Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 4. Nightmares.

“I must ask, how strong are you as a spiritual practitioner?” Cran inquired as they were getting ready to leave the old storage house.

“I am not sure, to be honest. I’ve never had a teacher and my training is really… inconsistent. I can only take a guess without much accuracy. I should be at the very least at the sixth mortal realm,” Laien answered truthfully, though he might have sounded a bit ridiculous. To not know at which rank you are yourself? That would take a new level of idiocy.

“Hmm, then, when did you liquefy your spiritual energy and establish your Spiritual Core? It usually happens somewhere between fifth and seventh Realms, right?” Cran asked, intending to judge Laien’s level from the basic time frames. It hadn’t occurred to him, however, that Laien would have been able to do that by himself well enough.

“Yeah, between fifth and sixth, to be exact. The same as when martial practitioners learn their Qi Manipulating Art and the other Primary Arts… Um, well. It kinda happened today?” Laien said with an awkward laugh. He wasn’t sure if he could tell Cran everything, at the very least not yet. Thus, he preferred to keep his unusual experience a secret for the time being.

Cran seemed to have finally noticed that Laien was purposely beating around the bush and nodded with understanding, deciding not to dig any deeper into Laien’s private matters. “Anyway, good for you. You are really strong and you have high potential, too,” Cran praised, not realizing quite well enough how monstrous Laien’s current strength would be seen as in the north, where magic was what martial arts were to the Sarkcente Kingdom.

Yet, Cran knew at the very least that unless a spiritual practitioner had good enough talent, he could be forever stuck at the borders between fifth and se-… sixth, ranks of the mortal realm. Just as martial practitioners would be forever stuck at the fifth mortal realm if they weren’t talented enough to learn a Qi Manipulating Art or weren’t in a possession of one, spiritual practitioners who couldn’t purify their spiritual energy to a high enough degree would never break through to the higher ranks. If one’s talent wasn’t good enough, then no matter how many years he spent accumulating Qi or Spiritual Energy, he would never advance past the fifth Mortal Realm!

For example, the five guards who had been killed by Laien and Cran. They were ‘only’ at the sixth and seventh Mortal Realms, but for a middle-ranked noble family, they could be considered to be fairly elite guards. It needed to be understood, that martial masters, those who reached the Realm of Heroes, were the true elite of the warriors! The whole Sarkcente Kingdom with its fifty million citizens produced but a few thousand martial masters, while virtually one hundred percent of the population had a degree of capacity as martial practitioners! In the country where martial arts were revered, less than one person in ten thousand would become a martial master! Not even mentioning that very few martial masters would then be capable of advancing past the first Realm of Heroes; the vast majority would reach the limit of their potential and be stuck at the early Realms of Heroes until the day they die.

“I hope I do have a talent, it would make many things easier,” Laien responded with a laugh and a slight sigh. His abilities as a spiritual practitioner were much stronger to begin with. Now that he got even stronger, he began regretting living in the south, where magic wasn’t respected. To truly utilize his abilities, he would need to travel north and study magic there… Would it be possible, though?

Cran sighed, pondering something. Then, having made his decision, he looked Laien in the eye and asked seriously. “I decided that I will be going to the Royal Capital. I can take you with me, to the Tir’Sare academy. They teach both martial arts and the basics of magic. How about it? Leave this crappy place, I will help you discuss it with Lord Garon. He will be happy to have you out of his way, or at the very least, Jasi will, heh. Taking your sister with us won’t be a problem, either,” he offered on the spur of the moment, intending to lend Laien a hand and fix his problems for him.

Laien was greatly surprised by this proposal. He tried to think about it, but honestly, he was too tired to be making an important decision right now. “Uum… can we leave my answer for later…? When you know… when there won’t be five corpses lying around and I will be a little bit better rested?” he said while scratching his head, then smiled meaningfully.

Cran looked as if he had only now remembered where they were and what has happened during the last hour. He looked around at the bodies of the five men, then looked at Laien whose body was covered in blood. He smiled resignedly and shook his head, covering his face with a palm of his hand.

