Chapter 49

“Senior Jannie!!!” All the students exclaimed, rushing up to the blonde young man. “We haven’t seen you in days! How have you been, are you feeling alright?”

“I’ve been good!” Jannie smiled, patting those nearest on the head. “How have you all been?”

“Good!” Everyone responded back. Their eyes shining, it was clear that they all looked up to Jannie.

Zairen unconsciously examined Jannie up and down. Tall frame, handsome face, and a bit of a tired expression, but also charismatic and likeable. It seemed that despite his injury, he was still a good mentor to all the students at the school.

Just based on this, Zairen couldn’t help but already start to form a good impression of him - instead of being understandably bitter about his situation, he was still trying his best to be a good example for others.

“Jannie,” Headmaster Yuan furrowed his brows. “You came out of your rest? Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m totally fine.” Jannie waved his hand dismissively. His eyes turned impatiently toward Zairen, Alivia, and Finn. “More importantly, we have new students?”

He was completely amazed to spot three new children standing amongst the students! Were these new recruits?

He suddenly remembered that when he and his grandfather had been talking earlier, the doorbell had rung. Had the ring been from these three children? Had they come to the school to enroll?

As he stared at the three new students, each with interesting mismatching features, he couldn’t help but feel excitement flow through his body. They now had new students?

After three years of bad luck and drudgery, were the tides finally turning?

“Yes.” Headmaster Yuan couldn’t help but smile a bit giddily. He gestured toward the three new students once again. “Let me introduce you to Zairen, Alivia, and Finn!”

Zairen, Alivia, and Finn all smiled and bowed at Jannie. “Nice to meet you, Senior Jannie.”

“Wow, great manners!” Jannie seemed pleasantly surprised. He quickly wiped away his shock, greeting the three new students as enthusiastically as possible. “Nice to meet you too! You can just call me Jannie.”

He hurriedly strode forward and amicably shook hands with each of the new students, sizing up each recruit for the first time. “This is a strange time of the year to enroll in school for the first time. Where are you guys from?”

“Bindan Village!” Finn blurted out as he shook Jannie’s hand enthusiastically. “We just moved here a few days ago.”

“Bindan Village?” Jannie rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Hm… I’ve never heard of it. Is it near?”

“Yes, it’s like forty miles north,” Finn explained. “It’s a small village on the coast.”

“Oh… that’s cool! I hope you guys are enjoying it here.”

Everyone else smiled. After hearing the words “small village,” their hearts were eased. So these people had come from humble backgrounds, just like them. Knowing this fact, everyone instantly felt a thread of kinship.

What they were most apprehensive of was some rich young masters enrolling as a prank and to jeer at them. Ever since Jannie had had his accident, they had suffered much from these bullies.

“We are! We hope to be able to get along with everyone!” Finn enthusiastically replied.

“Of course!” Jannie smiled.

The more he interacted with the students, the more he found that they were all down to earth. Zairen... Finn... Alivia... he got a feeling that all three were kind and caring individuals, and couldn’t help but form favorable impressions of them.

However, he still did have a nagging question. “You guys are really young though. Are you sure you’ve awakened your spirit energies yet?”

He was most surprised by how young these kids were. None of them looked older than 9. Was it possible that they had already awoken their spirit energies? If they had... didn’t that mean that they were valued talents?

“Oh, yeah!” Finn nodded in confirmation, glancing sideways toward Alivia. “Alivia and I just woke ours up three days ago.”

“Yeah,” Alivia nodded equally casually.

Everyone looked up with puzzled faces.

What did they say? They had both woken up their spirit energies three days ago, on the same day? They talked about it as if it was a casual event, like they both went to a barbecue or something.

“You two both awakened your spirit energies three days ago?” Jannie scrutinized Finn’s face for clues. He glanced toward his grandfather and was surprised to see him smiling knowingly.

“Yeah… Is that a bad thing?” Alivia’s face was filled with concern. This reaction had not been what she was expecting.

“...no.” Jannie was stunned into silence. If this was a joke, they were taking it a bit far!

He supposed, there were such coincidences that happened once in a while.

