The next day arrived seemingly without much change, however, several newcomers either lost their residences or experienced a fright from one of the seniors before they locked themselves up. Today was also the day when classes on the reamining courses began. In truth, the first week was not very structured and the new students were mostly explained about their curriculum and various things before having to choose what path they will choose to graduate and in turn their path as a cultivator.
Finlay’s group of less than 100 newbies were all corralled into a large class as one of the elderly teachers explained.
“You little fellows all know how to behave as a cultivator now. This is all well and good, but the cold hard truth is that in the cultivation world, strength……is everything.”
Someone promptly raised their hands and the teacher paused and motioned for them to ask their question.
“But teacher, weren’t we told that honour and proper behaviour is everything in the cultivator society?”
“Nobody is going to be your ally at a difficult time like a war just because you are more cultured and polite compared to your rival. Am I wrong? For example, our sect has always behaved honourably and abided by the fair teachings of our ancestors but the moment our ancestor passed away, all the ‘friendly’ neighbours pounced on us like hungry wolves all the same. Fortunately, we were far too strong for them to make much headway despite losing our ancestor, our only core formation level expert.
“If you are more cultured, are honourable and polite, Your so called friends and neighbours might smile at you often or give you polite gifts, but make no mistake! The moment you show your weakness to them, most of these people will stab you in the back.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean you should think everyone around you as an enemy either. There are certain relations in certain circumstances where you should be able to trust others. For example, your fellow sect members, when against a rival sect.
“You will also make trustworthy friends if you’re lucky. This age is when it’s the easiest to make long lasting friends. So, do not neglect that.
“Coming back to the topic, strength is very important for a cultivator. Not necessarily the martial kind. There is strength in being skilled at various fields. A master Alchemist for example, can have a great standing even amongst those with higher cultivation bases. They can not only amassing wealth, but also have high level connections or even better, earning favours from them. Similarly, Artefact makers, Formation masters, Researchers & Qi scholars, artists, musicians, Leaders, generals etc.
“There are myriad ways to grow stronger as a cultivator. Of course, personal cultivation and martial ability is the most direct form, but don’t limit your sights. Some of these professions especially thrive under the protective umbrella of a large organisation like the sect. So, this curriculum of yours is perfectly designed to allow all of you to try and pursue your talents to find your strengths. By the time you’re done here, you will all be competent cultivators with both enough strength to defend yourselves and find your individual paths.”
The students were sporting thoughtful expressions by now. Judging by the changes in their expressions, there were many who had the wrong impression about the meaning of strength.
“It was the second sect leader who first introduced the concept of cultivator education in our sect, a systematic method to teach cultivators to be better than their peers and excel in their path. At the time, it was considered very expensive to teach every individual cultivator of the sect and everyone implemented the quantity over quality approach.
“Initially, the curriculum was much simpler, but over time, it evolved and developed into the myriad fields of study today.”
He paused at that point briefly before he came to the main topic for the day.
“Your curriculum consists of 4 mandatory courses and 2 more you can choose from a pool. Cultivator etiquette and culture, Sect studies, Fundamentals of Cultivation and Martial courses are the mandatory ones.
“Cultivator etiquette and culture is what you have already completed in the past month. Sect studies consists of education about regional powers, organisations, operation of the sect and its various institutes, essentially, it is about the sect, how it operates and the political dynamics of powers of the region.
“Next, Fundamentals of Cultivation is pretty straight forward. It entails all the fundamentals teachings of the sect on cultivation and related topics, both spiritual cultivation and body cultivation.
“The last one is the Martial course. As the name implies, you’re taught how to fight, adapt and survive in a combat situation. The final test is a simultaneous challenge of 3 people or puppets arranged by the instructor. You must win all three to pass. It is designed in a way to challenge each individual and also make sure every graduate meets a certain threshold of martial power.”
After his explanation, he paused to let the listeners digest the presented information before continuing.
“The pool of courses consist of Extraordinary Martial poweress, Mastery of a weapon, Qi scholar, Alchemy, Artefact making, Formations, Administration, Military command, Art etc. You can choose at least 2 of the topics based on your talents and interests.
“The point of this curriculum is to not only to turn you into competent cultivators of the sect, but also to ensure you find your talents, thereby revealing the true path you will walk in your lives. This method eliminates important confusions and being lost later on…”
The Elder went on for another hour explaining in detail the various points of the courses, the benefits of such a curriculum and the vision of the second sect leader in designing the thing and on and on. It wasn’t before Finlay almost was put to sleep, despite his robust focusing ability as a cultivator, that the class stopped. Essentially, they had to make the choices by the end of the week and the courses would start next week with introductions to these courses happening in the next few days of the week.
