Chapter 3: Ruthless
Fang Yuan patiently sat in the horse lead carriage. Alongside a few other children. He was the lone person of the Gu Yue clan in this transportation. Most observed him, interested in the 'shame' of the Gu Yue clan.
Other clan members, apart from him, were taught inside the village itself, which possesses its own academy. Unfortunately, through the machinations of his family, he was sent to a far city.
It is a good chance for him to break free of his restraints from the clan. After he is old enough to fend for himself, he can go out and search once more for a way to realize eternal life.
He stared off into the distance, spotting a nearby city. It was nowhere near as large as the Shan clan's city, but it was sufficient enough to qualify as a city.
The wagon entered the city, until it stopped near the center of it.
"This is the stop, get off." The driver turned his head and gruffly barked. The children took a moment to process his words before they all file off it. Once all left the carriage, the man drove off.
"Alright kids, follow me!" A chubby woman called out to them. Their heads turned to her, briefly before they walked behind her moving figure.
A few minutes of walking later, she stopped in front of a gate. Two guards stood at each side. One was sleeping leaning behind the gate.
The second guard looked towards his colleague and nudged him with the flat end of the spear he held. "Wuh..?" He grumbled. A moment later, he spotted people at the front of them: "W-we've been expecting you."
He straightened himself out and stood tall. The both of them in unison grabbed the gate's hinges and pushed, introducing the new students to their new learning institution.
"Welcome to Nuoding Academy." The guard to the right bowed, not to the students, but the one leading them. A Spirit Master is not to be offended.
"Come in." A kindly smile adorned the woman's face as she led the children in.
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Fang Yuan was led into his dormitory room. Some objects were given to him by his clan as a show that even if he was exiled, he was still backed by his family. It provides him relief at least, noone would dare bother him with his backing, but so too do opportunities pass him precisely because of this.
Now, he stood before a battle royale of sorts. Two children as of right now were in a clash unfitting of their age. Fang Yuan was interested, did some of the people of this world possess innate Dao marks? The movements they perform were of completely different league to even Earth's performers. Either that, or they are geniuses.
Fang Yuan could tell, these two very much are chosen to become significant figures in the future. From the girl's appearance, to the boy's skill. He became suspicious of the boy though. He made no effort in hiding his combat prowess, something of which could compare to a man who had decades of experience.
Either this child was a hidden expert with a childlike appearance, or an Otherworldly Demon, there is no other explanation.
Even geniuses among geniuses, such as Venerables took years to even become proficient in their respective masteries. Yet this child, at the youthful age of 6, had the skills of a trained assassin.
Fang Yuan was familiar with an assassin's way of combat. Deadly attacks that can quickly incapacitate or kill an opponent, nimble movements that can turn their defensive position into an offensive one. He could see the boy performing assassination style combat, but held himself back from truly committing its full form.
He was interested in this new state of affairs here. Fang Yuan can freely investigate, and confront this child. He may even be from the Gu world.
"I win~!" The girl teasingly spoke to the boy as her foot connected with his solar plexus. The latter was sent flying, but safely landed back on his feet.
Her head turned towards Fang Yuan: "Do you want to fight too?" She smiled at his icy expression. Fang Yuan's response was walking up towards her. The girl became cautious and tensed, she felt a little scared at the one in front of her, but didn't let it show on her face.
Fang Yuan was now in front of her, and... walked past her. He didn't even spare her a glance, as if he never even noticed she was there.
"Hey," She pouted, "I thought you wanted to fight!" She stomped her foot. Fang Yuan's eyes moved to her, and she froze. It felt as if she were prey in front of him, an apex predator staring at a tiny morsel near the bottom of the foodchain. Her hairs stood up as she felt goosebumps from his stare.
His eyes moved away and turned towards a bed in the corner. Moving to its side, he sat in a lotus position on the slightly comfy bed.
"A-anyways, I am Xiao Wu, and the Wu comes from Tiao Wu," She regained her composure and took a cutesy pose as if nothing happened: "But you will call me Xiao Wu Jie!" The girl winked.
Meanwhile, the boy stared at Fang Yuan. He felt apprehensive towards him. Even as the stare wasn't directed towards him, he felt the residual fear inducing feeling of it. 'He's... not normal.' He gulped the saliva that had gathered in his mouth: 'A Tang sect cultivator like me being afraid of a child?' He gripped his open palm into a fist.
