Chapter 53

She had successfully broken through! And not only that… She even improved her Core to Yellow!

In the whole history of the Flossen Kingdom, few could match her track record. For sure, in recent history, there were none.

But maybe she herself wasn't aware of how outstanding her achievement was.

'Maybe this time he'll show a shocked expression, hehe.'

When her Cultivation was measured earlier that day, she only looked at one person's reaction. Too bad the person in question showed no reaction. It was as if… he expected this much. Maybe this was also why she didn't realise the meaning of her achievement.

After taking a hot bath, she changed into a cute pyjama and went to sleep. She was both physically and mentally exhausted after the breakthrough, even though it was still early in the evening.

***

The following morning they had a hand to hand combat lessons. Vince arrived just moments before the start of the class. He was the last to arrive.

'I'm pretty late today… Well, it was kind of expected. I trained my body until late yesterday. At this pace, I'll probably be able to breakthrough in one week time.'

The last seat empty was beside Estelle.

'She must have kept the seat vacant for me. Wonder why. She never did before...'

Once he sat down, he soon realised why.

'To think she already had a breakthrough… considering the density of Mana I feel around her, she must have achieved a Yellow Core too. To think I'd be overtaken… This job sure is always full of surprises. Anyway, I'll act as if I didn't notice. It's better not to expose the fact that I can easily tell someone's Cultivation.'

The teacher proceeded to start the lesson. He first explained a particular move, then proceeded to show it done. After showing it a few times, he brought the students to the training grounds and made them pair up to practice it.

The lesson was literally that. This move and its variations.

All hand to hand combat lessons were this way, except the last lesson of each month. Those lessons were entirely dedicated to putting what was learnt into practice as a whole.

The students were allowed to freely pick their partner; the teacher would then pair up those who couldn't find one. Thus, everyone started to look for partners.

The prince was immediately surrounded by a crowd wanting to have him as their pair.

Vince, even though he was second, had no crowd around him. He only had tumbleweeds rolling in front of him.

'Should I ask some random student and take the chance to make some new acquaintance… But that might also put me in a tough spot… I'm ranked second, so I should behave like my rank. If I lose, I might get targeted. I should avoid that…'

As countless scenarios ran through his mind, he felt a finger lightly poking him on his back.

A pair of deep blue eyes stared at him. But that's it. She just stared and said nothing. As time went on, Estelle got progressively redder.

'Awww, she's too shy to ask me to pair up… I'll just stop thinking about all the possible scenarios and go with this then.'

"Want to pair up, Estelle?"

"Yes!"

'What a confident answer… yet she was too shy to ask first. How intriguing.'

The move they had been thought today was a throw. In particular, it was a way to counter a straight to the face. With proper timing and execution, this move could immediately flip the opponent and make him fall on his back.

The teacher showed it once more and then shouted to start practising.

"You can start. I'll come at you, okay?"

"Hmhm."

Hearing him, Estelle approved with a hum.

"Let's start slow."

Vince approached her and threw a slow straight towards her face.

Estelle imitated the movements explained by the teacher and successfully flipped Vince. Luckily the floor was made purposefully for practising martial arts. Thus it wasn't rock-hard, and landing on it wasn't that painful.

"Should I be the one punching you now?"

"Whatever you wish. I don't need to practise this move as I already did on my own, so whatever you prefer. If you want, you can try to punch me as fast as you can, and I'll show you how it's done in a real fight."

"Aren't you underestimating me too much?"

"Come at me so we can find out."

Taunting her a little, Vince smiled. And Estelle gladly took the bait. It was the chance to show off her newly acquired strength thanks to her breakthrough.

"Then you better be ready."

Saying so, Estelle charged at him. Planting her feet firmly on the ground just at the proper distance to be able to throw a punch, she sent a straight flying at Vince's face.

And Vince executed the technique. Not only that, but he added some footwork on top of it. The teacher had explained the technique only to the extent of performing it while standing still.

Estelle, before she could even realise what had happened, was already flying. She landed on the ground a few steps away, lying on her back.

The teacher, who randomly happened to see it, was stunned. It could be called a perfect execution that only a martial arts master would be able to pull off.

Vince walked up to Estelle and helped her stand on her two feet.

"Did you notice what I did differently compared to you?"

"N-no."

'Her confidence went out of the window. Understandable though. She just had a breakthrough and wanted to show off her strength just to hit a hard wall. I had to make use of footwork as well to be able to properly execute the technique on such a straight, though. Had I not, I would have been the one flying… As I thought, teaching her a little could be a great way to kill some time.

Anyway, I'll have to avoid her breakthrough being discovered for the time being. But I also have to do it in a way she won't realise.'

"I'll show it to you slowly. Look at my feet and throw a straight again. Slowly so I can show it."

As instructed, she slowly threw a straight.

Instead of moving his chest to first dodge the fist, Vince sidestepped, allowing him to keep a straight back. Then, he caught her arm with his two hands and moved his left foot back. He added some rotation with the torso as he moved his left side, aiding the movement. Once she was already off-balance, executing the throw was considerably easier.

"See how I'm using every muscle of my body instead of just using the arms? Let's try again, I'll be the one sending the straight, and you'll be the one having to use the throw."

The two of them kept on practising. The number of people interested in their practice also quickly grew. Soon, a little crowd had formed. Once the teacher was out of the daze he had been in for the last five minutes, he quickly reprimanded everyone and made them go back to practising.

And so time quickly flew by. They had lunch, then a Cultivation lesson where they meditated.

Once they were coming out of the Cultivation lesson, Vince asked Estelle something out of the blue.

"In the afternoons, we used to do training with some members of my party. Want to join us? You can invite Artemisia as well. But know that I'm a really harsh instructor. You might regret it for the rest of your life."