Once outside the class, the common topic of conversation of the newcomers went back from the courses to pick to the events of the previous day. Someone even asked the Elder from the class about it and only received a cold response that it will be reviewed by the disciplinary committee of the elder’s hall.
“Just as we thought, these bastards have an in or the sect thinks this is good for growth of the newbies,” Wang Doshan growled out besides Finlay.
“It’s fine brother, I already expected nothing will change today…but don’t worry. I already have a plan,” Finlay replied.
“What other method do we even have??”
“If we can’t seek justice through the sect, we shall also do the same and walk the lawless back alleys. They’re gonna ignore random assaults and banditary? Then, we’ll become bandits ourselves. I’ll beat’em up and steal back our keys.”
“Brother Lei, don’t be hasty! Are you confident in being able to beat up a senior?!”
“Yeah, this is too dangerous, let’s find some other way. Perhaps if we get together with the other victims, we can do something.”
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“No, you don’t understand. These bastards are nothing but bullies and only by directly confronting them will they stop showing off their “strength”. And I’m fairly confident in beating up that fellow at your place as long as he is not some genius 4 yr senior to us or something.”
“A genius 4 year senior? Unlikely. If one was such a genius, they wouldn’t remain here for 4 whole years. Most truly genius students apparently graduate in 1 or 2 semesters.”
“He may not be a genius, but are you sure Brother Lei?” Wang Doshan’s duo were still a bit concerned.
“Completely confident! And rest assured, I will challenge that bastard to a fair fight openly. Didn’t you say that Honour challenges can be issued at any place and time? Let’s go to the battle arena this evening and do it there.”
The Wang Doshan duo tried to persuade Finlay for a bit before deciding to place their confidence in him. It was still sometime in the afternoon and so, they went back to Finlay’s place to prepare.
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The battle arena is a place where several battles can take place on a large fighting stage built by solid, pale stone. There are various formations to isolate the different fights and to prevent random attacks from reaching the spectators. It is a place where there are constant challenges issued by those looking to practise and improve their martial poweress. There is also a large board that displays the names and wins and losses of those participating in the fights. It was evening and the number of challengers and spectators was slowly increasing. Most of the participants were seniors who returned only a day ago.
Amidst the cheering of spectators and fights between the senior students, a new face walks onto the stage wearing the familiar Azure rabbit leather armour and carrying a fierce looking fire attribute spear. It was none other than Finlay.
A supervising elder of the sect comes besides Finlay and announces, “Today, a first year newcomer named Fan Lei is here to issue a Honour duel!”
Without delay, Finlay makes his announcement following that.
“I hereby declare a Honour challenge against a certain Hou Liu. He not only insulted the honour of me and my brothers last night, he even stole several valuables of ours. If he is not a coward, he should come and accept my challenge. I’ll be waiting right here until then.”
Finlay then calmly walked over and stood in one of the segments of the arena to wait for the opponent to arrive. Contrary to the clam Finlay, the momentary calm in the audience didn’t last long. There was an immediate hubbub of discussion between the spectators and even some of the fighters paused to listen to the announcement.
“What is that junior doing? I have never heard of a junior challenging a senior this early.”
“He looks pretty strong though. And what’s with the honour challenge? Didn’t we all arrive here just yesterday? How could this Hou Liu have offended him so quickly?”
“Brother Che, aren’t you forgetting something? Yesterday the long lasting tradition of senior “challenges” happened.”
“Ohhh that makes sense. Haha, it’s funny that this guy is doing something similar but in the open. I wonder if he can actually win though.”
“Yeah that bastard Hou Liu is an ass but he is actually in the second level of Qi condensation and has the backing of a big family. *Tsk tsk* The idea of this junior was pretty good but he needs to have the ability to back it up and he chose a bad opponent to mess with.”
Most of the discussions were similar, expressing their astonishment about a junior issuing a challenge and whether he could actually last in a fight against his opponent. The hot news spread rapidly amongst the students and it wasn’t long before it reached the ears of Hou Liu. He was mostly caught off guard as he didn’t remember a Fan Lei amongst those he had offended the previous day. Nonetheless, he made his way to the challenger to clear his honour. He belonged to a reputed family after all. If he didn’t respond to such an open challenge, he would be besmirching his family name.
