of his injuries and his body had made some gains as well from it. He felt that his fleshly body strength was at least double than what it was before and his bones were hard as steel. After carefully checking his gains, he stood up and left the courtyard.
When he met the three Sovereigns, he gave them a thank you and after they said a few words to him, they all left. Curo wasn’t bothered by it but rather, it was understandable, they had a war to prepare for. Curo thought for a moment on what to do. He had finished all the work for the Foreign Affairs Department and he couldn’t work on the things for the Roaming Dragon Division without Instructor Sheng.
After deliberating on what to do for a while, he decided to go to the Purgatory Formation. When he entered the Battle Hall, it was nearly completely empty. A few Instructors in charge of the Formations were still left behind, discussing what had just happened at the Arena. When Curo entered, they immediately turned silent. Curo didn’t pay them any heed and headed towards the closest Purgatory Formation. One of the Instructors immediately went next to the Formation and when Curo had entered, he activated it. No words were spoken at all between the two.
These Instructors all felt a tinge of respect for Curo. He had completely regained all of the face of the Hidden Dragon Academy. As soon as he entered the Formation, the rest of the Instructors hurried over to look at his performance. It took only an hour before the Formation flashed again and Curo walked out with a slightly disappointed face. He had cleared the 81st wave and reached the completion of the Purgatory Formation.
Not even the final opponent, a shadow at the Peak of Palace Building had caused him any pressure. Due to this, he felt regret as he had achieved the highest Battle Score possible but at the same time, he ran out of worthy opponents. Curo then left the Battle Hall, leaving completely stunned Instructors behind. Since the founding of the Academy, no Student had successfully completed 81 waves. Even though Curo set this record of 81 waves, he left disappointed. This made the Instructors feel complicated. They had also been present when the fight happened and saw him releasing attacks that made even Core Formation cultivators feel danger and Nascent Soul cultivators to take it seriously.
Usually, one could dominate the Heavenly Ranking with an Early Palace Building cultivation, some years, there would be some extraordinary geniuses that would be able to reach Mid stages of Palace building before they graduated. To them, fighting against a Peak Palace Building Monster would be an extremely hard pressed matter to do and none of them had succeeded. In the end, they released a heavy sigh as one of the Instructors went on to inform Headmistress Xi of this achievement.
Curo looked down at the Medallion in his hand and sighed. From clearing the Purgatory Formation’s 81st wave, he earned a total of 1 000 000 Merit Points. However, he was still missing a bit from the needle set he had his eyes on. Curo then thought back to all of the Bags of Holding he had snatched from the Xie Clan Cultivators he had killed back then. Until now, he had been always busy with something and hadn’t had the time to sort them out. If there was anything useful, he could keep it and use it. If he had no use for the things he had, he could sell them for some Merit Points.
However, when he considered that most of the Cultivators he killed were at the beginning stages of Qi Kindling Condensation, he didn’t have high hopes for obtaining something useful. With that in mind, he set his steps back towards his courtyard.
On his way there, all the student’s always cleared a path for him. No one said anything but all of them cupped their hands in respect. This wasn’t something any one had forced them to do however, they still did it. This was out of their own respect for Curo and his strength. It didn’t matter if the student was a Junior, Senior or an Elder, they all cupped their hands as a token of respect for his strength. It didn’t matter to them that Curo was only 15 years old or that he had been in the Academy for only a month. The words, “Respect is earned, not given.” that Curo had said, deeply rooted themselves in their psyche.
When they had a moment to think about it, it truly was as he had said, only the respect one earned is of value and now, Curo had earned the respect of all the people present. Curo only nodded them in acknowledgement and walked on.
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When he finally reached his courtyard, he wasn’t greeted by an empty courtyard as he had expected but rather, Qing Zhao, Instructor Sheng and Headmistress Xi were there waiting for him. When Curo saw them, he knew that this was about him beating the Purgatory Formation. Qing Zhao said immediately, “There has been a change of plans regarding the Roaming Dragon Division.” Curo raised a brow as he listened. Qing Zhao then said, “For the next year, you will have unlimited uses of the Undying Flame Formation, Eternal Ice Formation and Divine Tempering Lightning Formatio. You will also be given various Top Grade Pills that will work best for your cultivation. Your one and only goal will be to break through to the Saint Realm within this one year.”
