Spirit Masters, The Demon Monk
"Man are the most intellectual above all creatures, Spirit is the essence of heaven and earth. In this world there are thousands of species which countless number of Spirit are developed in time within it. They live everywhere around us – In the land, in the seas, even in the sky."
"As man continue to propagate and grow, masters of the past gradually unravel the mysteries of the Spirit. Those who have opened the spiritual core, using their own spiritual essence to feed, refine and manipulate these Spirits – people who have achieved these various purposes are what we call Spirit Masters."
"And all of you have successfully opened your aperture in the Awakening Ceremony nine days ago. With the coagulation of the spiritual sea, right now you are all Rank one Spirit Masters."
In the village academy, an academy elder talked with confidence and composure. In front of him were students, seated and listening attentively.
The mystery and strength of a Spirit Master had been deeply rooted in the hearts of the youths a long time ago. Thus everything that the elder taught and said, the students were very interested in.
At this moment, a young teen raised his hand. With the elder's permission he stood up and asked, "Sir, I've known this since I was small. There are Rank one Spirit Masters, Rank two and so on, can you explain these in more details to us?"
The teacher nodded and waved his hand to ask the young man to sit down. "Spirit Masters have four realms which are divided into two groups; Earthly Realm and Heavenly Realm, with each realm having three ranks. Every realm difference is considered like Heaven and earth especially in the transition between Earthly to Heavenly Realm, while each rank difference is considered an earth and sky, and it is divided into 4 small stage – quarter stage, half stage, upper stage and complete stage. You have all just become Spirit Masters, so all of you are Rank one quarter stage."
"If you all work hard in your cultivation, your cultivation base will naturally advance to rank two, even rank three. Of course, the higher your talent, the bigger chances of promoting."
"For mortal grade talent, the spiritual sea takes up about 15 to 30 percent of the spiritual core, the highest promotion reachable is Rank one to Rank two initial stage.
For bronze grade talent, the spiritual sea is 35 to 50 percent of the spiritual core. Usually the progress stops at Rank two, but with luck, a small percentage of people can advance to Rank 3 middle stage.
Silver grade talents have a spiritual sea that takes up 60 to 75 of the spiritual core, they are able to cultivate to Rank 3, even as far as Rank 4 upper stage.
As for Gold grade talent, the spiritual sea is plenty; it takes up 85 to 100 percent of the spiritual core. This kind of talent in a person is naturally the most gifted and the most suitable for a Spirit Master's cultivation, being able to reach Rank Six peak stage, with a chance of breaking through to the Heavenly Realm."
"As for Spirit Masters who are Rank 7 and above, they are all legends. I am not clear about the specifics either. In the Mu clan, there has never been the appearance of a Rank 6 Spirit Grandmaster except for our very own ancestor, but Rank 4 and Rank 5 Spirit Grandmasters, we have had before."
The young teenagers' ears all pricked up, their eyes shining brightly as they listened.
Many of them couldn't help but look up to Mu Di Lang who was on the star section. Their batch were divided into four sections, with Star section as the highest and the Section Three as the lowest where Di Lan belongs as of the moment. Di Lang was a Gold grade talent after all. Their eyes were filled with feelings of envy and jealousy. At the same time there were some who stared at the corner at the last row of the classroom.
Leaning against the window at the corner was Mu Di Lan who was resting his lifeless face with his slender hand overlooking the view outside the window.
"Look, he's still looking dull," someone whispered.
"He's been like this continuously for a week already." Someone cut in.
"There's more. I heard that he was always up all night, wandering about at the edge of the village."
"There's been people who've seen it more than once, apparently he holds a wine bottle at night, dead drunk outside. Luckily, these few years the village surroundings have been cleared clean, so it's safer." The fellow schoolmates whisper here and there, letting all kinds of small gossip spreading around quickly.
"Ah well, the blow was just too big. Someone hailed as an extraordinary genius for so many years unexpectedly ending up with a Mortal grade talent in the end."
"If only it was just the case. Of all the people his own little sister was pronounced a Gold grade, right now being the center of attention, enjoying the best treatment. The younger sister soars up to the sky, while the older brother falls to the ground, tsk tsk…"
As the discussion amongst the students got louder and louder, the academy elder's brow deepened into a frown. In the whole classroom all the teenagers were sitting respectfully, showing liveliness. This made Di Lan who was not paying attention stand out so much that it sores the eyes.
