"Sorry, I couldn't reach your expectations." A middle-aged man with black hair and black eyes said.
"You don't have to worry. It's been only two years since you came here and you are not familiar with the complicated issues of the academy." A white-haired old man said casually.
"Thank you for your understanding, Supreme Elder!" The middle-aged man said respectfully.
"Mhm." The Supreme Elder nodded and then flew away in the sky towards the academy.
The middle-aged man looked at the fading figure of the Supreme Elder for a few minutes, and after it disappeared he gave out a little breath.
He opened his special backpack and looked at the red-black book lying down inside it.
"This was too much of a risk, why did I do it?" The middle-aged man said while wiping his sweat, what he did wasn't allowed by the academy rules.
It was a serious crime and the middle-aged man was afraid of being found out and killed.
The red-black book in the middle-aged man's hands was a belonging that he stole from a demonic cultivator that had a grudge against one of the sects behind the Blue Sand Academy.
The middle-aged man isn't the one who killed the demonic cultivator however even if he was, it belonged to the academy.
Blue Sand Academy wasn't the academy's true name. This academy was called Burning Star Academy for 200 years.
It was called Burning Star Academy because this academy was created by the Burning Heaven's sect. The sect was really strong and 5000 kilometers around the country every other individual, sect, clan, and even association would fear to offend it in any way.
However, this strong sect offended a giant demonic sect for a giant clan.
But the giant clan didn't support them to not offend the demonic sect.
According to the survivors, after 2 months of this happening, a black-robed man with a red aura came and easily slaughtered the whole sect and stole its 500 year's worth of foundation.
Because of the sect behind it falling other sects around righteously 'took care' of this academy since.
And because there wasn't a determined winner to 'take care' of this lonely academy, multiple of them 'took care' of it together. So it was named Blue Sand Academy.
"I hope it was worth the risk." The middle-aged said as he put the red-black book back into his backpack.
The middle-aged man wasn't an evil person he didn't like demonic methods but he wasn't a talented person either.
If he one day, one day he is forced to it then he maybe would use it.
The middle-man hoped that day would never come.
More than twenty eight years later.
An old Fu Xia was looking at the red-black book in his hands.
"I shouldn't, no, I can't wait anymore." Fu Xia mumbled.
"I don't want to, I have to." Fu Xia mumbled once again. Then just stood there.
Fu Xia's always calm and uncaring attitude, there was not much left from that.
"This time, I'm not gonna hesitate I'm not gonna change my mind because if I do, then I will truly regret that later on." Fu Xia said determinately. Then Fu Xia put the red-black book back in its secret place and activated the formation for it.
Walking up to stairs, closing the door to the basement, walking to his bedroom, and laying down on his soft bed, Fu Xia thought more and more before falling asleep.
For someone at the peak of the Qi Nourishment realm sleeping for three to four hours would be enough. But Fu Xia wanted to rest well today.
The next day.
Fu Xia opened his eyes while laying down on his bed. After a few minutes more of laying, he stood up. He went out of his bedroom.
Then Fu Xia went to the bathroom and washed his face.
Looking at his wrinkled face with dark eyes, white eyebrows, and white hair in the mirror, Fu Xia left the bathroom.
Then Fu Xia opened the door that leads to the kitchen and went inside.
The kitchen was ordinary just like the other parts of the house. There was a fireplace, few cabinets, and drawers on the cabinets.
Cabinet's weren't ordinary, they were a basic formation that used qi consumer as its energy base.
On the cabinet's there were rice, meat; salt, black pepper; tomatoes, green pepper, cucumbers, and many more.
On the drawers, there were some plates and cutlery.
Fu Xia opened a cabinet, took out a basic tea kettle. Then Fu Xia went outside with the basic tea kettle.
The wind was cool and the sun rose to the point of full visibility. The sky was blue with white clouds moving around.
Birds and some weird types of insects were making noises that were refreshing to the ear.
Seeing this scenery one couldn't help but take a full breath.
After looking at the scenery for a while Fu Xia went next to the purified tarn.
The water here was refreshing and this tarn was purified by the 6th elder who was a true cultivator.
Fu Xia took some purified tarn water to his tea kettle.
