6 The Straw Hat Boy 1

4 years later…

Greyhound City, located in the southern province of the Divided Continent. The city boasts as the top 4 cities in the entire realm. They hold terrifying authoritative power amongst the entire southern province. Just like the other three powerful cities, each commands over the other three directions. As such, peace was upheld in the land with the four cities being at equilibrium.

A boy, 12 years old, enters the front gates of Greyhound City. He looked like a country bumpkin, wearing his straw hat and straw shoes. The dye on the shirt that he wore had basically washed off, resulting in pale blue hue, not to mention how his clothes were too small for his growing body. The only defining feature for the boy was that he had a sword attached to his waist. The boy was none other than Wang Li Tian.

Wang Li Tian had travelled a long way, walking from the Deathwater Mountain, where he had resided for the past four years. With only a sling haversack as a carry-on, Li Tian walked for two whole months, facing challenges along the way. He was no longer the same little boy.

Compared to the weak and gullible boy from four years ago, there was something in Wang Li Tian that had change fundamentally, something along the lines with his mentality and physical state. The boy had no difficulties passing customs. Although he had a sword on him, the way Li Tian had dressed up made the guards feel like his weapon was only an accessory.

Today, in regards to his master's parting words, he had finally arrived at his destination. Li Tian's purpose for travelling to Greyhound City was in fact, to enter the Southern Wind Academy. The Southern Wind Academy was —like its city— the top four Cultivation Schools in the Lower Realms. Unlike Sects, the Academy is non-binding on martial cultivators and can be used as a means of learning martial arts only. The Southern Wind Academy would attract all youths from the Southern Provinces, sometimes even from other provinces too. The acceptance rates for the school however, is abysmally small. Every year, only 1 in every 100 youths would be allowed to enrol into the Academy as an outer disciple. The students would then have to haggle with other outer disciples to enrol as an inner disciple. It was truly a cutthroat and competitive world.

On the first day of the summer solstice, all the way till the tenth day, the Southern Wind Academy would host a selection test for all martial artists. The prerequisite requirement to enter the selection test was that the martial cultivator had to be under 20 years old. Not only that, your cultivation level had to at least be in Mid Spiritual cleansing Stage.

"In the Great World, there are a total of six stages for cultivation. The first three stages are Spiritual cleansing Stage, Body Enhancement Stage and lastly Core Establishment Stage. Every stage has three steps, Early, Mid and Late. To start your cultivation journey, you would first progress into the Spiritual cleansing Stage, cultivating your way through each step before progressing to the next stage." Li Tian recalled what his master, Mu Zhi Xuan had taught him.

The Sword Martial God had purposely only told him about the three lowest stages as he knew that his disciple would surely forget about it.

"You would have to absorb Spiritual energy from the surroundings, so as to help purify and open up your meridians. Only then, could you start your journey to become a true martial cultivator!"

In that four years of training, Li Tian had finally been able to open up all 12 major meridians. This was by no means fast as they were many talented martial artists that were able to progress into the Body Enhancement Stage by the age of 9 and 10. However, no one could fault Li Tian as he had done his training in isolation all by himself.

A year into training with Mu Zhi Xuan, the Sword Martial God had broke unfortunate news to Li Tian. Though the time of one year could neither be counted as fast nor long, Li Tian's master had to part ways with his disciple. Whilst teaching his disciple the way of cultivation, Mu Zhi Xuan had been slowly recovering his body back to its normal state. In fact, only after 6 months into the recuperation, Zhi Xuan could already attempt to leave this continent. Yet, he didn't do so, for his disciple's sake.

Typically, a Master would simply pass their disciples a cultivation manual and would leave it to them to cultivate by themselves. Only when they are stuck at a bottleneck, would they then ask their master to enlighten them. For Li Tian's case, Mu Zhi Xuan worries that he would be stuck on every step of the way. Not only that, he would not be here all the while and had to head back to the Martial Continent to check on the status of his Sect.

The Cultivation Manual that Mu Zhi Xuan passed onto Li Tian was not a manual that was used by him, but rather, from his late friend that had unfortunately passed on. His friend, if was still alive now, would have been the strongest female cultivator in the Martial Continent. Before her passing, she had passed her cultivation manual, The Brave Heart Manual, to her closest confidante, Mu Zhi Xuan to safe-keep and pass it on for her.

The reason why Zhi Xuan had finally chosen the slow-minded Li Tian to inherit her legacy, was because of one crucial factor. That crucial factor was that the practitioner of the Brave Heart Manual had to have a pure mind, soul and heart. If there was ever an inch of corruption, immorality or even lust, the manual would no longer work for the practitioner.