Hearing this, Curo’s eyes opened wide as he immediately retorted, “Are you joking? It was by dumb luck that I managed to enter the Palace Building within this year of cultivating! You can’t expect me run into one Heavenly Treasure after another and manage to reach the Saint Realm in a single year!” The moment Curo protested Qing Zhao closed his eyes as he had expected it already. If it was any one else, he would think that it would be impossible too, however, Curo wasn’t your average genius. Besides his heaven sent talent, he still had the effects of the countless Heavenly Treasures Jing Fang had used when he reforged his body. If they also counted in the Top Quality Undying Flame Formation, Eternal Ice Formation and Divine Tempering Lightning Formation and the most useful and suitable pills for his cultivation, it wasn’t actually impossible. One shouldn’t also forget that for the next 5 years was his rapid growth period. Most of all, if he truly gave it his all during this year, then he he would truly be able to enter the Saint Realm within a year.
Instructor Sheng then said, “In a year, both sides have finished their preparations and the war will begin. At that time, all the student’s from the Academy will also be sent out to the War. Although, you won’t be sent to dangerous location and only side lines, the real threat is still there.” He then paused and looked at Qing Zhao with a complicated look before he continued, “Besides that, they want to put you as a Leader for a Saint Squad. For that, you need to reach the Saint Realm before the war begins.” Hearing this, Curo’s face flickered. No matter how they sugar coated it, he was still going to have to go through a torturous training phase.
Instructor Sheng then said, “For the next year, I have also been relived of all my duties in the Academy and will solely focus on training you.” Curo grew solemn. In his mind, to reach the Saint Realm in one year was impossible. Seeing the faltering Curo, Instructor Sheng reassured him, “Don’t worry, I will work out the most optimal schedule for sleep, cultivation, training and rest for this period. You will have no bottlenecks until reach the Heavenly Saint Realm. Only then will you encounter your first true bottleneck.” Hearing this, Curo was stunned, he had no idea about this.
Instructor Sheng then smiled, “This is both a blessing and a curse of the Jing Clan. Although, we could all ascend to the Heavenly Saint Realm given enough time, very few managed to break through the bottleneck to become a Sovereign because they had never experienced one before and didn’t know how to tackle them. Instructor Sheng then gave a smile and said, “Actually, this was the main reason behind the idea. Since you have no bottlenecks, it is far simpler to have you ascend to the Saint Realm than any old Origin Realm monster.”
Hearing this Curo could only nod his head. If what they said was true, then it might truly not be an impossible task to ascend to the Saint Realm within a year. Although, there was still going to be a lot of pain involved. Curo could only sigh as he wondered to himself, “Am I truly a magnet for miracles in their opinion?” As he thought that, he couldn’t help but smile wryly. Qing Zhao and Headmistress Xi both said a few words of encouragement to Curo and left. Instructor Sheng then started explaining, “We, the Jing Clan, have the Blood of a Nether Dragon. As such, we have a higher affinity with Fire.” He then opened his palm and a black flame appeared on it.
Curo stared at the flame is shock and Instructor Sheng explained, “This is the Nether Flame. Only once you reach the Saint Realm will you be able to awaken yours. No matter how monstrous of a genius or how pure their blood is, this is something that can’t be found or contained unless you have Saint Energy.” He then took out a Low Grade Flying Sword and threw it to the side.
Then he flicked his hand and the small ball of black flames engulfed the sword. In a matter of moments, the sword started to deform as it melted. When only a puddle of metal was left, it kept burning until it evaporated. Only then did the flame go out. Seeing this, Curo’s heart beat wildly. Instructor Sheng then turned around and said, “The Nether Flame is ranked as third on the Heavenly Flame Rankings. It is only barely passed by the Nirvana Phoenix Flame and the Ice Fire Flame. The Nirvana Phoenix Flame is something even hotter than our Nether Flame but at the same time, there is only one person that can use it, the Li Xing The Phoenix Empress.”
He then looked at Curo in the eyes and said, “The Ice Fire Flame is a mutated Flame that can only be harvested due to luck. And even then, the chances of anyone being able to successfully tame the Flame are close to Zero. The only known person to be able to do it is the previous Realms Lord, Long Heng.” Curo was shocked, only one person to have ever been able to do it…. How difficult was it to tame then?
Instructor Sheng then continued, “Our Nether Flame may not be the hottest or fiercest but it is the most tenacious. The Nether Flame will not go out until it has burnt what it was meant to burn. Only a Sovereign can put out a Nether Flame. Even then, if the person who sent out the fire was a Sovereign as well, then that Sovereign could only curse his luck.”
Hearing this, Curo could only gasp in shock.