Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 209. Heaven’s Order Students.

“We’re going all the way there?” Alexander brought up in an attempt to change the subject. “All of us here will go?” he inquired, his eyes sweeping across the many riders behind Casimir and Anna. He, of course, knew that his older brother and soon-to-be older sister had gone to help Arslan, but he didn’t expect to see five hundred men of the White Guard led by Arslan’s father inside the borders of the Holy Union. It was only when he recalled the document which Laien had given to Casimir to look through back when asking for his help did he realize that there was more to this affair than he had thought. Although he had no avid interest in the ongoing politics, he wasn’t oblivious of the situation in the west of the Starlight Continent, either, so he soon came to a few conclusions of his own.

“Yes,” Casimir replied with a smile. He knew his younger brother’s expressions all too well, so he waited a few seconds for the fourteen-year-old to finish his own musings before speaking again. “Listening to our fathers talking with General Adrian, the White Sword will be coming too. Considering that the family and friends of the fallen members of the White Sword and Black Sword will need some time to organize and come over, I’d say that the burial ceremony will start in three days in the evening. Since we’ll be arriving in two days in the morning, it should be like that,” he mentioned calmly, partially for the sake of his younger brother and his little girlfriend but mainly to inform Laien, Yin, and possibly Arslan, of the expected flow of events.

“What about them, then?” Alexander asked, his eyes moving towards Julien’s group of thirty-something men for a moment. He could understand Mustafa’s party joining the ceremony since much like the Holy Union’s four countries, Makarash followed the orthodox school of paying honours to the dead warriors, but he wasn’t sure if the people of the Ruishi Federation would be the same. They must have had lost many of their companions during the war, so he sooner expected them to wish to return to their own country and hold their own ceremonies there.

“We can only ask,” Casimir replied straightforwardly. Some matters were pointless to overthink and as if to agree with this stance, Azuresky and Emeric rode towards Mustafa and beckoned Julien to come over. Perhaps not so coincidentally, the spot the four men had chosen for their conversation was just next to them and close to Laien and Yin, too.

“Grand Yimar, General,” Azuresky began saying with a smile. “I’m sure you heard what we were speaking about. We will be holding the burial ceremonies for those who had fallen in this war in Academy City, in three days. Would you like to join us?” he asked simply, without wasting his breath on any unnecessary words. He saw Mustafa as his equal and respected Julien as a loyal and talented General of the Ruishi Federation, not to mention that those two were bonafide military men. He knew from his own example, being the same type of a person, that when dealing with those of a military background speaking too much when it wasn’t required would come off as a sign of dishonesty and weakness instead of serving to make a positive impression.

“We will do so,” Mustafa replied smoothly, having already considered this possibility. He would be staying in the Holy Union for the few months because of the talks of the alliance, not to mention his need to enter a closed cultivation session soon. Arslan wanted to stay with Laien and Yin for a time, too, and he wasn’t about to return to Makarash without him. In other words, since they would spend a relatively long time in the Holy Union either way, it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to delay the burial of their fallen comrades. Since the ceremonies in Makarash and northern Eulene were mostly identical, both stemming from the traditions of ancient times, he had no reason to refuse.

“We’d be honoured.” Similarly, Julien expressed his desire to participate too. Although not everyone in the Ruishi Federation followed the orthodox ways, the martial part of the military was still adhering to them to this day. Amongst them, Julien’s faction was one of the most stringent ones, so forget worrying about the families of their experts being unable to attend the ceremony, they would have been offended had Azuresky not extended an invitation to their side. To them, sending off the souls of the dead warriors was the highest priority and shouldn’t be delayed once the war was over.

“That’s settled then,” Azuresky nodded contentedly. Before moving to set out, however, his gaze fell on his younger son for a little bit. “I didn’t say so when you came to us in the north since it was no time for such things, but good job delivering the message of your older brother’s so swiftly,” he said and turned his horse around right afterwards, not feeling too comfortable with praising his younger son in front of all those people. He could still keep his calm when talking with Casimir, but he feared that he would make a fool out of himself in public if he were to get too drawn in by Alex. After all, his wife and his younger son were the only people in this world with whom he knew not how to be strict.

