Elena thought the world was totally boring.
That was just too unfair.
Didn't the Master say that Meditation Technique required a High Rank, and that it needed years of mental cultivation?
Why did she reach High Rank in just two days?
If Bruno were here, he'd probably say it wasn't two days. He'd only taken one.
"Thought Britney was the strongest," Elena thought. "Where did this Bruno even come from?"
Her whole worldview collapsed.
Nell had already suspected something. When he heard his student's shout, he was sure he was right.
"Did you reach High Rank in your Meditation Technique?" he asked.
Bruno, still curious about Elena's outburst, replied, "Yeah."
Nell's heart skipped a beat.
No way. It was really true.
He narrowed his eyes and asked, "Do you know that Meditation Technique needs ten years of mental cultivation to reach High Rank?"
"Really?" Bruno looked surprised. "I was lost in the illusion at first, but then I just had a flash of insight. It felt different."
"A flash of insight," Nell repeated, his eyes lighting up. "Could it be a moment of enlightenment?"
His heart stirred. He locked eyes with Bruno.
Suddenly, everything changed.
Gigantic bloody mountains rose up. Suffering bones crawled from the ground. The stench of sulfur filled the air. Ghosts cried out, their voices full of rage.
Bruno had arrived in hell - Nell's The Ten Thousand Hells.
He looked up. The sky was gone. In its place was a massive face - the headmaster's - taking up the whole sky. A flood of bones rushed toward Bruno, as if they wanted to tear the boy apart, swallow him whole.
But Bruno didn't panic. He closed his eyes and began to meditate.
A hum echoed from his bones.
In an instant, his flesh began to rot, turning into a pile of white bones, no different from the others.
"Luminous Bone," the boy whispered, starting from his feet, glowing brighter and brighter, all the way to his skull.
The roars, the cries, the ghosts' screams, all stopped at once. The bones bowed in reverence, and the ghosts circled the boy, their eyes filled with deep, genuine devotion.
At that moment, Bruno became a god.
He was the center of the world.
He looked up again, toward the giant face in the sky.
Crack!
The sound of glass breaking echoed.
The illusion faded. Everything vanished.
Bruno was still standing on the fourth floor of the dojo.
The old man pulled out a handful of white hair with a twist of his hand, and without anyone noticing, he slipped it into his pocket. "You really did reach High Rank."
"Master is amazing," Bruno said honestly. It wasn't easy for anyone to get that far.
Nell laughed. "Of course. Your mental strength is deep and refined. It's like you've got five or six more decades of experience than others. Not bad."
Not bad?
Bruno thought to himself. Maybe reaching High Rank wasn't that hard after all. He'd just overcomplicated it.
If Kaiden hadn't interfered, he'd have wanted to tell the truth in a few days. But now it seemed he'd been worrying for nothing.
The young man's heart was all over the place. He should have known that High Rank Meditation Technique wasn't that big of a deal. He should have just come clean earlier. Now he was in a mess.
What if the master didn't like him? That would be a disaster.
Where was he going to find a real strong person to back him up?
Nell coughed and said in a calm voice, "Your spiritual power is strong, but your natural talent is still weak. But that can be fixed later. No big deal. If you're willing, I can take you as my student. But just barely."
Bruno was over the moon. "Master, no, I mean, teacher, I'm willing!"
"Remember, don't get too excited. Your talent isn't the best, but it's decent."
He hadn't finished speaking when a red figure shot over.
"Master, there's a monster! This little kid's talent is amazing. No one has ever been like this before!" Elena ran straight up to Nell.
Nell tried to stop her, but she was faster.
"He's the one you feared, the old guy. You didn't think he'd be this young, did you?"
"..." Nell fought the urge to punch his own student into the sky. He closed his eyes and refused to look at Bruno's confused expression.
Destroyed. This world is destroyed. I'm done.
After all the chaos, the dojo was quiet again.
