Gu Yue

The next day, Wu Zhangkong kept true to his words. He began the physical training class he spoke of yesterday.

Tang Wulin, Xie Xie and I received heavy chains weighing in at 10kg and fashioned into metal shirts. We were asked to run ten laps around a track field with an 800 metre long loop.

The metal shirt on my body felt extremely light. It didn't feel different from wearing a cotton shirt.

Doing as I was told, I found running the ten laps incredibly easy. I kept pace with Xie Xie, but unlike him, who began to slow by the second lap, my speed was constant throughout.

By the time Xie Xie was on his fourth lap, I was already running my last lap. I slowly came to a halt as I finished the tenth lap.

"Huang Yu!" Wu Zhangkong's cold voice entered my ears as I finished. I turned around to look at him. Without waiting for my reply, he continued, "This training seems to not be effective for you. Come here. We will train with your martial spirit instead."

His words probably meant that I would spar with him. While most students would dread having to spar with a teacher, I looked forward to it instead. This was the perfect chance to improve my blade skills.

Walking up to him, I summoned my Sharp Blade. I enter a fighting stance with both my hands on the hilt.

Wu Zhangkong's cold and arrogant face showed a hint of surprise, "Your skills… have improved again?"

I nodded my head in affirmation.

The edges of his mouth curled upwards slightly. He brought out a wooden sword as he stared me down.

"We shall spar. I want to see the full extent of your skills. Come at me with everything you've got."

I was about to take off my metal shirt, but before I could, Wu Zhangkong raised his hand. "Wait."

He turned around looking at the gates that lead to the field from the direction of the academy. Following his gaze, I saw a girl dressed in white and was the same age as me.

She wasn't particularly beautiful but you could consider her delicate and pretty. She had long black hair and black eyes and her body was well proportioned.

"What class are you in?" Wu Zhangkong asked as he walked over to her.

Her attention seemed to not be on him though. She was staring at me with a strange gaze in her eyes.

I was curious at her stare. Was there something interesting about me? It couldn't have been about the eye on my forehead, as it was covered by my bandana.

While stuck in my thoughts, the girl shifted her stare from me to Wu Zhangkong, "I'm here to attend school. However, I was told that the registration period has already passed." She said as she looked up towards Wu Zhangkong.

Wu Zhangkong's expression soured, "So you're not an Eastsea Academy Student?"

The girl replied, "I'm not a student at the moment, but I still want to be a student here. Is that possible, teacher?"

Wu Zhangkong's face shifted into one of contemplation. Was he actually planning on letting this girl in?

"This is a Spirit Master's academy. If you want to attend here, then you must have the ability," Wu Zhangkong coldly said.

Well that answered my question.

"I can take a test." the girl smiled.

Wu Zhangkong asked, "What's your name?"

The girl answered, "My name is Gu Yue."

Wu Zhangkong nodded. "Alright. I'll give you a chance."

He turned to me. "Huang Yu, take off your metal shirt and fight her. The both of you, stand thirty metres apart from one another and prepare. Huang Yu, I don't want you holding back like you did with Xie Xie."

I nodded in affirmation.

I took the metal shirt off and cracked my neck before putting the predetermined distance between us.

Gu Yue looked at me once more with that strange gaze in her eyes before entering a fighting stance as she prepared for battle.

"Begin!" Wu Zhangkong simply announced. In the wake of his shout, I immediately released my martial spirit and dashed towards her at full speed.

Gu Yue's eyes widened in surprise at my speed. A yellow spirit ring appeared beneath her feet. It was a 100+ year spirit ring!

A green halo burst out of her chest, but it was too late for her to do anything. My blade was poised to stab into her shoulder.

I stabbed into the green light blocking my path. Unexpectedly, a force pressed on both sides of my blade, slowing my stab.

Useless.

Exerting even more strength, I pushed through the green light, splitting it apart and continuing my path towards her shoulder.

Gu Yue wasn't idle though. During the momentary delay, she had jumped sideways, avoiding my blade from piercing her shoulder. The green light coalesced in front of her yet again before turning red. Red fireballs the size of a fist appeared in front of her before firing towards me at breakneck speeds.

Swerving left and right, I dodged the barrage of fireballs with ease before chasing after her again. However, my charge was halted when I nearly slipped. The ground had softened beneath my feet.

I showed an expression of surprise. Gu Yue had a smug grin on her face as she shot out an icicle from her hand.

