Cobalt Star

The trip to the federal university was rather dull to Jacob, most people purposely ignored him because of the Secure Base A incident. Eventually, they arrived in the star system of the Federal University.

The star of this system is called the 'Cobalt' star, it is a blue star that is more than 400 times the size of the Sol Star. The system it is in only has three planets in its habitable zone, all artificially made by the Federation.

The first one from the star is a power plant that manages the dyson sphere formation on the Cobalt Star. Stars output large amounts of universe energy, and the Federation spent a lot of money to buy a formation to cover the entirety of the star. Through these formations that extract universe energy, it is then deposited into universe energy containers.

These containers can then be used as power supplies for other types of formations, but the energy is much too chaotic to be used for cultivation. The second planet from the star is the one which houses the Federal University.

The third and last planet from the star, holds a residence for those long-term workers of the power plant or school. Compared to Heaven Star Academy, The Federation has the most comprehensive training facilities, and has resources that eclipse and first rate school, but still falls far behind Heaven Star when it comes to resources.

As the ship landed in a star port, and the students were brought to the ground, they were herded towards a training ground. There was a large burly man with a scowl on his face, Jacobs thoughts whirled, suspecting what was about to come, having had a similar experience in his last life.

The man then yelled at the students, "Men to the left! Women to the right! Stand at attention!"

"Stand Straight, chin up, chest out, shoulders back, stomach in!"

"Arms fixed at the side, middle finger parallel to trouser or skirt seam!"

"Eyes front, head and eyes locked in a fixed forward posture. Blank facial expression!"

"Keep the heels together, with the toes apart!"

"No speech, facial or bodily movements except when required!"

The man rattled off a list of demands, those who came from military families aquienced quickly, Jacob did do as he went through basic training in his last life. Though he went through an entry-level separation around 170 days in, he still completed training for the marines thoroughly, and was familiar with the 'At Attention'.

Quite a few people were obviously unaccustomed to doing so, and were yelled at by the presumed drill instructor. Then, he signaled someone to the side, and some people came and started attaching what seemed to be exo-suits, some of the people from military families shuddered, having recognized the items.

They were restriction suits, and they did everything in their power to mess with a person and stop them from doing whatever you are doing. After that, a special purble waistband was put on everyone, except for Jacob, who had a black waistband, after it was put on, everyone felt that their energy cycle stagnated to a stop and they could not muster their energy.

Nearly everyone collapsed there, including Jacob. Only one person did not collapse, and to Jacob's surprise it was Emmanuel. After a few minutes of struggling, Jacob and the others stood up one by one. Jacob had it the easiest, as his entire body went through refinement, so every part was equal, others who only targeted portions of their body during refinement of the energy cycle, had a much tougher time standing up.

One funny thing that happened was someone who made an energy cycle in their arms, quite a common thing, and neglected to refine the rest of their bodies in any way shape or form, they had pushed themselves off the ground, but the restriction suit assisted them by enlarging the force they exerted.

The person flew up in a backflip as their restriction suit activated again and compressed them into a pretzel. As time went on, the drill instructors face got darker and darker. Eventually he just motioned for the struggling pretzels to be taken away.

He looked towards the students and said, "I have no words to describe how disgraceful you all were, did you learn NOTHING in highschool? Did they not emphasize how IMPORTANT the body refinement stage is?"

His poisonous eyes seethed over every student, "It is called the BODY REFINEMENT stage, not ENERGY CYCLE stage. Why the F*CK did most of you do nothing but the BARE MINIMUM!" his face darkened further, "There are a total of 18 stages in dantian refinement, most people stop at stage 9, as it is the bare minimum to advance, it also makes your future significantly limited."

Quite a few of them, including Jacob were confused, especially Jacob, he had searched endlessly for information about stages past stage 9, yet he found nothing, yet here the drill instructor speaks about it as if it is a common fact. Jacob looked around and found a few people who were not surprised.

Jacob was all the more eager to listen, the drill instructor continued, "Because most people's bodies are sh*t, they never realize, nor feel, anything past stage 9, that is why in highschool it is an early graduation if you break through before college, cause you advanced with the most shitty foundation, not even third rate colleges want you! You think that the high schools hold you back because they tell you to suppress your breakthroughs! F*ck they aren't stupid!"

Jacob thought back to the person who broke through during the high school competition, he remembered about the early graduation and then never seeing them again. But he still had questions in his mind, the drill instructor spoke as if he heard Jacob's thoughts, "You may be thinking, why not just tell you? Because humanity occupies a f*cking barren, we can not handle a bunch of high leveled people resource wise, so those who want to advance fast using resources will pit themselves by lack of knowledge."

Jacob shuddered a bit, because if it wasn't for the pond water forcefully breaking him through stage 10 and giving him the feeling of it, he would most likely be one of those who pit themselves. The drill instructor was not done, "Cultivation consists of three parts, Physical, Mental, and Energy. The current mainstream cultivation method focuses on Energy, with physical secondary and leaving mental for higher levels. Yet, if you neglect any one, you will slow down your own cultivation, or in worse cases, cut it off completely."

He looked around and continued, "The reason why most people can't make it past the beginning of star level 4, is because they neglected not only the mental aspects, but also physical. During Star level four, you have to open the mind expanse, which is rather easy as it is just an energy issue. Then, you have to create a soul image, this requires a varying mental foundation strength, depending on the image you form, humanity has some advantages over other races when it comes to this, but stage 3 is where it all falls apart, many 'ambitious' people made extraordinary soul images, and all they had to do was supply it with energy and turn it into a soul avatar, that is where these 'ambitious' people f*cked up, they were like people who overeat, their minds were willing, but their physical bodies could not sustain the soul avatar, and one of two things happened, they destroyed their soul avatar, and crippled themselves, or they exploded and died."

He sighs at this point, "This is a common thing known among people who reach this level, and it makes many people who are just looking forward to a peaceful life stop here and never continue, because no one wants to die." His eyes carried a trace of melancholy.

He then barked, "Any idiot who thinks all they need to do is cultivate, while shirking everything else can get the f*ck out right now, I won't be bothered to train them." His eyes searched for any signs of fear or hesitation. He then nods and then spoke, "For the next month, you will be trained vigorously, you will eat, sleep, and sh*t with the energy stagnation belts and restriction suits, now everyone will be assigned basic clothing and supplies, along with a partner."

He then motioned for everyone to line up, they were given two sets of military fatigues and various toiletries, and a colored plate. As it was rather late into the night, everyone headed to their color coded room, each room had two people, boys and girls were separated. Jacob's color was red, as he got to the red room, he saw the other person that he saw a lot of recently, Emmanuel.

This person confused him, as Jacob was 100% sure that Emmanuel was the one stalking him for most of the challenge, yet never did more than ask him random philosophical questions. This behaviour mildly confused him, but he always played along.

Jacob shook his head, he will just continue playing along until it gets weird, right now he is too tired to care.