12 Elder Xing

A short pudgy man walked toward Bai Qi. He had a long nose, that was a bit crooked at the end. One of his eyes had a small mole on the side, but other than that his face was clear of blemishes. He had a slight limp, one barely noticeable.

"Bai Qi?"

"Yes, thats me," Bai Qi replied. "I take it you're one of the elders?"

"Yes, I'm the third elder," the man replied smiling. "You can call me Elder Fang, we've been waiting for you."

"We?"

"The other elders have already been notified of you coming yesterday."

"If you don't mind me asking, how many elders are there?"

"5 elders in total, 4 for each peak tower and one grand elder. Speaking of which, I heard that you were recommended by Da Lao." Elder Fang laughed. "How exactly did you manage that?"

"I don't know," Bai Qi replied honestly. "He found me and told me to come here."

Elder Fang motioned Bai Qi to follow him. They started walking on the cobblestone path up toward the main tower. "You were apprenticed under the grand mage, with a very strong recommendation from Da Lao. You don't know why?"

"I have an affinity for magic. I might have been an abandoned apprentice."

"He mentioned that in his letter. He said you could control two elements to a small degree, though you don't know how to control your power?"

"Yes that's right."

"Fire and Earth, if I'm not mistaken. With a stronger affinity towards fire, being that you recalled that element strongly after first waking up?"

Bai Qi laughed. "You seem to know more about me than I do myself."

Elder Fang smiled. "Forgive me. Da Lao's report was interesting. He said you had a wiped memory, can you remember anything about your former instructor?"

"Nothing. I just have a vague recollection of how to use my power."

Elder Fang stopped in front of the big tower. They had arrived at the entrance. "I got carried away. This is the main tower, where all the official business goes on. It's under a special enlargement spell,so the inside is a lot roomier than it actually looks. The Grand mage lives at the top of the tower. You're gonna be meeting with him in a bit, in the conference room." The other tower have various uses, from a library, to the arena, etc. You'll learn as time goes by."

At the base of the tower were roses with vines growing out of the bricks. The tower seemed to rise out of the growth at the bottom. When they entered, Bai Qi felt that little pulling at the center of his stomach, the same feeling he got when he entered the rooms at the middle of the city.

Elder Fang noticed his reaction and laughed heartily. "You noticed. Seems like you do have an affinity for magic. This is space magic, we compressed a bigger space into a smaller space in order to make a room larger than the building. The actual actions we took should be something you'll learn in some of the classes you take."

"It's a very slight sensation."

"Yeah, most people don't notice it at all. Only very keen people even feel anything, and usually they brush it off as nerves. Anyway, go up the stairs to the top accessible floor, the grand elder should be waiting for you."

With those words, the elder backpedaled into one of the smaller rooms on the side.

Bai Qi looked toward the staircase on the far side of the room. It spiraled up into the ceiling, which was easily 15 feet up, making the entire place spacious. He started climbing up the tower. After he passed the first floor, the second and, then the third, he finally got to the fourth before the staircase ended. He ended up on a floor that was seeming empty. As far as the eye could see, the room spanned on, he could only see the floor. The ceiling was missing, filled with clouds. He couldn't tell where the light was coming from, as there was no sun.

Bai Qi turned around, and a bit off he saw someone sitting with his legs crossed. It was an old man. His walking stick was upright, next to him, seemingly held up by nothing. As Bai Qi came closer, he noticed a ball of light levitating lazily next to the old man, accompanied by a ball of darkness. The man himself was also levitating, just a few inches above the ground.

* 'Light and dark.' The thing commented. 'It's not everyday you meet someone who can use them to this degree. Wait a bit before you approach, it looks like he's trying to fuse them.' *

As the thing spoke, the man twisted his wrists. The two balls of light started to spin around him, leaving behind a trace of an after image. As the man raised his arm, the two balls of light spun faster and faster, forming a black and white ring. The two rings then started to change into a shape. The light started to distort, and soon the two rings of light turned into two dragons, one pitch black, with red dominating eyes, the other a holy white, with eyes that seemed that they could see through everything.

