Life Giver

A short while earlier, just as Casmir and Zaya's test began.

Instructor Redfire stood on the arena wall paying close attention to the fight, particularly to Casmir's actions.

This was not because he feared for Casmir's safety, even if Instructor Redfire did nothing, the nearby Instructors would easily be able to reconcile any threats the ferocious beasts posed towards the students lives.

The reason Instructor Redfire was paying close attention to Casmir was because of Master Bluefire, she had tasked him with performing a full evaluation on Casmir's current strength and growth.

Instructor Redfire even held a special Qi chip in his hand, it was a far more advanced product compared to those normally used and Master Bluefire had personally made it. This Qi chip could be re-used and would never break down however more importantly, it was used to record images and also various forms of Qi energy.

This type of Qi chip would often be a valued at, at least a few Qi Grade 5 treasures, not to mention that this Qi chip's quality was far from average.

Instructor Redfire delegated a tiny portion of his Qi energy to the Qi chip so that it recorded everything, while he personally noted down any extra information the Qi chip could not detect as he watched the fight.

He watched as Zaya and Casmir almost toyed with the Forest Boar and while his attention was focused on Casmir, he did not neglect assessing Zaya as well. Zaya was after all one of the best students in this batch, especially when it came to combatting ferocious beasts.

He praised Zaya's speed and manoeuvrability and judged that she could easily become an elite graduate from the academy.

Instructor Redfire came to this conclusion not just because of Zaya's current skills but from the direction of her training.

Zaya had focused her training on dexterity, allowing her to display such speed and manoeuvrability. This was her focus not just because of her racial identity as someone from the Plains Cheetah race, but because of her affinity.

Zaya's affinity was similar to Casmir's, a Low Grade Bestial affinity namely a Grade 3 Golden Cheetah. Although the effects of this affinity were minimal at Qi Grade 1, as she cultivated further it would amplify her strength and training speed in aspects like speed and dexterity, among other things.

Her future potential was much higher than one would guess simply from her strength right now.

As Instructor Redfire watched Zaya and compared her to Casmir, Casmir's actions throughout the fight seemed less praiseworthy.

Casmir's movements were basic and he was clearly following Zaya's lead, he seemed more like a brutish soldier following orders, than a well trained cultivator.

However Instructor Redfire wasn't put off by this, if he wanted to train Casmir into an independent cultivator like Zaya, it would take time. Right now Casmir needed to be a soldier that would follow orders, he simply wasn't experienced enough to plan and adapt himself in a live fight against a ferocious beast.

Something that did intrigue Instructor Redfire about Casmir was his physical strength, Instructor Redfire simply didn't understand how Casmir managed to train his body so quickly.

He had watched how Casmir trained, even when Casmir used the Life Body Cycle, but all he could tell was that Casmir was using some kind of internal Qi technique.

Yet there was no way for Casmir to know any internal Qi techniques, the only way to learn them is to either train in them, but that required Qi energy of Grade 2 at least, or to naturally know them through affinities. Unfortunately Casmir's only affinity, the Purple Haired Great Ape, had no record of ever bestowing cultivators with any natural Qi techniques.

So Instructor Redfire could only assume that Casmir's physical strength came from some unknown method similar to an internal Qi technique. For now he could only wait until he reported back to his sister, he believed that she might be able to explain it.

As Instructor Redfire thought about Casmir's abilities, Casmir and Zaya had just succeeded in knocking the Forest Boar over for the second time, concussing it.

However the moment Casmir collided with the Boar and the unnatural popping sound was created, Instructor Redfire, who was paying close attention to the fight, grew concerned. He didn't know why but the unnatural sound gave him an foreboding feeling.

Instructor Redfire silently investigated the sound with his invisible Qi energy.

His Qi energy penetrated the Boar's body and observed it's inner body, eventually it reached the Boar's jaw and found an oddly shaped broken capsule leaking a strange substance.

Instructor Redfire immediately knew something was wrong, this kind of object would never be allowed in the captive ferocious beasts and the captive beasts would be thoroughly checked for this kind of object.

Instructor Redfire was not the only person to notice this, Instructor Brail specialised in medicine and Qi healing and recognised that unnatural popping sound as a type of medicinal pouch designed to break under certain circ.u.mstances.

Instructor Brail was just about to inform Redfire and stop the test when Redfire contacted him and the other nearby instructors with his Qi energy.

This Qi energy was invisible to the students and they would never even know it had been released.

