New Start

All my life I've been told that one day I would take over the position of city lord and because of that I've spent all my childhood training and preparing for that day but I would've never imagined that that day would come like this.

Walking slowly I could feel small drops of water running down my face as the sound of bells and other instruments covered the sound of the rain. It was only after reading the center of the city that I stopped and lifted my head to look forward, Fire Lotus city has always been one of the most powerful human settlement in the Divine Continent, we always were able to resist the attack from demon beast thanks to the three legend rank that we had in the city but this time it was different.

Sighing, I lifted the palm sized crimson lotus I had in my hand before placing it gently on top of a sealed coffin. At first glance this seemed like one of the hundreds around the city but if one looked closely one could see small letters engraved on the side.

Looking to its right I could see another similar coffin there and just like I did with the first one I took another crimson lotus and placed it on top of the coffin.

"To all the Demon spiritualists that died protecting the city…"

Behind me I could hear the voice of Taishiro, the left hand of my father and the patriarch of the Crimson Demon Clan, a tall man with white long hair tied behind him.

"...To the citizens that we couldn't protect…"

Continuing I looked around for the first time since I got here, other than the rows of coffins I could see the remaining people of Fire Lotus City looking down as they had grim faces. Everyone today lost someone or something important to them.

"...To the city lord who sacrificed his life in order to save us…"

My name is Shin Akagawa, heir of the Akagawa clan and soon to be city lord of Fire Lotus city replacing my dead father and mother whose coffin was in front of me.

"...May their souls find peace."

Saying one last goodbye in my mind I lifted my hand giving the signal as a group of guards who were standing by activated their inscription scroll as fire engulfed the coffin as the various lotuses bloomed in the fire emanating a gentle warmth contrary to the cold rain that tried to snuff out the fire.

I've always dreamed of this day, to one day replace my father and mother as they could get their hard earned rest and leave this beautiful city and its people in my hands but now… Now I can do nothing other than continue forward and try to protect the remaining people.

<<<3rd Person POV, Fire Lotus City>>>

The Divine Continent, the largest and only great continent of the tiny world, a place where Demon Beast ran rampant as they hunted the last remnant of humanity.

Fire Lotus City was one of those last human settlements with a population of about thousand people, the small city persisted through the attacks of the Demon Beast hordes and grew in strength slowly but steadily, that was until the last attack they received.

Since ancient times human warriors developed a way to fight off the demon beast by cultivating their own soul power to use more efficiently their innate ability later on these warriors were divided in two groups.

The first group was called 'Fighters', they were the humans that pursued a more traditional way of cultivation, they infused the soul force to temper their own body making it as strong and durable as those of the demon beast and used complex martial arts to easily kill any demon beast in their way.

The second group was called 'Demon Spiritualist', they were much stronger and versatile than normal Fighters and they had a better control over their own soul force but the main difference was that the Demon Spiritualist had the ability to integrated with the demon spirits they harvested from demon beast and use those beast innate ability at the cost of soul power.

No matter the difference these two groups were divided in the same way with five different ranks and these ranks were: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Black Gold and Legend. These five ranks were also divided in five parts with each part called a 'Star'.

In Fire Lotus City there before the attack there were about hundreds of Bronze and Silver rank, about one or two hundred Gold rank, a couple Dozen of Black Gold and three Legend rank but after the attack not even half of those numbers were present with the most heavy loss being that of two Legend rank Demon Spiritualist.

Inside the main hall of the Akagawa Clan, the most powerful clan in the city, Shin was currently seated on what was previously his father's seat as he listened to the report on the damage of the city.

"...Of the walls only the Eastern and the Northern wall are still intact as the demon beast weren't able to attack from there but the other two are completely destroyed…"

Fire Lotus City was built right at the foot a giant mountain that was called Azure Peak, thanks to that no demon beast would come on the northern wall while on the east it was protected from a colossal river that descended from Azure Peak and continued toward the south making a natural shield on the east for the city.

"What about the outsider? Is he here yet?"

Hearing that Shin turned his gaze at his right, there seated was his first uncle Daisuke Akagawa, a tall and robust man with short red hair and bright red eyes, he was his only uncle from his father side and the strongest person in the Akagawa clan after his parents death having reached the peak of the Black Gold rank and being only a step away from entering the Legend rank.

'That's right… There's even that person…'

In the middle of the battle as the three Legend rank were about to lose a new Demon Spiritualist appeared as he controlled a storm of snow at his hand he helped Shin's Father kill one of the Salamander, before both of Shin parents were killed by the remaining Salamander as it entered a berserker state and he would have been killed by that same demon beast if it was not for the fact that he was saved by the captain of the guards and current patriarch of the Lightning Dragon clan the third Legend rank of Fire Lotus City, fortunately the outsider came out unharmed as he then proceed to kill the remaining Salamander but the patriarch lost his right arm and has been in a comatose state since then.

