“And I have to believe you?” After finishing listening to Tian Zhe's explanations, Rector Ji Liu was skeptical about the young man's words. Ji Liu is a venerable qixing, whose strength is enough to destroy the building of the Ice Lotus Academy in one fell swoop. It was also undeniable that he became the rector due to the incredible knowledge that he achieved through many years of practice in improving and teaching others. However, he had never heard of spiritual cores' attributes and therefore did not believe Tian Zhe's words.

“I can prove it, but first send someone for the next students of the academy and for information about their development,” Tian Zhe believed that he should not pull the cat by the tail, and for this reason, he took the risk. Having no evidence about the local analogs of the heroes of the novel "Saga of the Seven Scriptures," Zhe made a bet that their attributes correspond to those of the characters in the books. “It so happened that my master gave me the task to determine what attributes of spiritual cores exist and, as reference points, shared information about several people and what I should pay attention to.”

“Your words are becoming less and less weighty.” Ji Liu chuckled and took a sheet of paper, and his face immediately tightened. The reason for this was the name of one of the students. “What are you up to?”

“Prove your case,” Zhe made the most innocent face he was capable of and continued, “Anyway, I am confident in my hypothesis, and as far as I can tell, Miss Li Xue can help me with this. In the end, it is not as simple as it seems.”

“Well, it is commendable that the young generation of the Fire Orchid possesses the confidence worthy of the one who will lead the city in the future,” Ji Liu called his assistant and sent for several students in the general training class.

“In that case, until my classmates come, let's start with my assistant and me,” putting on a self-confident smile, Tian Zhe pulled out a small spiritual crystal from his spatial ring and poured spiritual energy into it.

When the spirit crystal began to change color, Ji Liu nearly choked. He still did not believe in Tian Zhe's words, but what he saw knocked out all unnecessary thoughts from his head. The Small Spiritual Crystal in Tian Zhe's hands turned blue.

“Young Zhe, wasn't your spirit core green, so why did it turn blue?” as the rector of the academy, Ji Liu knew detailed information about all the direct heirs of sacred and noble families. It is impossible for him to receive false information.

“It so happened that my spiritual core changed, and I don’t know why this happened,” Zhe could not answer that these changes are associated with the merging of the souls of two people. “Better notice the sparks of light in the crystal.”

“So it’s true,” Mei Ling whispered from the corner of the office. The girl just yesterday almost shook the soul of her employer, thinking that he was joking.

“Hmm, sixty-nine units, a wonderful result,” having looked more closely, Ji Liu could determine the readings of the spiritual crystals without errors.

“No, look at the shades of sparks,” Zhe had to remind that the rector pays attention to the wrong things. “You see, the sparks showing the intensity of my spiritual power have a golden color.”

“Yes, I see.”

“In the academy, the spiritual strength of students is measured upon admission, at the beginning of each academic year and during tests every three months, while using the same spiritual crystals for this, right?”

“Yes, everything is as you say.”

“So, with the frequent use of spiritual crystals by different people, they lose their sensitivity and therefore show only white sparks without any color. Therefore, during the academy's entire existence, no one even thought about the fact that a practitioner's spiritual energy can have an elemental affinity.”

“In that case, what is the attribute of young Zhe?” Ji Liu looked at Tian Zhe with interest, thinking about the golden color of sparks.

“I don't know.”

“…” For some reason, Rector Liu's liver ached from such an insolent answer. “Where were all your self-confident statements a couple of minutes ago?”

“Don't look at me like that. I was given homework with a disgustingly small amount of information,” sensing the significance of the rector’s gaze, Zhe hurried to justify himself. “Mei Ling, while I make the following preparations, repeat the experiment with the small spiritual crystal.”

Mei Ling, quietly standing in the rector's office, took out the spiritual crystal obtained earlier and carefully poured spiritual energy into the crystal.

“It’s not bad, with a yellow spiritual core, to reach the silver rank at such a young age.” Even if the small spiritual crystal is used only by the cultivators of the bronze rank, the vice-rector was of a venerable rank. With his development, there was no problem determining the development of people in the earthly kingdom. Noticing to himself the green color of the sparks in the spiritual crystal, the rector turned to the girl. “And what does this color mean?”

“I don't know.”

“…” the rector sighed heavily.” “Have you conspired and are making fun of me?”

“Rector Ji Liu, this girl did not want to offend you. I really do not know what my master is talking about. Also, in my condition, I will not be able to find out what color the sparks you are talking about,” Mei Ling reminded that she does not see anything and passed her hand before her eyes.

