Jia-Hui and Jia-Hua improved drastically under Ryu’s guidance; their improvements were greater than the past few months. Ryu explained the flow of the Qi in great details and told them where they were lacking. This piqued their curiosity towards Ryu’s own power too but Ryu would always brush the topic off.

Obviously, this didn’t go unnoticed. While the twins were training with Ryu, Eu-Meh was training with Seo-Yon the whole time. They were surprised the lazy twins started training so hard, especially the week before the selection. However, they left them alone since the secretive hardworking behavior might be broken if they snooped around.

“Pleaseeeee, punch something! Not me though, how about that tree?” Jia-Hua begged. Jia-Hui was eager to know too and silently nodded along. It was nearing the end of the last day before the Talent Examination. Ryu wished the two good luck and was attempting to leave. However, the twins were persistent in getting Ryu to demonstrate his strength.

Ryu sighed as he caved. He stood 10 meters away and performed a Flash Punch. He let his body fall forward and right before his nose touched the ground, he shot forward with a single step towards a tree. Bang, the trunk of the tree splintered in half.

Seo-Yon who was teaching Eu-Meh privately at the time, was joking about how the twins are trying to win her affection while Eu-Meh just blushed and said nothing. Then suddenly they heard the thud of the falling tree.

Both of them quickly rushed over to the source of the sound. The scene in front of them baffled them.

Ryu had a look of guilt on his face. He was caught up in the moment and didn’t restrain himself enough. In reality he has never unleashed his powers before since he was always worried about breaking or burning something.

“Sorry! I… am very sorry.” Ryu quickly said and ran in the opposite direction of the group.

“Teacher, Eu-Meh – Ryu here might be even stronger than you two!” Jia-Hua finally spoke up after a moment of silence.

“He did this? Good lord, how is it possible?” Seo-Yon said. Ryu has always been a quiet boy, his personality was that of a shy one and he spends the majority of his time in the library during free-style training in the afternoon. He’s also extremely skinny to the point of frail.

Ryu went straight for the market and sold his herbs to the local Alchemy shop in town. The owner, Wu-Ji, was very friendly and often asked of his grandpa’s condition. Today he got 5 gold 70 silver for selling the non-fire elemental herbs he saved for observation before. Ryu quickly bought some groceries and went home. As he neared his house, he was thinking of how to compensate his teacher for the tree he demolished. He put his hand on the door handle and unexpectedly heard Seo-Yon chatting with his grandpa.

“You know I would love to have you over Sheng, it gets lonely in the mansion with just two servants around to serve me. I still remember the time you snuck into our blacksmithing workshop to make a hairpin for me. I still have it haha.” Seo-Yon teased. Ryu had no idea that his grandpa had connection to his teacher. In fact it was his first time hearing his grandpa’s first name! After a quick thought, of course it makes sense. Grandpa has lived here his whole life; he probably went to the Inferno School as well.

“I’m just a frail old man now. I never had any talent for cultivation.” Sheng sighed. “Anyways Ryu, how long are you going to keep your teacher waiting?”

Ryu slowly walked in and bowed. “Teacher.”

“I could smell him from miles away” Sheng answered Seo-Yon’s question before she could ask. It was rare to see his grandpa sitting in the living room. The Fire Lotus from last week was proving to be effective. However, Ryu knows that the effects won’t last forever and his grandpa’s condition will regress.

Seo-Yon laughed. “Anyways Ryu, I was just telling your grandpa that your talent is quite shocking. Even I’ll have trouble accomplishing such a feat. I think you should come to the Talent Examination with us tomorrow. It’ll be a good experience; you’ll be able to see many experts. I won’t take no for an answer.”

“But I’m not 12 yet.” Ryu said hesitantly.

“Actually there is no age limit. It’s just the kids under the age of 12 usually fail the qualification test before the actual talent examination. However, I think that you’ll be able to do just fine.” Seo-Yon said.

“Who knew this lazy rascal had such aptitude. Ryu don’t waste this opportunity; the world is larger place than you can imagine. You are just a small fish in a small pond, there will always be someone better than you. So go learn something and don’t disappoint me.” Sheng said sternly before coughing a few times. Knowing his condition, Sheng actually hopes that he could live to see the day Ryu joins a good Sect before passing away.

Ryu took every word to heart and nodded. His ambitions were not high, as long as he can help his Grandpa out and live a good life, it was good enough for him. Of course he aimed to join a prestigious sect so his Grandpa can live a better life. This was the first Talent Examination he’ll be attending and he was quite excited. Even if he can’t qualify this time around, he is still excited nonetheless.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning at my place then. Don’t worry about the expenses.” Seo-Yon said to Ryu. Then she turned to face Sheng. “Remember my door is always open for you.”

Then she left. Ryu quickly cooked dinner as usual and grinded the more fire herbs into his grandpa’s meal. He told his grandpa about his day. Of course he always left out the part about his QI elemental achievements and his own self-taught Qi cultivation technique. Worrying his grandpa was the last thing he wanted to do. He did ask his grandpa about the relationship between himself and his teacher. He swore he saw a hint of blush on his grandpa’s face when he brushed him off and headed to bed.

