บท 12: Senior Brother Ji
The first thing that Issei saw upon waking up was a face gazing upon him. It seemed to belong to fourteen or sixteen years old, with rather plain features.
"Hmm... Hello?" Issei said as timidly as he looked at the youth in front of him, slightly wary.
"Ah, sorry," The youth then said, noticing that Issei had woken up, "You must be Issei. My name is Sa Ji."
"Sa Ji?" Issei repeated his name, testing how it felt to say it, "So, Senior Ji, how come you know my name?" asked Issei, still rather bashfully, but not stuttering. He decided that although he would pretended to be an innocent and foolish kid, he wouldn't stutter so much.
When he heard Issei's question, a strange expression appeared on Senior Ji's face, "How I know your name?" He repeated, rather incredulously, "How could I not know?!" He finally exclaimed.
"Huh?" Issei said, slightly taken aback by his exclamation.
"Everyone in the entire school knows about the eleven years old kid how won the Azure Province's Azure Cloud City tournament! The kid who beat even the Azure Lightning School's youth!"
"Oh..." Issei said, rather surprised. Never would he have thought that news would travel so fast.
"Either way, you truly are as girly as the rumor says. When I first saw you, I mistook your for a little girl!" He exclaimed, this time laughing lightly.
"I see..." Issei muttered, slightly annoyed. Although he at first didn't really mind being mistaken for a girl, it was slowly beginning to annoy him. Seriously, it happened way too often!
Also, wasn't this fellow a little to friendly? They had only just met, but he treated Issei like an old friend.
"Oh yeah, how come I didn't see you entering the dorm yesterday?" Sa Ji finally the question that had been plaguing his mind.
"Ah, that's because I met up with some seniors before, and only after talking with them did I come back to the dorm," Issei quickly lied. It must be said that Issei was incredibly adept in the art of lying. He could make up lies in a second, and his acting skills were top-notch.
"Oh, so that's the reason," He begun, before he stopped mid-way as he seemed to have remembered something of utmost importance. His gaze then locked dead on Issei, "Hey, would you like me to show you around the school?"
"Huh?"
"It's because this will be your first actual day, so you probably don't know how things work here. How about I show you around and get you a weapon and some skills?"
"Oh? Then I must trouble senior."
"Great! Dress up quickly, I'll be waiting for you outside," Sa Ji turned around and walked away.
Deciding to not waste this great opportunity, Issei quickly put on the robe that one of the elders had handed him in the carriage.
After putting on his robe, he hurried to the door, meeting with the kind Sa Ji. Issei was specially excited. He had thought that he would have to spend quite some time searching around the school for necessities, but it seemed that the heaven's were kind and granted him a guide!
"Okay, first, we'll got the Mighty Weapon Pavilion!" Sa Ji said as he started walking in a particular direction.
Issei was hot on his heels as he asked, "Mighty Weapon Pavilion?"
"Yes, Mighty Weapon Pavilion," Sa Ji began, "The Mighty Weapon Pavilion is where inner disciples pick their weapons. There are a variety of weapons there.
As you know, weapons are graded just like cultivation is graded. In the pavilion, there are a bunch of Nascent Profound Realm grade equipment."
"Ah, I see. Is there also weapon pavilions for the outer disciples and core disciples?"
"Only for core disciples. Outer disciples are tasked with odd jobs and various cleaning duties, so they don't really have needs for weapons. As for core disciples, they have their own weapon pavilion called the Heavenly Weapon Pavilion. Apparently, there are even weapons of the True Profound Realm grade there!"
"Ah..."
As they continued walking, Sa Ji explained more and more about the school. After walking for twenty or so minutes, they finally reached the Mighty Weapon Pavilion.
"This is it," Sa Ji pointed at tall building. It must be said that the Heavenly Might School was certainly extravagant. The Mighty Weapon Pavilion was luxuriously decorated, with two big golden lions statues on each side of the door.