“It’s awkward,” Zhe commented on the situation.

“And whose fault is it?” the rector felt another injection in the liver. “What else do you want to show?”

“The form of the spiritual core,” with this, Tian Zhe put crystal bowls of water on the rector's table. “Look carefully.”

Under the rector's gaze, Zhe took the fragile spiritual crystal in his hand and, dropping the crystal into the water, crumbled it with his spiritual energy. After this procedure, Zhe poured more spiritual energy into the water and, picking up the fragments of the crystal, raised them to the surface of the water.

Raised from the bottom and surrounded on all sides by water saturated with the same spiritual energy that flowed in the fragments themselves, they began to gather first into a pattern on the surface of the water, then into a volumetric figure, which plunged into the water frozen in the middle.

“You gave the fragments this shape by yourself?”

“No, I just tried to keep them in the water. You can try it yourself.”

“Curious, curious,” the rector commented on the crystal structure that resembled a dragon. Yesterday, when Zhe noticed that the sparks in the small spiritual crystal were of a golden hue, he was fired up with the idea to carry out the experiments to the end and find a way to reveal the shape of the spiritual core. After letting Mei Ling go home, he repeated the step with fragile crystals for several hours until he tried to keep the fragments on the surface of the water and only then saw the changes.

The rector took the fragile spiritual crystal kindly provided by Tian Zhe and repeated his actions down to the smallest detail. Despite a fair amount of skepticism, the spiritual crystal fragments formed a pattern on the surface of the water, then acquired a volumetric shape and sank into the water.

Ji Liu looked with interest at the figure of a lion in the water. It seemed that his mane now and then swayed like the flame of a forest fire. The rector came from the noble house of Spring Bamboo. Being one of its most gifted members, reaching silver rank, he constantly tried to become a qixing through rigorous training and repeatedly defying fate, fighting demonic beasts. After killing dozens of demonic beasts and trying to merge with their spirit, Ji Liu felt frustrated over and over again until he merged with the spirit of the water tiger. At that moment, it seemed to Ji Liu that he had achieved true enlightenment and a completely new world opened to him.

“Does young Zhe have small spiritual crystals not yet used?” the rector was interested to know if the color of the sparks would change in his case.

“Does the rector have his own supplies?”

“Unfortunately, I can only get the used Spirit Crystals. I will reimburse young Zhe for his expenses.”

“Agreed.”

Having received the coveted crystal, Ji Liu carefully poured spiritual energy into the crystal, after which the mineral changed color to green, and many red lights sparkled inside it.

“Could the rector have a fiery attribute?” Zhe was curious since this color was mentioned in the novel.

“It turns out my attributes, is it a spontaneous relationship with fire and the form of a spiritual core in the form of a lion?”

“It turns out like this. The spirit of a demonic beast of the fire element and whose shape is close to that of a lion would be ideal for you.” Zhe put forward hypotheses out loud. “At worst, either the weak spirit of the demonic beast without elemental affinity, as something relatively universal, or so that the spirit of the demonic beast coincides in one of the attributes.”

“When I was young, I merged with the water tiger and never changed it again,” replied the rector.

“Then I can advise you to look for a development technique that suits your spiritual core and does not contradict the absorbed demonic spirit,” Tian Zhe could advise.

“Heaven,” Ji Liu could only sigh. Having reached the golden rank and formed a golden sphere, Ji Liu lost the ability to change the spirit of the demonic beast. Now he will have to look for a development technique that should not only match his attributes but also not contradict the spirit of the water tiger, which is very difficult since the water of his demonic spirit will conflict with his own attribute of fire.

---

When the assistant rector brought in the four general education students, everything needed to test them was ready. In comparison, the teenagers were only half ready.

Xiao Ning and Li Xue reacted calmly to the fact that they were summoned to the rector. It seemed to Song Ming and Yun Yongru's classmates that they resembled aspen leaves trembling in the autumn wind. It is worth noting that Xiao Ning, barely entering the rector's office, gave Tian Zhe a look that could hurt the heart no worse than a sharp sword.

“Do not be afraid, children,” Ji Liu put a soft smile on his face so as not to frighten the children once again in the presence of the mayor's daughter. “Your classmate Tian Zhe asked me to re-check your development.”

Rector Liu said what Tian Zhe asked. As much as the young man from the Fire Orchid family annoyed him fifteen minutes ago, his research would bring considerable benefit to the city, and now he was only concerned about that.

