Commanding Wind and Cloud

“Ah...”

Qian Jin held his exhausted body together and used the iron shovel to support himself. He turned around and saw Blake dozing off already. He had no choice but to drag his body and the shovel out of the door.

Bam...

The threshold of the door was too high, and Qian Jin couldn’t lift his legs in the state he was in. He fell out of door in an instant.

“Tink... Tink... Tink...”

Qian Jin used the shovel as a crutch and slowly walked out of the quiet village. It was the second time that he came to Endless World, but he didn’t have the chance to see what it looked like outside of the village.

Blue sky, white clouds, green grass, green trees...

Before Qian Jin could observe anything more, he saw an afterimage of a black shadow sprinting towards him at a high speed. Compared to this thing, Revolver-Skyblade’s speed was like moving in slow motion.

“What is this? A wolf! It has three heads?”

Just as Qian Jin reacted and saw what he was dealing with, the wolf had already jumped at him. Before he could lift up the shovel, the three heads had already attacked. The three jaws bit into his throat and shoulder...

Puff!

Qian Jin suddenly sat up on his bed as he felt severe pain. Subconsciously, he lifted his hands and rubbed the location on his throat that the wolf bit into.

“I’m lucky...” As he completed half of the sentence, he suddenly felt a few bite marks on his throat; fortunately enough, his throat hadn’t been pierced through.

After taking off his shirt that was soaked in sweat, he looked at his shoulders. Both of them had two lines of bite marks. When he pressed them with his hands, he felt a lot of pain.

“Holy sh*t.” Qian Jin rubbed his throat again. If his throat was pierced, would it mean that he would actually die? That Endless World is too scary.

“That wolf...” Qian Jin tried to carefully recall, but he was too tired at the moment. If he wasn’t that exhausted, he wouldn’t have been attacked so easily. He would have at least been able to put up a fight.

He looked out of the window and saw the sky turning white. He glanced at Rollin who was still sleeping as he got up and cleaned the sweat off of himself and put on a set of clean clothes. He started to recall again.

“This Blake...” Qian Jin slowly nodded. “This must be intentional...”

He powerlessly laid on the semi-wet bed and lightly complained, “Even if he wanted me to know that it’s pretty scary outside of the village, he didn’t have to take this step. What if I really died?”

“What? Die? You?” Rollin rubbed his hazy eyes with his fat hands as he sat up in his bed as well. “Who wants to kill you? Oh right. Qian Jin, I had a great dream last night. I dreamt about you getting married to my sister.”

Qian Jin didn’t know what to say. His friend couldn’t even forget about making a match between his sister and him when he slept.

“It’s still early in the morning. I just had a nightmare. Please, don’t tell me about your nightmare as well. Thanks.”

“I didn’t have a nightmare; I had a great dream.”

“Buddy, I consider that a nightmare.”

A deep horn suddenly sounded in the academy. Rollin instantly complained, “It’s time for morning exercise again. This is my nightmare!”

Qian Jin looked at Rollin whose body didn’t fit the image of a warrior too much and shook his head. “Eh, stop complaining. If you don’t want to be punished for being late by running more laps, we should head out now.”

The moon was still visible and the sky had not brightened up too much yet. On an open field in Oakland Academy, the warrior students from all three grades rushed to the location where their classes would be held. The mage students all sat down on a huge stage as they meditated and exercised their spiritual power.

October was a terrible month of the year. When it was hot, it was hotter than in summer. However, early in the morning, it was still quite chilly.

Qian Jin shrunk his body together to preserve the heat as he massaged his arms and other body parts that were sore and in pain. In his head, he was playing back the scene where the three-headed wolf attacked him in the Endless World. At that time, he only paid attention to the speed of the wolf. However, now that he had some time to think, he realized that its hiding ability was quite on point. He didn’t even notice where the wolf was hiding. In a sense, this wolf was very similar to a branch of warriors called [Thieves]. They were very good at both hiding and keeping themselves in a semi-stealth state.

“Look! It’s Qian Jin!”

“Oh? That extremely ugly looking guy? Did he really defeat Revolver-Skyblade?”

“That’s right! I heard from a senior who witnessed the whole battle in person. He said that Qian Jin didn’t even use any fighting techniques and still beat Revolver-Skyblade easily.”

“He didn’t use any fighting techniques? Are you serious? That means that he didn’t even use all of his power and strength. Isn’t he the tenth seat in Grade One while Revolver-Skyblade is the eighth seat?”

“I don’t know man, but a senior who was present at the time said Qian Jin should be ranked at least in the sixth seat. However, since he was lacking ambition, he left the higher seats for other people who liked to show off...”

“Who did you say liked to show off?”

“Are you saying that Qian Jin is stronger than me?”

Two angry shouts sounded from two different groups. The students who were chatting amongst themselves traced the voices back to the speakers. After they saw who they were, the students immediately looked somewhere else and stopped talking.

The people who spoke were Zelda and Fabio-Carras who were the sixth and seventh seats respectively among all Grade One students. They viciously stared at the group of people who were chatting.

Qian Jin stood with his classmates and yawned as he ignored all the stares and glances coming from all directions. Some people were surprised, some people were appreciative, some people were doubtful and some people were provoked.

After a long night of blacksmithing, Qian Jin really wanted to find a spot to sit down and rest. As he stared at the crowd that was about to start the morning jogging exercise, he was very thankful for the theory classes that were taught to all warrior students. While those classes were being taught, he would at least get the chance to sit down and relax his muscles.

As he was about halfway through his yawn, Qian Jin suddenly smelled a fragrance. He looked around and saw a female mage student standing beside him. The girl had curvy eyebrows, big eyes, thick and red lips and pink cheeks. Her mage cloak was tied around her waist, emphasizing her plump chest and butt. Her blonde hair was long and straight, and it was spread across her shoulder.

“So you are Qian Jin?”

Qian Jin on the other hand rubbed his hazy, sleepy eyes and asked this pretty, yet arrogant female mage student, “Who are you?”

A few crowds of people beside him gasped loudly. A bunch of people were surprised and perplexed as shocked stares were directed at him.

Rollin’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. He rubbed his fat hands together as he smiled and said, “Qian Jin, this is Julius! She is the most popular girl in our academy. The most beautiful girl in our academy–Julius!”

A proud and appreciative expression flashed on Julius’ pretty face. Although she heard this kind of appraisal every day, no woman would get tired of it.

“Julius?” Qian Jin raised his eyebrows as he thought. He quickly frowned; for some reason, he didn’t like her very much.

As Rollin’s roommate, it was impossible for him not to hear this woman’s name everyday.