“Of course it’s a good thing!” Headmaster Yuan walked forward and interrupted, patting Alivia, Finn, and Zairen on their backs and grinning. “These three are telling the truth. They all awakened their spirit energies very recently, and at such young ages! They are amazingly talented, and we should welcome them for choosing Black Cloud School!”

“Welcome!” Seeing their headmaster confirm their spirit awakenings, everyone immediately threw away their doubt and upped their enthusiasm.

They ran forward toward Zairen, Alivia, and Finn, praising and welcoming them. “That’s amazing! You all are so talented! Welcome to Black Cloud School, we’re glad to have you!”

Having any new students was a great event. Having three new rare talented students was even better, an event truly worth celebrating!

Things had been bleak since Jannie had damaged his body, and the school had lost many of their students, with little to no recruits to compensate. Yet now, they had apparently somehow gained three new talented students! How couldn’t they be happy?

Receiving all this praise, Alivia couldn’t help but blush a bit and scratch the back of her neck. Finn, on the other hand, was shameless, crossing his arms and puffing his chest out, as if broadcasting his masculinity.

“Ahem.” Zairen interrupted, looking sheepishly out toward the other students of the school. “Thank you so much for welcoming us… I feel bad about barging in and interrupting your training. I think Headmaster Yuan was getting us situated?”

“You weren’t bothering us at all.” The original students smiled heartily, understanding that they should still give the new students space. “Come to us if you have any questions or need any help!” After giving a final greeting, they slowly walked backward toward their meditation mats, waving amiably along the way.

Now only Zairen, Alivia, Finn, Jannie, and Headmaster Yuan were left still standing near the entrance of the gym.

Jannie’s expression was excited, but also completely stunned. Was this really happening? Had they really received three new students? Not only three new students - three new students who would be considered talents even in bigger schools!

The last time they had received new students was three years ago. That had been when the twins, Joran and Ranjo, had first enrolled.

“Jannie, do you mind situating these guys?” Headmaster Yuan turned towards Jannie and asked. “They can get the suite that’s recently been cleaned up. Don’t forget to show them our resource room too.”

“Of course, right away.” Jannie beckoned the new students over. “Come with me!”

-----------------------------

Jannie took them to go see their dormitory, a large three-bed room on the second floor.

With one look at the space, the three were content. Although simple and rickety-looking, it was larger than any of the rooms they had at the governor’s apartment, and what made Zairen the happiest was that there were three beds, meaning that he finally had a bed for himself.

Then, they went to go visit the resource room.

“Here it is.” Jannie led the trio down the stairs to the first floor, arriving at a plain-looking door down the hall from the testing room marked “Resource Room.”

Zairen, Alivia, and Finn paused in their step behind Jannie and looked on.

The door they had stopped at seemed like any other door in the school, made of cheap wood and with a spotty paint job, not decorated in any way.

“This is our resource room!” Jannie explained with a smile. He was still stunned by the recent turn of events, and made sure to keep his enthusiasm high - it was important to make a good impression. “If any of you ever need anything, ask me or my grandfather and we’ll take you here so you can get it.”

He produced a jade key and pushed it into the lock. A moment later, it opened with a clang and the door swung open.

Everyone peered in with anticipation.

“Oh wow, cool!” Alivia and Finn immediately exclaimed, their eyes starry. There were loads of interesting objects that they had never seen before!

“Pitiful.” In stark contrast, Madam Sue was chiding in Zairen’s head. “This is called a resource room? For a school?”

Zairen was silent.

Although Madam Sue’s words were distasteful, he couldn’t deny the truth in them. He knew the school was poor, but not this poor!

No wonder the school had the label “slum school.”

All he saw were several dingy shelves holding small piles of clothes, jade scrolls, and some rusty weapons. The whole thing was basically just a small closet of objects. Looking through, Zairen identified all of the items with just a single glance.

The first shelf held a few dozen jade scrolls - this seemed to be their “library” of arts and techniques. The second shelf contained several rusty weapons, including swords, spears, bows, and sabers - none of these weapons even came close to the quality of any of the weapons he had looted from the masked men. The third shelf held other miscellaneous spirit items, including some basic seals and transportation items. Finally, the last shelf carried a rack of basic black school garments.

