In a week's time Tian Liu was already a Rank 1 intermediate. There were 11 possible ranks each separated by novice, intermediate, and advanced. This would normally take the average cultivator with his talent a couple of months, but the average cultivator only cultivated for an hour a day. Tian Liu cultivated for more like 12 hours a day, while spending around 4 hours a day training his body.
Not accounting for the superior cultivation technique he was using. If you compare the Yin and Yang cultivation versus Gu Xing cultivation it wouldn't even be a competition. The Yin and Yang cultivation style suited Tian Liu as he was a user of natural qi.
The academy already teached all the basics of cultivation within the first week. The classes weren't going to be the same after the basics were teached.
In the academy all the 50 cultivators were standing in the training grounds waiting for the instructor's instructions.
"Welcome cultivators! This day marks the last day of your normal life," the middle aged instructor said. "Contrary to popular belief, life as a cultivator is hard, no matter how talented you are. To demonstrate this, let me ask Gao Wan, Wei Lang, and Hao Zhao to come up."
"Just as a reminder Gao Wan is someone with 90 percent qi purity, Wei Lang has 80 percent qi purity, Hao Zhao has 75 percent qi purity, and I have a mere 40 percent."
Gao Wan and Wei Lang were standing together in a nervous stance while Hao Zhao was relaxed.
"All three of you come to me with all your power."
"Are you sure teacher," Gao Wan asked.
"Don't worry about me."
Though Gao Wan and Wei Lang were nervous about the fight, Hao Zhao was only concerned about one thing, "I refuse to work with these two."
"Is that so?" the instructor asked. "Well I'm tired of waiting." The instructor dashed to Hao Zhao going for a finishing blow but Hao Zhao managed to dodge it. Afterwards Wei Lang and Hao Zhao both charged at the instructor with their poor techniques and the instructor managed to block it.
They were using their bare hands which is known as raw battle. The instructor kept exchanging blows with the two individuals while Gao Wan stood back. Wei Lang and Gao Wan's plan was to let Wei Lang tire him out and Gao Wan go for the finishing blow. Of course Hao Zhao was just fighting for himself.
Eventually the instructor got the upper hand but by that point he was fairly tired. His physicality wasn't as strong as he was an old man but he managed to make up for it with his qi advantage. He was a rank 3 intermediate cultivator which was a big difference from rank 1 novice.
But the way the talented individuals managed to make their qi flow was on a different level. It was something that would've taken the average cultivator a whole lifetime to learn. As Gao Wan saw the instructor getting more exhausted he decided to charge in and land the finishing blow.
These annual fights weren't always like this. Normally the instructor wins against the most talented students easily but this year's were on a whole different level. Wei Lang was exhausted, Gao Wan was ecstatic, and Hao Zhao wanted more.
The instructor's original plan of informing the students that talent wasn't everything was a failure.
The crowd was silenced. They didn't know what to say as the instructor was talking a lot before but now he was the one on the ground. His years of experience lost to raw talent. But he knew it couldn't end like this.
"Would any of you like a try against these three?"