Chapter 12 Fallen Prince And Talented Trash… Three Months Later

Sun Wu Fen, the Clan Leader of the second most powerful clan on the Maple Continent, the Sun Clan, said in a calm tone, “The second prince can actually match up to someone in the Meridian Opening realm, using only Basic-level techniques. That’s quite the accomplishment since there has never been someone capable of that, even the crown prince with a similar comprehension grade couldn’t.” Even though what Xi Shen did should be shocking to everyone, Sun Wu Fen and everyone else was rather calm, even a bit dismissive. After all, Xi Shen might be showing off his heaven-defying talent now, but without a foundation grade that display just made them petty him even more. Fu Wei who was alone on the plain pavilion was chuckling in his heart. ‘So little brother you actually weren’t lying when you said that who was holding back. Your Elusive Ghost Steps have reached the Completion stage, even stepping into the legendary territory of becoming one with the technique. Hahaha, this should be considered amazing, but with your current situation, I’m afraid that it’s nothing more than a spark in the night sky. Beautiful and dazzling but will eventually fade away.’ After Fu Wei spoke this internally he suddenly had another thought. ‘If you’re hiding this much of your strength up until now, what else are you hiding?’ Fu Wei went back in his memory to that time when he entered Xi Shen's room. He hadn’t forgotten how strange the entire situation was. Ever since that moment, he started to suspect that his little brother was different. But as the years went by that feeling was starting to fade, only appearing ever so often, today increasingly so. Fu Wei came out of his thoughts and looked back at the podium. After Xi Shen broke the Elder’s arm, he appeared next to the ragged clothed youth. “Are you okay?” When Xi Shen asked that, the ragged clothed youth glanced up at him through teary eyes. “Se-Second prince?!” The youth was slightly taken aback as he said that through his sobs. “Are you able to stand?” Xi Shen asked again. The ragged clothed youth tried to stand up again but the pain coming from his broken arm made his knees buckle under him. Before he could fall though, Xi Shen caught him and said, “If you can’t stand get on my back.” After saying that, Xi Shen knelt in front of him. Hearing that, the youth hesitated slightly. The fact that the second prince of the Maple Continent wanted him to climb onto his back made him extremely nervous. He wondered if he was in a dream right now and was back in his village snoring off in the cowshed like usual. If so, he wanted to wake up immediately because his mother could find him at any moment and scold him. As the youth was wondering how he could wake up from this dream, he suddenly heard the second prince’s voice again. “What are you waiting for? Hurry up, I don’t have time to waste.” Hearing that the youth snapped out of his thoughts and nervously climbed onto Xi Shen’s back. Although Xi Shen was around the same age as him, the ragged clothed youth realized that he was significantly more well-built than himself and was even a head and a half taller. This made the ragged clothed youth thought of his older brother, who had tragically died when he was younger. Resting his head on Xi Shen’s shoulder, he got the feeling that Xi Shen was his older brother. This made his sobbing return. Xi Shen placed his hands under the ragged clothed youth's thighs and slowly walked off the podium, while trying not to aggravate the youth’s hand resting over his shoulder. While walking away Xi Shen’s voice rang out in the venue, “I’m taking this person as my personal attendant!” Everyone remained silent as he walked away. No one objected to his announcement or mentioned the fact that he had just injured an Elder of the Celestial Academy. Some at the venue probably thought that the Celestial Academy didn’t say anything because they disagreed with the Elder's actions against the ragged clothed youth. Said Elder that had his arm broken was even replaced by another Outer Sect Elder, who eventually went on to finish the Disciple Selection Ceremony. It was found that eight children out of over a thousand candidates possess Sky-grade innate talent. Two were from the Ming Clan, and the rest were from the other six major Clans. Everyone was lamenting the fact that only the major clans had persons who were qualified to enter the Celestial Academy this year again. However, that was soon overshadowed by the news of the second prince being unable to cultivate. The events of the Celestial Academy’s Disciple Selection Ceremony had spread like wildfire across the Maple Continent. Everyone found out that Xi Shen had been the first person in the Maple Continent’s history to possess two Supreme-grade attributes but was dumbfounded when they heard that he possessed no foundation to cultivate Spiritual Qi. In the midst of all this, several ridiculing names were given to Xi Shen, but the two prominent ones were, the ‘fallen prince’ and the ‘talented trash’. The latter being a play on words, as Xi Shen possessed Supreme-grade attributes for his soul and comprehension but was unable to cultivate due to a lack of foundation. Everyone thought those were fitting names for Xi Shen’s current predicament. Though, the news of the emperor’s decree that allowed Xi Shen to enter the Celestial Academy had picked up traction as well. Most people didn’t question the emperor’s decree, however, some group of people in the shadows were voicing their disagreement, and were even inciting the populace to speak out about the emperor’s supposed selfish decision of letting his crippled son enter the prestigious Celestial Academy and taint their record. They even went as far as to say that the emperor was abusing his power, and shockingly, should be removed from his position. However, that absurd commotion was quickly squashed by an unknown force. ---- ~Three Months Later~ The Celestial Academy’s outer sect was located in the outer regions of the Celestial Academy. One could even say that it was somewhat separated from the true academy itself. Most of the outer disciples’ courtyards look the same. They were surrounded by a three-meter-tall wall and had a shabby built hut at the center, that was around twenty meters from corner to corner. There was also a convenient space within the courtyard for disciples to train. The outer sect disciples couldn’t complain about their accommodation, as they were practically at the bottom of the barrel among the disciples in the Celestial Academy. One thing that also should be mentioned is that the outer sect courtyards were actually for disciples that didn’t meet the Sky-grade innate talent requirement. The Celestial Academy might be rigid in their qualifications to enter, but they have made exceptions for some people. For example, there might be a disciple in the outer sect that had Sky-grade for their foundation and comprehension but have an Earth-grade for their soul. Some of them even had a Heaven-grade for one of their attributes. However, even in this scenario, the Celestial Academy still had a requirement, and it’s that their foundation grade should at the very least be at the Sky-grade, even if all their other attributes were Human-grade or Earth-grade. Aside from the outer sect courtyards, there were also the Inner disciple courtyards, the Core disciple courtyards, and the Conclave disciple courtyards. For an outer disciple to become an inner disciple, they would have to reach the Sea Expansion realm before they’re sixteen years old. Even for a disciple with a Sky-grade innate talent, this would be significantly difficult to accomplish. To cultivate through the five Physical realms, it would normally take five to ten years, but disciples in the Celestial Academy had to do it within three. And what’s even worse, is that the amount of cultivation resources an outer disciple has access to was limited. This made competition for resources between the newly arrived disciples intense to a terrifying degree.