Lots of the students who had woken up saw Bruno following the master up to the fourth floor.
What that meant was obvious.
Barry looked shocked. "No way. Bruno became the master's student?"
They were all just apprentices, calling Nell the master. Only the real students called him "teacher." And once the master-student relationship was official, the two would be as close as blood family.
At the same time, on the top floor of the dojo, Britney looked at Bruno and said, "This pervert became my fellow student?"
Elena sighed. "Don't put it that way. But you're right. He really is a pervert."
"Britney, take care of me." The young man smiled, licking his lips.
For a moment, the three of them were quiet.
"You really completed a fighting technique to perfection?" Elena finally couldn't hold it in and asked.
"Yes." Bruno nodded, and started a punch sequence. A tiger's roar and a wolf's howl echoed from his body.
Elena rubbed her forehead, her hands shaking. "I'm going to fight against all these freaks."
Bruno laughed awkwardly. "I've been training the Tiger-Wolf Combat Technique since I was a kid. I didn't even realize it."
"Don't say it." Elena was honestly getting a bit self-conscious. She sat down and started drawing circles.
Nell coughed. "Not bad. This technique is getting close to the 'Spirit' stage. Very good."
The Spirit stage was beyond perfection, breaking through limits. It was the strongest state of a fighting technique. The external sign was the appearance of an image. For the Tiger-Wolf Combat Technique, it would show a tiger and a wolf. In terms of numbers, reaching the Spirit stage would give a three to five times boost in power, depending on how deep the understanding was.
"Then where's the thunder in your body?"Britney asked.
Bruno thought for a moment and said, "I don't know. I was practicing the breathing method, and then this state just came on me. Maybe I reached High Rank."
Nell's hand shook, but he quickly recovered, thanks to his calm mind and experience.
Elena just said numbly, "High Rank? That's really impressive."
"Argh, no, no, that's not true," Bruno laughed awkwardly. He thought Elena was mocking him.
Elena's heart was crying. She sat down and started drawing circles again.
This isn't fair.
Britney stayed calm and asked, "Something's wrong. If you reach High Rank in the Thunderclap Breathing Method, there shouldn't be a big thunder sound. Instead, there should be a continuous small thunder sound. Your thunder is so loud it can carry for hundreds of meters. It's like real thunder."
Right.
The other two, the old man and the kid, all nodded and started explaining to the young man.
Bruno said, "You know, I found that the Thunderclap Breathing Method had no path forward at the High Rank stage. So I thought and thought, and then I took just a small step forward..."
"Boom!" Elena fell down on her butt.
A small step forward? That's like creating a new technique!
Do you have to do that?
You're too fast at training and your brain is too quick. What's next?
Nell's mouth twitched. He tried to hold back his emotions.
This is too shocking.
Damn!
It was getting late.
After the initiation ceremony, the big training room was left with just Nell and his new disciple.
"Since you've become my disciple, I should teach you the cultivation method," Nell said calmly.
"Thank you, Master," Bruno was excited. This was finally coming.
Everything before had been a setup - the breathing method, the Meditation Technique, even the fighting skills. All of that was just part of the art, and to move forward, you needed a real cultivation method.
Like Bolantie Dean, he was a 1-stage warrior, but because he had no cultivation method, he couldn't reach 2-stage, 3-stage, or higher.
Nell said gently, "You know about the 12 stages, right?"
"Skin 3 stages, bone 3 stages, blood 3 stages, spirit 3 stages," Bruno nodded.
Nell explained, "These 12 stages are just the process of building the foundation. 3 stages of skin, skin as strong as steel, each stage adds 500kg of strength. 3 stages of bone, bone like jade, each stage adds 1000kg of strength.
3 stages of blood, blood like liquid jade, each stage adds 5000kg of strength. 3 stages of spirit, spirit solid and real, each stage adds 10000kg of strength. At the end of the 12 stages, you get a total of 54000kg of strength."