Over the following weeks, Jin Huang attended his classes with a diligence that surprised even himself.
Alchemy, Weapons, Array Formation, Martial Arts and Cultivation. He went to all of them, ready and eager to give it his all in an effort to learn. Unfortunately, that was where the good news ended.
In cultivation theory, he could recite texts perfectly, but when it came time to circulate spiritual energy according to even the simplest diagrams, his meridians responded like confused spectators at the wrong lecture hall. Energy entered, wandered about aimlessly, then left as if embarrassed to have been involved at all.
Mr. Nagira had come up with various variations of energy gathering, up to a dozen different ones everyday for Jin Huang to try. Even so, there was no difference. It was still simply impossible for Jin Huang to cultivate.
He was stuck at the peak of his perfect Mortal Foundation.
In Martial Arts class, Jin Huang's body- despite possessing strength that was at least on par with someone at the Inner Core Realm- moved like a sack of grain hurled down a staircase. His punches were powerful but lacked substance, his footwork simple.
Weapons class was worse.
When given a sword, he gripped it like it might bite him. With a spear, he held it backwards. He took a bow, and somehow the string ended up tangled around his wrist.
The Weapons teacher stared at him in silence for a long moment before saying, "You have… enthusiasm."
Alchemy class became something of a quiet disaster.
Jin Huang could follow recipes exactly, but every pill he produced came out slightly wrong. Not explosively wrong- thankfully- but conceptually wrong. A warming pill that caused sneezing. A vitality pill that tasted like regret and induced powerful depression. A calming pill that induced vivid dreams involving large, judgmental pigs.
As for Array Formation... he simply could not draw them.
The lines were crooked, the nodes uneven. The spiritual ink he used refused to stabilize, dispersing the moment he lifted his brush.
"No resonance," the Array teacher said bluntly. "It's like the arrays don't recognize you as… compatible."
By the end of the month, a consensus quietly formed among the students.
Jin Huang was a freak, yes, but not the good kind.
A strange contradiction wrapped in flesh: monstrous physical strength paired with absolute incompetence in every art. Someone who ate spirit-infused food like a starving abyss yet couldn't take the first proper step toward actual cultivation.
He became a topic of whispered discussion.
"A waste of talent." Some students said.
"What a twist of fate." Others echoed.
"Maybe his body ate his aptitude?" A few of them speculated.
Jin Huang heard some of it, but he was too busy to let it affect him. Qin Shuyue and Shen Wuyou realized that he was entirely absorbed by the only thing he could do: manipulate his internal energy.
He seemed to be having fun with it and, by his words, he was getting better and better at it.
Late one Friday evening, after classes had ended and the academy's floating districts glowed softly beneath the distant stars, Jin Huang walked alone along a quiet path that led to one of the practice courtyards. He focused inward, once again manipulating his internal energy.
It was there. Like a vast creature that was lighter than a feather but fast asleep. It would flow along various channels, in a plethora of different ways, but had no effect on his Mortal Foundation.
He tried to guide it gently, remembering the diagrams Mr. Nagira had shown him, the many different breathing techniques and insightful advice. The energy moved, taking all routes available, even being poured and focused into a singular point in his dantian. Yet, there were no changes.
Jin Huang sighed and rubbed his stomach.
"Maybe I just need to eat something," he muttered, about to start digging in his spatial ring. Madame Cho had recently refilled his coffers with some new food that he was dying to try out.
That was when he saw an odd sight.
Jin Huang had rounded a bend near one of the lesser-used courtyards and stopped. A young man lay sprawled on the courtyard floor, shirtless but awake, blood stains on his robes. Bruises darkened his ribs and jaw, and a faint imprint of a boot lingered on his shoulder.
Whoever had done this had not held back.
And yet, the young man did not look distressed. He lay there with one arm draped across his eyes, chest rising steadily, breathing calm. As if he had simply decided to rest in the middle of being beaten half to death.
Jin Huang approached cautiously. "Uh… hey?"
No response.