'The Boar undergoing the test has been poisoned for unknown reasons, all instructors pay attention to anyone trying to leave the area. I will watch over the match, do not alarm the students and pay close attention to anyone from the ferocious beast paddock.' Instructor Redfire voice was clearly angry and the Instructor completely understood this anger.

You want to plot against our students? We won't let you get away with it!

Unbeknownst to the spectating students and even the more trusted senior students, over a dozen instructors of at least Qi Grade 4 began surveying the area silently with their Qi energy. A Couple of instructors started bringing all the senior students who worked with the ferocious beasts together.

A couple instructors even silently left the area to inform the higher ups of the academy.

Instructor Brail joined Instructor Redfire on the arena wall as they let their Qi energy blanket the arena so they could silently watch the poison take effect.

This was a simply technique known as a Qi field, higher level cultivators displayed them around their bodies to extend their senses or display various techniques. At the instructors cultivation they could be extended across large distances, the 100m diameter of the arena was far from enough to test their limits.

'Why are we not taking action immediately Redfire?' Instructor Brail asked as he analysed the poison that was starting to circulate round the Boar's body.

'The students aren't under any threat, I have the arena under my control. I don't want to alert the assailant if I don't need to.' He explained.

Instructor Brail frowned slightly but he understood that there was no threat to the students, it was just his personality that didn't like his students being in even the most remote chance of danger.

'Hmm, Ok.. Oh?.. It's a berserk poison... It induces rage in ferocious beasts but the poison can also be transmitted by blood or saliva. It's effective on Human's but not so much on Plains Cheetah's... It also doesn't cause berserk behaviour in humans but it is still fatal after a few hours.' Instructor Brail said as he finished analysing the poison with his Qi field.

Instructor Brail's ability to deduce the poison's characteristics was a special skill he had trained, most cultivators at his level would not be able to do this because it required a deep medical knowledge and a high Grade Healing affinity.

'Berserk poison? Not effective on Zaya?' Instructor Redfire responded in surprise.

'...I get it. The assailant must have wanted to kill Casmir but they knew we would intervene if he were in danger. Casmir and Zaya wouldn't be able to fight off a berserk Boar and would likely be injured by its tusks or mouth that is full of poison.'

'When we stopped the fight because they are in danger Casmir would already be infected by the poison and would only die a few hours later...' Instructor Redfire concluded.

Instructor Brail nodded before adding. 'In fact Forest Boar's are known to become enraged, if we hadn't noticed the unnatural popping sound we might not have notice anything wrong.'

'Redfire, this was too well planned.. This type of targeted poison must have been created for exactly this purpose, only a Grade 4 Alchemist specialising in poison could create it.'

'Hmm, I'll inform the Guardship. This must be an outside expert.' Instructor Redfire responded, he then focused his attention on the arena.

Their entire reaction and conversation on the poisoning only took ten seconds or so, at this point the Boar had only just gotten up after being fatally wounded by Casmir and Zaya's attacks. The poison had now taken hold and the Boar was blinded by rage as it stared at Casmir.

'Do you have an antidote to the poison?' Instructor Redfire asked Brail.

'Yes.. are you planning to let everything play out?' Instructor Brail said with a frown.

'Yes, if the assailant thinks he's got away with it we'll have a better chance at tracing their movements and catching them. I'll just let the Boar give them a scratch, nothing major.' Instructor Redfire replied.

Instructor Brail couldn't help but sigh out of frustration, Redfire had always been someone who puts his students through fire to forge them into cultivators. In his mind if they got a bit burnt on the way, that was simply part of their path, nothing to protect them from.

The instructors simply stood by and watched as the Boar charged at the escaping Zaya and Casmir.

They watched as Casmir jumped towards the boulder trying to avoid the Boar.

They watched as the Boar leaped into the air planning to skewer Casmir with it's tusks.

Then, Instructor Redfire stepped forward preparing to leap up and catch Casmir. His plan was to let Casmir defend himself with his spear while still being wounded and infected with the poison before he saved him.

Even if Casmir failed to defend himself, Instructor Redfire could manipulate his Qi field to control both Casmir and the Boar's body to minimise any wounds.

Yet before the Boar could reach Casmir, under the observation of Instructor Redfire's Qi field, Casmir's arm suddenly moved in a beautiful arc. It started glowing with a strange Qi energy that tried to repel Instructor Redfire's and the various other instructor's Qi fields, yet it was too weak to do so.

Casmir's arm swung forward and release his spear, the strange Qi energy actually entered the spear propelling it forward further. Normally at Qi Grade 1, a cultivators Qi energy would not remain under a cultivators control once it left their body but strangely this Qi energy maintained it's strength inside the spear until it eviscerated the Forest Boar head.

