Wood Affinity

As Ma Kong gave up the fight, the Rong twins and Gao Yan went rushing towards the infirmary. However, Deng Wu stayed behind to oversee Hui Yue’s progress in the tournament.

It wasn’t that Hui Yue did not care for his friend or worry about him, but, at that moment, his blue eyes were locked onto Wang Ju Long who was staring back at him. As they looked at each other, they both tried to conceal an easily seen challenge in their gazes.

A smile spread on each of their faces. Both smiles were filled with self-confidence and promise of an epic battle to come. The two stared at each other like this for a few moments, until Hui Yue finally nodded his head turning to walk towards the infirmary.

The academy’s infirmary was situated behind the office building. During the tournament, a temporary tent area was established behind the arenas where all teachers with wood affinity were stationed.

The infirmary was not one big tent but rather a small village numbering twenty tents. Within some tents were teachers with wood affinity and within others were seriously injured students resting.

In front of all the tents occupied by the teachers, long queues of students in need of treatment had gathered. These students were suffering everything from broken limbs to internal injuries; however, none of them were severe enough to be life-threatening.

Ma Kong was also one of these students. He stood in the middle of a line while his qi gathered around his leg. The qi helped him support his weight and keep the pain subdued.

As soon as Hui Yue and their gang spotted Ma Kong, they instantly rushed towards him. Ma Kong was not a weak-minded person so his face was as calm as a lake in which not even the smallest ripple could be seen.

His calm face broke into a smile as he saw his friends on their way to support him. While they waited in the long line, Rong Ming and Gao Yan constantly talked about how unfair it was that Wang Ju Long had such an overpowered skill. None of them could comprehend how Ju Long had managed to evolve his skills to such an extent, not to mention that he had managed to break through to the Disciple rank at the age of ten. His latent talent was more impressive than any of the other students, apart from Deng Wu. Though, in Hui Yue’s opinion, Deng Wu did not count as his talent was given to him by Little Dragon, much like he had gained all of his from Lan Feng.

The queue proceeded slowly, while they patiently waited for it to be Ma Kong’s turn, so they took this opportunity to look around.

A young woman was running around shouting orders to the staff and scolding youngsters who thought the infirmary was a playground to pass the time while they were waiting. This woman was no stranger to Hui Yue. He had seen her back when Shan Ping was injured. Right now she was far too busy to notice the white-haired boy standing in one of many queues.

Only five Master ranked teachers were healing at a time while the others were meditating to replenish their supply of spiritual energy.

The wood elemental affinity was the affinity that gave one control over life and death. It was especially well connected with the vegetation realm, but it could in some instances be trained to focus on humans. The type of cultivator who specialized in this area were called healers. They specialized in using the wood element to help mend the human body rather than growing and refining medicinal herbs.

The wood element was usually used to attack the soul of one’s opponent, but when it came to the spiritual attack skills, they usually attacked the body directly. This type of attack would distort one’s opponent’s life from within, or, in some extreme cases, even drain their life's longevity.

Having a wood elemental affinity was not rare. The balance between the heavens and the earth caused a fifth of all cultivators to have wood as their elemental affinity. Less than one percent of these cultivators also had an affinity for fire, making them qualified to become an alchemist.

Elemental affinities were something Hui Yue had found incredibly interesting ever since Lan Feng told him that it was very much akin to what his old world considered magic.

Hui Yue was not even close to unlocking his middle dantian, but he was very excited to see how a wood element user would expend their spiritual energy to heal an injury, such as a broken bone.

Time passed by slowly and Deng Wu did his very best to make Rong Xing feel comfortable while waiting. At first, he had somehow managed to procure a chair for her, and as soon as he had proudly shown it to her, she instantly gave it to Ma Kong instead.

Her dismissal of the chair had caused a depressed expression to appear in Deng Wu’s eyes, but it swiftly vanished, when Rong Xing praised him for thinking about their injured friend.

Afterwards, he brought snacks and drinks for everyone in hopes of once again being praised for his consideration. Deng Wu’s actions caused them all to feel light-hearted, and even Hui Yue lost the last traces of killing intent he was emitting.

Finally, after waiting for several hours, it was Ma Kong’s turn to enter the healing tent. These tents were large enough to fit up to ten people, so Hui Yue and the others followed behind quietly.

The Rong twins and Gao Yan were obviously there for the sake of giving mental support to Ma Kong, and Deng Wu was there because of Rong Xing and Hui Yue. Hui Yue, in turn, was obviously there because he cared about his friend, but he ended up being more focused on how these wood element affinity teachers healed his friend’s injuries.

