Chapter 15: Return to the Academy

When Li Luo stepped into Southwind Academy once again, though barely a week had passed, he felt a strange sensation, as if a lifetime had gone by.

He watched the streams of people coming and going, the boiling clamor of voices, the youthful vigor of the boys and girls on display.

However, Li Luo also noticed that among those passing crowds, quite a few peculiar gazes were fixed on him, and faintly he caught some murmuring.

"Isn't that Li Luo? He's finally come to the academy."

"What happened to his hair? Did he dye it?"

"He seems to have taken about a week's leave, right? There's only one month left until the academy grand exam, and he still dares to take leave like this — has he given up on himself?"

"I heard Li Luo might be dropping out soon, he probably won't even sit for the academy grand exam."

"It can't be that bad, can it?"

"."

Listening to those low murmurs, Li Luo was a bit speechless — he'd only taken a week's leave, and yet rumors of dropping out had already spread.

Still, he had no interest in explaining himself, so he cut straight through the crowd, heading briskly toward the Second Academy.

When he reached the entrance of the Second Academy's training ground, Li Luo's steps slowed, for he saw the Second Academy's instructor, Xu Xu Shanyue, standing there, watching him with a somewhat stern gaze.

An awkward smile crossed Li Luo's face as he hurried forward to greet him: "Instructor Xu."

Xu Xu Shanyue stared at Li Luo, a hint of disappointment in his eyes, and said: "Li Luo, I know the empty-phase issue has put a great deal of pressure on you, but you shouldn't have chosen to give up at a time like this."

Li Luo quickly replied: "I didn't give up."

Xu Xu Shanyue said in a low voice: "Then how dare you take a week's leave at such a critical moment? Everyone else is seizing every second to cultivate bitterly, and yet you just took leave to go rest?"

Li Luo was helpless, but he also knew Xu Xu Shanyue meant well, so he didn't argue further, merely nodding obediently.

After lecturing for a while, Xu Xu Shanyue could only heave a silent sigh in the end. He gave Li Luo one deep look, then turned and walked into the training ground.

Li Luo hurried in after him. The training ground was spacious; at its center was a platform several dozen meters long and wide, surrounded by stone steps arranged in concentric rings, rising layer upon layer from near to far.

On the stone steps sat stone meditation cushions, one after another.

On each stone cushion sat cross-legged a boy or girl.

And when Li Luo walked in, he inevitably drew the attention of many gazes, followed by a burst of hushed whispers.

Li Luo, who had vanished for a week, had clearly become a topic of conversation again at Southwind Academy.

Li Luo met those gazes with remarkable calm, went straight to his own stone cushion. Beside him sat Zhao Kuo, tall and burly. The latter, upon seeing him, asked in some surprise: "What happened to your hair?"

Li Luo glanced at him and said casually: "Just dyed it. Seems to be called 'grandma gray' — pretty trendy, right?"

Zhao Kuo: "."

Li Luo suddenly noticed what seemed to be some bruises on Zhao Kuo's face and was about to ask something when Xu Xu Shanyue's voice rang out from the field, full and resonant: "Students, the academy grand exam is drawing closer. I hope all of you can make one final push. If you can enter an advanced academy, there will naturally be many benefits in the future."

"Here I would also like to commend Zhao Kuo and Yuan Qiu. Their phase force has now reached the Six-Seal Realm. With a little more effort, they may well be able to attempt a breakthrough to Seven-Seal before the grand exam."

A few sighs of admiration rose from the field. Li Luo, equally surprised, glanced at Zhao Kuo beside him — it seemed he wasn't the only one who'd made progress this past week.

After praising Zhao Kuo, Xu Xu Shanyue said no more and began that day's lesson.

Li Luo listened with full concentration. What Xu Xu Shanyue was teaching were three phase arts — two low-grade and one mid-grade. He tirelessly went over the key points of each phase art, explaining them back and forth, and indeed seemed exceedingly patient.

The grading of phase arts was actually the same as that of guiding arts, except that the entry-level guiding arts had simply been replaced by low, mid, and high grades.

Beyond these three grades came the corresponding General, Marquis, and King grades of phase arts.

Of course, phase arts of that level were still far too distant for beginners like them at the Ten-Seal Realm. Even if they learned them, with the meager phase force they possessed, it would be very hard to actually perform them.

As for cultivation in phase arts, Li Luo's comprehension needed no further mention. If one were to compare phase arts alone, he was confident that within Southwind Academy, there shouldn't be many students who could surpass him.

So not long after Xu Xu Shanyue finished explaining the three phase arts, Li Luo had already grasped their essentials and mastered them at a preliminary level.

"Alright, that's all for today's phase arts class. This afternoon will be the phase force class — you'd better cultivate well." Two hours later, Xu Xu Shanyue stopped the lesson, gave the students some reminders, and only then announced a break.

Li Luo sat in his seat and stretched lazily. Zhao Kuo beside him leaned over and grinned: "Brother Luo, could you give me some pointers on those three phase arts later?"

Zhao Kuo was well aware of Li Luo's comprehension in phase arts. In the past, whenever he encountered phase arts that were hard to get into, he would ask Li Luo about anything he didn't understand.

Li Luo laughed and scolded: "So you only remember to call me 'Brother Luo' when you need help?"

