Staring at the portal, Fang’s mind blanked. Meng looked at the young boy and said, “We Soul Magi used to be quite weak due to two things.” He raised one finger and said, “We lacked a base of operations.

  Meaning that we were all scattered around the various Worlds when one of us ran into big trouble, he or she was on her own.” Fang snapped out and listened intently. Meng then raised a second finger as well and said, “The second reason was because we lacked simple means of protection.” Fang didn’t understand what he meant.

  Meng sighed deeply as he said, “Soul Magi were originally mostly scholars and even though we were mediocre in a fight, all our strong attack spells need a long time to set up.” He then shook his head as he said, “In a fight, no one will give you the time to arrange a Spell Formation or chant any spells.

  Now, using the troops as the buffer wall, we have enough time to arrange the Spell Formations, spells and so on.” Fang didn’t understand well but he didn’t want to ask either for now.

  Seeing that look on Fang’s face, Meng explained it instead, “You see, all large scale and powerful spells need time to arrange and set up. Magi use different means to buy that time in a fight. Some use Golems for defence, some team up with other Magi or Knight’s. There are many methods but none of those methods worked for our Soul Magi.”

  Meng then had a nostalgic look on his face as he sighed deeply. “We use our knowledge of the Soul to take control of the Skeletons. Some Light Magi use some devout believers in them. Earth Magi mainly use Golems and so on.” As Meng said that, Fang lightly nodded his head indicating his understanding. Seeing that, Meng’s eyes flashed as he thought to himself, “This boy, there is something special about him….”

  Although he couldn’t point out what he felt was special about him, he could tell that something was very off. “His calm and analytical judgement… He absorb all the knowledge like a sponge and he understand the information passed on to him very easily. It’s almost the same as….” As he thought of the person, he shuddered.

  He then smiled to himself, “It’s impossible. After the Light Magi exterminated his bloodline, he hasn’t had any other mate to give him successors.” When he thought back to that chaotic time, his eyes turned extremely icy. Fang didn’t know what Meng was thinking about, so he didn’t understand why Meng’s expression changed so much.

  Suddenly, Meng snapped out from his thoughts and memories and looked at the giant Gate in front of him. His eyes looked resolute now as he put his hand on the Gate and the Gate started shining. The door suddenly opened and Meng gestured for Fang to step in.

  Seeing him hesitate, Meng smiled as he said, “Let’s go.” After saying that, he stepped past the gate and vanished. Fang grit his teeth and picked up his courage to step past the Gate as well. His world was engulfed by extremely bright, white light and he felt extreme nausea take over him.

  ***

  “Welcome to the Soul Academy. Home and headquarters of all Soul Magi.” As Fang heard the familiar voice, he slowly opened his eyes and was greeted by a humongous city. The giant city was filled with many tall towers, greenery, houses and many, many races.

  When Fang saw all the weird creatures that were wearing the same emblem on their robes, Fang couldn’t believe his eyes. Some look like fairies, some looked like grotesque demons but all of them were wearing different coloured long robes. And on the front left side, all of them had the same emblem of an upside down cross adorned by two roses. After noticing that, he stole a glance from Meng’s robes and saw the same emblem on his chest as well.

  The arrival of the two caused quite a big stir amongst the regular Soul Magi. All of the Magi that saw Meng would cup their hands and give him a deep bow when they saw him. Fang raised a brow in confusion as he glanced towards Meng. Meng chuckled at Fang, seeming to enjoy the attention.

  He waved his hand and a gentle power enveloped both Fang and Meng as they raised upwards. Meng smiled at Fang and said, “You go and register yourself. Here this token will show the examiners who sent you and you will be recorded as my Disciple after the examination.” As he said that, a black token flew towards Fang. On one side, was the same emblem as the one on everyone’s robes, on the other side, only “Xie” was written. Before Fang could say or ask anything, the gentle power that enveloped him started moving, dragging him towards a particularly large tower in the centre of the city.

  After Fang had disappeared from sight, Meng still looked towards the direction of the tower. After a few moments passed, a light beam appeared on the horizon and stopped in front of Meng. The person who appeared looked like a middle aged man. He had chestnut brown hair that was greying from his temples.

  His brown eyes looked filled with respect as he cupped his hands towards Meng and said, “Greetings Master!”. Meng nodded and a trace of nostalgia and gentleness appeared in his eyes. Meng then smiled as he said, “Little Ryan, long time no see. How is your progress lately?” The person called Ryan stood up and gently sighed as he shook his head, “Same old…. Making progress is hard when I have to manage the entire Soul Academy.” Meng sighed as well as he nodded his head.