Everyone within the tent, apart from Hui Yue, had seen this type of healing before. For them, it was no big deal. Healers were cultivators all the major families within Riluo City had. As children who cultivated, they all had to visit them from time to time.

Entering the tent, Ma Kong was placed on a bed, and the clothes around his legs were cut off displaying a broken bone and the open wound.

Looking at the open wound, Hui Yue felt slightly nauseous, but he quickly steeled himself. This wound was only a broken leg after all. It could easily have been much worse.

Upon looking at his leg, Ma Kong’s face paled slightly. As he removed the qi assisting him in dulling the pain, he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. Wave after wave of pain flooded over Ma Kong. His friends felt uncomfortable. They were fidgeting and wondering what they should do to help him.

Before any of them asked if they could help, the teacher started turning towards them and looked at Ma Kong who was lying down. This teacher seemed quite fatigued. His cheeks were sunken in, and his eyes were clouded.

As the teacher finished turning towards Ma Kong, the air within the tent suddenly came to life as tiny green dots of light shone throughout the room. These green dots quickly gathered around the bed where Ma Kong was resting. After a few minutes, the green dots started fluttering around his entire body as if they were scanning for any ailments.

When the green dots reached the wound on the leg, they clumped together into a green layer of light, which looked a lot like a suit of armor. At first, these green specks of light stayed still, gathering an immense amount of light and other dots before they gradually started to sink into the leg itself.

The process reminded Hui Yue of when he had been fortifying his organs with qi. As this looked a lot like fortifying with qi, Hui Yue assumed that the healing would be over by the time these specks of light were fully absorbed by the leg; however, this was not the case.

As the specks of light made their way into the leg itself, the wound started changing. The fractured bone began mending at an alarming rate. It slowly grew together as the skin regenerated causing Hui Yue to stare at it in amazement. It was as if someone had recorded a grievous wound being healed by itself, but instead of seeing it at regular speed, it was shown sped up.

As soon as his entire leg was back to the same appearance it had before the fight with Wang Ju Long, the specks of green light once again emerged from within his skin. This time, the green dots no longer shone with light but instead rose into the air, where they slowly disintegrated into nothing.

As the last green speck of light vanished, the teacher slumped down into a chair. His hair was soaked with sweat, and his complexion was even worse than it had been before. Bags under the eyes were visible, and his fatigue was so apparent that they all knew it was now time for them to leave.

Just as they left through the door, the woman who had saved Shan Ping rushed past them into the door’s entrance.

“You stubborn old man!” she said scolding him severely. “You need to make sure that you get enough rest. Yes, it is important to heal the children, but you need to rest and replenish your spiritual power, or you will just drag us down.”

It seemed this sort of discussion between them had happened countless times before. The only thing they heard in response was an agreeing grunt from the tired teacher.

“Meditate or sleep a little,” the woman said, with a much gentler voice. “The fact that you managed to heal over one hundred students today plainly shows how superior your healing skills are.”

Having said that, the woman turned around and marched out of the tent intent on putting a new teacher on healing duty within the infirmary village.

“You need to be careful,” Ma Kong said with an admiring sigh. “Wang Ju Long might only be a first star Disciple ranked cultivator, but his qi is quite pure.” He looked at the Rong twins before an awkward smile appeared on his face. “Haha forget it,” he said laughingly. “It’s not like the two of you will have any trouble against a mere Disciple ranked cultivator. There are an entire nine stars and a bottleneck between you.”

Hearing this made everyone, apart from Hui Yue, laugh and joke around at the thought that the highly-ranked twins could lose to Wang Ju Long.

‘What do you think?’ Lan Feng suddenly asked as he observed the spectacle. Hearing the question made Hui Yue snort in discontent.

‘Look at Ma Kong. He is a seven star student. He did not even qualify for Wang Ju Long to release his Qi Lightning Bolts. Although it will not be easy, I do have a feeling that my dear rival, Wang Ju Long, will be able to pull out something rather astonishing if we give him the slightest opportunity.’

‘Never underestimate your opponent, was it?’ Lan Feng said with a cheeky grin. ‘Well, you do not have the time to play around here,’ he continued as Hui Yue kept observing his happy friends who once again enjoyed the beverages available during the tournament.

‘I know,’ Hui Yue nodded before saying his goodbyes. ‘Let’s return home and train.’

With that, Hui Yue disappeared into the twilight ready to prepare for yet another night of painstakingly hard training. He had to be careful he did not make any mistakes now or in the near future. A cultivator of his rank could not afford to take any liberties. Each fight Hui Yue fought must be fought as if it were his last. He would have to go all out. Eventually, every last student will have had to be usurped for Hui Yue to emerge at the end of the road with a victory against Wang Ju Long.