Chapter 1

The Dragon Dojo, a prestigious Dojo built on a highest and largest mountain in the Zhan continent, with an astonishing height that can pierce the sky, located within the Warch Empire, next to the capital city of Lin.

The morning sun rose, in the Dojo, remained a hint of serenity before it broke into a hub of activity. Virtually every disciple, servants and people residing within the massive Dojo had come out to begin training, working or taking a stroll around. Especially the children, who joined the Dojo, were happy that a new day was coming, evident by their energetic antics as they ran around.

However, unlike everyone cheerful mood displayed, in an empty room devoid of anything besides the basic necessities for a room, a bed and clothes and the unwelcomed sun piercing through the room. A teenage muscular toned boy is seated in a lotus position, with his chest rising up and down in a rhythmic beat.

When the sun slowly rose higher, it shined on the youth’s back to reveal the marks of a seasoned warrior. Criss-crossed, deep clawed scars and many other deadly scars that told stories of its own. With each scar representing a story of what the youth has experienced in his life.

Surrounding the youth was a faint red coloured smoke that expanded to and from the youth’s body, rising along with his breathing.

Suddenly the smoke stopped rising and swiftly seeped into the youth’s body. This elicited a reaction from the youth, with his body shuddering and twitching as sweat formed on his face. The sweat flowed down from his face, slowly covering his body.

Minutes later, he stopped sweating and shivering, replaced by steam rising from his body. Suddenly the youth exhaled a deep long breathe, smoke bellowed from his mouth with a hint of red mixed in.

The youth stopped emitting smoke and moments later, opened his eyes. His eyes filled with ice cold determination with a small trace of happiness mixed in.

“Finally, I have broken through to the 7th warrior rank.”

The boy spoke with an expressionless face; it seemed as if the youth has never known any other emotion besides dead cold expression.

“Kusan, breakfast is ready.”

The youth looked at the door of his small room in response to a feminine voice who called out to him. He could see a female shadowed figure with the sun behind, outlining every single curve that could send men drooling.

He humph and grunted in response, however his reply didn’t reach her ears, not that he was hoping she would hear his voice. He has been baffled about the nature of the girl’s ears, she would pick up his voice from a million crowds with overlapping conversation going at the same time but she wouldn’t be able to hear his voice of displeasure even if he was right next to her.

The youth is Kusan, the boy with no last name. The boy who was forsaken, dumped by them and thrown away like garbage, if there is one thing he has that connects with his family. Is the pencil portrait of his mother. Besides the worldly possession, he still had that one memory of his mother before he was thrown in a new world with no one to look up to or protect.

The one memory of his mother, he saw his mother bleeding, saw her anxious face as she flew away into the air. Her body transforming into flames, which he later learned was self-destruction before passing out. Upon waking up, he found himself in a foreign place; it wasn’t until two weeks later when he was almost at death’s door that he was saved. He was saved by the girl next to him, Serenity, the daughter of Master Kenji who is the founding father of the Dojo.

Master Kenji opted to adopt the boy when he saw the unyielding determination eyes, however with the experienced the boy obtained during the two weeks of life and death battles. He declined his offer but instead asked to become a warrior, which turned into him be admitted to the Dojo. It was easy as the boy possessed an astonishing body of a 3rd rank warrior body.

One must know that to get a body of a 3rd rank warrior at the age of five is unprecedented in the history of the Dojo. Normally, for one to possess such body strength is at the age of 10, but that is after going through 6 years of intensive training. Even then, a genius would only be able to get that strength at the age of 8.

So with that, one could tell how immensely powerful a 5 year old boy could be. That is another reason why he wanted to recruit the boy, with him under his wing. The boy would no doubt be the rising star of the Dojo.

That is the only thing that he has, along with the flute that he vaguely remembers that his mother crafted for him. The beauty of his mother is top class, however because he was the son, he didn’t see the beauty of his mother unlike those who were not related to his mother, to view her as a goddess.

Noticing that the shadow lurking in front of his door hasn’t disappeared, he sighed and stood up, not before he donned a black short-sleeved shirt. He turned and walked towards the door with the light revealing a more detailed view of Kusan.

Light brown skin, hardened eyes, thin eyebrows, with an average face. Short black hair, with toned body, if people said he was 18 years old they would believe so, however he was in actuality 16 years old. He wore a tattered black trouser that looked to have previously been pants.

However, the most noticeable feature of his face was a badly scarred half face. He didn’t care about the scar or the effect it had on his overall appearance. But his childhood friend, who was standing outside his room, insisted that he has his face healed up when they were younger.

Even so, the healers regardless of how high ranked they were or how skilled, none could heal his burnt side which greatly puzzled them. No matter how much magic they poured in, the result would still stay the same, not healed. As a result, Kusan forever had a half-burnt face while the various healers’ reputation took a big hit.

