Despite being half a mile away atop the ridge, they could clearly see the two extremely large words carved from stone and placed above the closest gate.

Those words read: Hanzi Academy

Chapter Nineteen -

"This..." Kiso's eyes remained wide as he didn't even blink for several minutes.

Yuni's state wasn't much better.

Kiso finally frowned, "Surely if they bothered to found an entire academy here, they would have already discovered the cave and the hidden technique within. Even without the map, someone actually stumbled across this plain." Sighing, Kiso shook his head. It was only natural that after countless years, the cave would be discovered.

Yuni frowned as well adding, "Since it's like this, the technique is no longer ours alone.. Maybe we should just lea..." Kiso quickly cut her off, "No, we can't be certain. Let's go down and ask around for some details. Look, the gates are open, they seem to allow outsiders in freely."

Yuni glanced back at the gate, but her pretty little face didn't light up like Kiso suspected.

"Come on, let's go take a look." Kiso urged as he began to descend from the ridge.

As the academy became closer, Kiso could easily observe the interior. He was astonished to find that this famous academy seemed, quiet. Abnormally quiet in fact, so much so that Kiso immediately sent forth his spiritual zone searching for signs of life.

"What the?" To Kiso's surprise, within the part of the academy his spiritual zone encompassed, not a single life was present.

Yuni gave him a questioning look as he informed her, "I can't feel any life inside."

Her eyes grew a size larger and she moved closer to Kiso whispering, "What happened to them?"

Kiso shook his head, he had no idea.

Reaching the bottom of the mountain, only a five hundred meter long stone paved road remained between them and the western gate of the academy. The two of them proceeded cautiously not daring to run straight into a tiger's mouth, if that's what it turns out to be.

The walls of the academy were around ten meters high, made up of a solid looking stone clearly mined from the nearby mountains.

Through the gate, now within a hundred meters, Kiso could see the stone road continued straight through the academy, not curving until reaching the very center where it made a circle around the tower.

Spiritual zone always extended, Kiso constantly searched from signs of life, to no avail.

Studying their surroundings, Kiso noticed the walls were actually in fairly bad shape. Signs of battle left their marks everywhere along the walls, gradually getting worse as the wall curved out of view. The gate itself was indeed open, although it seemed that was not by design. Where there should be giant wooden doors or several thick steel bars, was simply blank space.

As Kiso and Yuni reached the gate, they peered inside.

Surprisingly the interior of the academy seemed untouched, yet still void of a single whisper. Kiso sighed and summoned his courage saying, "Let's go in."

The two of them walked into the academy, tension filling their hearts. After walking forward hundreds of meters, they were about halfway to the obsidian tower when Kiso suddenly stopped.

Slightly slanting his head towards Yuni, he whispered, "On the other side of the tower there are a large group of people, they're moving slowly towards the center."

Acting quickly, Kiso decided to leave the main road and travel in a round about way to observe the people.

After several tens of minutes, Kiso and Yuni arrived at a large building. On the other side, they could hear dreary human footsteps among many lethargic horse trots.

Peering around the building down an alley, Kiso could see a parade of apparent students and teachers. The students all wore the same colored cloak with a strange embroidery on the back he couldn't quite make out. Atop the horses, the teachers wore different colored cloaks and Kiso could easily sense most of them had insanely deep spiritual pressure.

What frightened Kiso was, many of the students clothes were torn and their faces were ashen. Some even were visibly injured, blood on their faces or limping slowly along. The teachers were much better, several of them lay on their horses, barely holding on.

"What could force even those expert teachers into such a state?" Kiso's mind was currently a stormy sea of thoughts.

The first thing that came to mind was one simple instinct, "Leave."

He pulled his neck back around the corner and sunk to the ground, visibly shaken.

Yuni took at peak as well. When she looked back, her face was white. She sat beside Kiso and asked, "We're not staying right? Getting mixed up with those people can only bring us harm. Forget the hidden technique, I don't even want it anymore, let's go look for your parents."

Kiso glanced over at Yuni, who was staring at him expectantly, then took a deep breath and nodded agreeing, "Right, I don't think the risk would be small this time, let's go."

