Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 8. Amazing Little Sister.

Laien looked at Siana, then at the collapsed walls. He was still smiling, his face flushed from excitement. “This is incredible… Hahaha, I might end up as the one being protected by her if I don’t work hard. Now that would be embarrassing, haha…”

Siana looked at the longsword in her hand, the blood-red glow around it dissipating completely. She rested the sword’s blade against the floor, feeling that it became too heavy for her to hold up any longer. She closed her eyes for a second, overwhelmed by the whole experience. She took a look at the walls in front of her, unsure whether it really was her who destroyed them.

“Girl, give back the Red Dragon Sword,” Elder Bumne demanded unreasonably as he approached Siana. He felt a serious headache coming, thinking about all the annoying circumstances that would follow what had just happened. After becoming an Elder, he had only wished for a quiet, peaceful life. Someone else might have been overjoyed to find an excellent talent as Siana, however, he only saw her as an unneeded spark of chaos in his Red Dragon School.

Still confused, Siana reluctantly sheathed the longsword and handed it away to Elder Bumne. She didn’t quite understand that the Red Dragon Sword had chosen her and thus, it became her belonging, so despite feeling regretful about it, she gave it back to its original owners. Yet, she couldn’t help but feel regretful. In some strange way, she already got attached to that mysterious blade… not in a manner of being secretly desirous of its power, but rather seeing it as something precious, akin to a teddy bear one might have had since early childhood.

The Red Dragon Sword would have been handed back to her sooner or later, but rather than that, it seemed that the blade itself had different ideas.

“Argh…!” Elder Bumne gritted his teeth, withholding a scream of pain. The moment he grabbed the Red Dragon Sword, it actually emitted the fiery-red aura from before, thus burning the skin on his hand into a crisp in but an instant and forcing him to let go of it immediately. Had he been any slower, then even with his powerful body of a martial master, he would have had his whole arm burned until only naked bones remained.

“It chose a little girl,” Elder Bumne groaned quietly as it slowly occurred to him. The Red Dragon Sword rejected him! Rejected to be held by anyone but the master it has chosen! The second Red Dragon Sword in possession of their school has finally chosen its rightful master!

Elder Bumne breathed in, experiencing a peculiar mix of anger and jealousy. However, he quickly suppressed those unreasonable feelings, intent on making the best out of the situation. He was about to express his admiration for Siana’s talent and say something about ‘how boundless her future possibilities were’when the girl’s older brother interrupted him.

“You really are amazing, Siana! It looks like this sword has chosen you, that attack was really incredible, too!” Laien said excitedly, feeling genuinely proud to have such a talented little sister. He stepped past Elder Bumne and crouched at Siana’s side, then reached out for the longsword that was laying on the ground. He hesitated briefly, but then smiled and grabbed it confidently.

Elder Bumne’s eyes nearly popped out of his eyeballs when he saw Laien hold the same Red Dragon Sword which just heavily burned his hand. Was it because he was that girl’s relative, or was his martial talent great enough not to provoke a defensive reaction…?! One ultimate genius appearing out of nowhere was shocking enough, but two? Elder Bumne no longer understood what was going on.

Paying little to no mind to Elder Bumne’s changing facial expressions, Laien handed the Red Dragon Sword to Siana. She took it from him happily, a bit worried about being able to carry a rather heavy and big longsword with her on the daily basis.

Seeing how the two siblings were acting, Cran covered his face with a palm, hiding his oh so very amused smile. Those two really were behaving as if they were sure they would be leaving with the Red Dragon Sword. As Cran saw it, there indeed was a possibility of it happening, but that wasn’t the most important thing at the moment. Simply, Elder Bumne’s face was a truly priceless sight to the point of making his stomach ache in pain of the withheld laughter.

Out of the blue, Laien chortled and laughed. He gazed at the sword in Siana’s hands, then at Siana herself. “She’s telling you to hurry up and become stronger because it’s ‘super annoying’ to have a master who can’t hear you, Pfhahaha,” Laien conveyed the message, all the while unable to hold himself back from laughing. In response, the Red Dragon Sword flickered with a blood-red aura, as if it was getting angry at him. Elder Bumne, Cran and Siana looked at Laien, wondering what in the world was he talking about.

