Chapter 18 – The ceremony begins.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the late chapter.

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“My name is Anvar, I will be overseeing this years ceremony. Before we proceed to the sacred land, I’ll first need to make sure that you’re all here.” Said a rather short bald headed middle aged man.

Anvar glanced at the hundreds of youths inside the main hall before his eyes landed on the body of a handsome young boy who had a swirling mane of gold hair. The boy seemed to be looking around the whole room as if searching for something, his eyes were red and he had grey circles underneath them proof that he had not been able to get a wink of sleep the previous night.

Anvar inwardly sighed before his eyes drifted to the eastern side of the room where a young boy with silver hair was standing. The boy seemed to be deep in thought about something which was quite weird, since most of the youths here were fifteen or younger and almost all of them were either nervous or afraid.

That youth was Silver, he was thinking about his conversation with Ignus last night when suddenly he felt someone staring at him. He looked around but couldn’t tell who it was but then somehow his eyes and Hion’s managed to lock onto each other.

At this moment before Hion could say anything Anvar shouted out again saying,

“I’ll start by explaining the rules to all of you, so listen carefully as I will not repeat myself.”

Silver ignored Hion’s hateful gaze and looked up at Anvar, hesuddenly began to recall what he and Ignus had talked about yesterday.

Last night, inside of Ignus’s room.

Silver entered the room and saw Ignus sitting on a chair at the far end of the room with his back facing Silver.

“Sit down.” Said Ignus as he pointed to a chair in front of him.

Silver followed Ignus’s instructions and sat down.

“Akela has told me about that kid and also that you insist on sheltering him. Why? And don’t tell me it’s because you gave him your word.

What I want to know is why you gave him your word in the first place and I also want the truth of what happened in the forest, Akela might have never seen someone of the light attribute facing of against a darkness attribute but I have. So if you want my help, I suggest you tell me the truth.” said Ignus in a calm manner, his voice neither raised nor hushed.

On the outside Silver seemed calm and not bothered however he was inwardly cursing,

“Shit! Now he knows that since I kept the mask incident from Akela then I’m definitely hiding something from him, I can’t run away from that one. As for Krias, that one’s simple.”

Ignus didn’t rush Silver to answer him at all, he just calmly waited for an answer. The reason he was doing this was because he had the feeling that he and Silver were growing farther apart despite being blood relatives. He figured by not immediately forcing an answer out of Silver and instead patiently waiting for him to the give the answer himself would bring he and Silver a little closer, so that next time something like this happens Silver won’t hesitate to tell him.

After all when everything’s said and done Silver is still his grandson and it was his duty as the head of the household to protect all of his family’s descendants, especially the promising ones.

Just as he was thinking that Silver in a hesitant manner told Ignus his reason for keeping Krias,

“I was thinking that since, Krias is of the darkness attribute which is the direct opposite of my light attribute then it would benefit me greatly to keep him as a practice partner. In the future, I wouldn’t be caught off guard by any darkness practitioner.”

Ignus gaped, he had no idea that Silver would think so far ahead, he was about to go and pat him on the shoulders but then he suddenly remembered that mysterious energy and the fact that Silver lied to Akela.

He calmed his excitement and nodded before saying,

“ Mm…now tell me about what happened at the forest.”

Silver lowered his head. His facial expression continued changing varying from hesitant, sad, sorry and then as if he had finally decided on something he raised his head to look straight at Ignus and then suddenly his aura was released. His eyes also changed into that of a tiger.

Ignus was shocked by Silver’s sudden actions but before he could say anything, Silver stretched his hand out and said,

“Look carefully!”

Ignus stared right at Silver’s palm where both light and lightning power were beginning to gather. He already knew Silver had both light and lightning divine power which was a pity because they were both great attributes but he could only choose one. “Why is he showing me this?” thought Ignus.

Suddenly the light and lightning divine power on Silver’s palm began to get closer and closer to one another until finally the thin strands of light and lightning divine power began to wrap around each other countless times, and in the end one strand of dark blue completely fused divine power remained floating on Silver’s palm.

