Chapter 15: The Grandma & The Patriarch

Just as both the boys turned around, they saw a face with a joyful expression (which was pretty hard to figure out due to the wrinkles) on it. There was an old lady standing right in front of them. This old hag was An Xue, Tao Xue's grandma. As her name is An, which means quiet, she should be like that, but unfortunately, she is the total opposite of that in all ways. She was a very enthusiastic woman, who loves to care for everyone in her family, to be polite. (actually she is just an old hag who pokes her nose into everyone else's work rather than hers) She was smiling at Tao Xue and Da Xue, and gave them an uneasy feeling.

She spoke to Tao Xue in a soft tone, "Grandson Tao, due to my usual heightened sense, I was able to know that you chose Rejuvenation as the art for grandson Da (she was just eavesdropping). As I myself practice 'The Art Of Rejuvenation', I would like to give you some advice. {for Valagamist's comment-} Rejuvenation is the art of healing and recovering strength, morale, or even health. By creating an array of this art on the ground, you would be able to recover your health and stamina even while an enemy is attacking, which forms a kind of barrier. What is actually happening is, inside the array, your stamina and health will keep on recovering, which means that whenever an enemy attacks you, there will be no effect because you will recover all your lost attributes of strength, stamina, morale, and all others, which causes the art to act like a shield or barrier."

Both Tao Xue and Da Xue were pretty impressed. They had no idea that grandma An Xue knew of anything else other than being overly-attentive (eavesdropping) and overly-affectionate (pervy). They weren't shocked, though, because there grandma wasn't only weird, but strong, too, both in th family in terms of power as in position, and also power as a Cultivator.

It turned out that the old hag had been eavesdropping on the two youths from earlier on, as she had more to speak even after this. She was still smiling, with no other expression on her face, as she said, "I wanted to give you some information about the Secluded Elders of the 4 Seasons Academy. There was this one elder out of those, who had a legend about him, that he had himself fought with several other Academies, and won them over to expand the 4 Seasons Academy. Some people also say that there is a secret area which is the graveyard of all the powerful experts of the other Academies. When I was a young girl, about your age, I heard the rumor of this man, called the 'Savage Terminator' of the Academy, of whom everyone was afraid of. I know this because when I was young, I also went to the 4 Seasons Academy, which was newly famous, and had started its expansion and glory."

Tao Xue was shocked to hear that his grandma had gone to the 4 Seasons Academy. This was a shocker to him. As he saw the smile on his grandma's face growing, he and his cousin, Da Xue, both sensed their impending doom, as each of them found their own excuses to weasel themselves out of the situation they were in. Da Xue said he had to head home, leaving his cousin in a tough spot, and Tao Xue said that he had to take a bath, as it would soon be evening, when he had to head out for the meeting that the Patriarch had called, in the Grand Hall, which had to be at the evening, and ran off to the bath in his washroom.

Soon after this incident, it was evening, which was when Tao Xue had to head out to the Grand Hall, for the meeting. He came out from the bath, changed into fresh, new clothes, and headed out of the house, his grandma affectionately (creepily) smiling at his from the back. He walked along the lanes, and saw the huge central building, that majestically stood rising above all the other buildings. This was, 'The Grand Hall'. The Grand Hall was the area where all the important meetings take place in the Xue family. He walked toward the entrance of the hall, and entered through the gigantic entrance. After entering, he saw a whole bunch of people of his family seated. At the middle of the back of the room, there was a huge chair, on which sat the Xue family's Patriarch, Gang Xue. Surrounding him, were a lot of other men seated on chairs, in two different columns, on each side of the Patriarch. These were all the elders. In front of all these people, there were a bunch of chairs for sitting, which were meant for the children. The seats were surprisingly less, as there were only five of them, while there were over a dozen young masters. After seeing Da Xue, and examining the situation a bit, he understood that these were all of the young masters that had been a part of, and are currently a part of, the 4 Seasons Academy. This meeting was organized only for these specific young masters, not all of them. because it had something to do with the 4 Seasons Academy.

Out of all of the children, Tao Xue was the youngest, as it was his first day of his first season of his first year in the academy. Once all five of the cousins had arrived, the Patriarch stood up, and said, "The most talented ones of the younger generation of the Xue family are all here now, so I shall start speaking. As we all know how big of an Academy the 4 Seasons Academy is, I have called all fo you here to give you special guided training, because you are the ones that will protect our family's lineage in the future. When each of you is experienced enough, we will start your special training. Right now, Xiao Tao has just started his life in the 4 Seasons Academy, so we will not be able to start the training from now. Today, I will brief you all about what will happen in your training sessions. All of the top-notch experts of our family will personally teach and guide you."

After hearing this, Tao Xue was a bit shocked, and he didn't believe what the Patriarch said. He was already a laid back person, and now he had to take special training. That is what's called real bad luck!

As he sighed deeply, Tao Xue thought to himself, "Oh man, this is such a pain!"