Still, this simple praise from his father was enough to cause a brilliant smile to emerge of Alex’s face. Thinking about how dishonest his father tended to be with his feelings, Alex laughed in a very much refreshing manner, inadvertently causing Eve and quite a few of the nearby women to blush to a various degree. Naturally, those older women recovered soon afterwards, though most of them couldn’t prevent an awkward expression from emerging on their faces. They had heard the rumours, but the Second Prince indeed had a very dangerous level of appeal to the opposite sex. With Alexander having inherited the good looks of his father but having come to possess a very different temper than Azuresky, his expressions could be considered a lethal weapon in their own regard.

“Hey,” Alex called out to Laien and Yin without noticing the effect he had had on the crowd. “I didn’t expect you to tag along with big brother and big sister. You have to tell me about everything that happened later, okay? The stuff I asked you about before too, if possible,” he said with a grin. He genuinely wanted to learn more about those two kids who were just about his age and had popped up from nowhere only to cause such a huge series of incidents.

“Sure,” Laien responded in an easy-going way, but his smile froze right afterwards. The moment he locked eyes with Alex, he noticed not just the lighthearted glimmer he had expected to see but also something more cold and calculated, something that stopped his heart for a split-second. Yet, the sensation disappeared as abruptly as it had shown up, leaving a wave of cold sensation to wash over his body as he worked to regain his calm.

“What was that?” Laien asked himself. Apart from him and Yin, no one else noticed anything and Alex had even nodded at them and moved with Eve to ride next to Casimir and Anna. Yet, that look wasn’t something a playful thirteen or fourteen years old kid should have. It had nothing to do with killing intent or pure strength of cultivation base, it was something closer to… Yeah, if Laien had to compare those eyes to anything, then they reminded him of the look in Tei’ru’s eyes when the old man was thinking about anything serious or when he was angered by something.

“Interesting.” Once he regained his calm, Laien grinned while Yin displayed an intrigued smile. “I thought he was just a slightly annoying younger brother of Casimir’s, but it looks like there is more to his character than the first impression might have suggested,” Laien mused, suddenly beginning to look forward to getting to know Alex better. In comparison, he owed Casimir a favour and he did consider the young man to be sensible and easy to get along with, but truth to be told he wasn’t all that interested in Casimir. The most he saw Casimir as was a friend he owed a large favour to and a future ally. However, his curiosity had been piqued by Alex, so if their characters turned out to be compatible, then he wouldn’t mind becoming good friends with him.

“Here we go again,” Yin sent a helpless thought over to Laien, then the two of them exchanged a look. “I seriously don’t know how you can be so open with everyone we meet. Be it in the past, be it with Emeric or with Alex just now, I wouldn’t be able to do it. Aren’t you at least a bit worried that something’s not going to go well and you’ll end up making more enemies than friends?” he asked, as always feeling amazed that Laien could approach new people so effortlessly every time. He even tended to always speak his mind but those he chose to mingle with seemed to appreciate it rather than be annoyed by it. In a way, he was the same, wasn’t he? He had bumped into Laien in Neil City and the two of them had quickly become friends, it was amazing in of itself.

“Not really,” Laien responded with a shrug of his shoulders. “I mean, I only try to get closer to people I find interesting. If I don’t feel like I will get along with that person, then I won’t bother. I wasn’t even trying to become ‘friends’ with Emeric at first, you know? It just so ended up that we were on a similar wavelength so we were able to understand each other’s points,” he explained, paying little attention to his surroundings in the meanwhile. He didn’t even do more than note the fact briefly when his Bellicose and Yin’s Arion carried them forward as the group began moving.

“But that’s what I mean!” Yin argued back, then sighed helplessly. He and Laien shared their emotions and thoughts to a degree that was honestly a bit startling, so how could he not know that Laien had been approaching all those people with a casual wait-and-see attitude? Yet, he could sparsely comprehend how Laien was able to act as he pleased the entire time. He would be too worried to do that, thinking if the person he’s trying to become friends with would mind his behaviour or not. Especially if he told someone that he didn’t feel like talking or being near them for the moment or that he preferred to cultivate than to do whatever they felt like doing? It was the weirdest thing how Laien could both genuinely want to become friends with someone and yet he would still prioritize his own preferences and whims, at least unless he was convinced otherwise.

