The sky was blue and clear, looking pure as if it had been washed clean. The sun was shining golden.
Puffs of white clouds floated away, and a group of colourful peacock parrots chirped as they flew beneath the blue sky, forming an arrow formation under the clouds as they soared.
This variant of colourful parrots would only appear in large groups during springtime. Their bodies were littered with feathers the colour of the rainbow, their bodies the size of an eagle. The birds had parrot beaks, while their tails were that of a peacock's flowing long tail.
It had been ten days since the day Liu Yin managed to acquire number one in the test to refine the Gu. The spring breeze blew over the whole mountain's green grass, while the wild flowers bloomed eagerly, and the bees and butterflies danced around together. Life was surging all around; it was the wonderful beauty of spring.
The breath of spring was so strong that the tall bamboo walls surrounding the training grounds could not hold it back.
This training field occupied 2,400 meters². The ground was flat, paved with a layer of thick and wide grey graphite. Its four sides were planted with green spear bamboo; these green poles were placed closely together side by side, straight and tall, forming a circle of green high walls.
While below the wall corners were stone as well, clumps of green grass emerged from many areas. In between the bamboo were also some wild roses, poking in from the outside, a few even climbing the wall.
eighty nine young teens at the age of fifteen were standing in the midst of the training field right now, formed in a semi-circle around the academy elder who was in the center, putting their focus on him.
This was a lesson to teach the students on how to use the Qi-blade Gu and whirlwind Gu.
"The Qi-blade Gu is our Liu clan's symbolic Gu. The majority of you on the field have chosen the Qi-blade Gu as your vital Gu, so you must all watch properly. Soon I will demonstrate personally how to use the Qi-blade Gu to attack. Students whose vital Gu is not the Qi-blade Gu must also concentrate on me, as this classical long-distance attacking method can also be used on other Gu; the spectrum of methods one can use is very wide."
As he spoke, the academy elder stretched out his right hand, his five fingers opening wide. He lowered his palm so that the young teens could see the center of it.
"Firstly, you use your mind to mobilize the Qi-blade Gu, moving it to the center of your palm." Following his voice, the Red ball mark that represented the Qi-blade Gu moved down the elder's arm and into his palm.
"Then, you mobilize the primeval essence in your aperture, pouring it into the Qi-blade Gu." A thread of white silver coloured primeval essence gushed out from the elder's body, so fine it was almost impossible to see. It entered the Qi-blade Gu in his palm.
The academy elder was of a Rank three realm, and only Rank three Gu Masters could produce white silver coloured primeval essence. Rank one Gu Master's primeval essence was commonly known as green copper primeval essence, while Rank two Gu Masters had theirs called red iron primeval essence. When they reached Rank three, it becomes white silver primeval essence.
Once it absorbed the thread of white silver primeval essence, the Red ball-shaped mark in the elder's hand instantly glowed brighter and brighter. Although it was daytime, it still issued a brilliant pale-Red light.
"That's awesome!"
"How beautiful." The youngsters could not help but let out praises of surprise and amazement when they saw it.
The academy elder smiled a little. "Now watch carefully, the last step is just like how I will do it, launching it out."
As he said this, his widely opened five fingers slowly closed together, then he lifted his arm up and slowly moved it forward, his arm straight. Finally he waved his palm lightly in a cutting motion.
The entire movement was steady and powerful.
Swoosh.
The young students could hear a light brushing sound beside their ear.
Following the academy elder's movement, the condensed pale Red light in his palm was thrown out like that.
The light transformed into a small red blade in the air, the faint red blade only the size of a wide-open hand. It drew a straight line in the air before it hit a grass puppet ten meters away.
A tearing sound was heard, and the grass puppet's neck that was about thirty centimeters thick was cut clean by the red blade. The puppet's body swayed about, the huge head suddenly falling onto the floor.
After cutting the grass puppet into half, the red blade immediately appeared dimmer. However it continued flying about another six meters in the air before the blade began to gradually fade away, finally dissipating in the air.
Looking at the grass puppet's neck again, one could see that the cut area was extremely flat, as if it was cut away by the sharpest sickle.
The youngsters were all shocked as they saw this, their eyes wide-open. A few of them even touched their own necks involuntarily, astonished by the attacking power of the red blade.
After a short silence, the sounds of exclamation began. The teenagers had shining eyes as they stared at the grass puppet, some of them staring at the elder's palm. A few of them were looking at their peers, talking and whispering excitedly.
"All those of you who have refined the Qi-blade Gu, step out. Each one of you shall take a grass puppet and follow the way I just did it, throwing out the red blade, practice attacking."
Once the academy elder was finished, around thirty students stepped out.
To the youngsters of the Liu clan, the Qi-blade Gu was not a simple Gu worm, but the symbol of the clan's glory.
Very quickly thirty-five of them stood in a row. Each of them faced forward, standing ten meters away from a grass puppet on the opposite.
