" And where would that be now?".Derrick knew that there was no way the Martial Arts Training Headquarters was in Burrin. He liked new places but anywhere away from would be too different for him to endure. For one he had never left Burrin once in his life. Though the country was not perfect, he was content living here." The Headquarters is in Starlight City". Harrison answered.Starlight City was the city with the most population in the most powerful country in the world, Azhar which also served as a continent of its own. This was the first among the five major world powers. It stood as the pioneer of mankind's development from the ancient times. " From your expression, I guess you're not too keen on going anywhere but I just have to tell you. That's always how it's been. Our Martial arts training center is just a side branch of the main thing in Starlight City. Our main job is to produce first-stage martial apprentices. We have no further knowledge on how to train you past this

Derrick got up from the chair and took out a yoga mat from his room. He laid it floor in front of the television and sat crosslegged. He was a little nervous as he had drunk the synthetic fluid yesterday which aided him to enter a trance. Its effects had already faded from his body by now and he was going to be entering a trance unaided this time. He closed his eyes, emptied his mind, and searched for that state. Not surprisingly, the grey outlines of his surroundings soon showed in the vision of his mind's eye. The only difference this time was that he did not feel the overwhelming effects of the synthetic fluid that he felt last time. He was still able to enter it just as easily as the last time though. He looked around and smiled wryly. There was a stark difference in the spiritual energy amount here compared to the one at the martial arts training center. The amount of spiritual energy here was in sparse amounts. So small that there might have just been nothing here at all.

The President was still talking when Derrick turned to him and said." I'm really sorry, I just remembered an urgent thing I need to do. I need to get going"." But wait! This......". The President started, but Derrick had already run off past the front door and entered his car. It revved immediately and zoomed off from the Martial Arts Center." Why would he? Ugh....this boy". The President uttered in confusion. He did not understand why Derrick would run off like that without waiting for his explanation." Anyway". He shrugged and went back into the center.Derrick's mind raced as his car sped on the surprisingly free road. When he got home he flung his backpack into a corner and immediately brought out his yoga mat. He sat crosslegged and started meditating.His heart pounded in excitement and his body shook uncontrollably causing his focus to shake which almost brought about his eviction from the grey world." I need to calm down". He thought as he regulated his breathing, and for

Starlight City, Martial Arts Academy.Edgar looked at the pile of files on his table and sighed.The number of geniuses was dwindling every year. He just finished registering almost a thousand new apprentices and there were only five individuals that caught his attention.The age-long war against the mutated animals was still in full motion without any signs of stopping. The mutated animals had been growing stronger with each year, and experts arose every day from there. But the humans have been declining in quality. Hardly any genius to be seen year in year out.Knock!The sound of a knock jolted him from his ruminations." Come in".The door opened and a tall woman entered. She wore a white body-hugging suit which made her figure prominent. Her black hair was packed in a bun, and her face had only a slight touch of makeup. She had an air of seriousness and her face was stiff. She carried a white file which she dropped on Edgar's table. " We just received this from the application

Derrick sat crosslegged in the crack and watched as his internal energy rapidly filed up. With the amount of spiritual energy outside and the speed with which he was absorbing them, he had almost reached the peak of the martial apprentice third stage. Before long his internal energy reached the limit and he could not absorb any more spiritual energy. He then paused to observe the state of the spiritual energy outside. Though he had absorbed a lot of spiritual energy it hardly affected the amount outside, because he noticed that as soon as he absorbed the spiritual energy the spiritual stone mine would disperse some more to fill that up. " That's just great! I can continue to break through without any worries".He directed his senses to his internal energy,"Condense".As in his other breakthroughs, the internal energy in his body all gathered up into a small drop of liquid energy. This time the color changed from normal green to dark green.Immediately, that feeling of bloated stre