Enlisting Kang Huilang's help proved to be useful as they were done with improvising the cultivation art in almost 14 hours. Their individual expertise and cultivation bases played a part along with the target for the art, otherwise, it would have proven difficult to complete it in such a short time.
Yang Qing because of his background with his family, even though he wished he could block out much of his childhood memories, left him with a wide knowledge pool on the body refining stage and its different complexities.
Integrating his knowledge of the body refining realm and the 108 steps of the autumn leaves went on seamlessly, while Kang Huilang was easily able to come up with moves around the cultivation art.
They both had extensive skills and a plethora of experience in each of their areas and their high cultivation bases coupled with the low requirement of integrating the art for those in the body refining realm up to the middle stages of qi refinement, made the task easy to accomplish within that time frame.
"Thanks, Huilang," said Yang Qing as he prepared to leave for the Institute.
"Mmh, the other matter I will have finished it by the time you get back," said Kang Huilang.
He seemed to be intricately carving something into a cylindrical block of wood. His movements were slow and measured and his eyes closely trailing his every movement.
Yang Qing on seeing this left without saying anything else as he headed to the craftsmanship division first before he headed for the institute.
He didn't spend too much time there, and just left some instructions with them on what he needed and the timeframe for picking the finished product. The work he needed wasn't overly complex thus he didn't receive a backlash for giving a six-hour deadline.
….
"This place still hasn't changed," Yang Qing thought with a rueful smile on his face as he stared at a large gate made of red dragon wood. It was intricately designed to look like it was made of intertwining vines and on both sides of the door from the center, there were two magnificently crafted images of two birds. One of them was a golden eagle and the other was a blue robin. Both birds symbolized justice and adaptability, respectively.
The blue robin was the Institute's respective symbol. Their aim was to train their students and increase their odds of survival for when they started working for the Order, which was why they placed great emphasis on adaptability.
Yang Qing walked in with a nostalgic look on his face as he took the sights in as he walked. There was no guard at the gate since there was a purple grade formation on the gate that read the soul signatures of those entering, and that was only one of the measures put in place.
In terms of importance, the Institute held more value than even the courtrooms and Requiem. The Institute was the lifeblood of the Order, without it, they would find it next to impossible to find cultivators good enough to handle the demands of its jobs. Therefore, it was also one of the most well-protected places in the whole of the Order.
As a student, Yang Qing had even heard of the rumor that there was a certain restricted area within the Institute that housed select members of the Spirit Council. Yang Qing didn't know how true the statement was, but he felt it couldn't be that far off because the Institute was just that valuable, that was even without taking into account the Main Library that was placed within the Institute's grounds.
However, that particular rumor remained unproven because of how enormous the place was. One had to move from one faculty to another through the use of spatial runes, otherwise, if they depended on their cultivation base, it would take them months, and there were dangerous zones between those faculties. Each faculty was its own territory, including even the Main Library.
Yang Qing wasn't sure how large the Institute was, but he was sure in his five years there, he had not covered half of it.
Yang Qing walked smiling, admiring the buildings and the history in them as he headed to the administration building which was the target for his visit.
On the way over he could see young students in black coats and orange robes who had eagerness, excitement, and a competitive spirit written over their faces. They curiously looked at Yang Qing before they went on their way.
Yang Qing soon spotted another group wearing the same robes. They had a sense of maturity to them both in their looks and demeanor. However, they had a haggard look to them. Yang chuckled when he saw them. He too was once like them. During their final years from the fourth year, the death combats would increase in number.
When it came to combat training, Institute students would fight against each other, the instructor, their seniors, and lastly convicts from Requiem who either had long sentences that would see them serve it to their death or those who were sentenced to death after a certain set period.
Those prisoners for a chance to reduce their sentence or have their duration of the death sentence extended would be given a chance at it by combating students from the Institute. However, because they were heinous criminals who shouldn't see the light of day, that option came with a catch, which was they could get killed if they lost the duel.
It was similar to the sentence Yang Qing had given to Peng Zhen. If the convicts lost, the battle would either end in their death or injury. If they wanted to avoid that, they had to fight with everything they had. They were encouraged to fight to kill the students. With death having over their heads and the potential of freedom or another day of life, fight they did, and fearsomely at that.
This method was the preferred method of choice when it came to training the combat sense of the students of the institute. They could get a clear sense of how life outside the Institute would be, which was why student vs student spars or student vs instructor spars were not done as much because it lacked the ferocity of a real battle where life and death were real stakes.
Awards and punishments were given in regard to a student's performance in those fights. In the early years they'd do it once a month but from the third year down up to the fifth year the fights would be three days a week, and the intensity would increase the further up the years, one was.
The fights were anything but easy. The instructors would monitor the fights and would not intervene until the student was at risk of death or being irreversibly crippled, as for everything else including losing your limbs, was something termed as acceptable.
From their looks, Yang Qing guessed they were in their third year. Even though they looked haggard they were not beat up enough. They still had some life in them.
"Yang Qing is that you?"
Yang Qing's thoughts were cut short by a call from a blue-robed man who looked to be in his late thirties. Yang Qing had a slight shiver when he saw him before he smiled obsequiously at the blue-robed man. He had to since that man was an instructor, a nightmare fiend in human skin to all who had the misfortune of having him as their instructor.
"Instructor Wu Shi, your heroic bearing hasn't waned one bit."
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