Mortal Realm, Capital Planet of the Hoborg Empire, Main Continent, Cloudmount City, Immortal Pillar Academy.

The whole thing lasted until the end of the class when the teacher bid them goodbye. Everyone there were exhausted, so they did not waste their time and left the classroom. While walking towards the Shuttle area, Guang Yang sent a message to the other three to meet them. A few minutes later, the young fox noticed them walking in his direction. They all looked exhausted but happy from their lesson. Norah, curious, smiled at him and asked. “How were your first fighting classes?”

Guang Yang smiled and replied. “It was... interesting.”

“Really? Do tell!” Norah said, curiosity obvious on her face. “Well, we had a fierce teacher that...” As they were engrossed in his story, the faces of the trio reflected their fluctuating emotions from amusement, awe and even disgust. Although the young fox focused on his tale, he could not help but be amused at their reactions. However, he chose to keep it to himself and instead finished his story. The other three then told him about their own lessons.

Unlike Guang Yang, theirs were pretty normal. After all, they were only Level 1 Cultivators, so none of the students could really make any waves. That and the fact that all the students in the class were either commoners or low level Nobles. And usually the latter were less arrogant than their high level counterparts. The reason being that many of the former were just promoted and also that they were not treated much better than commoners themselves by the high level nobles.

A few minutes later, they noticed that the shuttle had already arrived at the parking area in the east part of the campus. “I'll see you guys tomorrow then?” Guang Yang asked. “Okay.” “No problem bro!” “See you tomorrow Yang.” They respectively answered before bidding farewell to the others and each going their own way towards their own family's car.

Since Nung sent him a message, the boy knew where to go so he did not waste time and reached the car quickly. During the journey back, Yang wanted to tell the man what happened in school that day, but Nung stopped him before saying with a small chuckle. “I understand that you are excited but you should keep it to yourself until we arrive. That way you won't have to tell you story twice.” He then thought. “And they won't be jealous of me for knowing everything before them. Haha.”

Although the young fox was a bit agitated since he really wanted to share his story with someone, he still kept silent since he thought it would be more fun to do it that way. They did not waste time on the way back and from what felt like only a few minutes, they were already home. As soon as they landed, the child jumped from the vehicle and ran to the main house. Seeing him running as fast as he could, Nung chuckled a little at his apparent anxiousness before following him.

With their speed, only a few moments were needed to cross the entrance and arrive at the interior patio where, as usual, the three adults were. The surprising thing for Guang Yang though, was that uncle Marc, aunt Illia and uncle Laeroth were all there too, seemingly engrossed in conversation with each other.

The sudden arrival of the adorable 'young master' made everyone stop their conversation and turned toward him with smiles on their face. The former jumped between his mother and teacher with delight and was hugged from both side while he said hello to everyone. “How was your first day of school young master?” Laeroth asked what was on everyone's mind.

“It was great, but also weird. We started the day with...” As he described his morning first, Guang Hua patted his head lovingly and said. “It's great that you already made some good friends. And two girls too. You're quite the little charmer, aren't you?” The tease made him embarrassed and he muttered. “It's not like that, mom. They're just my friends.” His reply made everyone around laugh for a while.

After a few moments, Bai Yue then interjected. “Alright little fox, now that you talked about what happened in the morning, tell us about your afternoon.” Jumping on the subject to escape from the awkward situation, the boy started to narrate what happened in his first fighting class. Before he continued with the next lesson, Laeroth cut him off and asked. “Young master, are you sure that his name was Vorlock?” Guang Yang nodded, confident in his memory. Hei Qiang turned towards the elf and asked, intrigued. “Do you know the guy?”

Laeroth nodded and replied. “If it's the same man I'm thinking about, then yes. From your description of him, young master, I'm quite sure that's the case.” Marc and Illia seemed to ponder over the familiar name. The latter said. “The name sounds familiar, but I can't seem to place a face on it.”

