Time passes as a river and a month goes by in the blink of an eye.

In this past month my life has been basically like this: sleeping, eating, sword training, resting, more sword training until night, cultivating and repeat. Sometimes changing the times of sword training and cultivating. Even though doing this every single day is boring, it's definitly not dull. I'm fighting with a real sword and cultivating, just like in the novels I had read in my previous life. This is part of what made me bear with the training, but not the only thing as my breakthroughs and constantly leveling up Skills were responsible for protecting my sanity along with Mind of a Sage.

Andrew Hawkins

Age: 13 years

Occupation: Heir of Hawkins

Energy Cultivation Method: Nine Void Worlds Technique

Energy Cultivation Realm: Qi Gathering 4th Stage

Will Cultivation Realm: Strengthened Resilience

There were many changes, but they are trivial compared to the Skills section.

Skills:

Sword Mastery Lv. 3, Reading Comprehension Lv. 7, Basic Combat Reflexes Lv. 4, Qi Will Manipulation Lv. 3, Meditation Lv. 1, Myriad Waters Sword Technique Lv. 2, Burning Skies Yang Fire Technique Lv. 3.

Let's start with Sword Mastery and Basic Combat Reflexes, they don't seem to have gone up much compared to Reading Comprehension, but the difference they make are huge. There's a entire abyss of actual skill level between my previous swordsmanship, if it could be called that, and my current one, same for reflexes. However the level only increased by 2 and 3 levels respectively, as I tend to dodge more than parry.

Though physical combat skills are great, they aren't as powerful as my Battle Skills. The first Battle Skill I learn was the Myriad Water Sword Technique Dad instructed me to practice as this technique involves an ever changing swordplay and footwork, even though it only says "Sword" on it's name. The second one was the Burning Skies Yang Fire Technique which allows me to absorb the energy of the sun, or Yang Fire, and infuse it in my body, enhancing my vitality and therefore, my recovery speed. Of course, on the later levels it'll have great combat strength, but right now I don't have enough Yang Fire on my body to use it as a actual Battle Skill.

The second Technique was bought with the EXP I traded with my painstakingly refined Qi, a cool feature of the shop. However the amount of Qi I had to exchange for enough points to obtain the Burning Skies Yang Fire Technique was enough for me to break through 2 Stages although I could only get the first two stages of the Technique. But it was worth it, the Technique made my training much easier as I recover faster than before, another reason I didn't collapse in the second week of this hellish training routine.

The only problem I had was explaining how I got this Technique when Dad asked me how the fuck I got my hands on this kind of stuff. So I used a card I didn't wanna play, ever.

"It was something Mother left for me before she left"

The look on Dad's face softened when I said that, but my heart was being grinded by guilt, both by talking about Mother and by lying with a sad face. However, I just couldn't bring myself to tell him about the System in any way possible. The guilt only made me practice this Technique even harder, the reason why it's a level higher than the first skill I learned.

The thing that made all these possible was Qi Will Manipulation, which is the skills responsible for the ability of how I manipulate Qi using my Will. Pretty simple, but astonishingly useful. This made the loss of Qi when strengthening my body lower and even the quickness of it was higher. However the most powerful use of this was with Meditation.

Meditation is a Skill I got on the end of the first week of training. It's effect being to improve my concentration and focus while meditating. But as concentration and focus are fundamental parts of Will, this Skill made my cultivation speed soar, and with the increase of speed my realm went from Qi Gathering 1st Stage to Qi Gathering 4th Stage in 3 weeks. An astonishing rate of cultivation overall.

But the most important thing is that Dad will be sending me to the Seven Elements Academy. Truthfully I could have gone there before using my father's connections, but I chose to practice more here and establish a good foundation for my cultivation before I went to a more competitive place. However I can't delay this anymore as Dad said that for the time I've been cultivating my Realm is great, but for my age group as a whole, I would only be average. Same for my Battle Skills.

As much as I'm looking forward for this change of environment, I'll miss Dad. I've only been living this life for barely one month and a half but I love that old man just like the old man from my previous life, it's like both of our fathers were Kindred Spirits as well.

I cultivate on my bedroom for the last time before I depart tomorrow's morning. I though I'd have trouble sleeping today, but I gently fall asleep with the rhythm of my heartbeat.

"Why are you here?"

"What? Don't you want this old man to come with you?"

"No, well, I mean... I'm just surprised."

I'm inside the carriage, looking astonished and my father is in the seat in front of me with a smile. I was surprised when he said he would come with me to the academy to be a instructor there. However, I was even more surprised when he said he would leave the Manor in the care of Rob, my usual sparring partner, as he's the second most powerful person there, first being my father of course. I'm kinda scared about how I sparred against someone at least of the of the Nascent Earth Realm, the third Realm, after the Channel Opening Realm, but before the divide of the Three Foundational Realms and the first of the Transcendent Realms, the Dividing Sky Realm.

The carriage starts moving as my father put a energy stone in it's the core, accessible from inside the carriage, for what would be a long journey as the manor we leave in is deep into the mountains, it's going to be about 4 to 5 days on a bumpy road, eating rations. Even cultivating is hard as the constant bumps on the road make it difficult for me to concentrate. But after two days I got accostumed to it and finally could began cultivating after two days of staring at the plains and rivers, far away from home. I didn't realize this before, but this carriage was faster than it seemed, a normal one could travel about 25 kilometers a day, but this one was almost double that in speed from what I could guess. Though it roughly resembles a car from the way it moved, it isn't even close to the comfort of one.

Two days after and I we have finally reached the city of Rising Springs. The big wall stretches for a few kilometers, impressive considering the standard of the technology here in this mid-level city of the Great Crow Empire. We reach the city where a man with a uniform inspects evey caravan of merchants, but when he reaches our carriage my father shows him the emblem of our house, the Golden Eagle, and he let us enter just like that. The other people should be pretty pissed off, not they can do anything to harm nobles of the Empire, high ranked ones at that.

Entering the city I almost got blinded with the night lights arranged on the walls of each building. They are not torches but lamps made with natural light stones, similar to the ones in our manor. The streets are not crowded, but you can see well dressed people coming and going from bars, old and young alike.

As the carriage traverses the main avenue I look at the huge Academy in the distance, the place we came here for. The high towers and grand pavillions I can see from afar, the architecture of every single building was highlighted by high tiered light stones of every color possible, seeming like a dance of fairys in the dark of night. The stars above it seems lonely, although they are close to each other in the sky. I won't let my heart resemble these solitary stars.

We reach our new residence, the Willow Tree Manor, and get out the carriage and tell the servants of the manor to carry them to our bedrooms as we go take a bath after a long trip. We'd already ask for directions before going, but still got lost in this new house, or should I say, home. Dad and I laugh at each other for a full minute, with a warm feeling around us, we begin our adventures through our new home, ready for the day's yet to come.