Xia Fei began teaching Kai Lan martial arts shortly after Mu Lin’s birth. His teacher was fully satisfied with his fitness and reaction times, as well as his ability to use his cultivation energies. Kai Lan had made remarkable progress, even unlocking the ability of his Third Eye Extraordinary Meridian, Sixth Sense, enhancing his projection and sensory abilities.

As the time approached for Kai Lan to start at Nui Dan Junior school with Ran Ran and Do Han, Xia Fei took the three of them aside. It had been impossible for them to hide Kai Lan’s true combat abilities and mastering of his cultivation energies from the two other children given that they trained together now multiple times a week. Ran Ran and Do Han had been amazed by Kai Lan’s skills, though had remained unaware of his true cultivation level. Xia Fei nonetheless took the opportunity to instruct them clearly that they were not to speak of Kai Lan or his training.

“When you go to school, you will be among a hundred other children your age, most of whom will not have forged their golden cores or done any previous training,” Xia Fei stated, “As such, you should not be arrogant or boastful of your advantage. You were quite blessed to have this opportunity, do not make me regret it, understood?”

“Yes, Xia Fei-Jie,” the three stated.

“Also, though it pains me to say it, you must do your best to not display your true abilities,” said Xia Fei, “There are many powerful people in the world that like to take advantage of new talents, and if they do notice you, you will be taken from your family for training. They will make it sound like it is an honourable thing, a blessing, but there are few cultivators in this world that act selflessly”.

Kai Lan already understood this, and nodded, Do Han and Ran Ran were hesitant, but they too nodded, determined to follow Kai Lan’s example.

About a month after Ran Ran’s fourth birthday, and shortly after Kai Lan advanced to the sixth step Foundational Realm, the three of them began to their first year at Nui Dan Junior School.

There were many who had heard of Kai Lan, the genius child who had forged his Golden Core at just two years of age. This meant that upon his entrance ceremony, when all the first years were gathering, Kai Lan, with his basic shirt and school pants combination and a school blazer over the top was inundated with curious looks and children interested in being his friend.

Kai Lan smiled at all of them politely, then found an arm around his shoulders belonging to an individual who dragged him through the crowd to the side.

“You’re that Shan Kai Lan kid, aren’t you?” asked the boy who was dragging him. Kai Lan glanced at him and realised from his uniform that he too was a first year. Kai Lan gently shrugged off the boy’s arm.

“We’re the same age, does that make it okay for me to call you ‘kid’ too?”

The boy blanched, surprised by Kai Lan’s remark.

“Don’t get arrogant, your family is a bunch of poor farmers, I’ll bet that even if you did forge your golden core so early, you’ve barely advanced at all, right?” asked the kid. He had an arrogant air about him, and Kai Lan was able to see that he had forged his golden core and had managed to advance to the second step of the Foundational Realm, which likely meant he’d forged his golden core some time ago.

“My family is very nice, so even if they may be humble herb farmers, I don’t like you speaking about them like that. How would you like it if I called your parents that way?”

The other boy scoffed, “But my father is Lu Tao Long, he’s about as far from a humble farmer as possible, so even if you did call them that, you’d be wrong”.

“Lu Tao Long?” asked Kai Lan in confusion.

“Heir of the Lu Corporation,” said Ran Ran as she stepped up beside Kai Lan, “That company that makes and sells Talismans and Formations”.

Kai Lan’s eyes widened in realisation and he grinned in excitement, “Oh, that Lu Corporation. You must have learned a lot about Talismans and Formations then. Which do you think is better, the four-sided primary, or the three-sided?”

The boy frowned, “What four-sided and three-sided? What are you, blind? Formations are circular.”

It had been an honest question. Kai Lan had learned a lot from Hei Hei about Talismans and Formations. Not the least of which was that the Primary, or the centre of a Formation, could be made of many shapes that affected the duration and effectiveness of the formation as a whole. Four-sided and three-sided primaries were the most common, and the choice usually depended on the number of elements one wielded. The number of sides indicated the number of secondaries one could implement into a Formation, making the Formation more complex. Usually, you matched the number of sides of your primary with the number of elements you wielded, making a Formation more stable, but you could choose to make a Formation with more or less sides to your primary so long as you were knowledgeable and skilled enough to do so.

Ran Ran giggled beside Kai Lan, as she and Do Han had also been present in a few training sessions with Hei Hei, “He means the core of a Formation, do you think it’s better as a square or a triangle?”

The boy, realising that his remark had made him sound stupid, flushed, “I…the Triangle”.

Kai Lan nodded, “Cool. I-”

“Alright, First Years, please take a seat inside the auditorium for your entrance assembly,” said the teacher near the front of the group of children.

Ran Ran took Kai Lan’s hand, “Come on Kai-Ge”.

The boy held out his hand to stop them but they were already gone.

“Lu Wan Long, are you coming?” asked the boys’ friends. The boy nodded absentmindedly, unable to erase the thought that he was undoubtably lesser than the humble farmer’s son his family had spent the last two and a half years ridiculing. When he went to his father later that night and told him what had come to pass, his father would only scold him and tell him to work harder in knowing the family business.

Meanwhile, Ran Ran and Kai Lan met up with Do Han who had saved them a seat each. They proceeded to listen politely to the Headmistress, Ho Tong Ren, as she talked about the year ahead of them.

Initially, the class would be split into those that had already forged their Golden Cores, and those that had not. Of the 100 or so first years, only 8 of them had forged their Golden Cores, including Ran Ran, Kai Lan, Do Han and the son of the Lu family, Lu Wan Long. Their class would increasingly grow over the next 3-6 months as the other first years came to forge their own golden cores. Everyone however, would proceed with theory lessons and basic education. Cultivation Classes such as Cultivation Techniques and Combat Techniques only occurred 1 period a day. They were still children after all.