1 Animal Spirit Summoning

In an enormous majestic palace that floated in the sky, ten boys could be seen facing a man that exuded an aura of a godly expert from his body.

And with eyes that glowed and caused the air to roil around him, he said to the boys "Come forward and summon your animal spirit"

The oldest who was named 'Xiao Feng' went forward to stand on a platform that the engraving of a massive frightening beast could be seen on it surface.

As soon as Xiao Feng climbed up the stage, he sat in the cross legged position on the platform and then closed his eyes.

When he closed his eyes, he put out his palms and performed some gesture with his fingers.

Not long, the platform began to tremble.

A few seconds later, the illusory image of a nine-headed, nine-winged dragon appeared behind him.

As soon as the image of the nine-headed, nine-winged dragon appeared behind Xiao Feng, it shot into his body.

ROARRR!!!

A roar which was exceedingly loud and caused the ears of people that were witnessing the beast summoning ritual to begin to ache suddenly rang out from within Xiao Feng's body.

The man who exuded the overwhelming aura of ancientness from his towering body gave a smile.

"Next!" He called out.

Then the second oldest went forward to sit on the platform when Xiao Feng came down.

Named 'Xiao Chun', he also sat on the platform in the cross-legged position and then closed his eyes. And with his two hands out, he began to perform mysterious gestures with them.

A few seconds later, the illusory image of a beast that had the body of a bull, the head of a tiger, the tail of a serpent, the legs of an elephant and had long horns on it head which had scarlet-colored flames endlessly erupting from them suddenly appeared behind Xiao Chun.

Immediately the strange beast appeared behind Xiao Chun, it shot into his body.

GRARRRR!!!

A violent, frightening roar rang out from within Xiao Chun's body. And as soon as this roar rang out, scarlet-colored flames suddenly discharged from Xiao Chun's body which then disappeared in the next instant.

The man who emitted a powerful aura from his body broke a smile.

He was also impressed by Xiao Chun.

Then Xiao Chun came down from the platform for the next person to climb up the stage and summon his beast.

This went on with the boys summoning strange beasts that invoked the feeling of mystification and immense power.

Not long, it was Xiao Lin's turn to summon. As the youngest, he was going to climb up the stage after his brothers had all summoned their Animal Spirits.

When he climbed up the stage, he closed his eyes to summon. Then with his palms out, he began to perform mysterious gestures upon gestures with his fingers.

After a long while when people were already tired of waiting to see the beast that he was going to summon, a bright red light suddenly flashed, successfully pulling everyone's attention back to Xiao Lin who was intensely focusing on what he was doing.

However, when the brilliant red light receded, what could be seen was the illusory image of a surprisingly small, wolf-like animal that was red-skinned and looked too gentle to be a Battle Beast Spirit.

What is this?

What trashy beast spirit did this boy summon?

These sort of questions flashed in the minds of everyone that were looking at Xiao Lin.

While the man who sat on a throne and was surrounded by his ten wives who also sat on thrones that were by his sides, furrowed his brows with an expression of anger and disgust visibly evident in his face.

After sometime that the beast appeared, it shot into Xiao Lin's body.

But no roar rang out, neither did any strange phenomenon take place.

It was like the Animal Spirit was too gentle or too weak to make a roar or cause Xiao Lin's body to exhibit some strange and shocking power.

"Lin, what's that useless animal spirit that you just summoned?" The man asked angrily.

"Father, that's my animal spirit." Xiao Lin said.

He was surprised by the question that his father just asked him.

"Your animal spirit? Hahaha! That's one trash animal spirit that you summoned, boy." His father said wrathfully and then laughed raucously.

With the expression of anger still on his face which visibly grew intense in the next moment, he said with a really loud angry voice "Leave my presence this instant!!"

Xiao Lin became tremendously surprised by his father's attitude.

He wanted to say something, but he could feel the excessive rage and irritation in his father's voice. Then he quickly left his father's overwhelming presence before his father could do anything to him out of wrath which could be felt emanating unbridledly from his body.

As soon as Xiao Lin got to his room and closed the door behind him, he broke into tears.

He guessed that he had just failed to impress his dad, and at the same time, had made him very angry.

He just couldn't comprehend why. And now, he felt that his father's love and favour for him would extremely reduce, or worst, totally disappear.

Tears began to stream down both sides of his cheeks as he cried.

As he remained in his room for more than two hours crying and hoping that his father's love for him would still be in his heart, the door was suddenly forced open by someone.

Xiao Lin became shocked at who would have the audacity to break into his room.

Then when he looked up to see who had broken the door of his room, he saw his mother with an expression of sadness and gloom in her face.

He was surprised and perplexed by the sad expression in her face.

Then before he could ask any question, his mother who had a morose expression in her face which was contorted to make her look ugly, despite being a beautiful young woman, suddenly said "Lin'er, quickly pack your things. We have to leave here at once. We can't stay here any longer"

Bang!

It was like a thunderbolt directly struck Xiao Lin's mind.

He shook for sometime before recollecting control of himself.

"W-We are l-leaving? W-why are we leaving?" Xiao Lin began to stutter.

"Dear child, I will explain to you on the way. But for now, quickly pack your things. We have to leave here now!" His mother said hurriedly.

Xiao Lin who couldn't understand what was going on nodded his head since he could detect the sense of urgency in her tone.

Then he rushed to quickly pack his things into his spatial ring which contained a great amount of space since it was of high quality.

Then he left his room with his mom who began to look everywhere observantly and with fright in her eyes.

His mom then released spiritual energy from one of her hands which she abruptly condensed into a large blade and then used to cut space apart.

As soon as she created a spatial slit using the blade that she condensed from her spiritual energy, she rapidly ejected spiritual energy from one of her hands which she quickly condensed into a flat disc that she ordered Xiao Lin to climb upon.

Then using the power of her mind over her energy, the disc that was formed from her spiritual energy zoomed into the slit along with her when she flew into it.

And when they appeared in a new region and began to move at unimaginable speeds through the air, Xiao Lin's mother who flew by her son's side continuously released spiritual energy to sustain a thick screen that she formed from her spiritual energy to protect Xiao Lin from the strong, raging winds that could possibly reduce him to pieces due to the extreme speed that they were both moving at in the air.

***

"My lord, Zhao Yun and her son have gotten away." A guard dressed in golden armored robe knelt before his Lord and said with fear and reverence in his tone.

"They did? Haha! Well, that isn't a problem. I knew she would want to escape with that useless trash she calls her son. Just send the Murderous Blades after them. And make sure they kill the both of them and burn off their corpses. I don't want the world to know that I, the Great Emperor of the Black Lotus Palace, once had a useless trash for a son" The man said with boundless cruelty and evilness erupting from his gaze and tone.