Enrollment

After the magic tests ended, An and Linley spent the night in Fenlai City.

Early the next morning, Hillman set out with the brothers for Wushan Town. The autumn morning breeze felt cool against their faces, and the leaves along the road had begun to yellow.

It was already afternoon when they returned to Wushan Town.

Before An and Linley even reached the estate gates, they spotted their father, Hogg, standing at the entrance. He wore a dark formal suit he rarely put on, and his hair was meticulously combed. He had clearly been waiting especially for them.

"Father!" Linley rushed forward first.

An followed close behind.

Looking at his two sons, travel-worn yet brimming with excitement, Hogg's lips trembled slightly. He wanted to speak, but for a moment, no words came. His gaze moved between An and Linley before settling on the red letter in Linley's hand.

"Ernst Academy?" Hogg's voice was a little hoarse.

"We got in!" Linley handed him the letter. "Father, An and I both got into Ernst Academy!"

Hogg took the letter, his fingers trembling slightly. He opened the envelope and read it carefully, then picked up An's letter and read that as well. When he finished, he tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and drew a deep breath.

An saw tears glistening at the corners of his father's eyes.

"Good." Hogg's voice was soft, but filled with excitement he could barely contain. "Good!"

He suddenly opened his eyes and pulled both sons into his arms, patting their backs firmly.

This was Hogg Baruch, patriarch of a declining clan. Today, both his sons had been admitted to the continent's finest magic institute-the greatest cause for celebration the Baruch Clan had known in centuries.

"Hiri!" Hogg released his sons and turned to shout into the estate. "Hiri!"

The elderly steward hurried out. Seeing Hogg's face flushed with excitement, he paused in surprise. "My lord, what is it?"

"We're holding a grand feast tonight! Invite all the guards and their families!" Hogg's voice carried throughout the estate. "My sons-both my sons-have been admitted to Ernst Academy!"

Hiri stood stunned for a moment, then his aged face broke into a brilliant smile. "Yes, my lord! I'll make the preparations right away!"

The feast was held in the Baruch Clan's front courtyard.

Five long tables stood in a row, laden with dishes rarely seen in ordinary times. The guards sat with their families, laughter rising from every corner. Little Wharton sat beside An, clutching a chicken leg and gnawing on it until grease covered his mouth. He kept looking from An to Linley, his eyes full of admiration.

"Are you both going to that magic institute thing?" Wharton asked.

"Ernst Academy," An corrected him. "The best magic institute on the continent."

"Oh, Ernst Academy." Wharton repeated the name, then declared earnestly, "I'm going there when I grow up, too!"

An patted Wharton's head without saying anything. He knew that in the original story, Wharton had indeed awakened his dragonblood warrior bloodline later on. His path had been that of a warrior.

Halfway through the feast, Guard Captain Rory rose and raised his wine cup. "To Young Master Linley and Young Master An! Students of Ernst Institute are sure to become great figures someday! Our Baruch Clan will rise again!"

"To the young masters!" Everyone raised their cups.

An raised his own cup, exchanged a glance with Linley, and gently clinked it against his brother's. Juice swayed inside, reflecting the flickering candlelight.

Late that night, in the Ancestral Hall.

Candles burned quietly before the memorial tablets, their dim yellow light bathing the room in a solemn atmosphere. Hogg stood before the tablets with his back to An and Linley, remaining silent for a long time.

An and Linley stood behind him without a word.

An studied the densely arranged tablets, more than a hundred in all, from Baruch at the very top down to their ancestors of the most recent generations. Behind every name lay a piece of the clan's history. There had been splendor and glory, but also decline and humiliation.

"The Baruch Clan," Hogg finally began, his voice low and slow, "has declined with each generation since our fifth dragonblood warrior. We lost the legacy of the dragonblood warriors, lost our clan's glory, and even sold our ancestral treasure, Slaughter."

He turned, and the candlelight cast shifting shadows across his face.

"Every time I think of it, I feel unbearable shame. A proud Dragonblood Warrior Clan, with a legacy spanning five thousand years-and by my generation, all we have left is this tiny fief of Wushan Town."

An's heart tightened. He could hear the pain and self-reproach in his father's words.

"But today," Hogg's voice suddenly rose, fire kindling in his eyes, "you were admitted to Ernst Academy! You are the greatest hope our Baruch Clan has had in centuries!"

He walked to the door of a secret chamber in the corner of the Ancestral Hall, opened it, and went inside. A moment later, he emerged with two thick books. Their covers bore no writing, and their yellowed pages gave off the scent of age.

