“There’s still one left!!!!” The girl pointed with a trembling finger towards Yan’s figure standing a few feet behind Kiso and Yuni.

Chapter Twenty Eight -

Kiso and Yuni glanced back at Yan whose face had become pale.

Sighing, Kiso prepared to give a show of power in an effort to dissuade future actions against Yan. Just as he was about to step forward and take action, several blurs came forward from the crowd. With their backs to Kiso, the former teachers of Hanzi academy moved to block their students from taking action.

A large man among the teachers raised his voice, "Foolish children! Do you not see that girl has earned the favor of our savior?! Would you dare to offend him at this point?!"

The students glanced at each other. Indeed, they did not wish to offend Kiso or Yuni.

The large teacher scanned the students, looking for discontent faces among them. If he saw someone with a scowl on their face, he would secretly remember that student.

After he was satisfied the students had calmed themselves, he turned to face Kiso, taking a knee. "Young master Kiso.." The large man looked up at him with admiration in his eyes, "This servant's name is Ned Soran. I'm the senior teacher among those of us left here at Han... This academy."

Kiso looked down at Ned, nodding with a slight smile on his face.

Seeing Kiso's friendly demeanor, Ned smiled back and asked, "Young master... With Hanzi's death, your servant can guarantee his sect will send people to investigate. What should we do?"

Ned's voice was loud and most of the students could clearly hear his voice. After he finished speaking, fear spread throughout the students and some even began to make their way towards the gates.

Kiso's slight smile didn't fluctuate in the slightest. He had already been warned by Yan and had even figured this would be the case before she said anything.

Walking down the Osian Tower's curved stone stairs, Kiso stopped halfway. He looked around at the various remaining students and teachers. He took a deep breath, then shouted, "Those of you remaining here are free to do whatever you wish! If you wish to escape back to your families, do so! If you wish to remain here and continue to cultivate, do so! I will not take over this academy, but I will be staying here for an unknown duration. As long as I remain here, I will do my best to protect those worth protecting!"

His words clearly disappointed many of the students that had wished for him to take Hanzi's place, but they couldn't fault him for that.

Ned thought to himself for a moment, then turned back to the crowding students and announced, "Since young master Kiso has spoken, let it be so! I will personally remain here and continue to instruct those that wish to stay. If trouble passes, perhaps we can even found a new academy here! Everybody, go back and rest for now, we'll meet in the assembly square tomorrow at sunrise!"

After addressing the students, Ned bowed once more to Kiso then made his way over to his fellow instructors.

Kiso smiled, then turned back to Yan and Yuni.

Yuni's brows were furrowed slightly, not angrily, but rather curious.

"What exactly are we going to remain here for Kiso?" She couldn't help but ask.

Kiso squinted his eyes slightly, thinking about teasing her. Instead, he exhaled and causally said, "Training. We have about two years before we need to make our way to the Northern Human Province. In that time, we need to improve ourselves in several aspects. You included." Kiso shifted his gaze to Yan.

Yan was slightly startled when Kiso suddenly addressed her. She frowned slightly asking, "What exactly do we need to do?"

Kiso tilted his head upwards, gazing diagonally into the sky. He seemed to be thinking deeply for several tens of seconds, then answered, "Yuni and I need fighting experience. We need to learn new applications for our innate lightning, in other words, we need to develop some new techniques. You on the other hand need to seriously cultivate, I'd say. That's right, what sort of techniques and spiritual nature do you possess anyway? Death nature like your grandfather?"

Yan looked distracted for a few moments, then sighed and said, "About that.. Indeed I possess death nature spiritual pressure and have been instructed in various vile techniques by my grandfather. However, there are some I think you two would find useful as well."

Noticing the unpleasant looks on Kiso and Yuni's face, Yan hurriedly assured them, "The techniques I speak of are universal techniques, they have nothing to do with death nature. Also.. Although I know my death techniques may not be well received by you two.. They may prove useful in the future, so I will continue to cultivate as you suggested."

When Yan spoke the words 'universal techniques', Kiso and Yuni's faces changed, their lips curving upwards.

Their change in expressions satisfied Yan and she exhaled a sigh of relief.

Yuni couldn't help but ask, "Yan, what sort of universal techniques?" She was always striving to improve herself, to increase her power in order to be useful to Kiso. Her thirst for new techniques could easily rival Kiso's.

Yan smiled mischievously and raised two fingers, "Although there are many, only two of them would interest a couple of monsters like yourselves. Both of these techniques were taught to me by my grandfather. He said they were written in the ancient grimoire bestowed upon him by his sect.

The first is rather simple, even someone at the first stage of spiritual pressure can utilize this technique."

Yan moved her open palms in front of her, condensing spiritual pressure into them. From her hands, a misty white glow emanated from them.

"This technique is known as Misty Hands. It can forcefully block and spiritual pressure attack as long as the spiritual pressure in the user's hands meets or exceeds the attack of their opponent."

Yuni's eyes lit up, secretly thinking to herself, "This should be useful!"

Kiso on the other hand simply nodded. He figured it would be helpful, but for the most part he could just dodge an opponent's abilities using his Skyshadow technique.