He knelt beside him, poking him in the shoulder. "Are you… alive?"
Slowly, the arm shifted.
And then Jin Huang saw his eyes.
They opened without hurry, revealing pupils so dark they seemed to swallow the surrounding light. There was no shine, no reflected glow- just depth and almost imperceptible specks of white. An endless, empty night stretched behind those pupils, desperate to swallow everything in their view.
Jin Huang froze. He wasn't sure why, but he felt as though he were standing at the edge of something endless.
The young man stared at him for a moment, expression unreadable, then spoke.
"Oh. Did they already leave? I was just about to get serious, but I fell asleep."
Jin Huang swallowed. "You... fell asleep?"
He nodded.
"I... uh... didn't see anyone when I came by." Jin Huang shifted.
The young man nodded faintly and closed his eyes again. "Good. I guess I won't have to kick any asses today."
"Should I get someone? A staff member... or a teacher?" Jin Huang asked.
"No." The young man paused. "I'm not worth it."
Pausing again, he turned his face away from Jin Huang and sighed. "Don't waste your time. Get going. Go back to moving your energy around and stuff."
Gasping, Jin Huang eyed him incredulously. "How'd you know?"
Opening his eyes, the young man looked at Jin Huang, blinked, then shrugged. "Beats me."
Jin Huang hesitated, then sat down beside him. "You know... you don't seem very bothered about being beaten like this. Are you sure you're okay?"
The young man's lips twitched. Not quite a smile.
"Beaten? Me?" He clutched his stomach and let out a steady stream of air, like laughter without- well- the laughter. "I've shaken off far worse than this. I'm fine. Surely someone with a body like yours can relate to that."
"Body like mine? What do you mean?" Jin Huang frowned.
The young man acted as though he had not heard the question. He merely closed his eyes again and took a breath.
Realizing he was getting no answer, Jin Huang asked, "What's your name?"
"I'm Xu Ye. Class Seven."
The name settled oddly in the air, and for a fraction of an instant, Jin Huang felt like he heard the same odd chiming that he had heard when Dao Yuan had spoken her name.
Then, the realization of what class Xu Ye was in arrived. Jin Huang folded his arms when he recalled that Class Seven was supposed to be the worst of the worst, yet he did not get that kind of vibe from Xu Ye at all.
Especially when he looked into his eyes.
Jin Huang repeated it softly. "Xu Ye…"
Xu Ye opened his eyes again, looking directly at Jin Huang. "You're strange."
Jin Huang scratched his cheek. "Tell me about it. But you aren't exactly normal either."
Xu Ye studied him in silence, those empty-night eyes unblinking. "Sit," he said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Jin Huang was already doing so, so he shifted uncomfortably. "Uh... sure."
Xu Ye nodded, then lifted himself up into a sitting position. "I was talking to myself."
Jin Huang's expression sank and he cleared his throat. "So, where do Class Seven students stay? Do you need a hand to get home?"
"A dorm. Building seven... and no." Xu Ye yawned, then looked up at the stars above. "A time may come when we meet again. Sooner rather than later, hopefully."
He turned his head slowly, his eyes drinking in the sight of Jin Huang once they reached him. Conversely, Jin Huang felt like he was being filled with something. Some kind of presence or energy invaded him in that moment, only to empty itself shortly after.
"So you haven't even started yet? That's interesting. Maybe you're waiting for the right moment, too." Xu Ye said thoughtfully, with the most amount of emotion he had shown since the start.
"I haven't started? You mean cultivating, right? Yeah, I'm not sure exactly how to get started on that." Xu Ye had not looked away from Jin Huang's eyes, but the latter felt like Xu Ye had not really been looking at him.
He wondered, in that moment, if Xu Ye had even been talking to him just then.
"Well, it was nice meeting you," Xu Ye gave a tiny nod of a bow.
He stood up and walked away, his beaten, bloody self giving Jin Huang the impression that he was in unspeakable pain. However, the way he moved suggested the opposite. As he watched him walk away, Jin Huang stood up and shook his head.
"What a weirdo."