Shin Pov

When they told me that we had to stay here for a couple of days I didn't expect them to keep us here for almost a full week, especially knowing that we have a lot more people waiting for us.

"These guys, Can't they decide once and for all…"

Looking to my right I see a fuming Daisuke while Eiko is trying to calm him down. I've sent back Keiko so that she could take care of the people waiting for us.

"There is nothing we can do, plus you've seen their number it would be difficult if we were to attack them."

The battle hungry Taishiro spoke, honestly I never liked the guy even though he supposedly was a great friend with my father.

"What would you attack them for? Even if we win we would have to fight the normal citizens because I'm sure they won't take kindly to us destroying all the top families."

"The young master is right, even if we fight there is nothing to gain for us other than some momentarily food reserve and treasures."

Eiko Continued after me, leaving Daisuke alone for the moment.

"Naoki, any news?"

Ignoring the conversation of those two I turn toward my favorite serv- ermh Elder.

"They haven't moved all that much, only half of the Black Gold rank returned to the center of the city while only a couple along with the city lord remained."

Naoki was currently sitting down cross legged with his eyes closed as an azure line circled around him, it was one of his innate abilities, the ability to project his own soul force and scout ahead.

"I'm going to cultivate, call me only if they make a decision."

Receiving a nod I returned to the room that was assigned to me. They gave us a small house with 6 bedrooms, two bathrooms and a common room and from the look of it the extra room was supposed to be for Keiko but we sent her back so we had a free room.

Looking out of a window I could see the Gold rank camped right in our garden as they slept in tents, the poor guys weren't even given a tent for themselves as they had to share.

I'm almost tempted to go out and explore but we are already risking it with Naoki, we can't afford to sour the relationship any further, the only reason I'm letting him scout is because he is invisible to anyone under the Legend rank with that ability.

Sitting down in my room I closed my eyes as I started to move my soul force. After getting to the bronze rank I could finally start training with our own cultivation technique and even though it was just a couple of days I could really feel the difference.

"The celestial stream that flows from the highest of heavens to the lowest of hells…"

Chanting the formula from my cultivation Technique I feel all of my soul force move around my body in a flow like a river passing through a forest dragging with it all impurities.

*Crunch*

Feeling my breathing getting heavy I sense my energy starting to accumulate in my dantian before feeling all of my muscles heating up.

'Am I entering that state again?'

Opening My eyes I see the world slowly becoming red as the scene changes and I'm met with the same realm I saw the first time I cultivated.

'I could call it my inner world I guess…'

Looking at the peak of the mountain I see the same red river descend and come right at me but this time the river was both bigger and faster, even as the liquid tried to drag me out I could sense the density itself getting heavier.

'The force is stronger than last time but I can actually hold my ground?'

Was this because I broke through the bronze rank or for some other reason? Deciding that I could think about this later I started to climb and before I knew it I already made a new record.

'Just a little more…'

Pushing through the pain and tiredness I could feel I climbed from rock to rock, it seemed like I was swimming through a literal sea of fire but I didn't stop, I could hear the same voice as last time laughing at my struggles but I ignored it and after what felt like hour I was rewarded with the view of the peak just a couple of meters from me.

"Too bad…"

Hearing the same voice my body froze as I could sense a strange sour sensation on my body, my eyelid suddenly felt heavy as my head became light.

"It takes a lot more than sheer will to…"

I couldn't even hear the rest of the sentence as I lost consciousness.

"Young Master!?"

Gasping for air I look around and see a concerned looking Naoki, apparently he came looking for me after sensing something was wrong with my breathing.

"Are you sure you are ok!?"

Waving at him I hold my head as I circulate a little bit of soul force and to my surprise I was already halfway to my second star.

'As expected the better I do in that realm the more my cultivation grows… So what will happen when I actually succeed.'

Shaking those thoughts for the moment I turn towards Naoki.

"I was training, I'm fine."

"I know that your situation isn't really optimal but you should consider stabilizing your foundations instead of rushing through the various ranks."

Nodding a this words I Look at my hands as I see that they were still red and very much hot, I still didn't understand that realm but I didn't really have the commodity to take my sweet time on cultivating, we have just 5-Star Black Gold ranks while this city has already over ten and probably even more, I have to quickly become powerful enough to get our clan a respectable position in this city.

"... Please just remember that we are all ready to hear your commands even if you ask us to fight through an endless horde we will do it without a heart beat of hesitation so don't hesitate on relying on us."

Saying that he stands up and starts to leave not before leaving a small book on the floor.

"These are the clan martials arts, normally you would have received them after becoming thirteen and reaching the 1-Star bronze rank but I guess we are throwing a lot of formalities with all that is happening."

