“K…Kiso!” Bo’s savage gaze pierced through the air, sending a cold chill down Kiso’s back.

Chapter Eighteen -

Bo stared down at the two silhouettes, his initial burst of anger and resentment slightly simmered down finally joined by a hint of curiosity. He wondered where those two had been for so long and how they had managed to actually kill off an opponent even he had no confidence in in killing.

Shaking his head, he peered over his shoulder into the mountain range thinking, "Those people are going to want to hear about this..."

After one last glance back down into the valley he used to call home, he turned back. Face growing cold as ice, he mumbled under his breath and walked towards path he ascended all those months ago.

- - - - -

Kiso brushed off the cold sweat, even if someone had ill intent towards him, they clearly weren't acting on it yet.

The two of them were quickly approaching the foot of the mountain range following an ancient path. Kiso had heard his father once call this path 'Death's Road', though he barely gave half an explanation as to why. He simply uttered two words, "Spiritual beasts.." Then had repeatedly warned Kiso not to ever go wandering there alone.

Of course that was years ago, before Kiso even began cultivating.

Death's Road was a two meter wide hellish pass through the mountains, neither flat nor forgiving. The trail starts at the base between two large mountains and cuts directly through the middle of them.

When they finally arrived at base of mountain, they stared ahead, their eyes slightly bulging.

Yuni broke the silence, "Kiso, I think.. I want you to go first.." Her head was tilted far back as she stared up the path, which seemed almost too steep to be considered one.

Kiso stared up as well then he laughed and said, "What, don't tell me the fearless Yuni is scared of a little hill?"

Yuni pouted her lips and folded her arms, turning to the side to face away from Kiso, yet didn't refute him.

Kiso smiled and shook his head thinking, "This girl is too cute sometimes..."

Lowering his gaze back to the start of the pass, Kiso observed a faded wooden post stuck into the ground. The words were barely legible but Kiso could still clearly see them.

They read: Warning. Spiritual Beast territory. Proceed only if confident in killing Blood Orc with pinky.

Kiso frowned, although not because he wasn't confident in his ability. Rather, he didn't have any idea what a Blood Orc was.

Yuni recovered from her brief facade and walked up beside Kiso, reading the sign out loud. After she read the sign, she tilted her head towards Kiso and asked, "Kiso, what's a Blood Orc?"

It was Kiso's turn to pout.

He furrowed his brows and walked forward without answering, taking the first few steps into the pass.

Yuni, caught off guard by Kiso's behavior, quickly realized the cause, a devilish smile gracing her face.

She caught up and added, "Could it be even the great Kiso doesn't know what a Blood Orc is?" Although she asked, she knew the answer. With a soft giggle, she sped up, overtaking Kiso while calling back to him, "On second thought, it's better I go first! If I fall you better catch me!"

Kiso's furrowed brows loosened and he chuckled, following her up the pass.

- - -

A few hours later, Kiso and Yuni sat at the top of the pass, feeling slightly gloomy.

"Kiso.. I don't think this is going to be a quick adventure.." Yuni said, slightly dejected.

Nodding, Kiso stared out at the mountain range they had yet to conquer.

The Sangrad Mountains, laid bare before them stretching as far as they could see. Thousands of mountains knit tightly together stretching for hundreds of miles created an extremely unwelcoming atmosphere.

The tiny valley they had called home their entire lives suddenly felt incredibly small.

Kiso pulled the map from his clothes and began to carefully study it.

Thunderblack valley was located on the western edge of the Sangrad Mountains. From their current location between the two mountains bordering their home, their destination actually appeared to be quite close. Although that would only be compared to the distance they could potentially be forced to travel, should the plain be near the eastern edge.

Looking around, Kiso estimated they would need almost a week of travel to reach the plain.

Just as he was about to relay his findings to Yuni, a smooth low pitch howl sounded from miles away, carrying a small degree of lingering killing intent.

That howl caused Yuni to shoot up from her seat and rush over to Kiso as she grabbed his arm and whispered, "What the hell was that?"

