Ruo Ma, Squad Leader in service of the Blazing Swords, was having a wonderful day. He had made a small breakthrough in his cultivation earlier, thanks to the library that the Grand Marshal had put together. There were so many interesting techniques! Sure, those who were in a sect would have turned up their noses and scoffed, but these ‘petty techniques’ were amazing. Lighting fires without crystals? Reducing boulders to sand? Or even walking on water? Each was extremely useful. He then went to the commissary and received the free food he was entitled to. He honestly didn’t know why more people didn’t take advantage of it. They called it boring—which was their loss. It had everything a man needed: rice, some new tuber called a ‘potato’, some vegetables, and dried meat or fish. It was better than anything he had eaten before he became a cultivator. Ruo Ma ate the rations for most meals and was putting on a lot of muscle. Which may not have been necessary for one outside the Initiate’s Realm, but the mechanics of his body still played a role at his current level. Master Rou’s visit had lit a fire in his heart. He hadn’t been there for the first time, at the Dueling Peaks Tournament, but he had heard the stories about the man, even if he hadn’t really believed them. But now that he saw him? That he saw the heights one could reach? Well, who wouldn’t want to see if they could eventually climb that high? He was just doing his cooldown exercises when something disrupted his concentration. “Assemble, assemble! (...)