The boy's unfathomable eyes looked at Deon as if they were staring directly into his soul. Despite the boy's weak appearance, Deon felt the enormous pressure the boy emitted just a moment ago. It seems that the boy's background was not simple at all.
Tracing Deon's gaze, the guard responsible for watching him slowly focused his eyes on the weak boy's stature. Scrambling to attention, the guard immediately saluted and greeted the boy.
"Good afternoon young master Dell! How are you today?"
Smiling towards the guard, a quiet but perfectly audible voice drifted out from Dell's mouth.
"Good afternoon Jim. How was your day today?"
The guard name Jim complained to Dell.
"Well, Master Leo set me here to look after young master Deon. Apparently, I was to help young master Deon with his lesson in judging other people's strength and report to Master Leo once he got one hundred in a row. So, young master Deon, could you please tell me if you would fight young master Dell here?"
Deon opened his mouth, about to blatantly refuse to fight Dell due to the enormous pressure he detected earlier. However, just as he was about to speak, Dell's eyes seemed to speak to him, and Deon detected an almost negligible nodding of Dell's head. Confused as he was, Deon still spoke according to Dell's implied instructions.
"Umm, Jim. Of course I would fight Dell. He looks to be quite weak."
The guard smiled and nodded.
"Of course! Of course! Young master Dell here possesses zero talent for cultivation. After all these years, it is rumored that his aura is still unranked! That was the hundredth person, I will now go report to Master Leo that you have finished your task."
As Jim walked away to find Leo, Dell turned to Deon. Bowing his head, Dell said to Deon, "Thank you for not exposing my secret. At the moment when you extended your Spiritual Sense into my body, I accidentally responded with my full force in retaliation. The only people who know about my actual strength are Father, Gaige, and Master Leo. In actuality, I am at the orange level of cultivation. At my age, eleven years old, that is considered to be the genius of geniuses. If word were to get to the king, he would immediately command that I be taken to the capital to train. Therefore, I would never get to see my family again. I would essentially be made into the secret weapon of the Mord Empire, only trained to kill. I implore you. Please do not tell anyone."
Dell's words were quite mature for that of an eleven year old, demonstrating his genius intelligence. After finishing these words, Dell's eyes were almost in tears, and his head bowed all the more lower. Unable to do anything, Deon frantically spoke.
"Please lift your head! I won't say anything to betray you to the king! You can trust me."
Hearing these words, Dell's face was extremely grateful. Despite being an unrivaled genius, he wasn't the least bit arrogant. This humble attitude allowed him to gain the affection of nearly everyone in the estate, as he was polite to everyone, regardless of his/her social status. Dell grasped Deon's hands and shook them.
"Thank you so much! From now on, we are brothers. If there is anything you need, please do not hesitate to tell me! Now, please excuse me. I have some matters to attend to."
Waving his hand and running toward the end of the hall at the same time, Dell slowly disappeared behind the massive double doors.
Stolen novel; please report.
"So, it seems that you have met Dell. I hope that you will honor your promise to him."
Deon whipped his head around. The words seemed to have come from Master Leo walking towards him.
"He is the most talented disciple I have ever had, until you. I do not wish for him to be made into a killing machine by the Mord Empire. Therefore, we are hiding his talent. His father, the Leader, has assessed his talent as Godly. It may even be on par with your's. You did well on this exercise. Normally, it takes about a year to utilize your Spiritual Sense to this degree, but you have already mastered it within a week. Impressive. Now, as promised, I will teach you sword techniques now. Come along to the training field."
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A slim figure walked through a doorway into a room.
"Father? You called for me?"
Zeke's stooped figure slowly raised his head and looked at Dell.
"Our Family has assimilated another genius. I believe that he may even be more talented than you are. His name is Deon."
Dell's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Deon?! I just met him in the hallway! I accidentally exposed my strength to him, and he promised to keep it a secret. I never thought that his talent would even be above mine!"
Rather than envy at having his position as "most talented" usurped by Deon, Dell actually showed surprise. Zeke was surprised as well.
"So, you've already met him? That makes things a lot easier. From tomorrow onwards, you will be training together with Deon until both of you turn fifteen years old, the age requirement to join the army. From then on, you will both join the army and fight as a unit. I believe that you two will be able to rise through the ranks quickly and even become members of the Five Generals."
Dell was quite surprised at how coincidental it could be. He and Deon were already brothers. Personally, Dell already quite liked Deon as a person. A unit is a special designation in the Mord Army. It refers to a duo that fight on the battlefield together. In dire situations, the members are able to meld their Battle Energies together to perform powerful combination attacks. This phenomenon is called Energy Fusion. The compatibility between two people is measured in percentage, from 0% to 100%. At 100%, the attacks released through Energy Fusion can even annihilate entire regiments, groups of five hundred soldiers.
"I have already assessed the compatibility between you and Deon with my Spiritual Sense. It is even beyond my expectations, an astonishing 95% compatibility rate. This rate may even rise to one hundred percent if you two begin training together, as compatibility rate increases as the members of the duo become more familiar with each other."
Dell felt excited. He did not have a single friend his own age, due to his enormously high talent. The Leader was careful to publicize Dell as a cripple, resulting in Dell becoming shunned from his own age group. There was finally someone around his own age that he could interact with and spar with evenly.
However, as Dell and Zeke were talking, they did not notice a dark outline lurking outside the door, eavesdropping on their conversation. The glint of eyes in the darkness disappeared as the shadow slipped away without the notice of either person.