“Yea, okay, sorry, Seira. Umm, She’s saying that you can make her smaller if you think about it, just like when you briefly connected with her in the beginning. Also, her name is Seira, as I kinda said… oh well. No big introductions for you… Stop yelling at me already, geez…” Laien looked like he wanted to cover his ears, but he only shook his head resignedly, knowing that it wouldn’t help. He took a long look at the Red Dragon Sword, then sighed and rolled his eyes. “So annoying,” he thought to himself, perhaps a bit too loudly, as the sheathed longsword once again flickered with the blood-red aura.

Siana was the first to guess that Laien was chatting with the Red Dragon Sword, as she heard his… her, voice just a moment ago, although pretty unclearly. Trying out what Laien suggested she could do, Siana strongly imagined ‘Seira’ becoming smaller and surprisingly, the whole longsword along with the scabbard shrunk itself the length of an average sword. Surprised, Siana discovered that it wasn’t as heavy as previously, either. In this state, she would be able to wield it pretty comfortably and also wear it on the belt; if she had a suitable one, that is.

As the two children in front of him were laughing and fooling around, Elder Bumne’s face had managed to turn as red as a ripe tomato. At first, he didn’t care much about those two siblings at all. Then, he was forced to admit that he should lend them a hand for his own benefits. However, after witnessing such rude behavior from the two of them…! True, his greatest wish was to live in peace! But! How could he let something like that slip by unpunished? He had been humiliated not only by the Red Dragon Sword but also by these two brats!

“What is going on here?” a calm voice rang out from behind the four of them, causing Elder Bumne to swallow everything he was about to shout out. The mere thought of behaving so inappropriately in that man’s presence terrified him so badly that he trembled slightly.

“Greetings, Great Master Rudford,” Elder Bumne bowed deeply, waiting to be allowed to raise his head.

“Greetings, Uncle Rudford,” Cran also bowed respectfully as his uncle and the founder of the Red Dragon School appeared before them. Generally, his uncle would stray from people and spend the majority of his time training in seclusion, so even for Cran, it was a rare chance to see Rudford in person. After all, during his whole life, he had only met Rudford three times, not including today.

Laien exchanged a quick look with Siana, then helped his little sister to her feet. The two of them looked at the fiery-red haired man, then bowed before him. “Greetings, Great Master Rudford,” they said at the same time and unlike Elder Bumne, didn’t remain in the bowing position for long.

Rudford swept Laien and Siana with his gaze, a hint of a smile appearing on his ever-tranquil face. “At ease,” he said as he walked past Elder Bumne and Cran, paying no attention to either of them and only stopping in front of the young siblings.

“So this wry girl took a liking to you, young lady. Congratulations on becoming the master to one of the 81 Heavenly Treasures.” Although he praised Siana, Rudford’s voice and face remained expressionless; perfectly calm or so to say, as if he was in the middle of enjoying an afternoon nap. Surprisingly, Rudford raised his eyebrow for no apparent reason, then smiled very slightly. He patted the hilt of the longsword at his belt, one which looked identical to the one Siana was holding. The next moment, he turned to look at Laien, frowning just a little bit.

“Boy, this feeling I am getting from you… You are at the juncture point between third and fourth Mortal Realms, so it shouldn’t be... but I do sense that peculiar thing emanating from within you… Mysterious, so mysterious,” Rudford mused aloud, then gave Laien an expectant look, wondering if he has something to say. Laien however, was pretty baffled and honestly too intimidated by the supreme power emanating from Rudford to guess what he was talking about.

“Uncle Rudford, Laien isn’t only a martial practitioner. He is a spiritual practitioner, too. He should be fairly powerful for his age. He already formed his Spiritual Core, but never had a chance to accurately evaluate his own strength,” Cran explained without getting into the details, knowing not to get ahead of himself unless Rudford inquired further out of his own volition. He had learned his lesson, having been scolded by his uncle all those years ago for speaking too much without being asked to.

“Oh, is that so? I would like to meet with you in private. Laien, right?” Rudford proposed, his tone truly being more of an invitation than an order.

