Ryu sat down with everyone else in the younger group and started gathering Qi from around him into his reservoir. However, he was not following everyone else. As long as he can remember, he was extremely sensitive to his own Qi and the Qi around him. He can not only feel where the Qi around him are, he can also discern its quantity, quality and type.

One special feature that he found was exclusive to him was that he sees raw Qi. Qi had colors which he assumed to be different elements. This is why finding herbs came so easy for him, special herbs will emit traces of Qi. For example fire type herbs will radiate a red shade. After asking around he knew this was something unique only to him.

Controlling his Qi also came to him as easy as breathing, he can control his Qi freely and had stopped his inner Qi from flowing out as long as he could remember. Therefore, Ryu didn’t need to do the same exercises everyone else is doing to get in contact with their Qi. He has long started to experiment with what else he could do with his Qi.

A young kid beside Ryu started complaining. “What’s the point, the rich kids are all using spiritual medicine and potions to increase their power. We can’t compete with that, it’s not fair!”

Whack, the wooden fan from Seo-Yon came down on the kid’s head. “Kevin, of course the world isn’t fair. That’s why you have to work harder than them to achieve your destiny. As for depending on external help to increase your cultivation rather than using your own effort, it’ll only backfire later on. Ryu explain to Kevin why this is.”

Kevin who was one year younger than Ryu looked confused as he rubbed his head.

“Even if one consumes something like a spiritual pill, once it enters your body you’ll only have a certain about of time to absorb it before all the Qi dissipates from the medicine. If you don’t have the foundation down to control your Qi, not only will you have wasted the pill, you’ll be dependent on expensive things to help you break through in the future.” Ryu said moderately.

Speaking of spiritual medicines, he has seen them around in markets going for astronomical prices. However, what got his attention was the “clarity” of the Qi. He could clearly see that the Qi within the medicinal pills were clear and bright unlike common Qi which were misty and dull in color.

Thus it inspired him to make a “filter” with part of his own Qi to refine incoming Qi from nature and of course his existing Qi over and over again. He would make multiple sieves with his Qi and remove all the impurities. Even after he refined his Qi which was misty at first into a fine clear state, he would keep doing so out of habit. In fact he would feel strange if he doesn’t do it. He has become so efficient at it, he could do it on the side as long as he’s not doing something strenuously or mentally challenging.

Why was Ryu hiding his abilities? He was clearly way ahead of everyone else at his own age. Ryu would definitely be considered a top prodigy if he was born within a noble family or great sect. The reason was because of money. He didn’t want his grandpa to worry about financing his tuition in a prestigious school. As long as he does well during the Talent Examination, a great sect might just sponsor his stay and even provide housing and living expenses for him and his grandpa.

His grandpa would never admit it but deep down Ryu believes that his grandpa got sick trying to earn enough money for him to get a personal trainer. Like all doting guardians, after learning that Ryu is gifted with Qi he wanted Ryu to have an advantage.

His grandpa was a retired carpenter for many years and used to only do a few odd jobs every now and then. Two years ago he started collecting wood at the outmost area of the Forbidden Forest in order to craft furniture to sell at Auction House in town. It was there that he was bitten by a Frost Spider. Its icy venom could only be purged by a strong fire type medicine but the prices were just too astronomical.

Therefore Ryu resorted to sneaking out at night to gather those herbs. Sometimes, Ryu enters the outer edges of the Forbidden Forest to collect herbs. Ryu was extremely confident in his ability to run away. He has already achieved insightful mastery in Qi reinforcement, using one’s own Qi to reinforce one’s body for physical activities. This is why he’s able to run faster than kids his age even though he’s so scrawny.

Actually Ryu was a frail little boy, much weaker than other kids his age. If it wasn’t for his discovery of Qi that turned his life around. He and his grandpa would be homeless. The town collects tax from every citizen each year. By collecting herbs, Ryu could make enough to just make ends meet.

Ryu could also emit his Qi to give off an aura. An aura could be used to protect oneself or use to detect one’s surrounding. Ryu’s Qi is a lot deeper and profound than most kids twice or even thrice his age. He can spread his aura like a thin layer of mist around a few meters of himself. Anything that moves will be instantly detected by him so he can run away.

After instructing the younger kids, Seo-Yon walked over to the second group of kids who were over twelve. The older kids can choose to cultivate Qi or practice techniques.

“The basic usage of Qi is reinforcing one’s own body obviously. Not only can it increase your longevity, it can also drastically increase your strength. You can even increase your vision or hearing if you can concentrate your Qi at certain areas of your body. This is what you should all be practicing regardless of what you want to specialize in.” Seo-Yon said with a frown, looking at a few kids attempting to utilize their Qi in odd ways.

“Boring, I want to learn how to control a flying sword!” A pale and chubby kid shouted.

“Me too, I want to be able to shoot Qi at people!” Another kid with brown freckles all over his hair pitched in.