Saying that he looked at me with a small smile before leaving and closing the door, I waited for some seconds before taking the book.

'Akagawa Martial Arts'

Opening the book I could see different types of martials move all using Soul force in them.

"They are divided by weapon?"

For our clan we have the preference of four types of weapons, the bow, the sword, the halberd and the scythe. Other than these four we all train on how to fight unharmed in case of emergencies but that was normal in every clan.

"I should start with the sword."

Out of all the weapons I already had some practice with the sword and I've practiced two times with the halberd, so I could learn the various arts for the bow and the scythe at a later time.

"Well now I know what to do while I wait for my soul force to fully recover."

Strangely, or not, enough my soul force right now was in scrambles. I had to use all my willpower to complete a full cycle.

Sighing in defeat I started reading the book.

Two Days Later

Following a maid I glance behind me and see the Great Elders, the Gold ranks along with the rest of the clan that reached Glory city yesterday night, right after I ended cultivating the city lord came to our temporary house align with some other elders form his family and after a couple of hours we were finally accepted into Glory city as a noble family.

"Will it be ok?"

I'm not sure who asked but I know everyone was thinking the same, to be fully accepted we gave them our knowledge in cultivation methods like how to check the soul form and attribute, what is the attribute of demon beast and what type of cultivation technique is better depending on what soul attribute and form one has. We didn't have the power to negotiate that and I couldn't risk our only chance to enter so I decided to simply give these up, for the discontent of Taishiro, and we even came to an accord that we would have to sell our alchemy pills and while we could keep the profit we wouldn't be able to keep those pills to ourselves, and that not only included pills but even inscription formations. This second part was the most problematic.

For pills it was quite easy to accept, as long as we don't have to give the pill formula we are happy to sell these to the other families after all the more strength they have the less they will have to depend on us for demon beast attacks.

The problem was that most of our inscription formations were connected with our main cultivation technique and our main way to attack and defend, the same one and only one, that we were able to save from having to make it public.

"The city lord said we will discuss the matter about the inscription formations later but for now we can keep it for ourselves."

"And what if they ask us to give also those for free?"

Turning back I see Keiko glaring lightly at Taishiro.

"I don't think they will go that far but if they do we can always negotiate."

Leaving the conversation we reach a golden double door, opening it we enter as we see already a lot of other clans or families seated at various tables and looking at us. We were quickly led to a table where the group of elders and the gold rank sat down while the rest were led to other tables a little distance from us but still very visible.

'Division of Noble and commoner? Well we aren't that different in that regard.'

Since we started to take in more people from other human settlement we established this same division of Noble, normally the main member of the clans or anyone that reached gold rank and above, and the commoners that were more of the bronze and silver rank along with the white rank that did job like cooks, tailors and farmers.

Hearing the door open again I turn towards it and see Ye Zong enter the room followed by some other old man and a girl about my age, she had long hair the same purple color of the city lord.

'She's probably the city lord's daughter but to think he would bring her here.'

Looking closer at her face I could feel a sense of familiarity especially looking at her and his father side by side but I couldn't really understand where it was coming from.

"Shin I know she's beautiful but you shouldn't stare that much."

I immediately turn my face towards Keiko who had a hand covering her mouth, I could feel my face heat up much to my growing embarrassment so I took a cup and drank some water ignoring the knowing smile from Eiko and looking to my right I could see Naoki hide his smile with his cup of wine.

"Shin Akagawa, we are here all to formally welcome you and your clan to Glory city."

Turning to the front I stand up as Ye Zong approaches with a cup to toast and give the initial speech, even though he couldn't hide his small irritation.

'Ah, he saw me look at his daughter didn't he?'

Knowing that anything that I would say would probably increase the misunderstanding I sigh mentally and lift my cup ignoring the curious glance his daughter was giving at my group and me.

Actually everyone, except for my group and the people we already encountered, were looking at me with curiosity and I couldn't even blame them, with an eleven soon to be twelve years old acting as the clan head it was bound to attract attention. At least nobody is looking down on me just yet, if that is because they can feel my Bronze rank cultivation or for other motives I don't know.

"Your words are wasted for us, we are the ones grateful for being allowed into the city and we will do whatever we can to protect it as this will be our new home."

From there on it was mostly a back and forth of compliments to give face to the other party and, even more tiring, presentation to the other clans since we were new we had to introduce to all of the other clans.

Honestly I mostly turned off my brain and tried only to remember the one that seemed more useful, more powerful and those that lived nearby since they would be the one I would interact more with.

The city lord then proclaimed our status as a noble clan and gave us some unused land near the southern walls, obviously they had to give us the land that was near the most attacked part of the city.

