Huang Ying was diligently cultivating his Dark Moon's Whisper technique throughout the night, hundreds of tiny threads made of Qi moving through his body and slowly getting his body more accustomed to Qi while also increasing his compatibility with it. But he made sure to always keep part of his consciousness in a wary state, so when Li Jun's voice echoed out inside his head he was able to immediately stop his cultivation.
"Those little seeds of chaos are coming, you'd best stop your cultivation now."
Huang Ying stopped his cultivation right away, the threads of Qi coursing through his body dissipating instantly. He opened his eyes but remained quiet, his pitch-black pupils not revealing any of his thoughts as he stood up and stretched his body. He switched into a clean white robe and left the bedroom, opening the door to his cabin just as Song Yi was about to hammer it with her fists, causing her to let out a short complaint.
"Geh, you've got to stop doing that shit, you'll give me a heart attack one of these days."
Chen Hong and Langye were standing half a step behind Song Yi, a slight smirk on both their faces as they looked at Song Yi, who was pretending to cover her heart with her hand. Huang Ying greeted the two others and then scoffed at Song Yi, picking up a leather bag he had placed next to the inside of the door.
"I'll stop scaring the shit outta you when you stop hammering the shit outta my door, you're gonna make the poor thing cry with how you're abusing it."
Huang Ying slung the leather bag over his shoulder, it contained two sets of spare clothes as well as two empty waterskins, the only items he would be bringing along to Cloudreacher Forest. The two blades that would combine to form his spear were already attached to his waist using a leather strap, one blade on each side of his body. It wasn't that he didn't want to bring more things because they would take up too much space, he simply didn't own any more items than these.
Langye and the two others were better off than Huang Ying, who had to carry his things in the bag, they all had interspatial treasures. Langye had her belt and its six milky beads, Chen Hong had a silver bracelet and Song Yi had a small plum-flower shaped earring. Clearly, the three of them had a far higher status than him in the outside world. He had yet to learn exactly what status they had, but Chen Hong and Song Yi were more than happy to rub in the fact that they were richer than him.
"What's the matter, need some help carrying those? They look quite heavy, wouldn't want you to sprain your back you know."
Both of them wormed closer as they spoke in a smug manner, grinning at Huang Ying while gently caressing their own interspatial treasures. Huang Ying heavily rolled his eyes and quickly stretched out his arms, rapping both of their heads with his knuckles.
"Fuck off or I'll lock one of you in a dark room and toss the other into the closest lake, you can guess who'll go where."
He threatened them both with what seemed to be their worst fears, but neither of them relented or wiped away their smug expressions. Unlike Huang Ying, who pretended to have reached the peak of the 7th Mortal Step, both of them had properly reached this step already, with Chen Hong already entering the 8th Mortal Step.
Huang Ying knew that these early stages were just about getting the body accustomed to Qi, with the right resources a person could accomplish this in just a single day. But since Chen Hong and Song Yi went to this academy, they clearly didn't have those resources despite their supposed richness. Huang Ying managed to raise his cultivation so quickly thanks to his law of devouring and the excellent cultivation technique he was using so he couldn't help but be curious just how the two of them were doing it.
But once again, his greatest source of information, Li Jun, proved to be less useful than anticipated. He had no idea what cultivation techniques they were using, he was only certain that they weren't using the ones provided by the school. He guessed that it was highly likely that they were the same as Huang Ying, only using the academy for its resources and connections.
Both of them clearly had their own rather large secrets, just like Huang Ying, but he didn't ask about them nor did he really care. Neither of them was out to harm him and were instead clearly very friendly and happy to find someone mostly like-minded, so Huang Ying couldn't be bothered with those minor details and instead preferred to enjoy the present.
The group of four made their way across the academy while chattering and quickly reached the entrance of the academy, passing through the wrought iron fence and stepping onto the open plaza in front of the academy. Huang Ying's group was amongst the last to arrive, most of the other 739 first-year students already tensely waiting for departure.
The black-bearded Gang Yongye was also present, three other teachers standing respectfully behind him. Huang Ying had seen these teachers before during the morning lessons but never really interacted too much with them. They performed their duties as teachers but didn't try to get too close to their students, only singling out a few that seemed promising and putting a bit more focus on them.
Huang Ying's group greeted Gang Yongye with a nod, their gazes drifting to the three items standing behind him. Standing behind him and his group was three human-sized silver statues, two shaped like a tiger and one shaped like an owl. The statues were clearly made using layered sheets of metal, Li Jun giving Huang Ying a quick explanation about what they were.
