25 Where it all began

In a certain room, there were two small figures in the bed, happily hugging each other in their sleep like a brother and sister. The room was illuminated by gentle beams radiated from the stars in the sky which fell on the two kids coating them in warmth and kindness.

But there was also a shadow that crept up near their bed, precisely it was a two-meter-tall Long Haoran who stood by the side and watched them in their sleep.

"What would she think if she saw them like this?", Long Haoran thought.

Long Haoran: *Sigh*, "If only we could be like this every day, how good would it be..."

"But alas, life won't wait for you two to grow up, so either you hate me or not, I'll have to do this for all of us."

Ryuu had a smile plastered on his face as if he was dreaming about something nice or rather, he looked like a child for the first time since he came to the house of the Long family.

In his embrace, Long Xingyue had an even bigger smile than Ryuu - from her appearance one could conclude that she definitely dreamt about something nice, but neither of them knew that soon, their sweet time would stop.

Long Haoran closed his eyes while enjoying this moment with a bit of melancholy in his heart, and then...

His muscles began bulging, his eyelids shot open in an instant while the entire room began shaking and trembling. Ryuu's eyes furrowed and behind him, a transparent shadow of something similar to an emblem appeared. The shadow had a shape of a dragon with a trident mark on the center of its forehead.

The pressure coming from Long Haoran's body disappeared bit by bit and another pressure which seemed palatial and world-shaking filled the room, while Ryuu's body slowly got pierced scale by scale until his entire body was covered in scales. At that point, Long Haoran couldn't move from place and his eyes were trembling with shock and a bit of fear in them, among which even a little reverence snuck in.

"T-that... Isn't that Sea God's ...", Long Haoran mumbled while his lips were shaking.

But as if not to give him any time to stabilize, Long Xingyue's body responded to the pressure which prompted the awe-inspiring Sea Goddess' Descent.

Long Haoran's eyes widened, even more, when he saw the Trident mark on the forehead of Long Xingyue as well as the trident-shaped emblem shadow behind her.

Long Haoran's eyes alternated between the goddess-like appearance of his daughter and Ryuu's water scales, and when he noticed that their auras blended together he couldn't contain his tears.

With a shaky voice, Long Haoran looked at the sky and softly whispered: "ha-haha-hahaha, so the fate did its job. Good. Good. Good. Now I don't have to worry about you, hahaha."

And from the excitement with the tears in his eyes, he began laughing the loudest he could, which was followed by Ryuu and Xingyue waking up and jumping out of bed. Ryuu immediately stood in front of his sister and shielded her with his arms wide open, while his scales in an instant contracted and slightly moved upwards, the sharp end rising and threatening to pierce anything that comes in contact with it.

By this time, Long Haoran had already merged with his Soul Spirit and in the room right now were Ryuu, Xingyue and a giant 2,5-meter tall bear with dark golden fur and bloodshot deep vermillion eyes. Its claws extended for an inch out of its paws and the pressure from before again filled the room, choking out Ryuu's pressure.

Asura Ryuu: "Xingyue, stay behind me and tell me what is the weakness of this Spirit Beast."

In Long Haoran's eyes, which were now bear's eyes, Ryuu looked not like prey but like a fierce beast protecting its family. Long Haoran secretly acknowledged Ryuu's decision in that short amount of time - neither did he panic or attack mindlessly, rather he protected Long Xingyue and asked about the information of the enemy in front of him before making a judgment. The only reason why Ryuu mistook Long Haoran for a Spirit Beast was that there was, usually, a Spirit Emblem behind someone when they release their Soul Spirit, but there was none behind the giant bear and that made him think that in front of himself is a bear-type Spirit Beast.

Long Xingyue needed a bit of time before she came back to reality from the dream-state and when she saw the beast's fierce look and felt its aura, she began shaking slightly. However, as soon as Ryuu felt her fear through his Soul Spirit, he extended one hand behind him and took her little hand while he said: "Don't be afraid, I'm here. Just tell me if you recognize this thing and if you know its weakness."

She looked at Ryuu's wide back and then felt the coldness on her hand which was Ryuu's scale-covered hand. In her other hand was a deep blue trident and on her mind wasn't any danger or bear or anything similar, in her head, there was only Ryuu.

After she felt secure again, she whispered: "This is the first time I saw this Spirit Beast, and besides, there shouldn't be any in the vicinity because father set up protection which means..."

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Here, she paused and the fear in her eyes got replaced by disgust while on her face surfaced a mocking expression. She readied her Trident, gripping its handle with both hands and lowered her center of gravity by slowly bending her legs in a position similar to the horse stance.

Asura Ryuu: "What are you doing? If you don't know your enemy it can be dangerous!"

But to Ryuu's worry, Long Xingyue remained silent and suddenly launched from behind him, aiming with the trident to pierce the beast's shoulder.

Ryuu's eyes widened and in a state of danger, he muttered: "At least aim at the heart if you're gonna risk like that, fuck!"

Ryuu instantly followed behind her in order to pull her back in case something dangerous happened, but...

*Clang* - *Pu*

The trident pierced right through the beast's shoulder while Xingyue's expression changed to the one radiating with happiness. But that happiness was only for an instant because the entire body of the beast changed to ash and dissipated.

Asura Ryuu: "Illusion-type which looks like the strength-type... I've never heard of this beast."

Ryuu spread his Spirit Power which enveloped the entire room and at one moment, he felt the weak presence behind the two of them.

The reason why Ryuu didn't regret having spent so much time in Illusion Realm was because he got some battle experience even if it wasn't real, that is why, he was ready to deal with an opponent of any level, even those which seemed impossible.

