Michael's return to the academy brought some ripples, though it quickly subsided. As Michael was not offering a course this semester, students did not keep him on their minds for a long time. Only a few people were still remembered him - Sherryl and a few others - most importantly Denise. Michael's unplanned disappearance had incensed the scholar. To calm her down, Michael got back to research as soon as he came back. And his productivity level was insane. He was able to make rapid progress in his research - in improving golden body and finding the celestial path as well. His martial arts and fighting techniques also improved at a rapid pace. This was because he had mastered Acceleration and Intuition. Acceleration was a passive ability, it boosted the processing speed of one's thoughts. Put simply, it allowed one to have a sharper mind. Another way to say it was that increased the intelligence of someone directly. It was beneficial not only in research but also in combat, making Michael's growth stellar in both of these fields. This would have been a heaven-defying ability had it not been limited. The acceleration of thoughts could only be done up to a certain level. Else, with infinite thought speed, one would decipher supreme laws and attain invincibility!

Michael had to cultivate this ability for a few days before mastering it. It only increased his intelligence by a fixed amount and the effects of this started to manifest later. His research became much more smooth. His thoughts were extremely fast and he could understand complicated knowledge very easily. It also made it easy for him to strategize during battles. Though it did not improve his combat power by a lot, it made his future path much easier. This was the benefit of having a passive skill. Michael could only sigh in admiration of the Wisdom Emperor. He had gone through many texts after returning to find more information about this person, but it seemed that not many people knew of him. What Michael knew for sure was that this person was definitely not some small fish. Considering that his basic inheritance was already so beneficial, what would the legacy inheritance contain?! Michael could not even imagine.

The other power he cultivated was Intuition. It was just what the skill was named - a feeling of the right way. It gave Michael a very subtle feeling about the way to proceed in different situations. This was also a passive skill and it contained three levels. Michael mastered the first level quite easily but was still stuck at that. The first level allowed one to attune to one's body and soul and grasp all the feelings around oneself. This was sensitivity to the environment and to one's body and soul. This was another thing that could be said to be an incredible improvement with respect to one's talent. One's martial talent was basically how well one could attune one's body and soul. This ability, too, without limits would make one attain the martial dao and perhaps obtain invincibility. Of course, how much one improved would be limited. But it still improved Michael's martial arts by leaps and bounds. Even Bluewind - one of the renowned martial-artists of Aterna would have been unable to hold against Michael. At the second level, it would allow Michael to feel danger or power-levels of his enemies. At the highest level, it would allow him to feel the flow of the world. Michael had no idea what this flow was, but it was definitely something awesome.

Before Michael knew it, it was already time for a new semester to begin. Michael was not really short on money but he still offered a course - Martial Arts.

If this would have been the past year, Michael would perhaps have been deemed unfit to teach this course. But this year, his martial arts attainment was much higher and he was easily able to pass the quality tests. This was obviously another famous course and many students again applied to enrol. The only difference was that Michael had learnt how to hide his aura and the new batch of female students did not bother him as much. But by now, almost all the powers in the city of liberty had figured out that he was a psychic cultivator, which inadvertently had increased his worth.

Attainment was a measurement of one's techniques. It was not related to raw power but one's control and usage of power. For example, martial arts or fighting with one's body was art that would be measured through attainment levels. Irrespective of how powerful one's body was, how well one could use it changed one's combat power. Attainment levels were divided into the following

Beginner

Advanced

Master

Great-Master

Grand-Master

World-Master

Supreme-Master

Dao-Lord

Michael's attainment in martial arts before was only in the advanced realm, not worth mentioning. But now, he was in the master realm and almost pushing to the great-master realm. The improvement was only a single realm, but now Michael had the confidence to battle some of the weaker ascendants! This also gave him the qualifications to be one of the celebrated experts in the Mortal-stage.

Usually, with an increase in cultivation, one's attainment would increase. This was not because these were related but because with higher cultivation, one would have a higher lifespan. Practise was the only way to improve attainments. Thus, Bluewind, who had practised for many millennia had reached the early-master rank. For Upper ascendants, Great-Master rank was nothing special. For divinities, reaching the Grand-Master rank was not uncommon. World-masters were legends even among divinities - capable of holding an entire dominion!! Supreme Masters, on the other hand, were only found in the mythical heavenly realm. As for Dao-Lords, no one knew how many people in the 3000 world had such attainment. Perhaps no one!

Of course, this was not known by Michael at the present moment. Only ascendants knew about such things because increasing attainment required incessant practice. Telling mortals about it was meaningless. This highlighted how heaven-defying the inheritance was!

Michael's martial-arts and internal-energy arts were both at the master-rank. But even after so much research, Michael was still researching advanced spells! This showed how difficult it was to make progress. In fact, the grand spell - the golden body that Michael was working on was only a remnant of an extremely mighty spell - Golden Body. This remnant spell was only a master rank spell. But still, completely mastering the spell required combined research of a scholar as well as many intellectuals. Michael was currently focussing on an active magic spell that would boost his power without requiring spirit blood. And his research was already seeing progress as well. Thus, he had managed to breach the second wall that was holding him up. While he was still far from actually attaining the celestial way, he made progress in that direction as well.

Michael had also talked with the Academy headmaster to get him a private tutoring job at one of the bigger families. The headmaster liked Michael as his course was the first of a series of successful course ideas that had brought in significant revenue. Thus, he casually let the words slip

That kid has been looking to climb the social ladder. He is quite talented, so I hope that he can join the powerful families and in that way our Federation. After all, if we don't cherish our talents, they will turn away from us!

That was all it took for all the different families to start recruiting Michael. They were earlier afraid that Michael would be a spy from other races or even other sects. But the headmaster's approval was the approval of someone who was a respected cultivator in the circle of the Federation. This was enough for the families to try and recruit Michael. Michael was continuously approached by many people but he finally decided to join the Marx family. The reason for that was simple - it was one of the three big families. Also, the Marx princess was only around 20 years old, currently in purification realm. Michael was in a position to teach her. But the young masters or mistresses of the other families were actually quite accomplished and experienced. Some were even Ascendants. Thus, Michael would find it harder to progress in those families.

Also, Michael knew that the Marx princess was head over heels for him, and he had no problem using the girl's feelings and her background. Michael was currently shouldering the fate of an entire world! He was prepared to go to any lengths for his family's safety! What was making use of the naive feelings of one ignorant girl?

Of course, what the relationship between these two would turn out to be remained to be seen.