As they heard Rudford’s words, both Cran and Elder Bumne began wondering if their ears were still working correctly. For someone of Rudford’s status to express that much goodwill towards a youth he was seeing for the first time was definitely abnormal! What could it have been that Rudford saw in Laien to make him so interested in him?!

“It would be my pleasure, Great Master Rudford. Please tell where and when I should come to meet you,” Laien replied in a very formal, unlike-him way that had been hammered into him by Tei’ru and a few other private tutors. The fact that he reverted to this formal mannerism only proved how much the pressure of Rudford’s cultivation base of the sixth Realm of Heroes weighed down on him, even though Rudford wasn’t applying it directly.

“Come today at the sunset, someone will direct you to my quarters,” Rudford said and nodded contentedly, pleased with Laien’s polite behavior.

“Until then, why don’t you show those two around the school, Elder Bumne? Treat this boy as my honored guest, and this girl… right, what is your name, young lady?” Rudford asked, his gaze wandering to the Red Dragon Sword in Siana’s hand.

“Siana, Great Master Rudford,” she answered quickly and lowered her head.

“Then, Siana. The sword has chosen you, that is undeniable. However, we can’t very well let you keep it just like that unless of course, you decide to become a disciple of our Red Dragon School. How about it, become my personal disciple. Your talent is undisputed, if your character proves to be as good, then you are going to have a very bright future before you,” Rudford offered with a light smile, then once again patted the hilt of the longsword at his waist.

Cran immediately swallowed with jealousy. Even with his talent, he was unable to become Rudford’s personal disciple, it didn’t help when his father asked uncle to do him a favor either. Ever since the establishment of the Red Dragon School one hundred years ago, his uncle has never taken in a single personal disciple! No matter how talented youths came, no matter how much riches he was offered in return by the clans behind them, he always refused! And no one dared to say a word of complaint! After all, what did it mean to be a personal disciple of the Great Master Rudford, the founder of the Red Dragon School, one of the three supreme Martial Schools of the whole Sarkcente Kingdom?

One’s status would instantly soar to that of an Elder and soon afterward, as long as the person proved to be worthy, it would rise even higher! Being Rudford’s personal disciple, especially as he was the only ultimate expert of the Sarkcente Kingdom who has never taken an apprentice, represented an enormous amount of influence and a great increase in one’s social status! Countless young practitioners dreamed about becoming Rudford’s personal disciple, but in the end, all their hopes were shattered without exception!

Were somebody to tell them that an eight years old girl who has never trained a day in her life had been offered a chance to become Rudford’s personal disciple, then all those people and their grandparents would definitely cry tears of blood.

As for Siana, she found herself dumbfounded by Rudford’s offer. For a second, she wanted to peek at her big brother and decide based on his expression, but she resisted the urge. To begin with, she asked Laien to bring her with him because she wanted to become stronger, she wanted to no longer be a helpless girl who always needed to rely on her big brother’s help! Gathering her courage, she looked Rudford in the eye and replied with a solid resolution. “It would be my honor to become your disciple, Great Master Rudford,” she said and bowed deeply, feeling extremely nervous, but just as happy at the same time.

“Great. As of today, you are my personal disciple. Come along with your brother in the evening. Have I guessed right? You look so alike, it’s impossible not to notice. Both of you are exceptional, too, haha,” Rudford finished saying and laughed, being in an exceptionally wonderful mood. Laien and Siana didn’t think much of it, but the other two present were utterly shocked. They had never seen or heard of Rudford smiling, much less laughing. Were Heavens and Earth about to be turned upside down, or would it start raining gold tomorrow?

“With that settled, Elder Bumne, go show these two around. Cran, you probably were the one who brought them here, no? You did well to have had such promising friends come. Go with them, keep them company. You don’t need to attend to today’s ceremonies,” Rudford ordered Elder Bumne without paying him any attention, then actually praised Cran. Before leaving, he looked at the two siblings one more time, nodded to himself and unhurriedly walked back to his own quarters.

