6 «Wood Tower Shield»

"Thank you for your guidance ."

Shin bowed in the direction of Verathragna's departing figure. Uncle Shen appeared afterwards and fiercely lectured him before passing him a memory storage pendant. Despite his questioning on whom it was from all he got was "You'll find out when the time is right." Uncle Shen also threw Chen Wen to another location outside the clan.

Eager to begin his cultivation path, Shin hurriedly Sat cross legged to practice the <Flame Tendons Refinement Art> that he obtained after inserting his astral qi into the memory stone. Waves of astral energies descended from his «Ember Lion Constellation», filling him with power and increasing the surrounding temperatures.

....

The Next Day.

The Sun took a position directly overhead sending it's blazing heat to fry the earth. Signalling noon.

Verathragna walked upon the streets made of Pellstone. Merchants, bustling crowds, screaming babies, the smell of perfume and dirt... A variety of information flooded his senses.

"Slaves Slaves Slaves!!! Too lazy to clean your house, too lazy to cook, too lazy to do heavy labour, lonely at nights, have a fetish for inflicting pain, no matter the requirements I have human puppets right here who will obey your every command. They were branded with a slave seal by an esteemed astral spiritist so they will never dare disobey you. Come one, come all!!!!!...."

In the cage which held the slaves, a shape immediately caught V's attention. Snowy white pearl teeth, thin purple hair, lavender coloured pupils and a delicate frame. Her gentle curves were enough to drive any man wild! She was truly a beautiful femme fatale.

"..."

"Looking closely.... that is truly a wonderful painting hung on the wall."

Oh wait, false alarm. It was beautiful but just some dry paint on a canvas. Remarkable work by the way. What truly caught V's attention was a handsome malnourished young man. His Brown hair was dirty and disheveled and he was actually on the verge of dying. The culprit being the long wound on his chest, exposed from his caveman attire.

"His eyes..... I've never seen flames as bright as those within those pupils and if that wasn't enough..."

Sunlight gathered and reflected on a mirror near him. The mirror was quite valuable and made entirely of crystal. Light beams haphazardly decorated the surroundings, along with the blazing sun and several other shiny lights no one seemed to notice, On his deathbed. That boy was actually forming a link with a constellation from the astral rivers.

This was an astonishing fear!

Just before Verathragna heard his slow heartbeat beat one final time, a faint shadow of a shield shone from his forehead.

"Slave trader."

V beckoned the man who seemed to be in charge.

"Yes sire. How may i be of assistance."

The thin bespectacled man, bowed at a right angle while evaluating V out of the corners of his eyes- truly a catch!!!! - reason being ;V couldn't be bothered with the trivialities so he revealed a yuan meteor stone. The slave trader's eyes were round with anticipation.

"Get me some medicine and I'll take this one."

Verathragna walked in the cage and tapped on the Brown haired boy. "Make it quick" seeing the lingering slave trader, his eyes showed displeasure.

"Ah my lord, that slave seems to be dead shall I recommend ....."

The slave trader Feng Bai, was unsure of V's background so he tried his best to be courteous.

"Stop asking so many questions and do as I asked."

"Yes sire"

Fang Bai reluctantly hurried off to fetch the medical treatment although he thought it was too late.

Verathragna placed his hand over the boy's chest directly above the heart and for the first time tried to reverse time. It hadn't been one minute since his heart stopped, nonetheless his astral qi was draining at a rapid pace while turning back time in the area around his heart. After three quarters of his pure astral qi were exhausted, he felt the heart beat once.

His perspiration filled forehead dripped as he used his remaining astral qi to inject and flow around his body, increasing his recovery by a few milliseconds. He had recognised that his meridians were special long ago. They were like tyrannical lions that refused the entry of anything other than astral qi. So he could only fill his meridians with astral qi from the Ethereal Time Constellation. Any yuan qi of the heavens and earth were pushed out of his energy channels and meridians into his flesh.