"Hi, Fu Xia." An old lady said close Fu Xia's ear.
"Hi, Yao Da" Fu Xia replied.
They knew each other. They have met 9 years ago when this old lady, Yao Da's residence was moved here due to a conflict on her last residence. She went into a disagreement with an old man who was a neighbor of hers. They didn't want to see each other's faces again.
Fu Xia and Yao Da would meet mostly on this purified tarn because they both had the habit of making tea out of this water.
Yao Da's cultivation was at the peak of the Qi Nourishment realm and she was close to becoming a true cultivator. She was 84 years old, so she still had a high chance of making a breakthrough.
Unlike Fu Xia who was 93 years old and was at the peak of the Qi Nourishment realm-he wasn't too close to the next realm either.
The average lifespan was 100 years, and Fu Xia tired himself more than an average person so he will probably die a few years later.
"So, how are you doing? How is life going?" Yao Da asked.
"It's fine." Fu Xia replied.
Yao Da was a bit surprised but didn't stop and asked again:
"Hey, you are not speaking like you usually would is there something on your mind?" Yao Da asked suspiciously.
"Nothing, I'm just not in the mood to talk today." Fu Xia replied.
"Hm. Okay then so be it." Yao Da said. Stood up and walked towards her residence.
Fu Xia's unspeaking attitude, Yao Da didn't think much of it.
Fu Xia looked at the tea kettle that now had the water of the purified tarn inside it, then stood up, walked to his residence, opened the door with his Elder Card, went inside, and closed the door.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Putting the tea kettle to the fireplace, Fu Xia took out some Red Fire Tea from a cabinet and waited for the purified tarn water to boil.
After it boiled he put the Red Fire Tea leaves inside it and let it brew, after three to five minutes Fu Xia filtered the tea and poured it into a teacup.
The Red Fire Tea was confusing on one's first try of it, it had a cooling sensation on the mouth and a burning sensation on the throat. It tasted beautiful but the characteristics of the tea were what made most people not drink it.
However, for Fu Xia both the characteristics and the taste were good so he had a lot of Red Fire Tea stocked in his cabinets.
Fu Xia took a chair and put it in front of one of his windows, then opened the window.
The cool air was filling the main room. Fu Xia took his hot tea and drank it while looking far away.
After ten minutes of drinking hot tea and looking at the scenery which had the noise of different kinds of birds and insects.
Fu Xia stood up and closed his window. Then he walked to his bedroom and changed his clothes in his bedroom.
Now his clothes had the signs of the Blue Sand Academy.
Then Fu Xia took the red-black book from his basement, put it in his backpack, left his residence, and closed the residence with his Elder Card.
Usually, as most of the authority holders did, Fu Xia would go to the Central Circle and take some tasks on the academy from the Task House or continue the tasks that were already given to them.
And an elder like Fu Xia would go to the Council Of Elders rather than going to the Task House.
However, Fu Xia neither went to the Task House, the Council Of Elders, or the Central Circle.
Fu Xia turned right from the front of his house and walked for five minutes. Then he stopped in front of a house with a sign that read:
: Elder Residence : Elder Kong Cai
Then Fu Xia knocked on the door.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Footstep sounds came behind the residence's door then the door opened.
"Oh, Old Xia! What are you doing here this early? It's only 6 am!" Kong Cai said looking at Fu Xia.
"I wanna talk to you a little bit." Fu Xia said.
"Ok come here, come here!" Kong Cai said and didn't make Fu Xia wait.
.....
Inside the colorful house of Kong Cai.
"What!? You are going for a long mission outside the academy?" Kong Cai said in a surprised tone while standing up.
"Yes, I have things to do it will probably take around a year." Fu Xia said casually.
"But, you know what will happen to me in a year..." Kong Cai said as he sat down.
"Mhm. I know." Fu Xia said in a silent tone while nodding.
"Well, I guess you should be away at that time." Kong Cai said silently.
The room fell into deep silence.
After a few minutes of silence Fu Xia said silently:
"I should go now."
"Yes, yes, you should go now." Kong Cai said repeatedly.
