Kai and his squad reached the portal that had just appeared on the hill outside of Blackflame City for now there wouldn't be many people crossing through but soon there would be thousands crossing in search of advancement, trading and power. Their squad arrived at the shadowy portal and took up the hill side Kai couldn't sense through the portal but he knew it would lead to somewhere within the valley. He dropped off his cloud and looked towards his squad members who nodded in return and he walked through it. As Kai walked through the portal he couldn't sense anything and the world around him went to black unlike his fathers portal which seemed instant. He had to walk for what felt like minutes, eventually though he pushed through the portal and came out the other side behind him appeared Keya, Kang and Joy. Joy and Kang looked amazed they had never seen the valley so they didn't know what it looked like whilst Kai and Keya had grown up here until at least Lowgold and Keya had only recently left but had ended up back there a month ago.
Kai looked out towards the valley it had been almost a year himself since he left from the stories his father had told him the valley was almost identical to the original one that had been destroyed by the dreadgods the biggest difference his father had said was there was now two additional mountains Blackflame mountain and Endless Sword mountain not the most original names ever as it was just named after his parents paths but those had stuck over the years. To the east was Blackflame mountain like the name suggested it was a mountain rich in blackflame from this distance you could just see the peak and you could see the black rocks that made up the mountain Kai could barely make out the entrance to a cave that served as the cycling area for his siblings that practised blackflame, his father and the home of the great blackflame turtle known as Orthos, Kai also cycled there although the force aura was weak the fire aura there was immense. To the west was the Endless Sword mountain. The mountain was rich in sword aura and it was the cycling area for his older sister Asuna and his mother. In between the two mountains sat the capital of their clan whilst to the left and right of those mountains were the other four mountains. The capital was known as Sacred; this is where all the different clans within the valley would meet to trade or discuss matters with the monarchs. The city was large and most of the people that lived there were those that wanted to move for adventure from their clans and the schools that had previously rested on the old sacred valley mountains. Above the city, currently rested Windfall the cloudship that he had been on only twenty minutes ago. Kai turned his attention to the final four mountains; the first was towards the north west; it was known as Mount Venture; it was named by the refugees from the Kazan clan. The kazan clan had been saved by the Sage of Dawn Oath and they currently sat underneath his school on Mount Venture. To the north east sat the mountain known as Mount Samara. On top of the mountain sat the school of dreams it was run by his Aunt Kelsa she taught the Path of White Fox to those that wished to learn it she was only an Archlord but there had been rumours before Kai left for the Blackflame empire that she could become the next sage. Beneath Mount Samara sat the remnants of the Wei Clan many had betrayed his father but those that listened were granted shelter when the valley was made. To the South East there was no clan underneath the mountain but towards the top was a sword school that was run by his mother the mountain was known as Mount Adama named after her father figure and teacher the Sage of Endless Sword. The final mountain was named Yoma Mountain the school a top was one made by his father it was a school for soulsmiths but not only that but people that wished to forge their own path this was where Kai and Lindon created the Path of Blazing Soulsmith. Beneath the mount sat the last of the Li clan who had been saved by Akura Mercy. While all the clans had ultimately been saved by the works of Lindon, the clans liked to thank the ones that had come to them to save them. Most of the older generation had only ever reached jade outside of the original valley whilst some had reached the fabled gold. It was their children who had reached greater heights than they ever imagined possible.
"This place is massive, I had only heard of this place from my mother." Kang said. Kai and Keya looked at him confused.
"How has your mother been here?" Kai asked him, confused. He knew Kang was a Jai but he thought his family might have been able to stay in the empire come to think of it Kai hadn't asked many questions to Kang about his life.
"My mother is Jai Chen. She is an advisor to your father and leads the clan in the Blackflame empire" Kang said. Well that made sense now and Kai wondered how he hadn't put two and two together before now.
"Now you say that it makes a lot of sense." Kai said.
"So what's the plan?" Keya said.
"Myself and Joy came up with two ideas. The first is to split into two teams before more people arrive and collect treasures hidden around the valley or the other idea was to go as a team in case we find enemies but since not many people are here we should probably split up." Kai finished his speech when a voice spoke up.
[I agree with Kai] It was Skye she had appeared on Keya's shoulder. Kang stepped back, freaked out and Joy tilted her head in confusion staring at the blue spirit.
"Who are you?" Joy asked the spirit.
[I'm Skye, I'm a copy of Dross well sort of I'm really weak compared to him but he did give me a lot of useful information and myself and Keya were able to go through the library in the soulsmith school so we have a lot of information on paths] Skye said.
