Cultivating A Failure 21 Introductions And Explanations

"Little Star before you leave let me talk to you for a moment." Her fathether called out to her before strolling towards the garden. Falling Star followed behind pensively. "Has Little Yu told you about the other night yet?" he asked after they were alone.

"No, did something happen?"

"He had a dream the first night here, possibly related to your visit to Mister Sloth. It seemed to be a memory from when he was very young and leads me to believe you two were fated to meet."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember Uncle and Auntie Yu?"

"Of course, they used to come around a lot when I was younger."

"Little Yu may be their son. Take him back to Mister Sloth and find out what was in that vault. It may be the key to finding out the truth of his past and his inability to absorb spirit energy. Finding these answers is part of your duty since you accepted him as your desciple. Whether it pans out or not let me know, I also want to know what happened to your Uncle and Auntie."

"I understand father. I will take him after he is done with cla.s.ses tomorrow. Oh, have you heard I've taken up a teaching position at his school?"

"I have, was there something you needed?"

"It's just that the subject I'm going to teach is basic cultivation techniques. While I can handle combat types, you know my apt.i.ttude for non-combat cultivation outside of food related uses is bad. I was wondering if you and mom might be interested in teaching the non-combat students a bit of the basics about refining and spiritual cooking."

"We'd love to, it's been boring staying at the house all the time now that you've moved off on your own. Do you plan on starting tomorrow?"

"Eh, you can come for introductions, but I was planning on doing a sparring demonstration with Little Yu tomorrow. I wanted to do it for a few reasons. I want to test his grasp of his combat skills, help him adjust to his body's current state, and to show that I'm not playing favorites for personally being his sparring partner in cla.s.s. He is much too strong to spar with the other students. If he makes a mistake it could be fatal, atleast with me I can take the hit if he makes a mistake."

"Looks like you've put a lot of thought into this."

"Of course, I only took on this role for Little Yu's sake and I'll do everything I can to help him succeed. However, I will still help out the other students as well."

"Alright I won't keep you any longer, we'll see you tomorrow. I'm also looking forward to watching the sparring demonstration."

Falling Star hugged her father then ran off to find Yu Chang so they could leave.

***

The following day.

Everyone in the grade 12 cla.s.ses was buzzing with antic.i.p.ation for the end of the normal curriculum. It got to the point that the teachers gave up trying to teach for the day and just a.s.signed some cla.s.swork and self study. As the bell rang the grade 12 students all rushed towards the auditorium. What awaited them were the entire teaching staff as well as Falling Star and her parents. Not many recognized her parents as they tended to stay low key even though they were acknowledged as among the top of their respective fields. The regular instructors were primarily gathered around Falling Star's parents exchanging greetings and casually chatting as the students entered the instructors backed off to a side of the auditorium and Falling Star stepped forward.

"It seems everyone was eager for the first day of the extended curriculum, first I have introductions to make. The two standing behind me are my parents, some of you may be familiar with my father Cosmic Dragon, though you might not be familiar with my mother who is better known as Inferno Fairy. They've agreed to help with the extra cla.s.s since I mostly specialize in combat. They will be teaching a bit of the basics of their crafts to those of you who are non-combat types. Those of you who don't know what type you are will be able to s.h.i.+ft between the lessons to figure out what suits you best. However, for today I planned something special, so lessons won't start until tomorrow. I will be doing a sparring demonstration today, but first, let me ask if there is anyone here who is level 4 or higher?"

The students all looked around and n.o.body raised their hands.

"Alright then, how many level 3s do we have?"

Five students raised their hands but one spoke up, "I'm level 3 but I'm a non-combat type." This student was Fang Tian.

"That's fine. So everyone else here is lower than level 3, with one special case. Little Yu, please come forward." While she waited for Yu Chang to come to the front all the students turned to stare at him. Most were aware by now that there was some kind of connection between Yu Chang and Falling Star but only a handful were aware that they shared a Master Desciple relations.h.i.+p. "The special demonstration today will be between myself and my desciple Little Yu." Many students gasped at the casual reveal of their relations.h.i.+p. "There are two reasons for this demonstration. The first reason is a practical reason being that I want you guys to understand what real combat between cultivators is like. The second reason is so that everyone is aware why only I will be allowed to partner with Little Yu during sparring. This is not about favoritism, it's about your safety. There are only two people in this entire auditorium that are strong enough to take the hit if an accident happens while sparring with Little Yu, that is myself and my father. Anyone else would be either severely injured or killed on the spot."

"Pfft." Ma Xiong tried to stifle his laugh. "Instructor Star, aren't you exaggerating a bit? We've known Yu Chang for a long time and he has no spiritual energy fluctuations around him. If I didn't know it were impossible in this age, I'd say he was a regular human."

"Very well, let's quell the doubts before the actual sparring match. I will release my strength up to level 4, which is higher than every student here." She stopped talking and started releasing her spiritual energy. All the students could feel a slight breeze blowing around the auditorium due to the flow of Falling Star's energy. "Now everyone can feel my strength yes? Does anyone doubt that this is the strength of a level 4?"

Everyone shook their heads because even if they werent high level cultivators they were taught by there parents how to tell the difference in the strength of other cultivators.

"Alright Little Yu, I'm gonna put my hands up in a receiving position. I want you to throw a casual light punch into my hands."

Yu Chang walked over and lightly extended his arm forward placing his fist into Falling Star's palm. Falling Star's arms bent at her elbows and her feet slid about two inches backwards.

"No way, she really got pushed back by that light tap?" A random student blurted out.

"Correct, that was indeed just a light tap," Falling Star answered. Now I'm going to let you see what you would have to face if an accident happened. Dad, release your strength fully and be prepared to stop me incase I am knocked towards other people."

"Got it." The breeze in the auditorium turned tyranical as the full strength of a level 7 cultivator was released. He took up a position several behind Falling Star several feet away from her. "I'm ready."

Falling Star got intoposition again, "this time I want you to do the same thing with your full strength Little Yu."

Yu Change stretched then took up a Tae-Kwon-Do stance, after several slow breaths he hurled a punch at Falling Star's palm. The impact was mind numbing for the spectators and Falling Star was sent flying backwards. Cosmic Dragon stepped forward and intercepted Falling Star. He grunted as she collided with him and even took a step back. The entire auditorium went dead quiet. Even a pin drop would be an earth shattering sound in that moment.