Team Paper Tigers?!

Wei and Leah quickly made there way out of the Attribute Testing Chamber and looked around for the transmission array that would transport them to their barracks.

“Should we try to find Aaron and Thomas first?” Leah asked, concerned.

“No, I want to cultivate a bit anyway. We can just wait for them in the barracks, if you don’t mind,” Wei replied.

“Okay, you’re right, I should cultivate too. Where do you think the transmission array is?”

Wei looked around the atrium. Behind the central pillar of effervescent lightning with the massive levitating emerald at its midst, Wei spotted on the floor what looked like an inscription array.

“It should be there. Come on,” he said.

The transmission array was unguarded. Wei and Leah stood on the platform tentatively, unsure what they had to do to activate it. Just as Wei was about to ask Leah what she thought, however, a tingling sensation ran down his arm and out his hand.

A small spark of light, less than an entire origin Chi spark, floated into the transmission array. The next moment, the array lit up, inscription patterns on the floor glowing with white light.

Bright light encapsulated them, and the next moment they found themselves in the center of what looked like a large, comfortable common room. There were couches and tables strewn about, and at one side a kitchen to cook food and eat a large square table.

Just like the atrium, this common room was circular in shape, but it was not quite as large in diameter. It felt more like a cozy living room. There were five doors evenly spaced around the outside.

Currently the common room was empty, and Wei breathed a sigh of relief. Squinting at the five doors, he was surprised to find the name of his team already written above one of the doors. It even had a bolt of lightning inscribed next to it, as if their team had already been given a mascot.

Wei and Leah entered their assigned barracks timidly, and were surprised to find that it consisted of a single room. Against one wall, single beds were evenly spaced. Across from the bed, there were five small wooden desks. At the other end of the barracks was another door that led to a washroom.

“The girls have to stay in the same room as the boys?” Leah stood still, terrified.

Wei was a bit surprised as well, and furrowed his eyebrows. Obviously, they had no choice in the matter. This must be normal for all the teams. Thinking that, Wei suddenly wondered how many girls there were who were students of the sect? Their team alone had two girls already, and many of the other teams seemed to have at least one or two girls during the selection trial.

However, aside from those three seniors they had run into in the attribute testing chamber, Wei hadn’t yet met any other sect disciples.

As for sleeping arrangements, all he could do was put his foot down. Luckily, they were only 12. If it was in a year or two, that would have been a bit more difficult of a situation. Thinking that, he remembered that the instructors had mentioned better living conditions the higher up the tower they went.

“That’s right, when we get promoted we will get better living conditions. Maybe at the next floor, we can have our own rooms?” Wei said.

“Hmph, we better,” Leah complained.

“You two girls can take the beds closed to the washroom, I’ll sleep in the middle bed, and Aaron and Thomas can take the two closest to the door. How about that?” In reality, Wei wanted to solve this problem as quickly as possible and stop wasting time. At this point, it felt like every moment counted.

“That’s….” Leah replied, “Okay, fine. Let’s do that then. Wei, you said you wanted to cultivate, right?”

“Hm, yeah,” Wei said.

“Then, I’ll just leave you to do that, okay?” With that, Leah turned and disappeared into the washroom, and then with surprising vigor slammed the door behind her.

For a moment, Wei stood with a blank expression starring at the washroom door. He shook his head and turned to look at the beds. They looked neither comfortable nor spacious.

Wei took sat on the bed in the center of the room and withdrew several jade tablets from his robes. He had several things he wanted to check.

First of all, there was no way his magic efficiency should be that high. Had it been a fluke? The only explanation was this had to do with the ancestor spirit, and possibly the Phoenix Ascending Hidden Flame cultivation method. Now that he thought of it, however, realized a sudden problem.

In the final battle of the sect selection exam, he had been able to freely consume several sparks worth of origin Chi energy that he should not have had. In the rush of battle, it had felt so natural to him.

Now that he thought of it, however, he realized that ever since he unlocked the second layer of the Phoenix Ascending Hidden Flame, he actually had not had a chance to cultivate at all!

With the second layer, he should have a capacity of three origin Chi sparks. However, after unlocking the second layer, he shouldn’t have actually had any left over. This meant that from the time he saved Na Alakee in the forest, to the fight with Hui Li when he had activated the Windswept Step, to the climax of the battle when he used the Palm Chi Strike in conjunction with the others coordinated attacks, he had used no less than three origin Chi sparks worth of attack power!

At the time, he had simply assumed it was the leftover power influx from unlocking the second layer of the cultivation manual, and that it would die down eventually. But the truth was, that energy had carried him all the way through to the end!

