Instructor Fengge

The Building of Fire truly held up to its majestic name. It stood out, much different from the same feeling which he had felt when entering the City of the New Moon. Though the City didn't lack any buildings of awe-able status, the Building of Fire was truly a representation of a magnificent structure.

The building was like a mini grounds itself. Tall white pillars made up a wall farther than the eyes could see that surrounded the building.

Though contrary to its name, the building look more like a palace.

With the same tall, white pillars, the building sat adjacent to the sun as the dull black color of the wall absorbed its light. It was grandiose, it's floor not limited to only one as at least six floors were seen.

Of course, Jilun noticed these details from the open gate. Much like the main entrance of the Aster Grounds, this building also had a translucent film that covered the front of it. With his prior experience, Jilun had a general idea of the use of this translucent film. It seemed to mask reality itself and pose as a barrier which could be activated at any time. Jilun, of course, had heard of a sort of barrier that the aster grounds possessed from Old Gi, and putting two and two together, came to that conclusion.

The Aster Grounds was truly a wonderful full of new and strange things, it only made him wonder what the top powers of the Empire had within their hands.

As Jilun walked through the film, he felt that numbing sensation again. This time it didn't take him by surprise, as he was slowly growing accustomed to it.

Appearing on the other side of the film, Jilun was greeted by two male disciples, each standing on opposite sides of the entrance. They wore flat grey robes with an orange fire pattern engraved upon them. One of them spoke out to him.

"I haven't seen your face around here, what might be your business?"

The disciples were easily able to identify Jiluns weak presence and allowed them to relax a bit. In ground fighting was not uncommon, though it was avoided as it brought serious punishment. They had experienced a situation or two where a disciple lost against another during a spar and tried to one the other up, resorting to underhanded means. Though this didn't seem to be the case.

Jilun respectfully bowed as he answered the question.

"I come here to be under Instructor Fengges care, would you mind guiding me to him?"

Jilun pulled out his seal of the Aster Grounds with Fengges name on it.

The disciples inspected it, hovering their eyes over it before confirming.

"Is there a reason this paper is so aged?"

The disciple found the incredibly wrinkled paper with the writing already starting to slightly fade a little off. Jilun knew of the suspicions such a paper brought him as he immediately answered.

"It was a favor he owned to my family long ago, this paper is only a representation of it."

The disciple nodded. It was all but uncommon for favors to be made and owed among people of the grounds. Events are unpredictable, and their might be days were relying on someone ends up with you finding a way to pay them back. It was a sort of tradition here. You always reciprocate everything that is done to you, whether it is good or bad.

"You may follow me. Instructor Fengge should still be awake, and if that is the case, he will most likely be found within the training hall as a disciple of incredibly important status is residing here."

One of the two disciples started walking towards the building, Jilun naturally following behind.

***

As Jilun followed the disciple, he couldn't help but be astonished. It really was a different world. Jilun had a hard time believing that his village of Quadel and the City of the New Moon were really situated in the same world.

The drastic difference, of course, has many factors, and he isn't complaining. It's just that he feels relative to an alien when traversing the halls of the building, everything seeming new and strange.

*Clack!*

He was woken out of his day dream as he approached two tall grand double doors that reached nearly the height of the ceiling.

"As this is your first time in the building of Fire, this is what we call the training hall."

The disciple pointed to the walls as they approached the doors.

"Each of the walls you find here is heavily reinforced, strong enough to take hits from even Instructor Fengge himself without damage. Here, you don't have to work about damaging anything and can practice to your hearts content."

Jilun slowly thought about it. A material strong enough to withstand such strong martial arts expert must certainly not be cheap.

He ran his hand against the wall to feel the material. But contrary to his expectations, it didn't have any sort of weird texture and only felt as normal as every other wall within this building.

As they approached closer to the grand doors, now standing before it, Jilun could now hear the sounds closer. It was the sounds of two blades clashing, albeit simultaneously. They seemed to be the only sound with the large room that sat behind the two doors.

The disciple accompanying him reached out a single hand. Resting his hand upon the door, both of them simultaneously opening at the same time.

With the ceiling high doors now open, a room, seemingly too big to exist within a building, appeared.

It was like an arena, but an indoor one. It had multiple stairs that led down to a dirt flat ground. This ground could be said to be even bigger then the building itself, almost as if another could fit within it.

'This… is the training grounds?'

But much less the shock of the enormous training hall, another thing gave him an even greater shock.

Two figures were seen looking towards him. They were paused, almost as if they had stopped mid fight with Jilun's interuption.

One of the figures, an older man he thought similar to his dads age, he could easily figure to be Instructor Fengge.

But the other, a person that couldn't be described other than the most beautiful girl that he had seen.

And as he stared at her, her blue eyes stared back.