Although he should be angered at the healers’ uselessness, contrary to the reaction the healers were expecting, he was actually secretly happy as he knows that the burnt mark was more like an irreplaceable mark on his face that was given to him by his mother. Some would call him crazy, but the scar served as a reminder that his mother was with him.

However, the reaction of the girl was completely different from Kusan. She incessantly bellowed in rage at the healers’, even going so far as beating them if his scar doesn’t heal. Not even her parents, Master Kenji and his wife, Mika could calm her down.

Kusan, who was annoyed told her to quiet down in anger, normally with such a ruckus happening surrounding him with various talking and screaming. He wouldn’t think that she would hear him, but he was wrong as she quietened down. The healers ran far away from the little girl while Kenji and Mika wore strained smiles, seeing how docile she was when Kusan spoke.

What was even shocking to the girl was that, Kusan didn’t care about the scar or do any attempt hiding the scar. He walked around, displaying his half burnt face in full view. She raised a protest at his action; however she threw that thought away when Kusan gave her a stare. A deep and powerful stare, that exuded the feeling that he will take no objection whatsoever, regardless of who it is.

He opened the door to his room, before his eyes he saw a stunning beauty. The beauty was called Serenity; she wore a white robe tightly wrapped around her body, complimenting her beauty and curves that were at the right places. She could make men drool or have a sudden sexual urge just from one glance. As a result she had her own fan club, with men dreaming about her devilish body whereas the women looked up to her like a model.

However, within Kusan’s pitch black eyes, no emotion or sexual urge escaped through. It was calm and unknown, like a black hole. With an apathetic, he gave her a nod and walked passed her.

She didn’t take offence and just skipped behind him while humming a tune, however the surrounding boys who watched from afar with Kusan’s attitude to Serenity. They couldn’t help but stare daggers and be thankful at the same time.

They were displaying somewhat contradictory emotions, with the daggers showing their displeasure on how he made her follow him and the thankful part being that he hasn’t taken possession of her.

The girls however scoffed at how brazen and uncultured Kusan was. A man who was deformed should be thankful that Serenity even given up her time to inform him about breakfast. They couldn’t comprehend what Serenity saw in the two faced boy.

He continued to walk within the massive Dojo, having been living in the Dojo for the last 10 years, he naturally knew everything there is to know about the Dojo. He headed towards the mess hall, to get his much needed breakfast before heading off to train in some part of the mountain.

While he was deep in thought about what new technique he should do. Two people were staring at him, first is Serenity and the second is Master Kenji.

Master Kenji was staring at him from afar; he knew the boy may have had a genius body in his youth compared to his counterparts. His achievement of attaining 7th rank warrior was still not known; even so the fact that he obtained it while he was 16 years old was below Master Kenji’s expectation of the boy despite that, he was still a genius in the Dojo but not an absolute genius compared to five others.

He expected the boy to be the number one in the Dojo, however his expectation was betrayed and having a hard to scratch itch of wondering why the boy didn’t reach Saint rank already. Such a boast would normally be scoffed at by the world if they ever heard Master Kenji make such claims, but his claims weren’t unfounded when he saw the boy shoot from 3rd to 6th rank in 4 years. So Kusan has been stuck at the 6th rank for 6 years until today

When he enquired Kusan about this, Kusan bounced back by asking him questions.

“Because what use is power when there is no control?

What use is power if there is no technique?

What use is power if you cannot understand the power itself?

What use is having immense power when you can use less?”

Kenji was shocked at how deep Kusan’s understanding was regarding the warrior body and its limit. Most warriors think that with power, one could dominate the world and Kenji himself looked down on such idiots. Power isn’t everything that is something Kenji has learnt after much trials and errors.

If he didn’t, he would have died countless times against other adversaries who clearly had more power than him. So when he heard Kusan speak such deep words, he couldn’t help but reminisce about his past.

Satisfied with the brief questions posed at him, he realised Kusan wasn’t just any normal teenager who thought being higher ranked was everything. As the average teenagers were arrogant and thought themselves invincible against lower ranked warriors.

“I look forward to the day you shake the world.”

Kenji could know understand Kusan to a certain degree. However with the deep words, Kusan has also made Kenji to even more unable to grasp his mind or understand how Kusan worked. So he left Kusan to his own device, after that his view of Kusan also rose higher and he was thankful of obtaining this hidden gem.

Kusan walked when he got interrupted by the loud hubbub that the mess hall created, since it was the morning, naturally everyone would be energetic. Especially that tomorrow was the most important day of every single person in the Dojo. So everyone was in a very happy mood to gossip about the hot topic.

When he entered the doorway, the mess hall turned silent as if everyone was in agreement that they should be quiet and stopped eating. However, only one table with four people, were eating, not caring that Kusan and Serenity had entered the hall.