"These are copies of the Dragonblood Codex." Hogg handed one book to each son. "They contain not only the cultivation methods of the Dragonblood Codex, but also our clan's history, instructions for making Dragonblood Needles, and all kinds of other secrets. Keep them with you and study them carefully."

An took the book and opened the cover. Four large characters were written on the first page-Dragonblood Codex.

He skimmed through a few pages and found accounts of the lives of past patriarchs, major events in the clan's history, and detailed analyses of the dragonblood warrior bloodline. This book was practically an encyclopedia of the Baruch Clan.

"From now on," Hogg said, looking solemnly at his sons, "I will no longer treat you as children. You are the future pillars of the Baruch Clan. Starting today, the burden of our clan will rest on your shoulders."

An and Linley both straightened their backs.

"Yes, Father," they answered in unison.

Back in their bedroom, An eagerly opened his copy of the Dragonblood Codex. Linley sat on the neighboring bed, equally absorbed in his book. Bebe, the little Shadow Mouse, lay curled on Linley's pillow, already fast asleep.

An soon found the page describing how to awaken as a dragonblood warrior.

"To cultivate the Dragonblood Codex, one must first activate the dragonblood warrior bloodline within one's body. There are two primary methods of doing so: first, the concentration of the dragonblood warrior bloodline must reach a certain level; second, one must drink deeply of Living Dragon Blood, or of blood from a dragon that has been dead for no more than a few minutes..."

An read on carefully.

The book made it clear that the second method was extremely dangerous. Dragon blood was fiercely potent; drinking it felt like being burned alive, and it could rupture the blood vessels, causing instant death. Two members of the clan had attempted it in the past, and neither had succeeded.

Yet as An read this passage, something suddenly stirred in his mind.

He remembered Doehring Cowart saying in the original story that drinking fresh dragon blood together with blue heart grass could neutralize the blood's violent properties and greatly reduce the risk. An elderly court physician of the Puang Empire had discovered this secret six thousand years ago.

The days passed in a bustle of activity.

An did not ease up on his training just because he had been accepted. He still rose early every morning to run at the foot of Wu Mountain, do push-ups, and practice the Qi Storing Posture. Hard work paid off-he believed that more firmly than anyone. He spent his mornings studying the Dragonblood Codex and his afternoons on Wu Mountain, meditating and refining magical energy. With his exceptionally high affinity for the wind element, he refined wind-element magical energy at an astonishing speed.

Before they knew it, February had arrived.

Spring quietly descended on Wushan Town. New buds sprouted on the branches, and the air carried the scent of earth and fresh grass. The day of departure had come.

Several hundred townspeople gathered along the path east of Wushan Town to see them off. The guards stood in two rows, their expressions solemn. Hillman stood at the head of the group, holding the reins of two horses.

Hogg stood at the estate gates in his dark formal suit. He held little Wharton in his arms. The boy's eyes were red; he had clearly just been crying.

"Come back soon!" Wharton called to An and Linley.

An walked over and patted Wharton's head. "I'll bring you a present when I come back."

"What kind of present?" Wharton blinked.

"You'll find out then." An smiled.

Hogg handed Wharton to Hiri and walked up to his two sons. He looked at Linley, then at An. His lips moved as though he had a great deal to say, but in the end, he spoke only one sentence:

"Remember the Baruch Clan's humiliation. You must recover our ancestral treasure, Slaughter."

Linley nodded firmly. "Father, I swear I'll recover Slaughter in my lifetime."

An nodded as well. "So will I."

Hogg's eyes brightened, and his strong hands patted his sons' shoulders.

"I believe in you. Go."

An and Linley swung into their saddles, each riding a horse, while Hillman mounted a third. The three horses stood abreast on the path, their hooves pawing restlessly at the ground.

"Goodbye, brothers!" Wharton waved with all his might.

An glanced back. His father stood at the gates, straight and tall as a pine. Wharton waved his little hand from Hiri's arms.

An drew a deep breath, turned away, and looked ahead.

"Hyah!"

All three horses set off at once, their hooves clattering along the path. Wushan Town receded behind them, gradually becoming a blurred outline before finally disappearing beyond the horizon.

After two days on the road, An and Linley reached Fenlai City under Hillman's protection. They did not linger there, but rode straight through and continued more than twenty li south into a wooded mountain region.

"We're here." Hillman reined in his horse and pointed into the distance.

An looked up and could not help drawing a sharp breath.

A magnificent institute stood amid the wooded hills. Tall gray stone walls enclosed grounds so vast that their boundaries stretched beyond sight. The main gate was a full fifty meters wide, topped by an enormous semicircular structure covered in mysterious magical runes. Even standing at the entrance, they could feel its ancient, solemn presence.

Ernst Academy. The finest magic institute on the continent.

