"Let him rot for all I care!" Lilia yelled into her cell, fuming with rage so great that even her half-brother would give her face and step out of her hair.

"2 hours have passed, Lilia. Not only are you appointed to Prof. Forest Heart's disciple, but you also have a duty to set your embarrassment aside and assist freshmen in awakening. This is a mission you chose without any form of coercion."

A calm… equally frustrating voice replied but Lilia couldn't lash out. This may be the one man whom Lilia might spare her rage and verbal abuse on.

"Forest, forest, forest! He's the only one you care for! Have you considered this being sexual harassment?!" Lilia growled in reply. Her anger stemmed from the man's act of brown-nosing her half-brother almost every time!

"Sigh, Lili… we both know that if you walk into a room already occupied by a resting, naked man then the case of sexual harassment will be filed against you but these are extraordinary circumstances. Please act with maturity and discretion."

"Don't you understand? You're sending me, your girlfriend, into a naked man's room! Am I the only one who can see something wrong—"

"Lilia," the man on the other side of the call finally stated with a vicious tone, "Do not cross that line. I have been trying to make things work between us. I argued against your brother for us. I will not bear such words over my head."

Biting her lips, Lilia ended the call with an annoyed grunt and opened Mana's door.

No, she practically smacked it open.

The voice of disturbance itself sending the cross-legged youth with slouched back tumbling on the ground as he gasped in shock.

"Ahhh! Rapi— oh, it's you—"

*Smack*

"Take this seriously!" Lilia shouted while her hand flew for a slap.

It struck hard.

*Thud*

Closing the door after walking out, Lilia sighed deeply.

'Man… it's big… I thought the camera made it look bigger but up close… It's really big.'

But this was simply an afterthought as Lilia recalled her partner's tone.

'Am I not also doing enough? I got him a position in the Disciple Council. He argued against Forest? I rescued him from the damn… whatever… he'll just apologize later. He must have been in front of other disciples while instructing me.'

Reasoning this, Lilia calmed down a little but the hollow and bitter emotion following her since childhood haunted her even at this moment.

Crumbling, she leaned against the door while feeling a sense of heaviness over her shoulders.

All alone, shivering, and desperate in this long corridor.

"Where did everything go wrong?" Lilia reflected deeply, her emerald pupils showing signs of affection and rare traces of warmth as she recalled her childhood.

"What should I even do, M—"

Lilia instantly fell back with the support of her back— the wooden door— pulled open.

"Man, you slap so hard!" 

Mana groaned while rubbing his left cheek.

Suddenly, he stopped and looked down. Between the space of his legs lied Lilia, her crop-top hiked up and revealing her…

'Holy wukong… bra,' Mana gazed at the most dependable logo of a headband looping around the central cutout of Lilia's bra, revealing her packed cleavage as she gazed up, nothing but Mana's crotch greeting her in return.

Slowly stepping back, panicked, Mana quickly made an effort to close the door so that he could give Lilia enough time to cool off and realize that this was merely an accident that they both would laugh at in the distant future.

But there was no future for Mana.

Instantly stopping the edge of the door from smacking her head with her hand, Lilia slowly stood up.

A cosco-sized sphere of energy deep green in color marked with various runes and spinning at a breathtaking speed conjured above Lilia.

'This is overkill. I would have offered my other cheek, just like Dao of Gandhi… and then my butt cheeks… that dao really suits some peculiar tastes…' 

"Do you not understand the concept of knocking?" Lilia inquired in an amazingly quiet tone.

However, Mana read death from her lips.

Her pretty, plump lips.

"I was never taught the need to knock while exiting. My gratitude, senior. I will knock every time I exit from now on."

Mana smiled despite the situation but seeing the dark-green orb glowing slightly, he knew that only life provided justice for the victims.

And right now, greater than awakening is the ordeal to live.

A golden orb instantly appeared in front of Mana.

"Huh?"

Lilia stopped her actions instantly.

Her phone began ringing once again, probably her actions already registered into the camera of the room but she took no notice of the call and gazed at the enchanting golden orb.

"What's your element?" Lilia inquired.

"Promise to keep it a secret?" Mana inquired, his words annoying Lilia but seeing his clear gaze, she nodded eventually.

"Forest of Wealth," Mana whispered.

A compound element? 

Lilia looked at the orb with amazement but seeing no rune on the surface of the orb, her brows folded once again. But she didn't need a second to realize the most natural illusion in front of her.

'The light revealed from a rune on the origin is naturally being camouflaged by the color of the origin. An expert Cultivator can see the runes despite the origin spinning at a great pace due to the natural difference of colors of the origin and the light revealed by the runes. But in this case, all they will see is a spinning golden orb,' Lilia continued observing Mana's origin, trying to deduce advantages and disadvantages as taught in the first year.