However from the table of four, immense power radiated from them, a silent power like the deep sea with unknown limit. They sit calmly, rarely speaking and sometimes the silence could be suffocating.

‘No matter how many times I see her, she is a sight for sore eyes.’

This train of thought reverberated within all the minds of the disciples as they watched every movement of Serenity.

This was a daily occurrence for Kusan, so he was naturally used to the attention although he wasn’t the main reason for the deathly silence. As always it was because of Serenity, she didn’t care about the stares and followed behind Kusan.

One disciple awoke from his stupor and stood up; the unknown disciple had had enough of Kusan’s attitude as if though he was looking down on them. He stood up and walked in front of Kusan’s path before getting knocked out by a lightning quick punch to the face that he didn’t even know hit him. Resulting in him blacking out, the unknown disciple’s friends on the table reacted to this immediately and dashed at Kusan from different angles.

Everyone else likewise awoke from their stupor and the more veteran disciples sighed when they saw the new disciples attacking the ‘Two-Faced Warrior’. This was a daily occurrence when the new disciples joined who didn’t know the difference between heaven and earth. As the newbies thought that them being of the same rank and ganging up on Kusan would result in their victory, however reality was different.

Kusan used one hand to completely dominate the 6 newbies; giving their face a new makeover with bulging balls on their face and having them dye the floor red with their blood. Although it looked gruesome, the action he took against them was actually pretty lenient compared to how he deals with nuisance.

It only took him 6 punches and 1 second to end them.

The newbies stayed on the floor as they occasionally spasm. Nobody bothered to help them since they need to learn how different the Dojo works so they were left on the ground.

Kusan and Serenity grabbed their breakfast and sat with the only people not paying attention to them.

“How’d the newbies fare?”

An 18 year old handsome teenager with white hair, he had a business like appearance and a charm that could woo most girls. This man is Dray, he spoke seemingly not interested in the conversation, however he started one to try and elevate the boredom that was present in the table besides the occasionally eating noises.

“Meh.”

Was all Kusan said, the white haired man didn’t care and just munched his food. Likewise, Kusan and Serenity followed suit and ate.

“Oh yeah, I forgot but that newbie you first knocked out is this one’s little brother.” A boy with blond curly hair, hunched over the table as if though he has a hunchback. Young face that people could mistake him for being a 10 year old when in actuality is 17 years old. He is Saole.

He pointed his finger to a long silky haired man, who was leaning back on his chair sleeping. He had a charming face, with chiselled facial structure that if people were told he was a model, they would believe it. The sleeping man is Nage, the crown prince of the Warch Empire.

“A second rate prince huh?”

“Yep, he made a move on me and when that failed, tried to threaten me. Luckily, fiancé stopped me or else I would have killed his little brother.”

The feminine voice belonged to Kayle, fiancé to Nage. She was pretty and charming, however compared to Serenity she was two grades lower but that didn’t affect Kayle since she didn’t care about beauty contest. She was more interested in a strength contest, sadly Serenity still beat her and she was a friend that Kayle could rely on since the ratio of men to women in the Dojo is 8:1.

So friendship between women was stronger than the men.

“Are you going to join the ‘Dragon Selection’ tomorrow?”

The day of ‘Dragon Selection’, a very important day that if one succeeded in entering. One would obtain prestige, get promoted to a higher rank in the Dojo, get fame and if in luck, even fortune if they managed to catch the eyes of the rich and powerful who would sponsor them when they watch the trials if they ever decide to leave the Dojo to join the powerful families.

That is the reason for the oceans of people outside of the school, waiting patiently as they enter the Dojo to watch the spectacular annual ‘Dragon Selection’ that only comes every 10 years.

Each disciple is ranked according to their talent or cultivation with a robe to signify their rank.

Red robe, Outer Dojo disciples.

Blue robe, Inner Dojo disciples.

White robe, Outer Core Dojo Disciples.

Black robe, Inner Core Dojo Disciples.

Green robe, Elite Disciples.

Nobody in the Dojo has white robe, much less black robes since they are taken to the Core Dojo. Currently Kusan is in the court Dojo with a blue robe, it is the only Dojo to be allowed for public access but only at certain times whereas the Core Dojo is strictly forbidden to any and all people who are not part of the Dragon. With the exception being Saint guests.

They were the ones that did the hard and thankless tasks. Only that their position is the lowest in the school, they were however weren’t looked down upon as the Dojo only accepts the best of the best. So therefore, anyone who joins the Dojo, even if low ranked, are looked upon with envy since the examination process for accepting new disciples are almost impossible for just anyone.

The reason was very simple. If they were an outer court disciple then it meant that their aptitude was very high and with the help of the Dojo, they could possibly join the Saint Disciple group, as Saints only appears in 1 in 1,000 disciples. Currently the Dojo only has 1,000 disciples considering the high standard they imposed against new recruits.

