《I FELL AND THUS I MUST RISE AGAIN.》 Prologue - My Fall. Long ago, an ancient land filled with magic, mystical martial warfare as well as a variety of x beings like elves, beast men, humans and the like, existed. As time went on humans began to understand the existence of a higher power - The 12 Sovereigns. As humans began to worship these higher beings, four of the Sovereigns decided to bestow some of their powers onto a select few humans who they deemed to be worthy and able to handle their power. These four Sovereigns were The Divine Sovereigns, the strongest of the 12; -The Divine Tiger (Shiraz) - The Elemental Dragon (Azul) - The Emperor Lion (Suleiman) - The Battle Wolf (Braie) The powers bestowed upon them by the Sovereigns gave them the traits of their respective Sovereigns. The humans that received the powers were; The worshipper of Shiraz, Bastian, who would later form the greatest of the four divine beast clans who practiced a secret martial art with aspects of magic, or in the case of the ¡°four blessed humans¡±, divine power. - The worshipper of Azul, Drago, who would form the strongest clan of magicians who relied on their divine power. -The worshipper of Suleiman, Leo, who would later form the clan with the strongest bodies. -The worshipper of Braie, Grey, who would later form a clan filled with clansmen with the innate ability to control people as well as being blessed with speed. The levels of power were the same for all the four clans: The first level of power - Divine Baptism, the lowest level of power. It enables the members with the ability to sense and drink the divine power from their respective divine Sovereign. After drinking the divine power they gained the power to transform a part of their body, thus strengthening it. The second level of power - Partial Divine Transformation, which, as the name suggests, allowed the members of that clan to partially transform their body. For example the Braie clan¡¯s partial transformation allowed them to turn into werewolves, with the color of their fur depending on the amount of divine power drank during the baptism. (This was divided into subsections, with the capability to turn into a werewolf being the highest.) The third - Full transformation that allowed the clan members to borrow pure sovereign divine power to turn into a divine beast, but only temporarily. And the fourth - The halfway stage where the members were regarded as an emissary of their respective Sovereigns in their world. ...... Hundreds of years passed since the founding of the four clans. Their respective founders were still alive(Divine power gives longer life span) The hundreds of years were filled with ghastly warfare. The four clans set out to conquer the world in the name of their respective Sovereigns, except the Bastian clan. However, the other powers of the world teamed up to destroy the four clans before they set out to conquer the world and thus, the hundred years of war begun. Although initially the Bastian clan tried to stay out of the war, the alliance of all the powers of the world wanted to exterminate all the clans founded by the ¡°four blessed humans¡± so they were forced to join in. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.The war went on, and although the four clans were more powerful they were vastly outnumbered. They didn¡¯t stand a chance. Although Bastian resisted and tried to fight in these hundred years, after having reached the third stage, he was the only one left alive out of the four clans. In an outburst of fury, he cried out to the heavens, ¡°Oh! Divine One! You granted me power only to watch my kin die. Please grant me the power to rid the world of these heretics and in exchange, you may have my soul.¡± Standing on the battlefield, covered in blood, Bastian could barely move when the sky opened up and a bright yellow light came down from the heavens and enveloped Bastian. The sky closed up again, and everything went back to normal, except for Bastian. His eyes were glowing white. His hair, also white, fluttered wildly although there was no wind. And then it happened. *ROAR!!* Bastian turned into a white tiger, 200 meters tall. This was unlike the transformation of the third stage. This was one where it seemed like all his power had been compressed and then unleashed onto the world. Yes, Bastian had entered the fourth step. In the form of the divine white tiger, Bastian felt immensely powerful, but there was another feeling; the feeling of his soul being dissolved rapidly. He didn¡¯t care, though. He knew it was worth it. Bastian then lifted his head and opened his mouth. A huge white light began to gather, and he let out a magnificent roar. *Roar!* The light slanted in the direction of the thousands of soldiers and whatever the light touched began to dissolve, including the human bodies. Cries could be heard from the soldiers trying to run away, but all of them were turned to mush and none escaped. Hearing the cries, Bastian laughed and bellowed, ¡°Today you all die! Feel the pain that my brethren felt.¡± And with those words Bastian turned back into human form and spit out multiple mouthfuls of blood before collapsing on the ground. Bastian lay still, dead, on the battleground with the ghost of a wicked smile spread on his face as his soul left his body. Chapter 1 - The Supreme Sovereign. ¡°Hahahaha!¡± A deafening laugh came from a place that can only be described as an endless void. ¡°Whose voice is that? I should be on my way to the Netherworld! Is this the Netherworld?¡± Bastian asked with a tinge of anger in his voice. ¡°Hmm¡­you look surprised. Didn¡¯t you offer your soul in exchange for power?¡± Bastian heard these words and immediately recalled the moment he offered his soul in exchange for power. ¡°Why do you not speak? Aren¡¯t I the god you serve?¡± asked the mysterious voice that seemed to come from all directions in the void. ¡°Forgive this humble servant for not realizing this sooner. Thank you for granting me your power, Oh divine being!¡± said Bastian in the most respectful tone he was able to muster. ¡°Good, Good. I have been watching you ever since I granted you power, and I must say your life has been very interesting. Ever since I broke through to the realm of immortality I¡¯ve lived for eons and life grew boring. But watching your life, however short as it has been, was amusing. I was almost disappointed when I watched you die, until you offered me your soul that is¡­.hehe.¡± said the powerful mysterious voice. As Bastian listened he couldn¡¯t help but shudder, but he did not regret his decision. After saying those words, the voice stopped and everything went silent. After what seemed like an eternity, a light emerged from an opening in the void, and just as Bastian¡¯s eyes were adjusting to the light,a booming voice announced, ¡°Enter!¡± With the light illuminating him, Bastian saw his appearance which resembled a transparent version of himself. He sighed, and a bitter smile spread across his face as he proceeded to enter the opening to the void. As soon as he entered, his jaw dropped in awe. In front of him was a tiger that could only be described as ¡°larger than life.¡± The tiger¡¯s face and front limbs could be seen, while the rest of his body seemed to go on for miles. Bastian couldn¡¯t help but kneel, as he felt unworthy of the right to gaze upon the magnificent creature. Seeing Bastian kneel, the enormous tiger smiled, revealing a row of sharp, gleaming teeth. The divine tiger then said, ¡°Young human, do you know why I accepted your proposition when you were about to be killed by that force?¡± Bastian, masking a tinge of anger that was sparked in him by that question, bit out, ¡°Tch, how would I be able to understand the mind of the strongest divine being?¡± Noticing the tiger¡¯s cold, penetrative glare, he forced himself to calm down and said with an indifferent look, ¡°Forgive me, but even I, Bastian, would not dare say he understands and comprehends the mind of a divine being, let alone the most powerful one of them all.¡± The divine tiger smiled and said, ¡°Good answer, Good answer! Well, for now let me give you a brief summary of my life. I was born a very, very, very long time ago in a world which is dominated by martial art prowess and magic. Quite simply, it¡¯s a world where those without power suffer and are looked down upon. I was born in a clan much like yours, but much larger.¡± Bastian was in shock. Before the tiger even finished his story, he queried, ¡°You were born human?¡± Facing this question the divine tiger just faintly smiled then replied, ¡°Yes, now don¡¯t ask anymore questions until I¡¯m finished or else I¡¯ll show you pain. Anyway, the clan I was born into was called the divine tiger clan it had at least 50 million clansmen. At that time I was the young master of one of the branch families and I trained in a martial art similar to yours but at the same time completely different. You can think of your method of training as cheating by using my power, but never mind that. The reason why I accepted your request was because I want you to live in the world you were meant to live in, although the current divine tiger clan is no longer the top clan in that world. It still ranks in the top ten. So basically I want you to become the pillar of that clan as I did. You will understand why once you¡¯ve been reincarnated, but although I can grant you my power from here I can¡¯t interfere with the mortal world directly. But don¡¯t think for one second that the other great clans don¡¯t have Sovereigns behind them. Since I, Shiraz, the strongest being in existence is your benefactor, I will grant you the knowledge of the technique I developed to become a Sovereign. But whether or not you¡¯re able to train in it completely depends on your devotion.¡± The divine tiger then opened its mouth slightly and a transparent white mist flowed and entered Bastian and fused with his soul. Bastian discovered an immense amount of information stored in his mind that had not been there before. The white tiger then said, ¡°It seems our time is done. Now leave and don¡¯t dare disappoint me!¡± Bastian¡¯s body then travelled rapidly out of the divine tiger¡¯s domain and back into the endless void. The world of Vargath. At the edge of the Divine tiger clan¡¯s southern branch¡¯s territory. The continent of Drehl, a vast continent that goes on for millions of kilometers, it is divided into 9 territories; each spanning over large amounts of land. On the southern territory of the divine tiger clan on a mountain range surrounded by a thick layer of fog laid a mansion with a number of people standing outside it. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.They wore black cloaks that covered every part of their bodies including their faces. In front of them was a middle-aged man wearing a pitch black long-sleeved shirt and trousers with a black and white overcoat on top. The overcoat bore the symbol of a blueish-blackish lightning bolt on the back. The middle-aged man stood at the front door of the mansion, his shirt covered in smears of blood, while some of the black cloaked men had fresh wounds on their bodies. The man laughed, and said with a hint of disdain in his voice. ¡°To think there were assassins hiding even in this secret area of our southern clan. Curse your god, for the one you targeted is my son, the future leader of the southern branch of the divine tiger clan. I, lightning Tiger Akela Tar Aldarion, will not let even a single one of you escape.¡± All of a sudden a mysterious figure appeared completely out of thin air and knelt next to Akela, saying, ¡°My lord these bastards have really gone too far this time. Even though our clan already has a low birthrate they even come to kill those who have just been born. Please let me take care of these bastards.¡± Akela, rubbed his jaw thoughtfully while contemplating this idea, sighed, and replied, ¡°Manu, I know your child was killed by an assassin right after birth and the likelihood of having another one is very low. Mmm¡­.very well then, kill them.¡± The black robed men, upon hearing Akela¡¯s words, scattered and began to flee. However, they were barely fifty meters away when suddenly a huge wall of air appeared, locking the cloaked men inside. The leader of the assassins cried out, saying, ¡°We didn¡¯t know the one being born was the young master of the southern branch! Please allow us to le-.¡± Before he¡¯d finished what he was saying a large wave of shining white needles appeared and pierced through the heads and bodies of all the assassins. Blood, flesh and other pieces of their bodies scattered everywhere as the never-ending flow of needles continued to rain down on them. In the end only small pieces of flesh, brain and large amounts of blood was left of the assassins. Seeing this, Akela said, ¡°To think you would use two high-class martial skills just to kill these pieces of shit. It looks like your needle skill has improved, but your wind wall technique is still lacking. You even allowed them to travel almost fifty meters before you could guide your divine power to control the air around them and lock them in!¡± Only after confirming there was no one around did Akela go into the mansion. The inside of the mansion was practically empty. There was only a large hall with a room at the end. From inside that room, low cries and moans of a woman in labor could be heard. Bastian¡¯s mother was giving birth. As soon as Akela heard those sounds he went into the room only to find the baby being gently carried by the female shaman, who had a look of worry on her face. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Akela asked worriedly. ¡°The baby isn¡¯t crying! This is very unusual.¡± said the female shaman fearfully, while gently prodding and examining the baby. Akela then took the baby from the shaman and put his hand to his chest and let some divine power into the child. When the divine power entered the child¡¯s body, Bastian finally awakened and opened his eyes only to find he was being carried by a giant who had a hint of a smile on his face. Having examined Bastian¡¯s body with his divine power Akela smiled and said, ¡°Mm¡­Saphir you have given birth to a strong, healthy child.¡± On hearing her husband¡¯s words Zamera revealed a smile. ¡°Please, my husband give him a name.¡± ¡°Mmmm¡­seeing as he has silver hair which is very rare in our clan, and only the clan head has silver hair, I will name him Silver Tar Aldarion.¡± He handed the child to Saphir with a smile and said,¡°As soon as you recover we will leave and go back home. For now, you need to rest.¡± Akela then left the room. ¡°Master, why are you so happy?¡± asked Manu who was waiting outside the room. Akela looked at Manu with a smile and said, ¡°Manu that child has a strong, fighting soul. He definetly has potential.¡± He laughed heartily. ¡°I can¡¯t wait until he grows to the age where we can test his divine power.¡± ¡°Ho! Congratulations master. It¡¯s to be expected, seeing as he is the son of the strongest person in the southern branch of the divine tiger clan.¡± Meanwhile Bastian, who was in the room feeding from his mother¡¯s breast,was coming to his senses. ¡°You must be tired, little silver. Mama will put you down to rest.¡± Saphir then stood up and put the child into a crib with animal skins as a mattress. Bastian was shocked. For a woman who just gave birth to move around like nothing happened, ¡°She definetly isn¡¯t normal.¡± Thought Bastian. ¡°I am but a child. There is nothing I can do by myself let alone train. However there is a technique the divine tiger put in my soul. Hmmm¡­..it looks like it¡¯s a technique that increases the purity of divine power in one¡¯s body as well as when trained extensively gives the user the ability to read minds. I guess I¡¯ll begin right now.¡± Bastian thought as he licked his lips in anticipation. Chapter 2- Break Jaw Castle. It had been a month since Silver arrived in this world and currently his parents were preparing to return to the southern branch of the divine tiger clan. Silver was being held by his mother in the courtyard of the mansion when suddenly a gigantic phoenix like bird began to draw closer to them, seeing the gigantic bird come closer Silver couldn¡¯t help but let out a shout, ¡°Ai!.¡± Seeing the child that only used to make noise whenever he was hungry suddenly shout at the sight of the phoenix Saphir couldn¡¯t help but giggle and say, ¡°Little Silver that is your uncle Kabul he is your father¡¯s magical beast.¡± The gigantic phoenix came closer and atop of it you could see a man sitting cross-legged. Seeing his father sitting on top of a magical beast that had crimson colored feathers and a ball of flame hovering atop its head Silver couldn¡¯t help but think to himself, ¡°What kind of man is this guy? Just being able to kill such an amazing magical beast can already be considered an amazing feat but to actually tame it. Looks like my father is a monster.¡± The bird then landed on the courtyard and transformed into a human male wearing clothes identical to that of his father(black shirt, black trousers and black overcoat but on the back of the overcoat along with the large symbol of a blueish-blackish lightning bolt there was also a small crimson flame symbol to the right of the lightning bolt. ¡°Young one no need to be afraid I am you uncle Kabul, I¡¯m here to take you and your mother back home.¡± Said Kabul with a small smile on his face. ¡°Let¡¯s not waste anymore time, Saphir you and silver get onto Kabul¡¯s back we¡¯ve already spent too much time here. We need to arrive at Break jaw castle before night falls.¡± Said Akela with his usual stern face. The Aldarion family then departed on the phoenix beast, Azul. PART 2. The continent of Vargath is a place where the strong thrive and the weak have no choice but to submit to the strong. This is the same for people in the divine tiger clan, the clan is divided into four branches East, West, North, South and the central branch. The central branch is the headquarters of the divine tiger clan and is where the patriarch of the clan resides, followed by the North and South who are equal in power due to them having supreme warriors who¡¯ve reached the soul compression stage. While the East is next and West is last. (Authors note: So you don¡¯t get lost I¡¯ll explain, the training methods of this world differ from Silver¡¯s previous world they go like this , Absorption of divine power which is the initial stage , levels 1-9 Divine baptism which is the condensation of the first 9 levels of divine power to reach the 10th level. The next stage of power is the 100th level which is the soul compression stage, this is the stage where one¡¯s element e.g fire, water, lightning, air etc, is compressed and fused with one¡¯s soul thus called the soul compression stage However the soul compression stage is divided in levels ; Low level 100-1,000. Medium level 1,000-10,000 High level 10,000-100,000. The rest of the stages aren¡¯t calculated by levels and will be mentioned in the future. End OF AUTHORS NOTE.) Silver and his family were now within the territory of the Southern branch and drawing closer to the place Silver will call home for years to come, Break Jaw castle. ¡°We¡¯re almost there little Silver.¡± Said Saphira. 15 minutes later a city could be seen in the distance, the city itself was huge and could easily cover 100 kilometers. The city was surrounded by a huge wall that was 150m tall, in the middle of the city was a huge castle that took up at least a quarter of the total space of the city. As Azul flew over the city and was heading to the castle, all the people below put their right hands on their heart and slightly bended. This was the bow given to those of high rank in the divine tiger clan, as almost all the residents of this city recognized Kabul and knew he was the lightning tiger¡¯s tamed beast. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.No matter how powerful one is in the divine tiger clan kneeling before someone is forbidden unless they are your master or father that is why the commoners bow instead of kneel. Inside Break Jaw castle many elders had felt the presence of Kabul and knew the head of the clan Akela was arriving, and so they all rushed out and awaited his arrival in the courtyard. Kabul then landed in the courtyard and after everyone disembarked he transformed into human form which still gave Silver the creeps everytime he saw it. Akela then took Silver from Saphir and handed him to one of the Elders who looked around 60, and wore a read cloak which had a hood. ¡°Take him to be tested.¡± Said Akela in a deep voice. These words caused all the elders present to be stunned, making a new born who is at most a month old to be tested for divine power was very rare. The test involved a person to be put his in a pool of emerald liquid which would turn yellow if a person had the ability to cultivate martial skills. ¡°Lord Akela, this is a child not even 1 year old how could he posses any divine power, only at the age of 3 will divine power start to seep into our bodies.¡± Said the red cloak elder. ¡°Hmph¡­Mirad do I look like a fool to you. Hmph¡­.. this child on the way here as I held him I decided to test to see if he had divine power and although I don¡¯t know the amount of it, I can tell it is extremely pure. So listen to me and test him, I wish to confirm this.¡± Said Akela with a hint of a smile while looking at his child as if he were treasure. ¡°Forgive me my lord I will give the young master the test.¡± Said Mirad respectfully while all the other elders were still dumbfounded at the idea of a child having divine power. With that said Mirad took the child into his arms and they went into the mansion, the mansion had 7 floors with the first holding high ranked clan members rooms, the second holding training halls and materials and the third being the testing area which had 3 rooms. Although break Jaw castle was huge it also had various mansions and buildings surrounding it. After hearing Akela¡¯s words Silver couldn¡¯t help but be startled after practicing divine mind purification technique(the technique at the end of chapter 2) for a month he had unknowingly began to drink divine power. ¡°Shit! Now I¡¯m going to be viewed as a monster by all the clans members perhaps in this entire continent I¡¯m the only one to have divine power at this age. Wait one of the traits of divine mind purification technique was that I would develop the ability to read minds. Lets try it out on this elder and see what his thinking.¡± Thought Silver. Then Silver focused his pure divine power toward his mind then divided it into two and sent half of it to his hand, he then touched Mirad¡¯s arm with his hand and sent his divine power towards Mirad¡¯s mind. Silver was unable to directly read someone¡¯s mind without touching them this is because he had only been practicing for a month. But what silver found in the old man¡¯s mind shocked him, ¡°What! Not only am I not the first to have divine power at this age there are 5 others who had divine power AT THEIR BIRTH!!. One of whom is the patriarch of the divine tiger clan.¡± He then withdraw his divine power from Mirad¡¯s mind and put it back in his divine core. After arriving in the room to test for divine power, Akela walked over and threw a green fist sized stone into the pool of water like liquid which then turned emerald, Akela then said, ¡°Begin the test!¡± with eagerness in his voice. Mirad then took some of the emerald liquid and poured it into a huge bowl he then put Silver inside. As soon as Silver¡¯s body came in contact with the liquid it immediately turned white, when Akela saw this he immediately closed the door leaving Saphir, Kabul, Manu, Mirad and Silver in the room. The other elders were waiting outside as they were not allowed to enter without permission from the head elder Mirad. Akela then turned back and looked at the colour of the liquid and said with a excitement in his voice, ¡°This child has the rarest attribute in existence the light attribute this is even rarer than my lightning attribute which only appears in those with the Tar bloodline..._.¡± Before he could finish what he was saying part of the liquid in the bowl began to turn into a blueish-blackish colour. ¡°Hahaha!.....a double attribute of lightning and light he is indeed my son.¡± Said Akela while his entire body was shaking with excitement. In truth Akela had doubted this to be his son because of the silver hair but that his son had the lightning attribute he was confident this was his son because normally attributes are hereditary. Thus his extreme shock at his son having a light attribute. Chapter 3 - Growth. In the vast courtyard of break jaw castle a single child could be seen looking up at the sky, the child looked to be around one year old he was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and black somewhat baggy trousers. The child appeared to be deep in thought unlike those his age, yes this child is the third young master of the Southern branch of the divine tiger clan Silver. ¡°Haaaa¡­the divine tiger gave me six techniques however I can only cultivate the divine mind purification technique, it¡¯s like there¡¯s a barrier preventing me from examining the part of my soul that has the techniques. The only explanation I can think of is that I haven¡¯t met the qualifications to do so yet.