The next morning Naath jumped out of bed full of energy and almost ran to the dinner table. Everyone was already there and waiting for him, he was usually the last one up and to the table after all. He sat down at the table and rounded his plate as he usually did and began eating as quickly as he could. He didn’t want to waste even a single second he could be spending at the library looking at pathway charts, cultivation techniques, and the various positives and negatives of the elements. Everyone at the table was looking at him as he scarfed down all of the food on the plate like he was starving.

His mother let out an exasperated breath and spoke up. “Naath, you don't have to hurry, you know? It won't get you there any sooner. You will only be able to go once Zhu Leng is ready to take you to the library. He will have to do his various household chores before he is able to take you to the library. It won't be until after lunch even at the earliest.”

Hearing this, Naath deflated almost immediately but thought of something. He asked “ Then can I know what elements everyone cultivates? If I can't go to the library until later I can at least learn about what elements you guys cultivate right? I know father cultivates in earth and mother in ice. Can you tell me the pros and cons of your own elements? Or what kind of pathways you use, or-.”

His father cut him off saying “Naath we can tell you but one at a time and slowly over time. Learning all at once may very well overwhelm you, let's take this step by step. Just eat your breakfast for now and Zhu Leng will take you to the library when you are both done eating. Besides I’m sure even in the library you will not be able to gain all of this information at once. It is knowledge that will be slowly gained over time so as to not overwhelm you. If you truly wish to learn everything this greatly even after you have spent today at the library your mother and I will get you a library card. That way you can take the material home with you.”

Letting out a breath Naath nodded his head and slowed his eating down, after this the conversation fell back into the normal matters talked about over the table. In another 20 minutes everyone had finished eating and talking. Zhu Leng got up from the table and Naath followed suit and started to follow him out to the library. Their mother and father both watched them exit the room and then turned and smiled at one another wordlessly. As Naath was led by Zhu Leng outside of the gate of their family property his eyes went wide and he looked around at everything in wonder. Being only seven years old this was his first time leaving the family's property, after all it was a massive mansion that had everything anyone could ever need to live comfortably.

As he looked around he began asking his brother countless questions about everything he saw, from the surrounding buildings to the way the street seemed to be made. His brother was more than happy to answer every single one of his questions without any pause. He was just as excited when he had first left the family manor after all, however his first time was for public school. Something Naath had not had to experience yet because he was deemed to be a martial genius from birth. Naath was completely in awe of everything. From the patterned bricks on the street to the various flowers he hadn't seen in the family manor growing everywhere.

This went on for a full hour until Naath started to ask how much longer it would take to reach the library. Due to his supposed martial talent he had been doing physical training since he was five and compared to others his age had an incredible physical body. Even still after walking for this long he felt tired causing him to ask this question. His brother smiled and told him it would only be ten more minutes before they arrived at the library. To Naath this time seemed to drag on for an eternity before they finally arrived at the library. Once they were there he felt as if all of the exhaustion he had been feeling evaporated and he ran for the door as he marveled at the building.

His brother chuckled but put his hand out and stopped Naath from moving any further towards the door. He waved his hand and a silver token appeared in his hand, the silver token had an image of a sea serpent coiling around a crown engraved into it.

Naath marveled at it for a second before his brother passed it to him and said, “this is our family token Naath, show this to the librarian and you will be allowed into certain parts of the library normal people are not allowed to enter. Our family is one of only a dozen that guard the crown of this country, due to this we have a middle grade noble family status. This will let you go into the library and read material up to the corresponding level. Don't try to go into the places with a golden color above the door though. Only high grade nobles and above are allowed to enter.”

Naath nodded as he took the token admiring the library once more. It was a giant gleaming white marble structure with huge pillars in the front of it each with some animal either atop it or spiraling around it. After marveling for a moment he stepped forward and went inside of the library. Once Zhu Leng saw this he nodded his head and walked away from the library and towards the martial school building. He had been going to school since he was five as his family could afford to send him and get him a bit of an early education. Once he was 10 years old like many other young girls and boys he was sent to martial school instead.

