3 Chapter 3: Training Begins

Instructor Aisuru secretly nodded his head in approval at Darien and Aviana. Although they were the most attached to their parents they were able to quickly overcome it and change their mindsets. Their determination was now almost materialising from their eyes. Such a determination and an iron will are what makes a good practitioner.

It took two hours for all the children to separate from their parents. A lake had already formed beneath them as children had cried their hearts out.

Once all the children were gathered Instructor Aisuru simply turned around and marched towards the forest in the rear of the school. It was known as the Forest of Beginnings to the town's people because it was there where every preparation camp takes place. However, the nobles and martial arts practitioners know this place as Crimson River Forest. This was for two reasons: One, there was a crimson river that ran through the centre of the forest. It was very beneficial for a martial artist training in fire-based martial arts. Two, countless people would be killed by Wild Beasts in the forests.

Wild Beasts were simply animals that have mutated due to the dense World Energy in the area. This would grant Wild Beasts powerful muscles and it would also sharpen and strengthen their body parts. They can't harness the World Energy, however, like how Desolate Beasts can, so a Martial Artist can easily take down one of them given enough skill or in large numbers. There are also those who can solo Wild Beasts but these people are usually gifted immense physical strength or have very exquisite Martial Skills. However, such Martial Skills cost a lot of money so only powerful clans are able to get their hands on them.

As he jogged towards the Crimson River Forest, Instructor Aisuru said, "Your training will take place in the Crimson River Forest or what you would know as the Forest of Beginnings. Once in there I will put you through rigorous training in order to strengthen your bodies. While no restrictions were set on who could join the preparation camp, it is an unwritten rule that one must at least be a Martial Artist. Since being a Martial Artist simply requires strength that is considered 'superhuman' by common people it is very difficult to test. But since we must extract the unpolished gems from the dung we have decided to come up with a simple test. You must simply follow me to the Crimson River Forest understand?"

All the students nodded. Apart from the nobles, all the students were confused. Following him to the Crimson River Forest was too simple of a task. Even a baby could do something so simple. Indeed as the students were thinking the test wasn't that simple. "After I arrive in the forest I will only wait ten minutes. If you aren't there by then you are disqualified." After Instructor Aisuru finished talking, he immediately sped up his pace. But oddly enough he went from jogging to walking instead of running as one would think. The only difference was that every single step was as large as ten paces!

Darien squinted his eyes when he saw this. He had a feeling that their Instructor wouldn't be simple. He had been disappointed when he saw the Instructor jogging earlier for a very slow pace. His eyes had lit up when he heard that there was going to be a test and sure enough he wasn't disappointed. From what he could see Instructor Aisuru was definitely beyond a Martial Artist, he was a Martialist. From his point of view, a Martial Artist who are bound by the laws of a mortal simply couldn't accomplish such a feat. Only Martialists who have started their journey towards Immortality could achieve that.

The poor were astounded when Instructor Aisuru had suddenly sped up. They knew that practitioners could do heaven-defying things but they didn't think that this was possible. This shows that these children's view of the world is akin to a frog at the bottom of a well. Meanwhile, the nobles weren't at all surprised. They had already been briefed by their families about this secret examination. They looked at the poor with contempt and disdain. In their eyes training on the Martial Path was a privilege reserved for the rich. In their eyes, the rich were heaven's children while the poor were the scum of the land. To them, a scum trying to break the status quo was blasphemy and it should result in death. In fact, they weren't wrong to think this way. After all, all the students in Kaishi Martial Arts School were from rich or noble families. Due to their young age, they connected this to the fact that they were highly favoured by heaven and instead of the fact that they had consumed expensive elixirs since birth. They had simply never heard of a mere commoner being able to train in the Martial Path. However, this was a common occurrence in other more developed places. In fact, such peasant to king stories was common throughout Nirvana Island.

Instructor Aisuru kept his ridiculous pace and had even, imperceptibly, sped up the pace a little. They had already been running for 20 minutes and some of the commoners had already started tiring. They had been running at a pace of 21km/h in the beginning yet it had escalated to 31km/h without them knowing. This is faster than the canter of an average horse which is at 27km/h. This went to show how fit these children were.

