Chapter 62: 1 Week Later…

Zen entered class. He sat at the seat he usually sat with no one around him. He sighed as he looked at the empty seat beside him where Chu Jiahai would sit. He had not seen his friend since that fateful night when he revealed he was the source. The school had made it difficult for them to see each other as revealing he was the source also plunged him into the trial of the medicinal pill debacle.

For his part in it, knowing about it but not honestly revealing what he knew, he would not be allowed to receive any medicinal pills for 2 weeks and was barred from entering the academy’s library for a month. He did not really care about not being able to enter the library. For his whole school career, he had only entered it once as part of his orientation to the place. Certainly no great loss for him.

Jiahai for his hand, confessing to a crime he did not commit to cover up the culprit, was suspended for a time. Zen was not sure for how long as no one other than the authorities of the academy knew. Zen was sad, as he worried greatly for his friend and also missed his company.

After an hour, class ended and once again, Zen walked away having learnt nothing other than how to keep his mind from going mad from boredom. He much rather preferred the fighting classes than the educational ones.

He was happy when a red furred ape dropped onto his shoulder. Shibi had grown in body during his time at the academy and Zen could feel that ape’s strength was also growing too. He was already walking towards his dorm but stopped at one of the battle fields. Two very familiar people were having a sparring match, his roommates Deng Ai and Li Ao.

The bespectacled boy, Deng Ai launched forward, his fist shining with lightest shade of grey qi. Li Ao combed his quif out, not seeming phased by the oncoming punch. He began to spin, balls of qi, a shade of darker grey than Deng Ai’s, appeared. The balls spun with him, creating several rings that stopped Deng Ai’s fist and before Deng Ai knew it, a round house kick hit him on the head.

Deng Ai was floored. Li Ao helped him up where they spoke.

Wang Zen’s mouth hung open because he had felt their power levels. Deng Ai was at Intermediary rank 3 while Li Ao was at Intermediary rank 4, close to breaking into rank 5. This was worrying as Wang Zen was only half way through rank 2. This was one of the issues with ranks, they each were like containers with each rank being much bigger container than the last. He was now officially weaker than both Deng Ai and Li Ao in terms of amount of qi.

He grumbled as he walked away. He knew he was falling behind because his cultivation had once again slowed to a crawl pace. He walked into his dorm room and was surprised when he saw someone waiting at the door with a large box… big enough for a body.

“What is this?”

“Hey,” the young man who had delivered the box said. “This is a delivery for a Wang Zen.”

“That’s me,” Zen said as Shibi hopped onto the box in curiosity.

“All you need to do is infuse your qi with this,” the delivery man showed him a stone.

Zen nodded and sent a sliver of his grey qi into the stone. The colour of his qi was similar to Li Ao’s only slightly darker. The colour of the qi was an indication of its purity, with the closer the qi is to white, the purer it was. Although the purity of ones qi was determined by how they cultivate, each person’s qi and even elemental energy was unique as it was decided by their internal energy which flowed different from everyone else. The stone would store his qi, which can be used later for identification purposes.

The man left Zen with the box. Zen pulled the box inside the dorm room with no assistance from Shibi who was jumping around acrobatically with excitement. He saw a tag on the door of the large box. The tag bared his father’s name.

He gently ripped the tag off and opened the door. It was quiet at first but then something began walking out of the darkness in the box and stepped out into the afternoon light. A grey fighting mannequin walked out with a grey body made of wood, built on an iron frame that peeked out between the wood parts.

Shibi hopped back on Zen’s shoulder, looking at the mannequin with interest.

“See this, Shibi?” Zen nodded towards the mannequin. “Father sent me a training dummy. Other than the power hiding masks, this is one of the things father is famous for, these dummies.”

Shibi made a few ‘ooks!’

“Yeah,” Zen said, “I also thought my father forgot about me too. I should thank him. I probably have some coin to afford a long distance call.”