¡± Said Silver while sighing. A female servant came to the side of Silver bowed and said, ¡°Young master it is time for dinner and you are requested to appear before your father.¡± Silver then stood up looked at the sky then turned around and nodded to the female servant and followed behind her heading towards the dining hall. At first everyone in the castle was astonished when Silver started walking which was when he was 6 months old however by now the servants and elders had gotten used to it. However one day when he was 8 months old he talked in front of his mother and was told not to reveal that he could talk to anyone but his father reason being that they wanted to keep his talent and true ability secret. When they reached the dining hall the servant left while Silver entered, sited across the table were Silver¡¯s mother, two aunts and two siblings his first aunt and Akela¡¯s first wife Carmen didn¡¯t like Silver because it was a sure-thing that in the future he would over-shadow her son Kaz who also hated Silver while Akela¡¯s second wife Hana didn¡¯t really care after all she had given birth to a daughter, Asil who even if was not talented in cultivation would have no problem being married off. Kaz is 4 years old while Asil is 3years old and has already undergone and passed the divine power test, she liked her little brother and didn¡¯t like her older brother because he would always pick on her. Silver sat down in a chair next to his mother and awaited the arrival of his father to begin eating. As the entire family was sitting in silence a middle-aged man dressed in black entered and sat at the head of the table, that man is Akela. Immediatey everyone stood up and said, ¡°Greetings Father/Husband.¡± His eyes looked around the dining hall and landed on Silver he then sat down and said, ¡°Let us eat.¡± Huge amounts of food was served and this was just the first round, from what Silver could gather the people of this continent have very large appetites and he was no exception. After the entire meal was finished and everyone was about to head to their respective rooms, Akela said, ¡°Little Silver come with me.¡± Silver then looked at his mother who smiled and nodded, he then followed his father back to his study. From what Silver had heard from his mother, it seems his father was at the peak of the soul compression stage and had reached a bottle-neck and could break through to the next stage at any time, he was among the top fifteen in the entire divine tiger clan. ¡°Little Silver sit down.¡± Said Akela as he pointed to a chair. Silver sat down and looked at his father who was staring at him, ¡°Father, is there something wrong?¡± asked Silver with a confused look on his face. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.¡°Everytime I hear this child speak it shocks me there are no mistakes whatsoever.¡± Thought Akela as he stared at his son. ¡°Little Silver I want to ask you whether or not you would like to start training? This is a big decision so think wisely.¡± Said Akela. ¡°Father my body is still weak so how can I train?¡± asked Silver with an even more confused face. ¡°Haha¡­don¡¯t compare the lightning attribute to those other trash attributes, we don¡¯t need to train the external body much what is most important is divine power the purer the better which we then spread throughout our bodies instead of placing in the divine core. This method makes our bodies far stronger than normal people and at a frightening rate.¡±said Akela with a smile. ¡°But what about my light attribute you said it was rare so how will I train it?¡± asked Silver with a hint of worry in his voice. ¡°Don¡¯t misunderstand young Silver the attribute is rare however the technique books are plenty. This is because 5000 years ago there existed a clan called Tenshi they were all of the light attribute and ruled half the continent because of their power however 5000 years ago the ten top clans joined together and destroyed the Tenshi clan before they could take over the continent. Thankfully at that time our clan was the strongest and we got most of the books, land and treasures but ever since that war only two people have been born with the light attribute and one of them is the patriarch of the Aristov clan which is the current strongest clan while our divine tiger clan has dropped to fifth.¡±said Akela while shaking his head. A/n. Explanation of how Silver was able to read Mirad''s mind despite being of lower cultivation. Mirad was born a cripple unable to cultivate but his father was the caretaker of Break Jaw castle. He couldn''t let his son be called a cripple so he made him attend an academy where assassins who didn''t rely on soul compressing techniques go to learn their craft. After fifteen years, he returned and was ridiculed for practicing external body enhancing techniques by his fellow clansmen. One night when Mirad couldn''t take it anymore all who ridiculed him were killed by him, their bodies were all disposed of except for a single index finger from each of them. This was the signature killing method for the academy Mirad attended and since this is a world where the strong are worshiped, Mirad was only slightly punished. The verdict was insufficient evidence. A few years passed and Mirad quickly rose to prominence and not long after became an Elder, because of his background as an assassin only Mirad wore a red cloak with a hood instead of the normal white cloak. Since he trained in external techniques, Mirad''s soul was actually quite weak. Couple that with the fact that infant''s have extremely pure souls and it''s easy to understand how Silver read Mirad''s mind. Chapter 4 - Choice. Silver and his father remained talking for hours about training methods as well as the pros and cons of beginning training at a young age. ¡°Young Silver, have you made a decision?¡± asked Akela while staring at his son. *silence* The entire room was quiet, Silver was deep in thought pondering when he realized something, ¡°Father you¡¯ve told me of these techniques however is it possible for me to choose the techniques I want to train in?¡± asked Silver with a serious face. ¡°Of course training is already hard, who would be stupid enough to train in something that they aren¡¯t interested in. Listen closely little Silver training is also connected to one¡¯s will. If you don¡¯t have the interest and passion to improve in whatever it is you¡¯re practicing then it will be virtually impossible to improve. Do you understand?¡± said Akela while looking at his son waiting for a reaction to see if he truly does understand, after all to him Silver is still just a 1 year old child. ¡°I understand Father, one can only improve if one has interest in training.¡± Said Silver while looking right at his father who was staring at him. Akela smiled and said, ¡°Good now go and rest I¡¯ll send Kabul right away to go the library at the Central branch and get the books for you to choose you¡¯re preferred training manual. Given Kabul¡¯s speed he¡¯ll probably be back by morning.¡± Silver then nodded while smiling, it was impossible for him to hide his excitement, he had been in this world for a year now and was quite bored as he was not allowed to leave the castle where he was restricted to the first floor. Silver then returned to his room which he shared with his mother as he was just a one year old child. ¡°What did your father want little Silver?¡± asked Saphir with a smile. Needless to say Saphir was already quite proud of her son as he could already walk and talk as well as was also quite intelligent. ¡°Nothing he just wanted to know whether I want to start training.¡± said Silver while smiling. In his past life Silver was an orphan and didn¡¯t know of the warmth motherly love brings however in this life he was blessed with a loving mother whom he holds, currently as the most important person in his life. ¡°I see so when will you begin?¡± asked Saphir while stroking her son¡¯s hair. ¡°Tomorrow¡± said Silver. ¡°Tomorrow! Okay get in bed and rest you¡¯ll need your strength for tomorrow.¡± Said Saphira slightly shocked. Silver then went to bed next to his mother. Every night for the past year Silver has been training according to the divine mind purification technique and his divine power has already reached the second level however due to the purification aspect of the divine mind purification technique it is comparable to the power of the 4th level. The divine mind purification technique like the name suggests gives the user the ability to refine the absorbed divine power compressing it and removing all the impurities however it also gives the user the ability to read the minds of people with weaker souls than the user. The technique also gives the user amazing perception especially during times of danger where it helps keep the user¡¯s mind clear as well as let them detect dangerous situations. Silver has estimated that currently his soul¡¯s strength is comparable to those who have reached the 10th level. The next morning Silver got dressed with the help of his mother then proceeded to the dining hall to have breakfast , as usual Kaz was glaring at him. After breakfast Silver went to his father¡¯s study, he was about to knock on the door when a deep voice came from the room saying, ¡°Enter!¡± Silver entered the room and could see his father sitting on a chair reading a book, Silver then scanned the room with his eyes, they landed on a table which had 8 books placed onto it. Akela seeing his son look at the training books and not even greet his father smiled and said, ¡°Hmph! I had to part with 300,000 gold coins to borrow these books and you can¡¯t even pay respects to your own father.¡± After hearing his father¡¯s words Silver was stunned, it should be known that 1 gold coin was enough for a family to live without worry for a year. For his father to spend that amount of money means 2 things that the techniques he borrowed are very precious to the clan and that his father cares deeply for him. Silver then knelt which surprised Akela and said, ¡°Father, thank you I will not disappoint you.¡± Stolen story; please report.Akela stared at his son who seemed to have understood just how big his sacrifice was, he then nodded and pointed towards the table which had the training manuals atop it and said, ¡°I acquired four of the best lightning techniques and four light technique manuals. I have to attend a meeting with the elders and I¡¯ll be gone for about 3-4 hours, within that time take a look at all the technique manuals and you may choose two lightning technique manuals and two light technique manuals. Any more would just hinder training.¡± ¡°Yes, Father.¡± Said Silver as he stood up and headed towards the table with the technique manuals. ¡°I wonder which techniques this child will choose, it¡¯s a pity those two light techniques can only be trained to the first level.¡± Thought Akela as he left the room. Silver carried a chair and placed it next to the table he then sat down and began to read about the six lightning techniques which were; - Lightning storm : this allows the user to transform divine power to electricity and use it to attack. It has six stages and at the final stage ones divine power is completely transformed to lightning. - Thunderclap fist : this needs one to be struck by lightning at least once to train it, when trained to the fourth(highest) stage one will have the strongest body as well as the strongest hand to hand combat technique. - Cloud step : this allows the user to gather lightning divine power towards their legs granting them incredible speed. When trained to the highest (fourth) stage one will gain the ability to run as fast as lightning. - Electro blade: this technique contains sword techniques that boasts the title of fastest blade technique in existence. ¡°Hmm¡­ I¡¯ll pass on the thunderclap fist technique as I don¡¯t want to be struck by lightning, in my previous life I specialized in using divine power and my body to do combat so the electro blade technique is out. Ok! From today onwards I will practice the lightning storm technique and the cloud step technique. Mm..a good balance of attack and evasion.¡± Said Silver while nodding in satisfaction. Silver then turned towards the light techniques however he noticed something peculiar of the four techniques, 2 were created by the Tenshi clan however only the first two pages of the the books could be read while the rest were in another language which looked ancient. Silver decided to look at the other non-tenshi clan books first but he couldn¡¯t help but feel disappointed, the first was a technique called holy light which allowed the user to heal himself and others and when trained fully could even re-grow a limb. The other one is a defense technique called Holy Shield which covers the user in a holy light which can block all attacks and completely nullify them as long as the attacker is weaker or at the same level as the user. Silver then looked at the Tenshi technique manual and on the cover was a message written by the patriarch of the clan, ¡°this is the strongest defense technique of the Tenshi clan the, White wing technique¡­..however with the extermination of the Tenshi clan their ancient language has also been lost and thus this technique¡¯s first two pages which was able to be translated because of being written in their native(common) language are able to be practiced while the rest which was written in their ancient language is impossible to decipher. However these first two pages by themselves are already treasures, they are already very powerful but alas no one except Tenshi clan members has been able to train in it.¡± Silver was stunned when he opened the White wing manual because the technique didn¡¯t just help with refining divine power but also if successfully trained to the 2nd level gives one the body of a ¡°Tenshi¡± clan member which includes wings. The colour of the wings symbolizes potential. After looking through the first two pages and being completely absorbed in them he unconsciously turned to the next page where only the words written in the ancient language welcomed him. However what happened next completely shocked Silver, the letters in the book began to slowly become readable and Silver began to feel his divine power rush to his head only to be absorbed by his brain. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why is my divine power depleting? Why are those words suddenly becoming readable?¡± Silver couldn¡¯t understand what was going all he knew was that his divine power was slowly depleting while the words were slowly becoming readable. That was when Silver had an idea which hit him like a lightning bolt, ¡°Could it be that this language was also a part of the knowledge given to me by the divine tiger!¡± thought Silver. Having understood what was going on Silver sat cross-legged and concentrated on the ancient words which were slowly becoming readable. ¡°What a complex language! No wonder my divine power was depleting there¡¯s just too much information on this language!¡± thought Silver as he continued to concentrate. Chapter 5 - Light Divine Power. Although Silver was right about the fact that this seemingly ancient language was indeed included in the knowledge given to him by the Divine Tiger however the reason why his divine power was being consumed wasn¡¯t because the ancient language was too complex. If that was the case then before understanding this world¡¯s language Silver would also have needed to concentrate and his divine power would also have been consumed, the real reason why his divine power was being consumed was because the ancient scriptures written in the book wasn¡¯t just a language, it was also a magical spell. After sitting cross-legged concentrating on the ancient scriptures of the Tenshi clan for hours Silver suddenly trembled as if he was hit by invisible lightning, huge amounts of information was entering his brain as the ancient words on the White wing technique book began to fade and then completely disappear leaving only the first two pages. Silver was shocked, beads of sweat could be seen on his forehead a testament to how hard he needed to concentrate, he then calmed himself down thanks to the [divine mind purification technique] and then closed his eyes, Silver could feel the information of the White Wing technique in his head. He then opened his eyes and smiled however that smile soon faded and became a frown, the reason being that on the original training manual of the White Wing technique only the first two pages remained with words while the rest were just blank. The training manual of the white wing technique was completely golden, the material of the manual was not paper but appeared to be some sort of animal skin which was both flexible and as hard as steel at the same time. Staring at the training manual Silver¡¯s mind was running wild with thoughts, ¡°How do I explain this to father?¡­.should I lie to him?...No he¡¯ll see through me immediately.¡± Silver then sighed while shrugging his shoulders and said, ¡°Whatever happens, will!¡± He then continued to examine the White wing training manual¡¯s first two pages which introduced the White Wing technique as the strongest defensive technique of the Tenshi clan, the first page of the book talked about the training methods and how to reach the first level while the second page only gave a brief account of the technique¡¯s power at the second level, ¡°At the second level the user¡¯s body would transform into that of a ¡°Tenshi¡± clan member and would also grow wings, the colour of the wings would represent potential.¡± Silver then put down the book and closed his eyes this time he wanted to look through the contents of the scriptures in his mind, he wanted to know if the scriptures had the training methods to get to the second level. Immediately a smile appeared on Silver¡¯s face, the scriptures not only contained the training methods to reach the second level but also all the training methods up to the sixth level. However one thing caught Silver¡¯s eye in the animal skin training manual the technique is called [White Wing] while in the scriptures the technique is called [Re-Birth] technique. The scriptures also contain a brief history of the Tenshi clan which reads, ¡°Our clan descended from a sovereign that resembled an angel who fled to our world after being betrayed by his emissary and was ambushed by two other sovereigns. When he came to our world he was very weak and was fluctuating between life and death at which point in time he was found by a young female tribal girl, that girl was called Saraz and was from a tribe called Tenshi, Saraz nursed him to health and after 5 years the fallen sovereign Jia had regained ? of his full power at which point in time he had grown quite fond of Saraz so he took her as his wife. Saraz was the daughter of the chief of the tribe, by marrying Saraz and also being the strongest in the tribe, Jia soon became the head of the tribe at which point in time the clan began to expand. After just 2 years the Tenshi clan grew extremely strong, it was then that Jia¡¯s son came into the world however Jia was unhappy because his son didn¡¯t posses wings. After a few months passed Jia examined his son again only to find that his son¡¯s body was noticeably different from his not only did he not have wings his body was also only slightly stronger than that of normal humans however as Jia continued to examine his son he found that he possessed amazing latent talent and only needed to awaken it to become like him. That was when Jia developed the [Re-Birth] technique. The other clansmen also trained in the [Re-Birth] technique and were reborn into angel like beings although had considerably less power compared to Jia and his descendants.¡± Silver then opened his eyes and thought to himself, ¡°This technique was developed by a sovereign! , No wonder the Tenshi clan members were so strong, but if they had a fallen sovereign with them why were they wiped out?¡± Silver then stood up and walked toward the second light technique he then hesitantly picked it up and opened it, he read through the first two pages which again had a message written by the Patriarch of the divine tiger clan, ¡°This is an attack type light technique called [Essence Strengthening] which allows the user to strengthen their weapons as well as the weapons of allies. It can only be trained to the first level which would double any weapons attack force.¡± Silver couldn¡¯t help but sigh; he was disappointed because compared to the [Re-birth] technique this [Essence Strengthening] technique didn¡¯t seem that powerful. However as Silver turned the next page this time only a little bit of his divine power was consumed and he didn¡¯t need to concentrate that much as he had understood the language. Information then rushed into Silver¡¯s brain while the ancient scriptures began to fade and eventually disappeared from the manual. Silver then put the book down, sat on the ground cross-legged and closed his eyes, he was focusing on analyzing the scriptures of the second light technique however what he found shocked him. This time not only was the name of the technique different but also everything about the technique was different. It was a whole new technique! The technique was [Spectral weapon] which allowed the user to condense the light around him and use it as a weapon/weapons i.e. as long as there¡¯s light one can turn it into whatever they want however the scriptures call this technique, ¡°The most difficult technique to train.¡± One reason being the requirements needed to train in this technique which were; One must be a third level ¡°Tenshi¡± (the same as someone who¡¯s reached the third level of the re-birth technique). The colour of one¡¯s wings must be grey and above. The wings of a ¡°Tenshi¡± were classified in colours which signified potential in learning the clan¡¯s techniques. They are; If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.The lowest level which is Yellow wings. Followed by Violet wings. The Middle level being Grey wings. The Highest level being White wings. Only Jia and his descendants had Black wings. Silver then stood up, a huge smile on his face, to him he had acquired one of a kind treasures however he understood that he can¡¯t be too arrogant after all the ¡°Tenshi¡± clan had these techniques and were still destroyed meaning that the other clans also have their own treasure techniques including the divine tiger clan for example the [Lightning Storm] technique is comparable to [Spectral Weapon]. Just as Silver stood up the door suddenly opened and Akela came inside, immediately the smile on Silver¡¯s face disappeared like it was never there before his face turned slightly pale as he watched his father approach him. ¡°Have you chosen your preferred techniques?¡± asked Akela while staring at his son who for the first time was avoiding making eye contact with him. Silver hesitantly nodded while facing the ground. ¡°Tell me which one¡¯s you have chosen!¡± said Akela. Silver looked up at his father and said, ¡°I chose [Lightning Storm] and [Cloud Step] for the lightning attribute.¡± Hearing his son say Lightning Storm a smile appeared on his face as he said, ¡°Good, Good I also practice the lightning storm technique and have reached the fifth stage. As for cloud step I have trained to the second stage. However in the later years of your training you can take up [Thunderclap fist]. Mm¡± Silver seeing his father smile sighed and said, ¡°Father, forgive me I only intended to view the light techniques however¡­..¡± Hearing his son apologize the smile on Akela¡¯s face disappeared and was replaced with small frown, ¡°Tell me what happened and leave no detail out.¡± Silver then explained everything to his father, leaving out some parts of course. ¡°Hmm¡­so you don¡¯t know why the words rushed to your head?¡± said Akela staring at his son face looking for any signs of him lying however he found no such thing as Silver only appeared to be a cute confused 1 year old with watery eyes, not knowing what was going on-which was of course an act.- Akela took the light technique books into his hands and just like Silver said, the ancient words had completely disappeared from the book. ¡°Haaaa¡­.no matter, what¡¯s done is done I can¡¯t change that. Little Silver these books are precious treasures of our clan losing the information is nothing but losing without gaining something is just foolish, so tell me the truth are you able to understand those scriptures?¡± asked Akela while sighing. Silver looked at his father and hesitantly nodded; Silver had chosen to trust his father instead of lie to him. Akela with a sigh of relief said, ¡°Good! You must be tired, go and rest we¡¯ll talk about the rest later.¡± It was now nightfall, Silver left the room and went straight back to his room, he closed the door and sat cross-legged on his bed. ¡°It¡¯s impossible for me to train [Spectral Weapon] until I reach the third level of [Re-Birth], and since my body is still that of a child all I can do is practice the breathing techniques of [Re-Birth] and build up my divine power until it¡¯s sufficient enough to reach the first level.