It was the 9th of the third month in the year 17 756 FS — the day when the first year Inner Disciples always took their first class.

Everyone in the Cultivation Academy was well aware that the Inner Cycle was where the real teaching and real resources were, and the Inner Disciples were the true disciples. As for the Outer Cycle, it was merely a preparation step to select those who deserved it. 

“Strengthening your Ba is a very important aspect of your cultivation that needs practice every day…” 

In the west lecture hall, a young female ka wielder continued the lesson. She wasn't the formal instructor, merely a young disciple in her third year called Hu Guo. Typically, the classes of the first-year were overseen by senior disciples appointed by the administration or the instructor.

In the courtyard of the hall, Sa Min threw his gaze around, ignoring the deathly smell of sweat, trying to measure their Ba’s strength of the disciple just from their faces.

Sitting cross-legged on a mat behind a small wooden table, under the gentle sunlight, a group of disciplines were tightly closing their eyes, their faces contorted in intense concentration. They looked as though they were trying to shit some large, jagged stone that stubbornly refused to get out.

In truth, one of them had indeed shit his pants. He had left… taking a flurry of curses from Hu Guo. 

If it had not been for  Hu Guo wisdom in conducting the lesson in the open air, the hall would have been blindly drowned in a stench.

Just as they'd stepped out into the courtyard, Hu Guo wasted no time in having them sit and began cultivating, shifting their sea force within their sea core and trying to clear the blocked blockage that was keeping them from reaching their core essence.

The process wasn’t… as easy as it sounded. 

You could see that form the disciples’ faces.

However, not all disciples were stinking; some, even though few, looked relatively fine.

Ta Chen was among them. In fact, she’d sneakily open her eyes from time to time to see how those in front of her were doing, then closed them again with a happy smile.

Sa Juan also seemed to do okay as well. 

Sa Wen, you’d think with his big frame and bored shoulders and black beard and B-grade aptitude that he would be much better than the rest. Wrong. His veins were popping out like crazy. He was dripping with sweat.

Clearly, he wasn’t having a good time.

Sa Min sighed. 

The strength of Bas had nothing to do with your aptitude, physical strength, or your Born Ka. It's a whole separate thing. Some were born with stronger Ba, some were very lucky.

The reason? There were different theories. In the Eastern Plane, most people believe that it was related to how much good you had done in the First Heaven. The more good you’d done, the better Ba you would receive in this Heaven.

Sa Min rubbed his left eye. That’s why people didn’t become specious of me when they discovered I only had C-grade aptitude. They likely assumed that I have a strong Ba.

Having a strong Ba was nice. Gave you a solid start. But it was not as impressive as having a better aptitude. Because, unlike aptitudes, Bas could be cultivated and strengthened.

It’s a shame. If my Ba still had all its strength, strengthening my sea core wall would have been much faster.

These were the two drawbacks of the Switch Ba Yantra. Besides, his Borned Ka had leveled down by a Realm, his Ba had been drained of all its strength and had returned to its original state, which was not… very good.

The senior disciple Hu Guo kept going, her voice sounding as light as a little girl's. "Strengthening your Ba will not only help you move your sea force with ease, making it much easier to strengthen your sea core walls, but it will also help in manipulating the imprints within your essence core effortlessly.”

 She was sitting inside the hall putting herself as far away from the smell that filled the air as possible.

But even from there, and even with her lower face hidden beneath a white embroidered veil, she couldn’t help but pinch her nose closed in disgust, fluttering her fan non stop.

She glanced at Sa Min through her white frame circle glasses. In spite of him doing literally nothing while everyone else was practicing intensely , she didn't seem to mind.

“Crafting Yantras required manipulating tens to hundreds of imprints at the same time, and that required huge mental strength. In terms of importance, cultivating your Bas is as crucial as cultivating your sea core.”

She paused again, giving their burdened mind the time to digest her words. The disciples’ heavy breathing was the only sound huffing in the courtyard.

“That’s why this is your first lesson. Moving your sea force is the traditional and the simplest way to strengthen your Bas. Just like the body, you strengthen it by driving to its limit, and so is the Ba…”

Sa Min ignored Hu Guo. What could a rank 9 ka wielder possibly say that Sa Min didn’t know already? 

He wasn’t some arrogant who thought he knew it all, but all she’s saying was simply basic terms that everyone should already be familiar with. 

Truth to be told, Sa Min knew very well that the knowledge he had was… barely a drop in the ocean of knowledge. Hence he’d planned to pay the Yantra Library a visit after the class was over.

The words that had been engraved on his back and remained there for about 24, still troubling his mind. He had to see if he could find something useful over there.

 

Coming to think of the message, Sa Min instinctively turned his head to the side.

A young man with untidy hair was sleeping on his small table, face down. Though there were a few steps between them, Sa Min could smell alcohol wafting from him.

It was Qing Lian, the second son of the Qing family, the family that, according to the encrypted message, was searching for the Key. The family that was behind the disappearance of the colored eyed people.

Did he believe that? Not just yet. How could he believe a message whose owner and their intentions were unknown without verifying it?

First, he needed to check if what the message stated was true. He’d already asked around about the Qing family. Nothing suspicious. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for the fact that this Qing Lian right there was an alcoholic who wandered the city at night like a madman, throwing punches at anyone who talked ill about his sisters.

As if sensing his gaze, Qing Lian lifted his head and met his eyes.

They held each other's gaze for a few seconds.

“What’s up?” Qing Lian finally said with a cock, frowning.