His own body slightly shuddered and with glowing eyes he whispered back, "Blood Wolf."

Elder Sage had long ago taught Kiso and Yuni about a few various spiritual beasts that resided in the Sangrad Mountains. The aforementioned 'Blood Wolf' is a low-class spiritual beast. While it's individual strength could be considered somewhat weak, especially compared to Kiso, it was still an attractive prospect.

All spiritual beasts naturally cultivate in a single hereditary nature energy. With long lives sometimes spanning thousands of years, their cores become extremely dense. When a spiritual beast dies their core remains, which in turn can be a rich source of energy for cultivation experts to exploit. The only drawback being that a cultivation expert can only absorb energy from a core that matches his own spiritual pressure's nature and it would only be a small boost to his or her cultivation speed.

It just so happens that a Blood Wolf is a darkness nature spiritual beast.

Kiso immediately spread out his spiritual zone to its max range, after which his face dramatically changed.

"So many!!" Kiso cried out as his heart began to race in excitement.

When he spread out his spiritual zone, he could easily sense every spiritual beast within a little more then half a mile. His spiritual pressure zone was surprisingly slow to grow. Even after four years of constant cultivation, his spiritual pressure had grown by leaps and bounds, yet the range he could extend it hadn't even doubled yet.

What he didn't know, was that his disappointment at 'only' being able to sense a half mile away, would cause any member of the Winyon clan to loose their minds in awe.

"Twenty-seven Blood Wolves! And there's more coming!" Kiso's voice trembled as he quickly turned to Yuni explaining, "Yuni, those Blood Wolves are coming towards us, I'm going to go pay them a visit!"

Gathering spiritual pressure into a single finger, he locked onto the closest Blood Wolf then flickered and disappeared from Yuni's side.

The Blood Wolves are pack hunters, usually hunting in groups of twenty to thirty. When they catch a scent, the pack leader will issue the kill order with a single howl. The Blood Wolves within the range of the howl will spread out, encircling their prey, before closing in.

A few meters in front of a three meter long, one and half meter tall blood red wolf with three dark black eyes, a figured suddenly appeared. The Blood Wolf, running at top speed, had no time to react as it's face directly collided with Kiso's outstretched finger.

When the Blood Wolf made contact with Kiso's finger, he burst forth his spiritual pressure which quickly vaporized the unsuspecting wolf. The wolf never even knew what killed him.

From the ash still floating in the air, a solid object continued flying forward carrying its previous momentum. Kiso caught the object in his already outstretched hand, bringing it close to his face for an examination. He squinted his eyes, cursing the falling sun as the last light of dusk was peering over the thick trees scattered through the pass.

Even with the limited light, Kiso could still clearly feel the round, spherical object in his hand. It felt a bit like a stone, yet it was extremely light and radiated a warmth that reminded Kiso of Yuni's tender little body. Most importantly, even without entering the meditative position, Kiso could feel the darkness nature entering his body, flooding towards his core.

Strangely, Kiso could barely sense his spiritual pressure growing.

After the time it would take to eat three mouthfuls of rice, the Blood Wolf's core suddenly trembled, then cracked and fell between Kiso's fingers.

Kiso was completely bewildered, he could feel the darkness nature energy entering his core, yet his spiritual pressure had only risen a tiny amount.

"Strange...This isn't how Elder Sage described it.." Kiso mumbled under his breath, then his body flickered disappearing once again.

- - -

By the time Kiso's body reappeared in front of Yuni, the sun had completely hidden itself under the blanket of the horizon.

Half asleep, Yuni jumped in surprise at Kiso's sudden appearance. When she saw his face, she couldn't help but ask, "What happened, why do you look so disappointed?"

Frowning, Kiso replied, "These spiritual beast cores aren't all that great after all."

He withdrew a core he had saved, then demonstrated for Yuni what had happened to all twenty-eight cores prior to this one.

Yuni watched as the core trembled then crumbled to pieces.

"What happened to it? Did you absorb the energy that quickly?" Yuni had heard Elder Sage speak of the process of absorbing nature energy from spiritual beast cores before, so she knew the scene she just witnessed was very odd.

