Well, here we go again.

Chapter: 23 Another Asura Flame

Nalser stayed in the inn for another 3 days. During the day he strolled outside for a few hours sightseeing. Most of his time was spent on analyzing the jade slips he had acquired. When he left the city, Tobias was there to see him off. He started leisurely going where his Yin Compass pointed. He moved at a moderate pace and kept up with developing his own forging method.

He had made significant progress. He had also acquired and browsed through jade slips on combat spells but soon found out that they were a hassle in a solo party. You would need to chant an incantation and if someone is fighting you, you would get interrupted very easily. So, in conclusion, he understood that when fighting alone, battle spells would only get himself killed sooner.

As he moved east, he and Curo came across beautiful scenery from time to time. Soon a week had passed since he left Rem'bar and he was currently sitting under a big tree near a big lake with a very thoughtful expression on his face. Curo was just running around nearby, seemingly being considerate of Nalser's state. Nalser came across a very interesting jade slip that had a lot in common with the forging method he had in mind.

It was a well known fact that every forging master had their on methods that they developed and personalized to themselves. Even if it was a forging method passed down from generation to generation in a family, it was all the same. The method that the people used now would be very different from the one that the person, who developed it used. Even if someone claimed to be the successor of a well known forging master from ancient times, his technique had very little to do what the master forger used.

The reason Nalser was currently in deep thought was because in the method he was currently thinking, the creator had the same kind of problem he was facing. The main reason why using Fire as a main catalyst instead of forging in some other was relatively looked upon as a joke because using the fire to melt the impurities out of the metals was still good but getting the weapons shape, that used a lot of magic to mold it to the right form.

It was easier to forge the things using other methods but no one could dispute that using a fire melting technique gave the highest grade product and it had more versatility in terms of shapes. As he was deep in thought, suddenly an old man was standing in front of Nalser.

The old man had white hair and a frail looking body which seemed like it would fall over if a stronger wind blew by. The old man had his eyes closed and a lightly tanned skin. He was wearing black scholar robes and seemed to be staring right at Nalser. The old man showed no signs of being in a hurry or having any ill intent. He just sat down cross legged in front of Nalser and waited for him to just finish his train of thought.

It was noon when the old man sat down and in the distance you could see an old lady, who had gray long hair and lightly tanned skin playing with Curo. She was wearing white scholar robes and gave off a friendly old granny demeanor. Curo didn't even seem to mind that they were in the middle of no where and these two people showed up seemingly like they had something to do with Nalser.

Time passed by and by the time Nalser opened his eyes, 3 hours had already passed. When he saw the old man sitting in front of him, he was startled and his eyes turned cold seeing him. As his hand grabbed for his blade, he thought to himself, “When did this old timer come here? How the hell can't I even feel his presence even though I'm looking straight at him?”

Every person excluded a “presence” and people, who had been in countless dangerous situations or were just experts, developed an intuition, that let them feel when a person was coming close. Nalser was no exception, his senses were keen enough to even know if Tobias was behind a door or wall but he couldn't feel the person in front of him even though he was looking straight at him.

This made Nalser go on full alert and he instinctively started looking for a way of escape. In his mind he understood very well that this person was most likely a very high leveled expert that surpassed himself by an extreme amount. If he decided to go for an all out fight, he probably wouldn't even be able to harm a hair on the old mans head.

When he stared grabbing Dreamer the old man opened his eyes and looked straight at him. He only let out a gentle smile and said, “No need to be on alert, I am not going to kill you or try and take away your Asura Flame.” The old man excluded a friendly grandpa vibe but when Nalser heard the two words “Asura Flame” he went on even more alert and directly stood up and distanced himself from the old man.

Seeing this the old man let out a small laugh but he didn't chase him, instead he sat where he was and just raised his right hand and opened his palm. Seeing this, Nalser started staring at the palm of the old man and suddenly his eyes turned the size of pin needles. What appeared on the old mans hand was a black flame identical to his. “Don't tell me that his old man is also an Asura Flame holder.”

As that thought ran across his head the old man just smiled and said, “Yes, I am also an Asura Flame holder, so you do not have to fear me trying to kill you or trying to snatch the flame. I have enough trouble as it is with this one, why would I want to double my burdens with another one.” When Nalser heard that, he slightly relaxed his guard but he didn't dare to leave his combat mode.