“Yin,” Laien thought, all the while laughing mentally. “You’re overthinking it. You take those things too seriously. It’s great if I can make new friends, but it’s fine if I don’t, too. What would be the point of forcing myself to be friendly with someone if being with them annoyed me? Or if the other party only enjoyed the acted-out me and not the real me? That would get suffocating real fast,” he explained with a smile. Then, when a successive thought in the line came to him, he laughed carefreely and turned his head to the side, giving Yin a meaningful look as he sent the words over.

“You know, that’s why I enjoy being with you so much. We don’t hide anything from each other and we’re compatible enough that we rarely clash in terms of what we want to do. Sure we have our differences, but so far we did quite a good job working them out. To be fair, it was a bit scary to share all my thoughts and musings with you at first, but now I think it’s great.”

Having heard Laien say something like that with a straight face, Yin blushed all the way up to his ears, his mind blanking out for a little bit. A surprise attack like that was just too unfair! It was too much! Even when his ability to think returned, he had no idea what to say in response. What made everything even worse was that he could tell that Laien meant every word he said, yet he had spoken them casually and only because he felt like it at the moment. It. Was. Too. Unfair! How could Laien remain so calm after saying something like that while he was feeling so incredibly flustered?!

“Me too,” After taking a moment to calm down a little, Yin finally formed a coherent thought. “It’s crazy, reckless, and dangerous sometimes, but I enjoy being with you a lot. I wish we could be like that forever,” he added but was too embarrassed to look in Laien’s direction. In moments like those, the free flow of emotions thanks to their Spiritual Link made it impossible for either of them to hide their thoughts unless they did so deliberately, but that wasn’t a problem in itself. The biggest issue was that be it happiness, anger, or embarrassment, they would experience those emotions to a manifold greater degree, all because their feelings would resonate with each other.

“I’m glad,” Laien mused, all the while glancing at Yin and enjoying the adorable expressions his best friend was making. At the same time, a smile didn’t disappear from his lips from even a moment and even though his cheeks weren’t quite as rosy as Yin’s, his emotions had been stirred to no lesser degree. Yet, those feelings were so comfortable for him that he didn’t bother to think about anything else and simply indulged in the exhilarating moment. As for Yin, even though he was far more embarrassed by the entire situation, he too soon calmed down and followed in Laien’s footsteps.

Just like that, once again unbeknownst to the people around them, Laien and Yin vaguely sensed the changes that started happening within their souls. However, the two of them were far too absorbed in their own little moment for any other feelings to be able to emerge in their hearts, so they soon stopped paying attention to those changes. Little did they know that thanks to that, not only did the two of them further build their foundations of the Aspects of Love and Desire, but they allowed their insights into those two Aspects to rise at an astonishing rate.

Moreover, perhaps because the source from which the breakthrough of the essences occurred was the same, the essence of the orbs representing Love and Desire naturally reached out to each other. The strands of essence started mixing and exchanging energy, thus causing the ethereal aura of power emanating from the two orbs to become a level stronger.

In this happy and relaxed manner, Yin completed the foundations of Love and Desire within his soul while Laien completed the Aspect of Love and obtained a half-complete foundation of the Aspect of Desire. Having accomplished something that countless cultivators across the myriads of worlds could only wish for but never aim for, the two soon-to-be thirteen years old youths made their way to the Holy Union’s Academy City without getting all that excited about their additional harvest.

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Two days later, Laien and Yin arrived at the mountainous area Academy City had been built at. Coincidentally, the southern path to the city led directly over one of the mountaintops right next to the city, so the group of almost nine hundred experts stopped for a bit to allow everyone to take a better look at their surroundings. It was the first time seeing Academy City for most of those present, so no matter if the person was from Holy Union or not, everyone took a moment to admire the scenery. In particular, just like with Aegis, it was Academy City itself which made the biggest impression on the onlookers, further proving how advanced architecture was in the northern Eulene.