Fu Xia then stood up and went to the door that leads outside, clenched his fists as he opened the door and heard a sound:
"If you have the chance, look at the vast world that I couldn't. Pursue your dreams, don't be like me. Don't stutter and persevere. I had regrets you shouldn't." Kong Cai said in a slow and silent but determined tone.
This was the last time that Fu Xia would hear Kong Cai's voice.
Fu Xia heard it and stood still for a while.
"Yes." Then Fu Xia said as he went outside and closed the door.
Fu Xia walked for a few more minutes to the closest road that went downwards and stood there silently.
His eyes were teary as he looked upwards and let out a huge breath.
His sea of consciousness had two red blank images as a faint third one was to be seen.
"I will, I definitely will." Fu Xia said clenching his fist looking downwards.
The third red blank image disappeared and didn't form.
Then Fu Xia straight up went downwards from the road in front of him.
This time because he took a different path he didn't saw Ancient Resource Road or the Ground Disciple Street No 4.
Instead, he saw Ground Disciple Street No 3, Beast Street Center, etc.
The more he went down the more popular and crowded the place was. Of course, there were exceptions like the place he was in now after walking down almost all of the mountain in 20 minutes.
The Mission Hall.
This place's difference from the Task House was that the former was for outside the academy and the latter was inside the academy.
Disciples were walking around and taking missions daily from the workers here.
Fu Xia didn't waste time looking at the available missions and straight up went to the mission giver.
"Hi, how could I help you old man?" A young boy said to Fu Xia. Behind the table, he was sitting in.
"You can help me by giving me a long-term mission. " Fu Xia said while taking out and giving his Elder Card to the young boy.
The young boy was caught off guard as a high authority holder like an Elder wouldn't usually go outside. People here taking missions were mostly disciples. And Inner disciple's at most.
"O-Of course, esteemed elder." The young boy said and looked at the long-term missions on his drawer that weren't taken that commonly.
"Here, esteemed elder" The young boy gave a white paper to Fu Xia.
'An unrated clan. The Yun Clan betrayed the ThunderFlame Sect and spread out untruthful rumors about it for the sake of the Demonic Yellow Heart Sect. The Mission: Termination of the Yun Clan. The Reward: 1.000 Contribution Points. The Mission Time: 1 year'
"This is fine." Fu Xia nodded and wrote down 'Elder Fu Xia.' with his Personal Qi.
"Thanks, Elder Fu Xia" After seeing the name young boy bowed respectfully and took the paper. Then he gave another paper to Fu Xia that contained information about Yun Clan.
Then Fu Xia left the Mission Hall and went even more down the mountain.
After few more minutes, Fu Xia reached the bottom of the mountain.
It was empty with big walls around it, the whole academy was wrapped around with huge walls.
However, faint noises were coming from far away.
"Today was the day of the selection of the new disciples I forgot." Fu Xia said.
"Hey, who are you?" A guard said as Fu Xia was getting closer to the two large doors in the middle of the huge walls.
"I'm Elder Fu Xia and I will be going on a mission." Fu Xia said as he showed his Elder Card to the guard.
"Yes, Elder Xia!" The guard said and the second guard at the side opened the door.
After the guard opened the door the noises of a crowd could now be heard, but a crowd was nowhere to be seen.
Fu Xia walked outside of the academy's official grounds as he saw a three-way street after walking for a little while and buildings all over the place with a good amount of people, this was a city.
This city was called the Blue Sand City as one could guess, this was the city that the Blue Sand Academy resides in.
One would feel weird as the streets like Ancient Resource Road, Ground Disciple Street No 4 were a part of the circle of streets that goes around the academy's mountain.
Only a few exceptions like Central Circle and Beast Center were not a part of these circle-shaped streets around the mountain.
But the Blue Sand City was a real city and its streets, center's, meeting grounds and all of those places were normally made, not circle-shaped.
If one were to turn right from the place that Fu Xia now was in and then turn left after walking for 50 m they would see a huge crowd cheering and booing for young people in an arena and some Spiritual Confrontation authorities watching them.
Fu Xia was familiar with this event because after joining the academy as a servant 63 years ago he was met with this sight.
However, Fu Xia didn't turn right and went straight.
Fu Xia wasn't outside of the academy for nostalgia.