If he believed everything everyone said, he would have been dead a long time ago. Seeing this the old man let out a soft sigh and looked towards the old lady that was playing with Curo. “She is the Nuwa Flame holder that I am supposed to protect. We have traveled the ten thousand Major worlds, hundred thousand medium worlds and countless Lesser worlds for over ten million years already. We have even been to the three Celestial realms, the life of a Flame holder is an endless one and full on tribulations.”

As the old man said those words a tinge of sorrow could be seen. Nalser understood his sentiment, immortality was only good if you had something to strive for. If you had no goal, there was no point in having an endless life. Nalser just looked at the old man and asked, “Who are you and why are you here?”

The old man turned to look at Nalser again and just gestured to sit down again. Nalser understood that even if he was on alert, he couldn't do anything to this old man even if he gave it his all. He sat down under the tree that he was before and the old man started, “Well you see, I am an Asura Flame holder and my name is Fang Xi. Both me and the Nuwa Flame holder come from one of the major worlds prominent clans. Her name is Naru Mei. As for the reason why we are here, it is because of your awakening. You see, we were currently touring this lesser world when we felt your awakening. It is an unwritten rule amongst Flame Holders that if a new Holder awakens, the people closest to him/her will guide them and protect them until they are strong enough to survive on their own.”

The old man took a second to let it all sink in to Nalser and then continued, “Since there are a lot of people after the flames and the number of Holders are very scarce, we are a group that looks after each other. No matter what calamity one of us has called upon him/herself all of us will try to help the person.”

Hearing what the old man said and thinking back to the information the flame itself gave him after awakening, he understood what the old man meant very well. He opened his mouth and said, “Since the group is small we have no other option but to band together to survive.” Hearing this the old man nodded and said, “It's not like we are a sect or a strict organization or something, just that when someone of us calls for help, we go and help. Currently there are only 433 Asura Flame Holders and 432 Nuwa Flame Holders. Any major power has over a thousand times more people but they do not dare to rashly make a move on any of us because of the Asura Flame Holders.”

The old man took a deep breath and continued, “If by chance a major power with 500 thousand people rashly decided to offend our group, we would be calamity to them and they would face annihilation.” Hearing that, Nalser didn't think that Fang Xi was exaggerating at all. He knew first hand how strong the Asura Flame was and couple that with people who had been through countless life and death battles with strong abilities, only a retarded person would try to pick a fight with them recklessly.

However, one thing didn't make sense to Nalser, “How come there is one less Nuwa Flame Holder than there are Asura Flame Holders?” When the old man heard that, he lightly smiled and said to him, “Well, only a few months have passed since your awakening. A Nuwa Flame awakens exactly one year after the Asura Flame Holder. We have no idea on what laws these things work upon but this is just how it is. In all the worlds, These Flames are the most mysterious and even we, who have had them for millions of years, can't make heads or tails out of them. Every time we come close to understanding something, always, something happens to make that thing turn the comprehension upside down.” As Fang Xi said that, he looked like a grumpy old man and seeing hits Nalser had a hard time keeping back his laughter.

He had realized that these two old people were not a threat to him, so he completely lowered his guard and immersed himself in digesting the information that was fed to him. Seeing this, the old man finally relaxed and said, “Anyways, do you know how god damn hard it was to find you? It should have been easy for me to find you but someone behind your back led me running in circles around the continent for months before I finally managed to find you.” Hearing this Nalser was startled because he couldn't think of anyone that could possibly make an expert like Fang Xi in front of him, run around in circles around the continent.

Seeing Nalser's surprised face, Fang Xi asked him with a sharp gaze, “Don't tell me you don't know the person behind your back?” Nalser could only helplessly shake his head as he had no clue about the people protecting him from the shadows.

Just as Nalser was about to say something, a person dressed in black ninja clothes appeared right next to them on his knee and said, “We are sorry for making you run around in circles, Elder Fang. However, we had orders from our Master to protect Young Master from the shadows and at the time we didn't know you were also a Flame Holder and thought that you were a person from some major power who thought that he could easily lay his hands on the Flame.”