Rhys POV

Rhys stepped into the courtyard and looked around. He hadn’t been in this courtyard before, but he recognized several other outer disciples in the area. It was a bit interesting because all of the disciples he recognized were among the strongest or most talented disciples in the outer court.

He even spotted Mavis, and unsurprisingly, she was standing beside Thera. He also noticed Jei strolling into the courtyard. He was hard to miss after all. The massive teen was barely able to fit through the archway. His robes were on the verge of ripping with each step he took.

Off to the side of the room, he spotted Elder Sarei and let out an involuntary smile. Almost everyone in the Burning Sun Sect knew of Elder Sarei. The woman was practically everyone’s favorite elder. She frequently taught various techniques and skills. Furthermore, she was very good at teaching. She always treated everyone fairly, regardless of whether they were outer or inner disciples.

In a sect with too many old elders, it was nice to have someone with a warm, bubbly personality. It also helped that she was very pretty. He knew that several of his friends had a crush on her. He wouldn’t lie and say that he didn’t have a small one, either. The woman was pretty amazing.

Was she going to be their teacher? Part of him doubted it.

When Rhys had been told he’d been selected to participate in a new lesson, he had been very curious who would be teaching. From the way it sounded, it would be from a new elder, not someone like Elder Sarei. In that case, he was hoping that it was someone like Elder Malric or perhaps even one of the grand elders.

But he didn’t spot any elders who might fit this description.

“Rhys! You got invited too?” Mavis asked him excitedly as she bounced over. Thera dragged her feet as she followed her friend, her eyes looked as bored as ever.

“Yeah, though, I noticed that they only invited other top outer disciples.”

“I know, interesting, right? You have to wonder what they are offering to teach us,” she noted with a grin.

He nodded softly and looked around as more people entered the courtyard. “Have you heard any rumors about who is teaching us?”

“Nope. Nobody I asked knew either. Who do you think it will be? A grand elder?” she said with a conspiratory whisper and twinkling eyes.

Thera scoffed. “Yeah, I doubt a grand elder would come and teach a group of outer disciples.”

Rhys found himself agreeing with her. It would be amazing if one of them did, but he doubted they would take the time to do so. They rarely taught lessons to core disciples, let alone a group of young students from the outer court.

“Who knows? Vice Sect Leader Cassandra occasionally gives lessons,” Mavis added optimistically.

“Yeah, like once or twice a year, and that’s to the entire outer court. Not a small group like this.”

“You never know! Maybe some of us got the attention of some of the higher-ups. Look at Rhys, he will likely advance to an inner disciple in a few months, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he became a core disciple soon after that.”

Rhys tried not to preen under her praise. Mavis was a genuine person, and so he knew she meant what she said, which only made her words mean that much more.

Rhys was born into a poor commoner family and was sold into servitude because there were already too many mouths to feed. But to his great fortune, the Burning Sun Sect decided to hold entrance exams in his small town a few years ago. He had passed by the skin of his teeth. Barely meeting the minimum requirements to join as an outer disciple.

But in the past few years, he had slowly grown and proved himself. His affinity to fire had been simply at medium. But a year ago, he had the great opportunity to increase it to high from a rift reward. That improvement skyrocketed his growth.

With an affinity that didn’t hold him back, he had quickly worked his way up the ranks of the outer court. His skills, which had stagnated, surged to new levels. He had half a dozen skills at epic rank already, with the rest sitting at the peak of rare rank. Very few people could say they achieved similar things at Tier 3. A very impressive feat, considering his starting point.

“Stop stroking his ego, Mavis. It’s already bad enough. Soon, he won’t have any space to fit it inside his big head,” Thera stated, quickly snuffing out his pride in typical Thera fashion.

“Why must you be so harsh to me? You can’t let me enjoy the moment?” He grumbled.

“You can enjoy it after you beat me in a spar,” she dully shot back.

He grimaced. Despite his ‘talent’ and hard work, he still lagged behind Thera. If Mavis thought that he could become a core disciple, then Thera was certainly going to become one. It was a shock that she hadn’t already.

The stoic girl was a demon in combat. He hadn’t fought anyone who was remotely skilled as she was. She was weaker than him, but her skill with blades was unmatched. Her ability to use fire mana and fire-related skills trailed behind his own, but her skills regarding blades must have reached the upper parts of epic rank.

He had a feeling that she would have benefited more from becoming a disciple of the Azure Sky Sword Sect. He mentioned as much to her, but surprisingly, she had become very irritated when he mentioned them. She must have some bad blood with the Azure Sky Sword Sect.

Their conversation was interrupted when Elder Sarei clapped her hands. “Alright, fall in!”