"Shall we go in?" He asked as he analyzed Issei's reactions.
Nodding, Issei walked forward and into the building. Seeing that Issei was already entering, Sa Ji hurried his steps and entered along with him.
Inside the weapon pavilion, countless racks of weapons could be seen. There was indeed a wide range of weapons, with scimitars, great swords, swords, sabers, short swords, daggers, bows, axes, spears and halberds.
Gazing upon such a wide and extensive variety of weapons, Issei couldn't help but to sigh in admiration. Heavenly Might School was definitely wealthy.
"Hey, Junior Brother," Sa Ji called out, bringing Issei back to reality.
"What, Senior Brother?"
"Do you have any weapon you're adept in?"
"Adept?" Issei repeated, as if in deep thought.
In reality, he had basic knowledge on daggers, swords, bows and double swords, but if he were to say the one he was most familiar with, it would be double swords. After all, Shinso's personal style was also dual wielding, as such, Issei trained that one the most.
"I would say dual wielding swords?" Issei said, seemingly unsure.
"Dual wielding?" Sa Ji muttered before he entered a stage of deep thought. After staying like that for a couple of moments, enlightenment filled his eyes as he stared at Issei.
"Well, the school allows each student to choose two weapons, in case the first one breaks during battle and you need to quickly replace it, so you can choose two swords," He finally said.
He then moved to one of the racks and grabbed a sword, handing it to Issei.
"I suggest this one and..."
He then walked to another rack, grabbed another sword and handed it to him.
"This one."
Looking at the two swords on his hand, Issei was slightly surprised.
They were both of the Nascent Profound Rank. Their appearances were also extravagant, with golden markings on both of them.
But, at the same time, he felt that those two just weren't suited for him.
"Umm, Senior Brother, would you mind if I searched some more?" Issei placed the two extravagant swords on a table and looked at Sa Ji.
"Ah, sure, no hurry," Sa Ji replied nonchalantly. He also felt that it would be better for him to pick his own weapon, although he was quite sure that he would just give up and pick those two swords that he had brought in the end.
Issei then moved over to the closest rack, quickly glanced at it and passed to the second. Sa Ji was looking at Issei attentively, ready to explain any question he might have.
After looking at over seven different racks, Issei still hadn't found anything that gave him the feeling that it should belong to him.
Just as he was about to give up and just go with the two Nascent Profound Realm ranked swords, he saw something within his peripheral vision.
On a far corner of the room, in a badly lit area, there were two swords on the wall. Because of the illumination, most people wouldn't even notice them, but for some reason, Issei was greatly attracted to them.
Walking over to the wall, Issei picked up the two swords. One of them had a pitch black blade, with an equally black hilt, while the other was the complete opposite; it's blade was of the purest white, with an also white hilt.
As he analyzed the two swords, he could feel that this two swords were simply perfect for him. He couldn't explain the feeling, he just felt it! It was an instict!
Also, both swords didn't lose in terms of quality at all compared to Sa Ji's choice, both being of the Nascent Profound Realm rank.
"This swords..." Sa Ji muttered, as he too was looking at the swords that Issei held in his hands. His expression was one of surprise.
"What about them?" Issei turned around to look at Sa Ji.
"It's just that I had never seen them before..." He muttered, looking lost in thought.
"Oh?" Issei's mouth formed an 'o' as he looked at the sword, "Well, that isn't a problem. I can stay with them, right?"
"Oh, absolutely," was Sa Ji's quick reply.
"Then that's fine," said Issei as he pretended to place both swords in his cosmos sack, but in reality placing them in Sky Poison Pearl inner world.
"Well, now that you have already chosen a weapon, we should go to the Mighty Skill Pavilion."
"Mighty Skill Pavilion?" Issei said, slightly surprised. Seriously, who the hell thought of these stupid names? Even a five-years-old could think of this. The naming sense was weak with this one.