"Well then we will split into two teams and meet back here as more people start to arrive and I would say that gives us around an hour before everyone is here including Akuras. We will have myself and Keya as leaders since this is our home" Kai said the group around him nodded.
"So how do we want to split" Kang asked
"Well we should probably have myself and Joy on separate teams to split the strength evenly" Kai said
[While I don't disagree with that entirely Joy and you have worked together the longest so you are likely to pick up more treasure while myself and Keya well I mean Keya mostly can cover Kang with blackflame] Skye said.
"Very well then myself and Joy will head towards the west and North side whilst Keya, Skye and Kang will go towards the East and stay in the southern region. Myself and Joy have void keys and so does Keya whilst Kang you can store yours in Keya's void key. So meet back here in an hour" Kai finished his speech and they all agreed they jumped on their thousand mile clouds and went off in different directions.
Kai jumped off his cloud at the base of the Endless Sword mountain using his spiritual sense he was able to find some treasures at the base while these were composed of sword aura it would at least help him gain soulfire. Joy had hoped off her staff and also collected some treasure placing them in her void key whilst back in the Blackflame empire they had both been able to open their soulspace whilst Joy's was already open thanks to her path she was able to open it further whilst Kai was able to open his although it could only contain about a book so he didn't keep anything within it. They would have to collect as many treasures here to gain soulfire then work on figuring out their revelation to reach underlord. As Kai finished placing the treasures in his void key a voice spoke from behind them.
"So you rushed ahead of the pack, let's see how strong you are" The figure said. Kai turned around to see a man standing there holding a sword in his hand from a scan Kai could see the man was truegold the man returned a scan.
"Leave this to me Joy." Kai said. With that the man smiled at him pulling up his sword as if preparing for combat the sword lit on fire as the man pulled it up. Kai smiled at him in return the man wouldn't know this but a fight with another fire path user would be an advantage to him. Instead of attacking with his sword the man shot a fireball towards Kai. Kai stood there and held out one red hand the fireball hit his red palm straight on. The man looked on in shock as what must have been his striker technique had just done nothing. Kai's palm was on fire but he used his enforcer technique only on his arm and as he deactivated the technique the fire faded Kai's arm completely unharmed. "My Iron body is called the Forger's Iron body. If I'm one on one against any person on a fire path well let's just say good luck. Mixed with my goldsign the red skin on my body fire has little effect." Kai said.
"Well then it looks like I will have to use my sword madra then." The man said. He prepared his sword now but before he could do anything Kai reached the man using his enforcer technique Kai kicked the man in the chest he went flying back towards into a rock. Kai hadn't kicked him too hard although now he thought about it maybe he had a little too hard the man was a truegold so he should be fine. Kai walked up to him and held out a hand. The man grabbed it and Kai helped him to his feet. "What's your name?" He asked Kai.
"Wei Shi Kai" Kai replied. The look on the man's face if it wasn't shock from what happened before he was now even more terrified. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure you are strong, you just chose the wrong opponent today." The man bowed at Kai before saying something else.
"I'm sorry, that underlord over there just asked me to do it. If I had known it was you I never would have done it." The man said that whilst pointing over in the direction and then using an enforcer technique and darting off, on the floor was a girl who was laughing. She seemed about Kai's age and he scanned her and she was an underlord not only that but she had two cores. Kai looked at the girl again and immediately recognized her on the floor was his older sister Wei Shi Asuna. She picked herself up and walked over to him and Joy.
"Oh my god you should have seen the look on his face after you stopped his attack." Asuna said, still laughing.
"Why are you here?" Kai asked.
"Well I had to go see father and mother before I saw you and decided I would try and mess with you." She said. "Seems I got more than I expected." at the same time she cleared a tear from her eye. This was that funny to her.
"Well in the nicest way please leave." Kai said.
"That's no way to talk to your big sister is it now." Asuna said. But before Kai could even reply a white flash was next to them.
"You two catch up later right now Asuna I need you." Yerin had appeared out of nowhere. She then grabbed her daughter and before she could protest leaped away with her. The ground beneath where Yerin had leapt from had left a crater.
"Well that was an interesting showcase." Joy said from behind him.
"Tell me about it." Kai said. He turned around and continued to collect some treasures.
Keya sat at the base of the mountain and cycled for a bit whilst Kang collected some treasures using her void key whilst she was here she wanted to cycle as much as possible here. Keya continued her cycling when Skye notified her of an presence. Keya stopped cycling and in front of her now was a great smouldering turtle and on his head sat a little blue spirit. "The hatchling returns once again" The turtle said.