In his mind, he was starting to realize that the after effect of unlocking the second layer of the cultivation technique actually should have died down long before it did! So, did his effortless use of origin Chi sparks actually have something to do with his newfound magical efficiency?

There was only one way to find out. First, he checked his core, to make sure he really was empty. Indeed, he currently had no sparks within his core. Next, he began to cultivate.

Rotating the Phoenix Ascending Hidden Flame mantra within his core, he quickly felt origin Chi energy flooded into his body. He saw something like the stars of the universe before his mind, and his body hummed.

So that’s what it is! He suddenly exclaimed to himself. After only 1 minute, he had already collected an entire spark! That would explain his near effortless use of Chi during the final match. So he had really gone up that much?

It only took two more minutes of cultivation to accumulate two more sparks, and he was already at maximum capacity.

Hm, something doesn’t seem right. From everything I learned growing up, it should take the best cultivators years to accumulate immortal energy. Why am I moving at such a fast pace?

Thinking this, Wei realized he should have paid more attention to the other students ranking on the display in the attribute testing chamber. The fact was, even with this huge leap forward, he was still only ranked as highly as the best 15 year old. That meant that from 16 and up, other disciples should already be able to accumulate origin Chi sparks as fast as he was currently!

So, what was the catch?

Thinking about this, he came up with a couple hypotheses. First, the capacity. Despite being able to accumulate sparks so quickly, his capacity was still limited to just 3 sparks of origin Chi energy at any time. Although he could replenish them quickly, in reality this was still a major roadblock.

Under normal circumstances, in order to unlock the next layer in a cultivation manual, one would need a correspondingly large transfusion of Chi sparks all at once. For example, in order to unlock the second layer of the Phoenix Ascending Hidden Flame, the ancestor spirit had provided him with five sparks simultaneously.

This meant that, even with his added capacity from reaching the second layer, he still would not be able to unlock the second layer on his own! It had only increased his capacity to a maximum of three! In order to unlock the third layer, it was likely that he would need almost double the sparks necessary from the last.

In other words, he would need to have a spark capacity of almost ten origin Chi sparks to unlock the third layer of the cultivation technique! No matter how quickly he could condense origin Chi energy into sparks, it wouldn’t be enough. In order to unlock the manual, one needed to have all the sparks available in a single instant.

Second, thinking this, Wei also realized that at higher cultivation levels, disciples would have both a higher spark capacity, and also have access to techniques that with incredibly high activation costs! At the first grade, this was unheard of. Just having a technique cost one spark was already considered an overwhelmingly powerful finishing move.

However, later on, that same move could be considered almost worthless. At some point, single spark attack move would become so common, they would likely be used for every single attack! At some point, people would probably stop using non-spark attacks altogether! This meant that in a battle, they might consume upwards of 40 or 50 sparks!

In long, drawn out fights, if a cultivator required half an hour just to accumulate a single spark, they would be a sitting duck once they ran out of sparks and could no longer use Chi based attacks! At even higher levels, such as the levels of Masters or Grandmasters, origin Chi spark energy would flow like water through a river, until it became a gushing torrent!

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Grandmasters could effortlessly exert origin Chi attacks and nearly instantly replenish their reserves. In order to do so, they needed both a massive capacity and an insane cultivation rate.

So, even though Wei could suddenly cultivate much faster than he was expecting, he was still at a serious disadvantage when it came to fighting disciples with a much higher maximum capacity.

For example, if most 16 year olds could cultivate sparks at a rate one per minute, what would their expected capacity be? Could it be as high as fifteen or twenty? In a fight like that, it would be over for Wei as soon as it began. After three Chi attacks, he would already be forced to attempt to cultivate in the midst of battle, while his opponent would be able to last for another 12 or 17 Chi attacks without breaking a sweat!

It was pointless to even think he could compete with other martial artists like that at this stage. Thinking this, Wei became even more miserable. Not only would he be a target, but when push came to shove, the people targeting him would find out what a paper tiger he really was!

Wei could only sigh and set those thoughts aside for now. He had more things to work on.

Next, he took out the Windswept Step jade tablet. In the final battle of the selection exam, he had been able to use the Phoenix Premonitory Breakthrough technique to access the first layer of the Windswept Step technique simply by holding the table in his hand while he cultivated.

However, in reality he still had yet to unseal even the first layer of the movement technique. He made up his mind to do so now.

With the three sparks of origin Chi energy he had just consolidated through cultivation, Wei Wang submerged his consciousness into the jade tablet. Out of nowhere, a wind rushed past his body and ruffled the covers of the bed, even though the dormitory room had no window or opening air could come from.

