New Beginning

"So this is the place?" Yun looked around with a sigh. It was big, but not grand. While walking around, he found that there were four rooms and even an outdoor hot spring, though not super large. "Not bad." He didn't hate the place, rather he found it comfortable. There was a basement made of special materials where he could do most of what he wanted. The basement was separated into various rooms as well. "Nice, this is great. Since I don't need to cultivate most of the time anymore, I can just do other things." Nodding his head, he went back to the main floor and found that of the three bedrooms, only one was filled with various items. "Mom probably organized this for me." He smiled and opened his closet. There were many sets of clothes. The bed was set too with a few other smaller items in the bedroom. It was simple to say the least.

After confirming where everything in the house was, Yun decided to take a stroll outside. "Might as well learn about this place a little." Although he could use his cultivation to figure everything out, he wanted to avoid that. After all, his dad wanted him to learn how interaction with people worked. Tying his long hair, he walked out of the house.

One thing he noticed as he walked was that his house was far from most others. The land he had was actually quite large, compared to others atleast. "Dad probably did this to let me get some privacy." He smiled a little.

He soon entered the town which was bustling with people. He felt a little out of place. He had never seen so many people at once. Even when he visited his cousins and aunts, he would meet only a few at a time.

"U-umm, excuse me." He saw an old woman and couldn't but approach her. She seemed like the nicest person from the crown, plus she was closest.

"Yes--?" The old woman turned her head, but suddenly her words stopped. "G-ghost!" With those words, using strenght hidden in her small body, she ran away as fast as she could.

Yun stood in place, shocked. 'What the heck…' He then looked around as people glared at him. 'W-wait, why are they all glaring, I didn't even do anything.' He felt his face become red in embarrassment. 'It feels like that whole sneeze situation again, but worse!' Lowering his head, he decided to head back to his house.

"Wait." As he turned around to leave, someone grabbed his shoulder. Mind you, Yun decided to seal most of his strenght for the visit, after all, it would be harder to learn more if his power accidentally erupted. Which was the biggest reason he didn't notice the person approaching him from behind.

"Y-yeah?" He still felt super embarrassed by the scene so when he turned around, he was hesitant.

What met his eyes was a young man. He was tall, even taller then Yun. He had short black hair, the exact opposite of the long white that Yun had. There was a scar on his right cheek, which was noticeable, but other than that, he was a good looking man. "Are you new here?"

His voice was rough, but not ugly. "Yeah, I just got here today." Weirdly enough, Yun felt a little comfortable talking to this person.

"Yeah, I've never seen a person with white hair before." The tall man began to laugh a little. "Anyways, my name is Qing, Hou Qing." He extended his hand towards Yun.

"Hey, my name is Chen Yun." Smiling a little, Yun shook his hand. It was weird, he felt easily comfortable with this person.

"Yun, can I call you that?" With this question asked, Yun nodded his head. "Alright, just call me Qing. Anyways, since you're new here, that means you and I have something in common. I'm also new to this place. Of course, I got here about a week ago, but it is still considered recent." He laughed a little. "You probably don't know much about the place, right?" Yun shook his head. "Well, here I'll give you a tour." Turning around, he began to walk. Yun waited for a moment before following him. "So this place is the local bakery…. This is the blacksmith…" They walked around for a few hours as Qing began to introduce the area to him. The town wasn;t too large, but it wasn't that small. There were hundreds of shops, most similar to one another.

"Don't they have a place for alchemy here?" He asked with suspicion. He had seen every place, but not a single place for alchemy.

"Of course they do, but it is given a large amount of land right beside the cultivation academy." He explained with a smile. "Speaking of which, how old are you? You look like you're my age, give or take."

Yun didn't know what answer to give him right away, after all, his real age was a lot more than what the person in front of him would guess. Thinking quickly, he came up with a random number that seemed feasible. "I'm a thousand three hundred years old." He smiled and said.