But it finally hit her.

"How did you awaken so quickly? I was monitoring you. You spent all the time sleeping?" Lilia stated clearly.

"Y-you? Uh, um, did you—"

"I don't care about you being naked. Answer me. You can remain silent, of course. I will only hold the grudge of making me face your crotch. But consider this an innocent curiosity of mine," Lilia explained as she motioned Mana to leave the room.

Seeing Lilia already calm, Mana nodded and exited.

'The process of awakening is only as simple as the grip of fate. Countless practices have been revised to form the current method of awakening. It requires an ambitious origin cultivator to enter a closed space of saturated qi surrounded by runes of severing and divination. This section of the auditorium is specifically designed to awaken disciples like us.'

'But by having almost no risk in awakening, a lot of unnecessary time is lost. The first thing in the process is to sever the relationship with fate by having physical contact with the rune pattern of severance in the room. The time consumed already drains quite a bit from the freshmen.'

"I did not employ any special techniques. It's just that, after my birth, my parents tested my connection with Fate. It was 0%," Mana smiled, making Lilia's gaze go wide.

"That cannot be possible! How are you still alive?!" Her inquiry was apt but Mana shrugged. 

"I don't really know. But isn't it the same? Having no relationship with Fate is kind of Origin Cultivators' theme. This is why despite our quick results, we are inherently unable to acquire great fortunes without making heavy sacrifices."

"No. It is completely different… but did my brother know?" Lilia asked softly.

"This is one of the reasons why he accepted me as his personal disciple. Of course, the major reason was my element."

Lilia nodded in understanding before shaking her head soon enough.

"It still doesn't matter. Once the connection with fate is completely severed, a freshman comes into physical contact with the runic scheme of divination that will extract our elements and create an origin. This origin replaces fate for us cultivators. But your origin is already rotating. This means you have kickstarted it with a rune of your choice."

"Including this conversation, less than 3 minutes have passed. Are you seriously saying that you managed to inscribe a rune with a mental image in less than 3 minutes?"

Mana nodded.

Seeing this, Lilia fell into a deep thought once again.

Meanwhile, Mana realized an attribute about Lilia he would have never expected.

'A cultivation junkie…'

"A compound element, an impressive mental visual adaptability and connection with the origin, finally, Aptitude— oh, that's right, what's your Aptitude? How many rotations do you feel? Is it really…"

Mana nodded.

"After all, I have 0% connection with fate, so my A-rank Aptitude comes with 99 rpm."

'Son of a whore!' Lilia scowled. 

'Originally, the origin cultivation was developed for talentless orthodox cultivators with low connection with fate and fortune. In essence, Origin Cultivation is the other side of Orthodox Cultivation where the trash of one side is going to be hailed as the genius of the opposite side. However, Origin Cultivation's benefits made many choose the modern approach over the orthodox one. For this, many pills are created to intentionally lower the natural potential so that when the time comes, a person can become a great Origin Cultivator.'

Looking towards the Mana, Lilia realized that this form of cultivation was extremely tailored for him.

"Huff… I get it now." 

Lilia looked towards Mana.

"Forest saw your hazing at my hands yesterday but knew your specific capabilities. He personally arranged for me to be your guide fully knowing that I wouldn't mind quick earning. Can you guess what he might want out of this situation?"

"Master?" Mana traced his chin, "I agree. Master's sister—"

"Half-sister,' Lilia corrected while crossing her arms, her actions making Mana glance towards her chest for a moment.

"Yes. All of this isn't a pure coincidence but… I don't really care what he wants," Mana looked around.

"Anyway, has everyone awakened? Can I leave? I've been asked to report directly after awakening."

"Wait. What do you mean? You really don't care about Forest's wishes?" Lilia inquired.

Stumped and a bit hungry due to the process of awakening, Mana started to feel a little annoyed, too.

"Of course, if he has missions, I will cover them. He is taking care of my tuition fees, after all."

"Fine," Lilia nodded finally.

"Let's go," she walked in the front, "And by now, I only remember a few faces returning to the end of the corridor."

'So, we really aren't going to talk about my stripping, right?' Mana sighed in relief. 

'But… What is this sense of disappointment? Was I not good enough?' Mana's thoughts slowly grew clouded by doubt.

"Lilia, what is your element?"

"Poison."

"Then… were you really planning on poisoning me?" Mana inquired, tongue-tied.

"Yes, but not lethal ones. I had prepared itchy gas for you," Lilia turned and grinned towards Mana.'Now that I think about it, Hina is far cuter.'