10 The Crimson Star Academy

"Oy! Ryuu, Tenka... hah... wait for us! You are too fast!!!" a pitiful voice came from below Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka. The girl called Asura Tenka is naturally Asura Ryuu's sister. It was the name that Asura Ryuu gave her since she needed one in this life. Both of them had let their past behind and began a new life, and this was only the first step on the path filled with countless obstacles which lies before them.

The one calling their names was a boy with fairly skinny build and was naturally somewhat weaker therefore he lagged behind the others. Above him were three children who gave it their best to climb the steep hill with their bare hands and feet. In the lead were Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka, little below them was the beautiful girl with sharp eyes, Xun Meng, and the last of them was Xun Bao. Climbing that hill was the second nature to the two, but they still gave it their all to break their own records and not fall even once, which rarely went as planned.

"Xun Bao, my dear brother, give it your best!", Asura Ryuu said with a hidden smile as they continued climbing the steep hill filled with thick vines and wet fallen leaves which only made things more difficult. One only needed to step on the leaf and they'd plummet downhill several times faster than they could climb back up, but this was precisely why this served as the exercise for these youngsters.

A strict voice thundered behind them: "If anyone dares help those below they will have to do everything from beginning! Xun Bao, move your lazy ass and climb with all your might. How can you call yourself a student of the Crimson Star Academy if you only know how to whine all day?"

Xun Bao brushed him off with an annoyed tone of voice: "Oh, I won't! Don't worry about me, old demon!"

It was the voice of the old man that brought Ryuu and Tenka to this place.

Xun Bao: "Old demon, if I knew you would torture us every day, I would've escaped this damned place long ago!!!"

"You! You will do another round after you finish that one. Hmph! This old man had seen many things, but I had never seen someone as lazy as you, how could you even be the roy-....". The old man figured out that he said too much and immediately shut up with an angry "Hmph!".

"But I just want to sleep a bit longerrr!!!", a voice filled with grief echoed in the surroundings as the lazy Xun Bao fought with himself while trying to stay awake and climb up.

-----

The two kids who were running up the hill, except the Asura pair, had surname Xun because they were children with no parents and were adopted by the old man and brought to the Crimson Star Academy under his care. Since they were parentless children, they naturally got names that old man gave them but Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka didn't have the same surname as the two because Asura Ryuu thought up the story of how he remembered his parents who old man didn't dare disrespect hence he believed Asura Ryuu about their names, but if the story was genuine, the Asura pair would have surname Tianlong instead of Asura.

Although the Crimson Star Academy was called academy, it was actually bigger than some small-sized countries on that continent. But even then, these children didn't see the academy at all. They spent most of their lives training under the strict regime of the old man or roaming the outskirts of the valley surrounded by mountains on all sides.

The valley was peaceful most of the time, except when the Demonic Beasts fought with each other and because of many reasons, this valley was the least popular place in the entire academy. For the five years Asura Ryuu and Asura Tenka were here, they only saw the old man, Xun Bao and Xun Meng and nobody else.

But the old man didn't seem to mind this at all. It was as if he wanted for these children to never venture to the outside world if possible. Asura Ryuu found this a bit strange, but he wasn't strong enough to survive in this little place, not to mention climb over any of those massive mountains in order to go outside.

Although they were trapped in here, they didn't mind it particularly because it was very beautiful and calming to eyes. If one had to say what trait this valley had, it was its beauty. But apart from natural beauty, it was lacking in many things and especially in Spirit Energy. Maybe that's why nobody came here where Spirit Energy was thinner than in the outside world.

Because the Spirit Energy was very thin here, the valley got the name "Lifeless Valley". It was partly because there was nothing of benefit here for Spirit Masters and partly for the sake of the irony - the area overflowing with nature was called 'Lifeless'. What could it be else than irony?

The good thing was that to these children, the lack of Spirit Energy meant nothing because they didn't begin cultivating yet, so this was a perfect area for them. There was a two-story mansion in the base of a hill where children and the old man lived together. The mansion was big enough to accommodate everyone and had many hidden arrays for protection, but other than those, everything else was done manually.

For example, in some homes there would be an automated array for cooking or something similar, but there was nothing of that sort in this mansion. Asura Ryuu and his new family had to prepare their own meals because the old man didn't need to eat.

Spirit Masters with a certain level of cultivation can go without food for who knows how long since they get the energy from the air around them either through the pores, breathing or whatnot. But these children couldn't even feel the Spirit Energy in the air, let alone absorb it or replace food with it. That was just a distant dream for them, although not too distant anymore.

There were many chores they had to do every day from hunting food, making utilities for preparing it, gathering branches and wood and many similar things. Asura Ryuu generally did those jobs that are hard because that way he could train his own body whilst reducing the burden for other three.

Asura Tenka would join him when he went into the thick forest to gather ingredients and would generally follow him around wherever he went but what's interesting is that she wasn't any weaker than him because she would usually do the same things he did, only nobody noticed that aside from the two - not even the old man.

The old man was more than capable of sensing this entire valley with his Spirit Sense but he would do so only occasionally and would then return to the state of cultivation which made him become one with the rocking chair and just let it go. The interesting thing being that the chair never stopped swaying even when he was 'asleep', as if under the influence of some mysterious force.

And just like that, the four children pressed forward to the top of the hill by any means necessary, even if their hands were scraped from all the vines and thorns. They would return covered in mud from slipping and falling several times, but they would laugh all together at the end of a day. It was very fun to do these things together, something that Asura Ryuu didn't experience for quite a while.

Asura Tenka had the chance to see a rare smile of satisfaction on his face this time.