Shin Pov
Ten minutes laters I found myself reaching the training grounds but as I reached them I stopped as I saw Uncle Daisuke about to go out of them.
"Uncle… What are you doing?"
Asking so Uncle Looked at me a little surprised right before looking at me with a blooming smile.
"Young master, good job with the meeting before! I know it will be hard but I'm sure you will be able to manage just fine. As for what I'm doing here.."
Stopping a second he reached for his storage ring before taking out a random sword.
"I thought that we would need the training gear for our new home so I came in to put them in my storage ring."
I nodded at his answer, if my father had the habit of writing everything down in a journal then my uncle couldn't think of anything other than training or growing stronger, he was a battle junkie.
"I see… Say, could Uncle teach me how to cultivate?"
Normally one would start cultivating from after their thirteen birthday but I really didn't have time to waste and I couldn't afford to wait for another 2 years to start.
"Cultivate is it… Well I don't think it would be a problem. I myself started when I was twelve instead of thirteen… And even with that advantage I couldn't reach your father but that's another story."
I couldn't really hear the last phrase because I was feeling too giddy from his acceptance.
"Ok listen here I will explain the basics, I already know that you already started to read the Cultivation technique so I will only explain to you how to move your Soul force to reach bronze rank."
After that he spent ten minutes explaining to me the basics on how to start cultivating, how to move my soul force from my soul realm to my whole body.
The Akagawa clan has always been a special clan with a special type of cultivation technique. It started with our ancestor, a genius blessed by heavens, he was the first holder of the True Red River Soul form, this soul form granted him special innate abilities while also having a characteristic that no soul form had before, it was hereditary.
He noticed this as each kids, while having different colored Soul realms, still had the same river form and because of that he created seven cultivation technique all originating from the same that he used himself, these cultivation were later passed on in our clan and given to our warriors as soon as they checked the color of their own Soul Realms.
Taking a deep breath I sit down cross legged before closing my eyes, I could feel my soul force move all around my body tempering it in a constant flow, I didn't even hear Uncle leave the room as I was too concentrated in moving the soul force, a simple distraction could cause it to break the flow then I would have to start from the beginning.
"*Huff* *Huff*"
I could feel my whole blood starting to boil my throat getting dry and breathing getting hard, my whole body telling me to stop but gritted my teeth before pushing through the pain, I continued like that for what felt like hours before start to feel a force pushing on my chest, quickly opening my eyes I was met with red.
A giant red river descending from heaven dropping on the top of a mountain and flowing right towards me, looking behind me I see the river continuing for a little before falling toward the void.
"Is this my Soul realm?"
Not receiving an answer I found myself stuck in this red river of what I hoped wasn't blood, looking around I could see the whole plane empty, not even a tree or grass if anything the this place seemed to scream to me DANGER.
"H…er….e"
My head snapped forward as I heard a small whisper coming from the top of the mountain, it wasn't loud, the word wasn't even complete but I immediately understood that whatever it was calling me it wanted me to climb this mountain and honestly my only way was by climbing against the current of the river.
"I shouldn't listen to random voices inside my soul realm but really now, do I have any other choice."
As if approving my reasoning the flow of the river increased in speed, the size of the river remained small enough that with a couple of steps I could probably reach the river bank the only problem was the spiky rocks at the side making it impossible to actually get out of the river.
"Fine if this is what you want I'll play your stupid game."
As if amused I could almost hear the smugness in the voice as it gave me a small laugh, honestly the climb would be hard but not impossible, the force was still manageable and there were tons of rocks to grip on, And once again as if making fun of me I could sense the speed increase with each step I made, sure it was small, but the increase was there.
"Fuck, like I would let this stupid river stop me!"
I gritted my teeth, tried to regulate my breathing and started climbing slowly but steadily and after what felt like hours or even days I reached the foot of the mountain.
"Ok this is impossible…"
Glancing back I saw how much distance I walked but that was a bad choice as the river took that moment to suddenly increase in both size and speed successfully making me lose balance and drag me backwards.
"To…o…B..ad"
My vision went red as I could feel my whole body getting swallowed by the river.
*Gasp*
Opening my eyes again I found myself in the training grounds gasping for air covered in sweat and another black liquid that was giving off the worst scent I ever smelled.
