Chapter 48
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The testing room turned out to be a small unimpressive room on the first floor with a cheap wooden table in the center.
Led by Headmaster Yuan, everyone funneled into the room and took their seats, Headmaster Yuan on one side of the table and the three kids on the other.
Headmaster Yuan pulled out some white strips of paper from a cabinet, placed them on the table, and then turned toward the kids. “Alright kids, so this” - he held up one of the strips of paper - “is a spirit testing strip.”
“Oooh,” Finn immediately let out an interested coo.
Seeing Finn’s genuine-looking reaction, Headmaster Yuan’s anxiety was eased. It seemed more and more like that these really were small inexperienced kids just looking for a spirit school to join.
He began to talk more energetically. “So basically, these are a rudimentary spirit testing tool. To test your spirit affinity, you just have to hold it in your hand for some time. If your spirit energy has awakened as you say, then the strip will light up. Otherwise, it won’t change at all. What do you say? Willing to try?”
“Yeah, sure!” Alivia and Finn agreed in unison. It seemed simple enough.
“No spirit affinity crystal ball?” Zairen asked, glancing curiously toward the spirit testing strips. He was a bit surprised. In his experience, spirit schools would usually have a spirit-testing crystal ball that they would use to test new students, a tool that was much better for testing someone’s spirit energy than spirit testing strips.
Spirit affinity crystal ball: it was exactly what it sounded like. It was a crystal ball, that when touched by someone, would light up if they possessed spirit energy. In his previous life, almost all spirit schools had one, and he assumed that they were very common on this continent, too.
There were many benefits. Aside from being more durable and reacting quicker, spirit affinity crystal balls also would light up with vibrant colors, revealing a person’s spirit affinity and also how strong that affinity was. If someone’s spirit affinity was stronger, the color would light up brighter. On the other hand, while spirit testing strips were still able to test whether someone had awakened their spirit energy, they wouldn’t be able to divine any elemental spirit affinity the person had; it would always just light up with the same color, giving no additional information.
Headmaster Yuan’s expression suddenly turned sour. Glancing toward Zairen with slightly narrowed eyes, he softly cleared his throat.
“No.”
It was painful for him to say. The truth was, the school had possessed one before. They were very expensive, so it had been an investment. However, in just the previous year, they had been forced to sell it due to financial difficulties. With no new students, no one had been using it anyway - spirit testing strips were a much cheaper, albeit inferior, option.
To Headmaster Yuan, it was embarrassing. A spirit school, and they didn’t even have a spirit affinity crystal ball? They had really fallen.
“Oh…” Zairen let out a soft sign of acknowledgement, immediately backing out of the conversation. Based on Headmaster Yuan’s expression, it seemed like a sour topic.
“Anyway,” Headmaster Yuan cleared his throat. He picked up three spirit testing strips and held them forward. “Shall we get started?”
“Alright. “ Everyone reached over and grabbed a spirit testing strip.
“Now, if you really have awakened your spirit energies as you say,” Headmaster Yuan continued, glancing toward the three children meaningfully. He held out his hand in demonstration. “You can just hold it against your palm for a few seconds, like this, and it should light up.”
“Ok...” The three kids watched what Headmaster Yuan was doing and copied him, placing the strips into their palms.
Headmaster Yuan discreetly eyed the slips in the children’s hands. Although he didn’t really expect anything to happen, he couldn’t help but still feel anticipation.
Fuip, fuip, fuip, all three of the strips lit up.
“Hm!” Headmaster Yuan jolted. He leaned forward to make sure he was seeing it correctly.
Sure enough, he was seeing things right! All three of the children’s strips had really lit up.
As he stared at the three lights, his eyes glistened. ‘So they were telling the truth! Their spirit energies have actually awakened, and so early!’
These students were so young! If their spirit energies were already awakened at ages under ten… did that mean they were promising talents? He almost couldn’t believe it. Three talents had just showed up at his door, wanting to join his school?
“Have we passed the test, Headmaster?” Zairen smiled and asked.
“Y-yes! For sure!” Headmaster Yuan immediately stammered out excitedly, his gaze turning tentatively jubilant. “Would you all like to join our Black Cloud Academy?”
“Yes!” All three of the children said in unison.
