Heaven's Greatest Professor

Day 5

It was evening in the outside world, and June had prepared another round of meals for Warden. When she got to the spirit world warp gate, the elderly man was still there, reading the old leather-bound books in peace.

As she appeared before him, the man lifted his eyes from the book. "He is still inside," the man said. "It's already the fifth day. Do you think is it wise to leave an iron ranker in there alone?"

"Well," June chose her words wisely, "he is special."

"I hope so," the old man said with a crooked tongue. "You didn't tell him that even to a silver rank, the valley is daunting. As for the restricted area... well, the less can be said about it, the better."

June simply smiled and entered.

She again found herself in the Phantom Accursed Valley, inside a lone cave where only leftovers such as lunch boxes and rugged clothes remained. But Warden's figure wasn't there like the last time. June extended her awareness outward to find his figure.

This place made it harder to use her psychic abilities. But sensing the intents clashing in the northern land, it was easier to find Warden.

After putting a veil on herself, she ventured out in the direction. She received hints of an intense Intent nearby. After walking for a few minutes, June found Warden fighting a lone, monstrous echo. Moreover, he was fighting without his legendary armour and cloak. With only the spear in hand, he was contesting against the 10-foot-tall monstrosity in a pure contest of spearmanship.

No matter what move he made, the echo had an answer for it. If Warden feinted, the echo would move in its ghostly form to block. Yeah, block. It was the first time she found an echo blocking instead of just attacking. If Warden were in a defensive move, it would become more ferocious, causing him only to step backwards more.

So far, it was probably the toughest opponent Warden had faced.

And it was finally showing what Warden lacked to take the one final step.

The atmosphere was icy and chilling, and the wounds in his body weren't making it any easier. Covered in blood and hundreds of cuts, without the legendary equipment, he was no match for this. Yet, he persisted with all his willpower and regeneration abilities.

June was in awe at the display.

To her surprise, he had already manifested the spear intent and was still learning, trying to extract more from his opponent. At each moment, their figures blurred with multiple arcs of spear movements. June found their spearmanship similar, though Warden was unable to move like a ghost with the echo's unique form.

The battle frenzy came quick as Warden hadn't realized he was moving instinctively. His spear moved with the flow, cutting through the tangible darkness towards the opponent's spear. Bits of Intent washed over the weapon, as Warden slowly tried to incorporate them, ignoring the wounds he was taking in this form.

The echo was relentless, fearless, a complete manifestation of maddening spear intent. A twisting grin revealed on Warden's lips. He was getting the full fun out of it, finally glimpsing this destination.

The echo's spear collided with him just right as Warden focused on not simply learning the intent, but devouring the technique the echo was using.

Then for one instance of a moment, everything came together, his spear vibrated in the air with unequalled power, as it classed against the ghost spearman. A thunderous roar of intent echoed instantly, followed by a silence.

A sigh escaped his lips as he finally got what he wanted, although it was only the beginning. Unfortunately, he could not endure it any longer for now. His legs were unable to move again, his body exhausted beyond measure. Although he was full of spirit energy—as he had not used it much during the fight or until now—he had no mental fortitude to continue it any longer.

Without wasting much time, Warden drew his void energy into the spear. As he had imagined, the void energy fought with his spear intent, finally reaching 10% capacity of the void energy over the spear intent as he attacked the ghost Spearmaster.

Warden could destroy the boss echo with his void energy if he wanted, but he could still receive more from it. So he only drilled the spear once through its chest to weaken its state and fled from the spot to incorporate his gains again.

June watched it all with her veil on as the bloodied man withdrew back to the cavern again.

As far as training went, Warden had been thoroughly productive. Not to mention the results were something unheard of. He downed a healing potion immediately and sat cross-legged to meditate on his gains as well as to rest.

With Warden fully engrossed in his training, she thought her presence would only distract him from what was important. Thus, she brought out her dimension cube and left a few boxes of a meal near where he sat. She was sure he hadn't noticed anything, being fully engrossed in the meditation.

June thought about leaving a message, then found it was unnecessary. Warden wasn't a boy who needed to be pampered for hardship. Although he did not look like it most times when he stayed idle, now in his fight, he had shown exactly what tenacity really was.

Day 7

[Intent Mastery: 8%]

"Still not enough," Warden muttered. He drew in tendrils of his void energy and imbued them into the spear, trying to incorporate the intent and the energy into one. Unfortunately, he hadn't found the enlightenment in that yet.

Letting out a sigh, he swung the spear and dispersed the ghostly figure, sending it far away as it did not come back after weakening. Warden wiped his face off the blood. There were countless cut marks on him, though the wounds had already closed. Only then did he notice the lunch boxes nearby and look around for June.

Obviously, in his exhausted state, he was unable to catch even a hint of her presence, even though she stood just a couple of paces away from the meals.

"Thanks, June," he mumbled as he came closer to collect the food.

June's lips crooked in a smile as she flew out of there.