Chapter 21 Graduation

A year had passed.

Since he'd arrived at Shrek Chen Jin had made quite a lot of progress.

He was now at level 26, nearly 27. He could have been at a higher level, but with the compression of his soul power increasing is cultivation speed was decreasing. He had also not put much effort in improving it.

He'd finally been able to use Wave Burst and Spirit Blade together, it was actually simpler than he thought. He just had to use the spirit power that was already being used for the blade to use Wave Burst, with differing amounts having different effects.

In terms of developing skills the progress wasn't actually very big.

He could do the Rasengan, but even for him it was very energy intensive, he couldn't use it more than twice. That was already while not using other techniques.

The power was great though it was not much greater than point burst now that he could use 6 waves and as wave burst further improved the Rasengan would probably become useless.

It had benefits even if inefficient. It was another very good exercise in control. A week after mastering the Rasengan he managed to make a Spirit Bullet and a while after that he managed to make a Spirit Platform.

He can't do it fast enough to rapidly change directions in the air yet unfortunately, its more like a double step skill currently.

He'd recently managed to make a bow too, but unless he managed to incorporate Wave Burst it would be less useful than he had imagined it would be at first. The damage was a fair bit higher than spirit bullets, but it was also slower and a lot more costly.

That was a giant downer since it'd taken him more than half a year to finally manage to do a working string.

Chen Jin was currently trying to incorporate Wave Burst in the string, he'd quickly realised that there were few things he couldn't improve by adding wave burst, but the string was too delicate and he currently wasn't able to work around that problem.

On the other side, with the older teens and the teachers help his battle experience had risen considerably, to the point that he very rarely spared with them now, fighting frequently with the same people did not contribute much for his improvement. What he needs is variety.

Today was a rather important day for Shrek, a week after he'd arrived at the academy the teachers and the last student had come back, the young woman was a lot more quiet than the other two teens, she was also the one to keep them in check.

With the trio's relationship with each other he thought at first that they would end up in the same situation as the Golden Triangle, but he'd soon learned that Cao Desi did not play for that side.

Tie Qiang had finally gotten to rank 40 a month and a half ago, he'd came back with his spirit ring last week, as such today was the day they left, they'd graduated the day before.

He'd learned a lot from them, inclusive what had happened to the students that hadn't graduated.

It turned out that only two had died, one in the star dou great forest and the other had been hunted for his performance at the great arena.

He was the origin of the rule that everytime someone went to fight they had to use masks and be accompanied by either Flenders or Zhao Wuji.

The others had all either been poached away by other academies or jumped ship so to say, a week or two after enrolling.

When he'd asked them what the teachers thought about that they'd said that everyone is allowed their own opinions, if somebody wants to leave, they won't stop it.

They were a bit hurt though, especially Flenders and Zhao Wuji. He'd come to learn that they care a lot for the students, certainly a lot more than they showed.

Chen Jin would miss the older teens, they were a lively group and the ones who made sure he didn't spend all his time training besides the time he took to visit Bai Huo and Bai Yin.

More than once had one of them, normally Feng Shizi, just barged in on wherever he was at the moment and dragged him to Soto with the others, sometimes to eat, others just to walk around.

"Xiao Chen!"

It was Cao Desi who called, she was waving at him along with the others. They along with the teachers were at the entrance of the village, he was the second to last to arrive, the last being Shao Xin who'd stayed behind to make certain everything was in order on his kitchen. He was weirdly fixated on that.

"You've kept us waiting, why? You don't want to say goodbye?" Feng Shizi joked.

Chen Jin rolled his eyes, they knew he didn't like to eat fast, it wasn't his fault they were exited to go and travel.

"I fail to see how I've kept you waiting, you only left the cafeteria about three minutes before me, you were also the first to leave" he said drily.

"He was in quite a bit of a hurry, but it wasn't because he wanted to leave" Tie Qiang laughed while the adults watched from the side.

"The idiot didn't pack yesterday" Cao Desi explained at his confusion.

"You had this planned for a week and he still wasn't ready?" Chen Jin said bemusedly.

Tie Qiang shook his head in amusement "You should already know by now Stupid Lions personality".

"Hey! I'm not that bad!" the person in question tried to defend himself.

It was true, from all three of them Feng Shizi was the least reliable, not only did he frequently forgot things but he also changed his mind at the drop of a hat. He was closer to a cat than a lion in that sense.

"Do the three of you already know where you're going first?" Zhao Wuji interjected.

The three looked at each other. It was Cao Desi who answered "Not really, were going to go in Star Luos direction first and start from there, we don't really have a plan"

"Even if they had one they probably wouldn't keep it" Flenders continued for them "You haven't really travelled for the sake of travelling, but when I did it it was common to alter our course based on rumours that we heard. If we heard something interesting we would see it" he finished.

The others were listening with attention now, it was very rare for Flenders to talk about the time he spent travelling, though it was becoming more common as time passed.

"What kind of rumours?" Feng Shizi asked.

The Dean shrugged "Any kind really, it could have been of a specific soul master being in the area or something that had happened with a sect or family, there are a surprising number of fights between small sects and families, even academies sometimes".

Flenders had a melancholic smile now "The majority of times we went because one of my old friends wanted to fight whoever we'd heard about. We got in quite a bit of trouble because of that". His smile grew with the memories.

He shook himself out of his recollection and looked at the young adult trio "Either way, I can guarantee you that the time you spend travelling will be some of the best of your lives"

As they did small talk Shao Xin had also arrived and joined the more silent group composed of Lu Jibin and Li Yusong.

Tie Qiang suddenly clapped "Alright, enough with the mushy stuff and dilly dalling, it's about time we went" he said seriously.

Cao Desi nodded at that "If we continue like this it will be noon and we'll still be here, we don't want to spend money on a carriage and I don't feel like running, the sooner we go the best".

"Chen Jin, you should be happy, next time we see you we probably won't be able to call you squirt" Feng Shizi said as he tried to give him a noggie.

"You're the only one who calls me that" he responded as he sidestepped, he let himself be caught once, it was one too many.

"Not for a lack of trying though, he said that Xiao Chen was too common a nickname and tried to get us to call you the same" Cao Desi said as as she looked at the blond disapprovingly.

"Were going to miss you little guy" Tie Qiang patted his shoulder and said as he passed him by and grabbed and dragged Feng Shizi with him.

"Well come back to the academy when we get tired of travelling or pass near here" Cao Desi turned around and waved as she said.

Feng Shizi was still getting dragged along so he just screamed a bye that was accompanied by a wave from the burlier spirit master.

"Xiao Chen, remember to spend more time enjoying yourself, you might like meditating but there are more things to life than training" she continued before following the other two.

"I'll try" was the only guarantee that he could give, he enjoyed nature crowded places, something that for him was anywhere that had more than six to ten people.

"Its going to be a lot more quiet here now, Little Dust has been asking for less spars lately, a great difference from the nearly daily ones I had with those three" Zhao Wuji said as they watched them disappear. The only ones still watching with him were Chen Jin and Flender.

Flender adjusted his glasses "unfortunately now that they left ill have to reduce your salary, the tuition can't afford it" he said matter of factly.

Both Chen Jin and Zhao Wuji looked at him at that, the first with amusement and the second with disbelief.

"You haven't paid me in the last four months" the Vice Dean deadpaned.

Flenders turned around and started walking into the academy "Well, it's still going to be reduced".

"How do you reduce nothing?!" Zhao Wuji said as he went after him.

Chen Jin just shook his head as he watched them go, bickering all the while. After a year of interactions he'd become used to seeing them like this, it happened rather frequently.

This time it was their way to raise the mood.