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Yan noticed her failure to impress Kiso but wasn't discouraged. This was because she knew the next technique was one every spiritual pressure cultivator yearned for.

Retrieving her spiritual pressure, she turned her palm to the sky and produced a rolled parchment. Yan's face revealed a slightly proud, slightly disappointed expression as she explained, "The second technique is Levitation."

If the first technique could be regarded as average, the second would certainly be a treasure. Levitation was an extremely rare technique among spiritual pressure cultivators. It essentially allowed the user to fly.

Kiso's eyes were wide as he stared at the rolled parchment.

He licked his lips as he asked, "Yan, is that truly Levitation? Are you able to use it?"

Yan's lips slanted as she was clearly disappointed. She replied, "It is indeed Levitation, although I am currently unable to use it." She slightly pursed her lips and added, "Levitation requires the fourth stage of spiritual pressure."

Kiso and Yuni exchanged an excited glance, communicating their inner thoughts without words.

"We'll be able to fly!"

- - - - -

A week later.

The cold autumn air, containing thousands of colorful tree leaves, is currently sharing its sky with a couple of new faces.

"K..Kiso! This is... So hard!" Yuni's slightly panicked voice is barely audible through the teeth of the wind. Her face is red as she squints her eyes, sending massive amounts of spiritual pressure downwards through her body.

Kiso is a bit more intelligent, sending a mental message, "Right.. We've only been airborne for a few minutes but I've used almost half of my spiritual pressure! Let's go back down."

They quickly descended through the air, touching back down in a quiet corner of the academy.

After the events of that day one week ago, Kiso had quickly made preparations.

He had Yan go and find Ned, sending him to acquire a vast amount of food to send Prince Julian. Quickly after that, Kiso and Yuni toured around the academy, greeting the students and asked them where a good place to stay would be.

They decided to stay in a villa in the north eastern section of the academy. It suited them very well because it was far away from the former residences of Hanzi's family. Aside from the location, the villa itself was rather extravagant. The students that suggested it, had told them that Hanzi usually let his most honored guests previously stay in their new villa.

When Kiso heard that, he chuckled whispering to Yuni, "Hear that? As Hanzi's honored guests, we must stay there!"

Settling down in the villa, Yan decided to take up residence there as well after a slight protest from Yuni.

Just like that, Kiso, Yuni, and Yan spent the first week cultivating and attempting to learn some new techniques.

The levitation technique turned out to be extremely simple. It essentially continuously send spiritual pressure through the legs and out the feet, countering the air below. Since it continuously requires spiritual pressure, the time of flight is directly reflected by the users spiritual pressure amount.

Kiso can maintain flight for eleven minutes while Yuni can only handle eight.

When Yan heard Kiso could fly for eleven minutes, her mouth refused to close for almost twenty minutes. She heard her grandfather once say he could barely fly for three minutes, no wonder Kiso was able to easily deal with him.

Back in the courtyard of their villa, Kiso and Yuni returned from the sky. Their shirts were wet with sweat and they were visibly out of breath.

Through heavy breaths, Kiso said, "It really is hard to breathe way up there..."

Yuni, hunched over resting her hands on her knees, looked up and nodded slowly.

After they caught their breath, Kiso sat cross-legged, absorbing nature energy to quickly replenish his spiritual pressure. This has been his routine for several days now.

A few minutes later, Kiso opened his eyes, looking over at Yuni still meditating. Taking several deep breaths, he spent a few minutes reflecting to himself.

The past few months have been nothing but troublesome. Even now he has to continue to struggle and cultivate, hopefully improving himself enough to take on and ancient sect full of powerful people, just for a slight chance at rescuing his mother.

He thought about his father and the servants who had always been kind to him.

He thought about Elder Julian who had been there when he revealed his outstanding talent in front of his entire family.

He sat there reminiscing about his youth for a long time, finally recalling his grandfather Mord before a thought suddenly struck him.

"How could I forget?!" Kiso abruptly sent his spiritual pressure into his DS ring, frantically searching for a small piece of parchment. "There it is!" The parchment materialized in his hand.

This was precisely the last thing his grandfather had given him. He had stuffed it in his shirt as he originally set out from Thunderblack Castle.

Unfolding the parchment, his grandfather's handwriting came into view.

Tears swelled up in Kiso's eyes as he read:

Little Kiso.. Your grandfather could not be more proud of who I know you will become. I feel like I waited my entire life just for you. Now that your here, I can finally die with a content smile on my face. A few days from now, I believe my son's plot to kill me will finally spring into action. However, fear not, your grandfather still has some purpose in this life. Do not believe the reports when they say that I've perished. I plan to secretly switch places with a double and escape the valley. If you read this right away, DON'T come back for me. After you turn fifteen and become an adult, you can ask your father where to find me.

The last sentence struck Kiso's heart, causing the tears to fall from his eyes. There was sorrow in those tears for his father, but there was also a hint of joy as well.

"He's actually still alive!!!" Kiso tilted his head back, shouting into the sky.

To Be Continued!