"Amazing," Raising his left arm, Mana whispered while gazing at the area previously marked by Rogue's blood.

"Well," a deep voice rumbled beside Mana, "Actions incomprehensible sometimes can be considered amazing like magic and illusion tricks but once you understand the process, the attractive quality of such methods fade away sooner or later."

Still lying on the comfortable mattress, a warm blanket placed over him and his body full of energy once again, Mana turned his head sideways and found a sharp individual with quality Third Eye's spectacles and equally enchanting green pupils.

"Ah, I was supposed to report to you directly after awakening…" Smiling wryly, Mana apologized, "Sorry, master. It won't happen again."

"We'll see about that," Forest rubbed his brows while leaning against the chair.

"How are you feeling presently?" Forest continued.

"Hmm," closing his eyes, Mana nodded, "My qi is refilled and I cannot detect any anomalies."

"Hmm, since you used that kind of ritual, I expected some form of a boost in your awakening. Although the boost of qi is quite an outstanding ritual, in reality, it's not truly needed aside from some extreme situations. Why would you go to such lengths just to skip seven hours of qi kickstart and refinement?" Forest adjusted his glasses and inquired.

'To skip seven hours of conscious absorption and refinement!'

"Uh…" Mana tried to think of an excuse but Forest beat him to it.

"Remember, every interaction with your qi and element after awakening is a form of training and inspiration. After awakening, an origin cultivator has to consciously interact with the origin to absorb the natural qi and refine it into your element. Once the origin has absorbed enough energy, it will start absorbing from surroundings automatically."

"This is one of the reasons why Orthodox and Origin Cultivators fail to see eye to eye. Whilst they have to spend hours just to absorb energy, origin cultivators can achieve that amount of work while sleeping or doing anything else.

However, in this act itself lies a deep problem. The chance we origin cultivators get to interact with our element grows limited as we develop ourselves in other sectors of cultivation. So, the first seven hours of interaction with the element can be considered quite crucial. Not only did you lose a valuable experience of your life… you did so by getting naked on the sect record… and in front of my sister."

Stunned, Mana carefully digested Forest's words; however, internally, he seethed with annoyance and rage.

An image of an old, wrinkled woman with a dirty smile and greying hair appeared.

'That troll!'

"Well, don't focus on what's lost. Learn from this and don't skip such interactions with your origin during your rank-ups," Forest sighed.

"Now, should I explain why you lost to Corrupt's disciple? Rodger, was it?"

"I know," Mana grinned, "Still, I wouldn't have imagined Rogue committing to such a method of attack.

It was his blood on my fist, right? A blunt spike… a club shot out of the pitch-black blood of his and struck my chin, making me lose my consciousness."

"Did you manage to see that?" Forest inquired.

"No, but I felt it and when it struck, I finally connected the dots."

"Hmm, that is only the partial reason for your loss. To be precise, it was the final act leading to your loss."

Forest corrected Mana and looked around before leaning towards him and whispering.

"Since you had such a great advantage of a qi skill right off the bat. You should have instead made Corrupt's disciple agree to not use any qi skill and then slowly manipulate him into cornering you before choking his neck with your vine. You had enough martial experience but even with a surprise attack, you lost due to the sheer disadvantage of 1 qi skill against 9."

"And the fact that Rogue could use all of his skills simultaneously."

"Ah!" Forest patted his head and smiled, "That is actually one of the conditions every heart disciple has to achieve within a year or their discipleship would be revoked."

Mana stared at his master for a second before nodding.

"Now, it is time for your daily result," Forest smiled.

"Not only did you fail to achieve the simple task of reporting back, but you also committed the wrongdoing at the expense of losing to another heart disciple. Finally, you lost a valuable lesson of qi interaction.

However, you also achieved an awakening of 99 rpm origin alongside the ability to inscribe your first rune within 2 minutes: an impressive achievement. Finally, you managed to strip 1500 petis each from Blaze's and Corrupt's disciples.

Considering all of this, I'll have you do this for today's homework."

Taking out a colorful book from his case, Forest placed it beside Mana's pillow and stood up.

"Memorize it well and recite it in front of me tomorrow."

Saying this, Green Heart left while Mana slowly picked the book.

Nursery Alphabet Rhymes.

Blinking, Mana casually opened the book and began memorizing the rhyme.

It doesn't hurt to know more, after all.

A few minutes after Forest left, a pair of badly bruised Dharma and Rogue entered the medical ward.

"How the heck is your face still symmetrical?" Mana gasped as he gazed at Dharma's swollen eyes and cheeks.

"I asked the same thing when his master was done with him," Rogue coughed.

"Anyway, you two need healing more than I do," Mana sat up and placed the book aside.

