If Selene’s cultivation class felt like torture—Then Kael’s combat training felt like punishment for crimes they had not committed yet.The thirteen recruits arrived at the combat grounds shortly after midday, still exhausted from the previous session. Most of them had barely recovered from the breathing exercises and posture training forced upon them earlier, especially Eli, who walked like a man whose soul had been separated violently from his body.“I still can’t feel my arms,” he complained while dragging his feet across the stone path.“That’s because Lady Selene corrected you seventeen times,” Lyra replied calmly.“It was not seventeen.”“It was nineteen,” Andrew corrected.Eli looked horrified. “You counted?”“You were distracting.”“I was suffering.”“You were loud.”Eli muttered something under his breath that sounded deeply offensive toward cultivation itself.The combat grounds of Astral Vanguard were located behind the main training halls, separated by high grey walls rei

The atmosphere around the recruits changed after the visit to the armory.Even the way they walked through the halls of Astral Vanguard carried more confidence than before, though most of them tried hiding it behind calm expressions. Weapons had a strange effect on people. Holding one for the first time made a cultivator feel closer to becoming something greater than an ordinary human being. It gave shape to ambition. It made the future feel real.Andrew noticed that immediately the following morning.Ronan had barely separated from his sword since yesterday. The weapon rested against his shoulder as though the two already belonged together, and every few minutes faint sparks of lightning flickered unconsciously around the blade whenever his mood shifted.Lyra moved differently too.Her daggers remained hidden beneath her sleeves, yet Andrew could tell she had practiced drawing them repeatedly through the night. Her movements had become cleaner, lighter, more deliberate.Even Eli look

The combat arena of Astral Vanguard rarely stayed quiet for long.Steel clashed constantly within those walls. The sound of footsteps, impacts, and shouting had become part of the atmosphere itself, as natural as breathing for the recruits who spent almost every day there under Kael’s merciless training.That morning, however, carried a different kind of tension.The moment Selene, Seran, and Kael approached the entrance of the arena together, Kael immediately noticed something unusual.Nobody was speaking.Usually, Eli’s voice alone could be heard halfway across the guild grounds, either complaining, screaming, or arguing with someone over something ridiculous. The silence inside the arena felt wrong enough to make Kael narrow his eyes slightly before pushing the doors open fully.Then he understood why.A duel was taking place.The rest of the recruits stood gathered around the center of the arena while two figures moved rapidly across the stone battlefield under the morning sunligh

The arena remained silent for several moments after the duel between Andrew and Kellan ended.Dust still lingered faintly in the air while cracks spread across parts of the combat floor from the force of their final collision. Several recruits continued staring at the two of them with expressions that carried a mixture of disbelief and excitement.A month ago, most of them had still been ordinary orphans struggling to survive inside Ashwake House.Now they were Aether Initiates.Now they were preparing to stand beside real cultivators from all across Aetherion.The difference felt unreal.Selene’s faint smile disappeared quickly, returning to her usual calm expression as she stepped forward once more.“The excitement ends here,” she said.Her voice immediately pulled everyone’s attention back toward her.Kael folded his arms while leaning slightly against one of the pillars surrounding the arena.Seran adjusted his glasses quietly.The atmosphere shifted again.Andrew immediately noti

The next two days nearly broke them.By the second morning, even Ronan had stopped acting confident.The back-to-back training sessions continued without mercy as Selene pushed their cultivation harder, Seran overloaded them with battle strategy and guild politics, while Kael continued treating six Middle Initiates as though they were veteran fighters who deserved no restraint.Their bodies adapted because they had no choice.Every morning started before sunrise.Every night ended with bruises, exhaustion, and silence.At some point during those two days, Andrew began noticing something strange happening inside his body whenever he cultivated. The Void Aether no longer felt unstable the way it did before. The violent energy that once resisted his control now moved more naturally through his pathways, almost as though it had started acknowledging his presence.The realization unsettled him.He sat cross-legged inside his room after the second day of training, quietly circulating Aether