66 Xia, The Blooming Radiance

The girl who came was naturally Xiao Lan, Asura Ryuu's good 'friend'.

This immediately caused a flashback in Ryuu's mind to the scene in the bath and that soft comfortable feeling around his head. Although he almost suffocated a few times, and got close to having his neck broken, it was still a rewarding experience. Even covered in scales, that part of her body was still clearly accentuated, only that it didn't catch the interest of other six-years-old kids. After all, 'that period' starts somewhere around twelve years, they still have a lot of time until then.

Xiao Lan: "Ya~ little Ryuu! Come give sister a hug!"

Asura Ryuu felt embarrassed for being called like this among the crowd even though it wasn't really anything embarrassing, but he still remained in place without any intention of getting up anytime soon.

Seeing his unwillingness to cooperate, Xiao Lan pretended to pout as her tail carrying a fruit basket swayed from one side to other.

Xiao Lan: "Muu.. my little brother hates me. Well excuse me then, if you won't come hug me then I'll come hug you!"

Xiao Lan's body slightly lowered and she shot off the ground, almost instantly reaching the open space in front of the crowd. The place where she was before or the one she landed at didn't have any traces of damage, which showed how powerful her control over strength was. In three hops she ended up lying in the middle of the crowd and coiling her tail around Asura Ryuu's waist, preventing any attempts at escaping.

The next thing he knew, Asura Ryuu found his head nestled between the well-known objects as a pair of feminine slender but powerful arms tightly hugged him.

Unfortunately for him, those two objects weren't soft unlike last time, because they were filled with scales and his face didn't like that feeling at all. All in all, he was powerless to resist. Luckily, Xiao Lan concluded it'll be more beneficial to rub her cheeks against his rather than hug him so he got himself out of one trouble.

Xiao Lan's tail lowered the fruit basket in the middle of the crowd as her charming voice resounded: "Little ones, take these fruits, they are very sweet!"

Asura Tenka either didn't notice where Asura Ryuu's face was or didn't care, although which of those two was the case, he didn't know.

And with that, the group of twenty four became a group of twenty five... or six, if one takes the new member's size in consideration.

Needless to say, Xiao Lan quickly became a new point of interest and with her arrival the last bits of tension were replaced with joy and curiosity.

Xun Feng stroked his beard and thought to himself: 'Today isn't my lucky day, it seems. Interrupted so many times... Well, I'll get back my share of joy when they start training, MUHAHAHAHA--'

He clapped his hands to attract kids' attention and continued speaking.

Xun Feng: "As I said already a few times... only the three of us present here aside from you kids know about this and that's how it has to remain. Under no circumstances are you allowed to tell anyone about this, not even your closest ones. Even if Gods themselves came from heavens and demanded you tell them, you must not do it! Understood?"

An confirmation was soon heard in the form of unified "Yes, teacher!" which caused Xun Feng to finally heave a sigh of relief.

Xun Feng: "Alright you can have a short pause to eat those fruits then we'll get back to lessons."

-----

In Asura Ryuu's Divine World, Ashen Dragon finally awoke from her rest. She had to take a rest because of the energy she used on those elders to wipe their memories and kick them out. Naturally, her energy didn't come from within her since she was now a Spirit Avatar but rather from Asura Ryuu's Divine World. Although that is the case, she still became exhausted by forcibly manifesting herself.

Only now did she wake up.

"Waaah~ Ryuu, how long was I asleep?"

Asura Ryuu heard her voice in his mind and focused on its source so that he could feed his thoughts back. He was not in a situation where he could just fall asleep and get inside his Divine World.

Focusing on its existence, the situation of the Divine World appeared in his mind. In the middle of the rainbow-colored lake there was a small ashen white dragon resting on a floating leaf. Her size was barely ten centimeters in this form. Compared to the terrific beauty in her humanoid form, the Ashen dragon now looked more like a lizard than a dragon.

Asura Ryuu: "Not much, only a few hours."

"Hmm.. what a blunder. I'm not able to utilize this energy efficiently. Well, whatever. I'll leave that to you."

