Name: Chen Zhen Xia Race: Sha Mo Ren

Allegiance: Hu Yuan Empire Origin: Black Iron Region

Age: 7

D.O.B: 10th Day / 1st Moon / Year 107,924 (108th Era)

Residence: Chen Clan compound, Black Iron Anvil Village, 1st Colony, Hu Yuan Empire

Next of Kin: Chen Daquan (Father), Wanmei (Mother)

-END OF PAGE 1-

Ki talent: Positive -ERROR- unknown value

Talent category: Positive -MULTIPLE ERROR- unknown value

Life path: -MULTIPLE ERROR- unknown value

Summary: -MULTIPLE ERROR- undefined loop

-END OF REPORT –

Amelia and Maling could only stare at the report. They had absolutely no idea what is happening with all the ‘errors’ in the report.

“Argh! He broke it again! I am not going to pay for it!” Maling said as a matter of fact, totally forgetting the honorifics at this point.

“Relax you rascal, no one needs you to pay for anything,” Amelia glared at him.

“Young friend do not worry, one thing for sure is you have talent” Amelia kindly told Xiaoxia while pointing out the ‘Positive’ printed besides the Ki talent.

Xiaoxia was relieved, some talent was better than no talent.

“Your Royal Grace, perhaps you can ask Shi Min to take the measurement,” Maling remembered the honorifics this time.

“Good idea,” Amelia replied.

In a moment, Shi Min’s results came on the hologram.

“Everything looks ok, let’s try others,” Amelia selected some of the entourage as well as Imperial guards.

When everyone finished, the results were all within expectations.

“This is really weird, the device is definitely functioning, however it cannot seem to be able to measure our young friend’s talents and others,” Amelia remark, curiosity clearly shown in her eyes.

“Let us try again,” She indicated expectantly for Xiaoxia to step on the dais.

After 2 more tries, she gave up.

“Ah, this is going nowhere!” Amelia said in frustration.

Looking at a device at the other end of the meeting hall, she motioned for the device team to pack up the device and leave the hall.

Turning to Maling and Xiaoxia she extended an invitation “Tonight you shall stay in the palace and tomorrow morning I will be contacting the Artisan City. That is all, I will be leaving now.”

Activating a device on her wrist, she vanished leaving Maling and Xiaoxia on their own.

“Lord Ma, young master Chen, please follow me to your quarters,” Shi Min bowed and waited on them.

“Well young friend Xia, guess this trip is getting more worth it as time passes,” Maling grinned at Xiaoxia.

Xiaoxia just nodded in his usual demeanor, still happy that at least now he knew he has talent.

**********

Morning came unexpectedly fast, for Xiaoxia he still felt somehow the day’s events has worn him out, he did not sleep till much later that night and only managed a couple of hours before the sun rose.

“Lord Maling has arrived!” the guard outside his room announced.

“Oh I totally forgot,” Maling said as he entered the room

“Huh?” Xiaoxia was still in a dazed, raising his head sleepily at the entrance of Maling.

“Black Rock is at the other side of this world, it is now night there, what you are experiencing is spatial lag,” Maling explained.

“Lord Maling, then why is it you are all bright and sunny?” Xiaoxia had a hint of annoyance in his voice due to sleep depravity and being woken up by Maling.

“Haha, I am 207 years old my young friend, I have been trained in the military as well, a soldier sleeps whenever he cans regardless of the environment,” Maling replied.

“Here take this now and take these later tonight,” Maling said as he passed a few vials to Xiaoxia.

“What are these?” Xiaoxia asked a little confused.

“This pale yellow one is what I like to call a ‘wake me up’ remedy to help with your sleepy head. The others have a commercial name called ‘Sweet Dreams’ and works as the name implies.”

“Thank you!”

“Don’t thank me! Hurry up and get dress and from today onwards drop the honorifics and call me Maling,” Maling replied adding, “I have been hearing too much Lord this and that since yesterday.”

“Oh and forget the shower, we do not want to make Amelia wait,” he added as an afterthought.

Xiaoxia quickly jumped out of bed and headed behind the changing screen to change. He discovered the clothes he was wearing were no longer there, and replaced with another set that look refined and expensive.

“Ah I would have guessed she felt all motherly after seeing you,” chuckled Maling upon seeing Xiaoxia coming out behind the changing screen.

Even though it was seldom mentioned, Xiaoxia was a striking and handsome young man, he still had baby fats and added to his features, it could melt the heart of any motherly figure. However he was more concerned with the matter at hand.

“Maling, these are really fine clothes, do I have to pay for them?” Xiaoxia asked immediately took a liking not using honorifics.

In the meantime he did not know how much they cost, but was willing to spend the 2 neon green crystals he had. Even then he did not have a clue about prices in the world.

“You are an invited guest of the Arch Duchess, everything is covered. The Imperial family’s reputation will be ruined if it was found they were charging invited guest for staying in the Palaces,” Maling said and quickly added, “Don’t let anyone hear you saying this, it is quite an insult for them.”

Xiaoxia nodded and followed Maling as he walked out into the corridor.

A little distance from the guest quarters, there was a dais that transported them to the private dining hall of the Arch Duchess.

This was a huge palace, its massive structure spreading over a few leagues, its compound was triple its size and surrounded by an energy barrier reinforced wall a few hundred feet high. Moving from point to point needed spatial transportation devices in the form of dais.

The guest quarters were in the south wing, roughly a league away from the private dining hall. Since many other areas of use were spread throughout the vast area of the Palace, spatial transportation devices had to be installed, and for aesthetic purposes they were in the form of a dais

With the advent of personal spatial devices, senior ranked officials and key household staff each had one, allowing access depending on their clearance to parts of the Palace. The Imperial guard garrison had access to strategic areas within the palace not accessible by others.