The elf chuckled a bit and explained. “It's not surprising that you don't know him very well. He is from the Imperial Exploration army and only recently got promoted the rank of General. From what I heard, he was one of the most vocal against nobles discriminating against commoners. Unfortunately, before the purge that happened after the four of you appeared, almost all the Rank 3 cultivators in the Empire were either from the noble families or imperial family. So he was pretty much stuck at the peak of rank 2 and was deprived of any resources that could help cross that hurdle.”

Illia then said. “Knowing how they work, I'm not very surprised about it. What surprise me though was why they didn't make him disappear instead. After all, it wouldn't be the first time...” She felt disgusted at those people but she did not go too far since Guang Yang was on the side, listening to them.

Laeroth replied. “Actually, it's not that they didn't want to do it, but that they couldn't. The man was pretty much a hero. He won many battles, saved the lives of many soldiers and discovered a few planets rich in resources. Ironically, one of those soldiers he saved was the heir of the Marik family. Of course, at that time, he was a simple unknown officer. But anyway, since then the Marik family became the backer of Vorlock and no other noble families looked for trouble with him. Also, the man did not push it too far with them. Otherwise, they wouldn't care about the consequences and simply deal with the man.”

They all nodded in understanding before Marc asked. “Do you know why he became a teacher at the young master's school? After all, a General as a teacher is a bit much, isn't it?” The elf replied before staying silent for a few seconds. “Let me check.” Noticing his lack of focus, they could guess that he was sending a message to someone in his organization to find out the answer, so they decided to keep silent.

Less than five minutes later, the man's mind seemed to be back among them. Everyone was curious and Hei Qiang was the one who asked. “So? Did you find out anything?” Laeroth nodded with a smile and proceeded to explain what he learned. “Actually, the reason is quite funny. The Grand Elder learned that the young master were to attend the Immortal Pillar Academy and he decided to send someone he trusted there as a teacher for him. However, he didn't want it to be too obvious, so he also had to teach other children.” All of them chuckled at this simple explanation and Bai Yue added. “At least he is discreet about it. Seeing that that guy seemed decent, it's best to act as if we didn't about the circumstances, alright?” They all nodded, even Guang Yang who only had a vague idea of the intricacies at play there. After all, he did not remember very well what happened when they arrived on the Capital Planet of the Empire since his mind was not developed enough at that time.

The beautiful woman then turned towards the child and said. “You can continue your story then.” The boy nodded and did as instructed. He described the few matches he had against other students and how he won most of them but also lost a few, while only a young teenager was his match. He also described how the latter seemed to dislike him along with some others in the class, despite them meeting for the first time that day.

Seeing the puzzlement on his face, the adults looked at each other with a knowing smile, before Guang Hua caressed the boy's hair gently and explained. “From what you said, they seemed to be from some noble families and were teenagers, correct?” He nodded, still puzzled.

His mother sighed and continued her explanation. “From what I can guess, those children were actually jealous of you. That's why they resented you the moment they saw you.” The child felt lost. “But... Why?” Seeing the expression of hurt on Yang's face, all the adults present felt a slight anger towards those stupid children who dared to hurt their young master/student/son's feelings.

His beautiful mother answered. “Because they are from noble families, and that means that they are descendants from powerful cultivators, which gave them a high talent for cultivation. Usually, they would be able to act arrogantly due to the fact that they are way ahead of their peers in terms of their cultivation base. However, they saw you with a cultivation similar or at least not far from theirs and you are much younger than them. That means that you are much more talented. And they did NOT like that. Also, I'm guessing that they didn't know from which family you were from, so they didn't try any tricks on you. That and the teachers in the Academy are not pushovers, so they can't go too far anyway.”

Bai Yue nodded and added. “All of us here have seen those type of people many times. Keep in mind that as long as you are more powerful, rich and or talented than others, there will inevitably people that will become jealous of you. Those people tend to have two ways of reacting to that. One they will do their best to acquire what you have from you, if they can. And if they can't, they'd rather destroy it than having someone else have it. In essence, it's what I call the mentality of the weak.”