"My soul force increased?"
Feeling some discomfort in my body I quickly took out a soul crystal and found my soul force increased up to thirty.
…
From that time two days passed and now we were nearing Glory city, it was strange I even told what happened to the other elders but they didn't know what could have cause it or why it happened they just told me that it was probably connected to my soul realm and our bloodline, I even tried to return there but no matter what I did I couldn't either return to that same state and because of that my progress was slow compared to that single training session.
Well, even if I say slow I was still a lot faster than any other person especially since I almost reached hundred with my soul force almost breaking into the 1-Star of the Bronze rank..
"Young Master we almost reached the place should we continue or.."
Opening my eyes I was met with Naoki right in front of the door to the carriage, once again one of the better perks of being the clan heir.
"Let's stop here, we still don't know what that city would do so it's better if we go in with a smaller group while the others hide here."
Nodding his head he turns back as I stand up and take out a soul crystal.
"93 *Sigh* so close to bronze rank."
If I only had a little more time, but we can't wait any longer, while the trip was met with less resistance than we thought, the number of Demon beasts we encountered really tired us out. If we wait more we won't have enough energy to return in case this meeting turns hostile, no we probably don't have the energy to return so we can't fail here.
Exiting my carriage I was met with the five great elders, our only Black gold warriors, and about twenty or thirty high gold ranks.
"Young master, we are ready to go!"
Naoki was surprisingly excited, actually out of everyone he was the most excited to reach this place, it was really amusing to see the normally stoic and quiet man turn into an excited and almost childish guy.
"Alright, then let's go! I don't have to remind anyone how important this is right? Even if they start attacking please reel in your killing intent until I give you the order to kill alright?"
the Gold ranks all nodded along with the elders as we all started to walk toward the city with our weapons inside our storage rings, after all it wouldn't be good to approach with weapons drawn out.
Ye Zong Pov
It was a peaceful day in Glory city but it was also normal since the most troublesome problem that ever arises where some young heir getting in a fight with another young heir so except when a horde of Demon beast approached the outer walls the days in Glory city were slow and calm and I wouldn't have it any other way.
"City Lord! City Lord! It's an emergency!"
But as expected the moment one tries to relax is when problems knock on their doors.
"Calm Down and tell me what happened? It can't be that bad right?"
At best it would be another horde of Demon beast.
"A group of unknown came to the southern walls! The guards there are currently holding them there but there are at least five Black Gold ranks and we assume that one is at the 5-Stars, plus they have at least thirty peak Gold ranks."
Oh it is that bad…
"Unknown individuals.. Do we know what their intentions are? and please send someone to call all the patriarchs of the black Gold rank and wait for me at the southern walls. Do not attack unless they start attacking but also don't take your eyes from them!"
Giving quick orders I see a couple of guards leave while the one that just arrived resumes his explanation.
"They called themselve the Akagawa Clan and they said they came in peace and wanted to speak to the City Lord."
It's all that bad, they don't seem to be coming with bad intentions plus there are only five Black Gold ranks even if one of them is as strong as me as long as the Sacred family, the Huyan Family and the Divine Family then we should have at least ten Black Golds.
"Ok let's go send someone to guard my daughter and lock down the mansion."
Saying so I jump out of the window and start to speed towards the walls without waiting for the guards. Right now time is of importance, we got caught unprepared and with the fact that Father is out of the city we don't even have the leverage of having a Legend rank.
…
Arriving at the walls I'm about to descend and meet the group as I stop on my tracks.
"..."
This pression, these guys aren't simply Black Gold Rank… Each one of them seems to be able to fight me one on one, even the 1-Star Black Gold, we can't afford to anger these guys.
I take a small breath as I feel the five expert gaze on me and soon enough I feel the elders from my family along with Hyuan Xiong arrive behind me.
"Woah, who are these guys?"
Huyan says as he scratches his head while looking at me with the other turning their gaze to me.
"We don't know yet, but let's keep it civil alright?"
We all turn to Huyan as he huffs and looks away but still understands what we meant, we can't really wait for the other so we should start before them.
Landing on the ground in front of them I pass the guards as they are trembling but still holding their grounds.