Elder Bumne sighed bitterly. He shook his right hand, allowing the scorched pieces of skin to fall off to the floor, leaving behind skin that was red, but nowhere as burned. Thankfully, due to the ‘Dragon’s Body’ Art that he had been practicing, his regenerative abilities were high, so he needed not to worry about an injury of this degree. “Very well. Since young master is not obliged to attend the proceedings of the tournament, should we go and watch it?” he asked somewhat resignedly, having trouble with accepting his role as a guide for some random children. True, after what happened in the last five minutes, he should by all logic and reason have come to accept how the things were, but he couldn’t help feeling sour in his heart. He was a martial master of the second rank himself! He had his pride…!

“A tournament?” Laien asked, seeking an explanation from Cran. He could tell that this ‘Elder Bumne’ seemed not to like him and Siana too much, so his own attitude towards the man naturally turned colder and more distant.

“It’s nothing big, we have it every three months to let our disciples compete against each other. Fights are always one on one and usually, only people of the same strength are made to face each other, but exceptions do happen. I was supposed to oversee the whole thing as a judge and have you watch from the side if you wanted, but since I don’t need to do that anymore, I can tag along with you to watch the fights,” Cran summarized as briefly as he could, having gotten used to making his explanations short and clear due to Rudford’s influence.

“Well, it could be interesting. Want to go, Siana?” Laien asked, smiling at his younger sister.

By now, Siana already calmed down and returning to her usual cold appearance. She nodded, but before going she mentioned something else. “To begin with, I need a belt to put this sword onto; or do you expect me to walk around while carrying it?” she asked dispassionately, giving Laien a meaningful look and lifting the Red Dragon Sword up.

Elder Bumne sighed inwardly and walked up to Siana. He raised his hand, making a fitting crimson-black belt appear from within his interspatial ring. He handed it to Siana without saying a word, then backed off by two steps.

“Mm, now we can go,” Siana declared happily after she finished putting the belt and the sword on. Seeing Elder Bumne turn around and start walking, she grabbed Laien by hand and pulled him along. Even though it wasn’t quite showing on her face, she was excited to see the martial arts she would soon be learning in action.

Cran scratched his head, apparently troubled by something only he knew about would rather not talk about to anyone else. He remained in the back, following after Elder Bumne and the two siblings, listening to the two of them chatting along the way.

To arrive at the field where the tournament would be held, they needed to pass through the quarters of the inner sect disciples. Being led by one of the red-robed Elders, the two siblings soon became the center of attention. The corridors were full of the larger and smaller groups of teenage youths discussing the roar they have heard a few minutes ago, speculating about what could have caused it. Yet, maybe because it was so unbelievable that none of them would consider the option, the blood-red scabbard shaped like a dragon and the Red Dragon Sword itself, both hanging at Siana’s waist, went unnoticed.

Originally, the majority of those disciples haven’t planned to attend the tournament. Not everyone would be forced to participate in it, after all. However, after that mysterious event, their interest had been piqued. Everyone wanted to learn something else about it and what the better place would be to do that than the vast area where many thousands of them could easily gather and share the rumors?

After walking for nearly twenty minutes, they finally arrived at the vast plains. Elder Bumne led them to the spot meant for the important spectators; being basically the only uncrowded area as far as one could see. From the looks of it, the tournament hadn’t even started yet and all the disciples who were taking part in it took their time, resting, talking with their friends or warming up in the area designated for duels.

Laien sat down on the grass and proceeded to watch the few dozen boys and girls more or less his age who were sparring with each other at the moment. Regrettably, they didn’t seem to be too advanced. Their strength was nothing special, probably around the second Mortal Realm and honestly, their technique was severely lacking, too. Or at the very least, it looked like that to him, who had been going through Master Shire’s hellish training for the past two years.

Feeling bored, Laien yawned blatantly, showing his disinterest. Cran chuckled at that obvious display and sat at Laien’s side, intent on keeping him entertained with some random conversation, for what Laien was very grateful.

On the other hand, Siana looked like she got pretty absorbed in spectating the ongoing fights. The level displayed was much closer to her current reach compared to the brief sparring between Laien and Cran she has had a chance to see, so naturally, she got more engrossed in watching.

“Little miss, you seem interested in the matches. Would you like me to explain some things about our martial arts?” Elder Bumne proposed, having gotten over his resentment towards the siblings. To being with, he wanted to establish a positive relationship with Siana, as she was pretty much guaranteed to surpass him in status in but a few years, if not a few months.

