Mortal aspiring immortality.

Jiang and his roommates get woken up early by a military siren signaling the wake-up time. Them not being used to it got taken by surprise, slowly making their beds and making their way to outside the room, they can see that almost everyone is already there, they are not the lasts but almost.

As a sergeant steps in, everyone can hear the last one to arrive, clearly being late. the sergeant does not look pleased.

''RECRUIT. what is your name?'' 

''Han Gou sir. so sorry sir it wo-''

''STOP. since it is your first time, I will not punish you, let it not happen again.''

''Yes sir, thank you sir.''

''We will head to the Manual Pavillion. You will have the chance to choose one, you can always use another one later down the road if you do not like it, just know that some special Manuals will require that you start from scratch.''

As they head outside, they can already see the soldiers readying themselves up for training.

''The planning goes as follows, mandatory training in the morning and in the afternoon, you have classes in between, of course you will eat midday and evening. the evening is free, you can discuss with everyone or focus on your cultivation. Just know that if you fall behind, no one will be able to save you on the battlefield. Slacking off means being weaker and less strength to defend yourselves.''

Inside the pavilion they can see 3-4 clerks serving customers.

''You have an hour recruits, make your choice fast!''

Jiang heads forward to look at what was up for offer on the counters, there was a brief introduction of each one. There were all kinds of choices, there was those focused-on defense, offense, auxiliary ones such as aiding in health regeneration. there were some that had multiple of them. but less impacting.

''Hello you, have you made your choice?'' said a female clerk.

Looking up, Jiang sees a young maiden around his age that looked pretty, he had never seen one that beautiful before. Not like he had a lot of choices to compare in his village and in the time he was younger.

''Yes, I want a scripture that allows for everything to be equal, defense, offense, healing.''

''Ah yes! Most people use offensive or defensive ones, it's rare to see someone like you! We have three choices, each have their own advantages and disadvantages. You have one that focuses a bit more on offense, another one on defense, and the last one focuses on healing faster.''

''Give me the first one, this sounds more like what I'd like.''

''There you go!''

Once Jiang looks at the scripture, he sees the name, ''Phoenix's Myriad Offensive Arts''. The introduction is as follows.

*The person cultivating this manual will learn to harness and use qi in the way of a phoenix. The phoenix is strong in offensive abilities, it has a strong healing capability, his defense is also extremely high compared to other manuals. This is an extremely hard cultivation method to master. try at your own risk.*

''Wow this sounds extremely strong!'' Jiang thinks.

After reading the first couple of paragraphs, his friend joins him.

''Hey Jiang! What did you choose? I took the 'Ultimate dragon defense' I will be invincible with this technique! Hahaha''

''I took this one'' He shows him the manual and then they talk for about 45 minutes until suddenly they hear people fighting.

''Give it back! This is mine!'' They see Han Gou and three people surrounding him, holding what looks like his cultivation manual. Jiang heads closer with Cho Meng.

''Why would we give it back? You can't even do something so simple as to be up in time. You almost cost us an hour of training.'' The taller of the trio says.

''Yeah, you deserve this. Consider yourself lucky we don't beat you up!'' The fat one responds.

Seeing no one stepping forward Jiang and Cho go forward to stop them.

''You should better stop now, give him back his manual. We aren't in school here. How about a three versus three instead of a one versus one? You still want to?'' 

''Pfft, you act all good now but let's see how it is out here. here's your manual.'' Throwing it in a trash before leaving.

''Haha good one!'' The other one responds.

Watching them leave Jiang heads to the trash can and takes out the manual to hand to it Han.

''Are you Han Gou? If you don't want them to mess with you again just come with us, it would be a pleasure.'' Cho meng nodding his head along.

''Yeah, I am, thank you guys for helping me. they are my roommates, I was unlucky enough to be the only man old enough in my village hence why I have no one here to help me. I don't know when they would've stopped otherwise!'' Han says visibly shaken at the thought it could've went further.

''Hey, don't worry, I had no reason to let him do that to you. Let's hope it won't be hard to deal with them''

Before they can continue the conversation the sergeant comes back in.

''I hope everyone has their manuals! Since it is your first day, there won't be training in the morning, you have some time to try your techniques and familiarize yourselves with it. in an hour head to the teaching building. Classes will officially start for you guys.''

Jiang, Han and Cho all head back to their dorms to try out their cultivation methods.

In Jiang's scripture it is said that he has to sit cross-legged while breathing in a certain pattern, after about 30 minutes he manages to catch how it works. He starts feeling around a little outside, he feels what they describe in the book as QI, he tries to absorb some, it is surprisingly smooth.''

