Lying on the bed, I let out a sigh of relief. Teacher Yi Liao had immediately tended to me when she saw the horrible state I was in. at first she was furious, having believed that I was too reckless with training, but she glanced at Teacher Jiao, who shook his head.

Teacher Jiao probably told Teacher Yi what had transpired, for when I woke up, she had a gentle expression on her face that I rarely saw.

"Hang in there," she told me. "Get some rest. The school will take care of it."

I didn"t need to ask what "it" was about.

After an hour of resting in bed and allowing my body to fully mend after Teacher Yi"s treatment, I stood up, getting ready to be discharged.

"Oh, Fei Wu. You"re finally okay?"

"Thanks to you, Teacher Yi." I bowed to express my grat.i.tude. "You saved me."

"No, it"s nothing." Teacher Yi waved my thanks away. "Just doing my job."

"Nonetheless, I"m still grateful." I rubbed my chest. There was no sign of injury, not even a phantom pain that throbbed incessantly as a reminder of Mo Ying"s punch. The same went for my face. Teacher Yi had even fixed my broken nose.

"Ah, before you go…wait here for a moment."

"Eh?"

I stared at Teacher Yi, bewildered, but she merely gestured for me to be patient as she retreated to her desk.

"Jiao Shi…Teacher Jiao wants to talk to you."

"Ah…yeah. I understand."

No doubt Teacher Jiao would want details of the bullying incident, and probably ask me to write a report. Basically, all the formalities that went with investigating the incident and bringing the high school seniors from the Dark Shadow Sect to justice.

I sat on the bed for a few minutes before the door to the infirmary opened and Teacher Jiao stepped in. he glanced at me and nodded in relief.

"Your healing techniques are as excellent as ever, Liao"er," he told Teacher Yi. She smiled as she leaned back in her chair.

"Of course. Who do you think I am? Even though I look like this, I"m still a master from the Green Dragon Sect."

"Yeah, I"m so grateful to you for taking care of my students." Teacher Jiao then turned to me. "Student Fei Wu, do you have a moment? I have something to discuss with you."

"Sure." Originally I thought this was going to be regarding the report of the incident, but Teacher Jiao"s tone told me that this was more complex than that.

He led me to his office. At least that was what I first thought, but Teacher Jiao didn"t stop even when we reached the staff room and walked past it. Glancing at the staff room, I hurried to follow him despite my confusion.

Where are we going? I wondered.

That question was answered less than a few minutes later when I found myself in front of the princ.i.p.al"s office.

I immediately turned pale.

"Come on, go in. what are you waiting for?"

Teacher Jiao turned to look at me, puzzled by my hesitation. I gulped.

"Are we going to see Princ.i.p.al Xiao Zhang?"

"Yes." Then Teacher Jiao burst out laughing when he suddenly understood my trepidation. "Don"t worry, the princ.i.p.al isn"t going to reprimand you."

"A reprimand is the least I"m worried about," I muttered, remembering his treatment after the test. He literally called me trash. And no, I wasn"t referring to my name.

"Don"t worry…this time, the meeting will go better," Teacher Jiao a.s.sured me. He then pushed me inside. "Go in. Don"t be afraid. I"ll be there to help you."

Without any choice, I obeyed and stepped into the office.

True enough, Xiao Zhang was waiting for me. Seated behind a ma.s.sive mahogany table, with his hands steepled, he stared at me with his aged, steely eyes.

"Ah…Fei Wu." His tone was cool, but at least it wasn"t as condescending as before. "So how have your first three months at the academy been?"

"…"

I wasn"t sure how to reply. Rather, I wasn"t sure what the right answer was. Was this some kind of test? Do I respond positively or negatively?

Teacher Jiao must have noticed my predicament, for he stepped in.

"Well, let"s get straight to the point." Teacher Jiao gestured for me to sit, then he took a seat beside me. There were a few chairs in the s.p.a.cious office, and I had the impression that the room was often visited by officials, dignitaries and high-ranking representatives from all over the nation and beyond. "This isn"t the first time you"ve been attacked by students believing that you possess the Heaven and Earth Formula, right?"

"Wait?!" I jolted upright to glare at him. "You knew?"

"Yes. I was ready to interfere and help you whenever necessary, but you handled them spectacularly." He cast a glance at Xiao Zhang. "Even though you"re a mere One Star Const.i.tution cultivator."

"Did Tian Mo mention us?"

This time, it was the princ.i.p.al"s turn to ask a question. I turned to him, bewildered.

"…who?"

"Tian Mo, the Absolute One, the former leader of the Heaven and Earth Sect before it was destroyed." Teacher Jiao was on hand to helpfully supply the information.

"No, he never mentioned anything to me at all," I replied, still trying my best to wrap my head around what was going on.

Teacher Jiao smiled as he leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands.

"You really have no idea what"s going on, do you?"

