The crowd went into an uproar that escalated and spread out quickly. People sent messages to other fellow disciples about the events that just transpired. Soon everyone in the sect would know what just occurred.

Ming Lu smiled at the bowing Akata and signalled for him to stand tall. She knew her last sentence was going to draw him in to train under her. It wasn’t like she watched Akata all this time and knew how he acted, she just knew the actions of Xiun Wu the third ranked disciple of the sect, and knew that the two of them had some history. When she was on her way to the scene earlier she sensed the fighting urge emanating from Akata, so she took a gamble and put those two pieces together and coaxed him into accepting.

She didn’t wait for the crowd to disperse or for Akata to fully straighten up, she instantly rushed over to grab him by the arm and sped off toward her cabin. Even though the crowd was shocked and some were against what was happening, they didn’t dare to slander Ming Lu, especially after what happened to the sixth rank disciple.

Ming Lu stood on a snowflake that was about two meters wide as she flew through the skies. Although technically she was “flying” it wasn’t true flight, more like an extended version of a glide. Akata stood next to her looking around at the sect from up in the air as they sped through towards the training field.

“So this is what flying is like?” He asked Ming Lu with anticipation to reach this level.

“No this is not flying.” Ming Lu shook her head and let out a sigh. Her face was calm as she explained things to Akata. “Anybody who trains in the Realm of Mortals and is in Mortal Rank can’t fly no matter what. It doesn’t matter what tool or skill you have because in the Mortal Rank the person can’t alter enough natural energy to achieve flight. But when you break the bonds of a mortal and step into the Earthly Rank then you can achieve true flight. The only one’s in the sect who can truly fly are the top three elders, even the other 6 elders can’t truly fly.”

Ming Lu explained things slowly and thoroughly to Akata to make sure he comprehended what she was saying. It was as if she really did care that he was training under her. Soon they reached her cabin.

Second Cabin

This cabin occupied a huge area and was beautiful to the extreme. There was lush greeneries everywhere. The cabin was wooden and stood two stories tall. Behind the cabin was a garden full of snowdrops making it look like the garden was stuck in a time of winter and snow covered the area. In the front yard there stood trees in two rows apart from each other that towered over the area creating a peaceful shady walkway to the front of the cabin. In the middle of that walkway was a sparring arena that was fully 300 meters wide.

Ming Lu dropped Akata off in the arena and told him to wait there. Then she sped off towards her cabin. It must be said that even though cabins are taken away all the time, the top 3 disciples were in a league of their own and didn’t have to worry about getting their cabin taken. So in the end they pretty much settled down and made it their permanent home. They weren’t even scared to lose their cabin from the person one rank behind them because the gaps in strength was large enough that the other person didn’t even challenge.

Akata stood off to the side taking in the beautiful scenery and thought to himself that if he grew stronger he could have something like this. About an hour or so later Ming Lu returned, she was wearing a different set of clothes which was a skin tight bodysuit. The sight of it even caused Akata’s face to slightly flush and make him flustered. Ming Lu landed in front of him and began talking.

“So this is how training is going to go down so listen up.” Ming Lu instantly started talking about training and Akata cleared his mind of any distracting thoughts to listen up. As he listened his blood pumped purer than ever and his eyes showed with a radiance of the will to fight. As Ming Lu was talking she took note of these things and continued.

“I want you go inside the Misty Forest and kill a grade 1 beast and bring it back here. After that I want you to absorb the blood of the beast and take it in as your own. Once you’ve absorbed the blood then I want you to go back in the forest and meditate on your surroundings until you become one with your environment. You’ll continue to do this for as long as I say and at the end when you complete the final task you’ll spar with me.”

Akata’s mind was blank and his eyes looked like they were staring at nothing but a white wall in front of him. That was because this training was absurd! Misty Forest was on the other side of the training field and was an extremely dangerous place… because beasts lived there. Beasts were incredibly powerful, much more so than the average mortal cultivator. A grade 1 beast was equal to a grade 2 mortal. Just the first task in his training was difficult not to mention the others. And he had to do this everyday!

Ming Lu continued to speak as if she expected this kind of reaction from Akata. “Of course killing a beast will be rather difficult so I won’t send you out just yet I have to make sure you’re knowledgeable first. But that doesn’t mean I’m teaching you how to fight, that’s up for you to do yourself. I’ll also go over the best way to absorb beast’s blood so that you won’t end up crippling your cultivation base or worse, dying. You’ll have to practice meditating on your surroundings on your own as I can’t teach that. And the spar with me, that is also something you’ll deal with yourself.” It was then that she finished speaking and looked over at Akata to see his response.

What she expected to see was fear and nervousness on Akata’s face, yet that wasn’t visible at all on him. His eyes burned with a passion to get stronger and his body brimmed with the aura of a warrior. His fists were clenched tight and he looked eager to get started as soon as possible.