Hearing his words, Estelle was slightly scared at first. But soon, motivation took over, and she nodded. She already knew Vince, and his party trained. She happened to secretly watch them once. And she also knew how much those he taught improved.

Even if she had to suffer a little, she thought, in the end, it would all be worth it.

"Yes! Just wait for a little; I'll go and ask Arty as well."

'This way, I'll be able to teach her more freely without having a crowd around. It would arouse too many suspicions had I showed more complex martial arts.'

***

Not long after, the whole party met. Instead of using the usual place, they now used the training grounds that Vince's room offered. Even though they weren't as well fitted like the ones Estelle once had in hers, they were still better than training in the muddy garden.

"Good. Everybody is here. I'm glad to see you all came to train. As you know, the next exam will only be on Cultivation. Thus, many might consider training wasted time. But don't worry, I guarantee you'll all be satisfied with the results."

Saying so, Vince gave each one of them a backpack.

"All of these backpacks have stones in them. The weight is different for each of you, so don't swap them. Today we will start with a marathon while carrying the backpack, of course.

There's not much to explain. So, pick up the backpack and start running. Run until you're exhausted. Try not to slow down and keep the same pace, so don't start off too fast."

Once he was over with the explanation, Vince picked up his backpack and started running.

The others followed suit. After just a few minutes, they were all covered in sweat.

After around twelve minutes, Nicole was the first to break down. She fell forward and never got back up. She started lying on her belly and stopped moving.

Not long after, Gero broke down as well. He fell on his butt, and he, too, gave up on the idea of getting back up.

A good ten minutes later, Artemisia was the one to stop. She didn't push herself to the extent of falling down, but she wasn't far from it.

Another ten minutes later, it was Vince, the one who stopped. He knew that he would fall down if he took just one more step. He dropped the backpack and stared at Estelle, who was still running.

She lasted three minutes longer than Vince, then fell down. But, unlike the others, she tried getting back up. Seeing that, Vince rushed and stopped her from doing so.

The rest of the party was all thinking the same.

'Crazy! She's mad crazy!'

"Stop. If you go any further, you'll just be injuring yourself instead of training your body. You have done enough for today. Go and take a good rest."

Vince helped her remove her backpack and then let her go. As she walked away, Vince saw her coughing a little blood.

'What an absurd lass. To think she would push herself this hard… I have to be careful she doesn't injure herself while training.'

***

A few days later, Vince himself attempted breaking through to the Noon Stage. It was a cloudy night, and no stars could be seen. He sat next to the window in a lotus position and meditated.

'My body should be ready… let's try.'

Concentrating on gathering Mana, he started slowly amassing it within his Core.

If one only wanted to rise in Stage, it wasn't too hard. It only implied making the Core bigger. As long as one had enough time and could attempt as many times as he wanted, everyone could succeed.

But increasing the density of Mana within a Core was considerably more challenging. To withstand higher densities, the outer walls of the Core had to be strong enough to sustain it.

But it took a lot of time to make the walls of a Core stronger. And it was physically straining as well, as the whole body kind of acted as a wall. That's why Vince couldn't progress for over a year. He knew his infant body wasn't strong enough to act as a wall yet.

Slowly, ripples formed in the whole room. The way he gathered Mana wasn't a simple spiral anymore. It had evolved in a three-dimensional spiral instead of a simple flat one.

The density of Mana around Vince soon reached a high enough level to create some lights.

The light coming out of Vince's room slightly brightened the dark night.

Sweat drops started forming all over his head. But he kept on going. He didn't give up. His face became red. He started feeling pain all over his body. All of his muscles twitched uncontrollably.

'This is bad. I underestimated the density necessary for a perfect Yellow Core. I hope my Core won't resent too much.'

What Vince was worried about was incurring Cultivation Deviation. It was a name used for many different conditions, but they all had a few things in common.

They happened because something went wrong during a breakthrough and made the cultivator suffer some form of backlash afterwards. Some less worrying cases simply prevented one from cultivating for a while, but in the most extreme cases, one could even lose their Cultivation Base completely.

'I can only back off. I'll have to postpone this breakthrough for a few more days.'

Doing what many would think was impossible, Vince reverted the breakthrough process. Having some foresight, he hadn't expanded his Core yet, so he hadn't completed breaking through to the next Stage. If he had expanded it, the process of interrupting the breakthrough would have been close to impossible.

Instead, all he had to do was lower the mana density within his Core back to what it used to be. He knew there was a chance he might fail the breakthrough, so he had prepared beforehand.

This process was hazardous because if one didn't lower the density back to what it was, the Core could shatter completely, crippling the cultivator.

So, one either reverted back to the previous state or sacrificed some density. But going lower in density literally meant giving up on some hard-earned achievement. It was directly lowering your future prospects! This was why nobody attempted interrupting breakthroughs willingly. And when they did, it was because of some extreme circumstances.

Nobody in his right mind would give up on breaking through just because they couldn't attain the maximum possible achievement!

Luckily, Vince's control over Mana was as minute as it could get. He returned to his previous core state, not losing any achievement at all. The only backlash he suffered was his Core's walls not being in perfect condition.

Thus, he would have to wait at least a week before they would heal back. That meant that Vince couldn't attempt to break through again for at least a week. But he wasn't too worried.

'Oh well, I failed. But I gained a lot of insight into the processes of Cultivation, so it's not a complete loss. I now also know perfectly the requirements to break through without a hitch. Next time I'll succeed flawlessly.'

One couldn't always succeed. Sometimes you simply have to accept your failure and learn from your mistakes to not fail again.

'Let's go back to training this body. Being one week late won't influence much my plans.'