Lin walked into the qi perception classroom. It was a wide space with rows of battered, mismatched cushions. There were about 40 of the cushions that Lin assumed the students were meant to sit on. Students came filing in one after another until a large hoard of teens stood near the entrance.
"What are you all doing, standing there?" A masculine voice said. The voice came from a tall, skinny man. He had long beach blonde hair tied into a ponytail, and a pair of rectangle glasses sat on his small nose. His emerald eyes shined as his thin lips curled into a small smile. His pointed ears showed that he was of the panzela race. "Come on now. Choose your seat."
The students raced to get the seats with their friends. Lin walked leisurely towards a random seat and plopped himself down. A young boy with black curly hair sat down to the right of Lin. The boy introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Wang Ling." The boy said awkwardly, clearly not used to socializing. "What's your name?"
"I'm Hao Lin. Nice to meet you." Lin said with a kind smile. The bell rang and everyone became silent.
"Good afternoon, class. My name is Shui Aang." The teacher said while writing his name on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom. "As you all know, this is the qi perception class. Although most of you already know the basic concepts of qi, I am going to assume you are all full beginners. Let's start with what qi exactly is. Qi is the energy that makes up all living things. You, the person next to you, the blade of grass outside, they all have qi running through them. Additionally, qi is in the air, surrounding every inch of the universe…" Shui Aang continued explaining the basics of qi and then he explained how to get into the qi perception state. After that he left the students to their own devices to try qi perception.
Lin immediately got started on attempting qi perception. He sat cross legged and closed his eyes. With his breath steady and his mind clear he focused all his attention onto the back of his eyes. After about 3 minutes he felt a tingling sensation, just like the teacher described and he honed in on that sensation. Then everything went quiet, the tingling stopped, and orbs of light floated around in his sight. Lin sat there for a minute or two, just taking in the mesmerizing sight. It looked like a clear and starry night sky and it was beautiful.
After a while, Lin removed himself from the state and repeated the process like the teacher instructed. After he repeated the process 20 times, Lin felt satisfied. He could now enter the state after half a second of focusing on his eyes, and could open his eyes while staying in the state. But he still didn't know how long he could keep it up.
He looked around at the other students. The sight was amusing. Some students had an expression that made them look like they were constipated. Others huffed every 3 seconds out of frustration. Then he looked at Wang Ling. The boy had a calm face and his mouth curled slightly in contentment. He opened his eyes and had a look of satisfaction. 'Seems like he got it.' Lin thought.
"What do we do now?" Wang Ling whispered, glancing at the other students, who were all still preoccupied with their attempts to percept qi.
"Dunno. I'll go ask the teacher." Lin whispered back.
"I'll come with you." Wang Ling said, not wanting to sit around doing nothing.
The two boys walked up to the teacher who was sitting at a desk in the corner. "Laoshi?" Lin started. "Me and Wang Ling finished…"
"What do you mean by finished?" The teacher questioned.
"We can enter the qi perception state easily now." Wang Ling replied.
"Huh?! But it's only been 45 minutes!" The teacher said in bewilderment.
Some students sitting nearby looked up from their cushions, curious as to why the teacher was talking so loud.
"Erm, please try to keep it down." Lin said in a low voice, not wanting to disturb the others' focus.
"Right, gimme a second." The teacher said. He pulled out a mobile phone and started typing. He seemed to be typing a message. "Alright, I contacted administration. They'll send someone to test you. In the meantime just wait quietly."
Hao Lin and Wang Ling walked back to their empty cushions and waited.
"In 45 minutes… impossible." Shui Aang muttered in disbelief.
Around 10 minutes later, a young, burly man walked into the classroom. "Here for Wang Ling and Hao Lin?" He said in a gruff voice.
Lin and Wang Ling stood up and walked with the man through the vast hallway. The man stopped in front of a doorway with intricate patterns. He put his hand on the doorknob and muttered some words that Lin couldn't hear. The intricate patterns glowed a deep blue and something clicked. The man opened the door and a large office was revealed.
On the left of the door, a sitting area with a large bookshelf sat near a fireplace. On the right was a large desk with cabinets lined up on the wall behind it. An old man sat on a chair behind the desk.