"Uh…what"s going on?"

Sorry, but I just had to ask. I honestly had no clue what they were trying to get at.

"To put it simply, the Martial Arts Alliance is a coalition of orthodox martial arts sects who gathered together before the last war in order to fight against the demonic sects who were rampaging throughout the middle continent."

"Uh…I know that much, at least." I was wondering why Xiao Zhang had to explain the obvious. He merely smiled.

"And the Wu Ling Academy is an organization established under the Alliance. Well, that"s not exactly accurate. The Wu Ling Academy has a long, long history of being a school where all the disciples of different martial arts sects could gather and train alongside each other. The fierce compet.i.tion and constant chance to spar against disciples from other sects provided an optimal environment for raising the strongest and best disciples."

Yeah, but I already know that too…

I was still wondering why Xiao Zhang was explaining all that to me.

"But that"s not the only purpose of Wu Ling Academy."

Now that caught my attention. Not knowing what other purpose there could possibly be, I sat up rigidly and stared at Xiao Zhang intensely. The old man broke into an indulgent smile and sipped some coffee from his mug before continuing.

"You probably are already aware of this, but there exists thousands…tens of thousands of different martial arts all over the middle continent. Most of them stretch back to antiquity, ancient arts that preserve the arcane prowess of our ancestors, allowing the wielders to bend the elemental forces of nature to their will. But sects come and go, many have been destroyed, while many new ones are constantly created to take their place."

"…I see."

I wasn"t sure what else to say, and I had a feeling I knew where this was going.

"One of the main purposes of Wu Ling Academy…" Xiao Zhang continued. "…is to find all these lost ancient martial arts and restore them. To protect and preserve them, to create an archive that provides an infinite number of martial arts, catering to any number of disciples. This includes not only orthodox martial arts but also the so-called demonic martial arts."

I felt a chill run down my spine. Xiao Zhang merely chuckled when he saw my reaction, and he waved his hand rea.s.suringly.

"Relax. I"m not accusing you of anything."

"Uh…no…I…"

While I stammered, Xiao Zhang raised a hand to cut me off so that he could continue with his longwinded explanation.

"Of course, we receive backlash, especially from the most conservative traditionalist orthodox martial arts sects. They strongly believe that we should eradicate all demonic martial arts from the world, thoroughly destroy all of them, and hunt down every pract.i.tioner who dares violate the warrior"s ethic and resort to learning such despicable techniques."

Can"t say I blame them, but yeah, that was way too extreme.

"However, we at Wu Ling Academy don"t agree with them." Xiao Zhang fixed me with a steely gaze. "We believe that there"s no such thing as an orthodox martial art or a demonic martial art. Martial arts and techniques are neither good nor evil. It"s the cultivator who wields them that embodies such qualities. Just because you practice an orthodox martial arts with a long tradition in the righteous way doesn"t mean you will never commit any evil, doesn"t mean that you will never murder anyone with the martial arts you"ve learned or use those skills for violence. Similarly, as long as you have good self-control, there is no reason why you can"t use those so-called demonic martial arts for good, for example to protect people or to save lives."

"…yeah."

I agreed with that. I was also of the opinion that no martial art was inherently good or bad. Just like weapons – whether a weapon was used for good or for evil was entirely dependent on the owner. Similarly, martial arts couldn"t think or act on their own. They were tools, weapons used by the wielder to commit whatever benevolent or nefarious purposes he had in mind.

"Seeing that you don"t know anything, I"m guessing that Tian Mo didn"t want you discovered." Xiao Zhang paused for a moment to stare at the ceiling, his shoulders drooping as if a tremendous weight had descended upon them. He sighed heavily and returned his gaze to me. "Well, he"s not the type to have his disciple fight his enemies."

"I"m not his disciple."

"No, you probably aren"t…at least not consciously. But…" Xiao Zhang reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. "…this is Tian Mo we"re talking about here. The greatest mastermind in the history of the Jianghu. If there"s a way he could impart his techniques without anyone knowing, including the inheritor himself, then he would be the one to know it."

"But I really don"t…"

"I heard you possess the Golden Dragon Medallion," Xiao Zhang interrupted me. I hesitated, and then nodded. Reaching into my pocket, I produced it and placed it on the table. Xiao Zhang smiled grimly as he leaned back in his leather chair. "That alone is the single greatest proof of my suspicions. The Absolute One would never freely give the proof of being the leader of the Heaven and Earth Sect to just anyone."

I felt a chill run down my spine.

"You probably believe that Tian Mo didn"t teach you anything. And in a way, you"re right. He didn"t teach you, but he most likely gave you a way of learning the techniques…either by implanting something in your subconscious or otherwise."

"What if you"re wrong?" I blurted out, refusing to believe the bulls.h.i.t that he was spouting. Xiao Zhang shrugged.