¡± thought Silver. The [Re-Birth] technique gave the user the ability to transform his body to that of a ¡°Tenshi¡± who possessed amazingly strong bodies in fact the Tenshi clan members were known for their extremely tough as steel skin as well as unbelievable regenerative power. Once one has reached the second level even if your arm is chopped off it will take at most an hour to regrow. Silver then closed his eyes and began to follow the instructions on how to accumulate the light divine power/Qi into his divine core(divine core=dantian). The scriptures say that, ¡°To absorb light divine power/Qi one must first be able to feel it around them and then will be able to pull it towards them.¡± Silver followed the instructions he cleared his mind and attempted to feel the light divine power around him, 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours¡­..nothing. Silver was unable to feel the light divine power and then suddenly Silver had an idea he looked around his room and found that very little light was in his room because it was nightfall, the only light in the room was coming from rays of moonlight passing through the small cracks on the window. ¡°Moonlight! If I go outside maybe I can absorb the moonlight.¡± Thought Silver as he rushed out of his room and headed towards the courtyard. He then sat cross-legged next to a small pond in the courtyard; Silver immediately cleared his mind of any unnecessary thoughts and then attempted to feel the light divine power around him. Twenty minutes passed when suddenly Silver could feel a thin milky-white mist like power approach him, ¡°This is it! I¡¯ve finally been able to feel light divine power.¡± thought Silver as his body trembled with excitement, he then forcefully calmed himself down so as to not lose the feeling. The mist like power drew closer to Silver until it was within arm¡¯s length of him, Silver then pulled the mist towards him and when it was close enough he directly inhaled it and stored it in his divine core. Now that Silver had gotten the feeling and had successfully absorbed some light divine power he continued this process until dawn, he stopped because he felt that was the maximum capacity his divine core could handle. Chapter 6 - Break Jaw City. It has been 6 years since Silver first absorbed light divine power, during that time Akela also taught Silver how to absorb lightning divine power. Currently the inside of Silver''s divine core has two types of divine power constantly fighting for Supremacy. Akela had told him that normally when one reached the Soul compression stage the stronger attribute would be the one to fuse with his soul. However for now he could use both the light and lightning divine power. Silver''s older brother, Kaz had been sent to Eclipse academy a year ago, it was located at the border of the Divine tiger clan and was just as powerful as any one of the great clans, the reason he was sent to the Academy was because he was born with the fire attribute. The members of the divine Tiger Clan mostly had the wind and water attribute, having the fire attribute was very rare and thus the divine tiger Clan had very few fire attribute members who of course weren''t qualified to teach the young Master of the Southern branch. At this time Silver was sitting cross-legged in the courtyard as Akela was instructing him on the methods of how to convert lightning divine power into solid lightning. If Silver was able to covert lightning divine power to lightning it would mean he had reached the first level of [Lightning Storm]. Although Silver is only seven years old because he is constantly absorbing divine power he is already 1.4 meters tall and has hair slightly longer than shoulder length neatly tied into a pony tail. "Little Silver concentrate on your lightning divine power, send a small part of it into your mind and the rest to your right hand." Said Akela in a low voice. Silver followed his father''s instructions and sent a small part of his lightning divine power to his mind and the rest to his right hand, he could feel a tingling sensation coming from his palm. ¡°Now, in your mind picture a single lightning bolt striking the ground, then focus on the origin of the lightning bolt and slowly replay the image of the lightning bolt from when it forms into an electric charge up to the point it hits the ground.¡± ¡°That is all the help I can give you, Good luck!" said Akela as he looked at his son who had beads of sweat on his forehead. Silver followed his father''s instructions and continued to replay the image of the lightning bolt forming and then hitting the ground, he paid extra attention to the point of origin of the lightning bolt. Silver then suddenly had a feeling; he felt that if he could project the image of the Thunderbolt forming from a thundercloud to his right hand maybe something would happen. So Silver projected the image of the Thunderbolt forming to his right hand, when suddenly without his command a minuscule amount of light divine power shot out from his core and headed towards his right hand. *BAM!* The two different attributes collided , Silver felt a sharp pain in his right hand so he opened his eyes and looked at his right hand only to find that there were countless little lightning snakes coiling around in his palm. The little lightning snakes were flashing a bright dark blue color but with a faint white glow. ¡°Success.¡± Silver had a huge smile on his face as he looked at the small lightning snakes coiling around his palm. He didn¡¯t exactly know how he was able to do it but he felt it had something to do with his light divine power. Seeing that his son had succeeded in creating lightning Akela rushed over with a huge smile on his face. ¡°Good¡­you were able to create lightning on your first try!¡± said Akela while stroking his son¡¯s hair. However Silver was somewhat disappointed he thought that he would be able to summon huge amounts of lightning not something as small as this, Which was already consuming huge amounts of his lightning divine power. Noticing the look of disappointment on Silver¡¯s face Akela laughed heartily, ¡°It took me one month and countless tries just to summon lightning while you are disappointed. Hmph! try and fire the lightning in your hand towards that tree.¡± The tree Akela spoke of couldn¡¯t be described as a tree but rather a large plant it was about 2 meters long and 3 feet wide. (A/N - The tree resembles a Japanese white pine but bigger.) Silver then hesitantly pointed his finger towards the tree and willed the lightning in his palm to attack. The lightning then shot out moving at a terrifying speed and with a *BANG!* sound it hit the tree; the result was that there was nothing left of the tree but ash. Silver was completely shocked; he never imagined that such a little lightning bolt could have such power. A huge smile appeared on Silver¡¯s face. ¡°Hmph! That¡¯s enough for today you have the rest of the day off!¡± said Akela in a low voice with a hint of a smile on his face. ¡°Yes, Father.¡± Said Silver as he left. As soon as Silver left the faint smile on Akela¡¯s face disappeared as he rushed to the spot where the tree had been destroyed and began to examine it. ¡°How could it have been so powerful it was only the first step? This son of mine is truly destined to become a huge figure in the future maybe he could even go to that place.¡± Thought Akela while shaking his head. ¡°What am I thinking, even our patriarch who has lived for 10,000 years cannot go to that place, how can my son? Haaa... I just got too excited.¡± Said Akela while sighing and laughing bitterly. When Silver turned 4 he was allowed to leave Break Jaw Castle and roam around Break Jaw City. The first time Silver left Break Jaw Castle he was accompanied by bodyguards and a female servant who explained to him about life within the city. Break Jaw city is divided into three areas; The first area is comprised of the living quarters for commoners and merchants as well as most of the city guards and is known as Backbone bay. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.The second area is comprised of the living quarters for the nobles and higher ranking officials and is known as Tiger Pelt estate. The third area is the largest and also the main area where business is conducted within Break Jaw city, it is filled with markets and thousands of shops selling all kinds of things from books to rare animals and even slaves were traded. This area is known as Trade hall. Break jaw City is surrounded by a huge forest which goes on for miles. Inside of this forest lie many wild beasts therefore majority of goods sold in the trade hall are things acquired by hunters/mercenaries. The most precious of which are beast cores which although cannot be refined to increase one''s own power, are able to boost the power of one''s weapons or armor for example beast cores acquired from earth attribute beasts when placed onto one''s armor increase it¡¯s defense exponentially. Beasts are classified based on the color of their cores which are all outside their bodies; The Initial stage levels 1-9 have grey colored cores. The Evolution stage (Divine Baptism) levels 10-99 have white colored cores. The Soul Compression stage levels 100- 100,000 have black colored cores. There is no way to tell the exact power of a beast, only experienced hunters and mercenaries are capable of differentiating between a 100th level beast and a 500th level beast and so on. Silver was currently was currently walking through tiger pelt estate heading towards the trade hall. Most people in Break Jaw city knew Silver not because he was the young master of the Southern branch but because of his unique silver hair. Silver enjoyed going to trade hall, he liked to buy books on famous heroes such as Graydon who was able to slay a dragon. However the real reason Silver came to trade hall was so that he could listen to the stories of the various mercenaries that gathered to sell their wares which mostly consisted of beast cores and carcasses. When Silver arrived at the entrance of trade hall immediately all the people bowed with smiles on their faces, the reason why they were smiling was because they liked Silver not only was he not arrogant towards commoners but he would even urge them not to bow. "Young master, we will escort you." said the guards standing at the entrance of Trade hall. Trade hall was filled with a variety of stores on both the right hand side and left hand side; there were also many people who placed their wares on mats lying on the floor. As Silver continued to walk forward he saw a familiar figure in the distance, it was his big sister Asil. Silver really liked his big sister because she would always smile and was also the only one in Break Jaw castle aside from his mother who would still treat him like a child. Asil also noticed Silver and decided to go towards him. "Little Silver why are you here? Shouldn''t you be training with father?" asked Asil. "We finished early!" said Silver while looking at his sister. Although Asil wasn¡¯t very talented in cultivation she already had the makings of a beauty. She had slightly pale skin, hair that flowed all the way down to her waist and was wearing a green cheongsam. (https://www.google.com/search?q=changpao&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMIvr3yxMnrxgIVYo3bCh1MRQ-O&biw=1366&bih=643#tbm=isch&q=cheongsam) ¡°Good!...you and I never get to spend time together, today you will accompany me.¡± said Asil who had already reached out and grabbed Silver¡¯s arm. Asil and Silva spent the entire day together browsing the various shops and buying whatever they wanted. They only returned to Break Jaw castle when the sun was setting. After having dinner they parted ways, Asil returned to her room while Silva went to the second floor of Break Jaw castle which was the training hall. The Training hall was quite large it was about 100 metres long and 150 metres wide, the training hall had three sections; -The meditation area which is the smallest of the three and had tens of small rooms within it. -The combat area which is the largest of the three. The lecture theater which is where seminars on techniques are had. Silver headed towards the meditation area and entered one of the rooms; the room was completely empty apart from a single mat on the floor. He then sat cross-legged on the mat and closed his eyes; he focused on reading the scriptures of the [Re-Birth] technique. The scriptures read, "Once one has accumulated enough light divine power he must circulate the divine power through out his body strengthening his bones and removing the bodies impurities thus improving it however this process must be done before one reaches the 10th level. This is because the process of circulating divine power to one''s body is the equivalent of the condensation of the first nine levels to reach the tenth." Silver opened his eyes breathed in a mouthful of air then closed his eyes again. Silver was currently at the ninth level of divine power and was stuck unable to advance thus he chose to use this method to break through. He then began to circulate his divine power throughout his body. Chapter 7 - Consequences of gaining power. ngghhh¡­ahhhh¡± Low grunts could be heard coming from a small room in the meditation area. Those grunts and sounds were being made by a young man. It was Silver; however the current Silver was in extreme pain. One hour ago! ¡­¡­¡­ ¡­¡­¡­ Silver had begun to circulate the light divine power through out his body according to the ancient scriptures of the [Re-Birth] technique. However, just as his bones and muscles began to absorb the light divine power Silver began to feel unimaginable pain. ¡°Wh¡­.why is there so much pain the scriptures don¡¯t mention anything about pain?¡± thought Silver. In fact not only did the scriptures not mention pain, it was written that one would have a soothing feeling like as if your entire body was being cleansed. The reason Silver was feeling this pain was because of his actions these past few years. Every time Silver would absorb light divine power he would then continue to refine it using the [Divine mind purification] technique. Light divine power is already the most pure of all divine power, however Silver continued to refine the light divine power to an even purer state thus his current predicament. At this time Silver could feel as all the pores in his body stretched and huge amounts of filth began to pour out. Due to the pain of his pores enlarging so abruptly plus the pain of his body growing Silver fainted. Meanwhile outside the training hall it was now afternoon and everyone in Break Jaw castle was in a state of confusion and worry. The reason for this was because early in the morning two servant girls went to wake up the young master however they got no answer so they opened the door and found that no one was inside. Akela was informed of the situation and a search began. The guards of Break Jaw castle were confident that young master Silver was still somewhere within the castle as they would have noticed if he had left. After a few hours one of the Elders was heading towards the second floor of Break Jaw castle, the training hall. He entered and proceeded towards the lecture theatre however he suddenly stopped because he could feel strong fluctuations of divine power coming from the meditation area. The elder proceeded towards the meditation area and when he entered he could see golden colored light coming from one of the small rooms. The elder opened the door only to suddenly be blown back almost 10 meters fortunately he was an elder who had reached the Soul compression stage; he did a flip in the air and landed softly on the ground. Strong light divine power as well as blinding golden light was coming from the small room. There was only one person who had light divine power in the entire Southern branch of the Divine Tiger clan and that was the third young master, Silver. Not wasting another moment the elder left the training hall and headed straight to where Akela was to tell him of his findings. Akela was currently in the courtyard of Break Jaw castle, he was pacing while thinking of how Silver had disappeared when suddenly an elder came rushing forward while saying, ¡°My lord, I¡¯ve found the third young master!¡± After he heard those words Akela immediately felt like a weight had been lifted off his heart. ¡°Where?¡± said Akela hurriedly. Seeing that Akela was anxious and in a hurry the elder didn¡¯t bother to explain and pointed towards the second floor of Break Jaw castle while saying, ¡°In the training hall.¡± Immediately lightning appeared under Akela¡¯s feet and with one step he disappeared leaving only after images behind, in the blink of an eye Akela had arrived at the training hall and used his soul to scout the area. He immediately noticed the divine power coming from the meditation area, he cautiously approached the room that light divine power was coming from. However what he saw shocked him. Silver was completely naked and his body was enveloped in golden light that was so bright Akela had to squint to see Silver. However what shocked him was that the current Silver was completely different from the Silver of yesterday. His hair was no longer completely silver and now had hints of gold mixed in. His body had also completely changed. Before Silver was 4.5 feet tall but now he is 5.2 feet tall and his body was now much more muscular. Not the type of muscles associated with body-building but the type of muscles associated with agility, like those of a leopard or Jaguar. Black filth was constantly coming out of his Silvers pores. Seeing that Akela immediately understood because Silver had once explained to him that when he reaches the first level of [Re-Birth] his body would be cleansed and all impurities would leave his body. Akela then ordered that the training hall would be off limits for now, no one knew why except the elder who found Silver but even he didn¡¯t know the specifics. Three days had passed Saphir had stayed by her son¡¯s side the entire time however because she wasn¡¯t a cultivator she needed to stay a certain distance away from the light or it would repel her. Suddenly, the light surrounding Silver begun to gradually fade and after a few hours it completely dissipated. After another day Silver finally regained consciousness. He¡¯s body was not sore at all, on the contrary Silver felt extremely powerful like he could do anything. Akela who was waiting for Silver to wake up threw him some clothes and said, ¡°Go see your mother then take a bath, we¡¯ll talk later.¡± After getting dressed Silver walked out of the room and found his mother waiting for him outside, she looked like she had been awake for days. As soon as she saw Silver, she ran over and took him into her embrace; tears began to flow from her face. ¡°Thank God you¡¯re alright!¡± said Saphir. After having calmed down Saphir wiped the tears from her face and said, ¡°Silver I don¡¯t know what happened because your father refused to tell me but please be careful in the future, if not for your sake then for mine.¡± You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.Silver was always happy whenever he was with his mother however seeing her current state he felt like he had done wrong by her. ¡°I¡¯m sorry mother, I¡¯ll try to be careful in the future!¡± said Silver. ¡°Good now go take a bath, you¡¯re very dirty.¡± Said Saphir with a smile. Silver left for his room, took a bath and after changing relaxed on his bed while contemplating on the events of the past few days. He could feel just how powerful his body was; Silver estimated that he was at around the 14th level which means he was now a ¡°practitioner¡±. Practitioner is the title given to all under the Soul Compression stage but above the Baptism stage. However because Silver¡¯s baptism wasn¡¯t a normal baptism he was able to jump to the 14th level of divine power. Silver then tried to summon lightning, he reached out his right hand and thought of lightning appearing in his hand and in that moment it appeared. Silver was immediately shocked, before he needed to concentrate and send a part of his lightning divine power towards his mind but now with but a thought he can summon lightning as well as control it much better compared to before. The lightning Silver had summoned this time was visually bigger, last time they were just tiny sparks coiling around his palm but this time actual lightning was coiling around his arm up to his elbow. ¡°My previous lightning could turn an entire tree to ash I wonder what this lightning could do.¡± Thought Silver. In truth Silver knew that his lightning shouldn¡¯t have been able to destroy a tree and turn it to ash, the reason why Silver¡¯s lightning was able to do such an act was because of the miniscule light divine power that was able to fuse with the lightning divine power in Silver¡¯s body. As to how that was possible it remains a mystery one which Silver doesn¡¯t care to solve, after all the lightning is stronger which is a good thing why should he care why it is so. ¡­.. ¡­¡­.. Night fell. ¡°Young master, your father has summoned you to his study.¡± a female servant¡¯s voice came from the outside of Silvers room. After hearing the servant girl¡¯s message Silver woke up, tidied up his room and headed to Akela¡¯s study. This time Silver didn¡¯t bother knocking and just entered. Akela was currently sitting on a chair, deep in thought. He only came back from his world of thought when he heard Silver come in. Silver walked closer to his father and then stopped when he was about arm¡¯s length away from Akela. Akela looked at Silver closely noticing all his son¡¯s differences, from his hair to his body even his aura which had changed considerably. Akela sighed, ¡°Young Silver, it looks like you were successful in your training however I wish you would have told me before you began. You caused quite a commotion today.¡± ¡°Forgive me father.¡± Said Silver while bowing. ¡°It¡¯s alright but then again there is another issue I wish to discuss with you.¡± said Akela. ¡°Please speak Father!¡± said Silver. Akela stared at his son for a good while and then said, ¡°Its about your current aura, it doesn¡¯t befit that of a member of the divine tiger clan and I¡¯m afraid it will bring you problems in the future. However there is a way for you to become more powerful as well as truly become a member of the divine tiger clan but it is also very dangerous. Therefore I want you to make your own decision.¡± Silver was stunned for a moment as he tried to wrap his head around his father¡¯s words but after a short while he regained his composure. ¡°Father, what do you mean my current aura doesn¡¯t befit one of the divine tiger clan and will bring me problems in the future?¡± Akela sighed and said, ¡°Your current aura is most definitely that of a Tenshi clan member thus the older generations of the Great Clans including our own, who have lived for thousands of years will be able to immediately tell and will most likely see you as a threat and will seek your death or they will torture you for the training methods of the [Re-Birth] technique.¡± Silver hesitantly asked, ¡°Is there where to mask my aura!¡± Akela shook his head and said, ¡°There is but powerful people will easily be able to break through the techniques of someone weaker. However like I said there is a way to not only change your aura but can also possibly make you stronger in the process but the danger is considerable.¡± ¡°Father no matter what it is I¡¯ll do it.¡± Akela seeing his son¡¯s resolve nodded and said, ¡°Good first I¡¯ll explain about the divine baptism of our clan. I¡¯m sure you already know that the other great clans have their own special baptisms while the commoners undergo the exact same type of baptism; our Divine tiger clan is also the same. We undergo the divine baptism which gives us stronger bodies, some traits of our ancestor the divine tiger as well as the aura of the divine tiger.¡± Silver then said, ¡°So if I want to get the aura of the divine tiger I must undergo the divine baptism, but is it possible to undergo two baptisms?¡± ¡°That¡¯s why it¡¯s dangerous, it is not impossible but it is only possible for those who have two attributes. The danger lies in the fact that it is extremely taxing on the soul.¡± said Akela. Silver then thought for some time while occasionally looking at his father. It would be a lie if Silver said he wasn¡¯t scared at this point in time. However in the end he had no choice but to undergo the divine baptism after all if he didn¡¯t, Silver would become a target for the rest of his life. The only thing Silver could do was clench his teeth and say, ¡°Father, I¡¯LL DO IT!!¡± Chapter 8 - One week. Akela told Silver that going through two baptisms in a row would decrease the already slim possibility of success; therefore Silver had to wait for some time. Currently Silver is in the combat area of the training hall; he is about to begin a sparing match with one of the guards of Break Jaw castle. Silver is planning on using only his physical abilities in the spar; he is doing this because he wants to gauge his current body¡¯s strength. The person Silver is facing is one of the few guards allowed to stay in tiger pelt estate. The man is quite large and although his face is that of a middle-aged man he already had quite a bit of grey hair, his name is Reevus and he is dressed in dazzling dark blue armor. Reevus is armed with a wooden sword while Silver is bare-handed as he doesn¡¯t like bladed weapons. ¡°Young master get ready I will attack but be at ease I will not injure you.