บท 13: Elder Jun
"Hey, Junior Brother, I have found the skills!" Sa Ji called out as he walked towards Issei, three scrolls on his arms.
"Ah, Senior..." muttered Issei, preparing to explain that he had already chosen, but was then stopped mid-way by Sa Ji.
"Oh, you have already chosen?" said Sa Ji with disbelief as he noticed the scrolls on Issei's arms. He was about to ask which ones they were, but then stopped as he noticed the shelf behind Issei.
Looking at the engraved words on the top, then at the empty shelf and finally at Issei's arms, Sa Ji's eyes widened.
"What have you done?!" He exclaimed as he dropped all of his scrolls on to the ground and ran to where Issei was.
"Hmm?" Issei asked, not understanding why his Senior Brother had such a reaction. All he did was pick the three most difficult scrolls, what about it?
Upon nearing Issei, Sa Ji immediately snatched his three scrolls and hurried to the shelf, trying to place them on it. Sadly, his efforts were for naught.
As if an invisible barrier had sprung up, Sa Ji couldn't even bring the scrolls near the shelf.
Every time he tried, his hands would meet with an invisible, extremely hard wall, making him unable to even bring them close to their original spots.
After trying a few times, Sa Ji sighed. He then looked back at Issei and said, "Why did you have to pick those three scrolls?"
"Huh? What's the problem?" Issei asked, also having noticed that Sa Ji was unable to place them back. That made him heavily curious.
"You see, the head master of this school placed a spirit formation onto this shelf. Once one of this scrolls is taken out, they can only be placed back after a month. That means that the moment that you take one of these scrolls out, you are obliged to choose it," Sa Ji explained with a down-cast appearance.
"Is forced to take them home? Why would the head master do something like that?" Issei asked with evident curiosity. That truly didn't make sense. Why would the head master put such a spirit formation?
Sa Ji sighed once more as grabbed the scrolls that he had dropped on the ground up, placed them back on their respective shelves and then explained, "Apparently, he wanted to teach the students that they shouldn't bite more than they can chew."
"Huh?"
"It means that he wanted to teach the students to know their limits, and to not try to do learn way above them, such as rank 4 martial skills. The punishment for trying to choose them would be to be forced to bring them home, which also means that they would waste their entire month doing nothing."
"Doing nothing?"
"Yes, doing nothing. Those three rank 4 martial skills are impossibly difficult to learn, much more than even rank 5 martial skills. Even if the head master tried, he probably wouldn't be able to understand anything from them.
"In fact, the number one core disciple, rumored to be a martial genius that only appears once in a thousand years, trued to learn these three skills.
"Three years ago, he grabbed all three scrolls and brought them with him to cultivate in seclusion. Last month, he came back, but to everyone's astonishment, he didn't even begin to comprehend the three skills, even after three full years of non-stop cultivation."
As Sa Ji explained that far, his face was one of sadness. Never would he have thought that Issei would actually try to pick those three scrolls...
That means that Issei just threw a month of cultivation out of the window! Because, there's no way, no matter how much of a genius he is, that he'll be able to understand anything about them in only one month.
The more he thought, the sadder he became. He was given explicit orders to make sure that Issei progresses smoothly in the school and to have him help him in every way possible.
But, on his first day doing his task, he made the blunder of letting Issei choose the three single martial skills that he absolutely shouldn't.
He could only imagine the scolding that she would give him...
While Sa Ji was lost in his sad thoughts, Issei couldn't help but to be even more excited. When he first saw the sign, he was a little worried that it might be a trick, because why the hell would one so obviously announce that those three were the most difficult martial skills?
Even after checking their ranks, he was unsure, but now he was certain. These skills were definitely what he was looking for. Something incredibly difficult, so much that no one in the entire school knows!
That perfectly suited Issei, who was mad cultivation monster with other-worldly martial comprehending skills.
Geniuses that only come once in a thousand years? Those weren't even suited to lick Issei's feet. Try the ones that come only once in a trillion years. Maybe they would be able to lick his feet.
But, for appearance's sake, Issei put on a slightly down-cast expression. As always, his acting skills were above top-notch, so Sa Ji immediately bought it. In fact, he tried to comfort him.
"Well, don't be like that," Sa Ji said, as if he hadn't been sulking miserably a moment ago. "Even if you can't practice any martial skills, you'll still be able to cultivate, right?"
When he heard that, Issei felt like laughing. If he had been truly said about picking those three skills, Sa Ji's reminder of cultivation would only worsen his mood. He, who would need dozens of years before even trying to break-through to the next level if he were to cultivate normally, would be extremely depressed.
"Well, let's just register it for now. We still have more places to go," Sa Ji said as he shot Issei an encouraging smile. His demeanor had truly completely changed.
The reason for such a change was because he thought that if he managed to help Issei, maybe his punishment for committing that hateful blunder would be lighter. As such, he was completely dedicated to helping Issei out and fulfilling his requests.
"Okay," said Issei as he followed Sa Ji to the entrance. When they arrived, Sa Ji walked to the right, leading to an old man sitting in front of a table.