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  He then asked, “How are your senior and juniors doing?” Ryan’s eyes turned serious as he said, “Senior brother Martin is currently travelling the worlds, collecting different materials and resources to upgrade his troops, junior sister Laura and junior brother Jack are doing the same.” He then sighed deeply again as he said, “The Inter Planar War is fast approaching, only a century is left until it. Every Magi, Qi Master or any other path follower is desperately upgrading their power.” Meng’s face darkened when he heard of the Inter Planar War.

  Ryan then asked, “But Master, what are you doing here? You are one of our strongest Magi so the responsibilities you will have to shoulder will be significantly more than the rest of us….” This had puzzled him from the moment he got word that Meng had appeared in the Soul Academy. His knowledge on his Master was that he was one of the most meticulous of the Soul Guardians, so he would use every moment to it’s up most to guarantee an increase in power. The stronger you are, the higher the chance of surviving the War.

  Meng then looked towards the tower again as he said, “Well, I am here to register your new Junior Brother.” Hearing this, Ryan’s eyes opened wide as he exclaimed, “Now?! There is only a century left until the Planar War!” Ryan couldn’t understand his Master at all at the moment. This century should be spent on doing everything to upgrade his own strength or augment his troops but he suddenly decided to take in a Disciple at this crucial time.

  Meng let out a soft laugh as he said, “Don’t worry. Teaching him won’t impede with my preparations. Most of them are done by now any way and it will be hard for me to make any significant progress in this century. In another ten years at most, all my preparations will be completed.” Ryan could only softly nod his head indicating that he had nothing more to say. If his Master said so, who was he to say otherwise?

  He was his second Disciple and although he was the Soul Academy Headmaster, he lacked any sort of power over him. His gaze also turned towards the tower and soon, the two disappeared from the spot they were talking at.

  ***

  Fang had no idea of what had happened after he had disappeared, before he knew it, he had appeared before the entrance to the giant tower. When he landed in front of the giant door, the mysterious power that had enveloped him had disappeared. Fang now looked around in confusion as he tried to figure out where to go or what to do. As he stood there in confusion looking around like a lost lamb, a giant shadow suddenly enveloped him.

  When he looked up, he saw a giant red skinned devil behind him, looking at him with contempt. Fang felt his knees weaken as he subconsciously felt an invisible aura suffocate him. The more he stared into the man’s eyes, the more he felt his eyes blur. Just as his world started turning black, a sudden “Hiss.” rang out inside his mind.

  Seeing the little human in front of him clear his mind, a trace of interest flashed in the red skinned man’s eyes. As the two stared at each other, the people around them stood stupefied. The red skinned devil had blood red eyes and the young boy in front of him had azure blue eyes.

  The devil had long pitch black hair, the small boy in front of him had snow white hair. As the two stared into each other’s eyes, suddenly, Fang felt a very weird feeling in his head as his eyes suddenly turned into slits like a snakes, that stared back at the devil. When the Devil saw that, his eyes opened wide as he subconsciously jumped backwards, creating some distance between the two.

  His back was soaked in cold sweat as he looked at the young boy in front of him in astonishment. “When his eyes turned into snakes, that feeling….” The moment Fang’s eyes turned into slits, the Devil felt as though an enormous snake was laying in ambush, waiting to devour him. However, that lasted for only a moment before Fang’s eyes turned back to normal.

  Without saying anything, he gave Fang one last glance of confusion as he suddenly turned towards the gate and walked in. When he took his eyes off of Fang, he thought to himself, “Did I imagine that? I could have sworn that the aura he gave out was extremely dangerous…. As if a giant snake was waiting to devour a helpless little rabbit….”

  Fang didn’t know what was going through the red skinned devils mind as he looked at him in confusion. He thought back to that exchange with confusion as he thought to himself, “At first I felt as if I would blank out, then a mysterious power filled me and that person jumped back.” As he thought about that, he couldn’t help but cast another glance at red skinned devils back. After thinking about it a bit, he couldn’t figure out what had happened.

  Giving up on thinking about it for now, he also turned towards the gate and walked towards it. He figured that he most likely was supposed to enter that tower. Even if he wasn’t, he could at least find out from there where he was supposed to go and do. With his mind still in confusion about the weird encounter, he walked inside the tower.

  ***

  Up in the clouds, hidden from everyone else’s gaze, sat two people, Ryan and Meng. They both looked filled with shock as Ryan said, “It’s the Founding Ancestors Bloodline!” Meng nodded his head in astonishment as he said, “I felt that there was something special about him but the preliminary test showed that he did not possess any Bloodline.”

  As he thought back to that, he suddenly felt something click into place as he exclaimed, “Of course it wouldn’t show! He has an extremely high grade Bloodline that has been dormant for generations. His Bloodline is extremely thin and the Testing Stele that I have is only a low grade one only used to simply see if anyone has the ability to become a Soul Magi or not.”

  After saying so, he suddenly felt expectant towards the results the Top Grade Testing Stele would bring.