(Author: Hello all! I hope the last chapter gave you a taste of what to expect. As apparent since the prologue: the Great Dragon God is a major character in the story. Now back to training! Of course, the academy  will award the Knight Destroyers (while Marcus gets a raise) for their victory and increasing Twin Star Academy's reputation. For people concerned about all the killings: this is a world where people walk the path of an immortal. They live in a planet of strife and warfare. You either grow up and get strong or die or get eaten. I mentioned the spirit beast and now it is time to learn why they are feared! This marks the end of volume one if I was writing a published series. Hope you enjoy the chapter.)

Chapter 14: Spirit Beast Attack

"Welcome to the Treasury of Twin Star Academy!" Marcus laughed as he led his students into a large vault guarded by staff members at the fourth and fifth Spirit King Stage. "As winners of the tournament, the academy is granting you any one item from the Treasury. Choose wisely. Once you tell one of the staff here your decision, it is final. Take your time. You earned it. I'm gonna head to remind the headmaster of my raise I was promised. I remember a bottle of a wine collection the headmaster had that he promised me."

Marcus chuckled as he left his students in the Treasury as one of the guards stepped inside with a clip board. The five Knight Destroyers marveled at all the weapons, scrolls, and magic artifacts. They could only imagine how much bigger the Treasuries of the top three academies could be as their academy was ranked fourth overall.

Ling and Richard were the first to leave as they had found a Spirit King ranked mace and rapier. Just as qi cultivation and mythic beasts were ranked, so too were magical weapons and artifacts. Liao's flying daggers were Immortal rank weapons as they were made by the Great Dragon God in the image of the daggers that were destroyed when Liao died on Earth. His talismans were an exception as its power was dependent on the user's qi cultivation. No one knew it but his blade was also an Immortal rank weapon if a martial expert examined his blade closely and realized that the bone rings came from spirit beasts and not mythic beasts. The blade was made from a meteor so it could not be categorized as there were many metals that became indestructible and ever-sharp upon being forged.

Cao left as he had found Spirit King ranked chest mail. It was made of a dark orange metal that felt as smooth and light as a feather but could shatter steel upon impact. Liao was jealous as his friend had found the chain mail first but still felt happy for his friend as his friend was the tank and main fighter of their party. Sakura had also been lucky and her discovery even startled the staff as she found a Spirit Emperor ranked cauldron about one feet in diameter. The staff in the Treasury hurriedly said that whoever had that cauldron would be able to cultivate massive amount of qi and easily break through to Spirit King cultivation before the cultivation slowed upon becoming a Spirit Emperor.

The staff warned Sakura to not tell anyone her reward and to say she asked for a thousand gold for her reward as substitute. She did not come from Roshalt so she could reason that the currency exchange rate was casting her money and chose the gold coins as a reward. Sakura nodded and told Liao to keep it a secret as she knew Liao's little secret.

Ever since the tournament, he and Yueying had been spending time together at night by the lake. Rumors had already spread, but no one dared to intimidate Liao as they had witnesses report General Zhao visiting Liao and had learned of his father and had heard of the Lu family. Unfortunately for Liao, Sakura had seen him sneak off once and saw him with Yueying. Cao and Richard may have teased him but Sakura had black mailed him and he was forced to  help her get closer to Cao.

"Keep it a secret and I won't tell yours," Sakura teased and left the Treasury.

"Girls are foxes," Liao muttered as he continued his search. He had a blade and two types of hidden weapons: one people knew and feared after the tournament and one they didn't know that was far more deadly. He would have liked armor but he was confident of being able to escape most foes with his Lightning Shadow Steps technique and abundant qi.

Liao's eyes wandered off to the scrolls that contained qi techniques. He had four types of qi but it was very difficult to come up with his own original technique. One scroll in particular took his attention. It contained a technique called Three Venoms Palm. Liao's face turned to a grin as the technique required the user to be adept at ice qi. He could already use Lightning Shadow Steps, Serpent's Roar, and the Sundering Heaven Force which utilized his three other types of qi. He did create his Snow Armor technique but it wasn't very practical as it required a lot of qi. His battle style mainly focused on dodging attacks and overpowering strikes.

The staff in charge looked amused as Liao told him of his choice and told him not to use it in front of others. Qi poisoning techniques were frowned upon in public and made the user suspicious and untrustworthy. Liao nodded and left the Treasury, the staff closing it behind him as he followed Liao out.

Liao ran to his cabin and spread out the scroll. Hunluan slithered and watched as its master began meditating and preparing to learn the new technique.

