Bab 16: Are you Warming Up?

With a resounding pop, the transparent membrane leading to the Sage Sect pops, and the image of the hall behind them turns into pure darkness.

Looking all around, the group of students notices that there are countless dots all around them. Walking on an illusionary bridge that comes in and out of existence constantly, the students occasionally shiver in fright from their own thoughts.

"Munch, munch." Eating a bag of caramel flavored popcorn, Jacob silently admires the scenery. Turning his head to the side, Jacob begins to converse with Amelia, "Hey, Amelia... Amelia? Where did you go?" Looking around, Jacob tries to find Amelia among the crowd of students. Slowing his pace, Jacob slowly travels to the back of the pack while searching for her.

Muttering to himself, he says, "She might be in the back. Amelia seems to be the type of person to hide in the most inconspicuous of places to avoid attention, and the back seems to be a great place in my opinion."

As Jacob continues to munch on his popcorn, he occasionally looks at the beautiful dots of light in the vast darkness that surrounds them.

"Hey, excuse me..."

"Excuse me; I am trying to look for someone..."

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Spotting Amelia, Jacob begins to move toward her in a flustered appearance excitedly. "Want some?" With a very sheepish grin, Jacob extends the bag of popcorn toward Amelia.

"You know that not everyone is as relaxed as you, right?" Says Amelia to Jacob as she takes the entire bag of popcorn from his hands.

Not feeling angry in the slightest, Jacob takes back his outstretched hand and puts his hands behind his head.

"Yea, I know: that's because our mindsets are different. I trust our teacher. I don't know about you, but if a teacher couldn't even protect their students from something like this, then they shouldn't be teachers at all then."

Looking at Jacob with a weird gaze, Amelia snorts in displeasure, "I guess so, but not every teacher is strong and not every teacher is smart. Every person has their own motive for doing things. I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Iwaki is the calculative type."

Reaching for another bag of chips, Jacob comments in puzzlement, "Why do you know so much about these things?"

"I'm surprised you didn't ask how I know so much, but I'll tell you anyway at a later time. Look, we are about to reach the end of the path." Says Amelia.

As Amelia points toward the front, Jacob follows her finger and realizes that they were indeed almost there. As Jacob remembers about the upcoming excitement, he shudders in anticipation. "I haven't felt my blood boil like this in a while."

Tilting her head in confusion, Amelia mutters to herself, "What has he been through to not even face any challenges? Did he get into the Sage Sect without a challenge?"

"We are here??" Taking a huge breath of relief, Jessica looks in front of her, only to realize that it wasn't a portal but a... teddy bear: a huge, fluffy, pink teddy bear.

"Am I seeing things?"

"This has to be the worst joke in the world."

"Someone pinch me. I've got to be dreaming."

"Okay."

"OUCH!! I didn't mean it literally."

"Oh, sorry."

"It's okay. I'm sorry for saying that."

Looking at the students' reactions, Mr. Iwaki thought that it was about time to quell their confused emotions. After walking ahead of the crowd a little more, Mr. Iwaki turns around and begins to introduce the teddy bear.

"Everyone, this teddy bear is nameless, so it's a tradition for us just to call it the creator's name and then teddy bear. The owner of this teddy bear is one of the grandmasters of our very own sect. Although deceased, we continue to honor her name. We haven't been able to retrieve records of her full name, so she remains a mystery even until but we have retrieved her first name. Her name is Shiro, so we call this Shiro's Teddy Bear."

After explaining to the crowd, Mr. Iwaki promptly bows to the teddy bear with great reverence in his eyes. "Shiro was one of the founding members of the Sage Sect and was only a step away from reaching beyond the sixth stage, the Spirit-Soul fusion stage."

Confused, Jason questions Mr. Iwaki, "What are the stages of cultivation? We have never gone over it yet. You mentioned earlier that you are in the Spiritual Refinement stage, and grandmaster Shiro was in the Spirit-Soul Fusion stage. Does that mean that all the teachers are in the fourth stage and all of the grandmasters are in the sixth stage?"

Taken by surprise, Mr. Iwaki ponders for a moment, "As far as I know, the requirement to become a teacher is to be at least in the second stage or higher. This is because you can't do most things without having at least a basic grasp on one's own cultivation. For us, some food requires a certain amount of strength, willpower, and confidence to make. I'm not saying that you all lack confidence and willpower, but some food ingredients especially seek out these things."

Reminiscing the past, Mr. Iwaki continues, "I remember when I was a student we were required to seek out a special tree that bore these succulent, tangy fruits. That tree was special though. You need a certain amount of confidence because if you step within a 50-feet radius with even the slightest mistrust toward your own capability, then you'll be slowly eaten alive where you stand. Your skin will be slowly peeled off from top to bottom as you melt into a puddle of blood."

As the crowd shudders from hearing such a frightening thing, Jacob couldn't help but question that assignment. "What do you mean? Did people actually die?"

"Yes, people actually died. During my assignment, I was with 29 other students, and only half of us came back alive. That specific tree is called the Demon Bewitching Glove because it looks like a massive glove from far away. That name might sound funny, but the capability of that tree is no joke." With a deep sigh, Mr. Iwaki goes back on topic. "Let's talk about the matter at hand. I'm guessing some of you have realized that I have been stalling for time. You're correct. I'm waiting for someone to come, but that person is taking longer than expected."

Confused, one of the students couldn't help but ask, "Who is coming?"

Shaking his head, Mr. Iwaki says, "I honestly don't know. I was informed that another member of the staff was going to come, but that's about it."