"Wow..." Linley was stunned as well. Bebe poked his head out of Linley's clothing, squeaking, his little eyes wide and round.

"Let's go." Hillman dismounted and led the two boys toward the institute's gates.

A long line had already formed at the entrance. It was February eighth, and classes officially began the next day, so almost all the students had come to register today. An saw youngsters with different skin tones and hair colors in the line. Some wore lavish noble attire, while others dressed simply but carried themselves with distinction.

Ernst Academy admitted only one hundred students each year. Those hundred came from every corner of the Yulan continent, and every one of them was a genius among geniuses.

An stood behind Linley, waiting patiently.

When it was the turn of a boy half a head shorter than Linley, the boy suddenly turned around and greeted Linley enthusiastically. "Hello! I'm Reynolds, from the O'Brien Empire!"

Linley paused in surprise, then answered politely, "I'm Linley, from the Fenlai Kingdom."

Hearing the name Reynolds stirred something in An's mind. This was one of Linley's roommates at Ernst Academy in the original story, a noble boy from the O'Brien Empire with a lively, cheerful personality. He would later form a deep friendship with Linley.

Reynolds looked at An. "And who's this?"

"My younger brother, An," Linley introduced him.

"Twins?" Reynolds widened his eyes, looking back and forth between An and Linley. "Wow, you really look exactly alike! Though An seems a little more composed."

An smiled. "Hello, Reynolds."

"You're here to register too, right? Great!" Reynolds gestured excitedly. "It took me a whole year to get here from the O'Brien Empire! The journey was so boring. Finally, I have someone my age to talk to."

An silently marveled at that. The O'Brien Empire lay east of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, with the entire mountain range separating it from this place. The distance was far more than ten thousand li. An eight-year-old child had spent a year away from home just to study at Ernst Academy.

When it was Linley's turn to be tested, An stood to one side and watched.

The crystal ball shone with dazzling ocher and blue-green light, and the examiner's voice rang through the hall. "Linley Baruch, age eight. Elemental affinity: earth, exceptional; Wind Element, exceptional; Fire Element, average. Spiritual power: eighteen times that of his peers, high grade."

A wave of astonished exclamations swept through the hall. Exceptional affinity for both earth and wind was exceedingly rare even at Ernst Academy.

Then came An's turn.

He placed his hand on the crystal ball. Blue-green light surged upward, with occasional flashes of red. There was no ocher light.

"An Baruch, age eight. Elemental affinity: Wind Element, exceptional; Fire Element, average; earth, low. Spiritual power: twenty times that of his peers, high grade!"

Even the examiner sounded slightly surprised as he announced the results. Spiritual power twenty times that of his peers-two times higher than Linley's multiplier-was extremely rare among eight-year-olds.

Reynolds's eyes grew even wider. "One twin has exceptional affinity for two elements, and the other has exceptional affinity for one but even higher spiritual power... Your clan is incredible!"

An took the student identification card and dormitory key the examiner handed him, then checked the number-1987.

"Mine's 1987 too!" Reynolds held up his key. "We're in the same dorm!"

Linley leaned over to take a look. "Mine's 1987 as well."

The three looked at one another and laughed.

"Come on, let's go to the dorm!" Reynolds dashed ahead.

The dormitory area lay on the south side of the institute, with neat rows of individual courtyard residences numbered from 0001 to over 2000. An and the other two found residence 1987 in the twentieth row, pushed open the courtyard gate, and went inside.

An unfamiliar tree grew in the courtyard, with a stone table and several stone seats beneath it. Directly opposite the gate stood a small two-story building. The ground floor contained the sitting room and communal areas, while the second floor had four separate bedrooms.

"This is nice." An looked around and nodded.

A boy stood in the courtyard with his back to them.

Hearing their arrival, he turned around.

He was a full head taller than An and looked at least ten years old. His black hair hung loose, framing handsome features. He wore a finely tailored dark blue robe, with a jade pendant hanging at his waist.

"Hello. My name is Yale Dawson, and I'm from the Holy Union. It looks like we're roommates."

Yale Dawson.

Something stirred in An's mind. The Dawson Chamber of Commerce was one of the three great chambers of commerce on the Yulan continent, with enough wealth to practically buy a small country. Yale was its sole heir, a true scion of a wealthy family.

"I'm Linley Baruch, from the Fenlai Kingdom." Linley introduced himself first.

"An Baruch, Linley's younger brother," An followed.

"Reynolds, from the O'Brien Empire!" Reynolds bounced over. "Big Brother Yale, you look older than us!"

Yale smiled. "I'm ten, a year or two older than you. If there's anything you don't understand here in the dorm, you can ask me."