¡± Said Reevus with a smile. ¡°Mm¡­come at me!¡± said Silver. As soon as that was said both Silver and Reevus dashed towards one another; however Reevus was a bit faster as he was using divine power. In fact Reevus was shocked with Silver¡¯s running speed; even if you told him that Silver was using no divine power he probably wouldn¡¯t believe you at all and would instead just laugh. Silver was heading straight for Reevus, he wanted to get as close as possible to Reevus so that when he attacked he would be able to accurately test his reaction time. Noticing Silver¡¯s intention of attacking head on Reevus acted just like Silver wanted him to. He waited for Silver to get within his attack range and then swung his sword swiftly aiming for Silver¡¯s head; however he only added very little divine power to the sword strike, reason being he didn¡¯t want to harm the young master as that would surely cause him many problems. However what happened next shocked both him and Silver. Silver had dodged the sword but the reason they were both shocked was because Silver dodged the sword the precise moment Reevus began his sword movement. ¡°At that moment wha..what happened?¡± thought Silver. The reason even Silver was shocked at himself was because he didn¡¯t control his body when he dodged the sword; in fact he hadn¡¯t even began to react to the sword when suddenly he felt this powerful sense of danger and his body just reacted. ¡°Could this be instinct?¡± thought Silver. As Silver was lost in thought contemplating on the events that just occurred Reevus suddenly said, ¡°Young master, I have matters I must attend to, please excuse me!¡± ¡°Ah! Uncle Reevus, didn¡¯t you promise you would instruct me for two hours?¡± asked Silver with a slightly annoyed look on his face. ¡°Haha¡­I admire you young master you are so young and yet you continuously train!¡± Silver was shocked reason being the number of people who knew that Silver was training can be counted on one hand and are all very loyal. ¡°How did you know I train?¡± asked Silver with a hint of curiosity in his voice. ¡°Hmm¡­. I am a practitioner at the 90th level, even if I was holding back, at your current level of power you shouldn¡¯t have been able to dodge that sword. So I came to the conclusion that Lord Akela was training you in the art of combat, was I perhaps wrong?¡± said Reevus. ¡°Oh! So he had misunderstood. Not only was he wrong about the type of training I do, he was also wrong about why I was able to dodge that sword.¡± Thought Silver. Silver then smiled at Reevus, shook his head and said, ¡°You have completely seen through me Uncle Reevus but could you please keep my training a secret?¡± Reevus smiled and said, ¡°Of course I can but I must say, not only is your brother outstanding but so are you! Our Southern branch will surely prosper in the future.¡± ¡°Eh¡­my brother isn¡¯t he in Eclipse academy?¡± asked Silver. ¡°Oh! You haven¡¯t heard, your brother was crowned as the freshman king at this year¡¯s inner-school competition. His performance was so good that Fire Sage Gasul took him as one of his personal disciple.¡± Said Reevus. ¡°Ho!...he was that good, do you happen to know what level he has reached?¡± asked Silver. ¡°Mm¡­from what I¡¯ve heard it looks like he¡¯s at the 12th level. Haaaa¡­a true genius!¡± said Reevus with a sigh as well as a hint of envy. ¡°What just the 12th level is considered a genius then aren¡¯t I classified as a super genius! However be that as it may at my current level of power I am just too weak, I must first get stronger in order to be conceited, I won¡¯t make the same mistake twice.¡± Thought Silver. Reevus then left the training hall while Silver returned to his room to rest as well as to think. ¡­. ¡­¡­¡­¡­ A few hours passed and it was now late afternoon. ¡°Young master, Lord Akela has ordered that you go to his study at once!¡± said a servant girl. ¡°Hmm¡­Father is ordering me to go to his study? This must be something urgent.¡± Thought Silver. Silver got up from his bed and immediately headed to Akela¡¯s study. When he arrived at the door of the study Silver heard his father argue with another man who had an aged voice. ¡°Akela the decision is made!¡± said the aged voice. Silver waited for a while until there was no sound coming from the study then entered only to find to his surprise only his father was in the room and no one else the only peculiar thing was that his father¡¯s hand was glowing. ¡°Father, you sent for me?¡± asked Silver. Akela had a very ugly expression on his face it could only be described as a combination of anger and rage. He looked at Silver and then sighed. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.¡°Little Silver decisions have been made which also concern you; one¡¯s that I cannot dispute.¡± Said Akela with a look of worry. ¡°Father what is it?¡± Akela looked at Silver who had a look of confusion on his face and said, ¡°In the Divine tiger clan we have traditions that have always been followed. One of which include a culling process to remove the weak and only priorities the growth of those who have potential.¡± Silver looked at his father who had a look of worry on his face and asked, ¡°But don¡¯t I already fit the qualifications of one who has potential?¡± Akela¡¯s face was filled with even more worry as he said, ¡°That is where the problem lies. The culling ceremony will take place in around 1 week, usually those who are below 10 don¡¯t participate but because in this generation many infants were conceived the clan wishes to categories the useful and the useless at an earlier time therefore you must also participate. However the problem is that your aura is still that of a Tenshi clan member.¡± Silver¡¯s face immediately changed, he remembered what his father told him about what would happen if people found out about his Tenshi clan body. After a seemingly long time of silence, suddenly Silver said; ¡°Father I understand that undergoing the next baptism so soon after my first one will be dangerous but we have no choice, either way I still face both danger and the possibility of death, at least if I undergo the baptism I still have a chance.¡± Akela was shocked, because even though his son looked scared and worried he was still able to make a decision as well as think rationally. ¡°Ok! However now that we only have one week, the divine baptism must be undergone as quickly as possible as you will also need time to recover afterward.¡± Said Akela. Silver simply nodded. Akela left the room and said, ¡°Follow me!¡± Silver followed closely behind Akela, soon they arrived at the third floor of Break Jaw castle which was the testing area only this time they didn¡¯t go through the first door but rather entered the second. The inside of the room was filled with many statues resembling tigers, the walls of the room were riddled with what seemed like magical incantations even the ceiling had a huge painting of a white tiger which bore a striking resemblance to the Sovereign tiger Silver had met. However the thing Silver was focused on was a huge spherical pool in the centre of the room which was filled to the brim with grayish colored liquid. Suddenly in Akela¡¯s hand as if out of thin air a red gem the size of a fist appeared, he then threw it to Silver and said, ¡°Take that gem and enter the pool no matter what do not let go of it.¡± Silver immediately grabbed the gem and after inspecting it a bit, took of his all his clothes and got into the pool. He swam to the middle where he just floated with nothing happening. After about 15 minutes the gem in Silver¡¯s hand began to glow and immediately after it did Silver was pulled by a powerful force downwards into the water. He closed his mouth making sure that he held his breath until he could figure out how to get back up to the surface. Unfortunately the force kept pulling Silver down; after about 10 minutes Silver¡¯s face had turned purple and he was unable to hold his breath any longer. He also realized that even if the force stopped pulling him downwards, to make it back to the surface with his current oxygen supply would be impossible. ¡°Phaah!¡± Silver released the carbondioxide in his lungs. However when he breathed in again instead of water entering his lungs it was oxygen. Silver quickly breathed in the air as he tried to regain his calm. After regaining his calm Silver now had the luxury of looking around him. Around Silver was the grayish liquid and beneath him he could only see endless liquid and nothing more. After what seemed like hours to Silver he finally stopped dropping and then suddenly the gem Silver was holding changed color from red to blue. As soon as the color of the gem changed a large amount of grayish liquid encircled Silver until it formed a cocoon. The blue gem then changed color again this time from blue to green, again as soon as the gem changed color the cocoon formed from the grayish liquid started to turn dark blue. Suddenly Silver felt the lightning divine power move around in his body against his will. The cocoon had now completely turned dark blue. Once again the gem in Silver¡¯s hands turned from green to black and as soon as it did the dark blue cocoon began to glow. Immediately that happened the lightning divine power inside of Silver¡¯s body shot out of his body against his will. The divine power then began to fuse with the cocoon formed by the dark blue liquid. ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaah!¡± Silver was going through unimaginable pain at this time, all the lightning divine power was leaving his body forcefully and at extreme speed. His body¡¯s pores which had just began to heal from when they were enlarged last time immediately ripped apart. The pain was too intense for Silver, his eyes had become bloodshot and his veins were protruding, clearly visible to the naked eye. Although he tried to hold on Silver once again fainted from the pain. The lightning divine power continued to come out of Silver¡¯s pores until there was nothing left. ¡­.. ¡­¡­¡­. After a few hours the lightning divine power had completely fused with the cocoon formed from dark blue liquid and began to change color into black. The gem in Silver¡¯s hands once again changed color, from black to purple. As soon as that happened the now black colored liquid quickly began to flow into the gem. The gem was absorbing every last bit of the liquid. After a few minutes the black liquid had been completely absorbed. The gem in Silver¡¯s hand changed color for the final time; it turned from purple to white. However what happened next would be something that would completely transform Silver¡¯s life forever! Chapter 9 - One week 2. After the gem in Silver¡¯s hands changed color from purple to white, it started to glow even more intensely. At this time Silver had began to regain consciousness, he slowly opened his eyes and began to look around. He noticed that the cocoon was no longer there. ¡°I wonder what happened while I was unconscious?¡± Silver started to stretch a bit in the liquid and with every movement cracking sounds could be heard. He felt that his body had once again undergone a change but this change was not as large as the one that occurred when he underwent the Tenshi clan baptism. Silver¡¯s body had not grown in height but rather his body looked like that of a master warrior, there was no sign of any useless muscles at all. His hair had also grown a bit longer. After finally stretching within the gray liquid a bit, Silver closed his eyes and focused on his divine core. Inside the divine core Silver could not feel any lightning divine power at all, he opened his eyes and turned his attention to the white gem in his hands. Although the gem is now white it still has some hints of dark blue on it, and on the sides of the gem are faint inscriptions which Silver hadn¡¯t noticed before. After what seemed like a day to Silver, the gem in his hands began to vibrate and almost flew out of his hands. Silver grabbed the gem as tightly as he could because he remembered that his father told him not to let it go no matter what. However the movements of the gem got even more aggressive and Silver had no choice but to use the light divine power in his body in order to keep the gem from flying out of his arm. For now the gem was in check but Silver understood that this wouldn¡¯t last long, he would need to think of a way to make sure the gem would stay in check before his light divine power depleted. The more time that passed the more aggressive the movements of the gem got, until finally the light divine power in Silver¡¯s body had finally been depleted. ¡°Shit¡­why is this happening? Why does this cursed gem want to leave me so badly? After stealing all my lightning divine power it just wants to escape?¡± Silver¡¯s eyes had began to become watery he felt as though he had been cheated. The instant Silver¡¯s light divine power was depleted and his grip on the gem weakened, the gem flew out of Silver¡¯s hands however it didn¡¯t fly away from Silver but rather was headed for Silver¡¯s head. Silver tried to dodge the gem that was headed straight for his head but he was too slow the gem was already too close. When the gem was about to hit Silver¡¯s head it suddenly stopped in front of Silver¡¯s forehead, the gem stopped glowing and began to shrink. When it reached about the size of a human thumb it stopped shrinking. Silver was completely absorbed in studying the gem but he couldn¡¯t help but have doubts. ¡°Didn¡¯t father say not to let the gem go? Is this supposed to happen?¡± Silver continued to examine the now thumb sized gem floating in front of him when suddenly the gem shot out and surprisingly entered Silver¡¯s head, Silver had absolutely no time to react. Almost immediately Silver lost consciousness, but the weird thing was that on Silver¡¯s head there was neither an entry wound nor an exit wound it was if Silver¡¯s head had absorbed the gem. ¡­¡­. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Silver opened his eyes only to find that he was no longer in the gray liquid pool but to his surprise was now in a place that he was familiar with. The place Silver is currently in is the same place Silver met the Divine Tiger, the endless void. Suddenly within the dark endless void just like before a door appeared and a powerful familiar voice rang out, ¡°Get in here!¡± Silver immediately rushed towards the light beyond the door, and when he was inside he could clearly see his body. He was no longer the 7 year old boy Silver but rather was now the powerful looking middle-aged man dressed in armor, Bastian. After looking at his current body in confusion Silver began to look around but much to his surprise the view in front of him was completely different from the one he saw the first time he was here. The place Silver is in can only be described with one word, ¡°Heaven¡±. The sky was riddled with stars making out a giant tiger and the ground was made of something that can only describe as a cloud. The entire area that seemed endless had hundreds of gigantic mountains covered with lush green forests which had trees that seemed to reach the heavens, all of which were glowing with a faint white light but the strange thing was that not a single creature could be seen in this magical place. Suddenly a young man as if from thin air appeared in front of Silver, the man had long white hair with hints of black almost reaching the ground, he also had a body of a martial artist and was wearing a white robe. The man¡¯s eyes were not those of a human but rather a tiger¡¯s. The man stared at Silver and then a frown appeared on his face, ¡°Those bastards actually gave him light and lightning, Fuck them!¡± thought the young man. Silver looked at the young man in front of him and noticed his anger, Silver had also figured out that this young man must be the Divine Tiger in human form after all the divine tiger had told him that he was born human. Silver just stood there not daring to say a word out of fear, when suddenly the Divine tiger spoke, ¡°Kid, it looks like things haven¡¯t gone according to my plan. Those high and mighty bastards gave you completely different attributes compared to me therefore most of the techniques I gave you are useless and only two of them are accessible to you.¡± Silver was shocked he couldn¡¯t believe what he had just heard, ¡°To think there are those who even a Sovereign refers to as high and mighty.¡± Thought Silver. On the face of the Divine Tiger Shiraz a faint smile appeared but disappeared soon after, why did he smile? This was because as the creator of the [Divine mind purification] technique, Shiraz was able to read the minds of those with a lower cultivation level. Naturally he was able to read Silver¡¯s thoughts and he was actually pleasantly surprised because not only was Silver not confused but he had actually figured out that the person before him was none other than Shiraz, plus Silver was even thinking about existences that surpass a sovereign. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.¡°Kid, there¡¯s no need for you to think about existences that surpass sovereigns because there is no meaning to it.¡± Silver was confused, ¡°what does he mean by it has no meaning to think about such things?¡± thought Silver. Shiraz once again had heard Silver¡¯s inner thoughts and so decided to explain; ¡°Kid, the existence¡¯s above sovereigns are known as Paragods! The reason I told you there was no meaning in thinking about Paragods is because they aren¡¯t humans nor are they living. The paragod¡¯s job is to maintain balance in all the worlds, in existence there are only four Paragons; The Paragon of Life. The Paragon of Death. The Paragon of War. The Paragon of Fate. These four keep balance in the universe and are the most powerful beings in existence, for a person or anything for that matter to achieve a Paragod¡¯s level of power is impossible. The reason that is so is simply because the Paragods were brought into existence together with the universe and are at the same time a part of it as well. The Paragods are neither living nor dead, they simply exist!¡± After listening to Shiraz Silver now understood why he said there was no meaning to think about it. Shiraz continued, ¡°Tch!..you made me go on about such trivial things when time is of the essence. Listen carefully to me kid if you don¡¯t do as I say you are going to die and will never be able to re-incarnate again.¡± Silver couldn¡¯t believe what he just heard, to his knowledge he had done nothing wrong. Why was he now at the brink of death? ¡°Kid¡­the technique I gave you [Divine mind purification technique] is behind your current predicament. The Divine Baptism of my Tiger clan requires one to have their divine power drained and placed into a crystallized form of my blood which then embeds the divine power with my aura as well also serves as a purifier for the divine power. In your case, things are a bit more complicated because not only is your divine power extremely pure thanks to the [Divine mind purification technique] but because a part of the light divine power which has already been embedded with a powerful aura has managed to fuse with your lightning divine power has caused the gem to mutate. I created the gem so that no matter what was done to it my blood could not be extracted from it nor could the gem be used as a weapon, however the current gem is no longer under my control and even I don¡¯t know why it entered your body nor what will happen to you but what I do know is that if the gem dissolves it will destroy you, your soul as well as everything within a million mile radius.¡± Despite his fear Silver tried to calm himself down but the thought of the gem which contained a drop of Sovereigns blood dissolving inside his body made him want to vomit. Silver steadied his voice and asked, ¡°Is there anything I can do to prevent the gem from dissolving?¡± Shiraz looked at Silver and sighed while saying, ¡°There is a way but it comes with consequences.¡± Without allowing Silver to speak and as if guessing what he would say Shiraz continued, ¡°If I help you now I will not be able to communicate with you nor will I be able to assist you ever again at least not until¡­.¡± Shiraz immediately dismissed what he was about to say. Contrary to Shiraz¡¯s belief, Silver was actually not bothered by not being able to communicate with Shiraz in fact Silver wanted to make his current world his own without relying on other people¡¯s power. Shiraz once again had heard Silver¡¯s thoughts but this time he got extremely angry, ¡°You little bastard, do you really think I would expend a quarter of my power just to re-incarnate a soul for my amusement? I have plans one¡¯s which involve you and I will not have them tampered with!¡± Silver was shocked and at the same time afraid, he didn¡¯t understand what Shiraz meant by he had ¡°plans¡± for him. Noticing Silver¡¯s confusion Shiraz coldly snorted and said, ¡°Hmph!...the current you is of no use to me nor is a dead you therefore I have no choice but to help you.¡± After saying that Shiraz stretched out his arm and from it came a white mist-like substance that flew towards Silver and then fused with his soul. Immediately he could understand the information, and after reading through it he immediately kneeled in front of Shiraz and said, ¡°Thank you, my Lord!¡± Silver understood what type of relationship he and Shiraz had after all, he had practically sold his soul to the guy. After hearing the words, ¡°My Lord¡± come from Silver¡¯s mouth Shiraz got even angrier, ¡°You fool, even after all I¡¯ve done you dare call me your Lord! I have passed onto you techniques that took me billions of years to create and perfect. I have granted you power in not one but two worlds and you still call me Lord!¡± Silver was completely baffled. Had he mistaken what type of relationship he and Shiraz had? ¡°Forgive me! If I may be so bold as to ask if you are willing to take this humble servant as your disciple?¡± said Silver. ¡°Hmph! If I cannot be called your Master then who can?¡± A smile appeared on Silver¡¯s face as he said, ¡°Thank you. Master!¡± ¡°Mm¡­.now you must leave before your body suffers too much. Oh! And I forbid you from using the technique I¡¯ve given you until you reach the Soul Compression Stage. Finally and most importantly you must go to the ¡°Gate¡± only then can we meet again. Chapter 10 - One week 3. Silver slowly regained consciousness¡­¡­¡­ However now that his soul was back from that magical realm, he now understood what Shiraz meant by, ¡°Leave before your body suffers too much.¡± Inside of Silver¡¯s body the mutated crystallized Sovereign¡¯s blood is currently floating in his sea of consciousness right next to his soul. However the now thumb sized crystal continues to decrease in size, more accurately the crystal is melting away and soon the blood contained in it will be exposed and with it¡¯s exposure will come great destruction. Destruction that would mostly affect that which the current Silver holds most dear. Realizing he couldn¡¯t waste any time Silver immediately began to use the technique given to him by Shiraz in order to save his life. The technique Shiraz gave Silver is similar to the [Divine mind purification] in the way that it can only be used on those who are either weaker or at the same level of cultivation as the user. However, that is where the similarities end. The technique given to Silver allows him to drain and absorb energy/life force from anything that has it, as long as he is powerful enough to do so. The name given to this technique by Shiraz was [Tiger thirst]. This is the second technique bestowed onto Silver by Shiraz, the third technique he is unable to even access. Aside from the [Tiger thirst] technique Shiraz had also sealed some of his sovereign¡¯s power inside Silver¡¯s soul, Shiraz did this in order to help Silver and hopefully save his life. Silver starts using [Tiger drain] on the crystallized sovereign¡¯s blood however nothing happens, but suddenly the sealed sovereign¡¯s power bursts out and boosts the power of the [Tiger thirst] technique enabling it to begin draining out the power of the crystallized sovereign blood. However, although the sovereign¡¯s power is helping to drain the energy of the crystallized blood it is at the same time having drastic effects on Silver¡¯s body. Silver¡¯s body is currently in a state of shambles¡­¡­¡­ All of his pores have been stretched out and destroyed, both his arms broken, veins can be clearly seen all around his body almost as if they could pop out at any moment, blood flowing out from his mouth, ears, nose and even his eyes. ¡°My god!.....wh..why this pain?¡± thought Silver as he gritted his teeth. The pain Silver is currently in is enough to make any normal human being go insane however Silver¡¯s resolve is still as strong as ever. ¡°That¡¯s right,¡­I have to endure if not for me then for mother, father as well as everyone in the Southern branch.¡± If Silver was faced with this same situation but in a place where he knew no one, he would rather face death than go through this kind of intense pain. At first Silver¡¯s mind was in the same state as his body because he didn¡¯t know why, so suddenly his body had reacted in such a way but after thinking for a while he understood something, ¡°That¡¯s right¡­..so this was the reason Shiraz granted me Sovereign¡¯s power. He knew that it would be impossible for me who is still a beginner in cultivation to be able to drain the energy from the blood of an actual Sovereign.