Chapter 117: Merge
"You are my student. As my student, you can come and go as you please. Don't waste my time or your time in the queue again."
Although Mu Jianyao was stern and sounded annoyed, she did not physically punish him for having wasted her time only verbally reprimanded. She then finished dealing with the one student that had come in after Xu Min.
"Sit down and meditate," Mu Jianyao told Xu Min. He immediately sat down and started to sense the fire in the surrounding area and greedily absorbed the energy.
Mu Jianyao stood at the counter and gave herbs to the students that appeared. It appeared as if she was ignoring Xu Min, but the young man was not discouraged. He continued to absorb the energy at the back of the room.
Every student who came into the room stared at the young man who was sitting in the corner. Some of them had jealousy in their eyes as they saw this human was allowed in Miss Mu’s private space. Others had curiosity in their eyes as they could not help but wonder just how strong this young man was.
Soon it turned to night, Xu Min had done nothing but cultivate all day. Xu Min did not mind; cultivating was what he needed to do to increase his strength and focus. Although these extra things such as Spiritual Energy and Elemental Affinity was things he appreciated, he was still a human. He knew that his Qi was what he should focus on. The more Qi he had, the higher his rank would be and the stronger he would become.
He needed to become very strong. The Zhong family leader was a seven-star Warrior by the time that Xu Min left. Now he was most likely an eight-star warrior or possibly even an Immortal!
Xu Min had to become an Immortal to defeat him and to do so he needed strength. He needed the Qi within his body to become increasingly rich. Thus he cultivated day and night.
Mu Jianyao had made him cultivate to see his patience. As day turned to night, she noticed not even the slightest bit of impatience within this student of hers. This lack of impatience she noticed no impatience or no defiance she was rather pleased.
"You can stop now," she said as she closed the door, not allowing any more experts to enter and buy herbs.
"Spiritual Energy is a force which needs imagination. First, though, show me the weapon you have, the spiritual energy weapon which was fated to be with you," she ordered.Xu Min did not even waste the slightest bit of time. He instantly summoned the spirit bow that he had learned from the elf within the Blood Pagoda.
"A bow?" Mu Jianyao was rather surprised when she saw this. "Most elves have swords, a few have spears, and some have sabers. It is quite rare to find someone who possesses a bow."
Contemplating for a bit, Mu Jianyao looked at Xu Min. She was considering what she should teach him next.
"Spiritual Energy can be used as an invisible force. It is somewhat similar to an internal expert's use of Qi except you don't need stances. The Spiritual Energy runs through your body and reacts on the impulses you get. Try summoning the Spiritual Energy and throw a ball on it at the stone over there. I want you to try to break it," Mu Jianyao said while pointing at a big boulder.
Hearing the order, Xu Min was unaware of how exactly he should use this spiritual energy. Closing his eyes, he felt the spiritual energy within his body. Finding this energy, he led it through his meridians and felt how it left his palm as a gas-like consistency.
As this gas left his hand, it gathered itself in his palm. The more gas that left, the more clear this gas turned into a flame-like orb in his hand.
As the orb stopped being transparent, Xu Min pointed it at the big boulder. The wisp of energy shot forward so swiftly that a beam of light was left behind.
An explosion boomed out as the spiritual energy landed on the boulder and thousands of small pebbles flew through the air. A few of them grazed Xu Min's cheek. Small streams of blood started to trickle down where the pebbles grazed his skin.
Xu Min was shocked when he looked at what previously was a large boulder but now was nothing but rubble. It was many times more powerful than what he had expected.
"Spiritual Energy can be used to defend you as well. You can use the energy to form a shield on your arm or to make an invisible armor around your body. Even though the spiritual energy is capable of creating defenses, it is primarily for offense, making the defense quite weak."
"This also means that the body armor is not the strongest; it is quite easy to break through. The body armor should only be used against minor attacks. If you try to use it for something bigger you will suffer."
"The shield is better to use when it comes to strong defenses. It is not very strong, but it is capable of slowing down the speed of the attacks, protecting you just fine against most attacks. However killing moves and finishing attacks, those it cannot stop."
Xu Min, listening to the words nodded his head solemnly. The one and only lesson he had attended had indeed focused on defense of elves; by now he had a decent understanding of this.
"While it is not very easy to protect yourself when it comes to Spiritual Energy, fairies are much luckier. Depending on the element, some of the fairies are impossible to injury especially fire, earth and water fairies. They are great at defense."