"The outsider is currently waiting in the room we assigned him, he hasn't made any demands and hasn't caused any trouble."

'No matter what he does that person is at least a 4-Star Legend rank, if he wanted to he could easily take control of the city and we wouldn't be able to do anything.'

Shin knew he wasn't the best person for this position yet, but he sure wasn't willing to give up on the position without a fight.

"Bring in him, we should hear his story first."

Out of the remaining five clans only Taishiro, the patriarch of the Crimson Demon Clan, was here but even him was just at the 4-Star of the Black Gold rank.

'I guess it doesn't matter since even if the whole city were to attack we would at most injure him, especially without any Legend rank…'

It only took a couple of minutes for the outsider to reach the main hall and as he entered Shin couldn't help but feel a little intimidated in his heart, after all no matter how much he tried but the difference between a Legend rank and a White rank, the name given to the people who have never cultivated in their life, was so big that even the slightest movement of soul force from the former would be able to kill the latter.

"I greet the patriarch of Fire Lotus City."

'Is this the way you want to play? Alright…' Shin looked at the old man in front of him, he had long white hair proof of his old age along with a long white beard that would make him seem like a stern but nice grandpa that if it wasn't for his body, even under the long green robe one could see how the years of martial art tempered his body.

"There is no need for you to be so respectful, after all you did save us in this attack."

The old man shook his head at Shin words.

"It's only normal for Humans to help each other especially in these times where it's so rare to see another Human settlement."

'You won't even try to hide the fact that you come from another settlement?'

Giving a quick glance to the left Shin made eye contact with Taishiro who kept his expressionless face but Shin knew he understood what he had to do. After all, counting himself Taishiro already served four city lords so he was the most competent person inside this room.

"How rare, it's been a while since we had someone from another settlement would you be willing to tell us your name?"

The old man seemed surprised at my statement 'Were we the first human settlement they found in this forsaken land?' As Shin thought of that the man gave a little bow while presenting himself.

"My name is Ye Mo the City Lord of Glory City."

'A city lord? Could this be a lie?' Taping his finger on the chair armrest once he gave another glance at Taishiro who simply looked down for a second before raising his head in a seemingly random motion. All these years to get ready to become a city lord Shin spent all his time studying and training but whenever he wasn't doing any of the two he would be at his father side as he looked at his mannerism and how he dealt with any type of problem because of that it could be said that he wasn't totally clueless on how to act in this situation.

"Another City Lord? Pardon my rudeness till now… As you may already know my name is Shin Akagawa and I've just recently been appointed as the City Lord and unfortunately as you've seen we are not in the position to actually greet you right now as my people are quite busy."

Heart Reading Technique, that was the name of the technique that would allow someone to read the beating of the heart of another person and with training the user would also be able to differentiate when that person would lie or would be planning something, it was a technique mainly used in the Nightmare Shadow Clan but because of its usefulness it was taught to all higher ranking official in the city, this was the technique that Taishiro was currently using on Ye Mo.

"Surely you jest, we both know that it's not your fault for this… But may I ask something?"

Trying to keep his best poker face, Shin simply smiled, not trusting his voice as he indicated to him to continue.

"I wonder if you know something about the Dark Guild?"

This question actually made Shin break his poker face as he didn't expect it, let alone know something about them he didn't even hear the name, quickly glancing at Taishiro he saw him look up this time 'A negative?' As they wouldn't be able to talk to each other, all previous city lords created this small sign language that would be used in this situation. Obviously this was one of the first things that his father taught him.

"Unfortunately I have never heard of this clan? Or is it a city?"

Ye Mo studied Shin face attentively for a few seconds before nodding his head.

"Then it's good, that group is actually an enemy of my Glory City as they have tried more than one time to kill my family along with some other clan to take over the city."

This time Shin was actually angered by that 'In this situation where each human life is important they actually are so foolish to attack each other simply for the control of a city?'

It has to be said that Fire Lotus City never had this type of problems mainly because the founders divided each clan to make sure that they would never interfere with each other's work.

The Thunderbird clan was the clan appointed to study alchemy and making elixirs, the Beast Tamer Clan was appointed, just like its name suggested, to control Demon beast and tame them to protect the city or to use them for manual labor, the Lightning Dragon Clan was appointed as the guard of the city as they had the most military power and acted as enforcer in the city making sure no one cause trouble, of the remaining clan the Nightmare Shadow Clan was appointed as a reserve ruler and while they served the Akagawa Clan they would also be ready to attack in case a tyrant was born in the clan fortunately no such person was ever born or has ever taken control of the city till now, and lastly the Crimson Demon Clan was the clan assigned to keep all information and secrets of the various clan in case of destruction, they had so little people that they could be counted with the finger from both hand but were also the most devoted to the Akagawa Clan whose sole purposed was to manage the different clan and act as an anchor for the normal people to look up to.

