Child of Destiny

The next day, Shin and the others went back to school right after their morning routine. And as usual, they still attracted quite a lot of attention when they arrived. And this time, with an additional reason aside from them being special program students and being a group of celebrities within the campus.

It was because of the news that Alice Stuart, a famous idol, did not join a fully established music club or famous band within the school and instead formed a new club with this particular group.

The students would naturally be interested in this topic since a lot of them were a fan of hers. They were all curious how good these ‘elite’ students from the special program in music were for someone like her to form a music club with them.

They were students that were supporting her decision. They were true fans that would always be on her side whatever happened. As long as she continued to sing and perform like she usually did, everything would be fine.

In their view, it did not matter where she went or which club she chose. As long as she was present and could perform, then they would not complain.

Of course, they were still some haters and insecure people who found her unpleasant in the eyes. They were questioning her choice and even started spreading rumors.

They were saying that she was too arrogant and full of herself to join a ‘mere’ club with other people. This was no different from them saying that she was looking down on those established music clubs and bands.

Some were also saying that she was too embarrassed to join. Or might even be scared to join those music clubs. They were saying that she was afraid to find that her so-called talent was not enough for those established clubs – saying that she would be exposed – exposed that she was actually not as talented as what the other people think of her.

Because of this, she formed a music club with people that had no musical background to make herself shine among the others. Using people as a ‘background’ to push herself into the spotlight.

What a perfect scheme! – was what those insecure people were thinking.

They were calling her fake – a hypocrite.

…

Naturally, the group was able to receive that information given their respective backgrounds. It was because of this that they remained silent during the entire journey when they came here. They were purposely avoiding the topic so that they would not make it too awkward for her.

Though, it actually produced the opposite effect. ℴ

Moreover, they were not too close to her, so they did not know how they were going to console her or anything.

Alice casually chuckled when she saw everyone trying their best to avoid the topic. She appreciated their effort and concern.

She looked at them and spoke. “Don’t mind it. The best way to deal with these kinds of things is to ignore them. It will naturally die down after a certain period or when the people get tired of it.”

Hearing her words and seeing that she was acting like she usually did, the others sighed in relief before finally expressing their thoughts.

“Those people don’t know anything. We will make them shut up after our first performance,” said Lorraine as she moved a little close to Alice.

“This is the reason why I don’t want to be a celebrity. Once you become a public figure, people will continuously gossip about you, whether you like it or not,” commented Cloe, clearly voicing out her thoughts.

“I am now becoming more excited about this! I want to make those people look at us dumbfounded once we performed,” said Arthur.

He then turned to Shin, who was sitting right beside him, before saying. “Now that I think about it. Shin, do you think of me learning a new instrument? I think playing the guitar sounds good now.”

The corner of Shin’s mouth suddenly twitched when he heard that. He knew Arthur very well and understood what this guy was planning to do. “Forget about it. With how lazy you are, I doubt you will be able to learn how to play the guitar, much less play it as well as how you play the drums.”

“Just focus on what you can do and stop thinking about useless things,” he added with a sharp glare.

“But I can’t-…” Arthur was about to say something when Shin suddenly cut him off.

“This is why I said before that you learn playing the guitar before! But you insisted on drums instead! You only watched a person play a solo drum performance in the street and saw that a lot of people are impressed by that performance!”

“Then you started pestering me about how you like to play the drums, about how you want to be like that person, and about how awesome it is to be at performing like that scene.”

“I will never forget the torture of teaching you how to play the drums, so do expect me to undergo another unpleasant experience once again,” the tone of Shin’s voice was cold. It was ice-stone cold that it forced Arthur to shut his mouth.

A few moments later, the lecture hall was started to be filled by their classmates. And it did not take long for all of them to be seated in their respective seats.

And as if Professor Kyrie, their class adviser, was waiting for it, she arrived right on cue, when the last student took their seat.