Led by instinct, the tips of Ryuu's claws touched together, forming the sharp figure similar to the spearhead, and instantly, Ryuu turned around and thrust his hand with all the force he could extract in that split-moment at the spot where he felt the presence.

*Clang*

A metallic sound rang out and Ryuu only felt that his claws were numb, even though they are harder than any material he knew and they were supposed to have strong penetrative properties, he couldn't penetrate the Spirit Beast's skin.

Ryuu felt an aching pain in his right claw and looked at it. His scales had broken tips and it looked like somebody cut out only the tips. Ryuu looked at them with sadness in his eyes and in an instant, the sadness vanished and got replaced by the anger. The scales that were harder than anything changed and the emblem behind Ryuu which was faintly visible brightened up instantly as the beast's pressure became replaced by the one coming from Ryuu.

At this time, in Ryuu's Spirit Sea, Little Dragon observed the colorful Black Hole attached to the sky and colorful lights in its Accretion Disc when suddenly the entire accretion disc changed colors from nine-colored to deep blue. In the middle of the black hole, a dragon-shaped, emblem with the trident on its forehead, began shining brightly like the sun.

Little Dragon: "Ah, seems like Ryuu got angry... this will be fun, he didn't find it out yet, did he?"

The hard scales began wriggling and from the hard and metallic material, each and every single one changed to the scales made of water.

The scales began shining with a deep blue glow, the pupils in Ryuu's eyes contracted and lengthened and his human-like pupils changed to the Dragon's, his eyes from green to deep blue and the entire aura around Ryuu became palatial.

The house began shaking again, but this time it was not from Long Haoran's pressure but from Ryuu's, to be precise not from the Ryuu himself but from his Soul Spirit which meant that it was a top-class spirit if it could choke out the pressure from an Emperor-level powerhouse which is the top powerhouse.

Long Haoran's bear eyes widened and it seemed as if there was a trace of fear in them, but considering the difference in levels between the two it was normal that it wouldn't be possible to hurt him using normal ways, but Ryuu never planned to do it with the usual way.

The information Ryuu knew was that a regular Spiritualist's Spirit Power would be around 50-90, those who were called "Awakened" had more than 200 Spirit Power and those old sages who lived for thousands of years reached the 1000 point boundary, but Ryuu right now had more than a thousand, which was understandable considering how many Soul Spirits he had in his body as well as the knowledge and experience from the past life.

Ryuu didn't know how much Spirit Power his father had, but considering that he wasn't that much surprised when the testing stone broke, Ryuu concluded that it was probably something around thousand or even two thousand, therefore he dared do this crazy stunt.

In Long Xingyue's mind, a voice appeared: "Xingyue, I will control him for a brief moment and that is when you will have a chance to attack, don't miss it."

Her small eyes widened from the surprise when she heard his voice inside her head, but thanks to the pressure which resonated with her and empowered her own abilities, she remained clear-headed and slightly smiled while on her face a mocking expression resurfaced when she saw the beast.

Ryuu's eyes glowed sharply with an eerie light and a thread of Spirit Power left from his eyes, shooting right into beast's.

Long Haoran never expected someone as inexperienced as these two kids to actually counterattack and didn't put up a guard until last moment, but as soon as he remembered the moment when the testing stone broke, he instantly moved his entire Spirit Power and defend himself.

The thread of Spirit Power changed the shape to a wave-like structure, more and more of it coming out from that thread and it enveloped the entire beast, rooting it in place.

Long Haoran felt as if a massive tsunami was crashing down on him, the pressure making it impossible to move: "This kid...", he thought.

When Long Xingyue found a chance, she flapped the deep blue wings which made her speed sharply rise while the long viridian hair fluttered in the air, closely following behind the goddess. She thrust her trident out again, but this time she aimed at the heart while the mocking expression became even stronger...

*DANG* - *Pu*...

A sound of metal clashing with metal resounded for a split-second and then the sound of flesh being pierced immediately followed.

Long Haoran used all of his Spirit Force* to defend against the trident, but it was like a knife cutting the butter and he couldn't help but admire the penetrative powers that crystal trident had. But he couldn't admire for long because of the pain he felt in his chest. His battle instinct accumulated over the years responded and the terrifying killing aura filled the entire room. Everything stopped moving - the pressure vanished, Long Xingyue fell to the ground, Ryuu fell on one knee and the blood trickled down his seven orifices and he couldn't endure any longer under the enormous killing aura and soon, Ryuu fell face-first on the floor as well.

Long Haoran recalled his Soul Spirit and stood in front of them watching them with amazement, having nothing to remain stuck in, the trident fell while Long Haoran tried to catch it but when he touched the trident, it disappeared, as well as the Spirit Emblems behind Ryuu and Xingyue.

Splendidly done, I never expected the brats like you to push me this far, I am proud with both of you.

He waited for a while until either Ryuu or Xingyue answered, but to his disappointment neither did.

Both of them were knocked out because of the killing aura directed at them because the difference in levels was enormous and Ryuu didn't have the stronger killing aura in order to avert the one which befell them which caused both of them to lose consciousness.

*Sigh*, "It seems that I overdid it...", Long Haoran muttered to himself.

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*Spirit Force - Unlike Spirit Power, which is the strength of one's mind or rather mental strength, Spirit Force/Spirit Energy is a type of power used in that world, which every cultivator collects - in other words, it's an elemental energy of this world. It will be explained further in some of the next chapters here is only a brief explanation so as not to mix up those two.