Back at the arena, the Wang Doshan duo were also amongst the crowd, a little nervous over the upcoming fight. In fact, by now, most of the first years who were victims and a large number of second years have filled the arena. Jin Yuan, the young master who made the highest score with the punching machine was also one of the spectators. He was frowning as he looked at Finlay with a thoughtful gaze.
“Wait, isn’t that that guy from back then who scored almost the same as Jin Yuan? What is he doing challenging a senior?”
“Who knows? Perhaps the so called senior is some random weak guy? It’s possible.”
“Or he could just be an idiot. Being strong doesn’t mean he is necessarily smart.”
“Yeah he was acting a little weird back then too.”
Amidst such conversations, the senior in question approached the arena with a saber and a dark full body armour on. The armour was made from some sort of chitinuous material and was obviously superior in quality to Finlay’s. Clearly, he wasn’t underestimating his opponent. He took a moment to look at Finlay to try and guage his opponent. He quickly realised who Finlay was. He could also tell that the equipment while surprisingly decent for a newcomer, was much worse than his own.
‘I still don’t understand where he got the guts to challenge me, a senior. Perhaps he is confident in his spear weidling skills. I should still have the edge over him in terms of speed, strength and equipment, and all boosted by my higher cultivation, I see no reason to back away from this fight.’
The look in his eyes sharpened like that of an eagle looking to make it’s kill. Clearly he was full of confidence despite being caught off guard by the sudden challenge. His confidence has a backing after all. He had recently broken through to the 2nd level of Qi condensation, only last week. This time when he visited his clan, he was able to consume some high quality cultivation resources before making the breakthrough. It is notable that it had only been about 2 years since he exited the valley, which is considered very fast.
With confidence, he walked over to the part of the arena Finlay was quietly waiting at.
“This junior has accused me of dishonouring him and his brothers and also that I am a thief! I plead innocence. There is no point in providing proof or trying to convince at this point, let me absolve myself through victory!!”
There was some discussion amongst the crowd as some even seemed to cheer him on. Finlay finally opened his eyes hearing the opponents shout. He ignored the opponent and walked towards the Elder supervising the fight.
“Senior, please serve as a witness to our fight. If I win, the looser shall admit his guilt and return everything stolen or compensate for the damages. If I loose, me and my brothers shall pay with our honour, we shall publicly apologise.”
The elder nodded his head and turned towards the other party, “Hou Liu, do you agree to the terms stated?”
The man in question gave a fierce and arrogant stare towards Finlay.
“You better not regret or go back on your words junior…I agree!”
“Then take positions, I shall supervise this fight personally. One way or another, you shall solve this conflict with the result of the fight.”
Both the parties nodded in agreement and walked over into the formation covered area. Shortly after, the formation activated, creating a transparent barrier of dome of about 20 meters in diameter. Finlay briefly looked at the glowing formations and the barrier out of momentary curiosity before refocusing.
He readied his fighting stance with the spear in a slightly angled position with his right hand. Even with a mere glance, it was obvious that it was a solid, yet simple stance with no profound martial art at play. The sneer on the face of his opponent only grew at such display. He on the other hand took a clearly refined stance from a martial art he practiced. His martial art together with the saber was able to create incredible force and penetrating power. He was totally confident in ending this fight in only a few moves.
Ensuring that both the parties are ready for the fight, the Elder announces it’s beginning.
“FIGHT!!”
The moment the 2 parties heard the shout, they immediately shot forward like arrows from a bow. The older of the 2 immediately started using his martial art along with channeling the Qi into the weapon. There was already a faint layer of Qi on the surface of the weapon, a sharp, extended edge. He also used a movement art to further enhance the power of his saber chop. Finlay on the other hand, simply moved forward at an even faster speed and simply swung his spear, aiming for the saber. In only a moment, less than a breath’s time, the clash happened.
*CLANG!!*
There was a thundering sound as the spear in Finlay’s hands suddenly accelerated to a tremendous speed and perfectly hit the side of the saber. The saber, charged full of Qi, went flying with a bang and Finlay used the counter force to stop the swing of his spear as he pointed its tip at the opponent’s exposed area of the throat.
The fight was over in a single breath!
“Do you admit defeat?” a cold voice came from Finlay.
In response, the opponent nearly chocked on his words with an utterly dumbfounded expression. In fact, that was a common expression in the arena at that moment.
To be Continued.