The Golden Throne

Liu Feng just listened to the class, and paid attention. Cordelia also noticed this, and was surprised herself. She did not expect Liu Feng's sudden reversal in attitude. She ignored it though.

"I know these kids, thinking that changing for a day will help get a sudden reversal in my treatment.", she thought to herself.

"Well, he just got in a fight recently, maybe he is laying low for a while. But thugs always remain thugs. Thank god he is going to Derail. I just can't stand him.", she thought to herself.

The class ended a while later, with Liu Feng almost falling asleep.

"Well, no matter how much I want to pay attention, the class is too basic and boring for me. What can I do?", Liu Feng shrugged. He quickly went to the self defense classes. He went to the great sword area, but his teacher, Long Che, was nowhere to be seen.

"I think that he did not expect me to come."

Liu Feng took the sword and lifted it. He felt a sharp pain in his chest. He immediately gave up the great sword and it fell to the ground. He fell back, sweat covering his body.

"Looks like the nurse was right. I have not recovered. I still need some time."

"Well, you could gather mana to repair your body. That way, you can even strengthen your body a little.", Avian chimed in.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, mana can help you in that it acts as an energy source for your body. At the highest level, one can use only mana to sustain his entire being, and can just stay without eating or drinking anything for months, and years altogether. But, it is a state of extreme concentration, and it is very difficult to master without having a lot of magic circles."

"But I am sure that I do not have enough magic circles. I am still in the 5th order, remember?"

"You, are a very big exception to that. You can control all the mana, because you have an affinity with all of the elements. You can do something like using mana to increase your recover speed, and in the future, maybe even grow another limb."

Liu Feng's eyes glowed, and he sat down in the lotus position to start meditating. He gathered mana into him, and he took in the mana from the air around him. He could feel mana gathering near his chest, where his broken ribs were. They then went to the ends of the bones, and Liu Feng let out a blood curdling scream. His ribs were growing at a visible rate, but the cost was pain that was unbelievable. Luckily, they were in a remote training field, so no one heard him. A few minutes later, Liu Feng felt as good as new, but he could still remember the pain in his mind. 

He got up and took the great sword again. Now, it was easy, suspiciously easy. It felt lighter than before even. The method strengthened his body even though it was constrained by the bottleneck. Although he did not overcome it, he did gain power. He breached the limits of the 5th order, and reached a new height between the 5th and 6th orders. But Liu Feng knew that the cost was far too great. Getting injured to such an extent was too risky, and life and death situations could not be taken lightly.

Liu Feng practiced the great sword for a while, until the bell rang. He put the sword in its place, and left for the magic history class.

The remaining classes passed by without a hitch, except of course that the teachers were all surprised that Liu Feng attended the classes. The magic practicals class finished up, and all the students were about to leave when Malcolm called out all of them.

"Students, please listen up. The magic academy is very impressed by your progress, and is moving up the date of the magic forest excursion. You will be accompanied by four teachers, so you should not worry, but it is a fact that the magic forest is a very dangerous place. Students have to kill three first order beasts to graduate the academy, so you should understand what you should be able to achieve. Now, details will be going next week, so the academy was also gracious in giving you a week off to enjoy. You can go home, but I won't suggest it. Maybe you can go to the city next to the academy. They recently arranged for a very weird type of transportation, calling it railways or something. Teachers who have gone there have recommended it very aggressively, so please do try it out. Now, rest this week, because after that, it is not going to be easy."

All the students were looking at each other apprehensively. They certainly were not expecting this.

Liu Feng on the other hand could not be more thrilled. He wanted to go to the magic forest as fast as possible. After the fight with Steve, he understood that he was not nearly as powerful as he thought that he was. He had to hone his fighter instinct through fighting with the magic beasts.

All the students slowly dispersed, and Malcolm called out Liu Feng. "You seem to have an appointment with someone? The administration told me to tell you to go to the office building."

Liu Feng nodded and headed over to the office building. Arad also tagged along. They entered the office building and were greeted by an attendant.

"Please go to the second floor. His Majesty is waiting for you."

They went on ahead, and Liu Feng got to the room. He went in, but Arad was stopped.

"It seems that a king of an opposing kingdom can have a bodyguard, but a prince cannot? I don't feel safe. Let's leave Arad."

A voice came out from inside the room.

"Let them both in. What can they possibly do to me?"

Inside, Tyrion was seated along with Jean and the huge man that came with Tyrion to visit Liu Feng the previous day. Tyrion was sitting leisurely, but Jean was clearly tensed up.

"So , what do you want to ask?"

"Manners boy. Did your father not teach you what they were? Was he too busy?"

"Well, my father taught me to treat someone how they treated me. I am sure I did not mess with your stupid daughter there, but she messed with me again and again. Now, I am sure she knows what happened to her dear club?"

Jean's teeth clenched, but she did not even get up.

"Well, you surely have an iron grip on your daughter. To think that the infamously short tempered Jean did not react after I called her stupid! I am impressed by our methods, King of Glade."

"I will get to the point. Where is Steve? How did he knock you out? What did you see?"

"Well, I was fighting with Steve, when all of a sudden, a black shadow appeared, and I lost consciousness. Arad here came up after a while, and saw me unconscious. So, he took me to the nurse's office. Steve was not there when Arad arrived. He told me that there was a hole on the wall, so maybe the black shadow abducted Steve? He was a prince after all!"

Suddenly, a man burst in.

"Do you not have manners? Your head will go flying if you don't have a good reason", Tyrion raged.

"Geez, it looks like the hot blood flows through the family", Liu Feng commented.

"Your majesty, Prince Steve was found on the road, right below Princess Jean's balcony. He appears to have fallen from there, because his arm and one leg are mutilated beyond repair."

"What! Take me there. You boy, stay here, I still have questions."

"I am not your servant, to listen to your whims and fancies. I will leave. You should come to my dorm if you have any other questions."

Liu Feng left out the door to go to his dorm, while Tyrion rushed to the other side, towards the female dorms. Tyrion rushed to the scene of the fall, where a blood puddle could be seen on the ground, directly below the balcony of Jean's room.

"Let us go up there, see what's there."