In the back of the crowd, Amelia suddenly looks at Jacob, "Could it be your grandfather? That's the only possible way that even our teacher doesn't know who it could be."

Shaking his head, Jacob was about to retort before he suddenly shifts his body around, "W-why are you here? Grandpa!!"

Scared witless by Jacob's sudden action, Amelia was about to smack him but stops with a dumbfounded expression. Lifting her finger, Amelia points at Jacob then slowly shifts her finger to Grandfather Galen, "Jacob, this is who? I didn't hear you correctly."

"Hahahaha, what a peculiar young lady. What's your name?" Pointing at the girl, Grandpa Galen mischievously nudges Jacob on his shoulder while winking.

"Brat, I didn't think your luck with the ladies was as good as your grandfather here. I guess my genes really do flow in your blood." While continuing to nudge Jacob on the shoulder, Grandpa Galen jokes around with a grin on his face.

Faced with his grandfather's bickering, Jacob had black lines written all over his forehead. Retorting, he says, "You wish your luck with women were as great as your granddaddy here."

Putting Jacob into a headlock, Grandfather Galen says, "Who's the grandfather? Last time I checked I was the grandfather, and you were the grandson, and I don't intend to change that."

Red-faced, Jacob could only helplessly give up on his struggle and swallow his bellyful of anger before he really does get choked to death. Giving up, Jacob says with resignation visibly apparent on his face, "Okay, okay. I get it. Uncle, uncle."

Being surprised, Grandfather Galen's grin widens even further as he puts more strength into his arm, "Who're you called uncle? I'm your granddaddy. I want to hear that."

Almost about to pass out, Jacob hurriedly says, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Grandpa. Please stop. I'm about to pas—." Before Jacob could finish, his head goes limp."

"..."

"I think you killed him."

"I might've diddly do dum fucked up."

"You might've what?"

"Nothing..."

Holding Jacob's lifeless body, Grandfather Galen was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Looking at his grandson's lifeless corpse, Grandfather Galen holds his hand up with a wave of determination washing through his body and starts slapping the everlasting shit out of Jacob. "Boy, if you don't wake up right now, I will slap you into high heaven and back."

As he continues to slap his grandson with lightning-quick speed, Grandfather Galen looks at Amelia and releases a small wave of oppressive aura toward her and whispers, "If you dare let anything that happens here out to anyone then I will find you and black the everlasting shit out of you too."

Feeling both confused and scared, Amelia could only briskly nod her head like a baby chick as she watches the events unfold.

Feeling delighted that he managed to scare her so easily, Grandfather Galen withdraws his oppressive might and continues to slap Jacob with even faster speed.

"Boom."

"How is everyone oblivious to what's going on here?" Scared by the sonic-boom that is being emitted from the friction of each slap, Amelia looks around and notices that no one is even glancing in their direction, as if they didn't exist in the first place.

Upon noticing Amelia's worries, Grandfather Galen says, "No worries, I sealed the area with my spirit power. No one will be able to see this unless they have strength matching mine. Very few people in this entire world have that power, and all of them are bigshots that are busy doing their own things."

"Is that true?" With a disbelieving gaze, Amelia looks at Grandfather Galen and questions him.

Not responding to her, Grandfather Galen suddenly stops his lightning-fast slaps and cocks back for one last slap. Noticing that even the intangible space around his hand was showing cracks revealed the deadly prowess that Grandfather Galen's hand contained.

"Szzzzz."

Contrary to expectation, Grandfather Galen had struck Jacob's glabella and with only one finger instead of his entire hand. "I didn't expect that I would need to use this skill after learning it 20 years ago."

Widening her eyes, Amelia looks at the current scene with big bulging eyes, "Heaven's!!! Are those stairs?!?!"

In front of Amelia is a flight of magical stairs that seemed to ascend for eternity. At the end of the staircase was an entire legion of angels holding spears and a huge gate that let out an eye-piercing light. Walking down the stairs is an old man with a head full of silver hair that reached down to his feet and a long beard. Contrary to expectation, he had no wrinkles, and the only thing that betrayed his age was his all-seeing eyes that contain the vicissitude of life, and his beard.

Next to the man is a child that looked no older than five: a true youngling; however, that child seemed to be genderless. With no distinct sexual appearances, it seemed more like a doll than an actual human. What made it stand out the most would be the mark on its head: it had a light green mark with a shape of a sword.

"Who are you guys?" Unbeknownst to the danger that they are in, Amelia points her shivering finger at the two people above.

Knowing that those two are definitely not to be trifled, Grandfather Galen shouts at Amelia to quiet down and looks at the two mysterious outsiders, "May I know why the both of you have come here to this desolate planet?"

Walking down the stairs, the silver-haired old man smiles at Grandfather Galen then points at the boy in his arms, "I am here for this young man. I seem to owe him a favor, and I came here precisely to return it."

After walking down the stairs, the silver-haired old man looks at the child next to him and pats his head.

"Minh, go and finish what that man was going to do and do it nicely." Squinting his eyes, the silver-haired old man says with provocation completely unmasked in his tone.

Walking out with a deadpan face, Minh says, "Yes, master."

"Whoosh."

"What are you—."

Being knocked back, Grandfather Galen noticed that he was completely immobile and couldn't move a single inch. The only thing that he could do was move his mouth with great difficulty as he watched his grandson fall into Minh's hands.

"D-don't y-you da...re touch...my... gra...and...son."