33 Departure

The two came down from the roof after chatting for a while and woke the Xun siblings up. The same old rocking chair greeted them, but it was lacking something - the old man wasn't there. Without him, there was no that peculiar sound caused by the friction of the wooden surfaces. The stern old eyes still lingered in their minds, as if he was there all the time.

Xun Meng: "Little brother, do you know why grandpa isn't here?"

Asura Ryuu looked at her with calm eyes, his face unflinching as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. He looked deeply into her eyes and shook his head. Not even the adult could find anything wrong with his expression, let alone little kids. He lied as naturally as he breathed.

But on the other hand, it wasn't really a lie. Asura Ryuu only guessed that the old man left because his pride was hurt the previous day, but whether that was really the case he didn't know. He also didn't have any means to restrain their Spirit Power, or else he'd gladly do so. Why let anyone know about it? Will any of them get any benefit from people knowing they're strong? The only thing that would happen is they would be avoided, as he knew from the past lives. And his fears were confirmed when the old man left.

He didn't despise them - in fact; he was proud he had such children. He despised himself because even with his old age, he still couldn't grasp the laws that Asura Ryuu did. It would be utterly humiliating to ask the kid who didn't undergo Awakening to explain to him the ways of the soul, and it was still unknown whether he could understand them.

Asura Ryuu remembered the old man's words before he departed: "Tomorrow when the seven suns form a shape of the Big Dipper, the array in front of the mansion will activate and lead you to the academy. We will meet again if the fate allows it. Stay safe, children."

He glanced at the space before him, searching for any signs or fluctuations of the array because the time was already nearing. The last two suns needed to align for it to activate. The reason Asura Ryuu believed this world was man-made, and quite possibly by a predecessor from Earth, was because of the things similar to the big dipper sun formation in the sky. There was no way it would happen naturally, and it was even less likely that the original stars of the Big Dipper were the members of these stars, because there were nine stars and big dipper had seven stars.

Asura Ryuu summoned the Dragon God and tried to feel the fluctuations of the space with his crimson claw and the help of the Dragon God, but it was to no avail. There wasn't even the slightest spatial fluctuation in this entire forest, let alone the place where the array was supposed to be.

Four children donned their spears behind their backs and sat in front of the mansion, enjoying the fruits and meat of this forest for one last time before leaving. Xun Bao wasn't as sleepy and bored as usual, even though they didn't have any physical activity. From that, it could be seen that he was nervous and maybe even a bit afraid of what would come today. They need to go to the main academy, undergo the Spiritual Awakening and become official members of the Crimson Star Academy. Their future depended on what kind of Spirit Soul they could bond and form Spirit Emblem with.

They knew nothing about cultivation because the old man didn't want to say a thing about the hierarchy of this world or the ways of cultivation. There must be a reason why he didn't wish to do so, and Asura Ryuu was curious what those reasons were. But even though he was curious, he didn't have the way to find out unless he asked the old man directly.

The four talked about the future, to the extent the six-year-olds were able to do that. Naturally, this limitation only applied to the Xun siblings because Asuras were more like adults with a body of a child than actual children. Xun siblings naturally noticed that they were different from their younger brother and sister, that is why they respected them very much and loved to spend time with them. Whatever they couldn't figure out, Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka would help with.

Time passed, and the stars aligned according to the shape that Asura Ryuu recognized - it was the good old Big Dipper. He was expecting spatial fluctuations to appear out of nowhere and focused his attention on trying to catch the early signs as to be able to recognize it in the future. But to his disappointment, there was not a slightest trace of any spatial fluctuation. At this point even the Dragon God came out of his body, wondering how powerful a being must be to hide spatial fluctuations even from the Divine Sense. Who could've put such an array here? What was their cultivation?

But in the next moment, everything became crystal clear, like a white sheet of paper laid on the table. They understood why there were no spatial fluctuations - the array didn't even use space! The wind was surging and rising, a natural manifestation. With manipulation of the wind, there naturally wouldn't be any fluctuation because it wasn't even an array - it was merely the wind. Although they didn't know who manipulated the wind, they didn't really even care because the four children were already several meters off the ground. The broken knife shot off from the ground and quietly attached itself to Asura Tenka's waist.

The four were already dozen meters off the ground and the winds suddenly changed their direction. Above them appeared a woman coated in faint green-blue halo as the winds surged according to her will. She said nothing because even if she did, the kids wouldn't be able to hear her because of the howling of the wind. Just like that, without a word, the five people 'flew off' to the distance where the unknown world awaits, carried by the powerful winds.