“You are right, sorry. Somehow, I forgot. It’s just that… you really should think about it. If you stay here, then the Boular family will make it hard for you. Jasi might leave you alone, but Masi… Even if he’s to be stripped from all of the power in his family, he will only hate you more and sooner or later, will seek revenge. I won’t be able to protect you then,” Cran apologized and warned, stating pretty much what Laien could have guessed on his own. Obviously, since the two of them haven’t talked to each other much, Cran was unaware how bright of a youth Laien actually was and treated him like any other ten-year-old disciple from the Red Dragon School.

Laien nodded, completely agreeing with those words of Cran’s. He found it hard to believe that Masi would give up after failing this one time. It wouldn’t be too bad to leave Neil City and go to the Royal Capital, but… he didn’t want to leave all his friends. Not yet. If only there existed a way for him to live peacefully in this place for a few more years…

As he wondered, Laien suddenly realized that there really was a way. “I have an idea, but we need to hurry up before anyone finds out what happened today,” he said with a cheeky smile and glanced at Cran.

“Tell me what the plan is, then we will see,” Cran said and smiled back, sensing something quite amusing from the look in Laien’s eyes.

---

At the moment, Masi was feeling really happy with himself despite being thrashed around by Cran just a few moments ago. “I finally made this retard snap, now I don’t have to worry about him anymore. I wonder if Mayan will bring him here? Knowing Cran, he probably attacked my guards after arriving there, haha. It’s going to be hilarious.” Masi beamed with a good mood, to the point of unintentionally annoying Jasi, who wasn’t quite as content about losing Cran’s support.

Cran might not have had a high degree of influence in the Red Dragon School yet, but in the future...? He would almost certainly prove to be worth much more than someone like Masi. Now that the childish anger against Laien stopped clouding his eyes, Jasi could see that very well.

“Jasi, you should just forget about an impulsive idiot like Cran. Involving yourself with him was going to bring you more trouble than he's worth. He’s bound to make many enemies in the future given how recklessly he behaves. We wouldn’t need to wait long for him to want to save every misfortunate person he can see. He doesn’t realize how the real world works.” Although was Masi was saying was fairly biased, his words held some truth to them. Cran rarely made choices based on logic and cold calculations and more often than not followed his feelings. Somebody like that was suited neither to the world of politics nor to the career of a general.

In this world, only the strong had the right to rule others! Only the strong had the right to decide for themselves! If an ultimate expert at peak of the Realm of Heroes decided to be merciful and went around helping people, he would be called a Saint. However, if someone with insufficient power did the same, he would be called delusional and would be thought to be courting an early death. From this perspective, Cran was truly too soft-hearted.

“I know. It’s just that I don’t like your way of doing things either. As much as I agree it’s important to show people who is their superior, I really think you overdid it both this time and yesterday,” Jasi said with a conflicted expression on his face. The day before, he had agreed to Masi’s suggestion of having Laien beat up once and for good. He thought that Laien deserved to be bullied for what he did to him, but now… it all started to look like one big joke. Attacking him once should have been more than enough, but before he noticed, everything progressed further than he would have wanted.

Truth to be told, it all went out of hand. Even when Laien had been forced to prostrate himself before them, he didn’t feel good or satisfied because of that. Rather, it was as if something heavy got stuck in his throat; it was an unpleasant feeling. However, he wanted to appear ‘cool and strong’, he wanted to be respected among his older peers and seen as a strong future Clan Leader! As a result, he failed to stop everything when he still could have. It all escalated before he understood what was going on…! When he heard Masi telling Cran what he had told his guards to do with Laien, he wished he could turn the time back to never have allowed Masi to do as he pleased. Regrettably, it was too late to change anything.

“You are just too young, Jasi. You come from one of the most powerful families in the Sarkcente Kingdom! You Valius family leads hundreds other nobles families as the leaders of the Valius clan! People bow to you because they fear the power of your family; even Lord Tei’Ru used to be cruel when needed. You can’t show weakness to anyone! If an old boar becomes weak, a herd of wolves will jump it and rip it apart without remorse,” Masi spoke confidently, seeming to strongly believe his own words. From that, one could tell he has had his own fair share of experiences which reaffirmed the way he viewed the world.