Guang Yang seemed shocked by their explanation. He never thought that humanoid beings could be so vile due to their jealousy over someone else's success. It felt so foreign to him that he had trouble wrapping his mind around the concept. As he was pondering over this, he suddenly asked. “So what should I do? I don't want to have conflicts with those people.” The boy looked a bit distressed by the situation, but he could still more or less control his emotion thanks to what he experienced in the past.

The voice of his father cut through his reluctance when he said. “Son, there are only two solutions to the problem. The first is to stay mediocre your whole life and be at the complete mercy of those more powerful than you. The second is the opposite, which is to do your best to be the strongest being in the Wanderer's Realms. That way, even if those people become jealous, they would be powerless to do anything to you. Think of it as crushing every obstacles on your path. Of course, the crushing may not be literal, since you have to adapt your actions to the situation in order to gain the best results. All in all, just do your best and do not give in to those petty people. You can also deal with them violently if they threaten your safety and those of your loved ones. Do you understand?”

Guang Yang nodded weakly at first, but then his eyes seemed to become a bit fiercer than previously, showcasing his increase resolution. After a few moments of silence, the child raised his head towards the other adults and asked. “When you say that there will definitely people that will become jealous, should I be suspicious of everyone?” He thought about his new friends, Norah, Angelo and Lisette. Should he be wary of them too? That felt wrong to him, but he trusted his elders very much, so if they said he should, then he would do it anyway.

Bai Yue could guess his thoughts, so she replied while petting his head. “Yes and no. Some people can be completely trusted, but it usually takes time to be virtually sure. I say virtually because you can never be completely certain of someone's trustworthiness, since everyone can change. But at one point you just have to take a leap of faith and go for it. If you fail then so be it. Unless you want to live alone for millions of years and trusting no one like me before meeting all of you, then you can't act like that.”

The young fox seemed as if he understood something, which prompted his question. “So, does that mean that teacher made a leap of faith when you took me as your student and my parents as your little brother and sister?” Hearing his question made everyone smile. His teacher nodded while looking a bit embarrassed. “That's right. I wanted to have a family so I chose all of you. So far, I'm pretty happy about my choice.”

Guang Yang nodded and with a glint a mischief in his eyes, he replied. “Of course, with the cutest and smartest boy in the three Realms, teacher couldn't go wrong with choosing me as a part of your family!” His nonsense made everyone laugh and his mother proceeded to tickle him until he was crying for mercy, his teacher participating from time to time in the merciless attack.

After playing around for a while, the adults resumed their previous conversation about the current events in the Hoborg Empire and even further in the Qin Empire. It was full of 'That man broke through to nth Level', 'That woman destroyed that sect', 'That kingdom was defeated by his enemy kingdom', etc. Although the young boy was not fascinated by that kind of news, he still knew that it was important knowledge if he wanted to become a good cultivator.

His teacher always said that to succeed as a cultivator, one needed knowledge and power. The first was the guiding force, while the second was the driving force. She added that if you lacked power, you would be incapable of acting on what you knew. And if you lacked knowledge, then you would not know where to use your power. Since he heard those words, he did his best to remember every kind of information that would be deemed useful for his future path.

As the evening came along, the group was still engrossed in their conversation, instead of going back to cultivate as usual. In their minds, they thought that once in a while, it was a good thing to just relax their mind by just sharing a moment with their family members, discussing about many topics that seemed trivial, but whose purpose was to connect more with the others. After all, as people with a very long lifespan, if they did not want to drift apart from each other, they needed those moments.

After a delightful dinner and an after-meal conversation around a few bottles of wine for some and beers for others, they all went back to cultivate for the night. Even Guang Yang. As he felt the magical energy around his body getting absorbed in his body, time seemed to fly by without him noticing. As the sun started to rise and its warmth caressed his face, he seemed to wake up calmly from his meditation state, with a smile adorning his face.

“Another day of school... I can't wait to see everyone!” He muttered with anticipation.