"Oh? Sa Ji?" The old man asked as he recognized the plain looking young man, "You know that there is still five more days until you can get new martial skills, right?"
Sa Ji nodded and then pointed at Issei, "This is Issei, the new kid. I was just helping him pick his martial skill," He explained.
"Issei?" The man asked, trying to recall where he had heard that name before. His eyes then suddenly widened, "You mean the one who won the tournament?"
"Exactly."
"Ah, I see..." He muttered before looking over at Issei, "Come over here, show me the martial skills that you chose so I can register."
"Ah, okay, elder..." Issei moved forward and was preparing to hand him the scrolls,
"Oh, you can call me elder Jun," Elder Jun said as he received the martial skills scrolls.
He was about to open them to check for their names, but stopped as he recognized the three scrolls.
Looking up, he shot Sa Ji an are-you-serious? look.
"It was already too late..." he muttered awkwardly.
Hearing his answer, elder Jun sighed and then looked back at Issei, "I'm sorry that you have such a useless senior..."
"Ah, no, no," Issei quickly said, trying to keep a shy appearance while saying in an earnest tone, "It was my fault! It wasn't senior's fault!"
Upon hearing Issei defending him so earnestly, Sa Ji couldn't help but to grow warm inside. He had never gotten a junior before, and his first one was such a kind one!
Although he first approached Issei because he was ordered to, he now felt that he should really take care of his first junior.
"Oh well," sighed the old man as he wrote some things down on a scroll that was on the table. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to keep this for one month. Just remember to come exactly when one month passes so you can begin actually practicing martial skills."
"Thank you, elder Jun. I will," Issei said politely with a bow as he got his scrolls back from the table and pretended to place them in his cosmos sack, while placing them in the Sky Poison Pearl.
Seeing that the process was already finished, Sa Ji quickly brought Issei out of the building.
"Now, I'll show you where you'll cultivate," Sa Ji said as he started walking.
Nodding, Issei followed after him.
After about ten more minutes of constant walking, Issei was once more facing a tower like building. The only difference was that this time, it was much bigger than the Mighty Skill Pavilion, at least thrice it's size, but at the same time being much less luxurious.
"We're here," Sa Ji said as he pointed to the tower in front of them, "This is the Cultivation Tower. It's full of rooms where inner disciples can cultivate. The spiritual power on the room is also much stronger than on the outside, making it much better for cultivation."
He then looked back at Issei, "Follow me in, I'm gonna arrange for a personal room for you," He said as he walked towards the tower.
"Personal room?" asked Issei as he also walked to the tower.
"Yes, personal room," began Sa Ji, "In this tower, there are two hundred public rooms and only fifty personal rooms," He explained. "Personal rooms belong to only one person, and only the one who has the key to the room can enter it."
Sa Ji then took a stone that was littered with blue, shining, markings and handed it to Issei.
"I just so happen to have an extra room key with me," He explained. "You keep it."
Issei definitely wasn't one to refuse presents. Furthermore, he had long since figured out that Sa Ji had some reason for helping him. To him, no one could be so kind to a stranger.
As such, since he thought that Sa Ji had some other motives, he decided that he would exploit the situation to it's max.
"Thank you, senior brother Ji," Issei said politely as he accepted the room key.
Seeing that Issei had accepted so easily, Sa Ji was surprised for a moment, but then simply smiled. If Issei accepted his gifts, the better it was for him. This way, he could use this as an excuse to get a lighter punishment from her.
Also, the key wasn't his anyways. Once more, she gave it to him so he could hand it to Issei.
"Well, let's just get going," Sa Ji said as he walked inside the tower along with Issei.
Upon entering, the first thing that Issei saw was a large, well lit corridor. On both sides, an endless number of doors could be seen.
The floor and the walls were both made from old looking stones. All in all, it didn't seem like this place belonged to the same school as the Mighty Skill Pavilion and the Mighty Weapon Pavilion. Seriously, the disparity in luxurious was simply too deep.
Seeing Issei's expression, Sa Ji chuckled before saying, "Don't be fooled by it's appearance. This Cultivation Tower was a thousand of times more expensive to build then both of the Pavilions.
"Really?"
"Yes. The stone that this tower is made off is extremely resistant, almost unbreakable. Also, it emits spiritual power, making it precocious for cultivation. From this, it can be seen just how expensive this tower was."
Now that Issei heard it, it really felt like the spiritual power in the air was much denser than outside. Sadly, even if it was a million times more concentrated, it still wouldn't help him much. The amount of spiritual power needed to break-through to the sixth level of the Nascent Profound Realm was simply too huge.
They then kept walking until the end of the corridor, climbed a step of spiral stairs, walked to the end of the corridor of the second floor, climbed the stairs and then entered the third and final floor.
"The first two floors only have public cultivation rooms, and the third one only have personal cultivation rooms," He explained.
"Ah..." Issei said with a now-I-get-it expression, although he had pretty much guessed that already.
"Either way, your room is the number 39, follow me," Sa Ji then brought Issei to his room.
Looking at the door, Issei saw that there was nothing particular about it. The only thing that distinguished it from the others was the number 39 etched into the door.
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