Qing looked at him for a moment before bursting into a laugh. "Yeah right! Haha, I believe that." Laughing for a bit longer, he wiped his eyes. "Here, since you wanna be so secretive, let me make a wild guess." He looked him up and down before nodding his head. "I take it you're twenty?"

It had been a long time since Yun was last that age, he didn't remember what it was like nor what it looked like. Twenty made him think of his niece, Bai Ying. Although his niece was only around the age of three, he felt that when she turned twenty, there wouldn't be that much of a difference. He was just that old.

"Before I say yes or no, how old are you? Why ask for my age before telling your own?" Although Yun wasn't experienced, he was taught various things by his father, so of course he wasn't an idiot.

"Sure, I'm twenty three this year." Qing smiled.

Yun looked him up and down before delving deep into his thoughts. 'If he's twenty three, then me being twenty is probably believable, but just in case, I'll pretend to be twenty one.'

"Anyways, so how close was I?" He asked with a smile.

"Close, but not there. I'm twenty one this year." Yun said while smiling.

"Well that's great. Since you just got here, that means you're probably here for cultivation academy, right?" Qing patted his arms and smiled. "What realm are you? Since we're the same age, we should be in a similar age, which means you and me might be in the same class."

"Cultivation realm?" He began to think about the various realms. Most were so distant in the past that he forgot their names. "Can you give me a rough breakdown on what each realm is called? From where I come from, they never really used names." He made a lie on the spot. It was a dumb lie, almost unbelievable, but it was the best lie he could think of.

"That's weird." Qing frowned a little but nodded his head. "Well, I only know the first five realms. There is Body Purge, Essence Assimilation, Orb Form, Soul Shelter, and Self-Realization. I'm right now at Essence Assimilation stage four. Although there are nine stages in each of the realms, stage four is considered very talented for my age." Qing spoke with pride on his face. When Yun saw this, he thought for a moment before setting his own stage somewhere.

"Based on what you said, your realm rankings might be similar to how we did it. We just went Rank One, stage one to nine, and so one. I was Rank Two Stage two, so that means I should be at stage two Essence Assimilation." He added a bit more detail to his previous lie in order to make it more believable.

"Wow." Qing said with a bright smile. "You're two years younger, yet you're already so close to me. You're probably a talent from your home, right?" Yun nodded his head without hesitation. That wasn't a lie whatsoever. Sure, it sounded cocky, but if Qing said it, and it was true, might as well go along with it. "Well, the great thing is that you and I will likely be in similar classes then. Have you registered already?" When Qing asked this question Yun sighed and shook his head. "What are you waiting for then? Let's quickly go and get you signed up." Without waiting for a reply, Qing grabbed Yun's arm and dragged him towards a large academy.

---

"Please, line up over there for registration." When the two young men arrived at the academy, they were met with a long line. The academy was large, with blue glass for windows, and large towers surrounding it from random areas.

"Yun, you probably know this, but the fee for the registration is three silver. Do you have enough on you right now?" Qing suddenly thought about the fees and couldn;t help but become a little guilty. He dragged Yun over without letting the man prepare anything. Who knew if he had money on his. "If you need some, ask me, alright?"

"I should be fine Qing, thank you." Yun smiled. He didn't really care about these things. With his cultivation, creating silver coins out of nothing was no problem. With a hand in his right pocket, he formed three silver coins, pulling them out in front of Qing. "This should be good, right?"

"Yup, that is good enough." The currency of copper, silver, and gold were very common. Even when he was cultivating alone, he came into contact with the coins multiple times. Qing sighed in relief when he saw the coins.

The two young men waited patiently in the long line. They didn't have much to talk about, atleast that was the case for Yun. He just listened to Qing chatter away about anything and everything.

"Next." Soon, the two young men reached the front of the line. They were met with a stunning woman with long brown hair. Her eyes were slightly dull, yet they gave off an enchanting feeling. "Oh?" When she noticed Yun;s white hair, she couldn't help but look at the young man carefully.