After hearing a detailed explanation from Tian Zhe, the four children took turns to test. As Tian Zhe expected, their attributes matched perfectly. In fact, he was guided by the shape of the spiritual core, and those colors of spontaneous kinship, which he knew for sure from books. If the color was unknown to him, then Zhe decided for himself to associate the elemental attribute from the novel with the color of the sparks he saw until he received a refutation.

“Sung Ming, yellow spirit core, a double attribute of fire (red) and possibly wind (green), phoenix-shaped core” fire-storm phoenix.

“Xiao Ning, a blue spiritual core, possibly an attribute of lightning (golden), a dragon-shaped core — a thunder dragon,” calling this result, Tian Zhe could not help but smile. He knew the description of Xiao Ning's spiritual core but did not know how it all looked in reality, and finally seeing the result of her check, Zhe could calmly exhale since her attributes matched his. One less problem.

“Li Xue, a blue spiritual core, a double attribute of water (blue) and ice (blue), a core in the shape of a six-winged crane” the majestic peng of ice water.

“Yun Yongru, red spirit core, fire attribute (red), cloud-shaped core” fire cloud.

After confirming for once that the information completely matched, Tian Zhe wrote down the results.

“Miss Li Xue, can you confirm what I said about your attributes?” Tian Zhe turned to his neighbor on the desk.

The girl was shocked that Zhe absolutely accurately described her spiritual core attributes using such simple methods. She learned her credentials from the elders of the family after lengthy tests that were not even close to being simple compared to Zhe's methods.

“Yes, you're right,” Li Xue could only confirm Tian Zhe's words.

“Oh wow, miss finally got rid of polite speech,” Zhe chuckled.

“What do you allow yourself!” Ji Liu was outraged. If not for the benefit of Tian Zhe, he would have immediately whipped the teenager for his insolence. “She is the daughter of the head of the city! Daughter of the head of the city, you cheeky monster!”

Li Xue blushed no weaker than the rector. No one had ever mocked her in this way. Unless her father, the lord of the city, could occasionally tease his beloved daughter.

“Rector Liu, I don't need them anymore,” Zhe turned to the old man, changing the subject of the conversation and thereby saving his own skin.

“Okay, you can go.” Ji Liu is already tired and already dreaming of retirement.

---

“And brother Zhe is interesting,” Yun Yongru said as she walked down the hall with her classmates. ”I would not be able to talk to the rector on equal terms.”

“He’s just a rude impudence,” Li Xue could only be indignant when she remembered Tian Zhe’s antics.

Xiao Ning walked in silence, not participating in the discussion, she did not like the sacred family of the Fire Orchid, and at the same time, she did not leave the feeling that Tian Zhe knew a lot about her.

“Girls, which one of you knows about what attributes Tian Zhe spoke about?” Sung Ming asked a question that worried him.

Hearing his words, everyone looked at Li Xue.

Having felt six eyes on herself, the girl could only apologize and refer to the fact that these were family secrets and she had no right to talk about them to strangers, but she reminded the boys that Tian Zhe did not seem to be limited in this matter.

---

“I need the Ice Lotus Academy to collect and provide me with statistics on all qixing, their level of perfection, and a description of the demonic beasts with which they merged,” Zhe, left alone with the rector, put forward his demands. “Also, don't forget to test them in a new way.”

“The Academy will take care of this,” as Rector Ji Liu showed the highest measure of competence, and therefore the boy could be sure that the research would be carried out at the proper level.

“Also, when everything is over, I plan to give a speech to the heads of all houses in the city with the announcement of the results.”

“Where does such generosity come from?” Ji Liu couldn't help but be surprised. The best disposition did not distinguish the Fire Orchid's sacred family, and pride mixed with high conceit were the most striking features of the representatives of the family. In the understanding of Ji Liu, representatives of this family will do everything to strengthen their clan and put themselves above others.

“It's all about the old man who took over me patronage,” Zhe began to say prepared phrases. “He has an incredible gift for divination and, in addition to secrets about the spiritual cores of my classmates, he told something else.”

“And what?” Ji Liu tensed. Tian Zhe has already proved that his mentor is an unusual person, and perhaps he is an unsurpassed master who reached the top of the legendary rank. Any word from the mouth of this person can change the fate of the city.

“The Master is not a resident of the Jade City and as a wandering hermit vowed not to interfere directly in the lives of other people, only indirectly. Hence his stupid homework with attributes of spiritual cores.”

“...”

“But even worse, the master predicted that in a few years, the Jade City would be destroyed by hordes of demonic beasts.”