Jannie reached down toward that last rack and shuffled through the garments before picking out three of the smallest and handing them to Zairen, Alivia, and Finn.

“These’ll be your new school garments,” Jannie explained. “Forgive the cheap quality and the mismatched sizes. You don’t have to wear them normally if you don’t want to, but during tournaments or things of that nature, we wear them to represent the school.”

Zairen, Alivia, and Finn all nodded as they accepted the garments. This made sense.

Looking down at the material, they saw that it really was cheap. The cloth was very thin and haphazardly woven, and some of the sleeves were fraying. However, on each of them was a small seal of a cloud, representing Black Cloud School. They couldn’t help but become a bit prideful. They were now representing a school!

“As for the rest of this stuff…” Jannie scratched the back of his head, clearly embarrassed. “We don’t have much, but if you ever need anything, just ask me or Headmaster Yuan. If we don’t have it here, we can try to go to the local market or an auction house to try and acquire it.”

“Auction house?” Zairen asked.

“Yes, there are a couple nearby auction houses that sell many higher-end products that you would not be able to buy normally,” Jannie explained. “They’re usually pretty limited to upper class customers because everything is so expensive, but we go occasionally, even if just to look. Occasionally, they’ll have cheaper products that we can afford. Usually, we just stop by after selling the herbs we grow in the marketplace.”

Zairen nodded his head thoughtfully.

“Right, as for arts and techniques…” Jannie remembered something and reached toward the shelf of jade scrolls, shuffling through them. “What kind would you like? Is there anything you’re interested in?” He glanced backward, gauging the three children. “There’s no rush; you don’t have to decide now. You can just pick one to try if you’d like.”

“Can we borrow those two for now?” Zairen reached forward and pointed toward two jade scrolls, one glowing red and one brown.

He recognized those particular scrolls, having seen nearly identical ones in his previous life. They were beginner arts for fire and earth, widely available anywhere. However, they only went into the basics. After a year or two, one would have to move on to more specific advanced arts, which were much harder to find.

“Hm? Those?” Jannie glanced toward the scrolls with a bit of surprise. “Those are basic beginner arts for controlling fire and earth. They’re only for people with fire and earth affinities.”

“That’s alright. We just awakened our spirit energies, so we’re not in a rush to pick. Those look interesting, so we just want to take a look for now.”

“Alright…” Jannie didn’t question their logic, grabbing the two red and brown jade scrolls and handing them to Zairen. “Anything else you need?”

“Um… I don’t think so.” Zairen eyed the pitiful array of items on the few shelves with slight resignation. At the same time, he smoothly passed the red scroll to Alivia and the brown scroll to Finn, who both took their respective scrolls eagerly. “Now that we’ve seen this… Do you think we could go see the herb garden?”

“Herb garden?” Jannie was slightly surprised. Most people wouldn’t be too interested in the herb garden; it mainly drew the interest of studiers of medicine.

“Sure, it’s up on the roof! I’ll take you.”

-----------------

They were now on the roof of the building, which contained an herb garden, unnoticeable from the street.

“Not bad!” Zairen couldn’t help but remark.

If the resource room shorted expectations, the herb garden exceeded them: it was large, and well-kept. Furthermore, he saw many uncommon herbs growing in the garden that would not normally be sold in the market. It even had some medium-status rare herbs that even the Zairen of his previous life would have used.

“Haha, I’m glad you think so,” Jannie chuckled, feeling a sense of pride. “My father and I have been working tirelessly on this garden for the past decade. Now, our efforts are finally starting to bear fruit.”

Zairen nodded. For such a school, the garden was truly impressive.

As his sweeping gaze went all across the large garden, he withheld an urge to snatch up everything in sight.

The garden had been one of the big reasons he had initially chosen Black Cloud School - eventually, he wanted to ask if he could take a supply of herbs from the garden for pill refining. However, he had just arrived at this school, and felt it would be a bit presumptuous to ask now, so he held back. Further, the school was in a financial bind, and he suspected that this garden might’ve been one of the only things holding it afloat.

“Ok, then I guess that concludes this little introduction and tour!” Jannie looked around with a broad smile and then scratched the back of his head. He was still shocked at the school’s recent good fortune, but didn’t let it show on his face. “Any questions?”

