Chapter 49: The Shao Clan Part 2

"How do you progress through the floors? Find the entrance to it?" Daniel asked.

"No. It is never that simple. Even though they are floors, it is really a test. The higher the floor, the more difficult the test," Ivy answered. "Some floors have multiple tests. You are trapped in there until you complete every two floors. For completing every even numbered floor, you are asked whether you wish to leave or rest for a hundred days before you continue. The prizes lay in the eleventh to thirteenth floors."

"For telling me this, I'll let you touch my ears," Shu resigned as the others stared at him. He unstrapped the hood from his collar and let the hood fall onto his back. Ivy blushed as she felt his ears. Shu had his eyes closed as he waited for her to finish.

"Done?" Shu asked as he strapped the hood to his collar. They all watched as armor on his legs and arms appeared, his countenance looking oppressive as a mask covered the lower half of his face. They swore they saw lightning flash in his eyes. Their eyes widened as the color changed to orange. They could literally see countless galaxies within his eyes.

"What are you doing?" Shu asked.

"Uh, your eyes changed color. They're orange now. I think I can see the galaxies and universes in your eyes," Joey answered. "They glow too. Your eyes I mean. With the armor on your limbs, the mask, and hooded crimson jacket; I swear you look like a villain."

"You look awesome," Kai and Kei said.

Shu stared at the reflection from the skull dagger and saw the change in his eye color. As he stared deeper, he discovered they were right. His eyes narrowed as he didn't know what was going on. He went to place his empty plates by the designated dropping area near the trash bins.

"Your eyes look like that of the Dragon Fox. You never really looked at its eyes, right?" Spook said as Shu was out of earshot. "You have the eyes of a Great Spirit now. You'll soon see things others can't."

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"Something wrong, Shu?" Ivy asked as Shu returned to his seat.

"Ah, it's nothing. This is just a side-effect from the technique I learned. Same with the ears. I learned the technique of the Black Lotus Immortal," Shu laughed. "Is the Shao Clan okay with sending you here?"

"Oh. Well, I am the fifth daughter of the chief. After me, he finally had a son. Besides him and eldest sister, my other three sisters and I are not contenders for his position," Ivy smiled as she stared at her food. "Right now, the Shao Clan is preparing for the Pantheon of Devils. I was allowed to come here, thanks to my uncle. He told them about the prize. I have a chance in being one of the three people to gain access to the Vault of Kings among the students of the sixth stage. The item I pick might just save my life. Of course, I will be given other items. However, I cannot freely choose what I might get. By going to the competition, I can exactly what I want. Last year, I was third place and got a single item amongst the fourth year students."

"If it's anything similar to my clan's imperial vault, there's bound to be many priceless treasures," Shu thought.

"Mary, Max, Kai, and Daniel; are you guys going to come with us to the capital to watch the games?" Bella asked. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

"Yeah," Daniel nodded. "As mages are displaying their spells and theories for various spells and rituals, I plan to go to learn about them. Kai is also interested. Sorry we can't watch your matches. We'll let you guys know how Jiyeon and Geo fare by telling Mary and Max."

"I just want to watch Kei and Bella kick Weiss's ass," Max growled while Mary nodded in agreement.

"Will we be traveling together?" Joey asked.

"Yes. We are all are flying magical beasts, if we don't have one already," Ivy nodded.

"I can ride Bahamut," Shu said. "He can probably carry you all. He's twenty feet tall and forty five feet long now. He's getting big."

"Is he a serpentine dragon?" Ivy asked.

"Nah, he has a lizard body with wings. Bahamut is an Emerald Steel Dragon at the seventh stage. I don't know when he stops growing," Shu shrugged. "I can ride Supaiku as he is now as tall as a horse."

"Good because draconic magical beasts are not allowed. Draconic magical beasts are the most powerful, besides one-of-a-kind magical beasts, and are banned to give the other competitors a chance to compete. They are just too powerful," Ivy said. "Still, I can't believe you already have two magical beasts bound to you. If they weren't Saint level magical beasts, I would have thought you were too hasty."

"Well, let's meet at the gates when we depart to the Jakkom capital with the other students," Bella said. "We better make our last preparations. Bye!"

"I heard you have a true Archon body," Ivy said, as the others left.

"How do you know that?" Shu asked.

"Of course, information spreads about Practitioners who have spirit reactors. The ancient clans have always inter-married with those people to insure they don't create chaos on the planet while improving our own power," Ivy answered. "Still, you are able to rip out someone's Mystic Stone and absorb their spirit energy. Many were startled by the fact that you also absorbed the spirit reactor."