* 'Spirit fusion,' the thing commented. *

As Bai Qi watched, the two dragons which were lazily revolving around the man slowed down. The man raised his arms to, and the two dragons started revolving around them, one on each arm. The black dragon fused with his left, leaving behind a tattoo of it twisting around his arm, the head of the dragon ending on the back of his end. The tattoo was very lifelike, seeming as if it was moving even on his arm.

The white dragon meanwhile did the exact same thing to his right arm, in perfect synchronization. The light slowly disappeared from both sides of the man, and the elder opened his eyes.

His left eye was pitch black, seemingly fading away into nothingness, and his right perfect white, as if the man was blind, while being able to see everything at once, the resent, the past and the future all together.

The color on the eyes faded away, leaving a piercing gaze of the elders light green eyes. While the elder looked ancient, his exuded an aura of a young person, on top of the world.

"Bai Qi I presume?"

"Yes sir."

'I only agreed to teach you for a small period of time as a favor to Da Lao. He is a good friend of mine, one with very high standards, so it was surprising when he sent a request for me to directly teach you. You have your own circumstances, and I will not pry into what you are hiding, but from what I can see, either you are hiding your true abilities, or you truly are an abandoned disciple. It is of no concern to me as which I will only teach you two years worth of magic in this two months. What you retain is up to you. By no means will the work be light, nor will I go easy on you. Is that understood?" The elder sad in a very strict tone.

Bai Qi hesitated, before replying "Of course."

"I am Elder Xing. Do you agree to become my in name disciple for the next two months?"

"Yes."

"Very well. It is getting dark today and I have some matters to take care of, but as of now you have a status equivalent to the lower inner disciples. Take this card, and unlock the residence that it points in. Come back here tomorrow, at 6am sharp. We will asses what you know so far, and move on from there. That will be all for now, you are dismissed." Elder Xing handed Bai Qi a small green card, before turning around and walking off. His walking stick, which remained behind, suddenly started moving as well, levitating behind him.

Suddenly Bai Qi felt a small tug, before finding himself on the ground of a small array, next to a row of houses.

"How did I get here?"

* 'Forcefully teleported. Once you understand a bit more magic, you will be able to resist it, it's mainly used as a way to awe younger disciples, it's a useless gimmicky show of power.' The thing grinned. 'Of course if you're strong enough, you can do whatever you want.' *

The cool green card in his hand warmed up, but only partially. As Bai Qi turned his hand, it seemed as if only one direction on the card was warming up. "Like a compass," Bai Qi muttered. Following the direction that was warmed up led Bai Qi to a small house near the outskirts of the town. The doors were unlocked. The inside of the house was warm, dimly lit. As the dark settled in, Bai Qi closed his eyes and slowly drifted off.

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Hey guys, long time no see. Bout to lose second place to SkylarWolfe who turned a 20 vote lead to a 2 vote lead, like >:( wot, how, i call hackz.

Silverbro in first, sorry for the break, :( I'll try to get another chapter up tomorrow.

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Word of warning, serious tone here now

I've been thinking about where I want this novel to go, and what I originally meant it to be. And in honor of what I actually want this to be, I'm leaving this warning that this novel will get dark very soon. I know everything's been lighthearted so far, but viewer discretion advised. I am sorry to anyone who wishes to drop this because of this warning, or the next few chapters that come out, some messed up stuff will be, um, explored in detail. Some things you guys might have a hard time to stomach it, but this story has to be on that border for it to be anything I wish it to be. The reason I've been delaying this time was because I already have the next chapter and half the one after written out, and I was debating on weather I wanted to make a mediocre run of the mill story, or one that stood out for the idea behind it. I think with my abilities, I could still spin this into a perfect world type of isekai, one where the MC always wins day after day. In my opinion, those are good novels if done correctly, but I will promise you this, while so far it may seem that this story is going that route, this message serves as proof that I'm committed on what I want the story to be. This is a note to the people that may leave, I am more than honored you stopped by even to read this small novel. I'm thankful because of that.

Good luck. I promise I'm not a psychopath.