“Teacher, how will we be able to compete with students from other schools at the Talent Examination this weekend? The judging is based our cultivation levels and our skills. Both are inferior to kids from other schools.” A casually dressed girl with a delicate build asked earnestly. She was Eu-Meh, the oldest of all the kids. She’ll be one of the three people attending the Talent Selection this year. All the kids stopped what they were doing, awaiting on their teacher’s answer.

“First of all, advanced skills are not something you can master overnight. Secondly, even if you do not get scouted at the Talent Examination it’ll still be a valuable lesson and you can try again in three years. Aside from that, training your Qi will strengthen your body and help you out in your life no matter what you do.” Seo-Yon paused and sighed. After staring off into the distance for a while she spoke again but this time to the whole class. “To be honest kids, it’s not that I’m withholding advanced techniques from you guys… truth be told, three generations ago a thief broke into our school and took off with all the blacksmith manuals and the “Inferno Fist” skill manual left behind by the founder. Not only was he skilled, he was also heartless beyond belief. He fatally wounded my great grandfather and destroyed all but the basic Qi cultivating manuals.”

All the students were shocked. Unless it’s a spar, fighting anywhere within any town or city was prohibited. As for murder, the consequences are unimaginable to them.

However, this does clear some things up to them. Although the Inferno Fist is a free school, it used to be the top school in town. It has declined greatly within the past century and most people thought it was just the descendants that had no talent to carry on the profound techniques of the school. Who could have imagined that it turns out that the techniques themselves were stolen and lost to the school?

“It’s actually not a secret, it happened over a hundred years ago. I am only at the peak Apprentice Domain myself unfortunately.” She continued on softly, lost in her thoughts.

Ryu sat there shocked for a minute. A year ago he felt that his cultivation has reached that of his teacher already. Ryu thought to himself Peak Apprentice Domain really? Does that mean I am also at level 9?

Na, not possible. Ryu quickly brushed off this thought and went back to meditating. One’s level could only be determined by an expert or more commonly by magical items. Little does Ryu know, his cultivation has far exceeded his teacher’s. By filtering and condensing his Qi perpetually with his own unique method, his inner strength had reach a terrifying level for a kid. If an expert spiritually searched Ryu, they would be astonished to the point of inducing a heart attack.

Seo-Yon recovered from the brooding moment and went back to instructing the group. The kids groaned and went back to practice. Seo-Yon looked over at the younger group of kids until their concentration was satisfactory then she went to teach the smaller group of kids over age of twelve.

“Qi reinforcement is the most basic and most practical usage of Qi. Let’s practice the Flash Punch again, everyone line up behind Eu-Meh and…”

Ryu has overheard the Flash Punch technique many times before and had long grasped it. He zoned out the world around him and cultivated his Qi with his unique methods with part of his mind while theorizing how to improve it with the other.

There are four classic usage of Qi that Ryu knows of after questioning Seo-Yon in person before. Qi reinforcements is the primary one everyone trains in and has many wondrous usages and benefits. If you focus your Qi to any part of your body, it’ll not only enhance it physically, it’ll also increase its functionality. Reinforcing the eye with Qi will allow the user to see further in distance and more in depth into the surrounding Qi. Reinforcing your ear will increase your hearing. Reinforcing it into your body will make it stronger and tougher.

Another one is Qi manipulation. The user can inject his Qi into a weapon and make it more robust. This allows the user to control the weapon without lifting a finger as well. The flying sword mentioned earlier by another kid uses an application of Qi manipulation. By leaving traces of your Qi inside an object like a sword, you can control the sword to fly while you stand on it. It’s the most popular way to imitate flying if you are not in the Heaven Domain yet. It’s supposedly the second hardest of the four. The reason it’s more difficult than reinforcement is because it requires control of Qi outside of your body. Controlling Qi outside of your body compared to inside is like comparing heaven and earth. The difficulty is much harder.

Qi manifestation is the third type and is also the third hardest. It is also dependent on control and mastery of one’s own Qi. The difference is that it’s not only controlling your Qi outside of your body, it’s also solidifying the Qi into a physical object. This object is made of Qi so the moment your concentration breaks, the Qi made object will vanish as well. Depending on your skill, the object you materialize can be more durable than the original.

Ryu has mastery over these three basic usage of Qi which is essentially controlling your Qi exceptionally well. However these are just the basics. Ryu can’t move an object with his Qi yet, the moment it leaves his hand it falls to the ground. Ryu can’t create any objects, he can only solidify his Qi right outside his skin as a thin protective layer. Having an extraordinary talent for controlling Qi allowed him to build his foundation well but he has no guidance on any advanced usage or techniques beyond that.

As for Qi elements, the hardest of the four, Ryu had never tried before. There are four elements and it’s extremely rare for one person to be able to use more than one element. People usually need an affinity with that element to be able to use it. However, Ryu had an enlightenment last night and he couldn’t wait to try it out later.

There’s also special Qi categories Seo-Yon doesn’t know much of but told Ryu that if he manages to be strong enough to travel the world, he’ll see them one day.