"Three Venoms Palm," Liao recited as he read the scroll. "Created by a monk who had been trapped in an underground cave while climbing a snowy mountain. He learned that ice was not just cold. If ice is cold enough, it can burn. If ice is fast enough, even a snow storm can cut and bruise a man's face with hail. The monk wondered how he could apply it to ice qi and created the Three Venoms Palm."

"This monk is real smart," Liao cried as he read more about the Three Venoms Palm. "To actually combine three different aspects of an element into one as qi."

"I think that human was a hermit and created it to pass the time," Hunluan hissed, clearly not impressed.

"The Three Venoms Palm requires the user to condense qi into his hand and then spread it quickly into the opponent's meridian channels," Liao muttered as he continued reading the scroll. "The first aspect of venom is cold. Once struck, the opponent is unable to move as his meridian channels suffer a shock and his qi circulation becomes disrupted. The second aspect of venom is heat. When cold and heat meet, even steel can shatter. Thus, the strike damages the muscles and forces the target back as if a tiger rammed into him. The third aspect is severing. This is the hardest and final step to the Three Venoms Palm."

"So this technique has three stages," Liao murmured, curious. "The last step must be quite powerful."

"The last aspect is the true essence of the technique. The first poison immobilizes. The second poison damages and blows the target back. The final poison is injecting the user's own qi into his target. The target's body will suffer a backlash as his own qi will cannot coexist with the invading qi. The more powerful the user, the more powerful the poison. This is especially true if the user is more powerful than the target. Once mastered, even a mythic beast tiger will fall with one strike."

Liao spent the next three weeks practicing his new technique and finally made a breakthrough and was able to use the first poison aspect. It was also the easiest stage of the technique as it was the most basic attribute of ice qi techniques and was just a peculiar application. He also finally broke the bottleneck and became a first stage Spirit Sage.

His realm of qi changed greatly after he reached Spirit Sage. Another two-headed dragon had appeared and followed the circular path of the first dragon. The arctic ocean had also become bigger and deeper, wisps of ice creating a slight mist over the surface as glaciers started connecting. Thunderclouds appeared over the oceans and the baleful aura around the dragons was more intense and the dragons seemed to glow dark purple as they flew around in their circular path. Both heads of both dragons breathed fire, burning glaciers on their path. Liao couldn't believe how chaotic his realm had become. He wondered what the realm of qi looked like in other people's realms of qi.

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"Impressive technique," Yueying admired as she and Liao relaxed by the lake. "Qi poisoning technique. Liao Lu, are you sure you didn't use to be an assassin before you came here?"

Liao laughed as he held her hand and said, "Don't worry. I would never hurt you."

"You think you can hurt me?" Yueying giggled and shoved Liao with her qi, Liao crashed five times on the lake's surface before finally falling underwater."

Liao's head broke the surface and he began to laugh. He knew full well the difference in power between them. He shook his head as he swam to shore. Yueying failed to hide a laugh behind her hand as Liao took off his shirt and tried to dry it by twisting the shirt.

"You know something," Liao asked, a devious grin on his face. "I think you're a little dry. Let me help you."

Liao circulated his qi into his legs and appeared in a flash behind Yueying as he used his Lightning SHadow Steps technique. He used the Three Venoms Palm technique but merely made her immobile for a second. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. Liao was surprised by his own burst of boldness and quickly let go.

"You're bad," Yueying said as she turned to slap him. Liao closed his eyes and put his arms up in a cross to protect his face, but Yueying pulled his arms down. Liao's eyes opened in shock as Yueying planted a kiss on him. His eyes softened as their lips parted and he held her in his arms. He may be younger than her but he was three inches taller than her due to his massive growth and the influence of the Great Dragon God's qi as time flew by. It had not only turned his two-headed dragon in his realm of qi jade but also improved his body and made his qi more refined and pure.

"You're really tall for ten years old," Yueying said softly. "That's good. It means you will be a very powerful martial expert. You have to be if you are going to date me."

"Why?" Liao asked as he looked into her bright purple eyes. Both of them wished time would stand still as they were in each others arms under the moonlight, but they lived in a very dangerous world and peace did not last forever.

"Spirit beast!" Sakura cried as she burst into view wearing her armor, the other members of the Knight Destroyers also wearing their armor. "A spirit beast appeared from the north and is attacking the academy! It...oh! Sorry for interrupting."

"DUDE," Cao grinned as Liao and Yueying quickly let go, but remained holding hands. "Nice. Oh, we're gonna have a lot of fun Richard. A lot of fun."