“Maybe you are right…” Jasi responded unenergetically, not listening too closely to what Masi was saying. He took another sip of wine from his glass, thinking about going to bed early today.

Masi frowned, trying to come up with something to cheer Jasi up. After all, he needed Jasi’s support for his Boular family to flourish in the future.

Yet, the next second, both Masi and Jasi jumped up in their chairs.

The faraway entrance to Jasi’s chambers got smashed open with a loud *thud*. Judging from the sound, the door had slammed against the wall hard enough to break down and fall off from its frame. After a short few seconds, the enraged Lord Garon entered the room with his two private guards following right behind him. Right afterward, Laien and Cran also walked inside.

Masi started at Laien with his mouth and eyes wide open. He was so stupefied by Laien’s appearance that when the ten-year-old smiled at him smugly, his expression instantly turned ugly and he felt like swearing to the Heavens.

“Maybe you two will explain this to me?” Garon waved his hand and out of nowhere, five gruesome corpses appeared on the floor. One of the bodies had been exploded from within, one lacked a head, another two were thoroughly scorched black while the last one had his body burned partially; three of the corpses also had large holes in their chests.

When the stench of intestines reached Jasi, paired up with the horrifying sight, it caused him to go below his bottom line. The ten-year-old bent forward on his chair and vomited onto the floor, shaking uncontrollably. He might have been the same age as Laien, he might have been a young master of the Valius family, but he truly couldn’t compare to him. Not at this point in time, at least.

Masi, on the other hand, has turned as white as paper. The elite guards of his family that he had borrowed for himself during his father’s absence were all dead! While the kid who they were supposed to teach a lesson was standing in front of him, laughing!

“Cran! How could you have killed my men like that?! What reasons did you have?!” Masi shouted, losing every bit of composure.

“Shut it!” Garon growled, eyeing Masi with an ice-cold gaze. “You’d better start talking unless you want to part with your head right now. What’s your version?” he asked angrily, pointing at the five dead bodies with a slight gesture of his hand.

Masi took a deep breath, then answered a bit more calmly. “All we wanted to do was to set an example. This kid wouldn’t obey otherwise. If brats like him are allowed to look down on people better than them, then no one will respect noble families,” Masi exclaimed, pretty sure that this line of reasoning will make Lord Garon understand.

“’We’ wanted? Jasi, you knew what was going on and did nothing to stop him?” Garon gazed at his son and shook his head. He loved Jasi, but he never imagined that his son would fall so low as to torture and openly attacks members of his own family.

“Had it been a commoner… had any of you had any grudges with him… I could have overlooked it. However, attempting to torture, cripple, maybe even kill one of our Valius family for no reason but shallow, unjustified hatred! Be grateful that these two didn’t call for the guards and instead came to me. You would both be in a shit so deep you can’t even imagine had they done otherwise. Don’t you know how important face is to every noble family…? You were about to trash ours, eh. You, kid of the Boular’s. Get out of my mansion, your father will punish you when he returns,” Garon suppressed a deep sigh, thoroughly disappointed with his son and the friends he was surrounding himself with.

“Perhaps father was right and I doted on him too much… Father had always been rough with Jasi, but he is no longer with us. The only thing that restrained Jasi is gone,” Garon clicked his tongue and after Masi was gone, he spoke up again.

“As for you, Jasi… you will be going to your uncle Shir’ar, to the front lines of the Anarchic Lands. When you become sixteen, you will be allowed to return. At that time, I will decide whether you are worthy of becoming my heir, or if I should I rather support one of your older brothers instead,” he said rather sternly, not pleased with this outcome at all. However, if Jasi were to ever learn to behave, it needed to be done now, when he was still young. Overlooking his mistakes would lead to him getting spoiled rotten and in the future, would be disadvantageous to the Valius family as a whole.

Jasi swallowed nervously. Learning that he would be going to uncle Shir’ar has been quite a shock to him. In the Valius family, General Shir’ar was famous for handling problem kids. His training regime was legendary, often used by mothers to scare their children. ‘You’d better behave, or we will send you to Uncle Shir’ar’, they’d often say to their rowdy youths.