His astral qi of the 6th Heavenly Layer was undoubtedly a great boon towards the boy's body. 5 minutes later, Feng Bai returned with common herbs and a doctor. The yuan meteor stone was enough to cover all expenses.

Half an hour later.

"He is severely injured and in a bad state but he'll survive. I recommend feeding him with soup adding nutritional supplements before slowly giving him high energy foods."

V nodded towards the doctor. He flung the boy over his shoulder and returned to the Wen branch residence.

By nightfall the boy's eyelids were fluttering insinuating his awakening. And that he did,

"Where am I....."

His energy slipped away with each syllable. V was drinking his tea while habitually looking at the stars. After slurping, he answered without looking back.

"You have died. Now that you've died you've begun a new life separate from your previous life. This life belongs to me."

V walked up to him, crouched to his head near the floor and tapped on it.

"You're my very first subordinate, I am the leader of Demonsong. That name doesn't mean much now but it will in the future. I'll allow you to conclude the last chapter of your life, your final wish before closing your eyes back then, What was it?"

The Brown haired boy's eyes regained their previous fire as he voiced with tremendous hatred, "To kill, to slaughter, to decimate those who brought the extinction of my clan!!!"

"Revenge hmm. Fine by me. I'll help you do it with your own hands. "

Gazing into each other's eyes, they grew silent. V pointed to the table that held a bowl of soup, a glass of water and nutritional supplement package.

"Take those and go to sleep."

V looked back up at the night sky, Clouds were present. Along with the moonlight. Hmm- he felt eyes from behind him.

"Is there a problem?"

Hearing his charismatic voice and evaluating the feeling of terror he got from the blade which that man rested on his knee, The boy, Ren, shook his head and did as he was told.

...

Meanwhile Shin Wen was cultivating to the point of forgetting himself, charging to the 3rd layer of the Body Refinement realm in One day and night.

Yellow fiery streams circulated within his body as his skin gradually looked like a roasted red lobster's. The streams of sweat from his face had even evaporated due to the heat. Steam rose from his pores as his astral soul forged his body through searing pain. It felt like lava was gushing through him at first he enjoyed the feeling, perhaps due to his astral soul but later his unaccustomed body felt like a frying pan over the fire.

He gritted his teeth and beared the pain like a soldier. Occasionally sparks would flash inches away from him. The tyrannical astral energies from his constellation flooded his boy reaching his full capacity on several occasions. At these moments he would stimulate his astral gate and create fiery embers that lit up his nocturnal surroundings.

.....

"Get your fucking ass out here now Shin Wen!!!"

Hearing that unpleasant but familiar voice, Shin Wen furrowed his brows before stepping outside to meet with Chen Wen. Seeing Shin's figure imprecations burst like a rain of bullets from his mouth.

"You ducking abandoned crippled bitch ass asinine dog shit, What did you do to me? The last thing I remember was coming over to collect my stones and the next thing I know I'm under a beehive. Look at my fucking face!!!!"

Looking at the swollen cheeks, eyes, forehead and the rest of his bee stings, an uncontrollable urge surfaced until Shin couldn't hold it anymore.

"Pft!, Puhahahaha, your face...your face...hahahaha"

It was such an amusing sight, tears sprouted from the corners of his eyes as he held his stomach.

"You think this is funny!!! A trash like you who can't even cultivate dares to laugh at me!!!"

Then and there, Chen Wen stimulated his strength as a 5th layer of Body Refinement practitioner and aimed a fist targeting Shin's face. Seeing this Shin abruptly stopped laughing and stimulated his own strength as well as the fiery astral qi present in his energy channels.

The impact of the collision created a minor gale and Chen Wen's body was flung back 2 metres from the impact. Portions of his clothes even had burn marks.

"You!!!!"

"How is this possible!!!!!"

Chen had trouble digesting the previous sequence of events. That wasn't the outcome no!, that outcome was wrong. He should be in like a broken kite when my fist collided with his. Why was it that he was the one flung backwards instead.

"Trash that can't even handle one punch of mine shouldn't gloat so much."

Shin went ahead and added insult to injury.