Ming Lu unconsciously gave a nod of approval, the intense passion to get stronger coming from Akata gave her an even better impression of him. She tilted her head to the side and gave a slight smile, “Well then let’s get started, we have a few months until the Body Spirit Exam comes up and I want to have you ready for it.” Akata seemed to have influence her own passion as it too burned with eagerness.

After the introduction of the training regimen, Ming Lu went straight away into explaining beasts to Akata. “Just like mortals cultivate in their own realm, beasts can cultivate in theirs. Us mortals cultivate in the Realm of Mortals while creatures and the like cultivate in the Realm of Beasts. It is a known fact that beasts are inherently stronger than us, because of that people have found ways to make themselves stronger. One of those ways is to absorb the blood of the beast, making it our own and boosting our strength. This process is very difficult and a slip-up means that you can cripple your foundation or even kill yourself. I’ll go over it more clearly when you have killed your first beast and brought it here.”

Akata was taking in all the information making sure not to miss any single bit of it. He was going to use this opportunity to get stronger and wasn’t going to let it go to waste by messing up.

Ming Lu continued to talk, “For your first beast I want you to kill a Blood Rabbit. They are the easiest to kill as they don’t truly fight back, but they are fast when it comes to fleeing. Be careful out there and try not to be killed.”

Ming Lu spoke her last sentence extra cheerfully as she waved Akata off to go into Misty Forest. As he was walking away towards the forest she gave a slight chuckle and blew a kiss in the air towards him. Akata didn’t know she did that but he still felt a chill all of a sudden and shivered. He didn’t want to look back so he increased his speed further. Soon he was at the edge of the training field, where he looked on at the trees that became the forest. He took a deep breath and entered.

As he was walking through he thought to himself, how he felt much more different. Although nothing physical changed about him he felt like the red rune inside of him caused him to undergo mental and emotional changes.

Misty Forest

Everywhere you looked there was a low thin white mist covering the whole place. If you could see the grass in the area you would be shocked to see that it was purple and not green, even some of the tree leaves held a hint of purple in them. The trees were about fifty meters tall and blocked most of the sunlight in the area. The absence of light coupled with the fact that mist rose everywhere made an eerie scene for most people, enough for them to turn back. This is not even mentioning the beasts that lurk in the forest.

Akata ran through the forest glancing around him to make sure no strong animals were around. He spread his senses out to scan his surroundings, but after his initial encounter with Ming Lu and finding out his senses didn’t notice her, he didn’t solely rely on them. He was on the lookout for a blood rabbit, so that he could absorb it’s blood. This was his first time in Misty Forest so he wanted to be cautious, but at the same time he was eager to test his strength.

As he sped along, out the corner of his eye he saw a small red object. Akata stopped in place and stood there not trying to make any sort of movement or sound. Upon closer inspection the object became more clearer to him.

“Ah that’s a blood rabbit! What luck I have!” Akata mused to himself excitedly. “If I can kill this animal and bring it back then I can absorb its blood and make it my own.” Akata nearly bursted out laughing at the thought of how easy he was having it. “Now to just get closer. If only I knew some archery skills then this would’ve been a piece of cake.”

He crept up to the blood rabbit slowly so he wouldn’t disturb it and have it run off, forcing him to chase it. The closer he got the more nervous he felt, he even took a gulp of saliva that was building up. He was only a little further away from it. With each step he moved slower and slower.

Thirty steps, twenty steps, ten steps…

Now he was about a meter away from the blood rabbit, and he was behind a bush. He only needed a few more steps and he would have it. He reached into his bag and pulled out a knife and held it in his hand firmly. He took one step forward then…

CRACK!!

Akata’s face instantly dropped. He looked down to see a broken twig under his foot, it looked to be snapped cleanly in half. “Poop! I had to step on a twig and ruin this chance! No! I can still do this, I just have to kill it before it goes too far.” Thinking up to here Akata immediately jumped from behind the bush he was hiding in and pounced towards the blood rabbit. What shocked Akata was that the blood rabbit wasn’t moving out of the way or made attempts to even flee.

The blood rabbit heard the twig snap and looked over. Then it saw Akata jump from behind the bush and pounce towards it. At this point of time it sniffed the air and its eyes went bloodshot. When Akata saw that the blood rabbit wasn’t running away he grew suspicious but didn’t slow his speed down. Then he saw the rabbit sniff the air in his direction and he unconsciously slowed a bit. When the rabbit was done sniffing and its eyes turned bloodshot, Akata’s mind instantly filled with a sense of danger. He stopped instantly, turned around, and sped off in the opposite direction all in one swoop. The rabbit then started hopping towards Akata with an insane speed.

“What the hell kind of rabbit is this?! What kind of a rabbit chases down somebody with bloodshot eyes as if it was taking on a predator roll.” Akata increased his speed when he noticed how fast the rabbit was moving. In the blink of an eye the hunter, became the hunted.