Even if they call this place a city it was more like a small Kingdom, you would take at least a couple of days to travel, by carriage, from the north wall to the south and by still using most of the lands to cultivate herbs and food they had space to make giants building and compounds for noble families.

"Did you also feel it, young master?"

Glancing at Naoki I sigh before looking behind me at the door of the hall.

"Feel what? Ye Zong's irritated gaze for looking in his daughter's direction or those guys from the Sacred family looking as if we killed their parents?"

He thought for some second before shaking his head.

"No, just those from the sacred family, the patriarch was the same that attacked us on our first day but I still don't understand why they would hate us so much."

Thinking back to that first day the patriarch attacked us immediately without even asking anything, could he just be wary of outsiders?

Leaving the place we are brought to big empty compound where we leave the rest of the clan to rest, tomorrow we will take some carriage and they will go towards our future compound, I will stay back her with Naoki and Eiko to go toward the alchemy association and then speak again with the city lord about our inscription formation.

Entering my empty room I looked around it, while all the adults drank wine since I was still a kid and was just a bronze rank they only let me drink one cup so honestly I was still full of energy right now.

'Should I go out on a walk?

It seems that I would only get myself in trouble by going out now so I sat down and started cultivating and much to my surprise I could feel my consciousness about to enter that strange realm.

Opening my eyes I already was sitting in the river, the red liquid already trying to push me out of here, even though only two days passed I spend these two days training my body along with training the Akagawa martial arts and while I wasn't proficient yet to do any move I could already feel the pressure being a lot less than last time.

'Last time I lost because it caught me off guard right at the end, this time I won't lose!'

Gritting my teeth, I started climbing.'

After some time I could feel my hands hurting and my nails bleeding from trying to grip into the stone under the pressure of the river but I ignored it as I could see the peak of the mountain.

*Whumph*

Looking forward, my eyes widened as I saw an enormous amount of liquid coming right at me, gripping the rocks as if my life depended on it, I closed my eyes and felt the force of the liquid crashing down on me.

Gasping for air I lift my head and glance ahead only to grimace as I see another wave coming in the distance so I close my eyes again and prepare myself to receive it.

*Thud*

'I can't stay here, as soon as the wave ends I should make a run for it before the others arrive.'

Feeling the pressure end, I open my eyes and stand up as much as I can before jumping toward the peak and in retrospect it wasn't a good idea to jump but if I tried to take it slow I would have lost this battle because of my low stamina.

I feel my feet touch the river and almost lose my balance but I quickly launch myself and as I'm falling I see the new wave about to reach the peak, the world slows down as I see my right hand about to touch the peak.

"You really did it huh.."

Hearing the same voice I've been hearing all this time I see the mountain disappear as soon as my hand touches the peak and soon I'm laying on the ground of the same realm. This time I'm not in the river as I can see it in the distance on my right.

*Crash*

I cover my ears as I hear a loud sound and looking in front of me I see a big crack in the space right on the space above the peak.

With a whoosh I see the crack expand as a powerful air come from it sending shiver on my body but I could care less as I see a small blood dark-red orb entering my realm as the crack start to repair itself, as I was about to ask myself what that was about I fell on my knees as I felt an enormous pressure crashing on my back as unknown soul energy started entering my body searching for my dantian.

'Is this a demon beast?'

It was faint but I could almost see the form of a snake inside the orb and the soul force was the one coming from him.

'Are you trying to take control over my body? Like I'll fall here to a damned beast!'

Sitting cross legged I move my soul force in a defensive manner stopping the demon's one from entering further. I could almost hear a growl as the demon stopped attacking and retraced its soul force, I prepared my soul force to attack until I saw the orb grow in size as small chains like things appeared inside and binded the demon spirit. I didn't even realize what happened as the demon spirit body transformed into energy before calming inside that orb.

'Guess that works, but does that mean I'm a demon spiritualist?'

Normally demon spiritualists were those cultivators that bonded with a demon spirit, that normally they killed, to obtain the demon innate abilities and an increase of strength or speed or endurance all depending on what demon spirit they bonded with but one had to be at least a Silver rank to become a demon spiritualist it was unheard to become a demon spiritualist at the 2-Star of the Bronze rank.

'Wait.. 2-Star!?'

Feeling my soul energy I could feel that sometime during all of this I broke through the second star, feeling elated of this new I didn't even notice the realm collapsing as I was brought out of and as I opened my eyes I found myself face to face with Naoki, Daisuke and Taishiro looking at me with concerned, amazed and curious expression respectively.

"Young master, congratulations on breaking through!"

It was Naoki that broke the silence, surprising me.

"Thanks but how did you guys know?"

Surprisingly it was Taishiro who answered me as he put his hand under his chin seemingly thinking about something.