As they stood up, Kiso immediately snapped his head to the side, he sensed someone was approaching them.

A dark silhouette emerged from the shadowy alley opposite from the building they were next to.

"So your not going to stay? Come now, don't ruin the fun." Bo's voice reached their ears before his image filled their eyes. His sinister tone sent chills down Yuni's spine and made Kiso tense up, gathering spiritual pressure in dense batches towards his fingertips.

Yuni hid behind Kiso, who raised a hand towards the shadowy silhouette. Black lightning began coiling around his finger as he threatened, "Step out! If not, don't blame me!" Kiso spoke forcefully, yet not raising his voice enough to be heard from the main road.

A low pitched laugh rang from the shadow as Bo's figured emerged, hands raised into the air.

"Come now, brother Kiso, sister Yuni, is that any way to treat an old friend?" Bo walked forward into the sunlight, causing Kiso's brows to furrow.

Kiso never trusted Bo and the incident with his father landed him on Kiso's list of people to kill should he ever get the chance.

Noticing Kiso's hand still raised in a threatening manner, Bo's taunting smile sank into cold apathy. Bo took a long glance at the coiling black lightning, a strange flash appearing in his eyes, then tilted his head back and yelled, "INTRUDERS!!!"

His voice bounced around the academy's building, finding its way to the main road, where instantly several flashes of color moved towards the source.

Kiso stared at Bo dumbfounded, cursing himself for being hesitant. He vowed to himself if he survived this, he wouldn't ever hesitate again. The familiar face, even though it wasn't a pleasant one, truly made him let his guard down this time.

If he was alone, Kiso could simply shadowstep away. But he wasn't alone.

Cursing himself for bringing Yuni into this, he prepared himself for the rapidly approaching teachers.

Continuously pouring spiritual pressure into his hands, two Blacklight swords merged, flickering periodically.

The first to arrive was an old man. His blurry figure returned to a solid image, standing precisely between Kiso and Bo. Facing Kiso, the old man's eyes flicked down to Kiso's hands, an extremely surprised expression painting his face.

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One by one, six other figures lined up on either side of the old man, equally facing Kiso. Their faces lit up in surprise as well, one of them actually opened their mouth in shock.

Kiso frowned, taking a step forward he called out to the old men before Bo had a chance to say another word, "Elders! My name is Kiso Black and this is Yuni Black. We did not come here to cause any harm, your junior over there stumbled upon us by chance and misunderstood us." Kiso's voice carried his own spiritual pressure as it weighed heavily down on the elders.

The old man in the center laughed loudly and he stepped forward several meters, a smile on his face.

"Indeed! Kiso, son of Han, you are indeed not an unwelcome person!" The elder's warm voice caused Kiso's heart to calm and he swiftly withdrew his spiritual pressure to his fingertips.

Bo's face wasn't the least be dissatisfied. He knew the elders would recognize Kiso's face. His only goal was forcing Kiso and Yuni to remain here.

The teachers, upon hearing the old man's words, all revealed warm smiles as they walked up to follow.

The old man walked forward until two meters separated him from Kiso and Yuni.

He glanced at Yuni, hiding behind Kiso, to see the small girl staring daggers at himself. He couldn't help but throw his head back and laugh loudly.

When he finally calmed down, he bowed slightly and introduced himself, "Kiso, my name is Weston Hanzi. I am the dean of Hanzi academy and a friend of your grandfather."

"These six are all my children or grandchildren and teachers of this academy. Allow them to introduce themselves as well." Dean Hanzi pointed at the leftmost young woman.

The young woman, seemingly in her thirties, smiled and said, "I am the second daughter, name's Vixy" She bowed slightly, keeping it simple.

The next two appeared completely identical as they stepped forward at the same time introducing themselves, "We are the first and second grandsons, Teq and Beq." The two called out together, failing to distinguish which was which.

The next three were all young women, seemingly in their late teens, appearing very beautiful. They stared deeply at Kiso as they walked forward together, the eldest looking one spoke out, "We are the daughters of grandfather's first son Izoa. From left to right, that's Rio, I'm Ela, and that's Yan." The two other girls bowed as they were mentioned.