Instructor Aisuru was surprised to see this. It must be known that, in the past, commoners would usually have already collapsed when the Instructor had sped up to 25km/h. These children's fitness levels were comparable to that of a Third Grade Martial Artist. What was a Third Grade Martial Artist?

Such a person would be able to handle a Low-Grade Wild Beast on his own and some with exquisite Martial Skills would be able to handle a pack of them! Such people were strong enough to be an expert in some villages. However, due to the suppression of the Trairu Clan, the youngsters in Walfor Town weren't able to get the same recognition. This meant that the Kaishi Martial Arts School would be unable to dig out more talents which could strengthen them and ultimately lower the chances of the Trairu Clan taking over the entire Walfor Town. Instructor Aisuru sighed when he thought of this.

The Kaishi Martial Arts School had already known of this long ago but they hadn't bothered with it. At that time the Trairu Clan was still a bug that they could easily squash whenever they wanted. Unfortunately, the Trairu Clan was suddenly able to produce a warrior that was now at the Half-Step Mortal Core Realm! This was beyond a Peak Martialist and was infinitely closer to the Mortal Core Realm. In comparison, the Principal of the Kaishi Martial Arts School was also only at the Half-Step Mortal Core Realm.

While currently, the Kaishi Martial Arts School is indeed stronger due to their strong foundation. There was no doubt that the Trairu Clan would be able to be equal to and if not surpass them in the near future. What made it worse was that the noble and rich families all supported the Trairu Clan and the Kaishi Martial Arts School. Since only nobles and the rich are in the Kaishi Martial Arts School, the school will have to one day make a choice: submit and be integrated or die with honour.

The only solution was to train powerful students that had a common background this way they wouldn't have to die or be taken over. It was more preferable that it was multiple students but a single one with overwhelming talent was fine too.

Instructor Aisuru kept discreetly looking back behind him to observe the students. However, every look had almost broken his heart. The number of commoners behind him had dropped from 100 to a mere 12. What's more the rich and the nobles only had 3 give up out of 352. He wanted to slow down in order to allow the commoners to keep up but that would mean letting in more nobles which was the same as shooting himself in the foot.

As he had given up hope for the year, two figures caught his eye. These two were precisely Darien and Aviana. He observed them for a while and shockingly found out that the two weren't sweating at all. In fact, their current exhausted look was all a facade to trick the nobles. Instructor Aisuru was surprised that such young children could have the foresight to do such a thing but then he remembered that their parents were also commoners so it was normal for them to tell their children to law low so as not to create problems. While he could see through the two, the noble and rich children couldn't. As his heart fluttered in excitement he suddenly realised that the two had disappeared for a while. He had been very disappointed back then but now he realised that they had simply looked for a place with water to make themselves look as if they were sweating like mad. As his thoughts went down this path his suddenly couldn't help but shudder. He had frequently scouted this area and knew that the nearest water source was at least 15km away. The two had only disappeared from his sight for just a little over ten minutes... This meant that the two had to at least have travelled 88km/h! That was as fast as a good racing horse! And they weren't even showing signs of being tired!

With this in mind Instructor Aisuru immediately sped up to 150km/h. With this, a blast of sand suddenly engulfed the dumbfounded students. Even the nobles were surprised by this development. Did this mean that Kaishi Martial Arts School does not want to accept students anymore? The proud nobles gritted their teeth as they thought about failing. Although no one would laugh at them, it was still a great blow to their pride. Therefore they immediately went full tilt at 80km/h.

Darien and Aviana were stunned when Instructor Aisuru suddenly sped up but then they remembered that Elaine had told them that the Kaishi Martial Arts School would currently do anything to get a talented commoner. So they thought that this was a test to see if they were worth the effort. The two looked at each other before bitterly smiling. They thought that their facade was flawless but apparently not. With a large step, they also sped up in an effort to catch up with Instructor Aisuru.