"What? Why do you need to check my mother?" Ace asked defensively as he backed away slightly.

Even Mathias looked at Aiden in confusion, not understanding what this Martial Uncle of his was thinking.

As he was backing away, Ace's eyes suddenly bulged in shock as he heard Aiden's voice directly enter his mind.

"Calm down, kid. I promise I have no evil intentions. It's just that your soul is very… Unique! I want to compare it to your mother's to see if this odd mutation is a result of your unique bloodline or if it's something completely unique to you."

Ace wasn't surprised that Aiden knew about his and his mother's bloodline abilities; Wukong had obviously been the one to tell him. What shocked him was the fact that this rank-nine warrior had the ability to speak to him telepathically.

'Is that a bloodline ability as well?' Ace wondered as he looked incredulously at the man.

"Ace, is everything alright?" Milianna called out worriedly as she prepared to step forward, only to promptly be put behind Lance.

Lance knew he wasn't a match for any of the adults here today, but he'd die before he let anything happen to Milianna.

Even Killian reached for his axe upon feeling the rising tension. He may have been happy to take Mathias as his master, but in his heart, there was no one as important to him as Ace and Milianna. They were and always will be the closest thing to family he has. Like Lance, he wouldn't hesitate for a second to give his life for theirs.

Mathias watched his new disciple glare at him threateningly with a helpless smile before turning to face the man who caused the misunderstanding with an almost pleading expression.

However, Aiden didn't even look at his wife's disciple. Instead, his eyes remained trained on the boy in front of him with a carefree smile, patiently waiting for him to make his decision.

Ace didn't reply immediately, his mind was still spinning. After getting over Aiden's telepathic abilities, his mind focused on the actual content of his words. 'He said my soul was unique? Could he be right? Could it be because of my bloodline, or is it because of my reincarnation? Could that be the reason behind my lack of affinities?'

He knew that if it was truly because of his reincarnation, then seeing as that was his most closely guarded secret, he never should've allowed a stranger to get so close to his soul in the first place. Alas, he didn't know much about the soul at all. It simply never crossed his mind that his secret could be found out like this.

But there was no use crying over spilt milk. All he can do now is move forward, and this could be a way for him to finally get some answers.

Even though he hadn't let it show, his lack of affinities had definitely bothered him. When he first heard about the path of mages, he both hoped and assumed he would have a strong fire affinity due to him being the user of the fire devil fruit in his last life.

Then when he heard that he couldn't even become a saint without an affinity…

He'd be lying if he said he wasn't affected, but he refused to believe there wasn't a fix. This world was so big, and he still knew so little about it. As far as he was concerned, there was definitely a solution; he just had to find it.

"It's okay, mom. He just wants to see if my talent was inherited from you." Ace explained calmly.

As he turned around, he was slightly surprised to see Lance and Killian's tense expressions, but after everything they had already been through together, it was understandable.

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As Milianna came forward, Lance and Killian accompanied her on either side like loyal guards. Something that made the mother and son pair smile helplessly. A warm feeling rose within, but he still turned back to Mathias and Aiden with an apologetic smile.

Wukong and the others watched this scene with an amused smile, but no one said anything. Ultimately, they were more interested in what Aiden had to say reference Ace and Milianna.

"Ooh, how interesting," Aiden said in surprise.

"What is it? Is something wrong with my mom?" Ace asked hurriedly.

"No, nothing. It's just that your mom is quite the talent herself." Aiden said, catching everyone by surprise. "Milianna, was it?

Age – 24

Warrior Cultivation – Rankless

Mage Cultivation – Rankless

Spiritual Essence: 80x above average – Exceptional

Elemental Affinities:

Light – Poor

Life – Exceptional.

You also have one of the purest souls I've ever seen. If it weren't because you were about ten years too old, your talents would be enough to earn you a spot here in the Pavilion."

Every single person was shocked by that announcement. Her talent as a mage wasn't too inferior to Julius'. Especially as she also had an exceptional affinity to one of the four edicts.

Wukong had just said how rare they were, and yet there were four people, including Mathias, with an affinity to an edict.

Whilst everyone else was shocked by her talent, Milianna was still concerned about her son's results.

"Is there something wrong with Ace?" She asked when she realised the man still hadn't announced Ace's.

"Huh? Ooh, no, there's nothing wrong with your son." Aiden answered honestly. "Ace:

Age – 8

Warrior Cultivation – Mid-Rank Two

Mage Cultivation – Rankless

Spiritual Essence: Over 100x above average – Perfect

Elemental Affinity – None."

As his words came out, the other kids looked at Ace like he was a freak of nature. With a spiritual essence 100x above average, he really was a freak of nature. But when they registered his spiritual affinity, their looks turned into ones of either pity or gloating.

Ace didn't seem to notice their looks as he continued to stare at the dark-skinned warrior as if he was waiting for him to continue.

It was then, though, that Aiden's voice re-entered his mind.

"If you finish first in the next round, I'll tell you what you want to know."

Ace was just about to ask what he meant when Mathias stepped forward.

"So that concludes the testing. As you can all now see, in terms of talent, each and every one of you are among the best of the very best. We here at the Yin-Yang Pavilion believe in quality over quantity, but that talent is meaningless if it doesn't translate into actual combat ability. So we're going to play a little game of King of the ring to see who the strongest student amongst the first years is." Mathias announced immediately, getting the attention of each student. "The rules are simple. Whoever fancies themselves the strongest can enter the ring. They will then be challenged one at a time by their fellow classmates, and from there it becomes winner stays on. Each student only has one opportunity to challenge, so make it count.

The winner will receive 100 contribution points up front and 10 points a month for every month they remain undefeated.

You should know, contribution points can be used to redeem anything from magic spells of every element for every rank to warrior techniques to one-to-one training from myself or any of the other instructors of the pavilion."

As his voice waned, Lazerim, who'd just been chanting silently to himself, raised his palms, and a 20x20 meter ring suddenly rose from under his feet.

"Now I know each of you is tired from your climb earlier, so to allow you to perform at your best, we've prepared a portion of essence milk for each of you," Mathias explained as he summoned one metal flask after another and began throwing them to each of the students to catch. "For those of you who don't know, essence milk is a liquid drained from Stalactites that are rich in natural essence.

The older the stalactite, the more profound the effects. Unfortunately, yours were drained from 10-year-old stalactites, which are still pretty much as young as you can get. Though it won't have any drastic effects, it'll still heal you of any fatigue and minor wounds you may have."

Opening the flask, Ace saw an almost glistening white liquid with an incredible aroma.

He didn't hesitate for even a second before draining the flask of every drop.

His eyes widened as he felt his hunger and aches vanish just like that, but when he remembered Aiden's last words to him, he glanced at the man one more time.

Feeling Ace's stare, Aiden smiled lightly and shrugged indifferently before proceeding to ignore him.

'Fine, if I need to become king of the ring to get the answers I want, then I'll end this quickly.'

Before anyone could react, Ace used [Soru] to appear in the centre of the ring as he removed his weapon from his back.

Holding the cold hard shaft of his glaive in his hands, his dark eyes scanned each of his classmates as a confident grin suffused his lips. "Come!"