—

“But Raven, you can only use that once a year!”

This was Mark who spoke this time around. As a son of a General, he also knew about a lot of things when it comes to influential people. This goes specially well with his brothers’ backgrounds.

“I know.” Raven said in a ‘matter-of-fact’ tone of voice. He shrugged his shoulders and continued: “I didn’t want to use it, but I gotta make an example out of everyone so that they will leave us alone.”

The instructors of the institute might say that their backgrounds are not important in this place but it does not erase the fact that they still have it. What Raven did was the perfect example of it.

Just because he was inside the Institute does not mean that just about anyone could push him over and he had to swallow all of the grievances that he encounters. If this was the previous version of himself, then he might’ve done so, but it’s different now.

Hearing what Raven said made the two extremely depressed, they felt powerless each time a situation like this occurs.

“Don’t sweat it.” Raven chuckled, he then swung both of his arms on their shoulders, “Let’s go home and eat, I’m hungry.” He then proceed to drag them back to their territory.

***

The dormitory of the triplets are a little bit different compared to other ones here at the institute.

This was because this whole, three tiered house is exclusive for their use only. Unlike other students who had to share rooms with a lot of people, these brothers had a whole territory all for themselves.

This is not a differential treatment. They weren’t the only one’s who had something like this. The institute welcomes this idea, but of course, the students had to rent the plot of land during their stay. Those can’t afford it could use the regular dorms instead.

Paul is the son of this Institute’s Dean, and although his relationship with his father isn’t the warmest now, he was still given some simple liberties like this vast plot of land inside the school, and other miscellaneous things.

Mark is a son of a general, and even though his father doesn’t care much about him, he still has his mother who sent several resources for his protection.

As for Raven, his father is the most talented Marshal of the Intelligence Department of the Army. He might not be have resources or guards but he had the power to ‘mark’ someone once a year. Let’s just say that those who were ‘marked’ by the Kingdom’s Hawk has to wash their hands as soon as they can because if they don’t, then their endings will not be pretty.

These three brothers might have a very impressive backgrounds but in reality this hardly matters. What about money? What about resources? What about background? What about respect? All of those were provided to those who were strong enough to hold them. They might be protected now but who could say so after 5 years? Or 10 years?

The only thing that could really provide them safety, is to become powerful. Unfortunately, fate hasn’t been so kind to them.

Back in the stone house, the triplets had already placed the matter of earlier on the back of their heads. They were now sitting around the table and had just finished eating. Raven’s thoughts flashed and suddenly said:

“Can I see the results of your Talent Measuring Crystals again?”

Paul and Mark became confused but took out their crystals and dropped blood on it. Raven saw as each of the crystals they took out shone with a faint light.

Raven concentrated at Paul’s results first. The crystal showed beams of red light, the lights then converged into something that resembled a constellation. Raven searched through his brain and found the constellation’s description.

“Impressive. Snake-tailed Black Tortoise.” His let out a breath of cold air, no wonder why. So this was the Spirit Entity of Paul. This was why he was able to receive blows from anyone who is at least two whole realms above him in his past life. It turned out that he was a possessor of this entity.

“Snake-tailed Black Tortoise?” Paul repeated, clearly confused.

“I’ll tell you about it later. I’ll take a look at Mark’s result first.” Raven then concentrated at Mark’s crystal.

Similar to Paul, it also shown with a red light, it then also converged into a constellation that shone with multiple pulses.

“Primal Lightning Serpent! How rare.” Raven sucked in another breath of cold air. It was no wonder that Mark had never feared any lightning based attacks in his past life. It was totally because of this Spirit Entity!

“Explain please.” Mark scratched his head in confusion.

“Well, how should I start.” Raven pondered. “Okay so to start it off, the way on how our elders measure our talents are completely wrong. Utter bullshit even in my opinion.”

Their eyes bulged upon hearing this claim. They started to get nervous specially when they heard his follow up explanation.

“Don’t you guys find it weird? The Final Haven Empire had been standing for a very long time, and countless of people had their talents tested and had walked the path of Knighthood before us. If what they say is true, that 80% of our population had Red Colored talent, then how could’ve those remaining 20% of people defended the entire kingdom that’s being attacked not only by beast horde but by the Black Curtain Guild as well?”

“If their methods about measuring out talents are correct, then the kingdom won’t be able to stand for as long as it did today. Am I right?”

Paul and Mark’s pupils constricted sharply when they mulled over what he said. They have never thought about it before but his words do make sense.

The population of the kingdom might be millions in number but compared to the size of the beast horde and their strength, it’s just a dream for them hold out for this long. It had to be known that a beast horde that is numbered between 500,000-750,000 is considered a small sized horde, and there are multiple attacks each year.

While there might some tools that aid them in battle, there’s just too many of them. Add the fact that they have to be on guard for the Black Curtain Guild as well, it’s really a mystery why the kingdom is still standing strong until today.

“Well we could point fingers as many times as we could but we have no proof, and it does not matter even if we know since what can we do? Our backgrounds might be impressive but it’s nothing compared to the murky waters of this kingdom.”

“Anyway. Like I was saying, the methods that they use to test our talents are wrong. They shouldn’t care about the color but on the Spirit Entity that forms afterwards.”

“Spirit Entity?” Paul repeated.

“Right. We humans had a long history and those who have ascended are remembered by the starry skies of the Spirit World in a form of a constellation. These constellations exists in a mysterious place which could only be reached by dreaming.”

“When a child is born, a certain constellation will brighten and give it’s blessings. When that child reaches 12, it will then show on this crystal and each person has a different one.” Raven explained some more.

“So that means, the Snake-tailed Black Tortoise is my Spirit Entity?”

“And the Primal Lightning Serpent is mine?”

“Correct.” Raven nodded in agreement.

“Okay cool, but what about it? I mean what’s in it for us knowing all of this?” Paul asked.

“It provides you with direction. Which means that you get to know what kind of cultivation technique you should use and what attributes you could possibly had.” While he was saying this, Raven was writing something on a piece of paper. Paul and Mark watched, confused by what he was doing.

He continued writing for a while until he used up two papers. He then handed a paper to each of them and said: “Here, try it for yourselves.”

Paul and Mark raised their brows, they have read the contents of the paper he gave them and was even more confused. They figured that he won’t do anything to harm them so they tried it anyway. They closed their eyes and followed what was written on the papers.

Then a very astonishing scene happened. Raven watched as a fierce suction of Qi appeared out of nowhere. They greedily sucked in these energies as it nourished their skin. After a while, their skin shone and Raven saw how they shed their old skins and was replaced by a new and tougher one. Raven grinned as he watched their breakthroughs.

It was then that their eyes snapped wide open. Both of them showed shocked expressions and looked at Raven who’s showing at toothy grin while making a victory sign with his fingers.

“Holy…” – Paul.

“Shit….” – Mark.