Yan was seemingly the youngest of the three, appearing to be about seventeen years old. She was also the prettiest of the three. Although none of them were on Yuni's level, Kiso had to admit they had their own charms.

Kiso pulled Yuni forward to his side and bowed replying, "Elders, Yuni and I were intending to leave after searching for something. I wonder if..." Dean Hanzi frowned after hearing the first words and quickly cut Kiso off, "Nonsense! Such an honored guest should stay a while! If you were searching for something within my Hanzi academy, surely I am the best person to ask. Tonight I personally invite you two to have dinner with my humble self. I'll send little Yan here to set you up in an inn and I'll send for you later."

Kiso couldn't argue with him, if anyone knew about the technique it would be him.

"Then I'll be in your care." Kiso choked back his words and bowed again.

The teacher's bodies flashed away, only Dean Hanzi and Yan remaining.

Turning to face Bo, Hanzi frowned and called out, "Bo, I'll speak to you about this later."

Bo bowed, his indifferent face never showing even a slight fluctuation.

After his promise to Bo, Dean Hanzi's body turned into a blur as well and he returned to the main street.

Bo gave one last triumphant look at Kiso and Yuni before stepping back into the shadows and disappearing.

Kiso sighed and looked over to Yan, who's face was studying his own. Before Kiso had the chance to speak, Yuni quickly stepped up next to Kiso, holding his arm close to her body.

She stared daggers at Yan, completely communicating her intentions through actions.

Yan's pretty face showed surprise, then laughed softly consoling Yuni, "Okay little Yuni, I get it."

Kiso didn't bother with their exchange as he directly asked Yan, "Yan, what's the deal with all your students? Why does everyone look like they just got back from war?"

Yan frowned, showing a face that really didn't fit her gentle disposition, "Because they did..." She sighed and continued, "You probably know, Hanzi Academy accepts students from anywhere, as long as they meet certain requirements, right?" Kiso nodded.

"Well, a few years ago, we accepted a certain student from the Kamien Empire. That student turned out to be from the imperial family of the Kamien Empire."

Before she could continue, Kiso had to ask, "Yan, where is the Kamien Empire located and what is the significance behind them?" Kiso still hadn't learned much about the other provinces of the human realm.

Tilting her head to the side for a moment, Yan continued, "Ah, right, you've probably never been out of Thunderblack Valley. Anyway, the Kamien Empire encompasses the entire northern human province. It single-handedly rules the entire region and can be considered the most powerful individual force in the human realm. You can imagine their influence on even our Hanzi Academy nestled between all four human provinces."

Lowering her voice, she stepped a bit closer and added, "That student disappeared within the Osian Tower a few months ago. If not for the other provinces giving us their backing for various reasons, the Kamien Empire would have flattened us by now. Instead, they've been commissioning other schools to attack us frequently."

"If not for my grandfather, perhaps there wouldn't even be a single soul left alive." Yan's voice trembled as she seemed to recall a series of terrible memories.

Kiso finally understood the situation, thinking to himself, "That kid from the Kamien Empire probably caught wind of the hidden technique and came here searching for it."

Giving a difficult smile to Yan, Kiso said, "I see. So that's how it is. I wonder if your grandfather plans to have me join in the war?"

Yan tilted her head down and mumbled, "You'll have to ask him later.."

Yuni's eyes were strange after hearing the story, she sent Kiso a mental message saying, "Kiso let's help! It might be fun!"

Kiso turned his head to Yuni. Viewing her gleaming eyes he laughed inwardly and replied, "It seems Yuni likes to fight now, alright, we'll help if he asks."

Yuni's face brightened and she happily smiled, her mind in the clouds.

Yan stared at their happy faces, frowning. "These two seem to be rather inconsiderate. Or maybe.. Ahh, never mind, I'll just drop them off and go home."

Calling out to Kiso and Yuni, Yan said, "Let's go, I'll show you to the inn you'll be staying at during your time here."

Startled from their fantasies, Kiso and Yuni quickly nodded and followed Yan.

After taking a few steps, a sudden shout rang out from behind them, causing Kiso to freeze in his tracks.

Slowly turning his head in disbelief, he turned to face that familiar voice.

To Be Continued!