"I guess you are the City Lord right? It's a pleasure to meet you. We are the Akagawa Clan and we have come here to offer you an accord."
I stop a little as I look at the kid that talked, I immediately turn my expression into a neutral one to hide my shock and confusion as I glance at the movements of the five experts and see them doing nothing to stop the kid from talking and taking control. This could be more troublesome than I imagined, if they are only personal guards for this kid then there could be a city with even stronger members.
"My name is Ye Zong, I'm the current acting Lord of this city. May I ask what this accord is?"
I can sense the surprised gaze of someone behind me, surely Huyan, getting shocked at how respectful I'm being right now.
"Please no need to be so respectful. What we are asking is to accommodate our people inside your city, obviously we won't do it for free, we will pay you with our knowledge."
I furrow my eyebrows at that.
"Accommodate?"
"Yes, or in a better term we are asking for citizenship."
That was certainly something I wasn't expecting, before I could answer, we all felt an aura descend on all of us coming from the top of the walls and looking behind I could see Sheng Hong glaring at the new guys.
'What is this old fart doing!?'
Shen Hong then proceeded to fall right behind me along with three other elders of his family as they radiated their Black Gold rank aura at the new arrivals… Balck Gold? Shit the kid!
Turning around in a panic I see the eleven or so years old taking the full brunt of several experts' aura, even the others were surprised as they weren't fast enough to block it.
"You!"
One of the guys takes out a curved blade as his aura flare up but is stopped as another explosion of aura take place, right in front of all of us the kid get covered in a red aura that seems to reach the heaven itself as we all feel his soul force, two pairs of blood red wings sprout from his back as his crimson eyes glare at Shen Hong and as he take a step forward I almost take a step back.
His soul force wasn't that great, even the power of it wasn't enough to even scratch any of us, it was that aura of his, those crimson eyes and the crazy fact that an eleven years old kid already reached the bronze rank that made me have cold sweat run up my back.
"Do I take this as your refusal?"
It was just a phrase but that was enough as the other party was ready to fight, I have to stop this, if we fight we both would lose too much and even those Gold ranks could probably take out a couple of Black ranks.
"No! Shen Hong stop immediately! These are not the enemy! And please calm down, there has been a misunderstanding."
Both parties calm down as I sigh in relief before continuing.
"Ok it's better if we take this in another place, would you mind following me to a proper place, and Shen hong if you're going to basesly attack them again you can return to your compound."
Shin Pov
Well that could've gone better, somehow resisting the full brunt of their aura was enough to bring me to 100 points on my Soul force officially bringing me into the bronze rank. The only reason that I survived that without a scratch was also this, apparently our clan has the habit that whenever someone break through the new rank they would manifest some sort of omen, big or small they would give them some sort of invincibility for just a second or more depends by how big the omen is, and I can already tell this will be a big problem in the future as I won't be able to hide my cultivation if the omen become too big.
And yeah I almost forgot about the last things that happened, soul forming, a fenomen caused by the pureness of one soul force. It's extremely rare and those that can actually soul form won't have a problem at reaching the black gold rank so now I've got a new weight on my shoulders. Let's goo.
"So do you intend to offer?"
I look toward Ye Zong as I sigh internally, at first it seem like a normal question but in reality he is asking me how far am I going to go to gain access to the city, depending on how I answer he could see how desperate we are and with that he could take control of us quite easily.
"We have quite a few things that we can offer but we obviously won't give you all of them. First we want to be assured that we will receive the same treatment of a normal family that grew inside this wall, we don't want special treatment but fair and honest treatment."
Seeing him nod I continue.
"Then we can give you our knowledge on our cultivation methods."
Normally this would be one of the best kept secrets in a clan or family but our cultivation method is tailor made for us, anyone learning it would find themself blocked forever into the Gold rank, and even then we would just give the more normal cultivation methods we have, after all not all of our people are blood descendant.
"You're willing to just give us your cultivation method?"
"Yes, but don't misunderstand, we won't give the main one but we are willingly to give the more normal ones as long as we keep all of our alchemy recipe and inscription information."
He opens his mouth to say something but stops, they currently don't know how advanced we are in either camp while we have a vague idea of their strengths and weaknesses.