"To think that such a group still exists… I can promise on the name of Fire Lotus City and my Akagawa Clan that we have never had any interaction with them as we never even heard of their name."

Ye Mo seemed to trust Shin words but honestly there was no reason for him to not trust him, no matter how hard he tried Shin would still be unable to actually hide his true emotion from a Legend rank especially as he hasn't officially started training his soul force and perception but that would soon change.

"In that case I may have a proposition for your city if I may be so bold."

Shin could already tell what he was about to say, it wasn't that difficult. 'After making sure we aren't part of your enemy you want us to join you huh…' The only thing he wasn't sure was what path Ye Mo would pursue, would he threaten them to join them? Or would he simply ask them kindly? No matter the choice, Shin had little to no leverage in the negotiation that was about to start as everything would be left in Ye Mo hands.

"As you may guess what I want to ask is if you are willing to move from your city to my city?"

Shin tapped his finger four times on the armrest as he saw a servant casually leave from the open door not raising any type of suspicion.

"Then you already know what I want to know, how much will it cost us?"

Ye Mo looked at Shin as he thought of something, sure making them put the price wasn't the best move he could have done but at the same time unless he knew what Ye Mo may want he wouldn't be able to give a price that could be actually negotiated with.

"I've been in your city just for a couple of days but in this small time there were a couple of thing that caught my attention, If you join my City I would like to ask to sign a soul contract of no aggression toward my Snow wind family and glory city unless there is an actually valid motive then I would like you to share your alchemy knowledge along with your inscription knowledge and all public cultivation technique that you already teach in the various school in this city."

'The big three is it? At least it doesn't seem like they have a shortage of food and demon spirit.'

"There is no problem for me to sign the soul contract as long as it's a non aggression on both parties, as long as your city doesn't betray us we will help each other all you want as for the other things… "

At that moment unbeknownst to everyone a small shadow crawled from outside all the way to Shin's shadow where it disappeared.

{Give out some of the cultivation techniques but don't let them have the other two or we won't have a place to stand in that city.}

Shadow transmission, one of the modified techniques used in Fire Lotus City derivant from the most known form Soul Transmission, this variant lets a user send a silent message to another person in a range of a couple of kilometers and in this instance Shin recognized the voice as Yoru Getsumei the patriarch of the Nightmare Shadow Clan.

"We are willing to give out the basic cultivation techniques but we will keep the most advanced one and the clan specific one. As for the other two we will surely share them but at a reasonable price."

Ye Mo seemed to be about to negotiate but decided against it, maybe it was pity or simply gratitude toward the captain of the guards that saved him in that battle, it didn't matter what of the two it was as he was satisfied enough to get another powerhouse such as this to protect his home and to fight off the Dark Guild.

"Alright I can agree to those conditions, so how would you like to act? I have no rush to return so you can easily prepare everyone for the trip, we should take about three weeks going at the speed of a normal White rank."

At this time it was Shin who smiled at Ye Mo, while it would normally be that way Fire Lotus had better ways to move around especially thanks to the Beast Tamer Clan they may have to divide in two groups but they shouldn't take more than a week and an half if they are willing to do more trips and only use flying beast then they may take a little less.

"Don't worry if it's about transportation then we have a way, you should just go rest in the room we assigned you while we make some preparations."

Ye Mo was a little puzzled but still nodded his head before turning around and following a maid to his room, and just as he left from behind Shin throne a woman appeared, she was a beautiful woman who seemed in her early twenties with long obsidian hair and bright golden eyes that would daze any man that would gaze into them she was Yoru Getsumei.

"You handled that quite well, young master."

Shin could only sigh as he ignored the woman at his side, no matter how young she appeared he knew that her true age may as well be older than Taishiro, he still remember his father being embarrassed as she threatened to tell a story of his younger days and from how she talked at that time one could deduct that she was way older than even his grandparents.

"Ara? Are you perhaps thinking of something rude, young master?"

"I'm thinking of how not even a week into being the City Lord and I already sold my people to another city as I know I have to go outside and tell everyone to prepare and leave their home as I'm too weak to protect them…The worst of all is that we don't even know if this Glory City is better than here, sure they don't seem to have any problem with food and territory but we may as well be jumping from a sinking ship to a ship on fire…"

Sensing his seriousness even Yoru stopped joking but before she could tell something Taishiro interrupted them.

"It's not your fault Young Master, even your father may had to make the same choice if he were in your shoes, you actually handled that pretty well for your age plus we all are willing to follow you to hell and back so you don't have to worry about the people option as they will understand."

Sighing he could only accept what he has done now and ask for forgiveness from his ancestor along with a promise to one day take back this city.