"When you broke through you emitted an even stronger aura than when you broke through the bronze rank. At first we thought nothing of it but it seems you may manifest an omen every time you break through."

"Ah.."

Only that could come out of my mouth, it wasn't that rare for our clan that once every hundred of years one would be born with q pure bloodline, those people would manifest a different omen every time they would break through to the next rank, at first it wouldn't be a problem but the stronger they became the stronger the omen would be and when one reached the Black Gold rank the heaven itself would control the omen to go against the cultivator itself trying to cripple him or outright kill him.

This would happen because every one of those cultivators would always be stronger, cultivate faster and without any problem and even be able to have more than one demon spirit, this was so unnatural that the heaven itself would act and try to bring balance in the world by killing the abnormal cultivator.

Thinking back to that demon spirit trapped in that realm I realized that I was definitely one of those.

"Then what should we do?"

Panic started to grow in me as I thought about what the clan have done every time such cultivator appeared, since we were a small clan hiding we always had this abnormal cultivator train outside the main city since if they broke through they would attract too much attention from stronger demon spirit, and it was also because of this that normally those people refused to continue cultivating or stop at the silver rank not daring to go beyond that. I remember reading that the last one even killed himself because he couldn't accept that life.

"It's fine we are no longer hiding, we can bring the argument to the city lord and we can convince them to protect you so that Glory city would have the strongest Legend rank."

Naoki proclaimed proudly showing him how much he trusted me in becoming a Legend rank.

"I think it's better to hide that, we should just say that the young master has a special body and because of that he created an omen, we shouldn't tell them about it being dangerous or they may as well decide to kill the young master instead."

And Taishiro was quick in crumbling Naoki's proud figure, but he was right even if I become a strong Legend rank I may be more trouble than worth and because of that they may as well decide to simply drop me instead of helping me.

"That's right, tomorrow we should talk with the city lord but just say I have a special soul dantian and nothing more, let's keep it sacred even from the rest of the clan or rumors could go out in the city if we are not careful."

Stopping me Taishiro speak again.

"Even if you try to hide it the moment you reach Black Gold or you breakthrough in public they will know."

"Then we will try to increase our strength in the meantime, all the clan right now know that I'm a bronze rank so I just have to hide my strength and make it seem as if I just broke through the second star the moment I join the academy."

Saying that I take a look at their faces as even Naoki put on a thoughtful expression.

"So you plan on joining the academy?"

It was something that the city lord suggested to me, the academy of this city is where the young warriors of the various clans trained and studied to cultivate, normally one would start at thirteen years old so I had to wait a little more than a year to join.

"I will slow down my cultivation and temper my body to prepare it for when I will have to fight off those omens."

I'm sure that that challenge I had in that realm wasn't going to be the only one and it was probably the beginning, I also noticed that it wasn't connected to my cultivation, instead it was connected with my body strength and my will, maybe doing so it will be easier to take on the future challenges.

"Daisuke, can I ask you to teach me the Akagawa martial arts? I plan to start with those then I will see."

Daisuke smiled brightly at that as he pumped his arms showing his muscles.

"Don't worry young master, it won't be a problem… Just, what about my duties in the clan?"

I don't like it but with him here training me, Naoki as my personal guard, Eiko occupied with the pills the only free enough to take care of the clan will be Keiko and Taishiro, Keiko will already be troubled with helping the children of the clan so the only one left is..

"Taishiro I will leave the clan matter to you, I expect you to send me a report every week and call for any emergencies, plus you will take care mostly of helping all clan members adjust to this new life. The pills matters will be taken care of by us here or more especially by Eiko."

Taishiro isn't a bad person, sure he is as approachable as a stray cat and has a tongue as sharp as a sword but he is extremely loyal to the clan and was extremely loyal to my father, just that sometimes he like to take care of thing himself and may end up overwhelmed with taking care of too many thing together.

"I will be sure to not disappoint the clan!"

It is difficult to understand that he still doesn't fully acknowledge me as the clan head but he will still listen to my orders.

"For now let's rest, please inform the rest of the elders of this I will try to stabilize my cultivation."

Seeing them leave with a small bow I simply resume to move my soul force feeling the newfound strength circulate through my body.

"This has become really troublesome huh…"

I sigh as I look at the shining full moon strangely remembering the orb that is now inside the realm, no at this point it should be obvious that the realm is my soul realm.

"I forgot to ask them how to activate my new demon spirit. Well, I can always ask them tomorrow."

Sorry for the delay but I was feeling sick these last few days and couldn't write but here is the new chapter, I wanted to make it longer but I thought it was a perfect place to stop the chapter.

Don't worry already from the next chapter we should start canon or at least things will start to go a little faster.

Anyway thanks for reading and see you soon!