The huge city that appeared as if it could easily house over a million people was built entirely on the highest part of the slope of the biggest mountain in the area, looking almost as if it had been naturally carved into the local landscape. What appeared to be a source of a small river flowed out of the upper part of the city, at which height a few small, white morning clouds were sneaking across. From this perspective, it wouldn’t be surprising if half of the city were to be engulfed in the low-hanging clouds during the times of worse weather. This made Laien and Yin wonder what people in the city did when a storm happened to form in the area, what means did they have to deal with it?

“You saw nothing yet,” Azuresky commented with a smile, glancing contentedly at the awed expressions on Laien’s and Yin’s faces. “Good three-quarters of the city’s facilities were built within the mountain itself, all for the sake of providing the young and the willing the best possible environment to cultivate. As you can see, there are open training fields right outside the city, too, while many battle exercises take place in the forests of the Storm Mountains,” he bragged, thinking that the money which had been mainly coughed up by him and Emeric was well worth it. Although they lacked the necessary inheritances to compete with the best Institutes, Martial Schools, and Academies of the Starlight Continent, that was only in terms of the most elite individuals. When it came to raising the main crop of the army, he believed they were ones of the best, if not the best.

“And even that,” Azuresky thought to himself. “Even that is going to change in due time. Academy City is our investment for the future, investment in the young generations,” he mused, falling into somewhat of a melancholic mood by accident. He hadn’t expected his plans to be shaken up so badly by the offer of a three-way alliance from the Ruishi Federation and Makarash. He hadn’t expected to become enemies with those two forces any time soon, but he never thought that he would become allies with them, either. And, mysteriously enough, all of that was in one way or another put into motion by the actions of the two boys he was currently speaking with.

“Storm Mountains?” Laien picked up and gave Azuresky an inquiring look. Since this place was called such, there undoubtedly had to be something special about it. If so, was this Academy City built here, in particular, not merely with the purpose of raising new generations in mind but with some additional benefit in mind? If so, then he very much wanted to learn what it was all about.

“All in due time,” Azuresky said in response. “If you do well enough in your spars, we might even invite you over to take a look when a storm comes by. That’s most likely only going to be in two months at the earliest, when the air currents shift and colder winds start coming from the Forbidden Lands,” he elaborated vaguely and sent Laien and Yin a meaningful look. There would be little point even if they went asking around about this secret of Academy City, so beyond what was possible to guess, they wouldn’t be able to learn anything else.

“Fine,” Laien consented with a nod. He wasn’t planning to bargain with Azuresky since they would learn of the secret sooner or later anyway. After all, with their strength, it was impossible for them to do badly in those spars with the five monster-class talents of the Holy Union unless they refrained from displaying their abilities on purpose. “Do we get going again? I’d love a bath and a good meal,” he mentioned, then tilted his head, baffled by the silly expression which momentarily appeared on Azuresky’s face. Why did this Warrior-King looks as if he was about to cry when he mentioned food?

“Let’s go,” Azuresky said and coughed a few times, trying to hide his embarrassment. Could it be helped, though? Those two youngsters had truly bottomless stomachs! They had eaten through the large part of their highest-quality provisions in just the span of five large meals, including the breakfast from two days ago! He wished he had brought himself to tell the two gluttons that they were going to strip their party clean off of the best food they had, but as a king of a nation, he had no face to complain to those two youngsters that they were eating too much and too well. If he had done so, wouldn’t he have been the one to appear miserly and poor? So, despite knowing that Laien and Yin were gobbling up all their best food without restraint, he had watched on silently.

Roughly half an hour later, after crossing the mountainous path leading to Academy City, the party of over eight hundred men approached the city’s gates. With the two most prominent figures of the Holy Union leading their group, the guards didn’t stop them at all. The matter of giving out the identification passes was postponed until a more convenient time, likely to be dealt with individually.

Within the city’s walls, Mustafa and his five hundred White Guards soon became the centre of attention as their group of riders made their way up the mountain. The various citizens of Academy City comprised of mostly the young practitioners of above-average talent, their instructors, and the instructors’ families, so anyone with a decent enough perception would be able to tell that the higher in the city one went, the higher-class the area became. What differentiated the levels from each other, though, wasn’t as much the level of luxury as the cultivation level of those coming out to take a look at what was going on. The higher their group went, the better the relative age to strength ratio of the onlookers became, be it in regards to children, teenagers, or young men and women.

