The Grim Reaper's Symbol

Shinso couldn't possibly believe in the scene unfolding in front of him. It was simply impossible! Extraordinary! Such a mark... it was more than enough reason for him to be awe-struck to this degree.

Truth be told, Shinso, being an immortal vampire, had lived for countless years. He had seen empires rise and fall, forests wither, lakes dry, but never before had he ever been so astonished. The mark was just unbelievable to that extent!

That seemingly mysterious and strange mark had a much deeper meaning than it shown. Its name was the Grim Reaper's Symbol, and for a good reason. It meant that if you were to ever face someone with that mark in battle, you would be as good as dead.

People who possessed that mark were above geniuses. They were above everyone else. They were truly blessed by the Heavens. The reason for that was simple. As all kind of marks, it brought different benefits, and the ones that the Grim Reaper's Symbol brought were endless and each one of them astonishing.

People with such a mark would possess unbelievably fast cultivation speeds and a strengthened Profound System. It also instantly increased a person's life by 300 years. That alone already deserved such praise.

In the cultivation world, it was a well-known fact that the higher your cultivation, the longer you would live. It was said that after reaching the Emperor Profound Realm, one would have one thousand more years to live, in the Tyrant Profound one would have two thousand more years, and on the Sovereign Profound Realm, even more.

With all that said, it could be seen that a bonus of three hundred years right at the start was a heavenly bonus. It was also like that because the amount of people in the entire continent who could reach or have reached the Emperor Realm could be counted on two hands. There wasn't even a single one Tyrant Profound Realm expert!

Another one of the bonuses was also the fact that their Spiritual Power would be denser than everyone within the same level of cultivation. That meant that not only their skills would be much stronger, it also meant that they had more Spiritual Power at their disposal, which was an unquestionably huge advantage in battle.

All of those bonuses contributed to the reputation of the Grim Reaper's Symbol. But, the people who were actually aware of such an existence were few within few. That was because the Grim Reaper's Symbol was only a legend, something that may have appeared in the ancient times. Because of that, only people with high statuses, like the Jiang Dynasty, the Imperial Family, and other powerful entities knew of its existence. Fortunately enough, Shinso was an exception.

How could a person as lowly as a mayor of a random city of the weakest district have such information? Many people knew that Shinso was old, but not how much. The truth was that Shinso had been alive since the ancient times. Because of that, he, of course, had heard of the legendary Grim Reaper's Symbol, but even back then it was considered a legend. In fact, it's existence was actually uncertain and no one knew if it even existed or where information about it came from.

To actually see such a legendary mark right in front of him... one could imagine how astonished Shinso was at the moment.

Looking at the mark with widened eyes and then at the roughed up Issei holding up the stone, Shinso somehow got back to his senses. He immediately looked back at his servants.

"All of you, leave!" He ordered loudly in a bellowing tone. Normally, he would treat them with much more respect, since he was friends with all of them, but the current situation required drastic measures.

The servants, seeing Shinso's commanding expression and tone of voice, didn't dare to dally around any longer and quickly exited themselves from the room, all with still stupefied faces at the reaction caused by the stone.

Obviously, they had seen the Grim Reaper's Symbol but didn't know what it represented, so the reason why they were like that was solely because of the reaction caused by the stone upon identifying Issei's Profound System.

The moment that all of them left the room, Shinso hurried to Issei's side, carefully took the stone out of his hands, and helped him up. It was obvious that the child was barely conscious.

"What..." Issei muttered weakly, a dumb-struck and pain-ridden expression on his face, "Happened?"

Shinso, in turn, ignored him and brought his body up to the table, laying him there. Only after checking his body for any fatal wounds did he finally speak.

"Are you alright, Issei?" He asked in a soft tone, concern evident in his voice. He had obviously seen how rough that black hurricane was, and couldn't help but to be worried about the frail child.

"Not really," Issei muttered slowly, still in pain, but getting better. It seemed that the moment that the stone got off his hands, he started to regenerate. He then looked straight into Shinso's eyes. Brown, sharp, eyes peering into gray, wise, eyes. After staring for a couple of moments, he finally asked, "What exactly happened?"

At that question, Shinso couldn't help but sigh. Although he wasn't over from the surprise that Issei's mark had caused him, it already had diminished to a point that it wouldn't affect him much. "What happened was that the stone identified ritual of your Profound System."

Issei remained quiet for a few more moments before asking, "That reaction..." He began, his face now unbelievably serious, not even a bit like the face that someone from his age could muster, "Was it a good or bad thing?"

"Good or bad?" Shinso asked, astonishment all over his handsome face, "It was perfect!"

"Perfect?" Issei asked puzzledly as he tried to put the pieces together with his sharp mind, "Could it be... that it is one of the two Heavenly Ranked Profound System?" He said, excitement obvious in his voice. If it meant that he had a Heavenly Ranked Profound System, he wouldn't care one bit about the pain he had experienced earlier. Furthermore, he had already gone through much, much worse.

"Heavenly Ranked Profound System?" Shinso said with a sneer, "Please, don't belittle your Profound System. It's an insult to call it that!" He exclaimed at the end. He had long since lost his calm and collected demeanor. The shock from Issei's Profound System made him unable to remain calm.

