Having lived far away from the busy society, Aiden had never addressed huge crowds. And considering this was his first time speaking in front of a crowd of more than 5 people, he was doing a phenomenal job by not having wet his pants already.

After 8 to 10 seconds of silence, Denzel asked Aiden, “So……lemme get this straight. You can face a bunch of thugs with no previous battle experience, you can maintain your cool while being kidnapped, you can cultivate at a stupendo….stupid speed, and you can stand up to a cultivator more powerful than you, for a creature you never even knew in your entire life before; BUT YOU HAVE STAGE FRIGHT?”

“Ahem cough!” Aiden said in his mind.

“Ahem cough my foot!! Speak something before you embarrass yourself in front of the entire class.”

“Um, I’m Aiden, and I’m 12 years old.”

A kid shouted from the back, “Hey, tell us something we don’t know.” this earned several giggles and laughs around the room.

“Um…….I’m an orphan.”

The Class: …………

Professor Samantha: ………

Denzel spoke with a tint of sarcasm in his voice. “.......gotta admit kid, you totally nailed your introduction.”

“Really?”, Aiden said, apparently unable to recognise the Sarcasm.

"Hey",  the blonde kid who, Aiden assumed, was Richard had a bluish-green cap on his head which he lifted slightly to show his eyes. He lazily asked, "Can you fight well?"

Aiden remembered Denzel's words about how he shouldn't stand out too much, "Um no I can't fight really well. My skills are lacking.", he said, showing an embarrassed smile on his face.

"Bummer", he said, pulling his cap back over his eyes, as the rest of the class boo’ed in hushed tones.

"With the introductions aside," Samantha spoke with a smile, "Let's start class. Hmmmm….. Aiden, why don't you grab a seat next to Reginald right there."

She pointed to an empty seat beside a red-haired boy who was wearing rounded glasses.

The boy looked up from the book he had been reading. He just stared at Aiden as the latter walked down the rows of benches and finally took a seat next to him.

His gaze wasn’t hostile, but inquisitive. But it was definitely better than the looks he was receiving from the rest of the class so Aiden didn’t mind.

Samantha had her eyes closed as she faced the class, “Starting off, welcome to mana development class for the 4th dan, or in short, MD-4.I’m Professor Samantha and I’ll be your teacher for the entire time you cultivate the 4th dan. This will be a total breeze for all of you geniuses and you’ll reach consummation in no time …..is what you must be thinking.”, her smile was plastered on her face, but it turned a bit less warm and inviting as she opened her eyes. A subtle sense of power and control was reflected in her pupils as she scanned the class.

“For anyone having those thoughts, I’m happy to disappoint you. And for those thinking it’ll be a hard task, I’m happy to say that it’ll be a nightmare.”, she said as she turned to the clean blackboard behind her. But instead of chalk marks appearing on it, white shining lines followed where her hand touched the board. She wrote, giving ample time to beautifully curve and highlight each letter of ‘INNE..’ on the board.

“She is using mana to write. The flat black surface must be overlayed on top of highly sensitive mana receptors that can light up on contact with mana.”, Denzel spoke to clear Aiden’s confusion on seeing such a device for the first time. “And remind me again why you are taking this class. I can already teach you everything you need to know about cultivation and advancing to the latter stages. You don’t need to waste time here. If there’s anything you should be doing right now, it is visiting the library and searching for good books to read and gathering knowledge on formations, seals, alchemy and others.”

“Hey, I wanna experience how academy classes feel like. It’s my first time; cut me some slack. Further, you told me to not catch too much attention right? Won’t I stand out if I don’t attend all the classes like the others do?”, Aiden argued.

Denzel sighed, “Fine, have it your way kid.”

While Aiden finished conversing with Denzel, Professor Samantha had finally finished writing “INNER SENSE” on the board.

“The previous cultivation realms might have been a breeze for everyone here, but the inner sense realm is different. In the realm of Inner Sense, you have a very specific goal in mind. To gain awareness of everything happening inside of your body and the ability to guide your inner organs to function as you want them to. Why is it important to do so, you ask?”, the professor started walking to and fro with slow steps from one end of the class to the other as she continued.

“Well, firstly, in the long and arduous path of cultivation, there are often times when you suffer from internal injuries due to forcing your breakthrough to a realm in any way. It is important that you be aware of these injuries which are so minor that you can’t sense anything wrong with normal senses.

As the saying goes, a drop of water may not amount to much, but bring together many of them, and they would form an ocean. A better analogy would be the snowballing effect. As your injuries build up on top of previous ones, they’ll slowly become almost untreatable through common means. These can leave permanent scars on your smooth path of cultivation and also prevent you from exerting the full potential of your body. Only with a strong foundation can a person reach for greater heights.”

“Secondly, you must learn to treat your injuries during a fight. A cultivator shouldn’t rely on only external means to treat his wounds during a battle. A battle between cultivators can be decided in an instant or can be dragged out into a long and arduous battle of attrition. In such cases, you must constantly keep healing your body as much as you can to retain your best possible condition.”

“The inner sense realm is where you learn how to do all of these. In the primary stage of inner sense, you will be able to slowly sense the changes in your body as they occur. You’ll feel the flow of blood, the working of your kidneys, the digestion of food inside of you and every other process that happens in your body will be made aware to you. In the intermediate stage of the 4th dan, you will be able to recognise the injuries and problems inside your body and understand why they’ve occurred. Finally, when you achieve consummation, you’ll have developed the abilities needed to heal and treat your injuries and internal problems.”

“And this,”, Samantha slowed down in front of the blackboard and turned to face the class again, “is why this stage is harder than the rest. In the previous stages, you were dealing with mana only. You’d have to just guide your mana and accumulate it and do other minor tasks with it. But in this stage, you’ll have to be extremely concentrated to be able to sense the slightest of fluctuations within your organs and further develop a command over the body that houses your soul.”

“Am I clear?”, Samantha’s smile had disappeared somewhere midway between her lecture and had been replaced by an emotionless face.

“Yes professor”, a few voices came while some of the kids remained silent.

“Good. Now that you all understand what it’s all about, we’ll formally begin the lecture. The key to ……………..”

Somewhere deep within the central tower of the Academy, in the room of the headmaster, two people conversed slowly.

“So you are saying he might be the prodigy of your clan, the sthana clan, who had gone missing a year back?”, asked Headmaster Morgan while still seated on the chair. His eyes were closed as if deep in thought but his temples were perfectly relaxed.

“Yes, Headmaster. Although I have yet to confirm it with a bloodline test, I am absolutely sure that my blood experienced subservience when the kid was near me.”, Balmer was standing as he spoke, with his body still inclined in a bow.

“Even with your cultivation being a few realms higher than him, you experienced bloodline resonance. That means his bloodline must be extremely pure thus hinting towards his identity. But this is nonetheless, a very sensitive matter. How many others know about this apart from you?”, asked the Headmaster after finally opening his eyes. His blue pupils reminded Balmer of the vast ocean that could swallow a person whole.

“No one other than me and my niece, Sophie who works as the receptionist at the teacher’s lounge.”, said Balmer.

“Hmmmmm” Morgan closed his eyes. He rested his elbows on the table with his hand raised and propped his chin up on the back of his palm. “I sincerely hope she knows what matters can and can’t be spoken of, lest she spells her own disaster.”

“Of course headmaster. You can rest assured not another soul will know of this. I swear this on my pride as a member of the Sthana clan.”, Balmer spoke with utmost solemnity.

Just then, Morgan got up from his seat and smiled, shedding his oppressive aura and losing the dominating presence he had before.

“Well, let’s pay the prodigy a visit then, shall we?.”