Alivia and Finn shook their heads.

However, Zairen now spoke up, his face apologetic. He had wanted to bring a certain topic up for some time.

“Actually… This isn’t really about the school, but I actually do have another question. I heard about what happened to you a few years back... how is your injury now?”

This topic was sensitive, but looking at Jannie, Zairen couldn’t help but be impatient. Jannie seemed like a likeable person, so he couldn’t help but want the best for him - every day he spent not taking treatment was a day less of his youth, a day less that could be spent creating a more stable base for the future. He was already 18. There wasn’t much time - if not treated within the immediate future, his future potential could be stunted.

Further, inspecting up close, he could already tell that Jannie’s injury would not be difficult to heal at all - in fact, just from this observation, Zairen was already fairly certain it would be a rather simple matter.

“Hm?” Jannie was a bit surprised and glanced a bit awkwardly at Zairen. Why had he brought this up? Although, he supposed, it was out of concern - he was likely asking because he cared.

“Well… It’s the same as usual.” He cleared his throat. “But you shouldn’t worry about that. It’s something I’ll have to deal with.”

Although it was terrible that he couldn’t channel spirit energy anymore, he didn’t like to stay too bitter about it. Or else, how would he be able to live life? Aside from occasional periods of depression, he had mostly forced himself to adapt to his disability. He would never actively throw it onto others.

“I see…” Zairen rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He paused for a moment. “Well, the reason why I brought it up is because I’m actually a practicing doctor myself. I was wondering if I could take a look at your injury, since I think I might be able to do something about it.”

He eyed Jannie carefully, knowing that in Jannie’s eyes, this was probably an unbelievable statement. Yet, it was probably better to make himself available to Jannie right off the bat, should Jannie actually believe him.

“Hm...?” Jannie was thrown for a loop. A bit stunned at Zairen’s straightforwardness, he incredulously inspected the juvenile-looking seven year old that had uttered those words.

He… was what? A practicing doctor? And he wanted to take a look at his injury?

Jannie suddenly found that this was probably the most absurd claim he had heard in months. It had to be a joke, right? Although, it was a somewhat mean one. Jannie slightly scowled as he met Zairen’s eyes.

As his gaze met Zairen’s, however, he was taken aback.

In those eyes, he had expected to see some trace of dark humor, maybe a bit of mocking. Yet those dark pupils pupils were so clear. All he could detect within their reflective confines was a crystal clear sense of earnestness and honesty.

Still, Jannie chose to shrug it off and gave a non-smile. “Haha, good one. But everyone knows you can’t cure injuries to the meridians.”

“Zairen can!” Finn piped up with bright eyes. “He’s much more capable than he looks. In fact, he recently cured Grandpa Dinran’s leg that had been paralyzed for years! Let him try, you won’t regret it!”

“It’s true!” Alivia added on. “All doctors had been unable to cure my grandfather’s leg, but Zairen was able to do it within hours!”

Jannie was silent, the gears in his head slowly turning.

What were these kids talking about? Were they all crazy?

With the ridiculous things they had been saying, he was starting to doubt if they really even had awakened their spirit energies in the first place. Had his grandfather been tricked?

“Ok, don’t be ridiculous,” Jannie responded a bit more seriously. “I’ve been to at least ten skilled doctors, and all of them have said my case is hopeless. You’re telling me that you’re able to defy their diagnoses?”

“It makes sense to doubt me,” Zairen replied, completely seriously. “But yes.”

“This joke isn’t funny. I’m sorry if I’m coming off rude, but it is a sensitive subject for me.” Jannie swiftly turned around. “Class starts at sunrise every morning, so make sure to attend. I have some business to attend to, so I’ll leave first. Feel free to come seek me if you have any questions.”

With that, he exited, the door clicking closed behind him.

For a moment, Zairen, Finn, and Alivia were all silent.

“Jeez, he sounds bitter,” Finn scrunched his nose and chided. “You were just trying to help.”

“You can’t blame him,” Zairen responded, shaking his head lightly. “Nothing has worked for three years, so you can’t expect him to immediately believe such a thing.”