She did not wait for anyone to point out that it was too early for the class to start. She quickly headed to the platform at the front and immediately started talking. “I like it when my students are so diligent that they are not only not late but also arrive at the class before the schedule.”

She swept her gaze at everyone before saying. “Since everyone is excited, then let’s quickly start the class.”

She paused for a moment as if she remembered something before quickly saying. “Oh! Forget about asking me to get dismissed early just because we are starting early. You can take it as extra time for our lessons in exchange for the leisure time that you have yesterday.”

She then ignored the weird looks that everyone was giving her before opening her tablet and looking at it. “Based on our schedule, the subject that we have for today is ‘Theory of Innate Attributes’.”

“I know most of you already have an idea about this, especially with your respective backgrounds. But we will still be discussing this topic until all of you find your respective attributes and successfully formed your own ‘Natural Force’ or ‘Spiritual Force’.”

“Naturally, this has to be discussed alongside the introductory method and conditioning for reaching the ‘Ethereal Opening Stage of the Ascension Realm’ and the ‘Peak of Grandmaster Realm’. But since that topic is supposedly for yesterday, we will be breezing through a couple of its topics while discussing our current lesson.”

“We have the entire day, so we have plenty of time for discussion. We will continue with these topics until the afternoon during your physical activities.”

She paused and adjusted her mood before continuing. “To reach the two stages that I’ve mentioned, you have to achieve three things.”

“Finding your innate attribute and forming your unique force, discovering your personal style of battle and turning into your ‘Natural Style’, and last but not the least, forming a perfect vessel that will host those two,” she said while opening her fingers one by one.

“There is no proper order between forming your unique force and discovering your personal style, but those two have to come first before you form a perfect vessel for them.”

“You have to realize your true potential first before you can attempt to ‘create’ a body suited for your respective discipline,” she paused for another time before continuing. “As I said earlier, finding your innate attribute and forming your unique force will be for this class, the ‘Theory of Innate Attributes’.”

“In the meantime, the discovery of your ‘real’ personal style is saved for tomorrow’s class – in ‘Theory of Individuality and Duality’. We can leave it for now and continue with our schedule.”

She then paused for another time and put the tablet that she was using on the table, facing the ceiling, before tapping it. Then it projected a 3D image before continuing. “There are three major paths that had been discovered since the start of the end of the era of ‘cultivation’.”

“These paths are the Martial Arts, the Mentalism, and the Swordsmanship.”

“There are other paths that continued the old practices of the old era such as the ones from religious beliefs and other practices. Examples of these were Buddhism, Taoism, and such.”

“But in our current era, they are now known as the Old Paths while the newly discovered paths that deviate from them.”

“Then these three Major Paths created multiple other paths which are the other disciplines that we have right now.”

“For example, the Demonic Arts are originally from cultivation practices, but since such old methods are too outdated and no longer fit our current society, the Demonic Practitioners adapted and formed a new path that is based on the Three Major Paths.”

“The other weapon practices are also born from the ancient swordsmanship which is branched from the path of Swordsmanship. These branched paths are the Path of the Blade, Spearmanship, Archery, the Path of Blunt Weapons, and others.”

“These major paths had their respective energies – the Internal Qi for Martial Artists, the Mental Energy for Mentalists, and Sword Qi for Sword Partitioners.”

She paused once again when she reached this point and increased the volume of her voice to wake up the students that were about to fall asleep, like Arthur. “I know that this topic is boring but we have to dive deeper into these topics if we want to learn how to awaken our respective innate attributes.”

“If you don’t know the seed and do not recognize its origins, then you will never be able to learn what kind of tree you are planting and the way how to grow it, much less harvest its fruit.”

“I know that you are all talented to be chosen by the academy for this special program. You also learned these boring things since young from your respective factions and organizations, but if you want to continue exploring your respective paths and disciplines, then you have to understand their roots very well.”

After confirming that all of the drowsy students were fully awake once again and were now paying attention, she slightly nodded her head in satisfaction before continuing with the class.

……