"No big loss. We"ll just be wasting money chasing after an ancient ultimate martial art that will most likely never be seen again. But what do you have to lose? After all…" Xiao Zhang"s lips curled unpleasantly. "You"re just a One Star Const.i.tution pract.i.tioner."

"We"ll give you the chance to learn other martial arts too," Teacher Jiao broke in, glaring at Xiao Zhang. He offered me an encouraging smile. "You"re making incredible progress with the Shadow Steps and you"ll be able to access level 2 techniques soon."

"Yes, certainly you can go down that route," Xiao Zhang agreed disinterestedly. "But if you choose to attempt and restore and recover the Heaven and Earth Formula, Wu Ling Academy will give you our full support. You"ll get additional resources, a much wider access to normally restricted manuals, theories and techniques, and permission to train at our most advanced training facilities. Not the one you"ve been attending every night," he added before I could point out that the one I used was already good enough. "An isolation chamber with more advanced battle puppets, sophisticated artificial intelligence for a.s.sistance, and other training equipment."

I stared at him skeptically. "Why?"

"Why?" Xiao Zhang echoed before he grinned, his eyes glinting manically. "As a martial artist, wouldn"t you want to try to restore the Heaven and Earth Formula? The ultimate martial arts technique that made the Absolute One unrivaled throughout the Middle Continent, granting him power to strike terror in the hearts of everyone? The skills he used to raze hundreds of sects and obliterate thousands of foes in a single battle? A technique that raised him to near-G.o.dhood, and could almost resist the combined attacks of a few peak Nascent Soul Stage pract.i.tioners before they finally brought him down, at great costs to themselves?"

I swallowed. No doubt, when Xiao Zhang put it that way, the offer was too tempting to resist. Of course it was the dream of any martial artist to learn the ultimate technique in order to be invincible. But there was always a catch. And I wasn"t unrealistic and deluded enough to think something like this was easily achieved.

No, it was probably impossible to achieve.

"It"s not smooth-sailing, though." This time, it was Teacher Jiao who spoke up. He narrowed his eyes at Xiao Zhang and turned to warn me. "We"re facing incredible resistance from the conservative orthodox sects."

"But you don"t have to worry about them," Xiao Zhang declared dismissively. "Leave them to me. I"ll deal with them. And I bet several of those hypocritical geezers want the ancient art of the Heaven and Earth Sect for themselves."

He smiled at me, idly tapping his fingers against his large desk. I noticed that there were piles of doc.u.ments next to a laptop.

"First and foremost, you"re a student of Wu Ling Academy. So n.o.body can touch you. The academy will protect you at all costs."

"Like you"ve done a good job of it so far," I muttered. Teacher Jiao looked a little guilty as he raised his hand.

"Uh, that"s my fault. I didn"t step in because I knew you could handle it. You were never in any danger. If I think you can"t deal with your opponent, I will interfere before the matter goes out of hand, like earlier."

"You mean, you just stood and watched the high school seniors from the Dark Shadow Sect beat me up and almost kill me before you decided that I couldn"t handle it?!" I growled. Teacher Jiao glanced down sheepishly.

"Jiao Shi, make sure you do your job properly," Xiao Zhang said sharply. "Or should I a.s.sign some other teacher to protect him?"

"No, I"ll do it. To be fair, that"s the only reason why you"ve progressed to where you are right now, haven"t you?" Teacher Jiao stared at me with a smirk. "If I saved you every time you were attacked, would you have gained the experience and strength to defeat opponents like Tie Shan, Luan Fa and Luo Zhe, all of whom are a year your senior?"

"That…" I couldn"t deny that those battles granted me valuable experience. But even so, Teacher Jiao"s almost complete lack of interference p.i.s.sed me off somehow. That said, it did feel satisfying blowing the three seniors from the Iron Mountain Sect up, and I also had a rush of achievement when I kicked the lights out of Luo Zhe.

"I"ll also teach him the Shadow Steps properly. Once you"ve mastered that and proceeded to level 2 techniques, then we can begin preparing you for trying to restore Heaven and Earth Formula."

"How am I supposed to restore Heaven and Earth Formula when I haven"t had the foggiest clue how? You made all these claims about subconscious or whatever, but I really don"t have any impression regarding it." I tapped the golden dragon medallion irately. "This was all the old man gave me. Couldn"t you get some clues out of it?"

"You don"t get it, do you?" Xiao Zhang pushed the medallion toward me without looking at me. "You are our biggest clue. The medallion alone isn"t enough. I"m sure that in those brief moments of contact, Tian Mo must have done something."

"And if he didn"t?"

"Then it"ll be a wild goose"s chase, and the only thing that would be wasted is money and your time." Xiao Zhang leaned back in his chair in a carefree manner. "It"s not like you"re our only student, or the Heaven and Earth Formula is the only ancient martial art we"re trying to restore. You"re just one of many. We"re staking quite a bit of resources on you because the payoff would be tremendous, but even if you fail, it"s not like the academy will collapse. We"re not going all-in on this one."