"Teacher, I've already registered a week ago, I'm just here to help my friend Yun register here." Qing stepped forward and spoke with a smile, explaining the situation, though he didn't really need to.

"No issue. Just place a drop of blood onto this stone and then pay the fees. Then you're good to go." Yun walked forward and inspected the stone a little before nodding his head. Extending his hand forward, he pricked it on a needle which poked on the top of the stone. When the blood droplet slowly slid down the silver needle, touching the stone, a small light flashed from the stone. The teacher looked at it before nodding her head. "Alright, pay the fee and here is your identity token." Yun handed her the three silver before grabbing a small badge. "Just fill in extra details before you start in a few days. Also…" She lifted a small sheet of paper before handing it over to Yun. "Fill in your address so that we can send you the details of the classes you will be attending when the academy opens up again."

"I don't know my address." He said with a bit of bitterness. How was he supposed to know his address? He just moved in, and only his dad knew what his address was really. "I just got here, so I don't know the exact address of my house."

"Hmm." It was a small problem. "Alright, just fill this form out when you do get the address and bring it back to me." He looked at the page given to him, made out of a black paper.

"Alright, we will get this done right away. Yun, let's go quickly." Qing was excited. Yun still couldn't figure out why. Why was this person acting like this? They barely knew one another. It was weird.

"Sure…" Nodding his head, he followed Qing back to the town. They roamed around for a bit before walking towards Yun's house.

"So, where do you live exactly? I was lucky enough to get a room back at the academy." Unlike Yun, Hou Qing lived inside of the academy, in the dorms. It cost a little extra, but he didn't have any place else to go. Plus, obtaining a house was a difficult process.

"I'm not sure… I just know how to get there." Both of them slowly walked and finally reached Yun's large home. "This is it."

"Holy…" Looking at the home, Qing became extremely shocked. Although the house itself wasn't extremely large, the land was huge. That was what shocked him. "Yun, by chance, are you some sort of noble?" This was the only explanation that he could think of.

Yun was a talented and handsome man, plus his white hair was a very rare sight. His home was great and the land was huge, plus it was all for him. At the same time, Hou Qing felt something weird from Yun, a very mysterious feeling. It all pointed to him being someone of high position, or at least someone important.

"Well…" He was technically a noble. His dad was the territory leader of millions of infinitely expanding universes, and he was the young lord of the territory. By standards, he was a true noble and all others were fake. "I could be considered a noble in a way." He didn't lie, mostly because he didn't know if he should or not. He wasn't scared of anything.

Hearing his words, Qing suddenly smiled. "As expected, you can only be a noble." Patting his own chest, Hou Qing smiled. "I won't ask you anything about your family, as a noble, you probably have a lot on your plate. We can still be friends though, after all, I'm a noble as well." He smiled. "I know how it must feel."

"Oh? You're a noble?" Yun was taken aback by this. The feeling that Hou Qing gave was that of a rough individual, one that was similar to a hardworking peasant.

"Well, of course. How else do you think I reached this realm so early? Most people our age would still be in the mid to late stages of Body Purge." Nodding his head like an 'experienced' person, Hou Qing looked Yun up and down again.

"Qing, if you're a noble, why aren't you living in the academy? You should have enough money for a small house atleast." This was what confused him.

A smile came on his face. "The thing is, my dad wants me to live a noble-free life to understand the struggle of common cultivators. He says that's the only way I will get stronger. Then, I can take over his position." He spoke with a bright smile. Both of the young men walked into the house as they spoke. "Why do you have so many rooms? No offense, but my dad always tells me not to be distracted by materialistic things and just focus on cultivation. You have a big house, but look, so many rooms are empty." Seeing that Hou Qing was going to give him some sort of lecture, Yun quickly cut him off.

"This house isn't just for me though, a few people might stay with me at times, which is why I had to get it." He didn't know why he felt embarrassed about this. In the end, he may be very old, but his mind was still that of a young, inexperienced, man. "My sister and her husband might come sometimes, or my parents."

