Ash was already dressed and about to head out for breakfast with Rylan when he stopped. The Martial Saint's insights were still fresh in his mind, and the urge to test their true effect on his own martial cultivation proved stronger than hunger.
He made up his mind and immediately sat cross-legged on the dormitory floor, closed his eyes, and turned his sharpened awareness inward.
Before the first cycle of energy could fully form, his thoughts drifted. (AN: Some more worldbuilding time.)
Outside, across the training fields of Azure Cloud Martial Academy, every newly awakened student—whether celebrated S-Rank genius or ordinary E-Rank like himself—remained firmly inside the Body Refining Realm. Not a single one of them had dared to take the final step into Martial Apprentice. The rules were absolute, the risks permanent, and the price of impatience far too high.
A second safeguard followed from the same principle.
1. No one is allowed to awaken below the age of 18.