This was a place that came after you learned the basics of reading and writing, and some other small things. At ten years old is when everyone awakens their martial skills. It is the age determined by the empire he lived in that people would be best off starting cultivation. In the martial school they guide the younger generation in cultivation until they are 20 years of age. They also guide in the larger subjects related to cultivation such as runeworking, forging, etc.,other than the primary classes like history and language of course. These extra classes related to cultivation are also only for those select few who have an interest and a talent with it.

As Zhu Leng was reminiscing over his time starting cultivation in the school, he was stopped in the middle of the street. He broke out of his daze and saw the group of three in front of him. They were from the Zhang family, they were always at odds with the Zhu family. In front of him were the triplets in the same class as him in martial school. The two brothers were impossible to tell apart so Zhu Leng had taken to calling them thing one and thing two. The sister was the only one with some differences in appearance. Her name was Zhang La, she had average looks and even a below average talent for material arts. That's why her two brothers are always by her side, they don't fight fair or one on one.

Zhu Leng let out a breath and said “You three move aside, if you don’t I won’t go easy on you like I did last time. This time I'll do more than just knock you unconscious. This time I’ll break some bones and send you crying to your parents.”

Thing one and thing two snickered and thing two spoke up saying “Zhu Leng don't think you're so great because your cultivation was only a single level above ours last time. This time won’t go the way you want it. All three of us just recently broke through, and we plan to return what you did to us,10 fold!”

After thing two finished speaking all three of them charged out at Zhu Leng, having seen this coming he simply shook his head and turned sideways. The trio flew right past him but as they did he grabbed thing one’s arm and spun him around into thing two. The two’s heads collided and they both reeled backwards dizzy. After this he moved one of his arms backwards and shoved his elbow into Zhang La’s stomach making her keel over trying to gasp for breath. After that he walked over to the two brothers who were rubbing their heads and shaking them. He pulled his foot all the way back and kicked thing one’s knee, snapping it backwards.

Thing one screamed out in agony at this and fell to the ground before Zhu Leng kicked him again in the face knocking him out to quiet him. He then turned to look at thing two shaking his head and walking over. While he was doing this though Zhang La managed to catch her breath and silently charged at Zhu Leng from behind hitting him in the spine. Caught off guard he tripped forward slightly, this small gap was enough for thing two to recover. Thing two punched him directly in the stomach without holding back in the slightest. Zhu Leng had already recovered though and stepped to the side, thing two effectively missed and punched his own sister in the stomach and she lost her breath once more. Zhu Leng shook his head again and then kicked thing two in the back of the head fracturing his skull.

He then looked at the sister and said “I don't want to hurt you too badly. I dont like picking on girls after all, take your idiot brothers and scram.”

Zhang La paled when she heard this, picked up her two brothers and ran off into the distance and around a corner. Once she was out of sight Zhu Leng put his hand on his back and pushed in and a distinct “snap” could be heard. He smiled a little thinking “damn she hits like a truck. If she hadn't made it painful to move my legs I would have broken some of her bones too.” After this he continued to walk towards martial school without a care in the world. The surrounding crowd had already seen these exact four people fight countless times and shook their heads.

They had seen the triplets lose more times than anyone watching cared to even count. These people also continued as if nothing had happened, but back at the Zhang family manor when the trio arrived things were different. The Zhang family head flew into a rage as he heard the report, what he was angry at though was not Zhu Leng but rather his own three incompetent children. He had already told them plenty of times to simply leave the Zhu family alone, but for some reason they held an odd grudge. They thought that the Zhu family while having the same silver grade token shouldn’t have any more benefits than their own Zhang family.

The family head called the three into the meeting hall and glared at them angrily for a moment before speaking. “ You three I have already told you over a hundred times to simply leave the Zhu family alone. They have worked for their position and there is nothing we can do about it except work harder! You three who complain about our family status being too low for silver grade nobles yet you cause public incidents like this and wonder why? I've had it with the three of you, I'm canceling your schooling. You will spend three years in the forest to the south of here by yourselves. If you three manage to survive then maybe, just maybe you will come back smarter and with a deeper understanding of what is truly important in this world. Now go, I cannot stand to see you three anymore!”