"Ok, that makes sense then." Qing nodded knowingly. "Sadly, where I come from is not close, so my siblings would not visit too much."

"Yeah… that sucks…" Chen Yun didn't really know what to say when he met with such a situation. He could only smile bitterly and try to console… but how would he do that? "Qing, can you show me a bit of your strenght?" This was the best topic he could divert to.

"Huh?" Hou Qing looked up at him in confusion. "Right now?"

"Yeah. You see, I was training alone for the most part, I never had someone to compare my strenght with. Plus, I've been practicing various weapons, so I don't know my own strenght next to someone at the same realm as me." This wasn't a lie per say. He did learn alone, but he knew how strong he was. He just didn't know the limits of his strenght because he never got to push himself that far. His dad would always worry that he might destroy multiple territories or even all of them by releasing his complete power. It was also true that he could never compare his strenght to others. He was just too strong now. Yet, the reason he brought this up was one, to change the topic, and two, to see what strenght he needed to portray. It had been way too long since he was last in the same realm as Hou Qing. Plus, he was in that realm only for a short while, he was considered an immensely talented person in cultivation, so he rushed through each realm without even putting in much effort.

Looking around a little, Hou Qing nodded. "I don't mind, but let's go outside just in case I break something here." Chen Yun nodded his head at his words. They walked out not from the front door, but from a back door, that led to a large training field. To Yun, this place wasn't that important when he first got to the house so he ignored it, but now he felt that the uses for it could be good.

The training field was surrounded by luscious bushes that acted like walls. "Alright, just attack me, alright?" Yun stood opposite to Hou Qing and watched him with a smile. Unlike socialising, sparring and cultivation were things that Yun was extremely confident in. No one could be better than him.

"Be careful, I'm coming." With that, Qing closed his eyes for a quick second as he stood in a weird form. He twisted his left wrist slightly, causing the ground to tremble a little. Nodding his head, Yun watched carefully. "Ah1" With a small yell, Qing sprinted towards him with his left hand clenched into a fist.

'Hmm, so this is what stage four of Essence Assimilation is? Alright, I can alter my realm to match his without much of a problem.' He didn't really mind the incoming attack, his goal was complete. The fist began to reach his face, but before it could touch him, Yun stepped to the side and pinched Hou Qing's left wrist. Yet, while doing that, he lifted his left leg and stomped down.

"How…" Hou Qing fell forward in shock. "How did you know about the attack?" The frontal attack was a fake, it was supposed to cover a burst of essence which was going to attack from underneath Yun.

"Well, I am good at this…" Unlike the pride that Hou Qing showed when speaking of his own talent, Chen Yun was very casual when he made this comment. To him such a showcase of skill was nothing really. "Anyways, I think I understand what my strenght is around right now."

"W-wait." Getting up from the ground, Hou Qing removed the dust from his clothes and walked over to Chen Yun with his blue eyes opened widely. "You say that your cultivation is Essence Assimilation stage two, right?" Yun nodded his head. "But since you can beat me this easily, you can probably jump realms easily, right?"

Yun thought for a moment before shaking his head. "No, that isn't the case." He smiled and began to explain the 'truth'. "The thing is, if your attack landed on me, I wouldn't be able to escape, but the thing is, I have seen an attack like this before, which was why I was able to avoid it before getting hit. The truth is, other than knowing how to handle various attacks, I'm actually very weak."

Hou Qing listened and nodded. "That makes sense." He released a sigh of relief. If Chen Yun was really that much stronger than him, he would have felt extremely embarrassed and frustrated. After all, he had been very hard working, plus his talent was considered good from where he came from. "Anyways, we should quickly figure out the address of this place, so we can get you officially signed up." Yun agreed and began to look around the house until he found a document in his bedroom closet. It was filled with the design of the house and the other information, including address. He quickly copied the information onto his black paper. Rolling it up, he left the house with Hou Qing.