Instructor Brail, Redfire and many other instructors who were carefully observing the arena and its surrounding were shocked still by Casmir's move.

A perfect spear throw! It completely utilised Casmir's physical strength and Qi energy to their limits creating a resonance that amplified the strength of the attack and changed the Qi energy on a qualitative level.

This was a level of skill very hard for cultivators to achieve, there was even a special term used to describe it, the 'Will Resonance' state.

Instructor Redfire forgot everything as he saw this spear throw, in a flash he appeared mid air where Casmir's limp body was falling and gently held him in his arms.

"Fantastic!" Instructor Redfire shouted out in his excitement as he controlled his Qi to gently lower them onto the ground.

Then suddenly, accompanied by a gently breeze, Instructor Brail appeared next to him.

"Calm yourself down, give him to me." Instructor Brail said as he waved his hand causing Casmir's limp body to float toward him and remain there.

Instructor Brail examined Casmir Body before he raised up one of his hands.

Suddenly this raised hand started shining with green light, the light condensed around his hand into a thick layer of green water that sparkled like an emerald.

Instructor Brail then used this hand to stroke Casmir's bloody arm and other parts of his body. This emerald energy was naturally a Qi Healer technique, as it passed by Casmir's wounds they visibly healed.

Casmir's blood flowed back into his body, his skin reattached itself, even the muscles and bones in his arm started to shift and reform. Instructor Brail was far more than qualified to fix these minor wounds.

As Instructor Brail tended to Casmir, Zaya appeared by his side, sweating and out of breath as she looked at Casmir anxiously.

Instructor Redfire saw her hesitating to speak and smiled warmly.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. Even if he was dead Ol' Brail here could resurrect him Haha.."

Unfortunately Instructor Redfire's 'comforting' words only made Zaya feel more anxious about Casmir's condition.

Instructor Brail looked at Redfire like he was an idiot.

"Honestly Redfire, I don't know how you became a teacher.."

Instructor Brail then glanced at Zaya saying "Don't worry, he just over exerted himself. His arm is broken and some of muscles need reattaching.. Should only take me a minute or so."

Zaya let out a sigh of relief when she heard this.

"What happened to him? How did he throw his spear like that?" She asked as she calmed herself down.

Instructor Redfire happily explained the 'Will Resonance' state that Casmir had just entered briefly.

Zaya had in fact heard of this state before, it was rarer to find people with this skill in cities and more civilised area but in Zaya's tribe there were a few people who could achieve this state. Zaya's tribe and other tribe's she had interacted with only knew to train this state at the edge of life at death.

By no means a simple process.

In her tribe of over 5000 people, only 2 or 3 members had trained this state to the point where they could enter it whenever they needed. Casmir was obviously not at this level, most likely it was a fluke accident that allowed him to enter this state for brief moment but it was still impressive that he could display it at all.

Barely a dozen experts in Zaya's tribe could do what Casmir did, one must know that these experts are all at least Qi Grade 4 cultivators. People that could roam the lands of ferocious beasts as a nomadic tribe were by no means weak, like the civilians in Ellaris.

Zaya couldn't help but look at Casmir strangely as he floated there unconscious, she realised that she had underestimated Casmir again but she was also thankful that Casmir wasn't harmed.

Instructor Redfire arranged for instructor Brail, Casmir and Zaya to stay in a nearby recovery room set up for the students. He then left Instructor Brail to tend to Casmir while he spoke to the spectating students, explaining what had happened.

Naturally he didn't tell any of them about the poison, he simply explained parts of the fight including Casmir's use of the 'Will Resonance' state and reassured the students that Casmir was fine.

During this period he was also secretly speaking to the various instructors nearby and contacting the academies Guardship using his Qi energy.

The Heldan Academy's Guardship was part of the Ellaris Inner Guardship but was specially structured for the academy's uses, they handled everything from student discipline to background checks on teachers and even the transfer of ferocious beasts.

To Instructor Redfire's surprise, as he continues to lecture the students the academy Guardship contacted him informing him that they had captured the assailant.

Instructor Redfire naturally couldn't push this matter to the side, he organised Instructor Do'Shan and Brail to continue the Ferocious beast test while he quickly made his way to the Guardship's barracks.

At the same time Redfire contacted his sister.

Naturally she reacted in a very calm and understanding way... by directly reducing the barrack's front doors to cinders as she barged in and demanded to see the Guard Commander.