"Tell me, which elements do you possess?" Mu Jianyao finally asked as she looked at the young man in front of her.
Scratching his hair a little embarrassed, Xu Min answered seriously, "I have reached the domain level of the wind element, but I also control fire. My control over fire though is much less refined."
"Oh, Fire and Wind, I see." Thinking for a bit Mu Jianyao was quiet. She tapped her finger against her chin, clearly in deep thought.
"Fire is the strongest of all the elements since it is good at both defense and offense."
"Although it cannot compare to the wind when it comes to offense, it is almost at the same level with its explosive and violent nature. While it is great at offense like this, it is also great at defending. If you are covering your entire body in a flame armor, it would be very hard for attacks to truly touch you as the flame will evaporate any energy that is coming straight towards you."
"While Elemental attacks are seemingly much more powerful than spiritual energy, fairies have a harder time reproducing than elves. Consequently, there are fewer fairies that exist than elves."
"To even it out, fairies are the most talented, but they are also the minority of all the races. After fairies there are demons, but I have, to be honest, and say that I am unaware of whether or not any demons survived the extermination the humans carried out all those years ago."
"The demons were also a minority, but there were more of them than fairies. Then we have the elves. Although they are the least talented compared to fairies and demons, elves have the benefit of having an easier time reproducing, making them more numerous. I am sure that you have noticed this when you've looked at the students here at the academy. There are quite a lot of elves, but not that many fairies."
"Then, of course, there are humans. Their talent is the lowest amongst all races, but they breed and reproduce like rabbits! There are humans everywhere. They keep increasing in this area. Eventually, there won't be enough space, and they will be forced to move across the sea."
"Power and ability to reproduce might not seem as if it is connected, but it is. It is something which mother nature has ensured for the sake of balancing out the incredibly strong races."
"And then there is the rarest of all the races. A mixture of the different races which is capable of controlling both energies. So far only one has been born, and that one is me. Although you are capable of using both Elemental Affinity and Spiritual Energy, you can do so because of some unorthodox reason that I don’t understand. What is extraordinary is that even though you are a human, you can use both Qi, Spiritual Energy, and Elemental Affinity. It is simply outstanding!"
Mu Jianyao was indeed amazed by Xu Min's ability to control more than one kind of energy. She always secretly hoped for someone like her to be born. Thus, she was simply too happy to have come across Xu Min. Even if he used unorthodox means to become able to use these energies, she did not care at all.
"The Heavenly Ranking will begin shortly. Since it is about to begin soon, you will have to fight many experts of this academy. I will do my best to assist you in this tournament. To do so, I will teach you an ultimate secret, a secret which only my father knows about."
"When you control both spiritual energy and elemental affinity, it is possible to merge the two. Although they, alone, have weaknesses, when you merge them, they become many times more powerful than they were before. You will be able to deal with the true experts of this academy!"
Hearing this Xu Min's heart started racing. This was exactly what he needed. He needed to become stronger; he needed to gain power that allowed for him to fight those who were stronger than him.
Deep inside of Xu Min's body was a flame of hatred and vengeance burning. When he heard that Mu Jianyao could help him become even stronger, he knew that this was something which would help him gain the vengeance that he had been searching for since forever.
Mu Jianyao was an Immortal. Seeing the change in Xu Min's face brought on by his killing intent surge in his eyes shocked Mu Jianyao.
She was an Immortal, not a saint. She had killed many many people in the world outside. She knew what it was like to hold a grudge. However, this was no longer a mere grudge. Looking at Xu Min, she could feel that whatever it was that he was hiding within his heart, it was simply too intense for her to understand.
I will be able to use this Heavenly Ranking to hone my skills! There will be experts of the seventh rank, and I can test how my ability is compared to these other experts. If I can deal with the experts of this academy that are of the seventh rank, then I am well on the way to deal with the Zhong Family leader, Xu Min thought to himself.
"After this tournament, I will undertake a period of closed-door training to reach the seventh star. I will head straight for the blood pagoda. Then I should be able to deal with the Zhong family leader. I can do this!" Xu Min was mumbling to himself. Although his voice was very low; Mu Jianyao heard every single word of her student. Hearing this upset her, it seemed that this student of hers had quite a bit of secret hidden deep within his usually smiling self.