Akata opened his eyes and found himself lying in a soft bed. He looked around to see the room he was in. It was simple actually. A brown wooden floor with wooden walls. There were two windows in the room along with a chimney. There was a fire in the chimney warming up the space. A table could be seen in the room and it was covered with a red cloth.

Akata sat up from the bed and looked around more. Eventually he stood up and walked over to the table. On the table there was a letter.

Akata Kaminari,

After having defeated Huihe Ji you have become the ninth ranked disciple of the sect. Due to the battle you both received serious wounds, with Ji Huihe being in a worse condition. Due to this it will be a while until he is able to fully recover. Along with him you will not be allowed to duel right now. Use this time to meditate. Once you are fully recovered then you can challenge the eighth cabin.

Third Elder

Akata read the letter and silently thought to himself, ‘It was pretty reckless of me to fight like that. Once I fully recover I’ll go see Huihe Ji and then work on my battle strategies.’ Akata went back to his bed and then sat down cross legged on top of it. He then closed his eyes and began to meditate.

The world grew increasingly silent around Akata. He couldn’t feel the outside world and was solely focused on recovering from his injuries. His mind eventually began to sense the red and golden runes inside of him. When he sensed them they flashed resplendently.

‘Just what are these runes inside of my body? I can tell that they are important and are very useful to me in combat. The red rune increases my body strength substantially, this in turn helps me to fight people above my level of cultivation. The gold rune while it is a magic technique, it also seems to be able to do something else that I’m unaware of.’

As Akata was studying himself and his capabilities, his body was healing at a visible rate. Two more hours passed by and the deep gash on his chest turned to little more than a scar. The speed of his healing was frightening to an extreme degree.

‘My body should be at a well enough level for me to fight now. My mental strength is also about fully replenished. I think that I’m ready to go fight for my place in the eighth cabin.’ Akata had a smile on his face as he stood up and walked out of the room he was in.

He stepped out the door and he saw a luscious green field in front of him. Flowers blanketed the field giving off a sweet aroma in the air. Akata took in a slow deep breath as he wanted to savor this scene in front of him. After about thirty breaths of standing there he opened his eyes and started to walk off. Not towards the eighth cabin but to the Medicine Pavilion. Of course he was going there to check up on Huihe Ji.

Along the way other disciples saw him and gathered around to talk to him. Akata was becoming even more well known throughout the sect. Not as the weakest but as a competitor for the strongest.

“Yo, Akata how did you get so strong so fast? I won’t accept that it was just Ming Lu’s doing. Come on you can tell us.” One disciple said trying to coax Akata.

“Er… umm… I don’t know I just trained in Misty Forest haha.” Akata’s face was blushed. Since when were so many people interested in him for a good reason. Of course some of these people had bullied him, but even so he didn’t want to make an enemy out of them, he wanted to prove to them that he could surpass them.

After half a day finally made it to the Medicine Pavilion. The place was normal looking. The walls were laid with red bricks and it was surrounded by many plants. The only thing special about it was the aroma of medicinal plants wafting off of the building.

The Medicine Pavilion served two purposes. One was to supply the disciples and Elders with pills and plants to help them cultivate or for other uses. The other use was to serve as a recuperating center for people of the sect who were injured badly.

Akata stepped in and greeted the lady who was standing and organizing some pill bottles. The lady who ran the Medicine Pavilion was Seventh Elder. She was the weakest of the Elder’s and in fact her strength was Mortal Rank Grade 9, one Grade lower than Sixth Elder who was at the Mortal Rank Grade 10. Although her strength was weak compared to the other Elders, she was respected because of her knowledge in the art of healing.

Seventh Elder looked at Akata and smiled gently. “You must be Kaminari Akata. I must say when I saw you come in the other day I didn’t think you were going to make it, but as I look at you now it’s like you were never injured in the first place. Truly a miracle, you must thank Second Elder for healing you personally. Ah! I almost forgot why you came haha. Huihe Ji is in room 3.” The lady gestured and pointed in the direction of the room. Akata nodded his head with a, “thank you Seventh Elder..” and walked off.

In the room Akata could see Huihe Ji sitting there cross legged with his eyes closed. He had a bandage wrapped around his chest with blood splotches in some places. His body was slightly pale but given enough time he would recover. His body was back to being round albeit just a bit thinner than previously. Also two empty plates could be seen beside his bed. Clearly he had just finished eating and went straight to meditation.

Akata smiled and sat down nearby, He closed his eyes and spread his senses out. His nature energy spread out through the room giving Akata a mental picture of his environment. There he just waited.

About three hours passed until a knock could be heard at the door. “Huihe Ji your food is here.” It was Seventh Elder who ran the Medicine Pavilion. She came in the room and noticed Akata sitting there and gave a nod and smile.

When the knock came both Akata and Huihe Ji opened their eyes. As soon as Huihe Ji opened his eyes the first person he saw was naturally Akata. They both looked at each other and then smiled. Soon they even began to laugh. Then the lady walked in.

“I’ll just put your food right here for you.” She said.

“Mn. Thank you Seventh Elder.” Huihe Ji replied.