“Currently,” Emeric began saying, choosing to take the initiative to explain a few things. “The city has roughly five hundred thousand inhabitants, of which two hundred thousand are students. As you surely noticed, the city is separated into different levels of living quarters. There are five levels in total, from the lowest to highest: Tiger’s Quarters, Gryphon’s Quarters, Dragon’s Quarters, Earth’s Quarters, Heaven’s Quarters. Just so you know, there are only one hundred students in the Earth’s Quarters and five in Heaven’s Quarters,” he said with a smile. Naturally, those five students in Heaven’s Quarters were the five monster-class talents of their Holy Union while the hundred in the Earth’s Quarters were all first-class talents comparable to the likes of Casimir and Anna.

“As for your group,” Emeric continued as they rode onwards. “You will all be received as guests in the Earth’s Quarters perimeter. Just so you know, Heaven’s Quarters has no guest area. The only ones eligible to stay in the ten mansions up there are the Heaven’s Order Students and their guests,” he informed, then continued. “Laien, you mentioned that you’ll want to stay here as a group of five with your friends. My recommendation for you is to challenge and beat one of the Heaven’s Order Students in an official duel. The mansions up there will provide you with a secluded environment, just right for you two to consolidate your foundations like you want to do. Of course, you will also be able to enjoy the benefits a Heaven’s Order Student is entitled to without reservation.”

“Before you ask,” Emeric added with a wave of his hand. “The duel will be supervised by the Academy’s Rector and at least two Heaven’s Order Instructors. You can request things like your personal information to remain private, so you don’t have to worry about stories about you spreading. There are, of course, some rules we’ll be skipping in order to allow you to directly challenge a Heaven’s Order Student, but that’s for me to deal with,” he elaborated with a smile. As far as he was concerned, Laien and Yin had already agreed to spar with their five monster-class talents, so changing the setting of one of those spars to a more serious duel shouldn’t be asking too much. Be it as it may, he couldn’t completely disregard the rules of Academy City and grant those two a mansion in Heaven’s Quarters to stay in. However, he for sure could lend them a hand.

“Hrm,” Laien munched his tongue, not too sure what to do with Emeric’s proposition. He would be lying if he said that he wasn’t tempted, only a fool wouldn’t be able to tell that Emeric was giving him a preferential treatment that would undoubtedly be very beneficial to him. However, even if he could win, he didn’t feel like fighting any real opponents at the moment. “I’ve got a counterproposition. May I?” he asked and only went on once Emeric gave him a nod of approval.

“Settle us in one of the mansions in Heaven’s Quarters immediately, but let’s add a rule. Starting from next week, so in five days, any disciple of Earth’s Quarters will be able to challenge me and Yin and if they win, they will be granted a position of a Heaven’s Order Student. Needless to be said, if either of us loses even once, we will be expelled from the Heaven’s Quarters. Each of us will accept one challenge a day, around ten in the morning. This will go on for two months or until no more challenges come. We’d like to ask for our information to be protected, though.”

A bit shaken by the brazen suggestion of Laien’s, Emeric frowned while considering the viability of the idea. It would indeed be pushing the rules more than the option he had suggested, but it would also be very beneficial for their Heaven’s Quarters students. This was an academy for young talents, after all, so if he publicized the age of those two alongside with the scheme proposed by Laien, then naturally those too old wouldn’t aim for a Heaven’s Order seat as no one would recognize their talent if they won purely based on their greater age. And, even if someone shameless enough happened to try his chances, there were rules in place in terms of the relative age of the challengers, anyway.

More importantly, given Casimir’s high evaluation of those two boys, it wasn’t even a certainty that the two of them would lose even against those much older than them. If Laien and Yin proceeded to decimate all challengers for a period of time, then those older ones who would have originally refrained from participating would be tempted, too. By then, even if the fight ended with Laien and Yin losing, no one would mention upholding the rules of the challenge. However the deal with those challenges developed, the results for Academy City would always be very positive.

Thus, having concluded that Laien’s suggestion was superior to his own idea, how could he possibly reject it?

“Very well, I agree,” he said with a slight smile.