"It's already been a week, yet he's still so dispirited. Hmph, I really must have been mistaken by him, how could someone like this be a genius?" The elder thought disgruntledly. He had spoken many times to Di Lan regarding this matter, but to no effect. He would be dazed through every class, making the elder in charge of teaching have a very frustrated headache.
"Forget it, he's just a Mortal grade. If he can't even withstand this sort of blow, fostering him with that kind of temperament will just end up wasting the clan's resources, nothing good will come out of it." The elder's heart was filled with disappointment towards Di Lan.
Di Lan was just a mortal grade, compared to his younger sister Di Lang who was a Gold grade talent, now, this was someone worth the clan's amount of effort on raising!
While the academy elder thought about all this, he was also replying to the latest question. "In the clan history, there has been many strong masters. For Rank five masters there were two. One of them was the second generation clan head. Despite his rank being lower to our ancestor, he was the one who made the Mu Yue Village flourished.
Another one was the fifth clan head. He had a silver talent, and yet managed to cultivate all the way to the realm of a Rank five Gu Master at a young age. If it wasn't for that despicable demon monk's sneak attack, he might have been able to achieve Rank six, but who knows…"
As he said this, he heaved a deep sigh. Below the platform, the youths started shouting in a rage.
"It's all because of that demon monk, he was too sinister and cunning!"
"What a pity that our fourth clan leader was softhearted and benevolent, and died at a young age."
"If only I was born a few hundred years earlier! If I saw that demon I would have torn off his ugly face."
The fifth clan head and the demon monk's story is something that the entire Mu clan knows.
The demon monk was also a Rank five Spirit Master, famous among the Heretics faction in his time for his many years being called as a maiden flower thief.
A few decades ago, he travelled to Bao Mao Mountain. He attempted to commit crimes in Mu Yue Village, but was found out by the fifth generation clan leader in the end. After an earthshakingly huge battle, the demon monk was beaten to the point he had to beg for mercy on his knees. The fifth clan head was merciful and kind, intending to spare his life. Yet the demon monk suddenly launched a sneak attack, successfully inflicting heavy wounds on the fifth clan head. The clan head flew into a rage, killing the demon monk on the spot. However his heavy injuries were not curable and thus, he died.
Therefore in the hearts of the Mu clansmen, the fifth generation clan head was a great hero who sacrificed his life for the village.
"Demon monk huh…" Awoken by the classroom's noisy chatter, Di Lan's blank eyes are starting to have life.
He stretched his body and thought with resentment in his heart, this demon monk, where did he die? Why is it that no one still found his corpse?
"Sadly, I only heard bits and pieces about this piece of news, so I can't hypothesize where the precise location of this monk have finally fallen. It wasn't like I knew I would become this desperate. Demon Monk, where in the world did you die off to?"
These few days he had been buying wine after wine, wandering around the village as soon as night arrived. He wanted to use part of him being drunk as a cover to look for some clues and tracks about this demon monk, while the other part was to indeed wash away his sorrow. Unfortunately, he never saw anything that can lead him something, making him feel very disappointed.
"If I could find the corpse of the Demon Monk, I'm pretty sure I would gain a lot from its belongings. Perhaps, the rare growth-type Spirit that can raise one's potential that this deceased monk owned has still dissipated back to the world and can be refined, that would be so much better than the clan's Moonfang Spirit. In the blink of an eye its already September, there's not much time left." Di Lan heaved a sigh and gazed out of the window.
Under the blue sky and white clouds, verdant mountains stretched into the distance. In the vicinity was a bamboo grove. This was Bao Mao Mountain's unique sword bamboo, each bamboo leaf is as sharp as a sword.
Not too far away, the woods were already turning green. The tender shoots sprouted in a sea of yellow green color. Every now and then, elegant cranse would perch on the branches. The wind of fall blew, cooling down the freshness of the mountains and rivers, and dispersing it into the world.
Without knowing it, the class was almost over. The academy elder finally informed, "This week I have taught you all how to contemplate and check your own core's spiritual sea, and how to meditate and manipulate around the spiritual essence inside your body.
Now is the time for you all to refine your vital Spirit. After this class ends, you will all go to the academy's Spirit room and pick a Spirit. After choosing your Spirit, please go home and focus on refining it. When you have finally refined your Spirit, then you can come back to the academy and continue attending class. At the same time, this is your first assessment. Whoever can finish this assessment first will be rewarded a generous sum of 30 spirit stones."