"First we would at least know if what you're going to give us would be actually useful."
Just what I hoped, glancing at my Uncle he nods as he takes out his personal soul cristal before putting a little soul force in it. Peak -Star Black Gold rank.
"What… How is this possible…"
Don't make a mistake here, they aren't shocked about his cultivation progress or anything like that, what they are shocked about is the color of his Soul realm. For the people of Glory city the color of the Souls realm always indicated how much talent one person had and they go from Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Azure and Indigo. And while it is true that some colors are more difficult to train than others, it isn't true that the Red Soul realm is the weakest and the Indigo is the strongest.
"We are pretty sure that you guys calculate talents by looking at one Soul realm's colors which is wrong since, as you can see, even a Red Soul realm can grow up to become a Black Gold rank. No matter what Soul ream one has as long as that person practices the right cultivation technique then they will be able to grow. What we are offerings are a way to check for the attribute of the Soul realm and a way to assign the perfect cultivation technique"
I stopped a second to see the faces of the people inside and as expected they were all shocked and conflicted. I had to note that the Snow wind family was really surprised when I mentioned the attribute of a soul realm but that is of lesser importance right now.
"You're willing to give us all that knowledge as long as we don't claim any of the Alchemy and inscription?"
Nodding at Ye Zong I glance to his right as I see the old guy that attacked us glare in my direction, I know he wants to say something but for some reason he is simply standing there.
"After all, if we increase the strength of any human settlement then it would be a boost for the war against the Demon beast, and a city this big is worthy enough to make it as the last beacon of humanity."
Moving my right hand I motion toward the old guy, his name was Shen something I think, and stop only when I receive a nod from Naoki, Honestly if I have to do something I know that I can always count on that guy, his loyalty is unmatchable plus heis a genius himself one that wouldn't surprise me if he grew up to the Legend rank in the future.
"How many people are we talking about here? And can you give us some time to think, I want to discuss this with the other patriarchs."
"We have almost three hundred people, about hundred of them are Gold and Silver rank with the rest either not being a warrior or simply deciding to remain in the bronze rank."
He was a little surprised about the number but still nodded, I guess they don't really have problems about food or space if they don't care about such a large group.
"You can go take your people when you return, we will give you your answer."
Oi oi, what should I say to my people if we arrive at the doors only to get rejected.
"Isn't it better to stay here until you make a decision? our people are currently in a good place to stay for a couple of days, I will only send someone to give them the news."
He looked at me for a second before nodding, then whispering something to a servant he stood up.
"Then please follow this servant, he will take care of you guys for the time being."
Saying so he leaves the room along with the other Black Gold ranks, Shen whatever glaring one more time in my direction before exiting the room.
'Well, fuck you too.'
I look behind me to see a sighing Keiko and relieved Eiko and even more excited Naoki.
"Keiko, can I ask you to take a couple of Gold ranks and go back to the others? And stay there until I send someone over alright."
Keiko straightens her back before nodding, and turning around she bumps straight into the door before realizing she has to pull.
"Then I'll be waiting, Young master!"
Saying so with an almost screaming voice she exits the room.
"Is it alright to give so much?"
Turning to my right I see Taishiro looking at me with furrowed brows.
"It's nothing more than some old cultivation methods, even if they can use them they may not even reach the Gold rank. Now if they ask about our alchemy knowledge we can complain."
I ignore the nodding Eiko as I turn to look toward the servant, he is just waiting for us to finish at the other side of the room, noticing my gaze he steps forward giving us a bow.
"If you are finished please follow me."
Let's just pray everything goes well from here on out.
I have noticed something, I'm really bad at this post-chapter notes thingy, so much to say, so little space to write (even though I'm not really limited in space).
Anyway Shin finally reached Glory and even though the first meeting could have gone better it could have gone a lot worse.
I'm probably going to continue the story with different povs but it will mainly be from the mc pov and occasional 3rd person povs.
The chapter length will either increase or decrease depending on when I think it's better to stop the chapter, tell me if you want me to keep a constant number of words or you are fine with it.
Shorter chapters will make the story come out more frequently while longer chapters may take a while.
I have nothing more to say so hope you have a great day, see you soon!