I do not kneel, four simple words that could have been said by anyone, they could even be considered laughable in a world where power reigned supreme. But no one present laughed after Huang Ying said them, their breaths stuck in their throats. He hadn't just said the words, he had proven them with his own flesh and blood. He could break and shatter, but he refused to bend and kneel.
That was his pride, that was his determination, proven by the blood on the path and the jagged shards that forced his body to stay together. Looking at his figure, which stood ramrod straight, the other newly accepted disciples couldn't help but feel a mixture of inferiority and admiration. In the face of great pressure and adversity, they knelt and surrendered, but he stood tall and marched forward. The black-bearded Gang Yongye looked at Huang Ying with undisguised admiration, nodding his head.
"Very well, you don't kneel. Student, you have my admiration, I look forward to seeing how far you can walk down your path. Teacher Dingju, take him to the medicinal wing and check out his wounds, try to get him back on his feet before the ranking competition. If he ends up needing some expensive medicine, just take what you need from that old geezer's stash, he owes me at least that much."
A mature woman with pronounced cheeks and visible crow feet by her eyes stepped out of the small forest surrounding the path the moment Gang Yongye finished his words. Her hair was a dull gray, showing that she might be older than she looked, and her brown eyes seemed as if they had seen the passage of countless years. Her orange robe had some stitches at the front that showed it could be easily opened and remove, it fluttered lightly as she walked, her eyebrows scrunching up as she sent Gang Yongye a sideways glare.
"You're a damn fool, you should have stopped the test long before he reached such a state. I can understand your feelings, but don't forget that you are a teacher here, and that means that you have certain responsibilities."
Gang Yongye awkwardly scratched his cheek after being scolded by the mature woman, who had been called Dingju. She moved her glare away from Gang Yongye and looked at Huang Ying, a sliver of appreciation appearing in her eyes as she walked over and placed her hand on his shoulder, an invisible energy supporting his body.
"Come, child, let's get you patched up and ensure that there won't be any hidden injuries left behind within you."
The loss of blood was already starting to turn Huang Ying's vision blurry and causing his sense of hearing to fail, he was barely able to notice the woman guiding him deeper into the academy. His vision was slowly starting to turn dark, a light chuckle from Li Jun ending up as the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness due to his wounds.
"Gehehe, reckless little bastard, but I can't say I dislike it too much. Don't you worry about a thing, just let grampa Jun keep an eye on you while you sleep."
Huang Ying lost consciousness and his vision turned dark, but to his surprise he suddenly found himself standing on the ashen island in his dantian. Above him the hundreds of stars were blinking and flickering, even the dim stars furthest away were flickering in rhythm with the others. The countless number of eyes and maws bobbing around beneath the island were also moving in a rhythmic fashion, as if they were dancing in joy.
Huang Ying looked at the strange scene below him, his eyes suddenly shooting skyward and locking onto one of the dim stars that he was certain wasn't a memory coming from someone he had devoured. The star had lowered slightly, coming closer to the bright stars that he could access, even now it was slowly sinking and approaching. Huang Ying felt as if he could grasp the star and force it down to the ground, but just as he started to reach towards it, his body suddenly jerked away, his consciousness vanishing from the island.
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Huang Ying jerked awake in the medicinal wing, the Dingju that brought him here leaning back slightly so that he didn't headbutt her on accident. Huang Ying's eyes darted all around him the moment he jerked awake, an instinctual reaction upon waking up in an unfamiliar environment.
He was lying on a soft bed in a pure white room that was at least two or three kilometers long and wide, several tens of beds similar to his scattered throughout the room in an orderly fashion. Each bed was surrounded by a coarse cloth curtain that was attached to the ceiling, giving the people resting there some privacy. The faint smell of fragrant herbs and bitter medicine lingered in the air, but the scent of herbs seemed to come from the bed itself, he guessed that the herbs might have been mixed into the stuffing of the mattress.
There were no decorations on the walls, only seven windows spread around at an even distance, giving the people in the room a nice view of a lake located a short walk away. Dingju softly placed her hand on Huang Ying's shoulder, her movements slow so as to not frighten him right after waking up.
"It's okay, this is the medicinal wing of the Fierce Flame academy, do you remember that I took you here after your reckless display? Only about three hours have passed since then, I've used my Qi and my law of healing to ease your pain, but your wounds are very much still there. But it seems like that boorish oaf and I underestimated you quite a bit, I never would have expected your body to be so highly-trained, your wounds have already started healing on their own, it should only take about two weeks for them to fully vanish. I also didn't expect you to be so young, you really don't look the part."
Listening to her words and the undisguised amazement in them it was clear that this Dingju had given his entire body a thorough examination, in the process discovering how young his bones actually were. In a world of cultivation where thousand-year-old cultivators could look like youths, checking the age of a person's bones was the best and most accurate way to determine someone's true age.
As for the rapid healing of his body, it was something Huang Ying had already expected and even experienced before. The small wound he suffered on the caravan while he was on the way to the city took less than half an hour to heal, the body created by devouring a few hundred people was definitely quite a few levels above what was normal. Huang Ying didn't understand what this law of healing was, but he didn't pursue it right now, cupping his hands and thanking the teacher, who waved her hands with a soft smile in response.
"Don't mention it, it's my duty to heal people. Besides, it's not like I did much, your body is the one doing all the healing. But alright, since you're so nice and polite, and not to mention that you pulled off such a satisfying scene that caused even that boorish oaf to be shocked, let me give you something good."
Dingju reached down to her waist and opened the front part of her robe, revealing that she wore some tight-fitting leather clothing beneath them. She opened a light-green pouch hanging at her waist, nearly digging her entire arm into the opening and rummaging around for a bit before removing a small glass vial containing a pill. The pill was somewhat brown in color and was covered in small lines that seemed to gather together into several small lizards with exceedingly long tails. She placed the pill in Huang Ying's hand, giving a short explanation of it.
"Since that oaf said I could help my self to the old geezer's stash, how could I possibly reject him? This is known as a Tail-cutting Lizard pill, it contains about ten different herbs as well as the blood and flesh of the Tail-cutting Lizard, a Demonic beast famous for cutting off its own tail and using it as a distraction to flee. They have strong regenerative powers and can quickly regrow their tail, you should be able to halve the time needed to heal your wounds after swallowing this pill. You should rest for half a day before swallowing the pill, I'll drop by twice or so a day to check on your state. You can wander around, but you shouldn't leave this room until you're fully healed, we'll deal with all the procedures needed to enter the academy in the meanwhile."
Dingju stood up after she explained the pill, giving Huang Ying one last deep glance before turning around and heading to the opposite end of the room, walking through an open wooden door and closing it behind her. In truth, her heart was incomparably shocked after examining Huang Ying. 10 years old, a body so powerful that it was even capable of rapidly healing broken bones, and he had woken up after a mere three hours when he should have remained unconscious for at least two days. As she moved down the hallway that led to the other parts of the medicinal wing, the corners of her lips couldn't help but lift slightly, she was looking forward to seeing just what sort of monster had just entered their academy.