''In the book it is said that a normal person can take up to a day or two to absorb it inside. It took Jiang around 10 minutes. He is solely focusing on gathering some of it as much as he can but before he knows it, time is up and the alarm resounds for classes.

''Hey Jiang, have you managed to gather some? It was kind of hard, but I think I got the hang of it!'' Cho Meng says enthusiastically.

''I did, it felt weird to absorb Qi, it felt like hot water was going inside me. It was kind of unpleasant!'' 

Jiang knew this was normal, he also knew he was on the right path towards his goal. He will avenge his sister, He loved her a lot.

When the war started, it happened in an instant, he couldn't even do anything before his parents threw him in the river, before falling he could catch a glimpse of his parents trying to throw his sister too. He didn't know the outcome but he knew she couldn't have survived. 

Bringing him out of his stupor his friend tells him that they have to go to their frist class before they are too late. It is named "World's affairs". It is mainly focused on the wars and the sects around the world.

Through this class they found out that there were thousand of rank 1 sects, hundreds of rank 2 sects and just six rank 3 sects. Those sects were renowned for their strength. 

There were countless clans of various ranks. the most famous ones were the; Jiang, Kun, Han, Lao, Guo and Zhang clans. Everyone knew one of them fell, the Jiang clan is no more.

Then the teacher talks about the war that's happening right now. 

''So, after everything we talked about, it is now time to talk about the war we're fighting right now.''

''You might think we are fighting another clan but no. We are currently fighting an evil sect. We can't destroy them completely, whatever happens they always come back.''

''The best we can do is destroy them as much as possible. We are currently fighting a necromancer sect. They rely solely on raising bodies of dead animals/Humans. The stronger they are the more they can control and the stronger they can become.''

''Your goal in this war is stopping the small fries, the ones that escaped the net. If you don't stop them they will make it to the villages and cities. We will lose a lot of civilians.''

''It is imperative that you stop them and don't allow any of them to pass. Do not worry, we will take care of the stronger ones.''

''Every time you fight you will accumulate military merits. You may use them for cultivation resources or time in an array formation. We will talk more about that in the next class.''

After this class they went on to the next class ''Cultivation & Breathing theory.''

This class went on to talk about breathing exercises, that if you did a breathing exercise wrong and accumulating Qi like that, could allow for backlash. The positions were flexible, more like a guide, you had to place yourself how comfortable you were.

To accelerate Qi gain you either had to pay to go to an array formation that could let you have more Qi in your area or use sprit stones. Both were a viable option but array formations were faster.

After this class, Jiang and his people went in the cafeteria. It was time to eat.it looked like a pudge with bits of meat in it. It didn't really look appetizing.

''Woah it looks almost like what I ate back home!'' Cho says enthusiastically devouring his meal.

''Yeah...home. Hope they're okay over there.''

''You know them, nothing can stop uncle from working hard!''

After eating three-four mouthfuls of the pudge, he feels energy flowing in his belly, realizing it was probably the meat, he speedily and the rest of his meal and focused on moving the Qi in his dantian.

Unfortunately for him, there was a lot of waste during this process. After finishing to extract this essence, he looks at the progress he made and realizes this was almost the same as him cultivating in the morning.

This downed on him that there were a lot more than just spirit stones to accelerate Qi gains that they didn't talk about!

''Have you felt Cho? This felt weird, I didn't expect food to be a way to gain Qi! This brings a new level to eating and liking food! Did you like it?''

''I did! Now that I know cooking is a choice I have to become a cook in a new life!'' He says looking happily at the food.

''Come on let's go we gotta head to our new class before we're too late.'' Says Sun Hei.

Heading to the next class, it is named "Martial Arts Theory." 

This class went on to talk about every kinds of ways to fight, how to find a weakness and how to protect your weaknesses. it then went on how each martial arts had a "soul". An essence of some sort.

It then went on to describe most weapons for the recruits to think about choosing.

There were a lot of choices, Jiang wasn't really sure what kind he wanted.

The last class wasn't really a class but more a practice class. This class was named "Martial Arts Practice".

Shocking, Jiang thought.

After the theory it was now time to take a weapon and try to feel it and see how you would feel using it. each class was focused on a new weapon until you found one you liked.

the first one was focused on fists. Practicing martial arts move and hitting bags the way the professor asked to do. Correcting the recruits that made mistakes.

Once the classes were gone it was time for training. Everyone would take a weapon to use and they would then fight another classmate of theirs.

''Okay everyone, since this is your first spar, let me tell you how it works. Everyone will get one partner for the fight. The fight will not stop until someone gives up. You may be beaten up if you don't give up fast enough.''

''Do not give up for we will stop the fight before it's too late. Just know, the pain from fixing you up will be extremely painful.''