Tang San snapped out of his fear after a moment and spoke up to Xiao Wu: "In accordance to the dormitory rules for defeating me, from now on, you are the boss of the dorm." As if he had not entered a trance.
"Boss?" Pleasant surprised coated her face. "I like the sound of that! Now, who can give me an introduction to what's happening in the academy?" She turned to the other children in the dorm who are not Tang San or Fang Yuan.
The boy who was thrown previously, Wang Sheng, spoke up: "We are working students here, we make sure to clean the academy while our teacher assigns us things to do. There are six grades, each having a class. The three of you who just came are first graders. The others are third graders and I'm a six grader. We attend class in the morning and cultivate in the afternoon. There are two classes for us, cultural lore and spirit lore. We working students have work in the afternoon though so we can eat food." Xiao Wu nodded at his response. Fang Yuan quietly listened in, perhaps some important information would be provided.
More information, some personal were given by the child. Most were useless, but Fang Yuan did learn that in order to graduate, one must reach rank 10 Spirit Power and obtain a Spirit Ring by hunting Spirit Beasts.
"Xiao San, what's your Spirit Power? You must be pretty strong." Tang San ignored her naming and directly answered.
"Innate full Spirit Power." Shock resounded from the students inside the dorm. Meanwhile Fang Yuan widened his eyes and became interested. He had heard that such a thing
A man entered dorm 7 and called out: "Have the new students arrived? Please stand for a moment." As he said so, Fang Yuan, the boy, and Xiao Wu did as he said.
"Where is Tang San?" He asked out between the new arrivals.
The boy, now known as Tang San, stepped towards him: "My name is Mo Hen, call me teacher Mo. Take this as a gift from Grandmaster, Tang San." He held out a bedding he'd been holding.
The boy held out his arms and took it. He was silent as he stared at this gift.
"Next, where is Gu Yue Fang Yuan?" After saying this, the boy in question moved towards him.
"Take this, a gift from the Principal of Nuoding Academy himself." He held out another bedding, this time, it was of exquisite make. Unlike Tang San who held a comfy, clean, and gorgeous bedding, Fang Yuan was given a somewhat ornate one. It was pleasing to the eyes, and very comfy, comfier than the freshly bought one held by Tang San, as determined by the presumed price tag.
No doubt it was a show of respect to the Gu Yue clan, but he would not reject this. A small and simple comfort such as this would not be one he would turn down.
"Now, Tang San and Xiao Wu. Both of you are first year working students, so from now on..." He went on an explanation to the two. Seeing as Fang Yuan was not included, he paid no heed. As it stands, this dorm was filled with working students, yet Fang Yuan was not included.
Once again, another work of the Gu Yue clan. To place him in an insulting position, while still providing him leeway as expected of a prestigious clansman.
If he were a child, he would likely not take notice of their intentions, but Fang Yuan was not. Deciphering schemes and underlying tones in each taken action was basically second nature to him. If a person acted, he would first learn to know the beneficiaries for initiated actions.
But this level of insult, it was plainly childish for him. A petty man's misdirected revenge towards, to their knowledge, an innocent child. As it appears, the current opinion of the clanhead towards him still lays in a negative light, even after a significant amount of time had passed. He would have far preferred to be left alone to plan his machinations, but his circumstances do provide opportunities he would not have otherwise.
The sympathy of the people around him is one such chance. They were unlike him, disciplined and goal focused, and as such are susceptible to manipulations through the actions displayed by his clan towards him.
The look displayed by Mo Hen towards him after scanning the room proved this could be useful indeed. Though he was doubtless that it would be useful once it faces against a man of higher standing. After all, one cannot hold a prestigious position for long without being capable of cold logic.
Said man who gave a look once again spoke: "Tomorrow is the schedule of the opening ceremony. The day after tomorrow is when the regular classes begin. The first year classes are on the first floor of the main school building, so the day after tomorrow all of you will, I expect, punctually go to class. Starting from the day after tomorrow, you, apart from Gu Yue Fang Yuan will start carrying out work. We also may do non-scheduled spot checks. You may rest first. Wang Sheng, as the oldest student here, inform them of the rules."