After Seventh Elder left, Huihe Ji looked at Akata once more and began to speak. “Akata… I wanna to thank yer’ fo’ that battle. It really helped me to see the faults in my fighting style. If I fought like that outside of this here sect I would certainly be killed. Thanks to yer’ I have the feeling that I will break through to Grade 3 soon.” Huihe Ji was sincere with his thanks.

“No no. I must thank you for helping me out in that fight. While I’m not on the verge of a breakthrough I have gained a lot through the insights of our battle. I’ll be challenging the eighth cabin soon so once you fully recover you have to rise in rank in order to fight me again.” Akata gave a broad smile and said happily.

“Yessum! You best believe that I’ll fight you again haha.” Huihe Ji was happy too and lightly laughed. “Once I get out I’ll surely rise in rank fast. I can tell that yer’ got somethin’ special goin’ on. Yer’ rise in strength is weird and you will surely reach rank one in the sect. I can’t wait to see that day.” Huihe Ji spoke calmly as slowly as if he was some old wise man.

Akata thought it was weird to see Huihe Ji like this but he didn’t think anything of it. He nodded his head and said his thanks. He then got up and turned to leave. Huihe Ji smiled on until he left where his smile vanished to be replaced with somberness.

“If you would have told him the truth he would have been devastated.” A voice came out of the corner of the room.

“I know Third Elder… that is why I ain’t want to.” Huihe Ji closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

“No matter, eventually he’ll gain the strength to control himself so that nobody else will get hurt. Until then I’ll put a seal on you to make sure that your injury doesn’t spread further. I’ll tell everyone in the sect that it may be a while until you are able to fight again.” Third Elder appeared by the wall and looked out the window.

“Thank you Third Elder.” Huihe Ji closed his eyes and began to meditate again.

Akata didn’t hear any of this. He made his way out of the Medicine Pavilion and towards the eighth cabin. ‘I have to get stronger to make sure that Huihe Ji isn’t disappointed.’ Akata held a smile on his face the whole way. As he got closer to the cabin his urge to fight grew greater and greater. By the time he actually made it to the cabin his fighting intent was affecting the grass near him, making it sway vigorously.

Of course a crowd was following him to the cabin and when they finally made it they were all rowdy. Akata rang the bell to signal that he was challenging the eighth cabin.

“This cabin belongs to Xiao Pao. He’s at Grade 2.”

“I heard he cultivates some bizarre daoist magic.”

Conversation spread out from the disciples as they waited for the Xiao Pao to appear. Soon the door opened and out stepped a youth with white frizzy hair. He wore a silver silk robe that looked wrinkled and slept in.

Rubbing his eyes he yawned and said, “What’s going on?” The disciples looked on and smiled wryly. Unsure of what to say they all looked at Akata who didn’t look any better off than them. He scratched the top of his head and cleared his throat.

“I came to challenge you Xiao Pao to a duel for your rank. Do you accept?” Akata spoke clearly as his voice echoed out towards Xiao Pao.

Xiao Pao looked deeply at him with his eyes squinted as if trying to make out who this person was. After a breath or two he said, “You don’t look like Fang Zuwa and you can’t be Huihe Ji unless…” Xiao Pao’s eyes went wide as he thought of something. “Did you finally lose weight?! So you finally tried that diet I suggested. Good for you.” Xiao Pao nodded his head in satisfaction as if contempt with his work. “Even though you’re more fit that doesn’t mean you can beat me though Huihe Ji. Mhm.”

“Uhhh…” Akata was at a loss for what to say and stared blankly at Xiao Pao for a moment. It wasn’t until someone from the crowd spoke that he came to his senses.

“No he’s not me and he’s not Huihe Ji either. That’s Akata you dummy. How about you wake up already and stop dreaming. I swear you give me headaches. Ugh.” The crowd of disciples turned to look at the person speaking. What they saw was a boy in gray robes with his face covered. Of course it was Fang Zuwa.

He spoke out with derision towards Xiao Pao. “Yoo! Is that you Fang Zuwa? Is what you’re saying true? So that means you got kicked out by Akata then? Tsk tsk.” Fang Zuwa’s face turned slightly red as he heard Xiao Pao speak he. He was about to storm onto the arena floor when Akata cleared his throat.

“Ahem. I have come here to duel you Xiao Pao. Do you accept or not?” From the few words spoken by Xiao Pao, Akata didn’t have a very good impression of him. ‘This is the place where I’m going to start my drive towards the top. His defeat will count as my stepping stone.’

Xiao Pao looked at Akata once more and shook his head. “It really is Akata tsk tsk. Well I don’t know how you got to this point but I’ll stop it right here and now. Don’t plan on going any further than here. You can stay ranked ninth for all I care, heck you can even have rank eight as long as I’m rank seventh. Just know that you will never defeat me.” As he spoke Xiao Pao’s voice seemed to echo within Akata’s mind.

Akata looked at Xiao Pao deeply and an intense fighting will surged forth. Xiao Pao looked at him with disgrace and snorted loudly. “I’ll accept your trifling challenge.”