Chapter 5: First Day at School (2)

"Yay! We're finally at school. You guys better not do anything embarrassing. I'm talking about you, Guo Yang," Guo Mei said as the three siblings arrived in front of a white wall with a gold gate before them.

Guo Lin sighed as he followed his enthusiastic sister inside. Guo Yang and his siblings wore black pants with white jackets, each adorned with an emblem of a gold lotus on both shoulders and the back. A crest was placed over the heart area of the jacket, displaying his classroom number along with a bronze dragon underneath. Only students with element attributes had dragons beneath their class number.

Freshmen had bronze dragon emblems, juniors had silver, and seniors had gold. Since Guo Yang had three element attributes, his bronze dragon crest bore three heads. This was a way to differentiate students and inspire friendly rivalries. However, some let it get to their heads, and those students always became failures before they graduated. Why? Because they didn’t train as hard as others and were ultimately left behind. Guo Lin waved goodbye to his siblings as he headed to Classroom 1-C.

"Hi," Guo Mei greeted as she walked into her classroom. Some students stared at her crest, then shifted their gaze to the boy behind her—Guo Yang, with his black hair and sand-colored eyes, bearing the three-headed bronze dragon crest.

"Two of the Guo Clan’s triplets are here," a boy whispered, and another nodded in agreement.

"Now, now. Settle down," a woman said as she entered the room, and the children quickly sat in the empty seats. "My name is Lei Xuan, and I will be your teacher this year. It seems that six of our twenty students have element attributes. Quite the number of talented students, but talent is just that—talent. Without hard work, the talent gifted by the Heavens will be wasted. Those who don’t work hard will be left behind. My job is to teach you basic practitioner arts. These require a strong mind to cultivate spiritual energy and a strong body to harness its power.

"Therefore, you will spar with my magical beast every day during school hours. You will learn how to fight, improve your techniques, understand the importance of body refining, and experience the difficulty of becoming a practitioner. I don’t believe in sitting at desks and lecturing all day. We will train for seven hours a day with a one-hour break during noon for lunch. Is that clear?" she asked.

"Yes, Ms. Lei," the students chorused, though Guo Yang rolled his eyes and stared at the clouds.

"Good. Until noon, you will familiarize yourselves with your classmates and decide who will represent Class 1-E as class president. After an hour past noon, report to the combat grounds and prepare for your training," the teacher said before leaving the classroom, having noted the six students with bronze dragon crests.

"Alright. We should decide who will be class president. Naturally, it should be me," a girl said, flashing her three-headed bronze dragon crest.

"That doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know any element arts," Guo Mei said as she stood up. "No one likes a bully. A president is supposed to be a role model, not necessarily a noble."

"Do you know who I am?" the girl asked, as two others with single-headed bronze dragon crests stood behind her.

"No, but I know one thing: I’m stronger than you," Guo Mei said as lightning crackled around her fists, drawing her sword.

"Fighting is not allowed in the classroom," the girl said as she and her two friends drew their own swords.

"Please don’t fight. I don’t want to be punished because of you," a boy with glasses, and a single-headed bronze dragon crest, said. He was the last of the talented students, besides Guo Yang.

"What about you?" the girl asked, turning to Guo Yang. "Who do you support as class president?"

"No one. I don’t deal with weaklings," Guo Yang said, turning his gaze upward as he walked to the window.

"Hmph. You have more element attributes than me, and you’re walking away," one of the boys behind the girl smirked. Everyone rolled their eyes, as Guo Yang was clearly ignoring the boy.

"I just don’t want to get involved," Guo Yang said, pointing up. "It seems the third-year students have already started having fun."

"Involved with—" the boy began, but then cried out as a body came crashing down from above, slamming him into the ground. Guo Mei and the others looked up to see a hole that stretched all the way to the third floor’s ceiling.

"Now I am class president of Classroom 3-E," a voice boomed as they saw an older boy sprawled on top of the other student. Even Guo Yang’s desk and chair were destroyed.

"Like I said, I didn’t want to get involved," Guo Yang sighed, checking their pulses while the others tried to see who had spoken. He grabbed their hands and placed his hand over their noses. "They’re alive, but their bones are broken. Fractured, if they’re lucky."

"Someone get the nurse!" Guo Mei shouted, bringing everyone’s attention back to the situation. She glared at the girl. "You can be class president. I actually want friends. No one likes to follow someone who hasn’t proved themselves."

"You!" the girl started, but the boy behind her held her back as he and another student helped carry the injured boys after the nurse arrived.

None of them noticed that Guo Yang had released a small mist into the nostrils of the boy who had yelled at him while checking his pulse. The mist came from a vial of poisonous herbs he had hidden in his inter-spacial ring. The vials were small and easy to conceal in one’s hand. Everyone had been too focused on the hole in the ceiling to see his action. The boy wouldn’t die, but he would fall into a short coma for a few days.

"Grandpa was right. School isn’t so bad," Guo Yang muttered, heading to the cafeteria and ignoring the other students who were introducing themselves. He cared only about two things: cultivation and his way of life. He only respected the strong, and none of his classmates were strong enough for him to recognize as a friend or ally.

As he played with two inter-spacial rings between his fingers—taken from the two injured boys—he smirked. After emptying their contents into his own ring, he crushed the rings with his spiritual energy, leaving no trace. As a magical beast with hereditary memories, tampering with inter-spacial rings was simple. Demonic magical beasts had taught the other races how to craft them long ago, but that art was lost when the beasts died out.

Cunning, not brute strength, was the way to survive for a snake. Even as a human, Guo Yang preferred subtlety. He had taken out his enemies without revealing his strength, putting one boy in bed for weeks while stealing their possessions. None would be the wiser. The two boys could only blame themselves for disrupting his cloud-watching after the teacher’s speech.