“Great!” His usual somber face expanded into an excited expression. Rushing over toward the three children, he hurriedly formally double-hand shook each of their hands. “As I already said, I’m Headmaster Yuan. Nice to meet you all. Welcome to the Black Cloud Academy!”
“Hahaha, thank you!” Finn immediately chortled. “I’ll enjoy training here!”
“Nice meeting you!” Alivia smiled as well.
“Thank you,” Zairen smiled a calm smile.
They had not originally planned on immediately deciding on a school, but seeing Headmaster Yuan’s expression, they had all simultaneously made a choice.
As they were shaking Headmaster Yuan’s hand, they all felt a satisfying feeling. So this was it, they had now finally joined a Spirit School! They all felt some sort of anticipation - what would they new lives be like?
Yet, just as everyone was smiling, Headmaster Yuan’s expression suddenly began to fade. In front of everyone’s surprised eyes, his happy demeanor quickly disappeared - he slowly backed up a few steps, his enthusiasm replaced by a somber resignation.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered gloomily.
“What’s wrong?” Alivia hurriedly asked. It was strange. Headmaster Yuan had just been so happy, and suddenly within a moment’s notice, he wasn’t.
Headmaster Yuan looked up again, his face sedated once again. “I have to be honest with you all. You should know that compared to many other schools, we don’t have much to provide. With each of your talents, awakening your spirit energies at such young ages, each of you could get full-ride scholarships to schools with much more resources and prestige.”
He gave a long sigh. “I’m only telling you because you’re all definitely incredibly talented, with surely great ambition. I don’t want to limit your potential by chaining you here. When other schools inevitably find out about your talents, they will want to rigorously recruit you anyway. Their offers will undoubtedly be much better than ours.” His eyes were completely neutral, as if what he said was a fact of life.
Respect shone in Zairen’s eyes. Even though it would be only beneficial for Headmaster Yuan to unconditionally usher them three into his school, no questions asked, he was firstmost concerned about their wellbeing! Clearly, he didn’t want to take advantage of their naivety - seeing their talent, he knew that they could be going to a much better funded school for free, and wasn’t scared out of letting them know.
Right then and there, Zairen locked in his decision - Black Cloud School was where they would go, and where they would stay!
“Headmaster,” Zairen spoke up, his tone matter-of-fact. “They can’t give us much either. We chose this school because it was nearby and because we heard that there was a nice herb garden. Now that we’re here, it seems nice.” He looked around at Alivia and Finn, who nodded their heads. He looked back up at Headmaster Yuan. “I think that we all would like to join Black Cloud School for long-term.”
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“Yeah!” Finn agreed, making sure to back up his master. “We already have an unparalleled teacher. No old fart at some supposedly great school can even compare.”
Huh?
Headmaster Yuan blinked slowly.
Other schools had nothing to offer?
Advanced arts, techniques, high-tier items, advisement, guidance, and skilled teaching staff... Those things were all instrumental, and without them, a person wouldn’t be able to advance very far. How could other schools not have anything to offer?
As for the point about the herb garden… Headmaster Yuan smiled.
It was true that the school had a pretty good herb garden. One of the only respectable resources the Black Cloud School had was a very large and well-tended herb garden, comparable to the herb gardens of some larger schools. It was the result of over a decade of continuous investment, and they even had some less common plants. Out of everything at the school, Headmaster Yuan was very proud of this garden.
Did they come for this herb garden?
Usually, this would only be important to those who wanted to study refining or medicine. Did Zairen wish to do so?
Headmaster Yuan scanned over all of the kids’ faces, discovering to his surprise that all of them seemed to honestly want to join the school. His intense facial expression started to ease.
“Furthermore,” Zairen continued. “Just personally, I haven’t been a fan of some of those people at the top schools, so arrogant and full of themselves. I can only imagine how toxic the environment at those schools are.”
Alivia and Finn nodded profusely, as if they personally had bad experiences with those sorts of people.
“I suppose that’s a valid reason.” Headmaster Yuan felt his eyes light up. What a respectable and perceptive young child! He praised the boy in his mind. Only someone who came from a humble background could say something like that!
Maybe they were humble lower-class civilians who had recently awakened their spirit energy, but were disillusioned with those rich schools.
He felt hope and excitement suddenly bubble up in his stomach. Would these students actually stay here? If they did… then wouldn’t that mean the school would three talented new students?