In his mind, Wei saw a vision of leaves blowing in the breeze, a branch of a tree swaying. He felt energy flood his legs and feet. A sensation of time simultaneously speeding up and slowing down disoriented him, but luckily he was sitting safely on the top of his bed, with no risk of falling.

After a few more moments, the sensation died down. Later, he would have to practice the Windswept Step technique. If he used it carelessly, he could find himself in a precarious situation. The only way he could ensure that he didn’t become disoriented was to actually practice using the technique, and in order to do that he would need to go to one of the practice chambers.

Hmm, the instructors warned us not to use those yet, since we are too weak to survive out there. But I have no choice. If I really am already as advanced as the ranking suggests, if I don’t practice and get even stronger, I’m like a sitting duck here already. Wei thought to himself.

Next was the inscription jade tablet, the Secret Sign Grasping Heaven. While he had unlocked the first layer of this tablet, the truth was he had barely had time to memorize its components. Not only that, but the techniques within this tablet were absurdly complex.

Holding it in his hand, he injected a single origin Chi spark into the tablet once again to open it. This time, it was as if he suddenly stepped into a massive library. He was no longer meditating on his bed in the barracks, but instead surrounded by towering shelves full of scrolls. On each scroll was written a different inscription technique.

These techniques had a higher cost that other techniques he had learned so far. Cultivation techniques came naturally, almost effortlessly, as a result from unlocking the layers in their cultivation manual. Combat techniques improved linearly the more they were studied. By spending a single point, it was akin to practicing the technique in that layer 1,000 times.

Inscription techniques, however, were so complex in nature that they required real, dedicated study. In order to create inscription diagrams, one needed to collect the raw materials associated with that inscription in order to craft it. Then, one would need to spend the corresponding spark cost during the inscription process. Similar to cultivation layers, if one did not have a high enough spark capacity, there was simply no way they could ever succeed at crafting the inscription.

However, that alone was no enough! These inscriptions were so delicate and complex in their design, that even if one had all of the requirements, one could still fail! It might take ten or twenty attempts to craft just one inscription diagram! Not only that, but even the weakest diagram had a crafting cost of five sparks!

With Wei Wang’s current capacity of three sparks, that meant he was still two sparks short of being able to craft inscription diagrams! He was really kicking himself now. No matter how he looked at it, he really seemed like he had set himself up to be a paper tiger.

Previously, he had been secretly banking on using the inscription diagrams to buff his team past their limits, so that they could all compete on a higher level than they should naturally have been able to compete. Now, however, it was starting to look like trouble was going to come for team Rising Lightning long before anything like an inscription diagram could manifest.

On top of everything else, simply having the inscription diagram imprinted was not enough. Like everything else, activating the inscriptions had a cost in terms of sparks. If an inscription had a crafting cost of five sparks, it might have a technique cost of a single spark each time it was used. This cost wasn’t too much, but with everything else, Wei was realizing that the spark cost during battle would be starting to really add up.

He simply did not have the capacity to use these inscription diagrams yet!

Wei sighed. At this point, there wasn’t much else he could focus on, so he turned his attention to his combat arts instead. At the very least, he could quickly improve his combat technique far beyond what was expected of a first grade disciple. Most disciples would take half an hour or ten minutes at least to increase their combat art by a single level. Now, Wei could increase his at 10x the pace of a normal second layer cultivator!

If it had been limited to just fighting matches against other teams of disciples his age, Wei would have been ecstatic at this point. He had a clear upper hand, and could probably win every single match on the strength of his combat arts alone.

However, now that his magic efficiency skill was public knowledge, it wasn’t the other first grade disciples he had to worry about! In reality, no matter how quickly he could train the first three layers of the Basic Hand-To-Hand Combat Arts, at some point those first three layers would become obsolete. Putting additional sparks in would provide diminishing returns, until eventually he would get to the point where there would be hardly any improvement in his fighting strength from spending additional sparks to increase the level.

When it came to fighting older students, they would have combat arts manuals with 5, 7 or even 10 layers. An expert such as Nushi El’Mar, the combat arts instructor, might even have a legendary manual with as many as 100 or even 1,000 layers! At that point, the skills found in the higher layers of the manual could be considered equivalent to cultivation techniques, and may even have striking force greater than the combat techniques contained inherent within baseline cultivation manuals.

Still, that point was far in the future. For now, Wei could only put as many sparks into his combat arts as possible, and hope he wouldn’t encounter any opponents in the near future who were too far outside of his capability to deal with.

Half an hour passed like this, and Wei invested ten additional sparks into all three of the first layers of the Basic Hand-To-Hand Combat Arts. At this point, it was already getting late.

