As soon as Lien Hua's friends entered the hall through the already open sliding doors, their mouths dropped from the grandeur of the hall's construction. Five other students had entered along with them and were also open-mouthed.
This classroom didn't look so big from the outside. Still, as soon as one entered it, it was enormous. The hall was built like an amphitheatre or modern university. At the time they were standing in the highest part of the classroom. After a few stairs and a few floors with desks, down at the bottom was the small podium of the Elder.
Immediately behind the podium, one could find a gigantic window with embroidery on each of its four sides in redwood that was as large as the entire height of the structure, which gave a complete view of the sect below them and the city.
Lien Hua thought, looking at her two little friends who were still a bit amazed by how high up they were right now, 'Wow, i have to say congratulations to the architects of this world. The classroom is built into the side of the mountain. To say the least this is fantastic, and then all the wooden decorations give it stability and elegance.'
Coming out of their states of shock, some quick while others more slowly. They each started to set off toward their predefined places according to their rank. One might ask themselves how the children knew which rooms were theirs. Well, it was written on top of their desks, which were also very decorated with copper-coloured embroidery.
Sitting at their respective places, Lien Hua, with her two friends were sitting at the lowest seats near the podium; there was only a floor of height between them.
All the assembled disciples in the classroom did not talk to each other, understanding the situation that soon an Elder would arrive. They could not present themselves as a chatty and messy classroom. So they began to scrutinize each other. With her trained eyes, Lien Hua already noticed how the people who were with them were more or less almost all of the low-medium talent, remembering them from yesterday.
Only one person was unusual. She didn't think he could participate in this class, not because of arrogance but because she knew only the medium and low-medium talents could participate. But noting that even some of yesterday's lower-middle grades had not shown up, she could see how they divided people according to the importance and of their martial spirits.
The person she was noticing was a pretty tall kid with raven black hair and blood-coloured eyes. His name was Ling Tianni.
Remembering some of his information from yesterday, she recalled his martial spirit was a dragon-horse. However, his talent was low, yet his martial spirit was so apparently interesting and powerful that it was able to give him a ticket to this class.
She could also understand why in the end. That dragon, from its name alone, intrigued her too, but not thinking too much on it, she turned, finally noticing that magically, a person had materialized on the podium below her.
The intruder who had materialized in front of her was a very tall man, easily 1.85 meters (6.1 feet). A blanket of snow-white hair adorned his head. The hairs in front were kept still inside a very decorated ornament of blue with gold embroidery leaving two strands of hair at each side of his face. All of his other hairs fell behind him as smooth as silk and easily reached down his lower back.
His face was very masculine, but at the same time androgynous. His complex was a very pale white, as if he were sick. He had two elongated, pale purple eyes with very long eyelashes and a high nose, small lips that were completely devoid of colour completed his looks. His appearance suggested an age between 20 to 25.
He also wore a white uniform, but he had jade embroidery that made it almost heavenly to see. On the chest, in addition to the usual lotus flower, above it one could find another lotus flower with three petals embroidered in gold. The whole thing was wrapped tightly by a belt over his stomach.
Lien Hua, leaving her enchanted state, was finally able to talk to herself. 'Wow… I can't believe there are also albino people in this world, but I think it is most likely due to his martial spirit.'
When he saw that all of the children had noticed his presence by now, he raised his voice, "Good Morning everybody. Skipping all the courtesies between the elders and disciples, I would like to introduce myself; I am Shi Yueh, the 5th elder Elder of the inner sect."
Lien Hua and all the others, as soon as they heard that the man before them was an elder, and even one from the inner sect, were a little embarrassed by the fact that they had not greeted him before, and immediately rose up and respectfully greeted him, even though he didn't tell them to do so. It was basic courtesy after all.
Seeing that by now everyone had digested his words, Shi Yueh was very pleased. "Sit everyone, today we will talk mainly about how to absorb spiritual energy around ourselves into our bodies and how it affects our body and martial spirit."
Lien Hua immediately listened with a fascinated look due to what their new professor was about to say.
"Absorbing spiritual energy is like breathing, but instead of breathing with your lungs, you have to breathe with your full body. The concept is easy, but it takes practice to understand. Mainly, you will have to envision that you want to absorb something with your whole being while you are sitting without thinking about anything, and it should work."
Listening to such a lazy explanation, Lien Hua could only close her eyes a bit in annoyance. Still, even with just a simplified explanation of however complicated the concept might have been, she was thankful.
Seeing his students a bit bored with his somewhat poor explanation, he laughed a little bit. "Don't worry. If you have any doubts, you can come and ask me tomorrow after you have at least tried it with this explanation alone."
Lien Hua was a bit suspicious that all of this was a small test, and seeing that even some people around her were a little spaced out, she understood that they had understood it too.
Seeing that most of the students had already understood his intentions, their instructor was pleased. "After spiritual energy is introduced into your bodies, a percentage of it will remain stuck in your outer body, strengthening it, while the purest and most bright part, will enter the small dimension of your martial spirit, into the centre of your belly, where it will nourish you by making you stronger."
Going back to his explanation, but changing the subject, seeing that all his new students had understood it, he smiled. "The spiritual energy that enters your body, will strengthen it, making you stronger and it will also begin to speed your mind, making it more functional. Spiritual energy is, after all, an energy that gives life, so it is also logical that it empowers all that it touches."
Lien Hua felt that in the end her hypothesis was correct and was very happy, but she did not get too excited and continued to listen to the professor.
"After these lessons where we will mainly explain the theory behind Spiritual Energy, another elder will make you train the strengthening of your bodies with these lessons in mind. The elder there will then decide who will leave and who remains to do his training, so do not miss this 'opportunity'."
Lien Hua listened with a lot of interest because it was a topic that interested her, being also a hypothesis of hers since she was little, and she wanted to find out if strengthening her body would be important in the future, seeing that the people here only thought about strengthening their martial spirits seriously.
Then seeing that the elder of the sect was starting to leave, all the students, seeing outside the window the sun was coming down from its highest point, understood that the lessons were over and rose in unison to greet him very loudly, "Thank you for the lesson, esteemed Sect Elder!"
Seeing that his new young students were so intelligent and courteous, he thought in his head that he might finally have fun this year.
Watching their professor leave from the open doors, Lien Hua immediately looked towards her two friends, who were getting up and mobilizing towards her. She also got up and approached them. "Well, since we have finished the lessons. How about we get something to eat at my house and then leave to start practising the information we learned today?"
Upon hearing Lien Hua inviting them, Chen Huang and Lin Yue could only accept. They were both about to ask the same thing themselves, but Lien Hua had beaten them in time.
As they came out of the hall together, they saw a river made up of disciples like themselves was starting to walk down the mountain and they waited a moment before they too headed down, after not finding their keepers.
Arriving at Lien Hua's house, everyone went in without delay and sat down at the table. After a while Lien Hua made a sound that made her get her friends' attention. "I remember now, our custodians had said that after we awakened our martial spirits, they would no longer be bound to us and they were moving on to newer assignments, so technically now we have to make our own food."
Lien Hua was a bit sad when she found out about this detail, but Old Li had reassured her that he would visit her often.
Looking at her friends' faces of realization, Lien Hua smiled. Her two friends also remembered this detail and began to rise from the floor where they'd been sitting, to help Lien Hua in the kitchen.
Simultaneously, on the highest mountain of the sect, an enormous hall entirely made of white marble was built right at the mountain's top. Inside this hall, a meeting between the most powerful spiritual masters of the sect was about to begin.