“Clan Leader, I have a request,” Laien said unexpectedly and bowed respectfully. Garon waved his hand, allowing Laien to speak.

“From what I’ve seen and heard, this matter was mostly Masi’s responsibility. I do not wish to see my cousin be punished just because he had no one to tell him what is wrong and what is right. I’d like to ask Clan Leader to consider a lighter punishment,” Laien asked amiably, then unable to ignore Jasi’s surprised look, exchanged a glance with him and shrugged his shoulder lightly. He wasn’t doing it for Jasi, he was doing it for himself.

Garon raised his eyebrows, not having expected Laien to go out of his way to help Jasi. He pondered for a second; he could be sure that Laien was hiding something, as just a glance at corpses was enough for him to know for sure that four had been killed by magic and poison likely applied through it and not by a sword. The one who killed these four shouldn’t have been Cran, but Laien. However, for a ten-year-old to kill six martial practitioners of the sixth rank… how unprecedented was that?

“Very well, I shall consider it. It was you who had been in danger, so your words have some weight,” Garon replied to Laien, then turned to look at his son. “I refuse to believe that punishing you in other ways will be effective. You must think about your actions yourself. If you change, it’s up to you. If you don’t… It’s also your choice, my son. Your punishment will be thus, to repay your debt to these two,” Garon declared coldly and pointed with his hand at Laien and Cran.

“What you will do, how you will do it, It’s all up to you,” having had enough of this matter, Garon gestured at his guards. One of the two came forward, storing the corpses in his interspatial ring. “Laien, come to talk with me tomorrow evening,” Garon ordered calmly, giving Laien an expectant look. After receiving a confirmation in form of a light bow from Laien, he turned around and left the room with his two guards, saying nothing to his son.

“Let’s get going too, Laien. No point staying here,” Cran said with a smile and patted Laien on his back. He needed to admit, that plan was really good and it worked out well, too! To get Garon himself directly involved and solve everything through him, it not only would make Masi unable to act up in the future, Jasi’s temper would also be held in a check! It was a much, much better option than creating a huge affair from the whole event like he planned originally.

“Wait!” Jasi called out as Laien and Cran were about to leave. The two of them turned around, wondering what Jasi has to say.

“I apologize. Thank you,” Jasi lowered his head and said really awkwardly. He truly regretted his actions and he really was grateful to Laien for having saved him from uncle Shir’ar.

“Don’t mind it. Just make sure not to make life hard for me and my sister, also for my friends. It’s all I am asking for,” Laien replied casually and chuckled quietly, seeing Jasi’s surprised expression. “See you later, maybe,” he added humorously, then left with Cran.

Jasi sat there for a long time, flabbergasted. He wondered if really everything that Laien wanted from him was… something simple like that? Would doing only this much even satisfy his father, Garon? Making up an attempted murder with… leaving him alone? Jasi groaned, realizing how little he understood about Laien’s character.

---

“Huu, you probably need to go wash yourself, eh? Want me to go with you? You must be dead tired,” Laien chuckled at Cran’s suggestion, then focusing on his spiritual energy. On his skin, throughout the whole body, a thin membrane of water formed. It then peeled with all the dirt and blood, leaving but a few light stains on his clothes. “I’ve always wanted to try doing this and I finally can,” Laien said with a laugh, reaping another benefit of having gotten stronger.

Cran whistled, only to start laughing when Laien threw the small ball of dirty water into one of the big vases with flowers. “Sure is convenient, being a spiritual practitioner, eh?” even though he said that, Cran seemed to be slightly disappointed for some reason.

“You said you will be leaving to the Royal Capital, when will you leave?” Laien asked, not noticing any of Cran’s strange behavior.

“I need to take care of a few matters before I leave, so considering when their next semester starts… In a month or so,” Cran answered with a light sigh. He liked it in Neil City, but if he wanted to ever achieve his life goal, he needed to leave the Red Dragon School and get established in the Royal Capital, get to know the Royal Family and use their influence to become a general.

“Then, want to spar some more until then? It would be great if you taught me something, instead of bullying me one-sidedly like you always did,” Laien mentioned with a laugh, unknowingly improving Cran’s mood by quite a bit.