Zhao Kuo gave a simple grin, but the smile pulled at the bruises on his face, making him wince in pain.

"What's this all about?" Li Luo asked.

Zhao Kuo frowned and said: "It's all that guy Bei Kun from the First Academy. I don't know what's gotten into him these past few days — he's been picking on people from our Second Academy nonstop. I couldn't stand it in the end, so I fought him a few times."

He pointed at the bruises on his face and said with some pride: "That guy hits pretty hard, but I didn't let him off easy either — I nearly smashed that pretty-boy face of his to pulp."

At this point, a few others from the Second Academy gathered around, saying indignantly: "That Bei Kun is simply detestable. We clearly didn't provoke him, yet he keeps coming over to cause trouble."

"Good thing Zhao Kuo's here, otherwise no one could really keep him in check."

Zhao Kuo waved them off, shooing them away, then asked in a low voice: "Did you recently offend that guy Bei Kun? Seems like he's coming after you."

Hearing this, Li Luo suddenly recalled that before he had left the academy, Bei Kun had apparently sent him a message through Ti Ti Faqing, demanding that he go to Clearwind Tower to host a banquet and treat everyone. Of course, he'd taken that as a joke — surely that fool hadn't actually gone to Clearwind Tower and waited an entire day?

And since he hadn't come to the academy this past week, Bei Kun had taken it out on the Second Academy's people, which was why he came looking for trouble?

Li Luo smiled, patted Zhao Kuo on the shoulder, and said: "Looks like that might really be it. Seems like you took a few hits for me."

"I don't mind. If I hadn't fought him those few times, I probably wouldn't have been able to break through to the Sixth Seal."

Zhao Kuo shrugged, then said: "But now that you've come to the academy, he'll probably come looking for you again this afternoon during phase force class."

He thought for a moment, then thumped his chest and said: "Leave it to me then. Let's see if a few more fights can let me break straight through to the Seventh Seal."

Li Luo smiled. Zhao Kuo was straightforward and loyal by nature — truly a rare friend. But hiding behind his friend and watching him take the blows meant for him wasn't Li Luo's style either.

So he merely said with a smile: "We'll see when the time comes."

Afternoon — phase force class.

On the north side of Southwind Academy lay a vast stretch of dense forest. The forest was lush and verdant; when the wind blew through, it was as if layer upon layer of green waves had been stirred up.

At the center of the forest stood a colossal tree, towering majestically. Its bark was a dull yellow, and it stood roughly two hundred meters tall. Its dense branches spread outward like an enormous web of wood.

The tree's branches were thick and sturdy, and the most peculiar thing was that each leaf upon them was roughly two meters long and wide, about a foot thick — like a platform.

This was the Phase Force Tree.

The Phase Force Tree was not something that grew naturally, but was instead forged from many peculiar materials — neither metal nor wood, yet resembling both.

Within the Phase Force Tree existed an energy core, one capable of absorbing and storing an immensely vast amount of the world's natural energy.

And those broad leaves of the Phase Force Tree were like so many cultivation platforms, each leaf able to provide cultivation for a single student.

This kind of Phase Force Tree was an essential fixture of every academy — only the scale varied from strong to weak.

In a certain sense, these leaves were much like the Golden Room in Li Luo's old residence. Of course, in terms of the effect of any single one, the Golden Room in the old residence was certainly better, but after all, not every student had such cultivation conditions.

On the Phase Force Tree, the leaves were divided into three grades, distinguished by Golden Leaves, Silver Leaves, and Bronze Leaves.

Looking from a distance, one would find that over sixty percent of the Phase Force Tree's range was the color of bronze leaves; of the remaining forty percent, silver leaves made up thirty percent, and golden leaves only about ten percent.

The golden leaves were all concentrated at the treetop of the Phase Force Tree, few in number.

Of course, one need not think to know that cultivating on the golden leaves would naturally yield a stronger effect than the other two kinds.

However, the vast majority of the golden leaves were occupied by the First Courtyard — this was understandable, after all, the First Courtyard was the face of Southwind Academy.

The entire Second Courtyard, several hundred people, had only ten golden leaves divided among them, and as for the Third and Fourth Courtyards further back, they had no right to enjoy them at all. From this one could see how rare these golden leaves were.

The Phase Force Tree opened for only half a day each day. When the great bell at the treetop rang, that was the signal for the tree to open — and this moment was what all students looked forward to most.

And at this moment, as the bell's echo lingered, many students were already flushed with excitement, pouring into this dense forest like a tide, then climbing the giant tree along those wooden stairways that wound like great pythons.

Li Luo also went along with the crowd and arrived atop the Phase Force Tree. Then he looked up at the ten golden leaves above, and for a moment felt a little awkward. Of those ten golden leaves belonging to the Second Courtyard, one of them used to be his as well — after all, by the standard of strength, in the Second Courtyard he was second only to Zhao Kuo.

It was just that later, because of his empty phase, he had taken the initiative to give up the golden leaf that belonged to him. This led to his current situation of seemingly having no spot, since he couldn't very well ask to take back the golden leaf he had already given away.

"Forget it, I'll make do for now."

Li Luo thought it over, then headed toward a silver leaf of the Second Courtyard.

As Li Luo walked toward the silver leaf, in the area above the Phase Force Tree, several gazes carrying various emotions also came to rest on him.

(End of chapter)