"Yes, we should get you some Martial Skills so you can cultivate."
"Then I'll have to trouble senior once more to show the way!" exclaimed Issei as he already stepped out of the Mighty Weapon Pavilion and waited for Sa Ji to show the way.
Seeing that Issei had already exited, Sa Ji quickly went to one of the tables of the room and registered that Issei had chosen two swords of the Nascent Profound Realm rank. After that, he followed Issei out and then led him to a large, tower-like building.
It was extremely large, at least twice the size of the Mighty Weapon Pavilion in width and thrice in size. The tower, just like the weapon pavilion was also luxuriously decorated.
Gazing upon such a majestic tower, Issei couldn't help but to sigh in amazement. If the inner disciple's skill pavilion was already this amazing, who knows how amazing would the core disciple's pavilion be?
They then entered the tower, quickly arriving at a huge library-like place. The walls were littered with shelves, all with Martial Skills scrolls. He could see at least one hundred different scrolls, something that amazed him greatly.
"So, Junior Brother Issei, would you like me to suggest some skills for you?"
"If that wouldn't be troubling you..."
"Not at all! It's my pleasure!" Sa Ji exclaimed as he immediately started searching for the Martial Skills that he had on mind. Ever since seeing that Issei had chosen dual swords, he had begun thinking of Martial Skills that involved dual swords techniques.
Since there was a limit of only being able to choose 3 martial skills to cultivate every month, he decided that it would be best for Issei to start with a dual sword Martial Skill, a movement Martial Skills and a defensive Martial Skill. At least, that's what was commonly known as the best strategy.
As Sa Ji begun his search for Issei's Martial Skills, Issei didn't dally around as he also started searching. In reality, he didn't put much faith in his senior brother's judgment. After all, who would know what's best for him rather than Issei himself? Who knew him better than himself?
After searching for a couple of minutes, Issei had only found a hand-full of rank 3 Martial Skills. Most of the Martial Skills in the Pavilion were only rank 2.
Of course, for Issei who didn't possess a single rank 3 Martial Skill, those rank 3 Martial Skills should have been tempting, but Issei had a feeling that there were still better things in store for him.
Since he had found out on the way that he could only choose 3 Martial Skills each month, Issei decided that he would thoroughly looked through all Martial Skills in the are before choosing three of them.
Also, one of the reasons why Issei wasn't really tempted by the rank 3 Martial Skills that he had found was because he knew just by quickly glancing over them that he would take little more than a couple of hours to learn each.
That meant that he could easily learn any three of them in a day with time to spare, meaning that he would then spend an entire month with nothing to do before choosing new skills.
As such, he was determined to get the most difficult skill available, so he would be able to actually profit from this month of training.
Thankfully, it didn't take Issei long for him to reach the end of the Mighty Skill Pavilion. The moment he reached the end, what appeared in front of him made his eyes widen considerably and his heart beat faster.
The reason for such drastic changes in Issei, who was normally extremely stable, was because in front of him was a shelf with only three scrolls in it. Two of them were thick and large, while one was relatively thin.
But, those scrolls weren't what had caught his attention. What had truly set in motion his change in behavior was the words engraved above the shelf.
The Three Most Difficult Martial Skills
Reading such words, Issei felt like that he was truly blessed. It was as if all that he was searching all along had been handed to him in a silver platter.
He didn't even need to search any more as he grabbed all three of the Martial Skills from the shelf. He didn't even bother opening them and checking their contents. Just from the names and ranks that were written in the name-tag bellow each of them was already enough.
According to the name-tag, the thickest one's name was The Four Ways Of The Lightning, a rank 4 Martial Skill.
The one that was second in terms of thickness name was Heavenly Double Swords Might, also a rank 4 Martial Skill.
The name of the thinnest and also final one was Illusionary Palms, also a rank 4 Martial Skill.
At that moment, he knew that he had all rank 4 Martial Skills in the entire pavilion in his hands.
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