"Asura, come to the fourth floor," Shane's voice echoed within the pagoda. Asura hurried, feeling that he should tell someone about the approaching army. Ever since he saw the army, there was an uneasy feeling in his chest, as if something terrible was going to happen.
Asura agilely ran up the stairs, as if he was a starving tiger chasing after his prey. Upon reaching the fourth floor, he found himself in a scorching room. In the center of the room, there was a brazier so large that you could fit an elephant inside.
"So hot... What kind of flame is this?"
It must be understood that upon reaching the 4th level as a warrior, the sun's heat only barely affected Asura, and normal fires would not even give off a heat as strong as this brazier was.
"These flames are not ordinary." Asura could feel the powerful heat emanating from the blue flames.
"Those are called 'True Samadhi Flames'," a voice came from behind Asura.
Feeling a sense of danger, Asura quickly turned around to look at the stranger who had so quietly sneaked up onto him. When he turned around, he saw that it was only Shane. "Grand Teacher" Asura clasped his fists and bowed, waiting for Shane to explain why he had been summoned into Shane's Blood Devil Residence.
"Asura, you've been training well. Kira has told me that over the years, you've been diligent in your warrior training, and that you actually have high affinities in all four elements... Even though you have such outstanding talent, at most you had only displayed fire and wind spells in public, and not revealing that you actually are a Quad element wielder. The world is cruel and ruthless, you have made the right choice!" Shane was sizing up Asura.
He had judge that such an ordinary looking baby wouldn't amount to much. Imagine when he woke up after twelve years of isolation and was told that the baby Kira adopted had grown up into such a monster!
Asura had already known from his private classes with Kira that duo element wielders were a rarity, and there were even wars over the right to hire a triple element wielder, much less a Quad element wielder. At first Asura was quite excited that he could wield all four elements, but then realized that things could get complicated if he revealed his talent. For example, top exponents might feel threatened by his talent, and would either try to become friends with him or nip his potential in the bud.
During Asura's past life as Cyrus, he had often witnessed some of the company's 'politics' and would sometimes go with the flow. He had heard rumors of the executives having the backings of the triads and would deal with their matters in an underhanded manner.
"Your disciple Asura does not deserve such praise" Asura bowed his head deeply. Asura had always felt gratitude towards Shane, for he would have become bird food if not for his timely fight with the mysterious figure that Shane killed.
"Asura, you must remember not to flaunt your power. Even an exponent more powerful than me would feel jealous of your potential, much less all the evil men out there in the world. Anyways, I have something to show you." Shane leisurely walked towards a shelf, with his hands folded behind him.
"Susam hapur!" Shane made a two finger gesture, pointing towards the shelf.
"Ruummbleeeee......" the shelf was raised upwards, and Asura could hear countless gears from within the walls.
"Seems that even in this world, people use gears and chains for hidden devices" Asura pondered. Kira had Asura a hidden passage in one of the old buildings, which led to the opposide side of the mountain. In the past, this hidden passage was used a means of escape. But after so many decades, it had been forgotten by many.
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"Follow me!" Shane commanded. Asura was somewhat tempted to reply "Affirmative!" as in his previous world, he had often played first person shooter games such as Counter Strike and Call of Duty.
Keeping his thoughts to himself, Asura quickly caught up to Shane and the shelf rumbled once again, sealing the entrance and removed all traced of it being a hidden entrance.
"Fireball!" Asura forcibly willed two flows of mana to collide in his palm, thus igniting into a basic spell 'Fireball'.
"At most I'll be able to maintain this 'Fireball' for an hour..." Asura kept pace with Shane as they walked forwards. On both sides of Asura and Shane were walls made of stone blocks and there were some torch holders along the way.
"Asura, do you still remember the True Samadhi Flames you saw earlier?" Shane turned his head sideways, looking at Asura with his peripheral vision.
"Yes, Grand Teacher."
"Today, let me tell you a little story about our White Serenity School..." Shane's thoughts were already drifting to the past, as he remembered his teacher saying the exact same words....
"A long long time ago, there was red skinned boy whose mother was a human, and his father a magical beast. When he was a hundred years old, he had still retained an appearance of a boy. One day, the boy's father went to battle against another magical beast, but was defeated. Out of rage, the boy went to hunt down the magical beast who defeated his father, burning down the magical beast's forest and had reduced it to ashes in a minute, almost killing the magical beast."
"The humans, fearing that a god of fire had descended upon the realm, prayed for three days and nights, before the heavens answered them. A lady in red dress descended from the skies, calling herself 'Mazu'. When Mazu had reached the burnt forest, she wept for the magical beasts, animals and humans that died in the fire."
"When she reached the red boy's hideout, she fought with him for a month, before the red boy finally ran out of mana and was sealed in a brazier, forever trying to get out by using his 'True Samadhi Flames'. Before she returned to heaven, she chose a man and taught him some mana techniques and gave him warrior training manuals. He would then later be known as the Founder of our White Serenity School."
Shane had finally finished telling Asura about the founding of the White Serenity School.
"What would happen if we opened the brazier?" Asura wondered.
"I know what you're thinking, child. I have also wondered what would happen if I was to open the brazier, until my teacher told me that when one of the previous Leader had tried it, he was burnt to ashes in an instant upon touching the brazier." Shane confessed.
"Even Elder Moba, an Arch Magus who duo wields the water and earth elements, was unable to faze the 'True Samadhi Flames' a single bit! Ah, we've reached." Shane finally stopped walking, and stood still.
Asura was walking right behind Shane, so he could not see what Shane was looking at. Tilting his head to the left, he realized that they had reached a room full of scrolls and rolled up manuscripts. Some of the parchments had already become illegible, having gone through the passage of time.
"This is the Secret Vault of our White Serenity School, where only School Leaders and future School Leaders are authorized to enter!"
Chapter 8: Secret Arts