"Those are airships, constructs that can move thanks to a myriad of arrays engraved into every inch of their surface, you just need Spirit Stones, crystalized Qi of varying purity, or your own Qi to move them. Of course, if you want to use your own Qi, you would need at least three times the Qi that you have now just to move it for half an hour. Most of them can grow or shrink as they please within a set range, their inside is also hollow so they serve as homes for cultivators on long journeys. Handy little things, you should do your best to get your hands on one."
Huang Ying had never heard about airships before, but just the quick explanation allowed him to see how useful they were. Just having one meant that you could greatly reduce the chance of getting attacked by bandits, normal bandits at least, as you could just fly over them. But he also realized that actually using it would be annoying, as Spirit Stones weren't exactly easy to come by in this sheltered part of the continent.
After Huang Ying's group arrived it didn't take much longer for the rest of the first-year students to arrive, all 743 students gathered in front of the academy gates. Gang Yongye nodded his head the moment the last student arrived, gesturing towards the three teachers and the three airships behind him and speaking loudly.
"Good, you've all arrived. I'll not speak for too long and I'll keep it simple. You'll all head to Cloudreacher Forest on these three airships soon, and these three teachers will come along to keep an eye on things. But make no mistake, you all enter perilous danger the moment you enter the forest, there will be Demonic beasts and bandits prowling about. The strong eat the weak to grow even stronger, show that you are among the strong and survive! I pray that all of you can return alive!"
The three airships enlarged the moment Gang Yongye finished speaking, a door and steps appearing at the base of each airship and allowing the students to enter them. But a somewhat strange scene took place the moment the students were allowed to enter the airships, all of them turned to look at Huang Ying and his group.
No one moved closer to the airships and no one got closer to Huang Ying's group, they all seemed to be waiting on their decision. Huang Ying swept his gaze over the surrounding people, the corners of his lips curving up as he understood what was going on. His lips eventually curved all the way into a grin that was a strange mixture of amusement and ferocity, laughter escaping his lips as he headed for the owl-shaped airship.
"Haha, so that's how it is. You've got something big planned so you're all too scared to get close to us, is that it? Pathetic, the whole lot of you, you just make me laugh. Well, let's see just what you've got planned, I welcome you all to come as you please, let me enjoy a good fight before I crush you all."
Huang Ying stepped into the owl-shaped airship, which looked like a normal house on the inside, separated into several rooms that could easily accommodate at least twenty or so families of four. Song Yi and the others followed him onto the airship, the rest of the students swarming into the two other ships, neatly splitting into the Burning Cloud and Silver Cloud factions.
The ships soared into the sky once all the students and the three teachers entered the ships, heading westward and directly towards the Cloudreacher Forest. There were no windows in these airships so Huang Ying and the others couldn't see their surroundings, spending their time chatting or cultivating to make time pass.
They didn't know how fast these airships were moving, but they felt a short tremble run through the ship as it stopped after three days, signaling that they had arrived by Cloudreacher Forest. As Huang Ying and the others were watching, some of the walls around them started to sink into their surroundings, opening a large hole in the ship that allowed them to finally see their surroundings.
Cloudreacher Forest was stretching out beneath them, going on for several hundreds of kilometers and containing a few mountain ranges and larger lakes. The forest got its name from the peculiar trees that made up most of the forest, a breed of trees that looked mostly normal but had branches that started to curve upwards at the end, making the trees resemble circular hands reaching for the sky.
Most of the trees in the forest were between 30 to 50 meters in height, but there was a group of trees growing into and around each other at the distant center of the forest, stretching over a hundred meters into the sky in a rather strange display. While the people on the three airships were inspecting the forest around them, the voice of one of the three accompanying teachers echoed throughout all three airships.
"This is Cloudreacher Forest where you'll spend the next two weeks. We'll be keeping an eye on the area from these airships but that doesn't mean that we can see everything, so you have to make sure that you don't hide, otherwise, we won't be able to see anything and can't bring you justice should something bad happen to you!"
A light green stream of energy started to surround all the students the moment the voice finished, pushing them out from the airships and causing them to drift down towards the forest below. The people from the two crowded airships were split into several groups of about 15 students, but Huang Ying's group was completely split up, each person drifting towards a different place. Coupled with the words of the teacher, they all immediately understood what this meant, Song Yi bursting into disdainful laughter.
"Hahaha, so they've even gone as far as to rope in the teachers, now that's just fun! But if they think this is all it takes to deal with troublemakers that can stir up a wave to rock these stagnant waters, then boy are they dead wrong! Alright you three bastards, I look forward to seeing just what sort of shit you'll cause without the others around, let's make a bet to see who can cause the greatest stir! Losers have to buy food and drinks for the winner, let's make it a party!"