"What?!" Issei exclaimed, instinctively trying to get up from the table, only to fail due to his injuries. Even after falling back, Issei's countenance didn't show pain, only surprise, as he continued, "But didn't you say that the Heavenly Ranked Profound Systems were the most powerful?"

"Yes, I did indeed say that, but it was only because there was no need to tell you about a legend."

"Legend?" Issei asked, astonished. His small but sharp head already starting to piece what Shinso had said to together. "Does this mean..." He began carefully, "That my Profound System is something from the legends?"

If it had been a normal occasion, Shinso would be surprised at the speed that Issei had understood what he meant, but this was definitely no normal occasion. Instead, he continued, "Exactly. Your Profound System is something that is considered a legend and not many in this country are aware of it.

In fact, the common knowledge is that the Heavenly Ranked Profound System is the highest rank since there aren't any records of someone ever possessing the same system as yours. Information about it simply appeared one day."

By each word that Shinso muttered, Issei's expression grew happier. It was obvious that Shinso was extremely excited, making Issei glad. From the start, the only reason that he wanted to have a high-ranked Profound System was to make Shinso, his savior, proud of him. Now that he had such a legendary Profound System, he felt quite accomplished.

"So, what is the name of my Profound System?" asked Issei, his eyes shining in anticipation.

Shinso then explained everything he knew about the Grim Reaper's Symbol, not leaving anything out. By the end of the explanation, Issei was incomparably awe-struck.

"Amazing..." muttered Issei. At first, he was happy because Shinso was excited about his Profound System, but after hearing about it, he couldn't help but to also become excited. To him, it was as if the Heavens that felt that his life had been way too unfair and decided to gift him this to make up for it.

Immediately, a thought flashed through Issei's head as he remembered the precarious situation he was in. Throughout the entire conversation, he had remained lying on the table, bleeding, with his clothes torn.

"Hmm..." Issei said, somewhat bashfully and awkwardly, "Do you have something to treat my injuries?" He finally asked.

Shinso, who was too busy being excited had completely forgotten about Issei's precarious condition. At that moment, Issei had snapped him out of it.

"Oh!" muttered Shinso quickly as he extended his arm, making bandages appear from mid-air before lifting Issei's garments up and began to tend to his wounds. Truth be told, Shinso was quite ashamed to have forgotten about such a pressing matter, but there was nothing he could do about it except to take care of the injuries as fast possible.

The moment he finished cleaning them up, Shinso immediately covered them up in bandages. Luckily, all the cuts were superficial, as such, Issei hadn't lost much blood and was quite fine.

"Sorry about that..." Shinso muttered somewhat awkwardly.

"I too had forgotten about it, so there's no problem," Issei quickly said, his words truthful. Because of all the adrenaline he had felt, his injuries were completely ignored by him throughout the conversation and even forgotten.

Seeing that Issei was now alright, Shinso quickly organized his thoughts, drove away his excitement and finally got back to his noble-like character.

"So, Issei, back to more pressing matters, since you have such talent, we shall begin your cultivation training soon. In fact, we will begin it as soon as your injuries are healed, is that alright?" He asked, although there wasn't much room for options.

"Yes," Issei said respectfully, also regaining his calm and collected composure. In fact, his face and aura were actually back to the innocent one that he had used to have. If one were to look at him at the moment, they never would be able to imagine just how sharp Issei was. At the moment, he seemed pure, innocent and slightly bashful, even more so than a kid his age would be.

Obviously, that change in personality from both parts was just instinct. Shinso naturally had to have a noble-like character, being a mayor at all, so his default composure was that of nobility

Issei, on the other hand, only showed his true, cunning and shrewd personality on conversations, and normally acted cute and innocent, like kids his age did. That was something that was simply natural to him. It was as if it was some kind of deception to have people underestimate him. He had learned that through his years as a slave. The more underestimated and innocent people thought he was, the better.

"Then, I'll have you go to rest in your room for now. I'll pass by your room today at night to check on your injuries," He said as he helped Issei down from the large table and onto his feet.

"Can you walk?" Shinso asked as he held Issei, afraid of him falling. Normally, such light injuries wouldn't be detrimental to the point of affecting a person's ability to walk, but Shinso also knew that the stone had also drained a lot of Issei's energy.

"Yes," said Issei after moving forward a few steps. Although he was extremely tired and it hurt every time he walked, it wasn't impossible to keep a straight back and walk forward.

"Good," Shinso praised as he directed his attention to the door. "Later on I'll also tell you tomorrow's schedule since you should be able to cultivate by then. I'm calling Sayla right now."

He then sent a mental message to her using through means of a martial skill, telling her to come over.

Soon, the door opened and Sayla came in. Shinso then instructed her to bring Issei to his room. Doing as she was told, she quickly walked out of the room with the 6 years old child, leaving Shinso alone in the room.

Once they had walked out, Shinso's body fell down on the chair near him, letting out a deep sigh.

"Grim Reaper's Symbol, huh?" he murmured, a rare expression on his face. "Seems like I have found myself a rather interesting child... I wonder what other things will happen in the future after this..."