38 Strange man

The next days were a blur for Ye Xiu. He had finally managed to craft several Rank 3 elixirs and he was happy that he had progressed to such a point in a short amount of time. Shang Yang was still unable to produce any elixirs but was extremely confident in making different Rank 3 pills. Ye Xiu could also do the same and wanted to have more experience in crafting elixirs so he had that certainty about passing the Rank 3 Alchemist examination.

He was currently in his Dimension with the others eating. They were discussing the average level of students that they had seen from the ranked matches. They were talking about the stronger opponents' fighting styles and how it would be possible for them to counter it.

Ideas flew at each other and most of them wanted to test their theories but they didn't have a suitable opponent. They were about to leave the Dimension when Ye Xiu stopped them.

"I want to talk to you guys about something."

Xiao Tu looked back at Ye Xiu. "What do you need to tell us? Do it quickly, we need to get to the gravity rooms for training."

Shang Yang rolled her eyes at him. "There's no need to rush. We have plenty of time. Not many people are going to the gravity room so why should we rush? If you are that crazy about training then I'll make sure you stop before you hurt yourself from overworking."

Ye Xiu cleared his throat to get his friends' attention. "I want you guys to know that I'll be spending more time on Alchemy for the next few days. I think it's possible for me to take the ranking examination in a week's time so I want to be as best prepared I can possibly be."

Shi Die nodded his assent. "I don't mind, if it's something you love then you should always take some time out for it."

The others agreed with what Shi Die had said. Ye Xiu looked at them before smiling. "Thanks, I can still help with training for today but after that, I'll be doing my own things." Ye Xiu was happy that his friends understood that he wanted to do something else besides training.

With that, they left the Dimension to get to the gravity rooms. As they ran towards the building, they never noticed a shadowy figure following them in the darkness. The figure followed behind them until they reached the building before it disappeared. The group had no idea that anybody had been following them and continued their conversations as they entered the building.

Once they had entered the building, the shadowy figure appeared once more at the entrance.

"Such a late time at night for children to be training. The worthy one might is intriguing, he has potential and talent whilst training more than his peers. I hope he manages to impress me... otherwise, I don't have any hope of passing my family's art to anybody else."

The figure vanished on the spot, leaving no traces of where he had been.

Inside the gravity room, Xiao Tu and Ye Xiu were sparring. As they sparred, Xiao Tu started pestering Ye Xiu with questions that he didn't understand because he knew that he wouldn't have the chance to ask him in a few days. This meant that he was taking the opportunity to pester him.

Besides his normal cultivation questions, he also barraged him with questions on whether he would be safe alone without anybody around him and talked about his safety. Ye Xiu's eyebrows were twitching violently at this point because the spar was supposed to be a quiet affair.

"Please stop the questions... I'll be completely fine. I'll be in the dormitory room practising Alchemy. I sincerely doubt that any teachers would be barging into the room to look for me. I haven't done anything to make myself stand out so there shouldn't be a reason in the first place."

Xiao Tu attacked Ye Xiu but had a worried look on his face. "I don't want you to be left alone though. You don't know what might happen. I think I should stay with you when you are practising alchemy."

Ye Xiu was fed up. "I'll take Shang Yang with me. I can help her with Alchemy at the same time so I don't think she'll have any qualms about it. That way I won't be alone and your worries should be unfounded then." His irritation could be heard in his voice and was reflected in his more aggressive attacks.

Shang Yang stopped her throwing and walked over to the two boys with a questioning look on her face. "I heard my name being mentioned. What are you guys talking about to warrant my name needing to be mentioned?"

Ye Xiu pointed at Xiao Tu with haste. "Xiao Tu's been bothering me about my safety when I'm no longer a child. I can protect myself! I won't be caught off-guard if I'm in the dormitory room but he has been saying that it won't be enough. I decided that if there was going to be anyone with me, it'd be you because I can help you with your Alchemy at the same time. Two birds one stone. It should stop him from worrying too much."

Xiao Tu dodged Ye Xiu's aggressive attacks and replied. "If you are sure she can keep you safe then I'll be fine with it! Just don't do anything stupid without supervision."

With that decided, Xiao Tu and Ye Xiu placed their focus back on the fight and attacked each other. They were reaching the point where their fighting ability underneath 3x gravity was reaching its peak and they were going to be increasing the gravity to 5x the gravity soon.

