A breeze brushed her face. Threads of cold seeped through her clothes and into her body. Serena Ivory shivered, then gradually woke up.
"What happened?"
Serena Ivory stared blankly at the yellowing sky above. The breeze stirred the grass, brushing it lightly across her cheek. When she turned her head a little, she saw Cassian Glaive and Vulcan Brand still unconscious beside her. As her mind cleared, the memories from before she passed out slowly surged back.
"Right. After my brother, Vulcan Brand, and I used our Martial Soul fusion skill, even our strongest attack failed to break that guy's defense. Then that guy, who does not understand how to cherish beauty at all, smashed us around. In the end, our Spirit Power ran out, our injuries were too heavy, the fusion broke, and we passed out!"
At that thought, Serena Ivory suddenly sat up.
"Ngh!"
The moment she moved, pain from across her entire body made her groan.
After taking a moment to recover, she discovered that Wu Ling was still sitting on that stone bench. In his hands was a book she had never seen before.
"You are awake. Wake those two up as well," Wu Ling said, turning a page without lifting his head.
This was the first time Serena Ivory had ever been ordered around by someone her own age. But the situation was stronger than the person. Wu Ling's strength had already explained everything, so Serena Ivory had no choice but to obey.
Before that, however, she first had to recover some Spirit Power.
Serena Ivory forced herself to sit cross-legged on the grass despite the pain across her whole body and began circulating her cultivation method to restore Spirit Power. As Spirit Power flowed through her, she suddenly noticed something.
"Wait. My Spirit Power... I reached level forty!"
Wu Ling glanced up at the delighted Serena Ivory and muttered inwardly, "What a fuss."
He had sensed it while they were unconscious. Serena Ivory had reached level forty, while Vulcan Brand and Cassian Glaive were already in the late stage of level thirty-nine. With another month or two of cultivation, they should also reach level forty.
In the original story, Serena Ivory's record was reaching level forty and becoming a Spirit Meister at fifteen, then reaching level fifty and becoming a Spirit Leader at twenty.
Now that she had become the Pope's disciple, she had been granted an earth-grade cultivation method. Cassian Glaive and Vulcan Brand had also received mystic-grade cultivation methods as an exception because of their excellence. As a result, their Spirit Power levels were all somewhat higher than in the original story.
After a thrilling beating, fourteen-year-old Serena Ivory had naturally broken through to level forty.
About ten minutes later, Serena Ivory, who had recovered part of her Spirit Power, did not continue. Instead, she used that portion of Spirit Power to ease her pain, then stood and transmitted a stream of Spirit Power into Vulcan Brand and Cassian Glaive.
A few minutes later, both of them slowly woke up.
Cassian Glaive, like Serena Ivory, could still force himself to move despite the pain. Vulcan Brand, however, had first endured Wu Ling's one-sided hammering alone, then exhausted all his Spirit Power after the Martial Soul fusion, and finally suffered heavy physical injuries. The fact that he was still alive already counted as Wu Ling's great mercy.
Cassian Glaive and Serena Ivory worked hard to restore their Spirit Power. Vulcan Brand could only move his eyes. The rest of his body could not move at all.
Roughly half an hour passed. The sky had mostly darkened. Because several bright light spheres around the courtyard provided illumination, they were not blind in the dark. Wu Ling was even still reading that book.
By now, Serena Ivory had almost recovered, and Cassian Glaive could move freely. They stood and stretched, then looked together at Vulcan Brand, who still lay on the ground.
In the end, Vulcan Brand had caused this incident. Because of that, the two of them did not directly help him. Instead, they turned to look again at the man sitting on the stone bench.
As if he sensed their gazes, Wu Ling closed the book with a snap. A faint smile rested on his face.
After beating the three of them, Wu Ling's mood had become much better. While they were unconscious, he had Rose help reorganize his mind. Right now, Wu Ling felt his consciousness was as clear as a polished mirror. He felt so good he was practically soaring. Of course, he was not going to jab his fingers into his temples.
Since his mood was excellent, Wu Ling no longer cared about Vulcan Brand's earlier provocation. After all, he even needed to thank these three punching bags for delivering themselves to his door.
Wu Ling lightly snapped his fingers. Magecraft arrays appeared beneath the feet of Serena Ivory and the other two.
The three grew alert and were about to leave the arrays, but then they saw Wu Ling's indifferent expression. After a brief inner struggle, they exchanged glances and decided not to dodge.
In the next second, vast Spirit Power passed through the Magecraft arrays and entered their bodies. Their pain and fatigue vanished like a receding tide, and the cultivation methods they had learned began circulating on their own.
Bodies that would originally have needed several hours to recover were restored in only a few minutes under their shocked gazes. Even Vulcan Brand, who had been lying on the ground with injuries that severe, needed only about ten minutes.
"Thank you, Senior Brother!"
"Thank you, Brother Wu!"
The three cupped their fists toward Wu Ling at the same time. That absurdly powerful physique and those mysterious arrays made Wu Ling seem even more unfathomable in their eyes.
Wu Ling accepted the salute without the slightest discomfort.
After that, the three stood there awkwardly. They wanted to speak but could not. They wanted to leave but did not dare. Wu Ling ignored their behavior. After placing the book on the stone table, he said, "Enough. Stop hesitating. Since the three of you were able to stand out from thousands of students, that proves you are so-called geniuses. But look at yourselves. Weak bodies, unrefined Spirit Skills, poor martial technique, and even your awareness is lacking."
To be honest, all three of them were geniuses admired by countless people. When had they ever suffered this kind of humiliation? If Wu Ling had not beaten them without even using a Spirit Skill, they would not have swallowed their anger.
"But in that fight, you only relied on your powerful body. Spirit Skills, martial technique, and awareness are things we did not see at all," Vulcan Brand finally said, voicing what all three of them were thinking.
Wu Ling was not angry. He only slowly stretched one hand toward the three of them.
As that hand came closer, all three froze. In their eyes, that hand seemed to expand without limit. The strength they had once been proud of looked weak, pathetic, and powerless before it.
Their bodies seemed to understand the gap and surrender on their own. Their minds were clearly awake, but no matter how hard they tried, they still could not avoid that palm.
Finally, after the three of them fell into a daze, the hand returned to its ordinary appearance.
"Poor, poor, poor. Even your will is this loose. Truly disappointing. Would you not make people laugh if you were sent out like this?
"Serena Ivory, do not hunt your fourth Spirit Ring yet. Wait for these two.
"Starting tomorrow, the three of you will come here two days every week and let my... clones train you properly. Otherwise, when you show your faces in the future, you will embarrass us."
This was still humiliating, but this time, the three no longer dared feel anything extra.
They immediately cupped their fists toward Wu Ling again and said together, "Understood!"