14 The Practice Grounds

Upon entering the practice grounds, Enzo immediately noticed that there was indeed an event going on inside. Disciples were crowding around what looked to be a medium sized dirt pile being used as a stage. 3 disciples were currently situated upon the dirt platform, answering the crowd's questions and retelling the happenings that occurred at Winterville.

At first Enzo didn't want to join the crowd, however, he realized he didn't know where the testing array Lilaya told him about was at. His current priority was to first get his training level assessed so that he'd have a basic idea to advance from. His current understanding was simply too shallow, he believed if he first knew how distinguishing levels worked, then he could proceed from there.

Thus Enzo made his way to join the crowd, intending to see how much he could learn.

…

"Settle down, settle down…"

One of the three disciples on the platform raised his hand towards the crowd in an attempt to quiet them down.

"We know you all have many more questions to ask and we hope to get through all of them, however, we'd like to have as civil of a discussion as possible…"

Another from the group of three stood out to lay his understanding before the crowd. He was the strongest of the group, as he possessed two white stars on his chest, and if one looked closely they would see 2 white bracelets on his wrist as well.

"As students of the School, we all wish to learn from each other and improve as much as possible, that is why we hope to civilize this discussion as to make it easier to better ourselves."

This young man was one of the more talented of the school, residing in the top 100. He sat in the Core Guiding intermediate stage and was 22 years old. His name was Kung Juxun and many of the weaker disciples looked favorably upon him for how nicely he would always treat them.

"Yes, I agree with master Kung!"

"Same with me, whatever master Kung says, those are the rules."

"I want whatever master Kung wants!"

"Master Kung I love you!!!"

Many from the crowd shouted out to voice their approval on this matter. Afterall, it was originally master Kung's idea. A small rule like this to keep the crowd managed, there was no harm in agreeing. It would only benefit them in the end.

After a short amount of time, the crowd had settled down. By this time, Enzo had already merged seamlessly into the crowd and was impassively watching the proceedings. He was all prepared to take mental notes if he heard anything of value.

Suddenly everything started to get back on track when one of the three on stage pointed to a middle-aged man in the crowd, as it appeared he had a question to ask.

"Young masters," The middle-aged man first addressed them politely before making his way to the foremost position of the crowd. He then bowed towards the stage three times, displaying his admiration and respect towards the three, before finally raising the questions that were on his mind.

"I have been stuck at Core Consciousness Pinnacle since I entered the School over forty years ago. My sole dream is to one day achieve Core Guiding. I dream about it day and night, is there any hope for me?"

As the middle-aged man finished his words, many from the crowd nodded their heads, as they too were plagued with similar problems. On the surface, the School seemed like a place of learning where people shared their knowledge and experiences. However in actuality, people rarely shared their secrets, as they wanted an edge on their peers. To most, friends didn't exist, only acquaintances. Most of the knowledge and techniques were kept to only a few groups of top disciples. There were some cases were people stopped training for decades to build up enough rhinestone to buy the knowledge so that they could advance to the next stage of their training.

This was why such a huge crowd formed in the practice grounds, when they heard a free seminar was going to be held. This was a truly rare opportunity to potentially obtain the knowledge to improve in the future.

Hearing the middle-aged man's words, Kung nodded his head.

"This is a situation most people find themselves in when they reach that level, as the answer you seek aren't recorded in any of our School's manuals," Kung slowly inched towards the crowd as he spoke, creating a refined scholarly appearance in the eyes of the crowd. "This isn't because the School doesn't want you to improve. All the Elders wish for you disciples to become strong, it is simply because of those who stand at the top are withholding the knowledge you seek. They are the real problem, hogging all the key information to keep those at the bottom from rising up to the top. They erase, remove and detain the truths from spreading around so that they can secure their position. However no longer will I stand for this, today, I, Kung Juxun, hereby release the fully intact manuals for you all to practice and learn from!"

Hearing Kung Juxun's words, the crowd went into an uproar. However, the other two next to Kung clearly weren't okay with this. Their eyes bulged slightly as they paced forward and nudged Kung on the shoulder.

"Are you sure you should be doing this?" One of the two top disciple asked.

"I don't think it's a good idea to release these manuals to the outer sect disciples, if Kase hears about this he'll kill you."

Kung merely smiled. "I was never a fan of how Kase did things. However it doesn't matter. After today, I'm leaving the School of Initiation and traveling to Winterville. After that day, my eyes were opened, Winterville is the only place for me. If I can sabotage Kase's plans by doing this, then so be it."

Without answering any further questions, Kung leaped from the stage and handed a thin scroll to the middle-aged man.

"Every problem you've procured should be answered in this manual."

Hearing those words, the middle-aged man immediately knelt down.

"Thank you so much young master, your kindness has changed my life." The middle-aged man knew full well that without Kung's sacrifice, he would never have a chance to progress in his lifetime.

Kung then faced the crowd and with a flick of his wrist, threw out a total of 5 different scrolls.

"Share these manuals amongst yourself, copy them down and distribute them to your peers. With these, you all shouldn't have any trouble reaching the Core Guiding stage."

One of the scrolls flew towards the back of the crowd. A huge muscular disciple jumped up to intercept it like a running back. He soared through the air, Enzo looked up with wide eyes as he dodged with all his might to not get hit.

Thud!

"Ahahaha! I got it!" A burly man laughed uproariously, the scroll in his hand held high in the air with pride.

Enzo looked over towards the burly man with a frown. He was already upset that he hadn't learned anything and that his time was wasted, but to almost be tackled on top of that. Luckily he had meditated by Lucid Lake and was able to subdue his emotions, or else he might have needlessly confronted the man.

Taking a deep breath, Enzo figured the fastest way to get an answer would be to ask someone, so he decided to pick a random disciple from the dispersing crowd to ask. He observed the crowd when he noticed a skinny disciple who seemed blend in with the crowd was currently heading in his direction, so he called out.

"Excuse me," Enzo motioned towards him.

"Hmm?"

The disciple looked to be a young man, probably in his early twenties. He was skinny, yet seemed to possess a lot of energy despite his physique. He looked at Enzo.

"I'm looking for an array that can assess one's level, might you know where that is?"

The skinny man nodded at Enzo and motioned towards a direction.

"I do, I'm actually headed there right now, you can follow if you'd like."

"That's great!"

They began heading north of the entrance gate.

The practice grounds were actually separated into four quadrants. There's the assessment array, which is located at the farthest corner of the grounds, it takes up the most space. Then there's the four dueling arenas; three small ones and one main one. The form alignment zone, which was currently empty, because it's taught by the grounds elder who wasn't here. Then the lecture zone where the crowd was gathered at.

Making their way to the array, the skinny man glanced at Enzo.

"You're really young."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Enzo chuckled.

"You can call me Gris."

He doesn't seem to carry a lot of emotion with him. Enzo thought, however his intuition told him he was a good person.

"You can call me Enzo."

Gris nodded and pointed to two statues that were situated up ahead.

"The assessment array is right up here."