Only the Arch Duchess’s high grade personal device could allow her to access any point in both the city and palace without restrictions. Any distances longer than the city limits will cause the device to break under the intense stress and pressure generated as a result of latent energies released when spatial warping.

These devices were not issued to guests, hence Maling and Xiaoxia used the dais with assistance from the palace staff to traverse in the palace.

“Lord Maling, young master Chen has arrived!” announced the herald.

“Leave us,” Amelia told her staff.

When the staff all left, Amelia turned to Xiaoxia.

“Did you sleep well? Are you hungry?” she asked Xiaoxia with an expression of concern.

“Yes, your royal Grace!” Xiaoxia exclaimed.

“Haha, he was born hungry,” Maling jested.

“Shush, don’t bully the kid,” Amelia reprimanded Maling. Turning to Xiaoxia she said, “Please call me Aunty, your Royal Grace coming from you makes me feel ancient.”

“Yes Aunty!” Xiaoxia grinned and smile, looking sweet and innocent. This totally melted Amelia’s heart, and her face blushed with happiness.

“Ok let’s eat, and later we will have a conference with the Artisan’s city MeisterSchloss,” Amelia quickly declared.

The spread laid out on the massive dining table was stupendous, numerous types of pastries, dairy products, eggs dishes, selection of different syrups and treacle, puddings, breads, croissants, sausages, fresh fruits, hot and cold beverages and a whole myriad of fresh vegetables and other farm produce.

Soon heaps of food vanished. But it is not surprising, the males of the Sha Mo Ren were big, their appetites even bigger. Moreover Xiaoxia was a growing child and he had an almost bottomless stomach.

On the other hand Amelia was also not a small women herself, being a little over 7 feet, although slender and beautiful, it hide her voracious appetite perfectly.

“Ah! That perfectly hit the spot,” exclaimed Maling, he alone accounted for more than half of the food eaten. He was nearly 8 feet, taller than Xiaoxia’s father.

“Well are you sure? I will ask my maids to clear the table away and get right down to business,” Amelia said.

“Erm, ahem, then again I think I will take another bite, who knows when the extra energy is need,” Maling quickly added, while helping himself to an unidentified hot brew.

Shortly all three of them had ate to their limits and even as the maids cleared table, the food was already being quickly digested.

Without much delay Amelia got right down to business, “I managed to send a message to MeisterSchloss last night and was alerted earlier this morning that a conference with spatial communications has been arrange, it is almost time, lets us move to another area.”

Amelia motioned for one of the attendants to escort Maling and Xiaoxia, while she herself activate her personal device and disappeared.

The three of them met up in another room which was smaller as compared to all other rooms, it had a few luxurious seats surrounding an oval desk and what looked like a mini dais right in the middle. This looked like the ones Maling and Xiaoxia used throughout the Palace, but much smaller and its design was more intricate and elaborate.

“Ok you two sit close to me,” Amelia instructed.

She then took out a Ki crystal that was azure in color and inserted it into a receptacle that was in front of her, and a stream of light ran from the receptacle to the dais.

“Bzzz….Bzzzz…Bzzzz…. ttrrrriiiinng” the dais sounded.

“Hello my dear Arch Duchess, it has been awhile,” a large hologram had appeared floating above the oval desk. In it a vague figure could be seen, and its voice clearly heard.

“Your Eminence, not too long actually,” Amelia replied with a smile.

Soon the image sharpened and a figure of an old man appeared, it was obvious he was neither Sha Mo Ren nor Fan Ren. Beneath his ancient looks, he had a midnight blue tinge to his skin as well as upswept eyebrows and ears.

“Oh is that so, I must be getting old,” the old man replied, apparently making a light joke.

“Haha, my dear old man. You were born old,” Amelia jested.

“Hahaha that may be true. So what can I do for you young princess,” the old man asked, he seemed very familiar with Amelia and very soon dropped all honorifics.

“First please allow me to introduce Lord Maling, recently promoted Viscount of the Empire, and ruler of Scarlet Condor Province. This young friend is young master Chen,” Amelia introduced Maling and Xiaoxia to the old man.

“You two,” she said turning to them “This is Grandmaster Artisan, Vice Lord of MeisterSchloss, His Eminence Menon,” Amelia announced to them.

“Your Eminence,” both Maling and Xiaoxia stood up and bowed while cupping their hands.

“Huhuhu, enough with the honorifics, this old one is only a glamourized blacksmith,’ Menon replied.

Xiaoxia look quizzically at him.

Seeing his looks, Menon replied “Well it’s true, I am a blacksmith by trade, just that I have many more years than all the other younglings to polish my skills.”

“Menon is part of the Moon Elves,” Amelia added.

Xiaoxia nodded still unsure what it meant, as besides what he learnt from his parents, he only knew about the Fan Ren and Sha Mo Ren. Although he heard about other races.

He was not educated on other races, as there was not much literature in his town on these matters.

Rarely does a person from another race appear in his town, perhaps once every few decades, but none since the day Xiaoxia was born. Other than that it was just Sha Mo Ren and Fan Ren.

“Hmm looking at his face I guess this young one still doesn’t know much about the world, there will be another time another place for this. So let’s get down to business, what do you need from this old one?” Menon asked Amelia

“Please take a look at this,” Amelia attached the information from Xiaoxia’s tests to him.

“OH!!! Interesting, this is very interesting!!” Menon exclaimed, his facial features seeming to light up and made him look much younger. His hand had also started trembling.

Looking at Amelia, he said with a serious countenance “Amelia on behalf of MeisterSchloss, I will like to officially request this young man be sent here immediately, all cost will be borne by us.”

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