"Why you!!!....Just wait"

Chen Wen scurried off in a hurry.

Taking this minor incident off his mind, Shin Wen recalled it was approaching the time of Westwood Glory Academy to hold its entry examinations. Rumor has it that as a student of Westwood,"You'd enter as a carp and leave as a Dragon." Many great personages of this Cirrus Country hailed from this institute. It's influence even surpassed the Wen Main Clan.

Tightly clenching his fists his short hair swayed like grass in the wind. Looking up at the radiant sun he vowed," That is where I'll reclaim my honour and be renowned in the entire country"

From a window nearby, V watched on. He turned around resting his elbows on the window pane. "The world is too vast kid, why satisfy yourself by playing with the sardines when you can go take some bites out of sharks....Hmhm, you'll see it soon enough. Although, look at you, you are a magnet for trouble."

....

"Do you know how to cultivate?"

V bent down and asked the cross legged Ren.

"Yes"

"Good for you. I didn't... probably still don't but I get by."

Hearing those strange words, Ren looked at this leader of his," Leader....what do you mean?"

"You can call me lord. As the first verse of Demonsong you should be more confident and assertive....."

"Ren"

Finishing his sentence for him Ren awaited his next words.

"Right, Ren. Show me your astral soul."

Heeding his command Ren, opened his astral gate and released his astral soul. A pure gold corona manifested in the room. A thick medieval ancient wooden shield appeared within the gold aura. It was a kite shield with an hexagonal centre. Pure life aura emanated from it. It wasn't actually of the life attribute, that was far too rare on par with V's time. What it was , was the wood attribute.

It was a shield with nature's protection. It possessed two central abilities:

Reconstruction: The shield could regenerate and granted the user the ability as well.

Green Light Barrier: A green glow with the same properties of a cellulose wall.

Impenetrable Defense: This was an auxiliary ability, it was a shield. This ability allowed the user to borrow nature's powers to increase his defense and also to reduce the impact of blows from inferior cultivations by 80 percent, blows from superior cultivations

within the same realm by 50% and blows outside his realm by 15%.

This was to be expected of an astral soul condensed from the 4th Heavenly Layer.

"Ren. You will be my shield. So you shall focus on defense. All your future astral souls will be shields as well. Understand."

Hearing his words, Ren's eyes struggled with a decision, finally he spoke," I'm sorry. I cannot oblige. I must gain revenge with my own two hands."

Flames of resolution burned within him.

"Hoh"

Looking at Ren, Verathragna smiled before vanishing and reappearing with his his right hand around Ren's shoulder while facing the opposite direction.

"I understand why you think that, but this will be your path in the future. I seem to have not gotten the time to show you whom your lord is, now is a good a time as any."

Killing intent aroused from the depths of Verathragna's being. The malevolent aura seemed to form red mist around him, dying his silver pupils crimson. A feeling of terror sprouted within Ren's heart. "A demon, no a bringer of despair." The negative feelings from all who have been slain by Verathragna vaguely reared their ugly heads.

Suddenly the scene changed, Ren found himself on a battlefield, no, it was a graveyard of fresh corpses. It was nightfall and the moon illuminated a particular high mountain. Silver eyes peered at him from the top of the mountain.....of corpses. Terror rushed into him, as cold sweat appeared on his body but suddenly the scene changed again and he saw the back of Verathragna's figure leaving,

" Having ending my fair share of lives, I definitely have the insight to back it up, when one thing has reached the absolute it will begin to change in polaric manner, fire becoming ice, offense attaining defense and vice versa, of course such a thing is as difficult as a mortal reaching the heavens. When you have grasped just a little bit of what that means, having your revenge will be child's play. Until then, become the greatest shield bearer in the lands."

With the scare he just received along with the fact that he did indeed owe his life to that man and without him he'd just have died with regrets and not been given a second chance; he obediently started to cultivate and resolved to become the Shield of that man and the First Verse of [Demonsong].

He Sat back down cross legged and received the astral qi of the «Wood Tower Shield».