This was god’s miracle!
“Alright, welcome to Black Cloud School then!” Headmaster Yuan smiled widely, finally welcoming the students in. Although he didn’t quite understand, it was clear that their desire to join the school was genuine.
“Alright,” Zairen pulled a small bag out of his pocket. “How much is the tuition?”
It was as if Headmaster Yuan was witnessing a calamity. He hurriedly extended an arm to prevent Zairen’s movements. “Nonono! Stop there! Tuition? For you all, it’s free. Scholarship. No need for tuition.”
Was he an idiot? Charge tuition for these rare talents? If he could get these three to stay… this school would definitely rise to new heights!
“No no, I insist,” Zairen frowned, pulling gold coins and spirit stones out of his bag anyway. “We have plenty of money. I don’t want to cheat the school.”
He couldn’t help but think about how one of the arrogant students from Golden Gate Academy had said that Black Cloud School was having severe financial problems.
“No way,” Headmaster Yuan insisted, pushing Zairen’s money-filled fist away. “No tuition! I’m insisting on this!”
“Come on, Headmaster Yuan. How much is it? Don’t make me get forceful!”
“No tuition! That’s final!”
“If we can’t pay tuition, then we won’t go!” Zairen finally laid down an ultimatum. Staring at Headmaster Yuan defiantly, his eyes seemed to be filled with determination. “How much it?”
Headmaster Yuan seemed to have been trumped. His mouth opened wide, he seemed to be unable to find words to refute him. “Well, per year, it’s usually five gold per person.”
“Ok! Here you go!” Zairen reached into his bag and passed fifteen gold into Headmaster Yuan’s hands. “I guess this is official then! We’re part of Black Cloud School.”
“...haha…” Headmaster Yuan was a bit slow to react, and at first just nodded his head and accepted the coins. His gaze panned across the three smiling children in front of him - one lithe black haired boy, one wild-eyed red haired girl, and one chubby, funny-looking child with blue hair.
A moment later, the brunt of what just happened hit him.
All at once, the school had just gained not one, but three talented young spirit-awakened students? The kids were all extremely humble as well, completely unlike typical talents from big schools and rich families.
Slowly, his expression became more and more excited, until his face radiantly shined. They had come just in time!
“Yes, you are! New Black Cloud Students! Should we get situated immediately? First, let me take you to meet the other students! They’ll all be so excited to meet you!” Suddenly, he was incredibly enthusiastic.
Everyone agreed smilingly.
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Headmaster Yuan led everyone up the stairs to the top floor of the school.
He walked at an unusually fast pace, clearly impatient to introduce the new students. It was as if he didn’t hurry to bring them, they would run away.
Entering through the doorway from the stairs, the children looked around. The top floor was actually a large open gymnasium! Scattered all over the floor were meditation mats and various common training equipment. Things like dummy fighters were common, many of which Zairen had seen similar of in his previous life.
However, despite the large area, the space was nearly devoid of people, with only several young teenagers meditating on some mats in the distance.
“Everyone, gather round!” Headmaster Yuan bellowed out toward those students. “We have new students!”
The students were snapped out of their meditation and looked over curiously. Some had slight expressions of irritation, having been interrupted from their training.
However, after hearing the words ‘new students,’ they all suddenly seemed to light up. They quickly stood up and rushed over, forming a semicircle around the new students.
All together, there were five of them: three boys and two girls. The three boys had short brown hair, spiky black hair, and then spiky black hair, respectively, two of which appeared to be identical twins. The two girls had short silver hair and curly purple hair. They were all of various ages between around ages ten and sixteen.
“New students?! Really?” The brown haired boy exclaimed as he ran up to the three new kids. Examining them up and down, he couldn’t help but widen his eyes. “They’re so young!”
“Settle down, Horace.” Headmaster Yuan smiled, reaching over and patting the boy on the head. After waiting a moment for everyone to gather around, he gestured toward Finn, Alivia, and Zairen. “Everyone greet your new schoolmates.” He started at Finn, and then went down the line. “This is Finn…. this is Alivia… and this is Zairen.”
“Finn… Alivia… Zairen. Welcome to Black Cloud School!” All the original students panned between the new students, and then greeted them enthusiastically. “You made a good choice coming here and joining our family!”