The ‘Dragon Selection’ is created to look for seven individuals to form the ‘Green Dragon Team’. Once created they will represent the entirety of the Dragon Dojo and their prestige in the eyes of the world, they would then enter the ‘City Selection’, with each Dojo from within the area will compete in a team battle to determine the top five teams to represent the capital city of Lin.

It may sound small but given how large the capital city of Lin is, with a circumference of 7,000 kilometres. The city has roughly 10,000,000 citizens. From this, one can see just how large and powerful the capital city of the Warch Empire is and with such numbers, there isn’t a lack of good Dojo.

If one wanted to explore the entirety, it would take them possibly two months to explore.

Everyone already knew that 5 of the seven spots were already taken by five geniuses who go by the unanimous title of ‘The Five Clawed Dragon.’ With each genius disciples representing one claw of the ‘Green Dragon’, a monster that the Dojo was named after.

So everyone else, wanted to at least take the two last spots. Because taking the vacant spots is equivalent to them entering the Core Dojo.

The five geniuses are Serenity, Kayle, Nage, Saole and Dray.

Why is Kusan, who isn’t considered a genius by the Dojo except by the Master, sitting with the five?

It is because although they all are higher ranked than Kusan, in a one on one fight however, Kusan would win against each of them. Since the world is ruled by the strong, they respected the strength of Kusan.

At first, Serenity insisted that he sit with her in the genius table and this didn’t go well with the other four. So without a word, each challenged him and they were surprised by how powerful Kusan really was when they had a secret spar. They thought he was arrogant at how he despised them, but after that eye opening battle where he smashed all four of them all at once showed them just how vast the world was.

They were disgruntled at their lost until right after their loss; they were ambushed by a large pack of monsters. The Dojo is located right next to the largest monster den forest in the continent, the Dragon Forest with countless legends surrounding this forest. So it wasn’t strange for them to encounter monsters.

They weren’t scared by the pack of monsters, but considering how badly injured they were and exhausted. They couldn’t help but despair until a bloody scene appeared right before their eyes.

Wolves, lions, boars and giant ants, no matter what beast they were, they were annihilated like nothing before Kusan. With corpse of monster exploding wherever he points his finger at, if he touched them, they would incinerate into ashes. Blood flowed in the area, with some occasionally splashing on the nearby four but this didn’t faze them as they were fixated on the power of Kusan.

They all stared shocked at his strength, they could tell he wasn’t worse off like them but the way he handled the monsters with minimal effort made them look like they amateurish warriors. After watching for a minute, they could see hints of a seasoned warrior within Kusan, the way he handled them with stone cold expression, fearless eyes and an unwavering determination to not die despite countless injuries he sustained.

This put the four to shame, and without question they all agreed that he was the stronger person but that didn’t mean they gave up as they used him as their target to surpass in terms of technique and abundant experience in fighting.

That was in the past, now Kusan can only handle two of them at a time. Even then, he isn’t confident that he is able to obtain victory so easily since they have matured. Along with the maturity of the four, they have all created a bond of comradery regardless of each person’s background. So discussing Kusan participation was normal and if he joined them, it would increase the Dojo’s chance of victory against their rival, the Tiger Dojo.

“Yes, it would let me see the extent of my abilities if I ever come across a formidable foe.”

They all smile, they know what Kusan meant. For a person who is on the warrior path, naturally one would want to be fighting against a formidable foe. To feel the adrenaline and excitement of a fierce battle, that is something every warrior would want to experience and with that experience, it may contribute to their future achievements.

Nage, woke up as he blinked the drowsiness away from his eyes. He looked around and greeted Kusan before he saw his little brother laid on the ground. He looked at his brother then Kusan, Kusan gave him a shrug, seeing this.

Nage knew what happened and rolled his eyes, while making his way to his brother so he cannot embarrass the family any more than necessary.

“Can you go easy on my brother next time Kusan.”

He spoke in a lazy tone before he disappeared with his brother.

Kusan shrugged, not that he was thinking that Nage would see his action. Having finished his breakfast, Kusan stood up and farewelled everyone as he informed them that he is going to go train before the next day is up.

Seeing the silhouette of Kusan disappearing from view, Kayle took his spot, sitting next to Serenity who stared at the space where Kusan was with a sense of yearning in her eyes.

“You know he doesn’t have all the time in the world.”

Serenity looked distracted before she looked at Kayle. The others nodded, it was plain as day that Serenity loved Kusan, however Kusan didn’t act on her feelings nor did he show any interest in her.

“I know but…”

Serenity trailed off before looking at the empty bowl, fiddling with the spoon trying to find something, anything to get her mind off him since she is troubled about her heart.

“You need to get him before you regret it.”