"Hey Orthos long time no see." Keya said. The turtle let out a breath before he munched on a giant rock that was next to him. The archlord sacred beast must have had a reason for coming down here but she didn't know why yet.
"I wish for you to show me what you have learnt. After all, I taught your father." Orthos grumbled. From what Kelsa had heard it was Lindon who had taught himself whilst Orthos had helped him later on. She didn't question it she did as the turtle asked and cycled her blackflame madra her eyes switched from the ocean blue to a black and red haze she held out her palm and shot a line of blackflame towards a rock the rock was disintegrated. "Now try it on the larger rock." Keya did as the turtle said and it shot a hole through the rock but it didn't destroy it. The turtle let out a deep bellowing chuckle. "At the very least the hatchling has become a whelpling." Before Keya could respond the turtle cycled his madra and shot blackflame at the same rock and it was destroyed. Little Blue let out a chime and she seemed to be scolding the turtle but Keya couldn't understand before Little Blue slapped the turtle and let out a pulse of her madra and his channels cleared then she jumped off the turtle head and placed her palms on Keya and cleared her channels as well. Keya bowed to the spirit and it let out a happy chime when Skye spoke up in her head. [She said be safe] Skye said
"Don't worry Little Blue i'll keep safe." Keya said before helping the spirit back onto Orthos's head. "Anyway it was good seeing you Orthos and Little Blue but it looks like we should start to head back towards our camp." Keya then took off on her cloud and found Kang. " We should start heading back. I can see more and more people coming in now and it seems that the Akuras have already entered from the north." Keya said to Kang. The truegold nodded his head and jumped on his cloud but before anything else could happen Keya received a warning from Skye.
[Ahhh] The Spirit screamed before saying [Combat solution sudden attack] what is it Keya asked the spirit but Skye could only say that an underlord level attack was aiming at her cloud Keya couldn't look around as time seemed to slow but she could use her senses and from that she was able to see where it was coming from. [I would suggest you jump of your cloud you should land safely on a tree branch below before you can drop down and see who attacked you] Skye said and seconds after Keya did just that she leapt from the cloud and used her enforcer technique the soul cloak to land safely on a tree branch as she then leapt down to the floor. On ground level Keya stood next to Kang as at the same time four figures stepped out of the shadow all underlords and all with bright purple eyes. Keya asked Skye to send a message to Kai and Joy and to tell them to come immediately they should be able to reach them quickly.
Kai was using an anvil well it was a tree stump that was made from some hard wood to try and soulsmith this binding that his father had given him into a sword. Joy watched on as she was interested in what he was doing when both of them received a message from Skye. [Hurry four underlords are on us and all are Akuras. Giving you a vague sense of us now.] So the Akuras had arrived and were already looking for them. Kai and Joy both looked in the same direction. Kai immediately activated his void key and threw the unfinished sword and tools into the key before closing it and jumping on his thousand mile cloud. Joy was close behind him on her staff as they both reached a forest grove and dropped down next to Kang and Keya. So there were four underlords on them already.
"Hello Joy long time no see." A man at the front said. Kai looked at Joy and asked the question on the others lips in the group.
"Joy, who are they?" Kai Asked.
"My cousins but that is obvious but who specifically. That is Akura Rage." She had pointed at the man who had spoken first. "Older twin of two of them" Before she pointed at another man he resembled the first man almost Identically. "He is Akura Lust. They are twin sons of my uncle, Akura Pride." " The other two come from strong families, the first on the far left sat on the tree is Akura Diligence and the other on the far right is Akura Fortitude." Kai looked around at the four combatants and saw now that they would actually get to fight underlords rather than having to face people at the same rank he smiled at the thought. He looked at them once again, surveying them Akura Diligence sat in a tree bow in hand. She was probably around Joy's height but had short black hair compared to Joy's longer hair that rested on her shoulders. The three remaining boys were all shorter. Akura Fortitude was probably around Kang's height and even looked like they could be twins if it wasn't for the purple eyes on Fortitude and Kang's metallic hair they both stood opposite each other with a spear in hand. The last two the twin brothers of Pride were Akura Rage and Akura Lust they both stood side by side and looked like they wanted to fight.
Everyone in this grove was cycling their madra waiting for some else to make the first move. Rage was the first to move but he stopped dead in his tracks looking to the sky. Everyone dropped their cycling now and followed his gaze in the sky as a giant symbol and the vital aura around them shook. The image was of a giant heart.