“Yeah, please do,” Siana replied, not taking her eyes off of the group of warming up contestants.

Hearing his little sister say so, Laien frowned, but bit his tongue and refrained from commenting. He had a bad first impression of Elder Bumne, but there was no reason to antagonize the man if he was willing to change his attitude. He immersed himself in his chat with Cran, not listening to the talk Siana was getting herself involved into too closely.

“Let me start by asking, are you familiar with the basics regarding the martial practice?” Elder Bumne inquired, expecting an answer along the lines of ‘yes, of course’, but he nearly choked on his own saliva when Siana shook her head in response. He coughed two or three times, recollecting himself.

“Then, allow me to start from the very beginning. The Mortal Realm and the Realm of Heroes are the two major realms of practice. Both of them are divided into nine ranks. Those at the Mortal Realm are usually referred to as ‘martial practitioners’, while those at the Realm of Heroes as ‘martial masters’. The disciples who are currently sparring are all at the second Mortal Realm; in other words, they are martial practitioners of the second rank. They can just barely be considered to be beginners; their current strength doesn’t amount to much,” Elder Bumne spoke loud and clear, taking on an academic tone. Listening to him was fairly pleasant, it wasn’t making one want to fall asleep.

Although Elder Bumne himself might have never enjoyed teaching people or giving lectures, he was quite good at doing either of those two things.

“Generally speaking, reaching the fifth Mortal Realm is something that anyone can do with a sufficient amount of effort. On average, it takes our young disciples from five to six years to reach the peak of the fifth Mortal Realm while training from the scratch. Throughout these early stages of martial practice, one opens up his Qi Origin and assimilates the natural Qi flowing through his body into it. This process occurs constantly ever since the moment the Qi Origin is unsealed, although by itself, it’s rather slow; way too slow.” Elder Bumne paused and looked at Siana, trying to check if she was listening to him as It would have been quite stupid had it turned out that he had been talking to himself this whole time.

Noticing that Elder Bumne stopped talking, Siana turned her head to look at him, asking with her gaze why has he stopped. Elder Bumne smiled, then followed through with his explanation.

“The best way to speed up one’s advancement to the peak of the fifth Mortal Realm is to train one’s body. During physical activity, our natural Qi rouses up and is getting absorbed at a much higher rate. Of course, it results in getting tired just a little bit faster. By this reasoning, one could actively prevent his natural Qi from being absorbed by his Qi Origin during a fight as to preserve some endurance, but the amount is so negligible that no one bothers to do that,” having more or less covered the basics, Elder Bumne wondered what should he describe next. After giving it a brief thought, he decided to leave the specifics of the Primary Arts for later and now, focused on the nature of Qi itself.

“To make the breakthrough from the fifth to the sixth Mortal Realm, one needs to learn a Qi Manipulating Art. Only then do we acquire a proper control over Qi in our bodies, the degree of which depends on the three major factors. Firstly, on the state of one’s body and Qi Origin. Secondly, on one’s innate talent for martial arts and lastly, usually most importantly, on the quality of the Qi Manipulating Art one has learned. It wouldn’t matter if you were born with a superior body or if your talent was prodigious, without an access to a good enough Qi Manipulating Art, you wouldn’t achieve much,” Elder Bumne elaborated, covering all the most important points, flooding Siana with everything he considered to be important knowledge for a martial practitioner.

“There are many, many Qi Manipulating Arts around the world, but very few are truly worth attention. For example, the Qi Manipulating Art of our Red Dragon School, ‘Crimson Blood’, is a top-level Qi Manipulating Art that allows its practitioner to release his full potential! Given that the Red Dragon Sword has chosen you, I believe you will be learning it soon enough,” Elder Bumne’s smiled, finding it quite enjoyable to have Siana listen to him so attentively. Feeling much better disposed towards her, he continued to give an eager explanation of the basics.

“You need to be aware how blessed you and all the other disciples of our Red Dragon School are. Learning the Primary Arts is a one-way road! The Qi Manipulating Art and the Body Strengthening Art both cause irreversible changes to one’s Qi Origin and to the body itself, while the Battle Art is practically always impossible to use without mastering the other two Primary Arts of the same set. That whole rule might have some exceptions amongst the low-level and mid-level martial arts, but that isn’t worth any attention,” Elder Bumne kept speaking, swiftly proceeding to cover more of the rudimentary knowledge any martial practitioner should have.

