Child of Destiny

The next day, Shin and the others went back to the class. All of them already recovered after a good night of rest.

Professor Kyrie entered the lecture hall right after the last student entered the hall. It was as if she knew when the final student would arrive. Even her timing was perfect on the dot, right when it was time for the class. ．

She stood at the platform and swept her gaze at everyone before greeting them. “Good morning, everyone. I heard that you have a lot of fun during your practical activities.”

Hearing those words, the entire class could not help but groan as they remembered how the Devil Instructor had tortured them, especially the ones who were beaten up by the mechanical puppets and clay golems.

Professor Kyrie smiled when she saw their reaction before saying. “I know that it is hard, but I assure you that you will benefit a lot when training under Master Lin Huang.”

“He is not only strong, but he is very knowledgeable when it comes to training someone,” she added as their tone was filled with admiration. “It is a blessing that he agreed with the academy to take over your practical exercises.”

She then knocked on the wooden table on the platform before continuing. “Alright, we are not going to start our lesson this morning.”

She cleared her throat for a moment before starting. “Our subject for today is the ‘Theory of Individuality, Duality, and Unity’.”

“These three aspects are important when you are breaking through the Ethereal Opening Stage and the peak of Grandmaster Realm,” she added as she opened a huge virtual screen that was projected in front of the class.

“As I already said before, breaking through to Ethereal Opening Stage is a critical stage since this is where a Martial Artist is transitioning from the ‘Foundation Building Realm’ to the ‘Ascension Realm’.”

“The Mentalists will be having an easier time when it comes to this since they are only breaking through a minor stage within the Grandmaster Realm. But it does not mean that they can easily achieve it since they also have to go through a similar process as the Martial Artists.”

“And as for the three requirements that you need for the breakthrough, you already discussed them yesterday, so we are not going to go back to it.”

“Instead, we are going to have an in-depth discussion about the next requirement, which is discovering your ‘real’ personal style like what I said yesterday.”

“And how are you going to discover it? It is simple! You just have to get a better understanding of yourselves and your Martial and Mentalism Paths.”

“It is simple to hear, but it is actually quite complicated to achieve, so we are going to slowly tackle this topic. This is the purpose o this subject after all.”

She paused for a moment before quickly continuing. “Let us start with ‘Individuality’.”

“As all of you know, most of you are already following a certain martial and mentalism path, which is paved by another person – the ancestors of your families or martial schools and other organizations.”

“You are following the teachings that they have as well as the others you followed after them.”

“Then, what is the relationship between this and our current topic? It is still about individuality. What do I mean about individuality? It is having your own version of your respective martial arts, mentalism, and swordsmanship.”

“Every person is unique and different from one another. Even though you are following the teachings of your ancestors and predecessors, you still have your own self, your talents, and your own path to follow.”

“This is the reason why every family, sect, and other organization has experts that have their own versions of their secret techniques and skills.”

“This is the concept of Individuality. It is where you have to discover your own path that you have to follow.”

“In this concept, you have to study yourselves thoroughly to have a better understanding of yourself. You have to re-learn your respective disciplines from the start and re-evaluate everything to have a better understanding of it.”

“You need all of these to create your own path. You will be able to discover your own styles eventually after reviewing everything.”

“There is no one who can help you with this other than yourselves, so I require you to take this seriously if you want to break through to the next realm.”

She then stopped talking as she let everyone digest everything that she just said before continuing. “The next aspect is the concept of duality.”

“We are borrowing this from the ideology of Dualism, where they believe that there are two fundamental kinds of categories of things and principles – where they believe that mental and physical are, in some sense, radically different kinds of things – where some believe that everything comes in pair.”

“We are not borrowing everything but just a portion of it. It was to help you have a better understanding of your physical and mental properties.”

“By following this ideology, you will be able to construct a perfect path for your respective disciplines.”

“Another thing, some of you may have more than one energy within your bodies, and some also were also practicing more than one style, so if we follow some of the concepts within this, you will be able to understand yourselves more from a different perspective.”

“But this aspect is not as important as Individuality since you are still the one who will decide which path you have to take.”

This time, she only took a brief pause to rest before continuing. “But the next aspect is important. The aspect of Unity.”

“This aspect concerns two parts which are ‘induvial’ and ‘universal’.”

“The first part concerns yourselves. After discovering, learning, and understanding yourselves, your innate attributes, and disciplines, you will have to combine all of them and turn them into a single entity.”

“That will be your personal discipline. When you achieved those three, you will be entering a whole new world where everything will be different. Then you will be ready to form a vessel to host all of it before breaking through the next realm.”

“The Universal Part, on the other hand, is required to communicate with other people. As what its name impinged, Unity, you have to form a bond with the others, your teammates particularly.”

“Understanding each other and how to work together despite your differences will also be helpful in the creation of your respective paths. This will help you understand your chosen paths more effectively.”

“If you are able to insert your styles in every situation and environment, and use it against every enemy while working with other people, then that is when you can say that you have perfected your chosen paths.”

Closing the projected scene, she turned to her students and continued. “It will take some time before you are able to achieve all of these, so I suggest you focus on one of them at a time.”

“Take it slow and have a steady step. Build a better foundation before proceeding forward.”

“In this case, it is best if you focus on Individuality before anything else. This is the hardest part, but it will benefit you a lot if you manage to achieve it.”

“Achieve the Individuality, understand the Duality, and master the Unity – these are the words that all I can say to you,” said Professor Kyrie with full seriousness.

“I can’t help that much in this subject since it requires your self-comprehension, but you can still come at me, and I will answer your doubts to the best of my abilities.”

“Aside from that, we will continue our discussion about these topics in the future class of the subject. I will also give you several examples that can give you an inspiration at discovering your own path.”

After that, she continued the discussion and even gave simple examples about the topic. She also told them the histories of a couple of old individuals who founded their respective schools and sects and established some Martial Arts and Mentalism Families and Clans.

The discussion lasted until it was noon before Professor Kyrie dismissed everyone. “Alright, that is all for today.”

“I will not be giving you any assignments but make sure to study properly. I will also remind you of your regular injection of energies in your Energy Conductors.”

“Class dismissed,” she said as she started walking out of the lecture hall.

At the back of the lecture hall, where Shin and the others were located, the group started to stand up while discussing what they were going to eat for lunch.

“Should we go to Heavenly Taste again? We still haven’t gotten the information that they have promised too. Maybe we can ask them more about the item that they have given us,” said Arthur as he walked out of the hall.

“That is good too, but I think it is better if we try the other restaurants,” said Lorraine before turning to the twin. “Which one are you going to introduce us now?”

While the group was discussing, David suddenly approached them when he saw them walking out of the lecture hall.

Shin was the first one to notice him and asked. “Are you waiting for, Senior Brother?”

The group suddenly paused their steps when he heard him and turned to David. The ones who were already familiar with him just tilted their heads while the twins observed the guy.

David chuckled a little before greeting them. He then turned to Shin and answered. “You can say that. But more accurately, I am waiting for you and Leonard.”

“Can the two of you join me for a moment? I need to talk with you about something,” he said, directly stating his purpose.

The two furrowed their brows for a moment before turning to each other. The rest of the group was also the same before shifting their gazes between the two and David.

“Alright, let’s go,” answered Shin as he gestured to David to lead the way. From what he could see, this senior brother of his seemed to be needing their help with something.

Though, he was having a bad feeling about it.

…