What the hell man. This girl has too many abilities. She had shown control over wind, fire, earth, and now ice?

Not to be daunted, I predicted the trajectory of the icicle before I bisected it down the middle. She had been aiming at my feet, no doubt to try and reduce my mobility.

I took a deep breath before springing at her once more. An orb of light instantly appeared on her right hand as I neared melee distance. Knowing what she was about to do, I threw my blade before closing my eyes.

As expected, there was a bright flash. I was unaffected by it due to predicting it beforehand. Continuing my charge forward, I kicked high at where I forecasted she would be.

[Hwechook]

To my surprise, my attack did not connect. I opened my eyes, to see Gu Yue standing several metres away with a large cut on her right arm. One of her knees was on the ground as she desperately tried to catch her breath.

Did she just teleport?

"That's enough. Good job Huang Yu." Wu Zhangkong praised. I could tell that he was very satisfied despite still having a cold expression on his face.

I gave a grin in return. My mood was quite good now. I managed to test out my strength against Gu Yue. I felt bad about cutting her like that, but I knew I had to toughen up. I couldn't keep being afraid to harm people in a fight.

Wu Zhangkong turned to Gu Yue who was still before saying, "Although you lost, you did extremely well. You are definitely good enough to join the academy."

Gu Yue gave a wry smile as she slowly stood up, holding her right arm that was bleeding.

"Tell me, what is your background, and what was that martial spirit of yours." Wu Zhangkong asked.

Bruh, are we not going to get medical treatment for that wound first?

Nonetheless, I was quite curious about her martial spirit as well. She had shown so many abilities at this point. I never heard of a martial spirit that could do that.

Despite not struggling against her at all, I could tell she was a lot stronger than everyone else in the class, including Xie Xie.

Gu Yue brought out a piece of letter from her chest with her good arm, "This is a recommendation letter from my elementary academy. And as of my martial spirit, it is Elementalist."

She didn't hide anything about her abilities as she continued speaking, "I am able to control all six elements, but, I am unable to attach my spirit ring onto any of these elements. Thus, although I can control the change in elements, it is hard to strengthen them. My first spirit skill is Elemental Tide. It allows my spirit power to hold on for a long period of time, and at the same time, allowing me the ability to better control the strength of the elements."

No wonder none of her abilities were particularly strong. She was versatile for sure, but she lacked sheer firepower.

Wu Zhangkong said, "Good. I've understood. You are now part of our class, 1st Year Class 5."

"Thank you teacher." Gu Yue nodded.

"Huang Yu, bring her to the infirmary." Wu Zhangkong pointed at her while looking at me.

"What? Can't she get there herself?" I asked.

Wu Zhangkong replied with a cold voice, "She doesn't know the way there. You're the one who hurt her, so take responsibility,"

I glanced at Gu Yue before conceding, "Fine." I gestured to her to follow me before walking off.

On the way to the infirmary, Gu Yue tried to make small talk with me, seemingly ignoring that she was still injured, "You sure are strong. I don't think I've ever met someone around my age that could beat me."

I smiled at her, "You're pretty strong yourself. I don't think anyone else could beat you in our class."

Her face brightened up at my words. "I'll thank you for the compliment then."

She continued asking me questions with an inquiring look on her face, "Why did you wrap metal chains around your body?"

"It was to build up strength, but it wasn't effective for me at all. That's why I was standing there with Teacher Wu. He was going to switch up my training."

We continued to chit-chat until we arrived at the infirmary. I bade her goodbye before returning for lunch.

After lunch, the afternoon session of class started. All the students, along with Gu Yue who had returned from the infirmary by now were made to do frog jumps.

As for me, Wu Zhangkong asked me to practise my blade skills in front of him. He would give me tips whenever he spotted any mistakes.

After the training was over, the students crawled back to their dormitories.

"Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, Huang Yu and Gu Yue come find me after your dinner." Wu Zhangkong mentioned coolly as the class ended.

I merely nodded before turning my head towards the other three. Xie Xie only stood stably with assistance from Tang Wulin. Gu Yue was slightly better, but her hands were supporting both knees.

Looking at Tang Wulin, I was quite curious about him. His martial spirit was only Bluesilver Grass. How was his strength so high? Was it some sort of bloodline?

I pushed my ponderings to the back of my head as Gu Yue came up to me.