Shaking his head, Kiso helplessly sighed, "I don't know, but I did absorb the energy. Only, even thirty low-class spiritual beast cores could only count for fifteen minutes of normal meditation."

With a disappointed face, Kiso slowly walked over to a large boulder, jumping up to sit on top. He closed his eyes and called to Yuni, "No matter, I can still cultivate, let's stop here for tonight."

Yuni lightly sighed, then picked a boulder close to Kiso's and sat to meditate as well.

- - - - -

Like this, six days quickly passed.

Kiso and Yuni traveled during the day, killing off any spiritual beasts they came across, not bothering with the ones off the main path. At night they would meditate, increasing their spiritual pressure.

Kiso also practiced his Skyshadow technique during the night. As long as it was night, the darkness nature in the air would be dense and Kiso could easily utilize the technique. He even found that during the day, as long as there was a shadow within his immediate vicinity, including his own shadow, he could manipulate the darkness energy within.

He also pondered frequently regarding his fight with Danstun. Danstun's technique greatly piqued Kiso's interest as he longed to develop new, powerful methods for utilizing his lightning.

Danstun had used his earthen nature to create an entire field of tiny rocks that could be used offensively and defensively. Kiso recognized the genius of the technique and strongly desired to replicate it to create a lightning version.

No matter how hard he tried though, he couldn't stem lightning more then an inch from his body. He was clearly missing something.

At dawn on the seventh day since entering the Sangrad Mountains, Kiso opened his eyes and let out a breath of cool air. He rose to his feet, fixing his clothes before walking over to Yuni, gently tapping her arm.

"Yuni, we're almost to the plain, don't tell me you'd rather sit here and meditate?" Kiso purposely poked her in her soft spot.

Opening one eye, Yuni smiled and replied, "Who's meditating? I've been waiting here for hours."

Kiso laughed, he truly didn't doubt her words. After all, for the past three days, she's been constantly asking to see the map and reviewing their location. She definitely knew how close they were.

Most likely, within a few short hours of walking they would reach the plain.

"Let's get going." Yuni opened her other eye and sprang to her feet before motioning for Kiso to follow.

After having traveled through tens of mountain passes, last night they had decided to camp at their current location, right at the base of a gigantic mountain. Although they couldn't see the summits of many of the mountains along the way, this one seemed to have nearly half of its mass hidden in the clouds.

The exciting part was this enormous mountain happened to be the last thing separating them from their destination.

As they approached the mountain, a strange path was actually carved into the mountainside.

When they saw the path, Kiso frowned.

"It seems we're not the first to have been here." He knew the expert that left behind the hidden technique likely wouldn't have any need to create a path up the mountain, nor would Elder Sage.

Yuni stared on and agreed, "Seems not.. Oh well, only one way to find out!"

The two of them rapidly ascended mountainside path. Even before reaching the clouds, a long ridge came into view. On the other side of that ridge, the plain should be visible.

With an excited shout, Yuni bolted forward drawing energy from the depths of her tired body.

Kiso smiled, watching from behind as she dashed ahead quickly reaching the top.

When he finally caught up he couldn't help but notice Yuni's face, her eyes were bulging and she just stared down, slack-jawed. Following her gaze, Kiso's own jaw fell.

Where an empty plain should be, an enormous city took its place. Hundreds of large buildings were built in large circles around a twenty story round tower right in the center. The buildings all seemed to be built by a supreme architect. Magnificent statues were carved into splendid stone walls, even the windows were two sizes larger then Kiso had ever seen.

The tower in the center seemed to be built from pure obsidian and reflected the dawn light brilliantly. Atop the tower were three extremely large statues of powerful looking men joining hands raising their faces to stare into the heavens.

If the fact that a city resided where an empty plain should didn't dumbfound Kiso and Yuni enough, the words above every gate along the city walls definitely did the trick.

Despite being half a mile away atop the ridge, they could clearly see the two extremely large words carved from stone and placed above the closest gate.

Those words read: Hanzi Academy

To Be Continued!