Ignus finally couldn’t contain himself his jaw dropped down as he pointed at Silver’s palm,

“Aaah….aaaHhh”

Ignus then looked up at Silver and saw him sweating profusely, only then did he come to his senses. He immediately stood up walked towards Silver and said,

“It’s fine, I understand!”

Silver put away the fused divine power into his divine core.

In truth Silver could have just taken out some of the already fused divine power from his divine core however that would be the same as telling Ignus,“I have loads of this stuff!” therefore he had no choice but to fuse some right before his eyes.

The reason he chose to reveal his fused divine power was because that and the [divinemind purification] technique were the only other secrets he had and in order to hide one, he needed to reveal another. The [divine mind purification technique] was out of the question as that was something Shiraz had given him, thus he was left with no choice but to reveal the fused divine power.

“I don’t know how you managed to accomplish that but never mind, this isn’t the place to talk about such things. Sigh~ As for that slave, I’ll handle it but on one condition. You decline and there will be no deal.” Said Ignus.

“I agree.” Said Silver without any hesitation. After all he had no choice but to accept, refusal meant Krias’s death.

A smile immediately spread across Ignus’s face,

“Good! I had my doubts before but now I feel like you can accomplish getting first in the Hunt.”

Silver was immediately confused, “What benefit is there for Ignus if I gain the first place in the hunt?” was the thought going through Silver’s head.

Ignus noticed Silver’s confused expression but opted not to tell Silver about it. However just as he was about to tell Silver to rest in preparation for tomorrow, he remembered the message he received from one of his subordinates.

He then turned to Silver and said,

“Little Silver, you definitely have to be careful tomorrow. I just received a report from one of my aids informing me that Hion kid will be attending the ceremony tomorrow, apparently Rolind found a rule stating that only when all four Central Elders agree can someone be denied participation in the ceremony.”

Silver was speechless,

“That Rolind fellow really is crafty, however that won’t change how people view that young master. Besides I only did what I did to get a little pay back for Krias, now I suppose I can consider everything even.”

Seeing Silver deep in thought Ignus with a smile on his face said,

“I have to say, that little play of yours really was believable. I guess it’s because you have my blood, yes that has to be it, although Akela turned out to be my opposite, you and I are completely the same.”

Silver really wanted to laugh when he heard Ignus’s words, “How can one man love himself so much?” but instead he cleared his throat and asked,

“Ahem! So what did the Elders decide?”

“Hmm, Of course they couldn’t say anything! Doing something like that would be the same as making the Nothern Branch your enemy and except for the Central and Southern branch, the rest are all weaker than the North.” shouted Ignus as he grinded his teeth in dissatisfaction.

“Ok! Now that I’ve told you everything go and rest, tomorrow is going to be a big day for you.”

Back atThe Main Hall of Heaven’s Reach Castle.

“The first and most important rule you must remember is that no one is allowed to kill a fellow clan member inside the sacred land.

Lastly, you mustn’t hunt anything except for the tigers. Depending on the color of the tiger you slay, the more aura you will obtain.

The are four different tigers in the sacred land,

-The yellow ones which give the least aura when killed.

-The black ones.

-The grey ones which are rare to find and give off large amounts of aura.

-And finally the white tiger, there is only one of this type of tiger in the sacred land per ceremony.

The tiger’s strength is also determined by their color. As for the white tiger until now, no one has been able to kill one. So I suggest if you see it, don’t hesitate to run away.”

After saying that Anvar then turned towards three men in black whose faces couldn’t be seen, he waved his hand at them and the three of them nodded.

The three men took out three globes from their void and then threw them in the air at the same time,

“OPEN!” shouted the three men in unison.

The three globes formed into a triangle in the air and then completely dissolved, leaving only a triangle shaped screen of light.

Anvar nodded in satisfaction at the sight of the screen,

“Mm…Lead the children inside.”

Author's note.

Hey there, the rest of the chapters can be found at Novelsnao.com. Currently at 51 chapters, so read ahead over there............

Your humble author,

emeraldragon.