¡± However what Silver had not realized was that Shiraz had actually used special methods to weaken his Sovereign¡¯s power to a stage in which it would not destroy Silver. After all, a sovereign is an existence that has far surpassed the mortal realm, one who has not only attained immortality but supreme power as well. It would be impossible for any mortal let alone a child to contain the might of a Sovereign. As time went on the blood had been completely drained of the power it held and had finally dissipated, all that is left is white mist like sovereign power floating in Silver¡¯s consciousness. Suddenly Silver¡¯s wounds and injuries begun to heal rapidly and after only a few seconds he was back to normal, however it didn¡¯t stop there Silver¡¯s eyes changed into that of a tiger. His sight became incomparably sharper, it was so good that he could even clearly see and count all the small sweat pores on his arms. ¡°Finally¡­..so this is the aura of a divine tiger clan member!¡± However just as Silver was celebrating his Tenshi clan aura burst out and somehow managed to merge with Tiger aura causing it to become extremely fierce. Silver¡¯s current aura after the fusion is akin to a wounded tiger fighting for it¡¯s life, you could even sense hints of killing intent coming from him. ¡°Finally¡­..now that this is over I can finally leave.¡± Said Silver with a sigh. Meanwhile¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. ¡°What the hell is going on down there it¡¯s already been five days!¡± said Akela. ¡°First, for some reason Silver disappeared and I could no longer detect him and then when I was able to sense him again I felt a terrifying power come from there. Just what the hell is going on?¡± Just as Akela was busy worrying and thinking about Silver¡¯s condition, a figure could be seen coming out of the pool. Akela turned to look only to see a naked Silver coming out of the pool. However Akela noticed something else and that was Silver¡¯s terrifying aura. With a big smile on his face Akela welcomed Silver with a hug and said, ¡°You succeeded, of course you succeeded you are after all the son of I Akela. Now before we go into celebrations hand me the crystal gem I gave you.¡± Silver¡¯s heart sank, he had no idea what to do in this situation. Should he lie? , should he tell the truth? , Silver had no clue what to do but then he remembered that not long ago he was in a similar situation. Last time Silver trusted his father and so this time as well he would trust his father, of course not with all the information, only some details. Silver explained what happened to him but with some slight changes to the story, ¡° um¡­¡­Father, I did as you said and didn¡¯t let go of the gem but then for some reason it flew out of my hand with extreme force and then entered my body. After that I saw a dream of a giant white tiger who then told me that I shouldn¡¯t worry about it and that the gem was a gift to me for working hard.¡± At the beginning of Silver¡¯s explanation Akela was extremely annoyed because he knew that Silver must have lost the gem but then when he heard Silver say that the gem entered his body he almost jumped with rage to shout at Silver. After all who would believe that suddenly a gem would enter someone¡¯s body but then when Silver then said that a giant white tiger told him it was, ¡°a gift for working hard¡± Akela immediately froze. After a while Akela slapped his hand onto his forehead and with a gigantic smile on his face shouted, ¡°So that¡¯s why I felt that terrifying power coming from the pool!¡± If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Akela then looked toward Silver and said, ¡°Did the giant tiger say anything else to you or perhaps give anything to you?¡± Silver looked at his father and said , ¡°No!¡± Pretending he didn¡¯t know anything Silver looked at his father and continued, ¡°Do you perhaps know who the Tiger is father?¡± Akela looking at his confused son let out a hearty laugh and said, ¡°You don¡¯t need to know now, all I can tell you is that in the future you must be very respectful.¡± ¡°Yes, father. I¡¯m rather tired so I will be taking my leave.¡± Said Silver. Still smiling Akela nodded towards Silver, ¡°Mm¡­.go and rest when you¡¯re refreshed we¡¯ll discuss other matters.¡± Akela then stretched out his arm and in his hands out of thin air clothes appeared, he then threw them towards Silver. Silver put on the clothes, respectfully bowed and then left the room heading towards his own. After reaching his room Silver was anxious to examine the changes that had occurred within his body, so he jumped onto his bed sat cross-legged and closes his eyes. The first thing Silver notices is the white mist of Sovereign power circling his soul however unfortunately all Silver can do is look at the Sovereign power as it is completely impossible for the current him to absorb any of it. Silver then shifted his attention to his divine core. Inside of his divine core Silver¡¯s lightning divine power is no longer dark blue and instead has changed to light blue with a bright golden glow while his light divine power is still golden in colour but has now adopted a bright blue glow. ¡°Hmmm¡­¡­.this must be because of the part of my light and lightning divine power that fused together.¡± Thought Silver. Silver then shifted his attention towards his body. Although there weren¡¯t any huge changes to his body Silver still felt uneasy. The reason being, Silver couldn¡¯t wrap his head around why his body healed so fast after he got the tiger clan aura. Silver then decided to hold a little experiment. He opened his eyes and within them faint flashes of golden-bluish divine power could be seen but then soon vanished. Still sitting cross-legged Silver grabs hold of his right arm with his left one, ¡°I pray this works.¡± Using the newly strengthened lightning divine power Silver then applied a strong force to his right arm causing it to break. Clenching his teeth, Silver held in the pain coming from his right arm making sure not to make any noise but then suddenly a white mist enveloped Silver¡¯s right arm and in the time it would take a person to blink, any sign of injury had been erased. It was like the injury had never existed in the first place. ¡°Just now that was the Sovereign power¡­¡­but how is that possible?¡± thought Silver. After thinking for a while Silver came to the conclusion that this was Shiraz¡¯s doing, after all Shiraz had told Silver that he had plans for him and that he musn¡¯t die. Silver was then overtaken by joy, not only did he strengthen himself but he also got Sovereign power which automatically heals all his injuries. However exactly what level of power had he reached now that he had the tiger aura?. After carefully examining his divine core Silver reached the conclusion that he had reached the 17th level but if he factored in his strong body as well as his healing ability he could probably fight evenly with someone at the 20th level. Now that Silver was done examining his body and his excitement had died down, the fatigue finally started to affect him so he fell onto his bed and fell into a deep sleep. Silver woke up very early in the morning the next day, the sun hadn¡¯t even risen yet. So he decided to go for a walk in the courtyard. However just as he was on his way to the courtyard Silver heard some noises coming from the room across his, that room belonged to Silver¡¯s uncle Manu so he decided to approach the room quietly and listen in. Silver got as close as possible to the room and then leaned against the door in order to hear what the people inside were saying. Inside the room there were three people, one was Manu while the other two were elders under Manu. ¡°I heard that the son of Lord Klais from the Central branch has already reached the 14th level at the age of 7.¡± Said one of the elders. Hearing this the other Elder also spoke out, ¡°Ah! Such a great genius. I also heard that the daughter of Lady Hiri has reached the 13th level and she¡¯s only 8.¡± Manu then looked at both the elders and said, ¡°From your words it seems as though you doubt Young Master Silver but you don¡¯t have to worry, in fact I can guarantee that the young master is more than capable of standing alongside those geniuses. Otherwise Lord Akela wouldn¡¯t spend so much effort on his training, moreover I heard the young master has even been sparring with some guards of late.¡± Hearing Manu praise Silver so much the other elders couldn¡¯t help but be happy as well. ¡°Then all we can do is expect a grand performance at the Tiger Hunt ceremony.¡± Said one of the Elders. After that the three stopped discussing the matter and changed the topic to some clan related issues however Silver wasn¡¯t interested in that and so he left for the courtyard. While strolling in the courtyard Silver couldn¡¯t help but wonder about what those three Elders were talking about. ¡°I wonder what the Tiger Hunt Cermony is?¡± Chapter 11 - Mark. An outline of an old man¡¯s face could be seen hovering in the air, inside of Akela¡¯s study. He had short hair white as snow, with an equally short and white sideburns and beard, he also had the dark tanned skin of warrior with dark piercing eyes and carried himself with an air only true leaders possessed. ¡°Akela this year the clan has a lot of good seeds, will little Silver be able to compete with them?¡± said the old man. Akela looked up at the old man and with a smirk on his face said, ¡°Father you don¡¯t need to worry Silver is more than capable of competing against those so-called good seeds.¡± The old man surprised, now known as Akela¡¯s father chuckled at his son¡¯s words, ¡°Akela it seems that this time it is our Tar clan that has been blessed with not one but two good seeds.¡± The other ¡°good seed¡± the old man referred to was Kaz who not only got accepted into a first-rate academy but also become one of the personal disciples of the renowned Fire sage Gasul. Hearing his father praise his two sons so much Akela couldn¡¯t be anymore pleased with himself. After all, it was him who decided to send Kaz to the Eclipse academy and it was also him who has been providing Silver with technique manuals, advice and pretty much anything Silver required. ¡°Akela send for little Silver, I wish to see him.¡± Said his father. Akela quickly ordered the maid who was standing outside his study to call Silver. Silver was currently in the courtyard sitting under a small tree, hands clasped behind his head,enjoying the scenery, a light breeze blowing gently on his face. It was a warm, sunny day, which was why Silver, who had been watching all the greenery come to life from the confines of his bedroom, had decided to go and enjoy it all first hand. He sat there watching the butterflies and bees go about their business, listening to the bubbling sound of the fountain and reflecting on what was to come. Silver sat there occasionally closing his eyes and breathing in the fresh air. He knew that right now would probably be the only time he would have to rest before he and his father departed for the Central branch. Suddenly a maid came rushing forward toward Silver, ¡°Young Master, Lord Akela wishes for you to hurry to the study.¡± Seeing as how the maid was running towards him instead of walking, Silver knew that this was urgent so he rushed towards the study at full speed. The maid who was standing next to Silver was startled at the speed at which the young Silver was travelling. She came to the conclusion that Silver must be using a technique to increase his speed. Silver continued to dash through Break Jaw Castle many people couldn¡¯t help but notice Silver¡¯s speed, one of whom was Manu. When Manu saw Silver running, his first thought was exactly the same as the maid however Manu is an Elder who has reached the [soul-compression] stage and as he looked closer he couldn¡¯t believe his own eyes. Not only was Silver not using a technique Manu couldn¡¯t even sense any divine power being emitted from Silver, not even residue, he refused to believe that this was truly the case and decided to check again however Silver had quickly dashed out of his line of sight. Manu to further pursue Silver in order to confirm what he had just seen, but unfortunately for him, Silver had just gone into Akela¡¯s study. Unable to go any further and confirm his suspicions Manu simply shrugged his shoulders and came to the conclusion that he must¡¯ve just been seeing things, after all for a seven year old child to use a technique to improve his speed to such a degree would already be enough to brand him a genius but for a seven year old to rely on his body alone to reach such speed, now that would make him a freak of nature. ¡°Wh¡­what is that?¡± said Silver as he pointed towards the outline of the old man¡¯s face hovering in the air. The old man looked at Silver chuckledamiably and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry this isn¡¯t my body it¡¯s just a technique used for communication over long distances.¡± Akela turned towards Silver, ¡°Little Silver this is your grandfather and my father, Elder Ignus Tar Aldarion. He relinquished his title as head of the Southern branch fifty years ago to me and then became one of the five head Elders of the Central branch.¡± Silver couldn¡¯t believe the words of his father because basically what he was saying was that Ignas is one of the top five most powerful people in the clan aside from the patriarch of the Divine Tiger clan. Silver quickly came to his senses and respectfully bowed, ¡°Silver pays his respects to Elder.¡± Akela nods in satisfaction but Ignus smiles towards him and says, ¡°Enough! Just call me GrandpaIgnus.¡± Silver raises his head and responds with a bright grin, "Yes, Grandpa Ignus!¡± Ignus then looked towards Akela and asked, ¡°Akela, what level has Silver reached in his cultivation?¡± Akela looked towards Silver and then back to Ignus then replied, ¡°Silver just underwent his baptism so currently I¡¯m not sure what level he¡¯s reached.¡± Ignus then looked towards Silver and asks the same question, ¡°Little Silver what level have you reached after your baptism?¡± Silver replies, ¡°Currently I estimate that I¡¯ve reached the 17th level.¡± A huge smile appeared on Ignus¡¯s illusionary face, ¡°Ho! That¡¯s very impressive for a boy your age but before I reward you for your hard work, I¡¯d like to examine your aura.¡± Akela continued, ¡°Yes, I too would like to examine your aura more closely. That day you came from the pool you had already put away your aura so I was only able to sense hints of it.¡± Silver shrugged not minding at all and activated his aura. His aura burst forth with a ferocious intensity almost as if a wild animal was about to engage in a fight to the death, hints of killing intent could be felt being emanating from Silver. Both Akela and Ignus¡¯s eyes were wide open, they both stared at Silver slack jawed. The room fell into deafening silence. Silver just stood there looking at both the illusionary face of Ignus as well as Akela not understanding what was going on. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Suddenly Ignus who was the first to recover from his shock calmed himself and said, ¡°Little Silver answer me truthfully, those eyes of yours how did they end up like that?¡± Silver was about to speak when Akela suddenly barked at Silver, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me about this when I asked you if the giant white tiger gave you anything?¡± Silver didn¡¯t know what to say, Shiraz hadn¡¯t told him that his eyes would change so he just thought that this was normal for everyone who underwent the baptism after all in his past life it was normal for one to obtain some traits of the Sovereign he/she worshipped. To Silver this was the same as acquiring something he had once lost. Ignus who doesn¡¯t know what¡¯s going on furrows his brows and shouts, ¡°Akela! Hurry up and explain everything to me and don¡¯t dare leave anything out.¡± Akela forced himself to calm down and then proceeded to tell Ignus what had happened when Silver underwent his Baptism. After hearing the story from Akela, Ignus glanced at Silver then turned back to face Akela. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me this sooner?¡± Akela opening his mouth to speak was suddenly interrupted by Silver, ¡°Grandpa Ignus, is there a problem with me having these eyes?¡± Akela who had now completely calmed down slowly walked towards Silver bent slightly, put his arm on Silver¡¯s shoulder and with a sigh said, ¡°Little Silver you are still very young and have yet to leave Break Jaw City so you wouldn¡¯t know about the relationship between our clan¡¯s branches. However now that you have been marked I have to tell you so you can understand the danger that comes with being marked.¡± Ignus still hovering above quietly looked down on both his son and grandson with a solemn look on his face, ¡°Little Silver, you should already know that our clan has five branches however very few people know how that came to be. In the beginning our clan wasn¡¯t called the Divine Tiger clan but was instead named after it¡¯s founder Jira, the clan as a whole wasn¡¯t very strong but it couldn¡¯t be called weak either however, all of that changed when an unprecedented genius was born into the clan. The child had amazing comprehension power and in only five years he had already reached the soul-compression stage. In no time at all the news of a genius being born into the clan was spread far and wide until it finally reached the ears of the clan head Jira. Despite the child being born into his clan, Jira felt threatened rather than joy so he decided to send assassins to go kill the child before he grew up into someone who could dethrone him. However Jira¡¯s plan to kill the child didn¡¯t work as the child had managed to escape but unfortunately, the same couldn¡¯t be said of his family who were all murdered in cold blood. The assassin¡¯s failure caused Jira great distress as he had not only failed to eliminate the child, but had now created an enemy who had boundless potential. Out of fear, Jira ordered all members of the clan to search for the child plus he even offered a huge reward to anyone who killed the child. Unfortunately for Jira, the child had disappeared deep into the vast jungle. Time flew by and almost a hundred years had passed since Jira gave the order for the child to be killed, everyone including Jira had assumed that the child must have died in the jungle or in a battle against an expert somewhere far away. However they were wrong, the child who had disappeared all those years ago suddenly came back all grown up. The young man had the physique of a warrior, which could be seen even through his white toga-like robe. He had long, white hair with hints of black and possessed the eyes of a tiger.With a display of great power he entered the clan¡¯s territory and killed every high ranking or powerful member of the clan. However Jira wasn¡¯t just killed, the young man not only tortured him but also shamed Jira by displaying him in front of the remaining clan members naked. He then ordered all those who wished to live to torture Jira and only then would he forgive them. After a week of slow torture the young man finally killed Jira. The young man¡¯s name was ShirazAldarion and after a few days he founded a new clan called the Tiger clan. With his ever-growing strength Shiraz seized vast amounts of wealth and land from battles with other clans, making the Tiger clan the #1 clan in the entire continent of Vargath. Thousands of years passed, Shiraz had reached a bottleneck in his cultivation and so he decided to leave on a journey in order to better grow but, before he did that Shiraz wanted to leave descendants, so he married Yuki the most beautiful woman in Vargath, she¡¯d been a petite woman with jet black hair down to her waist, beautiful translucent skin and pink puckered lips, despite her small build her form had been full in all the right places and she had had many suiters, but had taken to Shiraz and accepted him as her husband. They had four children together, three were male and one was female, they boys were Tar ,Kar and Zar while the girl was named Mar. These four children were very strange as they all had tiger eyes, Shiraz told his wife that he had marked them and given them some of his power to use in the future. Having gotten descendants Shiraz departed for his journey and never returned but before that he appointed a young man to be the next patriarch of the Tiger clan until his children grew up. Unfortunately, despite Shiraz¡¯s four children being very powerful when they grew up they all perished during the war against the Tenshi clan. However they didn¡¯t fail to also leave descendants, who not only didn¡¯t possess Shiraz¡¯s mark but also, with time, grew to hate each other. In an attempt to prevent bloodshed between them the patriarch who Shiraz had appointed all those years ago decided to split the clan into four branches, while he maintains control at the headquarters. A few thousand years later, Shiraz contacted the patriarch informing him that he had become a Sovereign, which was when our clan¡¯s name was changed to Divine Tiger clan. Now, little Silver if anyone from the other clans finds out that you have the mark of Shiraz then the balance between the four branches will be destroyed and war will break out. You must be very careful to never reveal your eyes to anyone.¡± Silver just stood there stunned trying to digest everything he had just heard. ¡°Enough!¡± said Ignus. ¡°We¡¯re in a very delicate situation but for now let¡¯s not think too much, all Silver has to do is to not reveal his tiger eyes. Right now, we have to prepare for the test in two days Silver will be taking part in so tomorrow, I¡¯ll open a [void] for you to come to the Central branch.¡± Chapter 12 - Void. Inside of Silver¡¯s room, Silver sat cross legged on his bed, staring unblinkingly out of his window as he contemplatedon what Akela had just told him. ¡°So Shiraz is not only the founder of the Divine Tiger clan but also it¡¯s guardian deity.¡± As he sat there, Silver thought about all the mysteries and secrets that surround the being known as Shiraz, one of which was the fact that Shiraz had managed to reach the [soul ¨Ccompression] at the age of five. It was common knowledge that for normal people even reaching the 10th stage could take them years at a time, but for a child of five years to reach the soul-compression stage should be impossible and was definitely unheard of. However the biggest mystery that Silver just couldn¡¯t understand was the ¡°tiger eyes¡±. ¡°How did Shiraz get the [tiger eyes]and just where had Shiraz disappeared to for thousands of years while Jira was looking for him?¡± Unable to understand Shiraz and tired of thinking about him, Silver decided to take a break from it all and get a bite to eat. Silver left his room and headed for the dining hall. However upon entering the dining hall he found his mother, Saphir sitting alone. He smiled at first in greeting,but soon realized that she was worried about something. Her face was paler than usual which made the slight pink surrounding her eyes more prominent, and she was biting her lip anxiously. Seeing his mother like that, Silver felt his heart ache a bit so he approached and sat next to her. Saphir looked at her son and gave him a bright smile that didn¡¯t quite reach her eyes, then looked away and spoke, ¡°I heard you¡¯re leaving today for the Central branch.¡± She Saphir. Silver nodded back at his mother, ¡°Mm¡­..Father said that we¡¯ll be leaving today to see grandfather at the Central branch!¡± The moment Saphir saw Silver nod her heart sank and for an instant the worry once again appeared on her face, but she covered it up quickly with another smile. Silver being as observant as he is, was able to notice that look of worry and concern. Instantly he began to feel both happiness and sadness. The reason for his happiness was because he knew that his mother was worried about him and that she deeply loved him and wanted him to stay safe, something he had not experienced in his previous life. However the reason for his sadness is slightly more complicated¡­ When Silver first began his training,Akela had told him not to reveal his cultivation progress to anyone, not even Saphir. Little did he know that agreeing to that would leave his mother worried for his safety, when the time would come for him to be tested by the clan. Realizing that Silver was also starting to feel bad Saphir signaled one of the maids to bring food for the both of them. ¡°You must be hungry, let¡¯s eat!¡± she said enthusiastically. As time went on both Silver and Saphir forgot about their worries and became completely enamored in each other¡¯s company However in the midst of all their laughter and joy, a maid entered and beckoned to Silver and said, ¡°Young Master, Lord Akela wishes for you to come to his study immediately!¡± Silver sent the maid away and then turned to face Saphir who currently had also sobered, once again anxious. He then leaned over to hug his mother and whispered quietly into her ear, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, your son isn¡¯t one to fall at this stage.