Fang Yuan gave a small nod of understanding and returned to his bed, setting up the gift provided by the Principal. After doing so, he sat down and shut his eyes tight.
Meanwhile, the other members of the dorm had their own conversations taking place. And so resulted in a flustered Tang San being pressured into sharing his bedding with their dorm's most recent boss, Xiao Wu.
He cast a glance on the cultivating figure of Fang Yuan, feeling slightly rattled. To him, he felt very off, like an immortal observing tiny ants living about their daily lives.
As he walks off alongside Xiao Wu to get their lunch, he briefly thinks back on his first encounter with him. He had only ever felt like that when he became face to face with an esteemed cultivator in his original world, the feeling of complete powerlessness.
He knows not of his circumstances, but he would be a fool to let his guard down around the monster in human form. For now, it was best he kept his distance and watched his mouth, there's no telling what the boy was capable of.
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His eyes slowly opened up after his short cultivation time. Really, he was just poking around and seeing what does what inside his body to find a method to cultivate. He pushed himself up and stood straight.
For now, his body requires food. He has need of making his body as healthy as possible, dao marks or no, even if said dao marks provide an intense boost to his health. Perhaps he permanently no longer requires nutrients, but you couldn't be too sure.
He strode at a pace towards the dining hall. Along the way, he passed through the sports ground, observing many figures headed to the same destination as he.
A few minutes of walking later, he stopped inside the noisy school building.
Many students lined up to the many serving windows, which he doubts he would be able to reach even with the amount of serving windows he can line up to.
He spotted the familiar faces of his dorm mates who systematically stood in the line, but he paid no attention to them. He walked forward past the last of the line all the way to the second in line.
He squeezed through and waited patiently.
To the one behind him, he looked increduously at Fang Yuan before promptly gripping his shoulder.
"Hey! Get in line, I was here first!" He argued, but it seems that the boy did not hear.
"Hey!" He said with gritted teeth, shaking Fang Yuan slightly. The latter turned his head and cast a cold glare at the boy: "I said, I was here first!" Fang Yuan's expression did not change, instead, he gripped the hand grabbed onto his shoulder with one hand, and lightly crushed.
"Ah—! Stop, it hurts, it hurts!" He pleaded. Fang Yuan, satisfied, lets go and turns back in front of him.
The boy stared at him with hate and fear, which turned to anger: "Why you—!" He winds his other hand for a punch on Fang Yuan's back.
Seeming unaware of the sneak attack about to hit, the fist managed to land on him.
A cry of pain sounded out.
Shortly after, the boy dropped to his knees. The pain from his previously gripped hand was completely ignored in favor of the other. His hand clasped around his reddened knuckles. Whimpers of pain were the only sounds that came out of the boy.
Spectators watched the scene with confusion. The boy punched the other one, so why is the person in pain not the one who was punched?
Fear set in for the watchers as some backed away from the menacing Fang Yuan.
Meanwhile the boy in pain finally quietened down as the intense pain from his knuckles dissipated. The only thought left in his head was: Why did he felt like he had punched a solid piece of rock?
As for Fang Yuan, he did not pay much attention. He did not care for the opinions of ants, and this way, few would mess with him.
He quietly took his food and sat down, not caring for the gazes sent his way.
Meanwhile....
A disheveled looking white haired man observed him, his eyes filled with intrigue. A newly entered child already at this level? Only those at Spirit Grandmaster could display this level of durability.
Perhaps... he could investigate more into who this child was, one born with such a physique was bound to not be ordinary.
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Meanwhile in the Bai clan...
A disinterested young lady sat unbefittingly of her stature. She could be described as what people normally call a "jade beauty". Her presence alone emits grace. Long, bright silver hair complemented her white attire.
Her blue eyes suddenly darted around in confusion, before settling on her pale hands.
A smirk was placed on her lips as the memories returned.
Bai Ning Bing, the White Demon has awoken.
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I'm currently reading the Douluo Dalu novel as a way to make this as accurate as possible, but holy fuck was Tang San sus af. The man was literally blushing from Xiao Wu, and apparently he was well and truly a dude who never touched a woman in his life.
This took long af, I procrastinated too much, my bad.
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