“Sure, I will. I wouldn’t be able to bully you around anyway. Not with how strong you’ve become, you sneaky brat,” Cran said with a broad smile and tousled Laien’s hair.

Laien laughed again, still unsure if this day wasn’t perhaps but a dream. In the morning, his world had started crumbling. Yet by the late evening of the same day, his problems were all solved and he has even made a new friend, not to mention having advanced his strength as a spiritual practitioner.

“Rest tomorrow and come to me the day after, okay? This time to the Red Dragon School itself,” Cran suggested with a smile. Until now, he had been keeping his sparring sessions with Laien a secret, but there was no reason to be doing that anymore. Also, he had something else in mind for Laien, but he wouldn’t spoil the surprise quite yet.

“Okay, see you,” Laien said the goodbyes and parted with Cran, to then soon to arrive in his room. He entered quietly, trying not to wake Siana up. He carefully changed his clothes and laid down on the bed, then closed his eyes; it was all it took for him to instantly fall asleep.

Laien might not have understood it completely, but today he did much more than just form a spiritual core. He had also established another foundation, although an incomplete one.

Normally, a Spiritual Core would still be placed in the practitioner’s body, it would remain in his upper chest. However, in Laien’s case, it wasn’t there. The other insight he had gained, paired up with circumstances Laien couldn’t comprehend just yet caused something unnatural to happen. Laien’s Spiritual Core had actually fused with soul, going way beyond a level any ten-year-old should have ever been capable of achieving.

Had it been just that, it would be a case to rejoice over. However, there was something else that got triggered by Laien’s advancement. Precisely, the dreams, the nightmares he had been experiencing until now progressed to another level, one which wasn’t meant for a kid like Laien to go through. There were only two options. To successfully advance to the new heights, or to fail and die.

The very next moment after falling asleep, Laien woke up, or so he thought. He quickly realized that his body didn’t belong him, even though he could feel it moving. He could even clearly sense an incredible power coursing through it, one which far exceeded his wildest imaginations.

In ‘his’ hand was a glaive, by ‘his’ side stood a young woman. Before ‘him’ a thirteen, maybe fourteen years old boy laid unconscious on a stone pedestal, surrounded by an enormous and powerful magical formation. Seeing the unconscious youth, ‘he’ felt rage boil in his blood. The flaming, uncontrollable emotions filled ‘him’ and at the same time, were transferred to Laien’s soul, making Laien wish he could cry out in pain. ‘His’ fury was so real, so hot and scorching that it was on the verge of dissipating Laien’s soul through the overflow of the sensations alone.

However, all of the sudden, everything that burned, turned ice-cold. The flames surging around ‘him’ transformed into deathly cold streaks of air. Along with this change, a surge of sad, complicated and painful emotions surged and ‘his’ heart and then, hit Laien really hard. There was something ‘Tranquil’ in the mix, but Laien was in no mind to pay any attention to it. He wanted to shout, to yell in despair, overwhelmed by the endless flow of sensations.

‘He’ cried out in fury, ‘his’ spirit broken by the hatred of betrayal. ‘He’ yelled and his yell seemed to freeze the very Heavens. ‘His’ rage was cold, uncaring, desperate. The next second, all the raging sea of emotions was forcefully put in a cage; thus heat turned into a cold and all movement became stillness.

‘He’ walked forward, ‘his’ tears turning into ice. A great power gathered in ‘his’ palm as he reached out to the magical formation. As he experienced this might, Laien’s consciousness trembled, threatening to shatter at any moment. Yet, due to a strange, calming foundation existing somewhere within him, he could just barely hang on, the chaos he was going through counterbalanced by the… Tranquility.

Suddenly, Laien recognized that he was in the middle of one of his nightmares. To have realized it while still sleeping, it was the first time for him. Under extreme mental strain, he did the first thing that came to his mind. He tried to wake up, but soon enough, he found out that he couldn’t. There was no escape from this nightmare, not until it ended, or until… he comprehended what it wanted to show him!

Laien understood this fact instinctively, there was no other way for him to survive this hellish dream! Either do that or perish!