Seeing Mana so radiant and even reading… nursery rhymes while they were beaten up, a dirty expression touched Dharma and Rogue.

"It's all because of you!" They hissed.

"Me?" Mana gaped.

And then he was angered.

"What the hell?! I got my arm dislocated. I lost my PX 8 for a month! How is your stupid faces my fault?"

"You could have let us stay in your apartment for free!" Rogue yelled while Dharma nodded deeply.

"Hah? Does it look like your mother or grandmothers would visit me later?" Mana yelled, too, his words silencing the duo.

"Yeah, didn't think so. Cash it is then!" He huffed and crossed his arms.

Dharma and Rogue looked at each other.

"I think… my granny won't mind," Rogue whispered and looked towards Dharma who seriously considered his options after a single punishment.

"I… would have to ask. She is already separated from grandpa…" he mused.

Pale with fright, Mana growled, "Then…" a dangerous glint in his eyes, "you both might as well start calling me granddaddy!"

Their plan of pimping out their grandmothers crumbled as Dharma and Rogue shivered with disgust.

After a few moments of silence and constant glaring, the trio suddenly chuckled.

"Did you know? After you lost consciousness, that crazy Drake's sister almost fought Big Mac!" Rogue began when the door behind him silently opened. Meanwhile, before Dharma could add, he felt something familiar.

Something terrifying.

Someone he knew behind him.

"Man, I tell you, those twins take after Drake! They. are. cuckoo!" Rogue declared while moving his finger beside his temple.

"I don't know," Mana replied with a straight expression.

"Hina was the only one to share her tiffin box with me and you scared Sam away."

"Nah, Mana! Listen! She's nuts! She has more nuts in her head than you have under your dick! If she was in the orthodox section, she would flail a talentless woman and rear men as her pets! Her dao name would be crazy bitch and her actions would be like one!"

"I- I think you're going overboard," Seeing Mana's stiff expression, Dharma felt his suspicions getting confirmed and even if it was a false call, he wasn't willing to take the risk.

"Mina is kind of nice, too. You just have to get to know her."

"How can you two say things like that? Even you two met them yesterday. And isn't Mina the elder one? She might be crazier than Hina!"

Even after matching Dharma's suggestive gaze, Rogue was relentless.

"Well, not crazier than me, right?" Drake inquired from behind.

Turning, Rogue nodded at Drake with a smile, "Yeah, you're kind of cool—"

His expression froze as he gazed at the entire parade of crazy siblings standing behind him. Veins popping out of all their faces as qi rumbled forth from Drake.

Slowly turning back, Dharma smiled at Mina but her entire attention was captivated by Rogue's current pig face.

While Hina broke the bottle of a premium labeled soft drink against the table with a sweet smile on her face, threatening Rogue's very existence, an entirely different situation occurred in the right-wing of the sect belonging to the second-year disciples.

"Yeah, he absolutely destroyed Mana," the very same redhead who was verbally slapped and then unintentionally salted by Mana sat beside a blue-haired girl.

The woman wore a patch over her right eye while injuries of various degrees could be seen on her exposed arms and calves. Her neck-long blue hair neatly cut with long bangs framing the side of her face. Meanwhile, her dark brown pupil was simply not in the classroom as she remained seated with a dazed expression.

"Vedra!"

A brunette with shoulder-length wavy hair walked in while adjusting her glasses.

"It is senior Goat for you," the blue-haired girl replied softly.

Her eye regained its lost glimmer as she looked towards the familiar face.

"You're… Mira, aren't you? To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"You set me up!" Mira growled while the redhead instantly lost all her interest.

"I merely collected a group of freshmen and informed them who the actual trash is amongst them."

"A peak rank 1 origin cultivator with the ability to cast 9 skills simultaneously is by no means a trash!"

"Please, calm down," Vedra whispered, "My head aches when someone shouts or speaks in a loud voice without any necessity."

"Anyway, I did not intend to set you or any freshmen up. If you are implying this, it means you acted based on my words and did not understand the entire story. You also fail to understand my categorization of trash and talent."

Mira's brows twitched before she pointed towards Vedra.

"I have come to dislike Rogue because of his attitude but you… I'll destroy you before you graduate. If Rogue can beat you, then so will I !"

"It is wonderful," Vedra smiled softly, "That we share such feelings towards each other and also towards Rodger. I despise all forms of trash myself, too."

The redhead stifled a chuckle while Mira narrowed her gaze and left with a snort.

"You really need to learn how to chill!" The redhead smiled.

"I am calm most of the time," Vedra replied before her gaze lost its vigor and she grew dazed once again.

'A person as explosive as Rodger… is trash…' Despite thinking this continuously, Vedra's mind played the scene of absolute wreckage orchestrated by a single pitch-black figure that roared in anguish, pain, and despair.

FanHarem

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