They continued training in peace for the rest of the training session. As they were leaving the gravity room, a man stood in front of the entrance of the building. The man looked up from where he was staring before and called out to the group. "Hello! I'd like to speak with one of you privately."

The group was wary once again because they didn't think that anybody would be waiting for them out here at such an early time in the morning. Ye Xiu took charge of talking to the man. "Anything you can say to one of us privately can be told to the rest of us. None of us has any secrets that we keep from each other and we don't spread secrets or rumours anyway."

The man hesitated before nodding at what Ye Xiu said. "If that's your decision then that's fine with me. I'd like to ask if you want to train with me. I wish to pass down my family arts to you specifically because you have the potential that I seek. Your body is perfect for the family arts I practice."

Ye Xiu was confused. He never told anybody that he had a body physique outside of his mentors and friends so he sincerely doubted anybody would've been able to get information on him without him knowing. He trusted his friends and mentors well enough to not spread something like this because everybody had agreed to keep it a secret.

Ye Xiu denied the man with confidence. "I don't know what you're talking about. As far as I'm concerned my body is an average one. I think you have the wrong-" Ye Xiu was cut off from finishing his sentence.

"I'm not wrong. I can sense the blood of the dragons inside you. I can only sense a miniscule amount of it but you are the only other person that I've met with dragon's blood inside them. I've been searching for many years for one that can inherit my family's art and now I have finally found you."

Ye Xiu was still wary of the man. "If you said it was a family art then don't you have any relatives or descendants for you to pass that family art to? "

The man's face was solemn. "My entire family was slaughtered because our enemies believed that the art we were practising must've been a very powerful art. They were correct, but the only people who can even begin training with the art are those who hold a dragon's bloodline."

Ye Xiu was alarmed when he said that he could sense a dragon's bloodline inside of his body. "How were you able to identify me for having a dragon's bloodline?"

The man was surprised with Ye Xiu's question. "All families that hold a bloodline have a technique for sensing those that hold a similar bloodline to theirs. This allows us to keep the bloodline relatively pure and allow us to hand down our family arts to those that do hold the bloodline. If we didn't have this ability our bloodlines would've long been diluted and eventually vanish."

Ye Xiu was slowly letting down his guard and was interested with what the man had to say. "So your offer to teach me your family art was genuine? Are you a teacher at the academy because I won't be allowed to exit the grounds until I'm of a higher rank. If you are a teacher then I wouldn't mind going with you."

As he said that, Xiao Tu frowned at the statement. "Ye Xiu, you can't just go with a random stranger! You don't even know if he's telling the truth!"

The man took out a badge from his pocket and handed it over to them. "I am a teacher at the academy so you don't have to worry about wandering out of the academy grounds. If you don't trust me then it's fine but it's not your choice. It's your friend's choice on whether he wants to learn from me or not. You can't restrict him because he has free will."

Ye Xiu was thinking to himself. 'If he knows a technique that relies on a dragon's bloodline then it'll be good for me. As far as I was concerned, no techniques from master's cultivation technique relied on the dragon's bloodline so far. It's possible that there will be such a technique in the future but that'll be really far away considering master's strength. It might be best for me to learn a bloodline technique if it's useful. It could possibly help me in the future.'

Ye Xiu looked at Xiao Tu before taking in deep breaths. "I'd like to learn under you. If it means that I have to leave my friends for a period of time, I'll do it. I'll get stronger to protect them and so that they don't have to worry about me."

The man looked shocked but quickly shook his head. "You don't have to worry about leaving your friends, our training is nothing secret after all. The only people who can use the family art are those with a bloodline so even if they witnessed the training from start to end, they'd be unable to do anything with that knowledge anyway."

"in fact, you can bring all your friends, I might as well teach them something so that it's fair. You all seem like bright and talented kids who put in a lot of effort into training. This should mean that I won't be disappointed. However, if I notice anyone slacking off during my training sessions, I'll make sure you suffer for it and that will ensure that you'll never slack off in those training sessions again." The man smiled sadistically.

Shi Die cleared his throat and broke through the awkward atmosphere. "Excuse me, sir... you haven't introduced yourself to us."

The man rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Right, where are my manners. My name is San Guo. If all of you accept my offer of training, I'll be expecting to be called Sir and nothing else. Is that clear?"

The kids shouted. "Yes Sir!"

San Guo gestured for them to follow him back into the gravity room.