“The Primary Arts of our Red Dragon School are all incredibly potent, but there is little to no point in having me describe them all in detail. When the inner disciples start their duels, you will have a chance to witness them first-hand, so for now, just remember how they are called. As I already said, there is ‘Crimson Blood’ Qi Manipulating Art, while the other two are called ‘Dragon’s Body’ and ‘Dragon’s Force’ and are respectively our school’s Body Strengthening Art and Battle Art,” Elder Bumne made a short break, letting Siana engrave the names of the three Primary Arts of their school into her heart.

“Remembered them yet? Crimson Blood, Dragon’s Body and Dragon’s Force,” he repeated, making sure that Siana doesn’t forget at the very least those three terms.

“The last thing you should probably focus on remembering is that each of our Red Dragon Primary Arts consists of nine levels of expertise. Again, I will leave the details for another time, but the rough picture looks as follows. Only the top-level martial arts consist of nine levels. The high-level ones contain seven, the mid-level ones five and the low-level barely three. If one intends to ever enter the Realm of Heroes, he needs to master at the very least one Primary Art to the fifth level. This, of course, means that anyone who started off with a low-level martial art will never become a martial master,” Elder Bumne smiled, very satisfied to have finally gotten Siana’s expression to change. What he just said must have surprised and intrigued her quite a bit.

“To let you understand the vast differences between the mid-level, high-level and top-level Primary Arts, I will only say that I myself, being a martial master of the second rank, have only mastered two Red Dragon Primary Arts to the sixth level and one to the fifth. The strongest of our Elders reached the seventh level of expertise in all three of the Red Dragon Primary Arts, with the number of those who advanced any of the three to the eighth level is countable on the fingers of one hand. The only person who has completely mastered all three of those Primary Arts is the Great Master Rudford himself, the founder of our mighty Red Dragon School!” Elder Bumne said excitedly, recalling the image of Rudford from a few moments ago. At that time, he had been startled, but now he couldn’t believe his luck to have seen the founder in person.

“If you ever wonder why young master Cran is considered to be a prodigy, then you should know that he, at the age of fifteen, has already mastered the sixth level of ‘Dragon’s Force’, in which he is exceptionally talented. His slashes become a Dragon’s Claw, his punches carry a Dragon’s might, his kicks are as powerful as the tail swipe of a Dragon! At this level, beating an average martial master of the first rank who practiced only a mid-level martial art wouldn’t be impossible, in spite of the huge gap in strength between the Mortal Realm and the Realm of Heroes,” he explained patiently, having a great deal of respect for Cran’s abilities despite not being too fond of him as a person per se.

“I think that much should be more than enough for now, focus on remembering what you have just learned before anything else,” having concluded his lecture, Elder Bumne took out a glass of water from his interspatial ring and drank it in one go. He wanted to ask whether Siana had any questions, but something was telling him that he would get ignored, so he gave up on the idea and joined her in spectating the ongoing casual duels.

After Elder Bumne finally finished talking, Laien released a very bored and resigned sigh. He wanted not to listen to that lecture, but Elder Bumne had been talking so loudly that he hadn’t had another choice.

“Say, is it just my imagination, or are more and more people giving us dangerous looks?” Laien asked to divert his mind from the annoying thoughts, slowly beginning to wonder if all the disciples of the Red Dragon School were destined to cause him trouble.

“Too bad, but it’s not your imagination. Eh, some made-up stories about you are probably spreading around. Want me to deal it?” Cran asked, eager to relieve some of the stress which he had accumulated during the past three days.

“Nah,” Laien replied with a shrug of his shoulders, not feeling like having someone else wipe his ass for him; he was strong enough to deal with a minor matter like that one his own. “Do you think it would be possible for me to challenge the disciples here, regardless of the tournament schedule and all?” he asked with a mischievous smile, his intentions fairly apparent.