Fu Xia walked for a while before coming close to a building that read 'Blue Sand Transportation Shop', Fu Xia went inside the building.
“Hi, esteemed guest what can I help you with?” A good-looking lady said as Fu Xia went inside the building, the lady saw the symbol of the Blue Sand Academy.
“I will take an ordinary horse carriage.” Fu Xia said.
“Of course, it will cost 50.000 cins.” The lady said.
“Mhm.” Fu Xia nodded and took out five coins from his bag that had '10.000 cin' written on them.
“Please wait, esteemed guest.” The lady said respectfully as she took the five coins on her desk.
After ten minutes of sitting on a chair in the 'Blue Sand Transportation Shop', Fu Xia was guided outside the shop where his carriage was with two horses on the front of it.
The carriage was ordinary, nothing out of the blue it wasn't too big either. Fu Xia bought hay, fruits, and extra water then put all of them to the back of the carriage.
Fu Xia said goodbye to the guider as he got inside the carriage.
It was much cooler as it was closing the scorching sun from piercing in.
“Forwards.” Fu Xia said while pushing the back of the horses.
The horse didn't even move.
“This is what happens when you buy it for cheap.” Fu Xia said while shaking his head. The horses were not well trained. But Fu Xia had a solution.
Fu Xia took out two whips and whipped the back of the horses while shouting “Forwards!”.
Horses neighed and started rushing forwards madly.
“Hey! We are not grass to be stepped on!” A young boy with his girlfriend said.
“I'm going to report you to the City Guards!” An old man shouted.
“What are you doing...”
“Maniac...”
“...”
People on the streets shouted because of the speed of the carriage.
Of course, Fu Xia couldn't care less about them. Fu Xia continued to whip the horses.
The horses that the Blue Sand Transportation Shop gave him were unimaginable. They ran at full speed without knowing fatigue.
After hearing shouting, cursing, and even getting different kinds of items thrown at him for more than 30 minutes; Fu Xia finally reached the gate of the city. The captain guard, seeing the symbol of the Blue Sand Academy on Fu Xia inside the carriage, opened the door himself. Fu Xia straight went outside the city.
The outside city was filled with a dense forest. Grasses, plants, and many more were visible. There was greenery everywhere.
Fu Xia stopped whipping the horses and after a while horse's movements slowed down by a huge amount.
Then Fu Xia opened a map.
Fu Xia was in the Silvermoon Country.
The Yun Clan was unrated and because of that, it didn't have itself marked on the Silvermoon Countries map.
However, Fu Xia learned information about the Yun Clan while he was taking the mission.
It was stated that the Yun Clan had a Peak Spiritual Confrontation Patriarch as their strongest clan member. The Yun Clan was 30.000 km west southwest of the Blue Sand Academy. Between the Hell's Fury Academy and Green Pearl City.
But the mission wasn't as simple as that. Yun Clan betrayed the ThunderFlame Sect for the Demonic Yellow Heart Sect so it was obvious that the Demonic Yellow Heart Sect would help the Yun Clan even if a bit.
Demonic Yellow Heart Sect was a Half-5th rate demonic sect and had a Transformation Realm cultivator which was a true cultivator.
The path of Qi cultivation will go as: Body Refinement Realm, Spiritual Confrontation Realm, Qi Nourishment Realm, Transformation Realm...
Until one becomes a true cultivator and separates themselves from being a human, they will not extend their life span.
For a sect, clan, association, academy, or any form of a formal group of people to enter the 5th rate they will need a cultivator that surpasses Transformation Realm.
Fu Xia didn't know what came after Transformation Realm however, he knew that a Transformation Realm cultivator separated itself from its origin and evolved into a higher being, a cultivator.
If one counted on the fact that Fu Xia would rest and stop, it would take half a year to travel 30.000 km to the west southwest of the academy.
If Fu Xia went on foot it would take most likely 3 months for him to reach there however it will cost his Qi which will have to be replenished by Qi stones in the short run and will cost too much, so it was not worth it.
Other than the Demonic Yellow Heart Sect the other reason for this mission to be not taken is the distance to reach the Yun Clan.
“Being 30.000 km away should be enough of a distance.” Fu Xia said in his carriage while turning his horses to the west southwest of the academy according to the map.