Future Threat

Just like that, 6 years has passed by since Bruce joined the academy. During his time at the academy, he found a best friend, Deion Wakeford. The two had went through traumatic experiences together as the only students to John the Butcher. Every day, they cursed themselves for taking the stupid cooking class just to be tortured by Chef John.

One time, Deion submitted an official complaint about John's lack of professionalism to the academy's disciplinary board. Nothing happened to Chef John, but they knew something was wrong when Chef John looked at them like they were dead men walking.

Chef John captured both a day later and threw them into a lake surrounded by stage 3 and stage 4 profound beasts under the pretense of teaching them how to fish. They had to fight for their lives that day and swore to never report this heartless bastard ever again.

Due to Chef John's infamous reputation, no students ever took his cooking class. Leaving only Bruce and Deion to fend for themselves.

Under Chef John's implied threats, the two had to take his class every year to truly "polish" their skills as Chefs. To his credit, Chef John did turn the two boys into professional chefs. He taught them everything about the culinary world.

At the age of 16, Bruce had a cultivation of peak stage Soul Manifestation. A record achievement in the continent but no one knew about it. Bruce continued to maintain his low-key presence to avoid attracting any attention. He did the bare minimum to stay in the academy and turned into Bandit of Solitude during the exams to obtain the necessary cultivation resources.

The Imperial Academy could have easily exposed his identity as the Bandit of Solitude, but it never did. Every yearly exam would reset the ranks of students. The highest ranked student receives the highest amount of monthly energy crystals provided by the academy. Every year, some random person would be knocked out by the Bandit of Solitude and gained the #1 position while Edward Solomon forever remained as #2.

In his first year of the academy, Jonathan Hopkins was placed first, but he quickly got knocked down the rankings after everyone targeted him. The weak cannot survive in the academy if they're too flashy.

The real identity of the Bandit of Solitude remained a secret till this every day. All the prodigies of this generation trained hard for the entire year just to defeat the Bandit of Solitude at the yearly exam. The one who trained the hardest was Edward Solomon.

"Edward, that's enough. You've been practicing the same sword move for over 15 hours already!" Steven Bochner, the Imperial Academy headmaster, took Edward as his apprentice. He deeply appreciates Edward's fighting spirit and talent, so he accepted Edward as his student. The only thing he dislikes about Edward is his obsession toward the Bandit of Solitude.

Edward had been breaking academy records ever since he joined but he never showed any happiness. Edward had fought the Bandit of Solitude 6 times so far and lost every time. The worst part about the Bandit of Solitude is that he fought everyone using a frying pan. The humiliating defeat due to the frying pan only added more emotional trauma to everyone.

"Master, I have to practice until I defeat that bandit!" Edward continued to swing his sword to perfection as he recalled every detail of the fight against the bandit. Instead of rage or fear, he felt excitement whenever he remembered the previous fights.

Edward never had a rival when he grew up until he met the Bandit of Solitude. He wanted to train himself until he reached a point where he can defeat the bandit and take off his mask. Which is why he requested Steven to keep the identity of the bandit as a secret.

Bruce figured it out after he became the Bandit of Solitude for the second time. He realized that as long as he keeps motivating Edward and the other prodigies to train, the Imperial Academy will keep protecting his identity.

Steven shook his head when he heard his student's reply.

"If you keep fighting against the bandit and keep losing, you will develop an inner demon. It will be difficult for you to advance further in cultivation" Steven had seen many prodigies fell down from grace due to mental block, or an inner demon.

"You don't have to worry about that. As long as I keep getting stronger and smarter, I'll defeat that bandit eventually" Edward didn't lose heart because he didn't view Bruce as an insurmountable wall, but rather a moving goal that he will eventually reach.

"Have it your way. The yearly exam will happen 8 months from now. however, the academy will send some students at Soul Manifestation stage to a mission before the yearly exam begins."

Edward finally stopped his sword practice.

"What is the mission?"

Steven's face turned serious. He slowly lifted his hands and gathered energy around his palm. With a few movements, he drew the map of the world in front of Edward.

"The world that we live in have 7 continents. The continent that we inhabit is called Valrok. The Valrok continent is mainly inhabited by humans and profound beasts. The same cannot be said for the other continents"

Steven then focused the view on the other 6 continents.

"The other continents are inhabited by other beings such as angels, demons, and divine beasts. Of course, humans also live in those continents, but they are the minority."

"You probably didn't know about this even though you have access to all the books in the Imperial Academy, but the other species do not prefer to mingle with humans at all"

"Last year, we found an entrance to an ancient ruin near the edge of our continent. None of our experts could go into the entrance except for Soul Manifestation cultivators" Steven began to sigh as he recalled that day.

"We gave one student a mission, to find as much information as possible about the ruin and return."

"We waited 10 days before the student finally returned and he was in a terrible shape. It's not an exaggeration to say that he was one step away from death."

"We healed him quickly and waited for him to wake up. After he woke up, he provided us with his experience in the ruin. That's when I realized that our continent was in great danger."

"The student who got into the ruin was forced to be a slave to the other races. The rule was that you had to be at Soul Manifestation stage and that rule applied to the other races as well. Our student happened to be the weakest one in the ruin even though he was ranked 40th in his generation."

"He got lucky one day and managed to escape. When I asked him about the strength of the enemies, he said two words" Steven stopped talking and looked up to the sky.

"Master, what did he say?" Edward felt something was wrong when his master, a Great Emperor, was in trepidation.

"Worldly Supreme"

"That's impossible! Worldly Supreme is a fable cultivation stage." Edward cried out.

"It is not my apprentice. The original founder of the Imperial Academy was a Worldly Supreme expert himself. It is indeed real."

Edward was shocked when he heard about the truth from Steven. After all, worldly supreme was the next stage from Great Emperor but no one had achieved that level over the history of the continent.

"The Imperial Academy ancestor had long disappeared. He created the academy for his descendants and the humans who live on this continent. Information about him is only known to the headmaster of the academy"

"Given the nature of the situation, it is now appropriate to tell you, who will shoulder the fate of this continent in the future, the truth. We will be attacked by the other continents soon."

"Master, I don't know if I'll even be able to reach Worldly Supreme in the future" The legendary cultivation realm was simply too out of reach for someone like him.

"It doesn't matter because a war will come upon us. It will happen in the near future. By my prediction, the Dark Forces will betray us while the Church of Light will remain neutral"

"You will lead the academy students in the new mission, which is to enter the ancient ruin once more. The other races will likely be there. Your job is to lead your peers, kill geniuses from the other side, and obtain any treasure in the ruin"

"Master, do you think that we can win against those other races?"

"Probably not"

"…"

"Are you trying to send me to my death?"

"No, because you'll have the Imperial Academy secret weapon with you"

"What is it?"

"The Bandit of Solitude"