“It’s easily doable. Since uncle Rudford stated that you are our honored guest, no one will be able to say anything. You can use magic while fighting, too. We’ve never imagined we would have a spiritual practitioner in our school, so there are no rules against it, hah. However, you need to be careful. Our disciples are on an entirely different level compared to those guards of Masi’s you’ve fought with. Look there, for example. Those three are the very top of our inner sect. They are all at the seventh Mortal Realm and they also have a decent level of mastery over our Primary Arts. If you end up fighting one of them, don’t be careless for even a second. One full-strength blow landing directly on your body could very well end up being lethal,” Cran warned in a somewhat longish manner, causing Laien to give him a resigned look. Weren’t the lectures given by Elder Bumne already enough for today…?

“I will count on you to step in if it gets too dangerous,” Laien said carefreely and stood up, putting together a few amusing sentences in his head.

“Fine… Do what you want, you stubborn brat,” Cran laughed helplessly and shook his head. He has never expected Laien’s character to so daring, if not to say arrogant and overconfident. Well, if he ended up humiliating himself after biting more than he can chew, it would only be his own fault. The Red Dragon School wasn’t one of the top three Martial Schools of the Sarkcente Kingdom for nothing; their disciples were definitely the cream of the top of the whole martial population of fifty million people! To take them lightly was nothing short of inexcusable ignorance.

Laien smiled at Cran, then walked around a dozen meters forward, stopping at the outer boundary of the nine designated dueling fields. He took a deep breath and aided himself with a bit of spiritual energy, letting his voice reach much further before it would start losing any of its volume. He didn’t even need to shout; he simply began speaking normally.

“Greetings, disciples of the Red Dragon School! I see many of you are talking about me, pointing at me with your fingers! As of today, my little sister will be enrolling into your school, so I’d rather avoid any unpleasant incidents. So, making it nice and simple… anyone who bears any kind of grudge towards me may step up! I will fight with any of you in this tournament of yours! Come if you want to settle your grievances! But if you do not step up now, then let the bygones be bygones,” he finished up in a rather provocative tone and with a cheeky smile on his face. As a result, he didn’t need to wait long at all for a strong reaction to occur.

A speech like this one, given by a random ten years old kid couldn’t have resulted in anything but a massive uproar. A good few hundred of the four thousand present disciples began voicing their anger and distaste aloud, cursing at Laien and threatening to beat him up to a pulp. Some were so eager to teach the cocky youth a lesson that they began heading his way, only to stop when Cran and Elder Bumne walked up to Laien and stood close behind him.

Amidst the confusion, one of the present Elders approached Laien, then got involved in a short exchange with Elder Bumne. The bald Elder, having learned how the situation looked, trembled at the thought. He had intended to pick Laien up and throw him out of their Red Dragon School, but luckily for him, it didn’t come to that. To have offended an honored guest of the Great Master Rudford… it would be a disaster!

“Everyone, quiet down. This person is an honored guest of our school. If there are those of you who want to settle their matters with him, now is your only chance,” the bald Elder called out in a loud, Qi-amplified voice. What followed, was a stunned and excited uproar. The younger disciples weren’t aware of it, but those who had been at the Red Dragon School for longer knew that only a few very powerful figures like the three Grand Elders could invite honorary guests...! For that outspoken kid to have that kind of support was totally outside of their expectations.

Something as interesting as a young honorary guest issuing a challenge wouldn’t happen often in their school, so the excitement of the four thousand gathered disciples was understandable. In under a minute, the whole nine sections designated for the tournament were voluntarily emptied and the first challenger came forward to face off against Laien.

Laien recognized the short-haired fourteen years old youths him who stepped onto the dueling ground. It was that ‘third brother’ from earlier who wanted to pick a fight with him and Siana in the main hall of the outer sect. Welcoming the chance to fight someone he certainly didn’t like, Laien also entered the open arena.

“Don’t you worry, I won’t cripple you. I will just repay what you did to our younger disciples and break some of your bones,” the fourteen-year-old declared with confidence, refusing to believe that Laien was as strong as Cran claimed him to be. In his eyes, Laien was but an arrogant kid who needed to be taught a harsh lesson.

As the overall excitement was on the rise, the two eyed each other, both of them having identical very confident smiles on their faces.