"I didn't exactly plan for that much, but I absorbed the spirit reactor," Shu nodded.

"Still, you look better now. You are no longer afraid of being bullied. Before you lost your memory, you asked me to give you a makeover. You were attacked and suffered that incident on the way to see me," Ivy explained. "Now you're even more powerful than me. As we have true Archon bodies, we can definitely reach the tenth stage of Spirit Shaman cultivation before the Pantheon of Devils. We might still be Spirit Shamans, but true Archons are much more powerful than other Spirit Shamans of the same cultivation. We're sure to get placed well. Our only issue is if we fight other scions of the ancient clans."

"Is that why you only got third place?" Shu asked.

"Yes. If we have a chance to eliminate them, the sooner the better," Ivy answered. "This year, the top sixty four won't be in one-on-one battles. Only the top sixteen. Due to my clan's connections, I found out that the Jokkam Empire wants the tournament to be more entertaining. Since, many powerful clans have sons and daughters competing, it would be more entertaining to have more trials before the main tournament."

"We'll just have more opportunities to fight them," Shu grinned.

"Not only that, members of the student's clans and families will be there. I heard that a Spirit Sage is being sent, to represent your clan, all the way from Kasara. The Ancestor's name is Lu Feng," Ivy said.

"Oh. Damn," Shu said, thinking about how his ancestor annihilated the tenth clan of the ancient clans. "Will the ancient clans retaliate?"

"No. None of our elders are confident to kill Ancestor Lu Feng," Ivy said. "He is a regular Archon, but killed several Fiend Adepts and Fiend Immortals. I don't know the exact reason, but people say the clan caused his wife to die after giving birth. Others say that he got angry after the clan tried to kill him. No one knows the true story. It was because of him that we are cautious about regular Archons. You can say we were arrogant back then. The ancient clans, of today, are nowhere like them. We even enlist the aid of mages now. All to slay the Hyperion."

"Yeah, he's scary," Shu said, looking at Spook. "But I haven't seen that side of him. Anyway, we better make our preparations to leave."

"Okay. Bye, Shu," Ivy smiled and waved as she left first.

"What do you know of the Vault of Kings?" Shu asked Spook.

"From the knowledge I obtained from the Great Ancestor, when he made my two previous forms, the Vault of Kings is really extraordinary. The empire existed before he returned to the Mortal Realm. It is no exaggeration that their vault must be incredibly vast and rich. It is a good thing I was made. Only an Immortal can see your demonic red spirit energy, unless you intentionally reveal it. An example would be that demon lion statue," Spook said. "My advice would be keep your mask armor manifested on your face. Don't materialize it on your arms and legs. Don't use reveal your wings or skull dagger. Keep your Great Spirit Integration technique a secret. Use your other techniques if you have to. Oh, and use your flying moon blades. There are grips on the crescent moon blades. The curve cuts, but you don't have to make them fly all the time. Try to keep your true fighting style, with Arctic Emperor, a secret."

"Ah, right. I forgot about those," Shu cried as he took them out his storage bag. Two, large blades floated above his hands. Each of them had purple flames and a metallic wood was between the points of the crescent moon blade. The curve of the moon was about a foot and a half long, at the center. It would be useful for close range while he could make it fly from medium to long range. It seemed that it had changed once more, as he had grown stronger.

Shu went to the store at the academy and hand them craft straps on his back for the moon blades. As he could control them with his spirit energy. He could easily unsheathe and sheathe them on his back. In his room, he held his Sentinel Bow. No changes had been made, but the two carvings were different. The top was the Armored Ocean Tiger God while the carving at the bottom was the Dragon Fox. The top he expected, and he assumed the Dragon Fox was because of a part of the Great Spirit was fused with him while the other part became the core of the soul planet in his realm of consciousness.

The bow felt powerful, so much so that he didn't think anything would be able to block the arrows. It was a Divine Weapon. He wondered if a Demon God made it. The archer could not have been human as he could fire it more than once. Since it was a Divine Weapon, he just associated it with a Demon God. Either them or a Creator God. If Demon Emperors ruled entire galaxies, it was highly probable that they could make planets. After all, Practitioner and mages could ascend and they could control the elements.

Shu put the Sentinel Bow in Spook and looked out the window, saying, "I've trained my body, soul, and techniques. Now I gotta fight once more. I can't lose. No matter if its the ancient clan scions or other powerful students, I will defeat them all. I will never yield, powerless, before my opponents. I even took my own life to buy time and took my enemies' lives with my own. I didn't let them beat me then. I won't let anyone beat me now."