Divine Beast Ascension

“This will help everyone increase their control over essence as well as help you advance in cultivation. Right now you’re only novices and are young. But do you want to know the truth? Somewhere out in the world, there are kids your age that are as strong as me,”

The class’s moment of awe was shattered as they were humbled by Ania’a harsh words.

“Those few youths belong to the world’s most powerful clans and your bloodline can’t compare to theirs. Also, the resources they have access to are worth more than everything inside our territory,” added Ania. “For those of you who want to be the strongest, at some point you’ll be forced to face such geniuses.”

Those words etched into the hearts of the class.

Oli knew that those words were targeted at him. His mother was well aware that Oli wanted to be like his father, becoming the moral champion and becoming world-famous. This was to help him realize that even with his mutated bloodline, it was still an uphill battle.

“Now, Everyone will have the rest of the class to cultivate and sense the essence around us.”

.....

“Um, Teacher,” Yeter spoke up, “how much longer will we wait to have cushions?”

“Today, you won’t get any, so you’ll have to cultivate for the next few hours without them,” said Ania with a smile, showing no intention of helping those who were late.

“A few hours?! But... without cushion...”

“Now you won’t bother coming late, will you?” Ania laughed seeing their longs faces. “That’s what punishment is meant to do, enforce the rules so that they won’t be broken again. Now, cultivate like the others.”

She pulled out her own large cushion and sat down in front of everyone. “If you have any questions, so long as it involves today’s topic of discussion, you can come up and ask me.”

With the discussion officially over, the class grew quiet and solemn. Everyone was fully focused on cultivating and sensing the essence around them. After such an eye-opening lesson, it was natural for them all to want to do better.

An hour passed before someone came up Ania and asked about the different types of essence. However, she didn’t give them the answer they wanted.

She said that essence type is the next month’s lesson and that he shouldn’t focus on that. Instead of contemplating the essence types he couldn’t sense, he should just focus on increasing his sensitivity to the essence that he can.

No one else came up to ask her any questions that day. They were all so focused after the invigorating lesson that they were able to easily focus on the task at hand.

But Ania understood that the first day would be the easiest. This would be the norm for the entire month and near the end, there were bound to be some wily students who would get bored and move on. That would be the class’s true test of patience.

Four more hours passed, finally reaching the end of class.

“Alright everyone, that’s it for today. Tomorrow, make sure you’re on time or you’ll lose the comfort of your cushions during your long cultivation time. Now, everyone come hand me your cushions and you’ll be dismissed.”

A line was quickly formed as the beasts grabbed their cushions however possible, be it with hands, paws, or mouths. They were all handed in as Oli and Netra were the last in line.

“Mom, can I go use my cultivation room? I want to test it out.”

“That’s fine dear, thanks for letting me know. Just make sure you get home to have some sleep, okay,” Ania chuckled and then looked at Netra. “Did you want to do the same? I’m sure he already showed you your cultivation room, so you must want to try it out too, right?”

Netra nodded, still a bit shy since it was Oli’s mother she was addressing.

“That’s fine. You’re both allowed to use it so long as you ask beforehand. Make sure to remember today’s lesson.”

The two of them left the classroom and found Yeter outside waiting for them. “Huh? You two are going to the library? But why, you already have what you needed?”

“We’re going to cultivate there,” answered Oli. “The third floor is different than the first two floors. There, the top three students of both classes have private cultivation rooms prepared with formations to help gather even more essence. Cultivating in there should be much better than anywhere else.”

“What?! You mean I can’t cultivate up there?!”

“Sorry, Yeter. Rules are rules. You’ll have to beat Karos first, then you’ll get his room.” Oli shrugged, sure that Yeter would be even more motivated to cultivate after hearing that.

“Really?! After I beat him, I’ll get the other room? That’s perfect!” Yeter shouted for joy, forgetting that he was left out in the first place. “Just wait, soon I’ll beat that lynx and steal his room. Then, I’ll beat you too and push you to third.”

“You can try whenever you want, but I won’t go easy on you like I did in the tournament.”

“Fine, just wait till I beat Karos. Then we’ll see who’s stronger.”

While they talked, the trio of friends was nearing the library. Since Yeter had no reason to go, he said his goodbye and let the other two go straight to the third floor.

They arrived to see that one of the three doors was shut already. Both of them smiled, knowing that Karos was already cultivating inside. With his determination, it would be hard for Yeter to beat him, but only time would tell.

“You should take the center room, you are the first seat after all,” stated Oli with a smile.

“Okay, then we’ll be next to each other.”

“Here, let me explain what’s in the room.” Taking the liberties as the room’s designer, Oli wanted Netra to make full use of everything available to her. They entered her room and looked around.

“The room is big enough for only a handful of people, the same is true for the formation.”

“Does that mean that I can bring people in here to cultivate with?” asked Netra. “Like if we wanted to cultivate our dark essence together like before?”

“Sure, that’s very possible. You’re also allowed to bring other people who aren’t students inside. For example, you’re allowed to bring your mom with permission in case you wanted her to guide you in a specific aspect of your cultivation, like if you wanted her to test your essence nature,” explained Oli.

“Okay, that makes sense. What’s that?”

Netra was looking at a dull green stone embedded to the right of the door. It stood out because there were small symbols inscribed in the wall around it, as if the stone was a part of a separate formation altogether.

“That’s a special formation that Vloz recommended using. By placing a certain amount of essence into that stone, the symbols around it will start to light up. This is used as a timer to help us not lose track of time,” Oli explained.

“If you want to be here for four hours, then put enough essence in the stone to light up four symbols. When time runs out, the stone will release a ripple of energy with the last of the essence stored inside it, just strong enough to gently wake us from our trances of cultivation.”

“Wow... You really thought of everything.”

Amazed by such a new concept, Netra reached out her paw and started to slowly put essence into the stone. Gradually, it started to light up and fill the first symbol.

“When did you want to head back home?” asked Oli.

She looked away shyly. “When were you planning on it?”

“Me? I was planning on skipping dinner and cultivating all night till it was time to sleep,” Oli laughed, willing to admit his addiction to cultivation.

“Then, can we cultivate together today? I’ll do the same and I’m not sure how everything in here works.”

“Sure, but it can’t be every day, okay?”

“Then every other day,” reasoned Netra. “You said you still want to cultivate dark essence, but if you don’t do it evenly, your essence will be imbalanced. So we should at least do it every other day, that way you won’t need to worry about that.”

Oli sighed, sensing that Netra was a little desperate to train with him. “Fine, I can’t argue with that logic.”

He closed the door and shut the latch to lock it. A formation on the door suddenly activated, sealing the room and making it unable for anyone outside to sense what was happening beyond the locked door.

“Let’s set the timer to eight hours, since its only afternoon. That way we’ll maximize our cultivation time and have just enough time to rush home and sleep,” said Oli as he sat down in the center of the formation.

“Okay.”

Netra filled eight of the forty-eight symbols and sat on the ground, back to back with Oli. They both released their dark essence, lighting up the formation below them. It then started to gather all nearby dark essence with them, making their joint cultivation even more effective.