Chapter 22: Half Level Cultivator

Tao Xue was interested to know about what was going on in the classes of the other two, so he asked them, but, after they answered his question, he was pretty disappointed. It turns out that their classes were perfectly normal, without any peculiar incidents. They were explained the same things, but there weren't any incidents. That was the end of him keeping track of others' classes.

They all headed home, with minds full of enthusiasm to Cultivate. They all wanted to become Cultivators as quick as possible. Once Tao Xue had parted ways with his friends, he started walking towards his home. At the gates of the estate, there was a huge crowd of people, in which Tao Xue could find his own family. This intrigued his, as he wasn't sure what was happening, and it wasn't normal for him to see a crowd of people blocking the entrance to the estate of the Xue family. He didn't care what was going on, but he sure cared why his family was there. The matter must be something huge if there were so many people, including important families from the main family.

He walked up to his family, and asked his mom, "Mom, what's going on over here? Why is there such a racket going on over here? Did some old fart die?"

Tao Xue's mom replied, "Well, there was a big fight between two young masters. One from the main family, and the other from the branch family. They both wanted to fight, and not quite surprisingly, the branch family's kid lost. There is a big commotion due to the injuries he suffered, which are quite serious, and the family head of that kid's family is now creating a racket."

After hearing this, Tao Xue simply went through the whole crowd, and got inside his house. He didn't care about anything if it didn't concern him. The incident sure caused a commotion, but the branch family's members were calmed. Tao Xue sat in his room, Cultivating, practicing what teacher Bao Tan had taught him in school. He entered the deep meditative trance, and practiced till dinner time.

This was the routine for Tao Xue, and all the first year students of the 4 Seasons Academy, till 7 days later. That day, some students, including Nuo Peng from the Mind Cultivation area, had attained the wisdom of sensing the energy of the Heaven and Earth. When the students got this news, they were amazed. Especially, Tao Xue, Kuo Wei, and Lei Pan. They didn't think that the shy girl who didn't act like someone special, or as the matter of fact, wasn't anyone special, would still have such talent. This day, at school, the children again had to go to the 'Testing & Practice Arena'.

When they all met up, Tao Xue saw the girl, Nuo Peng, with astonishment. She looked completely normal, dressed completely normal, spoke completely normal, and didn't meddle in the affairs of other at all, but she still had such formidable talent. She would be a tough competitor for the four of them, so Tao Xue rather avoided her, as he was the person who would rather pick fights with the weakest one of the bunch, not the strongest.

Teacher Bao Tan told the others to Cultivate, and Nuo Peng to quietly practice her Cultivation, or sit quietly. By the end of the day, she hadn't done anything, and sat rather quietly. This gave Tao Xue goosebumps, as he was thinking of various theories for this girl'd mysteriousness. It was pretty obvious that everyone would feel a little uneasy if there was a normal-looking person, who spoke very less, with great talent, act very silent and mysterious. She didn't talk to much people at school, and was rather secluded from other students, and had the personality of an introvert. Well, Tao Xue had heard many legends of people with that kind of a personality ending up being some freaky creatures, like ghosts, or even monsters. Since he had heard about all these legends, in his childhood, he didn't want to take any risks, as he maintained his distance from her. After going back home, Tao Xue again Cultivated the whole day, until dinner time. That was the routine he had to follow until he reached the half level of Cultivation, which, according to him, was a pretty boring routine.

The next day, some more students had reached the half level, out of which none from the Mind Cultivation class had reached that major milestone, which was pretty much rather ordinary, as the others were just considered to be fools, because of the argument that had occurred previously. Tao Xue didn't care about this, but, the other two conceited fellows found this against their pride. They were, according to themselves, geniuses of their respective families, but they didn't even reach the half level till now. They had started feeling angry, as that was how they felt after thinking about themselves being ordinary students, no longer geniuses.

After another day, Kuo Wei, and Lei Pan, both had succeeded in reaching the half level of Cultivation, which added on to their pride, which had previously been shattered, had been rebuilt due to this event of glory, which had stacked onto it, to make it even higher. They were now feeling like geniuses, again, which also affected their personality, and they became even more proud.

Tao Xue was the only one left, now, in the Mind Cultivation class, and even Ling Shen and Ju Yuan had stepped into the half level, which left Tao Xue as the odd one out, but that still didn't bother him at all. He went home, and Cultivated, for the whole day, just like he had done previously, with the exactly same attitude as before, everything was same, except one major factor. The thing that had changed was the outcome. Just before when dinner was about to be served, Tao Xue suddenly got up from his trance, and opened his eyes. He knew something had happened this time.

He looked into the night sky, twinkling with stars, and said, "Finally, I've achieved it!"