"…"

I studied Xiao Zhang for another few moments before I sighed and nodded.

"I understand. I"ll do my best."

"That"s all I ask." Xiao Zhang nodded toward Teacher Jiao who rose to his feet. "Now that you"ve the gist of it, I guess that will be all."

"If you have any questions or need any a.s.sistance, feel free to approach me." Teacher Jiao patted me encouragingly on the back. "I guess we"ll start with completing the Shadow Steps. You only have about two months before you"ve to return the manual, right?" he pushed his gla.s.ses up his nose and smiled. "But I think you"ll be able to finish it before this month is over."

"Uh…thanks?"

I bowed politely. Taking the hint, I departed the office. The large wooden double doors closed behind me, their lacquered surface glinting under the fluorescent light. With nothing else to do, I began to make my way back to my dormitory room.

"…"

I froze when I heard voices from inside the office. Turning my head slightly, I couldn"t help but eavesdrop on Teacher Jiao"s conversation with Xiao Zhang.

"Is this really necessary?" Teacher Jiao asked.

"Yes," Xiao Zhang replied coolly. "Right now that boy is our greatest clue to the Heaven and Earth Formula. You know as well as I do that Tian Mo didn"t leave any trace or any other successor behind. The Alliance succeeded in exterminating the Heaven and Earth Sect, and the Absolute One did not have any direct contact with anyone other than that boy."

"Even then…there are many ways of learning Heaven and Earth Formula. Student Fei Wu even offered the medallion to us. Would it not be more practical to study and a.n.a.lyze the Heavenly Dragon Golden Medallion?"

"If it was that easy, don"t you think I would have done that?" Xiao Zhang responded evenly. "Don"t forget that this is Tian Mo we"re speaking about. The Absolute One…the demonic king and master of the fearsome Heaven and Earth Sect. there is no way Tian Mo would have simply left the techniques in the Heavenly Dragon Golden Medallion without any protection. In fact, that"s exactly why he didn"t teach the boy directly. To prevent us from taking the techniques from him by force."

"You…" Teacher Jiao growled. "Do you think I"ll let you hurt my student?"

"You"re too overprotective of him, Jiao Shi," Xiao Zhang replied dismissively. "But I have no intention of being rash and causing Heaven and Earth Formula to disappear forever. Sometimes, it"s best to take the patient route. Besides, shouldn"t you be happy for your student? If he indeed holds the only clue to Heaven and Earth Formula, he would become one of our academy"s greatest a.s.sets. He"ll be much more powerful than even the Four Star Const.i.tution candidates in our school."

"Do you think I"ll just watch as you let him finish learning Heaven and Earth Formula, then take it away from him? I won"t allow anything so despicable."

"Oh, of course I"ll let him keep his Heaven and Earth Formula. He has earned that right, after all. And we need his strength, for if he does succeed, he will undoubtedly become one of our greatest combat a.s.sets." Xiao Zhang sounded like he was rubbing his palms in antic.i.p.ation. "All I ask is that he replicates a manual for Heaven and Earth Formula to store in the archives of Wu Ling Academy, for future generations to learn."

I guess if I was expecting some sort of evil conspiracy, I would be disappointed. While the princ.i.p.al of Xiao Zhang was slightly unscrupulous and greedily ambitious, he wasn"t exactly the scheming villain who plotted my downfall. He just wanted Heaven and Earth Formula to become part of the techniques available in Wu Long Academy.

Of course, for that to happen, I would have to succeed first.

But…can I?

I still held doubts that I was really the successor to the Heaven and Earth Formula. Despite Xiao Zhang"s claims, I honestly did not believe that the old man had somehow transmitted Heaven and Earth Formula to my subconscious or something. That was just ridiculous.

Then again, I had seen some pretty absurd stuff ever since I was spiritually transported into this world. Healing qi techniques that could bring a person back from the brink of death. Qi magic that could repair destroyed buildings and restore them whole. Dark Shadow Illusions that could take the form of a person and cause hallucinations.

Who was to say that such a transmission method was impossible, especially for someone revered as the single most powerful martial artist in the world?

Speaking of which, no wonder no one knew about my fight with the Iron Mountain Sect trio and the alchemy lab being blown up. Teacher Jiao must have repaired the damage and then covered everything up…

Why didn"t he tell me, though?

Fortunately, it seemed that Teacher Jiao had my best interests at heart. At the very least, I trusted him more than I believed Xiao Zhang.

The sc.r.a.pe of the chair inside Xiao Zhang"s office brought me back to the present, and I hastily left the corridor before either adult realized that I was outside eavesdropping.

Knowing them, however, they were probably already aware of that…