Sa Min noticed that his eyes were dark brown. “What’s up?”

Qing Lian strengthened his back in an attempt to intimidate him. “Why are you looking at me, brother?”

After the man Sa Min had beheaded yesterday, most of these fresh disciples who had never killed a human had been avoiding him like the plague, terrified. 

But this man…was different.

Sa Min smiled. “I can look wherever I want, brother.”

Still glaring. “Not at me.” 

“Really?” Sa Min said, giving him a serene blink.

“Yeah, really,” Qing Lian said, drawing out the word.

“What are you going to do?”

Qing Lian took a long breath and was about to stand up when the senior disciple, Hu Guo, came out of the room, angrily. 

“Hey, hey, you two! You don’t want to cultivate like everyone, that’s fine; it’s only a less stinky smell.” She paused, her eyes narrowing. “But to act like I’m not her while I’m talking, who do you think you are?”

Qing Lian snorted and went back to sleep.

Sa Min gave her a little nod. “Apologize.”

Hu Guo ignored him and glanced around, continuing her class. 

"The higher you advance in ranks and wish to craft high-ranking Yantras, the stronger your Ba must become.” Her gaze settled on a huge man in the first row raising his hand. "What is it, Sa Wen?"

Sa Wen' white robe was dark with sweat. "Senior Sister," he managed to say through his heavy breathing, eyes still squeezed shut, still concentrating on manipulating his sea force. “How long does it take before we notice the difference of our Ba’s strength, and please talk more about other methods besides just manipulating our sea force.”

Noticing that Sad Wen was…suffering at this point, barely holding himself up, she said, clapping her hands: “Alright, that’s enough. You can stop now.”

The disciples instantly fall onto the ground before even opening their eyes.

They were extremely exhausted.

Ta Chen was the only one who seemed to be just fine. Even Sa Juan was panting, reaching out for the water bottle in her bag.

If I did cultivate with them, I would probably be worse than Sa Wen but worse than Sa Juan.

That’s why Sa Min chose not to cultivate with them in the first place. If people knew he had a weak Ba, they might start questioning how then he’d showed these genius sighs when he was young and that might bring some unwanted attention.

Sa Min knew the Heavenly Union’s methods, so he wanted to stay as unnoticed as possible.

Hu Guo gave them some time to rest, then began addressing Sa Wen’s questions.

“I know it’s frustrating,” Hu Guo replied, with an understanding tone. “But you are a big man, Sa Wen, you know that in order to improve your body, you need months or more of constant hard training. The same applies to your Ba. You need to dedicate at least four hours everyday to cultivate, and within five days you will feel your Ba getting stronger.”

By now, the disciples were listening carefully. People loved to hear when exactly they were going to improve. People loved numbers.

“After 20 days you’ll be able to manipulate your sea force more effortlessly. But always remember, each rank is divided into six transformations and each transformation has denser sea force than the previous. This means that your Ba needs to grow stronger continuously as you progress. As for other ways. You can use Spherical Coins. But these items are very rare and therefore very expensive. Here in the Cultivation Academy, you need a very large amount of merits to get one.”

There was disappointment in some disciples' faces.

“Look, I know the traditional way is slow and takes a lot of time, but it’s something you’re going to do, you’re going to do, whether you have a Spherical Coin or not. Because, in all cases, you still have to cultivate your sea core and how are you going to do that without manipulating your sea fore, huh? In fact, I’d say that the traditional way is the better way, since you get to cultivate your sea core and strengthen your Ba at same time. I never used a Spherical Coin and here I can form a rank 9 Yantra just fine. You just need to persevere. Otherwise, you won’t be able to go anywhere in the path of cultivation.”

Her words did little to brighten their faces, apparently.

Idiots, Sa Min sneered in his heart. What do you think cultivation means? Using Yantras and performing abilities? They clearly don’t know the amount of suffering that awaits them.

“Now, of course, you will focus your sea force solely on opening the blocked passage. Without an essence core, none of these would really matter. Ba, Ka, sea core, everything would be useless. That’s why your first test would be opening your essence core. The second one who opens her and his essence core.”

Hu Guo paused, making the youths before her grow curious.

She continued: “The second one who opens her and his essence core will get 20 merits and one.” 

The disciples’ eyes went wide open.

“As for the first one, he will get 30 merits and…first-rank Spherical Coin.”

The courtyard immediately went turbulent. Disciples couldn’t believe what they had heard.

Spherical Coin? Sa Min thought. That’s quite a reward. 

He was a bit surprised. This item could strengthen the Ba quickly, and  it was expensive. He’d heard that the rank 1 was worth more than 100 merits in the Treasure Hall of the academy.

He wasn’t alone in his surprise. Some were talking to each other with excitement, while the others wore desperate expressions. They knew they had no chance in getting it.

“Alright, alright, except for women, everyone leaves,” Hu Guo said, cutting off their conversations. “Don't go right or left, go directly to the bathhouse.”

Taking the monthly pouch of force apples Hu Guo had given them at the beginning of the class, Sa Min walked out from the East Lecture Hall.

In the distance, Qing Lian was lumbering away. 

Sa Min frowned slightly, surprised. It was as if the heated exchange they’d had in the class never happened.

I guess he’s smarter than he looks, Sa Min thought, stretching his stuffed bones from sitting for two hours without doing anything, then glanced back at the lecture hall, where the woman stayed. He could tell why Hu Guo kept them in the class.

After that, with a long breath, he strolled out from the area of lecture halls to the center area where the Yantra Library was located.