"Come in, come in." The man said with a cheerful look on his face. "I heard you guys can get into the qi perception state after 45 minutes of practice. I am the provost of this academy it's nice to meet you." He stood up and led them to the couches near the fireplace.
"Yes. Nice to meet you as well." Lin said politely. Wang Ling stayed silent.
"Alright, well, would you allow me to test it?" The provost asked, putting on a more serious demeanor.
"Of course." Lin answered with a casual smile. Wang Ling nodded curtly.
"Okay, Hao Lin you're first. Get into the qi perception state." The man instructed.
Lin closed his eyes for only slightly longer than a blink. "Ready." He said, nodding.
"Oho! That was fast! Alright look at my hand and tell me what color the qi is and its shape." He said stretching his palm out in front of him.
"Green, and a tree." Lin replied immediately.
The man had a look of surprise, but only for a short moment. Then he turned to Wang Ling. He asked of the same thing and Wang Ling answered.
"Blue, a car." Wang Ling said with a proud smile.
The provost had that look of surprise once again, but his expression soon turned serious. "Good. Now you two can pick two classes from this list." He said, handing us each a long list of classes.
Lin looked down to the paper in his hands.
————————————————————
Melee Combat:
-short reach blade training (1)
-long reach blade training (1)
-blunt weapon training (1)
Long Range Combat:
-archery training (1)
-crossbow training (1)
Alchemy:
-concoction brewing (1)
-qi technology (1)
Weapon Manufacturing:
-weapon forging (1)
-weapon qi enforcement (1)
————————————————————
"Your other two classes are mandatory. One being practice hour and the other being qi cultivation class." The provost added.
A short time passed, and after both Hao Lin and Wang Ling had contemplated on and chosen their classes, the provost set up their new schedule in the system. Then, they were on their way to their second cultivation class, as one class period had already passed and it was now their 6th period of the day.
Lin chose 'short reach blade training' and 'weapon qi enforcement'. Additionally, mandatory classes were also fitted into the schedule which included 'individual practice period' and 'basic cultivation'.
Lin's first cultivation period was 'weapon qi enforcement'. Then, 'basic cultivation' followed by 'short reach blade training'. And lastly, 'individual practice period'.
A girl, who seemed to be a third year, led Hao Lin to each of his classrooms. Her long brown hair fell in waves along her back and her serious blue eyes surveyed the halls as she gracefully walked in front of Lin. She talked about the teachers in each of his courses, going over their personalities and levels of strictness. She gave pointers on how to act and warnings on specific things that might anger them.
Lin nodded as she spoke, absorbing every bit of information for later use. It truly was helpful for him and he greatly appreciated her advice. After she showed where the individual practice periods were held, she circled back around and led him back to his basic cultivation class. Lin went over the path to each of his classes, memorizing the way to heart.
Lin stood in front of the cultivation classroom door. He knocked and a student opened the door for him. A large, gymnasium sized room stood in front of him. Around 50 desks linked to chairs lined disorderly in the room. Teens pushed the desks together, chatting with friends and playing with their phones.
'Seems like there's no teacher so the kids do whatever they want. At least there's no commotion or dangers… guess I'll just listen to some music.' Lin thought as he pulled out his phone and some earbuds. He brought headphones because he predicted that he would accomplish qi perception pretty quickly though he didn't know how quickly so he brought them just in case. He heard that the cultivation classes wouldn't be doing anything the first one and a half weeks so he came prepared.
He went through the apps on his phone looking for a music app and finally found one. Luckily he had a subscription so he could listen to any song without paying. There was a problem though.
"Wait what does music sound like now???" Lin muttered, hesitant and a little worried about how music might've developed over the years. Then when he started listening to popular songs nowadays, he realized that they circled back to pop music that had the same vibe as 2000s and 2010s music. "Thank god, and it's my favorite music era too…" Lin secretly praised the gods, smiling with relief. He went through premade playlists and found some songs he liked. He added them to a personal playlist and started listening to them.
He spent the rest of the schoolday contentedly listening to the music from 7,000 years into the future.