Not a single one of them hesitated and immediately congregated in front of her.

She smiled warmly upon seeing this. “Perfect! Now I’m sure that all of you have a lot of questions about why you were offered this particular class. Hence, I would like to clear up some things. For one, I am not going to be the one teaching this class. I will be assisting, but the person who will be teaching is him,” she said with a point of her finger. All of the gathered disciples simultaneously turned to look at the black-robed boy tinkering with some kind of enchantment to the side of the room.

Rhys frowned, and he wasn’t the only one. He didn’t openly state his skepticism, but the boy seemed to be their age. He also didn’t feel much from him, the boy’s aura felt… dim.

While he didn’t openly state his concern, it didn't mean the other disciples had as much restraint.

Several disciples muttered their displeasure at what they thought to be a wonderful opportunity to learn from a powerful elder, only to end up being a kid their age. Their voices were low, but it was loud enough for anyone Tier 3 and above to hear.

“Enough,” Elder Sarei snapped, her usually warm tone turned cold.

This was enough to stop the complaints in their tracks. They knew better than to test the young woman. She may be nice, but she could be very strict when necessary.

“His name is Julius, and he is an honored guest of the sect. You will treat him with every ounce of respect you show my fellow elders and me. If I hear anything contradicting otherwise, there will be repercussions. Am I understood?”

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A chorus of soft agreements echoed through the courtyard.

“Am I understood?” Her voice raised, and they all felt her aura pressuring them,

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Good. Now he will explain to you all what you will be doing for this lesson,” she finished and walked off to the side, giving Julius a shallow nod.

Rhys stood there with a complicated expression when the young boy took her place. He was even younger than Rhys originally thought, now that he got a closer look.

The boy was strangely relaxed considering the circumstances and let out an amused laugh.

“Don’t worry, I understand where your doubts come from, and for those of you who don’t want to waste your time, you are more than free to leave. This isn’t a mandatory lesson, it is simply something I offered to help with when I arrived at the sect. But for those who choose to stay, be warned that I don’t have any official teaching experience. This will be the first time I am teaching a large group of people,” he looked around to check the reactions before continuing.

“Now, this lesson is primarily going to focus on willpower training. I will help you all improve the overall strength and resilience of your willpower. But also discuss ways you can actively control it to aid your techniques and other skills.”

When the crowd heard this, they all started to mutter amongst themselves again. Even Rhys and the girls next to him shifted uneasily.

Willpower training? First off, willpower training wasn’t an easy thing to do. It required a substantial amount of stress and pressure to achieve it. That was why there were dedicated willpower tempering chambers they could use with their earned sect points.

Secondly, the boy, or rather Julius, didn’t seem to be an exemplary example of fortitude and willpower. The feeling he got from the boy’s aura was soft and delicate. He was sure that the others also sensed this.

“Quiet down!” Elder Sarei shouted from the side.

They all listened to her and stopped their mutterings. But to everyone’s bewilderment, Julius held up his hand. “No, it's quite all right. I would rather your concerns be voiced now, rather than bottled up over time.”

“Mr. Julius, I would recommend that—” Elder Sarei tried to say something, but he interrupted her gently.

“It’s okay, Sarei. I can handle it.”

That was Rhy’s first warning that Julius might not have been the person he appeared to be. The fact that Sarei was being respectful was one thing, but not caring about being interrupted was a totally different matter.

Thera apparently sensed something was wrong, too, because she was gazing at Julius with an intensity he rarely saw in the girl. It was a look that only appeared during fights and when something interested her.

Rhys followed her lead and kept an open mind.

Others didn’t have those qualms. And took the invitation eagerly.

“Why should we learn from someone with as weak an aura as you?”

“Yeah, you claim that you are going to help improve our willpower, but what kind of proof do you have that you actually know what you are doing?” Another voice called out.

“Absolutely none,” Julius said shamelessly and with a broad smile.

This caused even more voices of dissent to ripple through the crowd. They hadn’t expected such an honest answer.

“Look, nobody is keeping you here. If you don’t feel like this is worth your time, then you can leave whenever you want. The door is there,” he said and pointed at the exit.

Then a sharp look appeared on his face. “I have no issues with you raising your concerns presently, but the moment I start the lesson, I expect your full cooperation or your immediate departure, understood?” There was an unexpected feeling of authority coming from him.

There were a few uneasy nods from the crowd.

Their teacher grinned brightly, the sharp look vanishing as if it had never been there. “Good, now those who wish to leave, please do so now. To those who wish to stay, we will begin soon.”

Rhys watched as several disciples immediately got up and left the courtyard without another word. He internally criticized their decision. He understood their doubt, but they should have waited until they got a full lesson before making that decision. He spotted several people, even the most vocal, staying behind, likely thinking the same thing.

“Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, let’s get started. As Elder Sarei stated, " My name is Julius, and I will be your teacher should you decide to continue with this class,” he stated while examining the remaining disciples.

“Now I have a question. Can anyone tell me why willpower is important?”

Rhys looked around and didn't spot anyone putting their hands up. However, he spotted Mavis slowly raising her arm.

Julius pointed at her. “Yes?”

Mavis looked around uneasily. “Because it helps one to push through pain? And because it helps direct intent?”

Julius nodded. “Yes, but is that all?”

Mavis shifted on her feet.

“Because it protects us from outside influence, whether that is from mind-related skills or other similar abilities,” another voice offered suddenly.

Julius turned and pointed at the disciple with a smile. “That too.”

He turned and looked at them with a smirk. “Now let me ask, what is willpower?”

Not a single person tried to answer it this time. They all felt it was a trick question and stayed quiet.

“Nobody?” He asked again with that same smirk.

“Well, what about this? How are willpower and aura similar?”

Rhys was stumped. What did he mean by that question? Truthfully, he had never even asked himself something like that. He knew that they weren’t completely different aspects, but how were they alike?

He wasn’t the only person who was confused by this question. He saw several of the disciples pondering his words. He even spotted a few of them directly playing with their auras.

Their teacher seemed exasperated and rolled his eyes. “God, this is going to be a dull class if nobody is going to have any answers or guesses. Don’t worry about getting it wrong and just say whatever you like.”

“Are they both related to one’s soul?” Rhys asked before he could realize he had opened his mouth.

There was a brilliant smile on Julius’s face. “Correct”

A flash of pride rippled through Rhys for some reason despite the praise coming from someone who appeared to be younger than himself.

“Aura and willpower share many amazing things. For one, they are both representations of one’s soul, just in different ways. If one has a strong soul, they usually have a strong will and vice versa. That’s not always the case, but it is a good rule of thumb. It is also important to note that willpower is an expression of how much power one can harness from their soul. And if you have a good enough grasp of your willpower, it can have a direct influence on something like your aura. For example, look at this,” the boy said, his eyes twinkling with mirth.

Rhys was confused for a few brief moments, but took a half step back in astonishment when he felt the aura around Julius warp slightly. Then, before he could realize what was happening, the aura exploded outward. Powerful waves of aura spread out, but not out of the boy’s control. It stopped before the aura actually smashed into the crowd of disciples. They weren’t negatively affected by it, but they could clearly see the aura with their senses.

The aura was being manipulated in ways that Rhys never thought possible. It was watching someone weave together a tapestry with pure aura. The only time he had felt something similar was when he saw someone like Elder Sarei handle fire mana.

He suspected aura senses weren’t good enough to perceive half of what Julius was doing. The others around him were similarly stunned by this. While some might have suspected an aura shroud or something close to it, they clearly hadn’t suspected a display of such skill.

However, that wasn’t what shocked him. It was the feeling of dread and danger he sensed from the aura. It was being held back, but there was no doubt in his mind that the aura was extremely dangerous and oppressive. It was like watching a powerful Flame Tiger stalk him behind a pane of glass.

“Willpower can directly affect your control of aura. And at the higher levels, it can improve your control of concepts and authorities. There really isn’t anything that willpower can’t enhance. With a strong enough willpower, you can even withstand powerful disruption techniques and rip apart other powerful skills. Now my job is to teach you how to improve your willpower and increase its resilience so you may see some of these benefits. But there are several reasons why willpower training isn’t as widely used. Firstly, it’s hard to recreate scenarios that will increase your willpower. Secondly, it hurts like a bitch,” Julius said with a laugh.

“But my aura is weirdly suited to this, and hence why I was asked to help you all. But if you don’t want it, then there is no need to push yourself. Willpower training isn’t for everyone, not everyone can handle the stress or pain.”

Rhys had a feeling that Julius said this on purpose, and it worked because he spotted several of the disciples take this as a challenge. He also noticed that their dismissive attitude toward the boy was gone. They had all gotten a small feeling of the aura themselves. While he was only in Tier, it was clear that Julius had a very solid foundation. He wasn’t a weak Tier 4; in fact, he was at an inner disciple level at the very least, and that earned their respect for the time being.

Rhys's main concern was how Julius was supposed to help all of them. What kind of ideas did he have to improve their willpower? But he was going to keep an open mind. After all, if he wanted to get stronger, he was going to need every advantage he could get, and having a stronger willpower than others would certainly give him that.

He wasn't the only person to have similar thoughts, and before he knew it, everyone was listening to Julius's words eagerly.