¡± Silver then turned and walked away towards his father¡¯s study without glancing back however, had he turned back, he would have seen a teary-eyed woman smiling right back at him. Inside of Akela¡¯s study a black door could be seen standing in the middle of the room, while Akela stood at it¡¯s side as if waiting for something. Suddenly, the black door opened and from it an old man wearing an expensive looking black robe with a beautiful tiger pattern came forth. That old man was Ignus. Akela bows respectfully to Ignus, ¡°I¡¯ve already sent for Silver, he should be arriving any moment now.¡± Ignus nods at Akela with satisfaction and then proceeds to sit down on Akela¡¯s seat. ¡°How are things with Kaz in the Eclipse academy?¡± said Ignus. Akela hesitantly replied, ¡°I know that you¡¯re displeased that I¡¯m not letting him participate in the Ceremony but he is my son and it is my decision.¡± Ignuswas somewhat shocked at Akela¡¯s tone, ¡°Ho! Akela have you forgotten that you are my son. Do you really think I don¡¯t know the reason you haven¡¯t sent for Kaz?¡± Akela simply shrugged his shoulders no longer paying attention to Ignus. ¡°Ho! So you think that without my help you¡¯ll be able to convince the other Elders of the Central branch to let Kaz off.¡± Akela furrowing his brows glared at Ignus and said, ¡°He is your grandson!¡± Ignus snorted coldly, ¡°Then simply admit that you chose Silver over Kaz to represent the Tar clan in the Tiger Hunt Ceremony.¡± Akela furious at Ignus¡¯s words banged his hand on a nearby table and smashed it, ¡°If you wish to interfere so much then fine I¡¯ll play your game, I¡¯ll send for Kaz to be brought back in order to represent us in the Ceremony.¡± Ignus¡¯s smile disappeared, he then looked at Akela whose face was now very ugly with rage. The room was dead silent when suddenly Ignus burst into laughter, ¡°Hmph! It looks like you¡¯ve also grown up in these hundred years and it also seems that you have extreme confidence in little Silver. I wonder why?¡± Suddenly the door to the study opened and in walked Silver. As he looked around the room Silver didn¡¯t know what to ask about first. ¡°How is Grandpa Ignus here? Why is the furniture broken? What is that black door in the middle of the room?¡± thought Silver. However rather than show his shock, Silver first bowed respectfully towards Ignus and then went to stand next to Akela, his face not showing the least bit of interest in his current surroundings. This act from Silver surprised Ignus, after all, any normal seven year old would be filled with open curiosity and would ask many questions. In fact Ignus had been so expectant of such a reaction from him, that he had already began to prepare answers to all his questions. ¡°Little Silver, do you know what that black door is?¡± asked Ignus. Silver looked at the black door carefully but all he could see were strange engravings on it, however refusing to back down Silver¡¯s eyes changed into that of a tiger and as he looked closer at the black door he began to see tiny strands of pure lightning divine power moving about. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.He then put away his tiger eyes andnodded towards Ignus, ¡°Ho! Little Silver it looks you and I are very alike. You don¡¯t like to be underestimated, eh. Very well tell me what you think it is and if you come close I¡¯ll give you a reward I promised you.¡± Silver eyes sparkled, ¡°This old guy really likes to mess with people, father was probably the one who smashed the table and I bet this old man was the cause.¡± Silver then turned to look at Akela, ¡°Father, could that black door perhaps be a part of Grandpa Ignus¡¯s divine core.¡± The room went silent for a few minutes, then suddenly Akela grinned while occasionally glancing at Ignus who was so surprised his jaw haddropped slightly, ¡°Yes little Silver, that black door is called a [high-class void] but how did you figure it out.¡± Said Akela as he ruffled Silver¡¯s hair. Silver simply pointed at Akela and said, ¡°You showed me!¡± Ignus quickly recovered from his surprise and then proceeded to glare at Akela, ¡°I knew that it was impossible for a child to figure out the secret of the [void] just by looking at it.¡± Akela chuckled slightly and looked at Silver lovingly, ¡°Stop messing with your Grandpa and explain properly how you knew about the [void].¡± Silver replied with a small smile on his lips, ¡°Everytime you were giving something to me you would simply flick your sleeve and it would appear, so after thinking about it for a while and failing to come up with an answer, I used the enhanced eyesight of the tiger eyes to look closely and what I saw was exactly the same type of pure divine power that is found only in the divine core. So I came to the conclusion that it must be a part of your divine core.¡± Every single word that came out of Silver¡¯s mouth were like tiny bombs exploding in Ignus¡¯s mind, only after Silver finished talking did Ignus now understand why Akela valued him so much. ¡°Good.Good! Little Silver you came close but you failed when you compared me to Akela.¡± Seemingly ignoring Ignus,Akela proceeded to explain to Silver the secrets of the [void], ¡°Listen closely little Silver, the first thing you need to know about the void is that it isn¡¯t a technique but rather it is something that is created when someone fuses his soul and his attribute. The space left after the fusion is the [void], which most cultivators use as a safe that no one can get into but the user.¡± Silver had already guessed as much but what he didn¡¯t understand was the black door, ¡°Exactly what is the black door?¡± asked Silver. Akela opened his mouth to respond but was rudely interrupted by Ignus who was furious that Akela and Silver were ignoring him, ¡°The black door is something that someone who is still at the [soul-compression] stage cannot accomplish and quite frankly has no right to speak about!¡± Akela was about to retaliate with his own remarks when Ignus suddenly stood up and walked towards Silver, ¡°The reward I promised you will be given to you when we reach the Central branch, now then I believe we should leave.¡± Without giving Silver and Akela time to say anything Ignus had already opened the black door and was preparing to leave. Not wanting to get left behind, Akela grabbed hold of Silver¡¯s hand and headed into the door and as soon as they did the black door disappeared from the study. Inside the black door there was only complete darkness, Silver couldn¡¯t see anything no matter how much he strained his eyes. However just as he was about to begin panicking, he felt a force pull him across the darkness at extreme speed, Silver tried to fight it but was unable to do anything to the resist the strong force. Suddenly in the distance Silver saw a bright light, he also noticed that the invisible force was coming from the same location as the bright light. In an instant he was pulled into the light, however due to the brightness of the light he closed his eyes in an attempt to adjust to it. After Silver¡¯s eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he opened them only to find that he was in a giant hall that seems to be part of a mansion or villa of sorts. He then looked around to find both Ignus and Akela chatting in the distance, ¡°Hmph! Just because he ignored you for a bit, you actually made him stay in the [void] longer. You do realize that he is just a child.¡± Said Akela. ¡°I don¡¯t care what you think but I won¡¯t let him grow up looking down on me. I¡¯m only doing this because you have failed to teach him to respect his Elders!¡± Noticing that Silver had arrived Akela went up to him and said, ¡°Forget about your grandfather, come look at this.¡± Said Akela as he led Silver to the balcony. As he stepped onto the balcony Silver saw an enormous mountain stretching up, up, up its¡¯s peak obscured by clouds. Behind it another mountain rose and anotherand another until Silver lost count, after he had adjusted to the scale of the place he was in, Silver noted that among all the lush greenery that was growing there were large traditional buildings with beautifully curved roofs cluttered about the closer mountains, in fact they too were in part of the this mountain estate. It was breathtaking. Ignus then called Silver, ¡°Here! This is your reward.¡± Said Ignus as he threw Silver a gold badge that had a lightning bolt on it. ¡°That badge will allow you to go anywhere within the Central and will also allow you to order guards and maids around with my authority. Now that the reward matter is settled you should go rest, there¡¯s going to be a feast tonight where all high-ranking members of the five branches will attend. This maid will lead you to your room.¡± Silver then followed the maid to his to his room and on his way through the hall he saw a painting of a man who resembled Shiraz completely except for the fact that he had red hair. ¡°This must be Shiraz¡¯s son, Tar!¡± thought Silver. When they reached Silver¡¯s room the maid bowed and left while Silver entered the room. The room itself was neither small nor large, with a bed placed to one corner of the room and large windows running along two perpendicular walls. The furniture was also minimal with only a small desk, chair and small chest of draws. Nothing too extravagant, but of the highest quality. However the thing that caught Silver¡¯s eye was that on his bed there was a set of clothing that looked both expensive and extremely beautiful. It was a white Changshan with a tiger pattern on it. https://www.google.com/search?q=changshan&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMI0sr5jdfOxwIVi-0UCh3i1QtP&biw=1366&bih=643 Silver carefully put away the beautiful clothing, jumped on his bed and slept. Chapter 13 - Heavens reach. Dressed in the beautiful changshan he had received as a gift, Silver was preparing to leave his room when suddenly, *Dong,Dong* He heard a knock on the door so he went to open it only to find Akela, who was dressed in dark blue armor with a black overcoat on top. The coat had a symbol of a tiger surrounded with lightning, embroidered onto it. ¡°Mm¡­you look respectable, now let¡¯s hurry up we don¡¯t want to be late.¡± Said Akela while nodding in satisfaction. ¡°I¡¯m ready,let me just get the badge Grandpa gave me then we can leave.¡± Said Silver as he ran to pick the gold badge which was lying on the bed. However just as Silver grabbed the badge, Akela walked into the room and closed the door behind him. Silver stood about ten feet away from Akela silently staring at him with a confused expression on his face, ¡°Why the hell does that old bastard act in such stupid ways.¡± Thought Akela. Akela opened his mouth to speak but before he could say anything Silver interrupted, ¡°You want the badge, yes?¡± Akela was completely shocked, he didn¡¯t know what to respond with. ¡°How did Silver know? Who told him?¡± these were the questions that were going through his head. Noticing Akela¡¯s curiosity Silver continued, ¡°Given Grandpa¡¯s personality I figured he would give me something extreme as a reward so when he handed me the badge, I knew that there must be more to it than just it being a symbol of his authority.¡± After hearing Silver¡¯s explanation Akela simply laughed while saying, ¡°All these years I never learn that when it comes to you, it¡¯s always the simplest answer that explains your actions.¡± Akela then walked over to Silver put his hand on Silver¡¯s shoulder and said, ¡°I don¡¯t care anymore, you can keep the badge but you have to promise not to show it to anyone except me.¡± Silver immediately nodded, ¡°Father, what exactly is this badge anyway?¡± said Silver as he looked up at Akela. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later, right now we have to get to the banquet as soon as possible.¡± Both Silver and Akela exited the room headed towards the main hall of the mansion, and as they were passing by the hallway where the painting of Tar hanged, Akela stopped and bowed slightly. Silver followed Akela¡¯s lead and after paying their respects, they headed towards the hall. Inside of the hall, Ignus dressed in a long white robe was sitting on a chair drinking wine and behind him stood a beautiful young man with long dark hair, clad in similar armour to Akela but was bronze instead of dark blue in colour. Though he seemed ordinary, there was something in his brown eyes that was feral. ¡°Grav, what do you think of littleSilver? I hope you¡¯ve been watching him!¡± said Ignus. Grav hesitantly replied, ¡°I can¡¯t say much about him but he is interesting.¡± Ignus seemingly unsatisfied with Grav¡¯s answer stood up and said, ¡°What do you mean you can¡¯t say much? Didn¡¯t I tell you stick with him.¡± Grav looked at Ignus and confidently said, ¡°I have been your companion for many years now and you of all people should know that although I don¡¯t specialize in stealth, I am more than capable of spying on a child without him noticing.¡± Ignus now even more irritated by Grav¡¯s roundabout answer replied, ¡°Hurry up and get to the point before I lose my temper.¡± Grav looked away from Ignus and hesitantly said, ¡°I don¡¯t know why but it was as if¡­..¡± Ignus barked at Grav, ¡°What is it! Speak before I make you.¡± ¡°It was if¡­..that child knew I was watching him.¡± Said Grav. Ignus went quiet and began to pace around the room, ¡°He probably used his eyes to spot Grav. Tch! I keep getting this odd feeling whenever I look at that child¡­¡­.almost as if I¡¯m looking at one of those Tenshi bastards. I know he also has the light attribute but his aura,¡­¡­¡­although it¡¯s faint there are some similarities with those assholes.¡± Ignus turned around and was about to give Grav an order when suddenly he spotted Silver and Akela chatting and smiling together as they drew closer towards him. His gaze focused on Silver who was smiling while talking animatedly to Akela about his eagerness to compete and see just how strong he was. After staring closely at Silver for a few seconds Ignus¡¯s heart gave in, ¡°Silver is my grandson, it is impossible that he has any relationship with those Tenshi bastards and besides I doubt the The Divine Tiger Sovereign would mark him if he really had any relationship with those who killed his children.¡± Akela and Silver soon arrived where Ignus and Grav were, ¡°Ah! Grav we¡¯re all ready to leave now.¡± Said Akela. ¡°Yes, Young Master Akela!¡± saidGrav as he slightly bowed. Ignus then began to laugh heartily, ¡°To think after all these years, Grav still refuses to call you Lord¡­¡­.eh Akela.¡± Akela simply shrugged his shoulders, ¡°Well it can¡¯t be helped, beasts will only bow to those who are stronger than them.¡± ¡°Hmph¡­..enough of this idle chatter, Grav hurry up and get us out of here.¡± Ignus, Silver, Akela all followed Grav outside to the mansions garden, where he suddenly began to grow fur and then to increase in size at a fast rate. Before long, Grav had completely transformed into a gigantic winged black bull, a black spherical gem with hints of green on it¡¯s edges about the size of a fist, could be clearly seen on his breast. Grav was about twenty metres tall and ten metres wide. Silver just stood there slack jawed as he stared unblinkingly at the gigantic bull in front of him, ¡°This can¡¯t even compare with Kabul.¡± whispered Silver. Hearingwhat Silver had just said Grav snorted coldly and said, ¡°Don¡¯t compare me with that half-hearted bird.¡± Ignus then jumped into the air and shouted, ¡°Get on!¡± Akela grabbed Silver¡¯s hand and jumped onto Grav¡¯s back and as soon as they did Grav began to ran on the ground creating tremors with every step until finally he jumped into the air spread his wings and took flight. Silver looked down as they flew seeing trees below as nothing but a blur, the wind blowing loudly in his ears and almost suffocating him. They were moving so fast that he could only get a sense of the general landscape, but it was enough for him to realize that this place really was special. Besides the fact that it appeared to closely resemble what people often called a paradise, Silver sensed an abundance of spiritual energy, and realized that this must be the reason the main branch of the clan had settled here, but he decided not say anything. After flying for about an hour Silver turned to face Ignus, ¡°Grandpa, where are we going?¡± Ignus as if having waited for Silver to ask, jumped up into the air and began to float. He then pointed at a mountain in the distance that was visibly taller than all the others. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.¡°We¡¯re going to the headquarters of the Divine Tiger clan, the highest peak of Mount Sharah Heaven¡¯s Reach.¡± Although Silver was interested in what Ignus was saying, he was more focused on the fact that Ignus was flying. In his previous life Silver never had the ability to fly and it was something that he longed for however when he had asked Akela about it the only response he got was that, ¡°No human in Vargath has the capability of flight.¡± Silver immediately turned to Akela, a dark cold look in his eyes. As if reading Silver¡¯s mind Akela pointed at Ignus and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t lie to you when I said that no human is capable of flight, what you¡¯re SHOW OFF of a grandfather is doing is simply mimicry and nothing more.¡± ¡°Mimicry? But then how is he floating in the air.¡± Thought Silver. Noticing Silver¡¯s confusion Akela decided to explain, ¡°It¡¯s a gravity manipulation technique. It allows the user to go upwards or downwards at will but it is rather difficult to go forward or backwards.¡± Silver¡¯s eyes began to shine as he looked at Ignus who was able to effortlessly keep up with Grav¡¯s speed. ¡°You should forget about using that technique though.¡± Said Akela in a serious tone. ¡°Eh?¡± said Silver in disbelief. Akela continued, ¡°It¡¯s not just you, even I can¡¯t use that technique. To use this particular technique requires a lot of divine power just to activate.¡± He then looked up at Ignus and with a sigh said, ¡°Actual flight would require someone to expend vast amounts of energy, that¡¯s why only those who have surpassed the soul-compression stage have the ability to use it.¡± Silver was only slightly upset after Akela told him that he wouldn¡¯t be able to use the gravitational technique until he surpassed the soul-compression stage. The reason for that was because of the [Re-birth] technique which would allow him to grow wings once he reached the second level. Although he didn¡¯t know how long it would take him to get to the second level, Silver was confident that it wouldn¡¯t take him as long as it would take to reach Ignus¡¯s level of cultivation. ¡°We¡¯re almost there!¡± said Grav. Silver looked in front and saw a gigantic mountain, towering above them, the likes of which he had never seen before and just as he was lost in amazement Grav suddenly began to ascend at high speed. Silver who wasn¡¯t prepared at all for this sudden rise in speed was almost thrown off Grav¡¯s back but luckily Akela grabbed hold him just in time. After only two or three seconds Grav pierced through the clouds and they had finally reached the clans Head quarters, Heaven¡¯s reach peak where a gigantic castle almost ten times the size of Break Jaw castle stood majestically. It was of the same style though, with nicely slanting roofs, but where as Break Jaw castle was just that, a castle, this looked like a palace in which royalty resided. Ignus directed Grav to land at a place where three men were standing, though they appeared young enough, their faces told tales of battles well fought. As soon as everyone disembarked, Grav turned back into his human form and the company of four walked together towards the three men. ¡°We pay respect to Elder.¡± Said the three men in unison as they cupped their hands and bowed. ¡°Mm¡­lead us to where the banquet is being held.¡± Said Ignus as he nodded in satisfaction. ¡°Please follow us.¡± The company of four then followed the three men through a large doorway decorated with the most intricate carvings Sliver had ever seen, and beyond that appeared a maze of identical corridors, had Silver not had such a good memory he would have been completely lost after the first dozen turns. After about ten minutes of walking the three men stopped in front of a gigantic door, ¡°This is as far as we can go, please go inside the other members are waiting.¡± Ignus simply flicked his sleave signaling them to leave and then opened the door. Inside, was a gigantic hall decorated with various beautiful paintings and sculptures, enchanting female servants moved around the room serving drinks to people in extravagant and luxurious clothing, all of varying ages. The food tables lined across one wall were all full of delicious delicacies of all kinds, with a wide array of both meat and vegetable dishes and an abundance of desserts. Ignus looked around the room until his eyes focused on a bearded old man wearing a bright green robe who was sitting across the room, ¡°I have some things I have to attend to, I¡¯m sure you and Silver can handle yourselves.¡± Said Ignus. Not paying attention to Ignus, Akela grabbed Silver¡¯s hand and said, ¡°There¡¯s someone I want to introduce you to.¡± Akela then guided Silver through the crowd of people until he suddenly stopped and pointed at a middle-aged man with a stern face and greying hair wearing a gold changshan, ¡°You see that man, I was in the army with him. He¡¯s now the deputy head master at the best military school in all of Vargath, I asked him to come here so that he could view you during the performance and maybe admit you.¡± He then looked at Silver and said with a very serious tone, ¡°Make sure you behave!¡± Akela then let go of Silver¡¯s hand and walked over to his old friend. As soon as they saw each other, they both immediately put their hands behind their backs as they saluted each other. After the salute they then hugged each other tightly. ¡°Dion it¡¯s been so long, eh!¡± Dion just lightly laughed and said, ¡°Not so long, that I settled down and became a family man.¡± ¡°We all have to grow up sometime, don¡¯t we.¡± Said Akela. ¡°This coming from the man who spent over seventy years in the army because he hated his father.¡± ¡°I could never win an argument against you.¡± Said Akela while smiling. ¡°Who¡¯s this little fellow over here?¡± asked Dion as he looked at the silver haired child in front of him. ¡°This is my seven year old son, Silver.¡± replied Akela. ¡°Seven!¡± Dion shouted in surprise. He looked at Silver top to bottom and just by looking at his body there¡¯s no way the child in front of him was seven. ¡°I don¡¯t remember you being one to make jokes, maybe it has been a long time. This child is probably at least thirteen, how could he be seven.¡± Said Dion while chuckling. Akela furrowing his brows and glaring at Dion said, ¡°When was the last time I told a joke?¡± Dion was shocked because if what Akela was saying was true, then the child in front of him was really seven and judging from his body alone, he must have already undergone his baptism. Dion then took in a breath of cool air, ¡°Calm down, let¡¯s talk over here.¡± Said Dion as he put his arm around Akela¡¯s shoulder and led him to a table in the corner. ¡°Silver go look around, I¡¯ll come fetch you later.¡± Said Akela. Being left alone Silver had nowhere to go so he began to search around the room for a quiet place to sit when suddenly something caught his eye. It was a group of boys gathered in a corner of the hall surrounding a young male servant who looked to be around fifteen and had dark-skin with strange markings on his entire arm. Silver focused on the dark skinned servant and he couldn¡¯t get even a single sign showing fear from the boy. The more he looked at the young servant the more he was reminded of himself in his past life and for some reason he felt a tinge of fear the more he looked at him. ¡°Who is this kid?¡± thought Silver. Chapter 14 - Offer. Silver didn¡¯t immediately approach the young servant because of the group of boys that had gathered around him. He instead headed to a spot where he could observe them clearly. The spot, was a small table and chair about twenty feet away from the group of boys that was hidden behind a column. After sitting down, Silver asked one of the servants to bring him a glass of water so as to blend in even more with the crowd, he then shifted his attention to the group and what they were discussing. ¡°This stupid servant actually thinks he can glare at me with no consequences, do you know who my father is?¡± said a young man who had a swirling mane of gold hair, a pleasing face, and was dressed in an elegant red changshan with a long gold earring hanging from his left ear. ¡°That¡¯s right! Do you know who his father is.¡± Said another boy who although wasn¡¯t handsomecouldn¡¯t be called ugly either. ¡°Young Master, this servant needs to be taught some manners. I say we take him out back and give him a good beating.¡± Said a rather skinny boy who had a sinister smile on his face. ¡°Degri this is the last time I tell you, stop repeating what I say! As for Chage your idea isn¡¯t bad but this servant doesn¡¯t look normal to me.¡± Said the handsome young man. Chage snickered while pointing at the young slave, ¡°Young Master Hion, there¡¯s no need to worry. I highly doubt this measly servant would dare fight back against the son of the head of the Northern branch.