Asura Ryuu: "By the way, what's your name?"

"Haha, name eh? ... I don't have one. Why don't you give me one?"

Asura Ryuu thought about it for a while and seemed to recall something.

Asura Ryuu: "How about ... Xia?"

"Xia... what does it mean?"

Asura Ryuu: "It represents a glow of sunrise, eye-catching, beautiful and majestic. The Blooming Radiance."

"Oooh, that sounds cool! Sure, my name's Xia from now on! Thank you, Ryuu."

Asura Ryuu: "Eh? Just like that?"

Xia: "Umu."

Asura Ryuu: "Isn't that a bit too fast?"

Xia: "As long as it's you who gave me that name, anything is fine."

Asura Ryuu was at a loss for words and even more at a loss of being able to comprehend what she meant by that.

Xia: "Ah, I remember. That little Qilin you recently acquired isn't bad, but according to her current state, she will never be able to get the most out of her bloodline and even won't be able to cross the final tribulation to ascend to the upper realm."

Asura Ryuu: "Huh? Why?"

Xia: "Her foundation is beyond shallow and her way of cultivation isn't suitable for her body. Tell her to go to the forest and then call her inside here, I'll help her out with that."

Asura Ryuu did as he was told. Xiao Lan said goodbye to everyone and returned to the trees after which she felt the reality around her warp and arrived in Asura Ryuu's Divine World.

Xia: "Now your job's done. We'll need a little privacy so you'll lose connection to your Divine World for a while. Don't panic when it happens."

Asura Ryuu: "Wha- wait!"

Before he could do anything, he felt his control over his Divine World suddenly disappear and felt like a human from Earth once again, with no Spirit Sense. Even like that, this world was still beautiful and his body naturally absorbed the energy in the surroundings even though he couldn't control it. His guess was that Xia was controlling that in his stead.

The time for rest passed quite fast as everyone got to know each other while sharing delicious snacks, and then the party breaker Xun Feng announced the continuation of the lectures.

-----

Asura Ryuu's Divine World.

Xia: "Are you really okay with this? It was originally just a suggestion, I didn't expect you to agree without any hesitation."

Xiao Lan: "I actually think that's what I really need at this moment, because it's boring staying there all day. I'd rather do this and truly join them than be eternally stuck in this world."

Xia: "My guess is that you don't know anything about your family?"

Xiao Lan: ".... My only family is my master, Asura Ryuu."

Xia: *sigh* "Alright, little girl, here we go."

The calm rainbow-colored water in the lake suddenly rose as if there was a very powerful explosion at the bottom of it and mysteriously flew like a snake towards Xiao Lan.

When everything calmed down, there was only a rainbow-colored cocoon, a white dragon and a lake that returned to normal. Nothing changed in this world except for that one cocoon that floated quietly above the lake.

-----

Xun Feng: "So, first question. How many of you know how to read?"

Except for the Princess, no other hands rose in the air.

Xun Feng: "I guess that's our starting point."

He waved the staff and violet gem glowed, after which something came out and expanded above the old man's hand. The closest example Asura Ryuu associated with this is a piece of glass.

One after another, around five hundred such pieces came out from the staff, connecting with other and forming several groups. The exact count of groups was twenty five. One for Xun Feng and other twenty four for the children.

The individual formations thoroughly merged like pieces of molten metal bonding together and the initial lines separating segments disappeared, forming a transparent glass-like rectangular piece 40cm wide and 30cm high.

Each of those rectangular pieces flew toward the kids and each kid got one.

Asura Ryuu traced his finger on the surface of the material and everywhere his finger went, a black-white patterned trail left behind, containing crimson stars inside. His finger became an inkless pen.

This reminded him of a Digital Drawing Tablet back on Earth, but this one operated with Spirit Energy rather than electricity. He was marveling at the idea behind it. In The Realm of Gods, everything was shared through consciousness telepathically so there was no need for mediums such as this.

Xun Feng: "Let's learn to write and read."

And with that, the official theory class started. The first class on Asura Ryuu's and Asura Tenka's journey.