While he was meditating, Leah had come out of the washroom and similarly sat on her bed to cultivate. Na Alakee returned as well, and Leah took a break from meditating to explain the situation with the beds to her. Even Na, who was normally so stoic, was quite a bit taken a back that she would have to sleep in the same room as the boys.

Finally, just as Wei was finishing putting the last spark into the third layer of the hand-to-hand combat arts, Aaron and Thomas barged into the barracks, noisily talking to each other about the many different kinds of weapons and armor and cultivation materials that were on sale on the fourth floor of the Arcane Tower.

By now, it was starting to get late. The lighting within the Arcane Tower was controlled magically. As there were no windows whatsoever on the tower, at least not until one reached the upper floors, it was quite easy to lose track of time.

In fact, since coming to the third floor, Wei Wang hadn’t really been sure what time it was outside anymore. However, to counteract the very real possiblity that disciples would lose their mind from lose of sleep and disorientation, the lighting within the tower of magically coordinated to dim around 9 pm, and by 10pm the barracks would descend into utter darkness.

Outside of the barracks, however, just in case disciples were still up, the lightning would provide a bare minimum amount of light at night, allowing one to move around safely and still see where they were going no matter what time of night it was.

On the other hand, martial artists were like soldiers, and must rise early each morning to train their bodies and minds. With that in mind, the lightning would naturally increase starting as early as 5:30 am, until at 6 am it reached full daytime brightness.

Now, it was already reaching 9 pm, and just as Aaron and Thomas’s conversation was dying down, so too did the lighting dim.

“Tomorrow morning,” Wei Wang said when their conversation reached a natural pause, “We will go first thing to the Attribute Testing Chamber on the third floor. I would like all of you to complete your attribute tests. Immediately. Unfortunately, the situation has changed, and I believe things might become more difficult for us earlier than anticipated.”

“What?” Thomas asked, incredulous. “What happened?”

“Wei and I went to the attribute testing chamber earlier. I didn’t complete my tests, but Wei is now ranked 139 out of the 250 disciples in the tower.”

“What? That’s incredible! Why is that a bad thing?” Aaron replied. “If Wei is really that strong already, our matches should be no trouble, right?”

“Because,” Na Alakee, who had been cultivating quietly on the bed next to Wei’s, opened her eyes. “If Wei is already ranked so highly, we might start to get unwanted attention from the older disciples.”

“Right,” Wei said, “I’m worried that starting from tomorrow, everything is going to become more challenging for us. That’s why it’s important to get your scores immediately. While you all are completing your tests, I’m going to review the statistics on the other 245 disciples. I need to understand what we are really up against. Once we have a better understanding of the situation, we can create a strategy not just for the arena, but also to survive the Tower itself.”

“You really think the other students will come for us? If it’s just you who ends up ranking so highly, won’t they leave the rest of us alone?” Aaron Murphy asked.

“It’s not so simple. While what you said is true for older students, there will also be those 13 or 14 year olds who are ranked below me now, but who might be envious of the fact I overtook them so suddenly. Since they might think they can’t hurt me directly, they might take their frustration out on you.”

“Wei,” Leah said, “If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to keep the rest of our scores secret? Then they wouldn’t want to take the chance on attacking us.”

“That’s true, it could help, but in the long run, I intend for Rising Lightning to go undefeated for at least the next four years,” Wei replied. “The only way I can possibly ensure that happens is to know what our strengths and weaknesses are. On that note, as your team leader, I would like to ask that all of us share the details of our cultivation and combat techniques with each other. In that case, we can create stratagems and plans ahead of time, and be prepared for any worst case scenario.”

Even though Wei said this, he was still intending to keep his inscription technique secret. That was why he had said to share cultivation techniques and combat arts. In reality, they wouldn’t really be able to keep these things secret from each other in the long run. They would all see each other fight, and when push came to shove, even their finishing moves would be revealed. There simply was no point in keeping them secret.

It was starting to get late, and most of the team was already sleepy. It had been a long day. Eventually, martial artists reach a point where they don’t need much sleep, and can even replace sleep with cultivation entirely. However, this was still just a team of 5 twelve year olds at the first and second layers of their cultivation manuals. They were a long ways away from the point where they could go without food and sleep for several days at a time.

The lightning eventually dimmed entirely, until the room was pitch black, except for a small nightlight by the washroom door.

Like the squeak of a mouse, as silence fell in the room, Leah piped up. “Goodnight, everyone,” she said squeakily. Leah had taken the bed closest to the washroom.

“Goodnight,” Na Alakee was the first to respond.

“Night,” Thomas grunted. His bed was closest to the door.

”Night everybody,” Aaron said.

“Goodnight team. Tomorrow morning, first thing,” and with that, Wei Wang fell into a peaceful slumber.