"Now's not the time for that!" Richard snapped. "We need to move! Some idiots discovered a gold and silver vein and opened a mine. They dug in deeper and disturbed a whole pack of six spirit beasts. They are all over Roshalt! We need to get out of here as one of them followed the miners here!"

"Immortal rank mythic beasts," Liao gasped and grit his teeth. "What about your family Richard? Ling?"

"They're too far from the capital," Richard said. "My family members may be nobles but we only have our businesses in the capital run by our relatives. We lived on the edge of the country near Lyatto: Sakura's country. They'll be fine."

"I only lived with my uncle. He only left me my inheritance from my parents and paid for the admittance fee for the trials," Ling replied. "He lived in the capital. He might be alive or not as two of the six spirit beasts are attacking the capital. I heard a few immortals who chose to stay in Mortal Realm lived in the capital so this country won't be destroyed but it will suffer a loss."

"We can all go to Wei!" Cao grinned as he showed the mythic beasts behind him. "We can all live in my house. Actually, let's just live at Liao's house. It's the famous Lu Manor so it's safer there than my house. I lived alone with my dad and he's currently in the army. He probably didn't pay the land lord.

"Let's go quickly while the staff have it occupied. We can return when the academy reopens," Yueying said and whistled. A red and orange monkey appeared from the trees and settled on Yueying's shoulders. It was a Spirit Lord rank beast with wood and darkness affinity.

Hunluan slithered past Cao and extended to its full size. After eating monster meat and hunting on its own while Liao trained, it had grown to twenty feet in length was ten feet thick. Imoogi mythic beast really had an unfair advantage and while the mythic beasts of the others were at Spirit Sage rank, Hunluan had become a Spirit Lord ranked mythic beast.

"I'm coming too," Sakura said. "Wei is closer to the academy than Lyatto. I can send a messenger bird and inform my parents of my whereabouts when we head to the central district and head to the hall where the messenger birds are."

Liao nodded as he got on top of Hunluan, Yueying holding his back as she joined him. Cao rode Huilong with Richard while Sakura rode on Mizu with Ling. Bartholomew and Mei followed the other mythic beasts as Liao led his friends out to the cabins. They quickly gathered their items into their space rings and then headed to the central district. They could hear fighting to the north and realized the staff was fighting the spirit beast in the coliseum.

Sakura and Richard quickly sent messages to their families, telling them where they would stay and told Richard's family to stay with Sakura's family. Liao waited as Yueying returned with a message of her own. She actually owned a messenger bird and he watched it disappear. Liao had already sent a message to his family to expect him and his friends before Yueying finished her own message.

"The others?" Yueying asked as she jumped on Hunluan's back.

"Waiting by the gate," Liao said as he directed Hunluan to the gate. "Cao headed to the cafeteria to get us enough food for the journey and stored it in his space ring. A lot of other students were there shortly after he was done so we got lucky. Oh, you should know: your party members  and your master were spotted leaving the academy with some of the teachers and students. They should be fine. Did you tell your parents you're staying at my house?"

"Something like that. I'm glad my master and party members got out safe. Let's go," Yueying said and they joined the others at the gate. They all took one last look at the academy and wondered when they returned. The Knight Destroyers hoped Marcus would be okay.

Half a month passed and Liao and the others were still on the road. Liao's messenger bird had arrived and General Hui was relieved his son was okay.

"They should be here in another half month," General Hui assured his wife. "And Liao reached first stage Spirit Sage. A little slow but he's making progress. His imoogi mythic beast made shocking progress and reached Spirit Lord stage. Must be a genetic advantage of the imoogi. His friends will stay with us until the six spirit beasts are dead and the academy is reopened. The girl Yueying also became his girlfriend and is coming here."

"So he's safe," Lady Fei sighed with relief. "General Zhao's report also came when you were busy reading the message. The girl is indeed of the Bao clan. We must be respectful to her. I can't tell you why but you must. The Xu family is a minor family in Roshalt with their elders at Spirit King stage at best. They won't be making a move so soon as the spirit beasts are still around. I had General Zhao send them the heads of their servants found in Wei and gave them a warning. Liao will be safe for now."

"Good," General Hui said and let his wife handle the affairs of the household while he went to his room. Liao would be returning soon and he had many plans for his son upon his return.

(Author's note: And so ends volume 1. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.)

Chapter 13: Desolation and Fear MAIN PAGE Chapter 15: The Lu Manor