¡± After hearing Chage¡¯s explanation Hion couldn¡¯t help but smile as he spoke, ¡°I know the perfect place to deal with this scum without anyone noticing, follow me.¡± Chage and Degri grabbed hold of the young servant, making sure he couldn¡¯t run awayas they followed Hion. However what surprised them was the fact that the servant didn¡¯t struggle at all, but instead allowed himself to be led. Silver watched the four of them leave the hall, but instead of immediately following after, he simply continued to sit, comfortably sipping his glass of water. The reason Silver wasn¡¯ttoo concerned was because he had discovered that even after the young slave had left the hall, he was still able to feel his presence for some reason. The other reason Silver didn¡¯t get up and follow them so quickly was because he didn¡¯t want the four of them to know he was watching them, plus this was also one of those rare moments when he would find something amusing so he wanted to watch them for a little longer. It had been ten minutes since the group of four had left the hall, ¡°It looks like they¡¯ve finally stopped moving. I should head out.¡± Thought Silver. Silver downed the remainder of the water in his glass in one go and stood in preparation to leave the hall when suddenly a young girl, about the same age as him and wearing a veil over her face, sauntered by and whispered into his ear the words, ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to the ceremony, hope you don¡¯t disappoint me.¡± Silver was caught completely off-guard by the young girl and when he tried to look back to find her, she was gone. ¡°What the hell was that?¡± thought Silver. ¡°Ah! It doesn¡¯t matter, if she¡¯s going to be at the ceremony then I¡¯ll see her again. I have other things to do!¡± With that out of the way, Silver followed the young slave¡¯s presence through various hallways and corridors until he reached a gigantic door that had the image of a burning tiger carved onto it. He slowly opened the door and quickly entered, what he saw was an enormous corridor that stretched on for about three hundred meters with about a dozen rooms lined on either side. All of the room¡¯s doors had names carved onto them except one and, unsurprisingly, that was the same room the young slave¡¯s aura was coming from. Silver opened the door and the first thing he noticed was the vast collection of weapons and sculptures that riddled the room. The more he looked around the more treasure he saw, he couldn¡¯t believe his eyes but then suddenly, the presence of the young slave grew fierce and extremely strong as if reminding him why he was there. Silver immediately ran towards the edge of the room where there was a balcony that overlooked a semi-large training platform. The moment he looked at it though, or more accurately what was on it, his face instantly became pale, drained of allit¡¯scolour. The scene displayed in front of Silver was one stained with blood. On the platform the young slave stood, his clothes ripped revealing some scars, but the true spectacle were his ox yoke shoulders, and Spartan¡¯s body and muscles which seemed as if they were wrought from iron. His hands which were folded into a fist were covered in blood and, underneath him lay a dead Chage while, a few feet away, stood Degri whose right arm hung limply at his side and standing beside him, a completely worn out and tired Hion. The more Silver saw the more cautious he grew. The reason for this was because the aura coming from the young slave was one of the [Darkness] attribute. ¡°Father told me that only people from NothernVargath had the [Darkness] attribute, how did this person get here?¡± thought Silver. Hion with eyes now bloodshot and hair a complete mess, no longer gave off the aura of nobility but instead one of a person fighting for survival. ¡°You bastard, don¡¯t think for one second father will let you live after what you¡¯ve done today!¡± The young slave almost as if not understanding what Hion was saying began to move towards him, killing intent in his eyes. Seeing this Silver began to panic, ¡°This kid has a lot of promise but if he kills that Hion then nothing will be able to save him. I have to find a way to get his atten¡­.¡± Just as Silver was thinking that, an idea suddenly popped into his head. He ran back to the other side of the room and began moving about until he came to a complete stop. In front of him hanging on a wall, lay a pitch black mask that had the name Zara carved onto it. Silver reached out, grabbed the mask and quickly put in on. He then closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, loosened up his arms and muscles and then as he opened his eyes again, a golden strand of light divine power flickered through. Silver¡¯s lips curved into a smile and then without warning released his terrifying aura, however this time was different from when he previously released his aura. This was because this time, Silver was adding fuel to the fire in the form of light divine power. This frightening aura was immediately felt by both the young slave and Hion, however Hion is only able to feel the remnants of it whereas the young slave, who is of the [Darkness] attribute, is able to tell that there is a [light] practitioner in the vicinity. The now curious young slave loses interest with Hion and thus begins to pursue the [light] practitioner who is none other than the masked Silver. Sensing that the young slave was approaching him, Silver decides to run away. He wants to find a place where he can speak freely with the young slave without anyone hearing or interfering. However in order to not lose the young slave, Silver keeps his pace at one which the he is able to keep up with. In a very short amount of time both Silver and the young slave have long gotten out of the room with the burning tiger carved onto the door and are currently passing through a long hallway which seems to have no end. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! That¡¯s when Silver began to grow frustrated, ¡°Just how big is this place? Ah! I need to find an open place.¡± He then randomly jumped into one of the rooms that was along the hallway, however the room he entered was actually a store and had very little space. ¡°Tch! This isn¡¯t good, I need a wider area.¡± As he looked around the room, Silver spotted a small window on the side of the room. Feeling the presence of the young slave get closer, Silver quickly climbed out the window and jumped down. Silver had thought that the fall would be great but surprisingly, as he fell down he landed on a gigantic tree that effectively broke his fall. However even if there was no tree to break his fall, any injuries he might have sustained would have been immediately healed by the sovereign power inside Silver. That¡¯s why he had decided to take the leap of faith. He got down from the tree and as he looked around, Silver couldn¡¯t believe his eyes. Right in front of him, there was a bamboo-brown leafy paradise. The aged trees had creaking branches, huge roots spread from the ground, twisting like the great backs of dragons. Shuffling noises came from deep in the interior, deadened by the cunningly woven web of leaves. The forest¡¯s beauty was soul nourishing. After a while of being completely immersed in the splendor of the forest, Silver released his terrifying aura once again, this time adding even his lightning divine power to it, and only a few moments later a figure came falling from the sky, landing on the same spot as Silver did. That figure was the young slave, however the fall didn¡¯t go as well for him as it had for Silver. A sharp branch had pierced his left leg and had completely gone through it but the shocking thing was that the young slave simply stood up, no sign of pain whatsoever on his face. Blood just kept on gushing out of the wound. ¡°Masked man, who are you?¡± said the young slave who had a surprisingly booming voice, full of vim. Silver was slightly surprised by his words because they weren¡¯t spoken in his language but instead a foreign tongue that sounded both primitive and noble at the same time. The reason Silver was only slightly surprised was because he was able to understand the young slave, thanks to the knowledge of all languages spoken on Vargath which was given to him by Shiraz. ¡°Someone who can help.¡± Replied Silver. ¡°You speak Zarathan?¡± said the now shocked slave. ¡°We don¡¯t have time for this right now, tell me your name!¡± replied Silver. ¡°I am Krias of Zarthar.¡± Silver looked at the young slave carefully and with a sigh said, ¡°Krias, do you know what you¡¯ve done?¡± Krias still calm as ever replied, ¡°I was attacked and so I fought back, that is what father taught me.¡± ¡°That isn¡¯t the problem, the problem is who you attacked! The person you killed is an aid to the son of the young Master of the Northern Branch of the Divine Tiger clan. Even if you were in the right, you are still a slave.¡± Now slightly angry, Krias says, ¡°Hmph! A man of Zarthar values his honour, more than his life. I will stand by my actions.¡± ¡°Ho! Krias, would you mind telling me what happened for you to be here as a slave?¡± asked Silver. Krias closed his eyes and clenched his fists, as if recalling a painful memory. When he opened them again he says, ¡°Zarthar is no more, we were ambushed by the Aristov. They killed everyone including my father, mother and two brothers only sparing those who would make good soldiers in the future. Along the way, a man who was passing by in a luxurious carriage bought me and a few others as his slaves. The other slaves who understood what they were saying, said that he was the Master of the Eastern Branch of the Divine Tiger clan.¡± Although Silver was naturally tough and had seen many things in his previous life, for some reason the young man in front of him had managed to make him feel sympathy. ¡°Krias, I have an offer for you. I hope you will consider it.¡± Krias now looks at the mysterious masked person in front of him and asks himself, ¡°Why am I telling him all this, just who is this person?¡± ¡°Speak and I will listen.¡± Says Krias. Silver takes a deep breath and says, ¡°If you promise to follow me till your death, I might be able to save your life and I can also promise a much better life compared to this.¡± Krias was just about to answer when suddenly a thunderous voice sounded out throughout the entire castle, ¡°WHERE IS THAT BASTARD SLAVE?¡± Chapter 15 - Conditions. The loud shout sounded out across the entire mountain peak, the words, ¡°WHERE IS THAT SLAVE?¡± echoed through out the forest Silver was in. The creatures that lived deep within the mountain began to howl and hiss as they ran as far away as they could. However Silver on the other hand just stood there, seemingly not bothered at all by the loud shout. In truth he was actually expecting something like this, to him it would have been surprising if nothing at all happened. Krias on the outside also seemed like he didn¡¯t care about the loud shout but inside his mind there were doubts. He could feel the power that emanated from the shout and knew that most likely if that person found him, his life would undoubtedly come to an end. ¡°The only way I can survive is to trust this masked person but¡­..first I need to test him.¡± Thought Krias. Krias couldn¡¯t tell what Silver looked like because of the mask so he was unable to guess his age but from looking at his height and his body, Krias guessed that the masked person couldn¡¯t be any older than himself. Suddenly, just as Krias was deep in thought Silver who had began to grow impatient said, ¡°You have very little time, I suggest you make your decision quickly.¡± In actuality Silver knew that Krias was having doubts, the reason for this was because in his past life the feeling of imminent death was one he was very familiar with. He knew that human beings no matter how brave and courageous, when faced with the threat of death will most likely do anything to survive. Especially when the human is a young man, who has lived only to the age of fifteen to sixteen years old. ¡°I will follow you, but only if you are able to meet two requirements.¡± Said Krias. Silver frowned from within the mask, ¡°He¡¯s already in a bad situation and he still wants to set requirements?.....Fine I¡¯ll listen, but only because I can¡¯t bare leaving him to die, this kid definitely has the potential to be a great aid in the future.¡± ¡°Speak!¡± said Silver. Krias nodded and then said, ¡°First of all, you must guarantee my life.¡± Silver simply shrugged his shoulders and said, ¡°I accept! Continue.¡± Inwardly, Krias breathed a sigh of relief and then proceeded to say, ¡°Secondly and most importantly, I would like to test you. If you are able to take my full force strike without dying then, I Krias will swear loyalty to you.¡± Immediately, a smile appeared on Silver¡¯s face, he was completely confident in being able to take Krias¡¯s full force blow without dying. However, the one thing that worried him was whether or not he would be able to ensure Krias¡¯s safety. ¡°Fine but I suggest you hurry up or else¡­..¡± Silver didn¡¯t finish his sentence instead he remained silent and continued to stare at Krias. Not wasting any time Krias pulled out the branch that was stuck in his leg and then got into an attacking stance. Suddenly all the hairs on Silver¡¯s body stood up, he almost immediately retreated but Silver fought the urge and remained standing where he was. ¡°This [Instinct] is really annoying! But for it to act up this much just from this kid getting into position means that I can¡¯t underestimate him.¡± Thought Silver. He then began to prepare himself for Krias¡¯s attack. However the surprising thing was that Krias wasn¡¯t attacking but instead just remained in position unmoving. After about ten breaths worth of time Krias¡¯s mouth opened and from it came the words, ¡°[Night Mist Blade].¡± Immediately after saying those words, a huge amount of darkness spiritual power condensed into his right hand forming into the shape of a pitch black long sword and as soon as it was completely formed Krias dashed forward at incredible speed, just like an arrow that¡¯s been shot from a bow. Silver was caught completely off guard, he hadn¡¯t thought that Krias would be a sword user. After all, when dealing with Hion he had fought barehanded. However who was Silver? He was a warrior who had fought countless battles in his previous life and had gained great battle experience. He immediately recovered from his shock and began to circulate his divine power to its maximum, this caused it to burst out thus strengthening his body thanks to the light divine power as well as create a sort of defensive layer of countless tiny serpentine like lightning divine power. Seeing this, Krias didn¡¯t hold back either and put all his spiritual power into his blade which caused it to grow even darker and completely blend in with the night. In the time it would take someone to take a breath Krias had already arrived within attacking range and without any hesitation he swung his sword in a downward motion heading for Silver¡¯s head. Silver could only see the outline of the sword as it was too dark but despite that he could tell that the attack although powerful wouldn¡¯t be able to kill him because of his exceptional healing, however it would definitely be able to cause him extreme pain. So without hesitating Silver quickly struck out with his own fist which not only held the power of his incredible body but was also filled with lightning divine power. However just as the sword and fist were about to make contact, the characters ¡°ZARA¡± on Silver¡¯s mask began to glow with a blinding light that encompassed almost the entire forest and a deafening cry could be heard coming from the mouth carving on the mask. In an instant both the blinding light and deafening cry had died down almost as if they had never even taken place. Currently both Silver and Krias were lying on the ground unconscious, their faces deathly white and drained of color. However the most shocking thing was that the mask Silver had on was nowhere to be seen. Back in the burning tiger room, Hion was on the floor kneeling in front of a middle aged man with short Viking-gold hair, sickle shaped eyebrows, had a marble jaw that was strong and firm as well as had a shapely face which although wasn¡¯t at the level of Hion, could still be regarded as handsome. The outline of the muscles on his body could even be seen through his robes. ¡°Father, that slave must still be somewhere close. You have to kill him for what he¡¯s done otherwi¡­¡± ¡°SHUT UP! If you say anything else I will show you pain. You¡¯ve already disgraced me enough by allowing yourself to lose to a¡­aa..a slave of all people. I Tous have truly lost face!¡± Said Hion¡¯s father as he clenched his fist and his body trembled in rage. Suddenly Tous shivered and his eyes widened in shock as his body stopped moving. He then slowly turned his head towards the direction of the forest Silver and Krias were currently in. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°What was that energy just now? Could it be him¡­?¡± thought Tous. Tous then gave a sideways glance to Hion before heading out at extreme speed towards the forest Silver and Krias were in. Naturally it wasn¡¯t Tous alone who had been able to feel that weird energy just now, and just like him others quickly rushed to the forest including Akela and Dion. However it had to be said that the Divine Tiger clans head quarters really was huge, the many experts that rushed towards the forest took a round-about route unlike Silver and Krias who had used a shortcut. It would definitely take them a while to get there. Meanwhile inside of Silver¡¯s consciousness his soul could be seen and circling around it was the sovereign power, however currently along with those two there was now a black mask with the characters ¡°ZARA¡± on it hovering around. It just stayed there, doing absolutely nothing. Suddenly a miniscule amount of sovereign power traveled into Silver¡¯s divine core instantly re-energizing him. The amount of the sovereign power taken was comparable to picking a single sand grain from a vast desert, a desert which Silver has absolutely no control over. Soon after that Silver woke up and after closely examining himself, he found that the cause of him losing consciousness was because all his divine power had been drained from his divine core. If it wasn¡¯t for the sovereign¡¯s power he would probably have suffered significant set backs in his future during cultivation. He had also noticed the black mask in his consciousness but after repeatedly trying to stimulate it with no results, Silver decided to give up. He then focused his attention towards Krias. Silver sent a small strand of his light divine power into Krias and immediately after it penetrated his body, the huge amounts of darkness spiritual power in Krias¡¯s core burst out and surrounded the light divine power devouring it. ¡°It looks like he still has the ability to cultivate but it¡¯s going to be a while before he can get up.¡± Silver then began to look around and with a sigh he said, ¡°It looks like I¡¯ve caused quite a commotion this time. It¡¯s going to be very tricky fulfilling those conditions of yours but I did give my word so I¡¯ll try my best. However, you must also sacrifice to gain.¡± Having said that Silver walked towards the unconscious Krias and grabbed hold of his right arm, ¡°An arm for a life!¡± said Silver as he applied strong pressure to the arm and with a ¡°Crunch!¡± sound Krias¡¯s arm was completely broken. His body only twitched once before going back to normal. At this time the numerous experts had arrived at the entrance to the forest where Silver and Krias were and just before they entered the forest they were greeted with a loud shout, ¡°Halt!¡± The multiple practitioners immediately stopped their advance and looked upward toward the sky where they saw an old man standing on air looking down at the various practitioners coldy, ¡°Hmm, I wonder why all of you have come to my place?¡± said the old man coldly as his gaze swept his fellow clan members. Suddenly a loud laugh came from within the group and then a person began to fly upwards. This person was of course Ignus. ¡°Old Ye, we don¡¯t mean to be rude its just that we felt a peculiar presence coming from your garden and we came to check it out.¡± Old Ye looked at Ignus then with a cold snort he said, ¡°You have until dawn to leave and while you¡¯re here, stay away from my workshop.¡± After leaving those words Old Ye left saying nothing more. Ignus then immediately pushed forward with the others following closely behind and only a few moments later they arrived right in front of Silver. He was kneeling on the ground his face deathly pale, hair in a complete mess and was breathing heavily. A few meters away a dark skinned young man could be seen on the ground, his face had bloody wounds on them, and his arm was broken. The surrounding area had torn down trees and broken branches scattered around, giving the impression that a battle had taken place. Immediately after seeing the scene before them both Akela and Ignus quickly went to Silver¡¯s side and helped him up. Although they had many questions, their first priority was to make sure Silver was alright. However just as Akela and Ignus were preparing to leave with Silver, Tous stepped forward and slightly bowed, ¡°Elder Ignus, I don¡¯t know what relationship you have with that boy but before you take him do you mind having him give us a brief explanation as to what happened here.¡± Said Tous in the most respectful and polite tone he was capable of. Ignus cast Tous a cold glance which immediately caused him to break into a cold sweat however he still kept his composure as he needed to confirm his suspicions. ¡°This child is my grandson as you can see he is injured so forgive me for not being polite but we will be taking our leave.¡± Said Ignus coldly. Suddenly a loud , ¡°Hmph!¡± sounded out filled with disdain, an old man with gold and grey hair could be seen approaching quickly towards Ignus. In the blink of an eye that old man arrived beside Tous who then immediately bowed, ¡°Father!¡± ¡°Ignus I don¡¯t see any major injury on your grandson and besides its not like we¡¯re asking him to do anything strenuous, all we want to know is what happened here and for that he only needs to use his mouth.¡± Said the old man. ¡°Rolind, I don¡¯t remember asking for your opinion on the matter so I suggest you watch your words otherwise¡­Hmph! Don¡¯t blame me.¡± said Ignus as he narrowed his eyes. Hearing this Rolind seemed calm but inside he cursed Ignus for not giving him even a bit of face. ¡°Ignus we¡¯re both Elders of the central branch and it is our job to know everything that goes on here, besides look at all these people who¡¯ve rushed here to find out the truth of the matter, surely you can¡¯t let them leave with nothing.¡± Said Rolind and almost as if on queue Tous furiously nodded his head. Seeing everything that was playing out even Silver began to get irritated, ¡°Hmph! You think you¡¯re the only one who¡¯s good with words!¡± He then coughed lightly drawing attention away from the two arguing Elders and onto himself. ¡°I was just strolling through the castle,*cough*, when suddenly I heard a blood curdling scream come from a room with a carving of a burning tiger on the door.¡± Hearing this Tous eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he glanced at the dark skinned youth on the ground and suddenly understood everything. Silver didn¡¯t know that Tous was Hion¡¯s father but seeing the resemblance he would bet that he was at least a cousin or uncle. I FELL AND THUS I MUST RISE AGAIN – Chapter 16. Chapter 16 - Giant stepping stone. A/n. This will be the only regular chapter of the week. I''ll start the two regular chapter a week release schedule on Monday. Although Silver couldn¡¯t possibly know that Tous was Hion¡¯s father but due to the uncanny resemblance, he was certain that they were at least relatives. Silver narrated what happened to Hion in the burning tiger room as well as how he got to the forest. Of course he made sure to leave out some things that shouldn¡¯t be known as well as making sure to ¡°add salt to fresh wounds¡±. His recounting of the ¡°facts¡± of what happened included, ¡°A young boy who looked just like the Uncle here, was on the ground pleading for his life. I couldn¡¯t bare to just leave after seeing such a pitiful scene so I went to rescue him.¡± said the pale-faced Silver as he pretended to struggle to say each word. Tous was immediately enraged and wanted to slap Silver a thousand times but unfortunately for him, his father was the one who forced Ignus to make Silver recount everything that happened to everyone. How could he do anything? On the other hand, Rolind didn¡¯t seem too upset over the matter, he only frowned a little when he heard mention of the burning tiger room. After all Tous hadn¡¯t told him of Hion¡¯s encounter with Krias and within the promising children Tous had come with from the Northern Branch, were some who did indeed resemble Tous. So in other words, Elder Rolind had yet to piece everything together and was thus just like all the other spectators who were completely clueless and were simply listening to a good story. Silver noticed the lack of expression from Rolind and as if he suddenly remembered something said, ¡°Ah! I hope that brother is okay now.