Looking at the new students, they had a strange first impression. All three of them were young children, definitely not older than ten. One was a grinning energetic-looking red-haired girl, one was a short, chubby blue-haired boy, and the other was a young-looking black haired boy. They were a mismatch of features!
“Thank you!” Finn, Alivia, and Zairen all greeted back. They felt their hearts warm a bit, having received such an intimate and welcoming entrance.
Already, they were forming a good impression of the school. Would they have received such a warm and genuine greeting from any big fancy school?
Then, the original students began to introduce themselves as well.
“Hi! Nice to meet you. I’m Yinry!” the short silver-haired girl began, stepping forward and enthusiastically smiling, looking to be no older than 16. She gestured behind her, where the younger curly purple haired girl, who looked to be around 11 years old, was hiding shyly. “And this is my sister Elise! We welcome you all to Black Cloud School!”
The younger purple haired girl in the back waved shyly, averting any possible eye contact.
Next, the two identical-looking boys stepped forward. They both looked to be around 13 years old.
“Howdy! Nice to meet you!” The two chanted at the same time and waved smilingly. “We’re Joran and Ranjo. Nice to meet you!”
At first glance, it was impossible to tell the difference between them. Both sporting spiky black hair and possessing cheerful mischievous expressions, they seemed like the type to pull pranks, taking full advantage of their twin status.
Finally, the brown haired boy went last. He looked to be a bit younger than the two twins.
“Whaddup! My name’s Horace. I’m top dawg at this school!” The brown haired boy smiled knowingly, patting himself on the back and laughing. “Nice to meet you! Welcome!”
“Nice to meet you!” The new students looked around at everyone and greeted back.
They couldn’t help but start to feel comfortable - the students had wlecomed them so warmly, and the atmosphere of this school seemed very intimate and playful. Even though there were few students, they were all very close and were all very friendly.
On the other hand, many of the old students could hardly contain their brimming smiles. They were gaining new students? It had been a long time. It felt good.
Zairen looked around and then curiously tilted his head. “Is this everyone? Just five people?”
There was a brief silence. The original students looked toward each other and then let out a collective sigh.
“Well, we have one more that’s not here right now, Senior Jannie. He’s likely resting in his room,” Yinry answered. “But aside from that, yes… there used to be more, but they all left when Jannie…” She paused hesitantly. “...had his accident.”
“Accident…?” Finn inquired inquisitively.
Yinry turned toward Finn and raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t heard?”
After looking around for a moment, she continued. “Well… I suppose I should tell you now, sooner than later. Our senior Jannie was a high-level talent with lightning spirit affinity. His fame attracted many students to the school, and we all respected and adored him.”
She gave a short reluctant sigh. “However, just three years ago, right before the Osiron tournament, he had an accident with his cultivation and injured his meridians… and isn’t able to channel his spirit energy anymore.”
“Because of that, the school developed a stigma, so many students left and joined other schools,” Joran continued from where Yinry left off. “Now, it’s only us.”
“But we are all really good friends and help each other as much as we can! Furthermore, even though Jannie may be injured, he’s still really experienced and gives us all really good training and advice!” Ranjo added on, giving a thumbs up.
“Anyway, you all shouldn’t worry about that!” Horace said, patting his chest. “It’s only a matter of time before I take the mantle in place of Jannie, and take the school to new heights!”
He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “People call me Black Cloud School’s new golden star. I’m what you might call… extremely gifted!”
“Horace!” All the other original students became visibly annoyed, some audibly groaning.
“Shut it, Hor-Hor!” Yinry rolled her eyes. “Just because you have a tiny trace of earth spirit energy doesn’t mean you’re special. Showing off again?”
“Hm?” Hearing the words “earth spirit energy,” Finn’s eyes lit up and he examined Horace eagerly.
“Hey!” Horace protested. “Don’t be jealous! I’ve been working hard.” He flexed his biceps. “I have to make Senior Jannie proud. Black Cloud School cannot be made fun of!”
“That’s the spirit!” An amicable pleasant-sounding voice rang out, causing everyone to turn their heads.
In the doorway stood a handsome, friendly-looking blonde young man. Wearing casual robes and leaning against the doorframe, he had a wide smile on his face.
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