Seraphin.

Class E's homeroom was right at the very back of the academy alongside the lower classes of the higher years. As they made their way over to it, Oz couldn't help but notice just how large the academy was. There was countless buildings with large training fields around them. Each of these fields were full of strengthening and sparring supplies with a number of arenas erected within.

Oz knew the importance of Cultivators. He knew the demand for them was crazy high, especially in the fight to keep the beasts at bay.

But what shocked him the most was the realisation of the value of cultivating. The world was not a matter of who had the most money anymore like it was before Ki.

Now it only mattered if you were strong.

The strong survived and raced to reach beyond the sky whilst the weak were shackled to the ground.

It was the harsh truth that not all people who attend the academy will become successful cultivators. Hell, it would be a miracle if one could leave the academy with a decent enough rank to be able to go out on missions. At least then you would be able to sell beast corpses and earn a decent living.

If your cultivation was below average…

Oz didn't even want to think about it.

"Welcome to your new home for the year!" Elder Jasmine called out as she halted behind the large wooden doors of a pagoda style building. She pulled them open and led the large group of students into a huge room lined with benches. "Everyone take a seat."

The students obeyed as they all filtered onto the benches and Oz quickly proclaimed his spot at the back of the room.

"This building is for Class E," Elder Jasmines voice seemed to be amplified by Ki and carried loudly through the room. "This floor will be where I hold my lectures, the second floor will be where various training manuals can be lent out and the third floor is for cultivation.

Now to begin, I want to go over what my plan is for you all. To begin with, I want you to focus on raising your cultivation to level five - halfway to the Foundation Rank One. I believe that training before you reach this level will make your technique training much more difficult and less effective. Think of it as filling a bucket which is full of holes. Until your body has a basic foothold into cultivating, your techniques will be worthless - no matter what they are."

Oz and the other students pondered her words and they couldn't help but see the truth in her words. Any one could use techniques to fight, but without the power behind them, it will be all for nothing.

"Once you've reach level five, report back to me and I can help you plan out a decent training regime based on your selected techniques. Bear in mind, these techniques will push your bodies and minds to their limits, but it's the only way you will survive in this difficult world." Elder Jasmine stopped for a moment to let her harsh words sink in. "With that being said, come and receive your Pure Ki Pill allowance and head to wherever is best for you to cultivate. I look forward to seeing who will be the first ones to come back to me at level five."

***

I held the Pure Ki Pill up in front of my face and gulped. The pill itself was barley bigger than a fingertip, but it's value made it feel incredibly heavy.

"Are you just going to stare at it all day, or are you going to eat it?" A female voice called out from beside him and his head snapped to the side. He had chosen to cultivate at the edge of the training field as most of the Class E students decided to all cramp together on the third floor.

"What does it matter to you?" Oz raised an eyebrow at the female student who sat down oddly close to him. She had shiny gunmetal coloured hair that hung in curls around her waist. Her eyes were a strange pale grey that seemed to penetrate his gaze as he looked her over.

There was something off about her.

"I was just curious as to what you saw on your pill that made you stare at it so hard." She chuckled, the sound reminding him like the wind chime that hung outside his window. The girls eyes seemed to look around rapidly and her hand began to pat the floor around where she was crouched.

"What are you doing?" Oz asked as he watched her feel around the ground again before slumping down onto her bottom with a sigh.

"Oh, I'm blind." She said with a smile and Oz's mouth dropped open.

"But… how were you able to see me looking at my pill then?" He asked incredulously.

"Since I started cultivating, I began to see colours of Ki." She said almost dreamily. "Because of this, I can now notice the faint outlines of things and also can see the auras of people."

"Wow." Was all Oz could say. "No offence, but if you're blind… why do you want to be a cultivator?"

He couldn't wrap his head around someone who was blind trying to become a cultivator. Even if she could make out the outlines of people, how could she possibly go up against a beast? She would be at a huge disadvantage.

"It's something I've always been interested in," She shrugged and began playing with her hair. "I also know that there is a whole lot to cultivating that we don't know of yet. Especially in the medical field. They can produce such wonderous pills and elixirs that I can't help but hope that they would be able to create something for my vision in the future.

Even if they don't, if I cultivate and strengthen my body then maybe, just maybe I can steadily repair my sight."

Oz stared at her with wide eyes, his mind almost spinning as her words played over and over again.

"That's incredible," He admitted with a sheepish laugh.

"Not really," she replied with a sad smile. "Everyone who goes into cultivation has a sad backstory that is pushing them to try harder."

"Quite true," Oz agreed with a dry chuckle and watched as she lifted her hand out to him.

"I'm Seraphin," She gave him a bright smile that half dazzled him as he put his hand in hers.

"Im Oz," He said and she then reached into her pocket to pull out her own Pure Ki Pill.

"Do you mind if I cultivate beside you? I won't get in your way, i was just hoping you would be able to direct me to the gates when school ends."

"Sure," he said, obviously not a dick enough to turn her down. As long as she cultivated quietly beside him, he didn't really mind.

He turned back his attention to the pill and after a deep breath in, he popped it into his mouth and swallowed it in one go.

Holy shit.

It was like his lungs had grown ten times their size as his breathing turned almost vacuum like. He quickly closed his eyes and focused on his Demonic cultivation technique, adjusting his breathing rhythm until the dark shadowy orbs began appearing around him.

But this time it was different.

The pill had made his cultivation speed multiply at a blinding rate, but this amazing speed also came with a bad side effect.

Oz's cultivation technique required him to pass the Ki through his blood, bones and muscles first before reaching his dantian. Cultivating normally was basically torturous because of this technique. Each time he absorbed Ki, it would slowly be refining his body before reaching his dantian.

It was painful, but just to the point that it was still bearable.

But the Pure Ki Pill had opened a floodgate in Oz's body, the dark shadowy energy pouring through his veins and ripping his body apart from the inside out.

Oz thought he was going to die.

He could feel his bones fracture deep inside, could feel his muscles rip and tear along with his blood that seemed to be raising to an unbearable temperature. He bit down onto his lip to hold back from screaming, a hot trickle of blood dripping down his chin.

He almost stopped cultivating there and then in fear of dying.

But he kept going. Because even though he was suffering through the harshest pain he had ever felt in his life, he could also see the drops of Ki filling up his dantian at an incredible speed.

Just as the sound of several bones fracturing echoed in his head, he suddenly felt a surge of cool energy filling up his body, momentarily easing the pain.

He had broke through to the first level.

'I did it!' He yelled inwardly, excited that he wasn't enduring such gut-wrenching pain for nothing. He couldn't let the effects go to waste when he could see such amazing results.

With that thought in mind, Oz gritted his teeth and carried on cultivating.