012 Royal Decree

By the time Liam woke up, he only had a faint memory of what had happened. When he got up and looked around himself, he noticed that everyone was going about their day. Every now and then someone would throw a concerned look at Liam. As Liam saw this, he wondered why even those that were apparently concerned about him, did nothing to help him in his current state. Everyone seemed to avoid him like he carried a contagious disease.

That's when the pain kicked in. Liam saw the dried blood all over his clothes and hands, he was barely standing up as most of his bones were at least slightly fractured.

Feeling lost in this world, as he had truly lost everything that had ever been important to him. He had left his home of origin and everyone he knew there to go to this completely unknown world. All in the hopes of saving his dying sister. The odds were against him, but there was a chance. Now, he had nothing. With only a faint memory of the man's face. A man so strong, that he could be killed just by being in his presence. Is there any chance of ever becoming strong enough to face that man? Is it even possible to become that strong? I saw how everyone here, tens of thousands of people all knelt before him.

With no motivation to even continue living, Liam embraced the pain that he felt in his body and just never got up. He looked at the sky, that slowly became night and the stars began to shine. The rowdy streets were a lot tamer as only the horses of the merchants that came late into town, and the few odd drunkards' wandering the streets, could be heard.

Liam continued to lay there silently when he overheard two drunks.

"I can't believe those bastards from the Mystical turtle sanctuary did that!" One of the two men said.

"Yea, just because they come from a prestigious sect with bit better teachers, they think they are the best or something." The other one commented, his voice swinging.

"They even disrespected the Silent monastery, a four-star rated sect! Have they gone mad? They aren't even a five-star sect themselves. There is no five-star sect on the southern continent." The man said angerly.

"I have some good news; a core disciple of the Silent monastery has gathered up a few inner disciples and they want to team up with our eternal star hall to teach them a lesson by beating up their new outer disciples on the upcoming expedition." The other man said with an evil smirk.

"Ha-ha, that's great, now dial it down. We don't want the Grand Elder to overhear us, we saw how scary he can be, earlier this day." The man said before they continued on.

"Is that man from before the Grand Elder of the Mystic turtle sanctuary, that these two mentioned. Maybe I can find out more, they are my only lead right now." Liam thought to himself before he gathered his strength to get back up and begin secretly following them.

Surprisingly most of his outer injuries had already healed and even his insides felt a lot better. When he looked inside his sea of soul, a single dark blue drop had gathered after all that time. It was a drastic difference to the less than a minuit it took him to gather one when he was in Coralopolis.

Liam had a good guess for why the drops in his sea of soul were refilling so slowly. When he focused to look at the little lights in the air, there was a drastic difference from when he was in Coralopolis.

In Coralopolis there were mostly dark blue lights with the odd dark and yellowish-orange ones.

Up here in this town that the man on the boat called Regalshire, there were a vast amount of different colored lights. Liam could see that there were mostly white, then a dark brown and a few gray ones, a light blue and very rarely dark blue, a considerable amount of yellow and orange, as well as red and very few in between were dark.

Liam did not know what this meant, but he could see that only the blue ones gravitated towards him, and the amount of them was incredibly low compared to his previous home.

Liam continued to silently follow after the two drunk men, but he didn't hear anything of interest. Just as he was considering whether to lay on the ground yet again, someone pulled him into an alleyway.

"I have been following you since the plaza, where do you think you're wandering about in the open like that. Do you want to bring them to this town to look for us?" The man wore a cloak and Liam wasn't able to see his face in the darkness, but from the sound of his voice. The man sounded angry and young, probably around the same age as him.

Liam did not say anything as he did not know what the man was talking about, the whole situation just happened so fast, he did not have the time to think it trough.

"So, you won't speak?" The man sounded even angrier.

"Who are you referring to, when you said "Them". "Liam asked the man.

"Don't play dumb, you know that they are after us. You have no emblem on your robe. You are a runaway just like I am." The man continued silently shouting at Liam, not wanting to bring too much attention to themselves.

"I keep hearing everyone saying that I'm a runaway or something. And everyone keeps saying that someone is out to catch me. I don't understand what you people are talking about." Liam said to the man, before he sat on the ground felling lost yet again. "Because of you, I lost the only lead I had of every finding my sister."

"Do you really not know?" The man asked

"No." Liam answered quickly, not even turning to look at the man.

"I don't know if I can trust this guy, but he's in the same boat as me." The man thought to himself before taking the hood of his cloak. Liam turned to see what the man was doing, when he noticed the faint moonlight shining in the crystal azure-colored eyes, that sat on the man's face. His short blond hair slightly fluttering in the wind.

"How much do you know?" The blond boy asked Liam.

"Nothing." Was Liam's only response.

The boy contemplated a bit, but he eventually decided to tell Liam.

"You know about the Southern Royal family, right?" The boy started explaining by asking a question.

"You know about the royal family?" Liam asked turning his head to look towards the blond boy, a new found hope. Does he really somehow know about his family.

"Of course, I do, the royal family that rules over the whole southern continent. How can anyone living here not know them?" He responded.

"Oh, yea. Sorry." Liam turned his head to look at the ground yet again.

"Well, it seems that the Southern Royal family is scared of something or someone, they want to enlarge their forces. Just two months ago they have passed a new law that everyone, starting at the age of 16 has to attend at least 2 years in a holy cultivation school, or rather a sect."

Liam listened to the blond boy's words but did not pay much attention, or show any interest. It was as if his eyes were since long ago devoid of life, only his body continued to function.

"They want to train us in those schools, make us into a strong fighting force for their personal use." Before the boy could continue Liam stopped him.

"Why would anyone not want to go to those schools. If they have the option to train and get stronger, why would you be running away." Liam asked, more so hoping to find the answer. Could he ever become strong enough to stand against that man?

That's when Liam noticed something. The Leviathan in Coralopolis, who would win. Would the man that just his presence caused tens of thousands of people to kneel or the enormous creature that terrorized the whole of Coralopolis.

Liam did not have the answer to his own question, but the blond boy started talking again, so he set that thought for another time.

"Well, the cultivation schools are amazing for those talented, they can thrive there and become incredible beings. But for ordinary folk like us? We would just be used as servants by the more powerful ones and even after the two years are over, we would be put to fight like cannon fodder. Just to die. There is no future for us there." The blond boy said a bit disheartened.

"If I go to one of those schools, will I be able to become stronger than I currently am?" Liam asked more directly, hoping to get the answer he wanted.

"Yes, you can. But it's more trouble than it's worth, don't bother." The blond boy said as he put on his hood yet again. "Let's get going. If we're spending the next 2 years together, it would be nice to know your name."

"Liam."

"And I'm Ralph."