Liu Sang stood in the middle of the row, but he did not garner any attention. The practice began.
The students all stretched out their right hands, letting the Qi-blade Gu move to the heart of their palm. One by one the Red ball mark started to give out red light as green copper primeval essence was poured in.
But when they drew a vertical cut with their palm, only fourteen Red blade flew out. Among these blade, some of them only appeared for a short moment before dissipating away. Some flew out for two to three meters before disintegrating into red light with a bang. Some flew further, but the direction was severely off-course, flying straight up to the sky.
The young teens all frowned. When they saw the elder's demonstration earlier it seemed quite easy. But when they started practicing themselves, they realised the skill required in this action. To throw out a Red blade and to have it hit on the grass puppet, it really was not that simple.
The elder had a faint smile as he watched. He saw this scene every year, and was not surprised.
But at the moment, a two red blades flew out quickly, drawing a straight line in the air and cutting accurately into the neck area of the two grass puppets.
"Wow, look at that red blades!"
"How cool, who threw it?"
The people who managed to hit the neck of the grass puppet are Liu Yin and Liu Sang.
Liu Yin yawned as if she had done nothing great, but unlike her, Liu Sang started to brag about what he had done.
Liu Yang stood outside the field with the rest of the students who did not have Qi-blade Gu, he looked at Liu Sang while thinking, 'This person's talent is higher than I expected, I didn't expect that he could succeed in using a Gu worm from the first try.'
'Also, a few days ago he refined Gu too fast, even most of those with A grade talent wouldn't be as fast as he refined Gu.'
'There is a possibility of this, the first being that one of the elders helped him or that he found an inheritance of some kind near the village.'
'I have to tell my main body about this, if this inheritance is a rank five Gu Master or an Gu Immortal, it might be very beneficial for him.' In fact that person standing here was not Liu Yang but just a human path Gu worm, and could be considered his clone.
Liu Yang didn't want to waste his time in the academy anymore, being in the academy was absolutely useless to him.
Liu Yin approached Liu Yang's version and stood beside him, but she didn't show the enthusiasm that she normally shows when she was with her brother. She knows that this one standing next to her is just a clone.
"It is useless for me to come to the academy too. Why would my big brother want me to keep coming to it." Liu Yin showed annoyance, it was too boring for her to come here. She had also asked her brother to give her a human path Gu worm to replace her but he refused. She really doesn't know why he's doing this.
"I think the main body wants you to communicate with the clan members more, it wants you to understand the clan rules and humans. You are completely aloof from everyone and show a cold attitude towards them except for the main body."
Liu Yang's clone pointed at the students gathering around Liu Sang. The students were smiling, talking to him, praising him and showing admiration for what he did, but no one approached Liu Yin even though she did the same because she showed everyone a cold and indifferent attitude which made them turn away from her. "Liu Sang, in complete contrast to you, is showing a gentle attitude and polite behavior to everyone."
"He is pretending to do so, just in order to gain support from an elder or academy elder." Liu Yin could see through Liu Sang's actions just by taking a look at him.
"Then tell me what you will do if Liu Sang becomes a threat to you." Liu Yang's clone smiled as he inquired.
"I will just kill him." A cold look appeared in Liu Yin's eyes, her thinking was very simple if something appeared to threaten her or her family would solve this by killing.
"What you are saying is true, but you cannot kill clan members. Especially Liu Sang who has a B-grade talent, if Liu Sang is suddenly killed, the clan will start searching for the killer. And if the clan finds out who killed him, he will be punished by death because he is considered to be of the demonic path." Liu Yang's clone sighed and explained to her.
"I am the daughter of a clan chief and I also have a grade A (Extreme Physique) talent. Even if the clan finds out that I am the killer, the clan will not do anything to me, but rather they will hide the evidence that proves that I killed him." Liu Yin is very smart and she knows everything Liu Yang's clone said, but that didn't apply to her who had talent and high status.
Liu Yang's clone looked at Liu Yin and sighed, This girl is so cruel that she doesn't care about human lives and can kill carelessly as if she was created to walk the demonic path.
For example, on the day of Awakening Ceremony, the person who looked at Liu Yang with displeasure did not exist in this world anymore.
At that time, Liu Yang told his sister not to kill that person. Liu Yin listened to him and did not kill that person herself, but rather plotted to make someone kill him.
All Liu Yin did was create problems between that person and a Gu Master and kept fueling the dispute between them behind the scenes.
She continued to do so until the Gu Master killed that person. The death and disappearance of that person did not cause any commotion within the clan because he was someone who had no talent for cultivation.
And Liu Yin helped Liu Yang obtain that person's body in order to refine Gu.
"Anyway, what the main body wants from you is for you to use Liu Sang to train your political skills within the clan."
"You must learn all about political matters inside and outside the clan, in a year the main body wants you to learn all about the righteous path of the Southern Border."