¡± Rolind slightly curious asked, ¡°Was there something wrong with him?¡± Silver couldn¡¯t help but be happy, Rolind had taken the bait. ¡°Hehe¡­let¡¯s see how you use your words to get through this?¡± thought Silver. ¡°It¡¯s nothing big, it¡¯s only that fellow brother had wet himself in fear. It must have been traumatizing for him, I sincerely hope he can recover in time for the beginning of the ceremony. What do you think of this Elder?¡± said the pale faced Silver as he looked up at Rolind with eyes filled with anticipation. Tous was about to shout out in fury but before he could do anything, loud laughter rang out from Rolind. He seemed as if he had just heard the best joke of his life, then with a smile plastered on his face looked downwards toward Silver and then turned to face the crowd as he said, ¡°I think everyone has gotten a clear understanding of what happened here as for that weird energy, it¡¯s probably one of Old Ye¡¯s experiments gone wrong.¡± Murmurs rang out from the crowd but no one voiced any objection. Rolind cleared his throat and continued, ¡°Right, I should probably give a verdict on this matter. I¡¯ll leave the matter of that slave¡¯s punishment to Elder Ignus, after all it was his grandson that was injured.¡± Ignus said nothing but the fact that he didn¡¯t object meant that he had consented. Rolind then looked at Silver and with a light chuckle said, ¡°Young one, as for that ¡°fellow brother¡± you were worried about. He has already shamed himself, there¡¯s no way such a person can be given the right to participate in the ceremony.¡± Silver was unable to contain himself anymore as he let out two light chuckles in the form of a cough. Suddenly a loud shout sounded out from Tous, ¡°FATHER!¡± Rolind turned to look at his son Tous, who currently had an ugly expression on his face as he pointed at Silver and then back at Rolind, ¡°YOu¡­wha..at have you done?¡± said Tous in a silent hoarse voice. ¡°Shut up, can¡¯t you see I¡¯m talking!¡± replied Rolind with anger in his voice. Tous immediately kept quiet he only looked at Akela and said, ¡°You will regret this!¡± Akela looked at Tous¡¯s ugly expression and came to the conclusion that the ¡°fellow brother¡± Silver was talking about must be someone close to Tous. ¡°Hmm¡­it might be that genius disciple of his who I keep hearing so much about.¡± Thought Akela. Ignus also noticed Tous¡¯s actions and had assumed the same thing so he asked Silver in a voice that was neither loud nor silent yet could be heard by everyone, ¡°Little Silver, do you know the name of that ¡°fellow brother?¡± Silver thought for a bit and then remembered hearing the name, ¡°¡­hion.¡± said Silver as he thought out loud. Just as those words came out, Rolind spat out some blood as a result of biting his own tongue, Tous on the other hand just looked onwards at Akela as if saying, ¡°I will remember this debt.¡± Rolind¡¯s mind was in chaos and so was Akela¡¯s and Ignus¡¯s, they couldn¡¯t believe what they had just heard. It wasn¡¯t just them who were shocked by this, everyone present at the scene were also reeling. Probably the only person who didn¡¯t know what was going on was Silver, however that was soon rectified when voices from the crowd began to discuss, Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Hion!...could it actually really be that young master Hion. Then doesn¡¯t that mean that Elder Rolind has banned his own grandson from participating in the ceremony.¡± More and more people began to talk about this, some were happy seeing the great Elder Rolind make a fool of himself while others only had ugly expressions on their faces. Suddenly an underling of Tous who had followed him here couldn¡¯t take the insults and condescending looks anymore and so shouted out saying, ¡°Keep your voice down, don¡¯t you know whose territory you¡¯re in. Do you not wish to leave this place with your lives?¡± As soon as those words were said, the atmosphere immediately became tense and hostile. After all who were they to be told that their lives were in the hands of one clan. In the first place how had they wronged the Divine Tiger clan, all they did was listen and comment on the actions of an Elder who basically just destroyed his grandson¡¯s future. Add that to the fact that these people are guests who came here on behalf of different powerful factions, the words of that underling could basically be interpreted as a threat to a large number of factions. ¡°Huh! What did you just say? I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t hear you properly.¡± said a rather old man as he gave a light chuckle. Hearing this Tous¡¯s underling was about to burst out another remark but then suddenly from beneath his feet, a huge inferno erupted burning him to a crisp in an instant. He didn¡¯t even have a chance to let out a sound. This kind of action was too sudden, ¡°who could do such a thing in the Divine Tiger¡¯s territory?¡± was the thought going through many of the spectators minds. ¡°HaHa¡­you really haven¡¯t changed Rolind, still as merciless as always.¡± said the old man as he let out a hearty laugh, one which was unbefitting of a man his age. Rolind looked at the old man and he suddenly clenched his teeth until veins could be seen spiraling from his forehead to his neck. ¡°Senior Emphos, I¡¯m sorry you had to listen to that buffoons ramblings. Please let me compensate you by giving you ¡°that¡±.¡± Said Rolind. As soon as he heard Rolind mention ¡°that¡± the old man instantly raised his thick, bushy eyebrows revealing two blood red eyes shining with excitement. ¡°Mm¡­Junior really does know how to talk, very well lets go now.¡± Said the old man as he nodded his head. The old man was someone Rolind had invited in order to make Hion his disciple. At first the old man was to witness Hion¡¯s performance in the ceremony and then decide whether or not to take him in as a disciple, however because of Rolind¡¯s mistake things have changed. He now has to bring out a family treasure in order to bribe the old man. This only served to fuel his rage towards the entire Southern branch. In his mind, he believed that only someone as sly as Ignus would be able to fool him therefore although he had hate for Silver too but it was impossible for him to put the blame on him. ¡°Ignus, you¡¯ve really done well this time. Just you wait, I promise I will pay you back a hundred times over.¡± And with that thought Rolind led the old man towards the exit of the forest while ignoring everyone else¡¯s gazes. Tous quickly followed behind his father but not before apologizing for his underling¡¯s foolishness. It was at this time that Ignus and Akela finally woke up from their shocked state, they both turned to look at Silver but didn¡¯t say anything at all. In fact it wasn¡¯t just them who were looking at Silver but everyone present was also doing so. No one knows what each of them were thinking about but as for Dion he was excited, ¡°I was with Akela the entire time, we even came here together. There¡¯s no way that scheme was made by him as for whether or not Ignus was involved, I can¡¯t tell for sure. Bu¡­but if, this is all that child¡¯s doing then in the future he can definitely rise to become one of the Captains or even Commanders of the West.¡± Silver on the other hand was feeling neither excited nor happy, in truth he didn¡¯t even put Rolind and Tous in his thoughts. In his mind his plan had already began and that plan involved creating the perfect training environment, ¡°it is impossible to become truly strong unless you overcome everything in front of you, do not fear adversity but rather welcome it.¡± This was the motto Silver lived by in his previous life and now his first giant stepping stone had presented itself, the Nothern Branch of the Divine Tiger Clan. The main emotion Silver was feeling right now was relief, everything had gone his way. First, he had no need to come up with an excuse for that mysterious energy that came from the mask thanks to Rolind and secondly Krias had been placed in Ignus¡¯s custody which makes fulfilling the agreement he made much less complicated. With all that out of the way, Silver couldn¡¯t help but breathe out a sigh of relief. He then looked up at Akela and said, ¡°Father, I¡¯m feeling weak.¡± Akela looked at his son¡¯s pale complexion and then finally came to a decision, ¡°I really can¡¯t figure this child out. Anyway first I¡¯ll take him to his room to rest, then we¡¯ll slowly discuss what happened here.¡± With that Akela apologized to Dion for not being able to accompany him and then immediately left however Ignus on the other hand didn¡¯t leave and instead went to visit Old Ye. After those two went their separate ways, the rest of the people also left the forest and headed back to the hall. I FELL AND THUS I MUST RISE AGAIN – Chapter 17. Chapter 17 ¨C Bonus Chapter/ Teaser. Author¡¯s note: I was planning on starting my release schedule on Monday but after the warm welcome you¡¯ve given me I decided to give you a teaser of sorts as a thanks. Hope you like it. Loved the comments by the way. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Old Ye¡¯s workshop. ¡°Tch! Now of all times is when those bastards decide to disturb me. They better pray to the divine tiger that my work does not suffer because of this otherwise,¡­..hmph.¡± mumbled old Ye as he approached the door to the hidden room in his workshop. If another person was in the room with Old Ye, all they would be able to see was him walking towards a mirror. This mirror was a spirit tool Old Ye had chanced upon on his adventures as a youth, it allowed him access to a small space within another dimension. He had branded it long ago and thus was the only one able to enter the pocket dimension. That small space was where the most precious of old Ye¡¯s things were kept and also where he conducted experiments on the creation of new spirit tools. Just as Old Ye was about to enter the pocket dimension, he suddenly felt the presence of someone approaching his workshop at high speed. ¡°Huh! Are they stupid? Or perhaps do they think I have time to play these silly games? It looks like I¡¯ll have to knock some sense into these younglings.¡± Said Old Ye as he narrowed his eyes. He then dashed out at full speed to stop whoever it was from getting close to his workshop. The person speeding over to Old Ye¡¯s location was naturally Ignus, he had some questions which only Old Ye could answer. He was also familiar with Old Ye¡¯s temperament and knew that if he got too close to the workshop, Old Ye probably wouldn¡¯t let him leave peacefully and so when he was about a thousand meters away, Ignus came to a complete stop. Not long after that Old Ye appeared before Ignus, he had an arrogant air around him almost as if he was looking down on the world. He looked at Ignus and said, ¡°It looks like you have some sense, so I won¡¯t attack. Hurry up and tell me what you want.¡± In truth Old Ye didn¡¯t care if Ignus had ¡°sense¡± or not, the only reason he didn¡¯t attack was because he wasn¡¯t expecting Ignus to be the one to come here. If he did attack though even if he was indeed a bit stronger, the fight would definitely put his workshop in harm¡¯s way and that was a price he wasn¡¯t prepared to pay under any circumstance. ¡°I want to know if you know anything about that mysterious energy, I know you felt it as it would be impossible for you not to, seeing as you live here.¡± said Ignus. Old Ye looked at Ignus and thought to himself, ¡°What mysterious energy is he talking about? Could something have happened as I was working inside the pocket dimension?.¡± Seeing as how Old Ye remained silent and didn¡¯t say anything Ignus began to feel irritated, he too had had a short fuse, ¡°If you don¡¯t wish to speak then I apologize for bothering you, I¡¯ll be taking my leave now.¡± barked Ignus as his voice was filled with anger. Ignus turned around and like a gust of wind disappeared. Old Ye was about to go and stop him, so that he could find out what happened but instead viewed it as too much trouble and so decided to not bother. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Meanwhile inside the castle, in a room (more like miniature manor) that had a blurry image of a tiger on the door, Silver and Akela were currently chatting. Silver had long since stopped pretending to be injured and had properly explained to Akela about Krias¡¯s situation. He however decided not to tell Akela about the black mask incident, he felt it was better to keep it a secret until he knew what it was. When asked about that mysterious energy Silver just came up with some nonsense saying, ¡°It probably happened due to the collision of my light divine power and his darkness spiritual power.¡± He figured that since this world had very few people with the light attribute, then there shouldn¡¯t be many people who¡¯ve seen a light and darkness attribute collision. Fortunately he was right, in this world including Silver there were only three people who had the light attribute. Akela himself had never personally met any of them so he decided to believe Silver, after all Silver had never lied to him before. A/n.- Poor Akela. Silver then told Akela about the agreement he made with Krias, even though Elder Rolind had said that Krias¡¯s punishment was to be left to Ignus. If he found out that Ignus didn¡¯t execute Krias which was the norm for this kind of cases, he would definitely be enraged. To him keeping Krias alive was the same as leaving a constant reminder of his actions which damaged his family¡¯s honour, not to mention Hion¡¯s. Akela couldn¡¯t help but sigh as he looked at Silver and then at the unconscious Krias lying on the floor in the corner, ¡°I don¡¯t know what to tell you little Silver, let¡¯s wait for your grandpa Ignus and see what he has to say. However my advice to you, is simply to forget about this kid.¡± Silver didn¡¯t pay any heed to Akela¡¯s last statement, he had already said he would guarantee the kids life and he had no plans of going back on his word. A few hours later, The door suddenly opened and in came Ignus, he had a weird expression on his face almost as if he was debating something. It wasn¡¯t until he came to the living room that he came back to his senses; in front of him sitting on a chair with crossed arms was Akela while Silver who hadn¡¯t noticed Ignus¡¯s arrival was in the corner busy tending to Krias¡¯s broken arm. Ignus was puzzled by the situation, ¡°Why is he tending to the wounds of someone who wished to kill him? It can¡¯t be due to sympathy, can it? ¡± Noticing Ignus¡¯s puzzled look Akela stood up and while sighing asked Ignus to follow him to another room so that he could explain everything. Not long after Akela left the room and went back to the living room, only to find Krias had been moved from the floor and onto the chaise lounge with his arm properly patched up. Akela was curious as to where Silver had learned how to do such a thing but now was not the time to ask. Silver was standing by the window, looking at the beautiful view of the night sky. The vast, seemingly empty space was filled with glittering diamond like stars. The moon, the stars, even the clouds were glowing with their own ominous light. Akela walked up to Silver and told him that Ignus wanted to see him. I FELL AND THUS I MUST RISE AGAIN – Chapter 18. Chapter 18 ¨C The ceremony begins. Author''s Note: Sorry for the late chapter. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ¡°My name is Anvar, I will be overseeing this years ceremony. Before we proceed to the sacred land, I¡¯ll first need to make sure that you¡¯re all here.¡± Said a rather short bald headed middle aged man. Anvar glanced at the hundreds of youths inside the main hall before his eyes landed on the body of a handsome young boy who had a swirling mane of gold hair. The boy seemed to be looking around the whole room as if searching for something, his eyes were red and he had grey circles underneath them proof that he had not been able to get a wink of sleep the previous night. Anvar inwardly sighed before his eyes drifted to the eastern side of the room where a young boy with silver hair was standing. The boy seemed to be deep in thought about something which was quite weird, since most of the youths here were fifteen or younger and almost all of them were either nervous or afraid. That youth was Silver, he was thinking about his conversation with Ignus last night when suddenly he felt someone staring at him. He looked around but couldn¡¯t tell who it was but then somehow his eyes and Hion¡¯s managed to lock onto each other. At this moment before Hion could say anything Anvar shouted out again saying, ¡°I¡¯ll start by explaining the rules to all of you, so listen carefully as I will not repeat myself.¡± Silver ignored Hion¡¯s hateful gaze and looked up at Anvar, hesuddenly began to recall what he and Ignus had talked about yesterday. Last night, inside of Ignus¡¯s room. Silver entered the room and saw Ignus sitting on a chair at the far end of the room with his back facing Silver. ¡°Sit down.¡± Said Ignus as he pointed to a chair in front of him. Silver followed Ignus¡¯s instructions and sat down. ¡°Akela has told me about that kid and also that you insist on sheltering him. Why? And don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s because you gave him your word. What I want to know is why you gave him your word in the first place and I also want the truth of what happened in the forest, Akela might have never seen someone of the light attribute facing of against a darkness attribute but I have. So if you want my help, I suggest you tell me the truth.¡± said Ignus in a calm manner, his voice neither raised nor hushed. On the outside Silver seemed calm and not bothered however he was inwardly cursing, ¡°Shit! Now he knows that since I kept the mask incident from Akela then I¡¯m definitely hiding something from him, I can¡¯t run away from that one. As for Krias, that one¡¯s simple.¡± Ignus didn¡¯t rush Silver to answer him at all, he just calmly waited for an answer. The reason he was doing this was because he had the feeling that he and Silver were growing farther apart despite being blood relatives. He figured by not immediately forcing an answer out of Silver and instead patiently waiting for him to the give the answer himself would bring he and Silver a little closer, so that next time something like this happens Silver won¡¯t hesitate to tell him. After all when everything¡¯s said and done Silver is still his grandson and it was his duty as the head of the household to protect all of his family¡¯s descendants, especially the promising ones. Just as he was thinking that Silver in a hesitant manner told Ignus his reason for keeping Krias, ¡°I was thinking that since, Krias is of the darkness attribute which is the direct opposite of my light attribute then it would benefit me greatly to keep him as a practice partner. In the future, I wouldn¡¯t be caught off guard by any darkness practitioner.¡± Ignus gaped, he had no idea that Silver would think so far ahead, he was about to go and pat him on the shoulders but then he suddenly remembered that mysterious energy and the fact that Silver lied to Akela. He calmed his excitement and nodded before saying, ¡° Mm¡­now tell me about what happened at the forest.¡± Silver lowered his head. His facial expression continued changing varying from hesitant, sad, sorry and then as if he had finally decided on something he raised his head to look straight at Ignus and then suddenly his aura was released. His eyes also changed into that of a tiger. Ignus was shocked by Silver¡¯s sudden actions but before he could say anything, Silver stretched his hand out and said, ¡°Look carefully!¡± Ignus stared right at Silver¡¯s palm where both light and lightning power were beginning to gather. He already knew Silver had both light and lightning divine power which was a pity because they were both great attributes but he could only choose one. ¡°Why is he showing me this?¡± thought Ignus. Suddenly the light and lightning divine power on Silver¡¯s palm began to get closer and closer to one another until finally the thin strands of light and lightning divine power began to wrap around each other countless times, and in the end one strand of dark blue completely fused divine power remained floating on Silver¡¯s palm. Ignus finally couldn¡¯t contain himself his jaw dropped down as he pointed at Silver¡¯s palm, ¡°Aaah¡­.aaaHhh¡± Ignus then looked up at Silver and saw him sweating profusely, only then did he come to his senses. He immediately stood up walked towards Silver and said, Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.¡°It¡¯s fine, I understand!¡± Silver put away the fused divine power into his divine core. In truth Silver could have just taken out some of the already fused divine power from his divine core however that would be the same as telling Ignus,¡°I have loads of this stuff!¡± therefore he had no choice but to fuse some right before his eyes. The reason he chose to reveal his fused divine power was because that and the [divinemind purification] technique were the only other secrets he had and in order to hide one, he needed to reveal another. The [divine mind purification technique] was out of the question as that was something Shiraz had given him, thus he was left with no choice but to reveal the fused divine power. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you managed to accomplish that but never mind, this isn¡¯t the place to talk about such things. Sigh~ As for that slave, I¡¯ll handle it but on one condition. You decline and there will be no deal.¡± Said Ignus. ¡°I agree.¡± Said Silver without any hesitation. After all he had no choice but to accept, refusal meant Krias¡¯s death. A smile immediately spread across Ignus¡¯s face, ¡°Good! I had my doubts before but now I feel like you can accomplish getting first in the Hunt.¡± Silver was immediately confused, ¡°What benefit is there for Ignus if I gain the first place in the hunt?¡± was the thought going through Silver¡¯s head. Ignus noticed Silver¡¯s confused expression but opted not to tell Silver about it. However just as he was about to tell Silver to rest in preparation for tomorrow, he remembered the message he received from one of his subordinates. He then turned to Silver and said, ¡°Little Silver, you definitely have to be careful tomorrow. I just received a report from one of my aids informing me that Hion kid will be attending the ceremony tomorrow, apparently Rolind found a rule stating that only when all four Central Elders agree can someone be denied participation in the ceremony.¡± Silver was speechless, ¡°That Rolind fellow really is crafty, however that won¡¯t change how people view that young master. Besides I only did what I did to get a little pay back for Krias, now I suppose I can consider everything even.¡± Seeing Silver deep in thought Ignus with a smile on his face said, ¡°I have to say, that little play of yours really was believable. I guess it¡¯s because you have my blood, yes that has to be it, although Akela turned out to be my opposite, you and I are completely the same.¡± Silver really wanted to laugh when he heard Ignus¡¯s words, ¡°How can one man love himself so much?¡± but instead he cleared his throat and asked, ¡°Ahem! So what did the Elders decide?¡± ¡°Hmm, Of course they couldn¡¯t say anything! Doing something like that would be the same as making the Nothern Branch your enemy and except for the Central and Southern branch, the rest are all weaker than the North.¡± shouted Ignus as he grinded his teeth in dissatisfaction. ¡°Ok! Now that I¡¯ve told you everything go and rest, tomorrow is going to be a big day for you.¡± Back atThe Main Hall of Heaven¡¯s Reach Castle. ¡°The first and most important rule you must remember is that no one is allowed to kill a fellow clan member inside the sacred land. Lastly, you mustn¡¯t hunt anything except for the tigers. Depending on the color of the tiger you slay, the more aura you will obtain. The are four different tigers in the sacred land, -The yellow ones which give the least aura when killed. -The black ones. -The grey ones which are rare to find and give off large amounts of aura. -And finally the white tiger, there is only one of this type of tiger in the sacred land per ceremony. The tiger¡¯s strength is also determined by their color. As for the white tiger until now, no one has been able to kill one. So I suggest if you see it, don¡¯t hesitate to run away.¡± After saying that Anvar then turned towards three men in black whose faces couldn¡¯t be seen, he waved his hand at them and the three of them nodded. The three men took out three globes from their void and then threw them in the air at the same time, ¡°OPEN!¡± shouted the three men in unison. The three globes formed into a triangle in the air and then completely dissolved, leaving only a triangle shaped screen of light. Anvar nodded in satisfaction at the sight of the screen, ¡°Mm¡­Lead the children inside.¡± Author''s note. Hey there, the rest of the chapters can be found at Novelsnao.com. Currently at 51 chapters, so read ahead over there............ Your humble author, emeraldragon.