After his grandpa went to sleep, he sat in his own room and began practicing controlling the elements he learned to produce recently. However, his mind was occupied about the Talent Examination tomorrow so he made little progress. He then went into meditation and slept that way. This was a hard thing to do even for experts. Meditation had the same effect as sleeping and more since you are cultivating your Qi at the same time. However, the discipline needed for this was high.

The next day came and Ryu arrived at the Inferno Fist School as the sun was rising. He was extremely excited about this. The inspectors responsible for the Talent Examination are from various sects and schools, they travel to the largest city in each region once every three years to select talented individuals to join them. Blazing Tempest town is a small town so naturally the inspectors won’t come here.

The closest city around Blazing Tempest town is Frost Fire City. It’s also located beside the Forbidden Forest but the city itself is ten times bigger. The governor of the town was a level 45 Grandmaster!

Later Eu-Meh appeared and they made small talk. Eu-Meh wanted a quick spar with Ryu but Ryu kindly refused while insisting he wasn’t her match. Soon after the twins appeared. They chatted for a brief moment then Seo-Yon appeared.

“Alright let’s get going. The registration will start this afternoon and the actual competition will begin tomorrow morning.” Seo-Yon said as they walked. Ryu has heard that the Talent Examination is basically a fighting competition. Your level will be determined by a magical item and you’ll be placed in a round-robin elimination tournament. The top three will get a prize. During the competition, you’ll have a chance to show the examiners what you got. Offers will be made if they examiner finds that you qualify for their sect.

How are we going to get there? Ryu thought as they walked to the northern part of the town he never visited before.

They came in front of a tower that stood at least 100 meters tall and 500 meters wide. In front of the gate hung a sign that says – The Maxwell Flight Services. Seo-Yon explained to Ryu that the Maxwell family was a very powerful family that runs the majority of the flight services in the continent, they own over thousands of flying beasts.

“How did you think we were going to get there? The Frost Fire City is at least 200 miles away.” Eu-Meh laughed as she saw Ryu’s face.

Ryu blushed and said nothing. They walked up to the top of the building and Ryu jaw dropped. There were numerous flying beasts of varying sizes. Seo-Yon presented the tickets to a staff and they were directed to a blue Serpent Hawk standing beside a pilot in green uniform. It was a level 30 beast Seo-Yon explained. There was a harness on it that had 6 seats. The pilot took the first seat while the rest sat at the back. After settling down, the Serpent Hawk took off.

Looking at Ryu’s face, the other three teenagers admired him. He showed no fear and was instead excited. They remembered how terrified they were when they first got on.

Ryu looked down in amazement, they were flying along the Forbidden Forest’s borders. How could a forest stretch this far? Crazy.

He also noticed that there were no one else on the roads below them. In fact the land below them actually had quite a few monsters. He focused his Qi into his eyes to look more carefully. To his surprise, the monsters below were quite strong and emitted powerful auras.

“Traveling between towns by foot is quite dangerous. There are many monsters that will attack you. Unless you are at in the Master Domain, it is pretty much suicide. Although some people choose to train in the wildness too. However, don’t mistake these monsters near the roads below to the monsters inside the forbidden Forest. People say that there are monsters in the Heaven Domain or higher inside!” Seo-Yon firmly warned them.

The kids gasped as they heard it. Heaven Domain? Thank god the monsters didn’t come out of the forest or their town would be wiped out.

Ryu was even more shocked, he has occasionally encountered a few monsters while collecting herbs but he has always been able to escape with his abilities. Ryu made a mental note to think twice before taking such risks now.

Ryu listened as the guide explained some of the sceneries below. They passed by two villages and a town that was situated on top of a small hill. The twins tried to get Eu-Meh’s attention but she was meditating.

Ryu didn’t have to meditate, his mastery over Qi has reached a terrifying level so he is able to absorb and refine his Qi even as he sightsees. As long as he’s not using his Qi, he could permanently meditate despite what he’s doing. Most would view this as cheating however, extreme experts could also accomplish this as well. If Ryu does meditate then his cultivation rate would double since his whole mind is focused on it.

Seo-Yon gave more background to Ryu. A village is ruled by a strong leader usually and has around 1-3 thousand inhabitants. A Clan is usually ruled by a strong family and has around five thousand inhabitants. A town could have 5-10 thousand inhabitants, it usually depends on how strong the lord of the town is. The lord is someone appointed by the Lin Empire. A city is usually ten times bigger than a town and the lord of the city is also appointed. Next would be metropolises, there are only five in the province and they have millions in habitants. Metropolises are ruled by noble families related to the emperor himself. Lastly the capital where the emperor himself resigns in has hundreds of millions of residents.

Ryu also took this opportunity to ask about the various sects. Seo-Yon patiently gave some background to Ryu and told him about rankings. Each ranking represents a domain for a school, sect, profession, equipment or technique. If a school is a rank 0, then their headmaster is only at Apprentice Domain. If it’s rank 4 then it’s at Grandmaster Domain. Similar if you are a rank 0 alchemist or blacksmith, you are able to produce items suitable for Apprentice Domain only. Same goes for technique.