During the night, Yan Mei and Hina talked about her outburst.
"Um, so about that, you know, whole cutting the guy's hand off thing?" Yan Mei asked as she sat on a bed across from Hina's.
"Look, can we not talk about that? I just want to sleep." Hina said as she pulled the covers over her body and put her back to Yan Mei.
Yan Mei looked a little down and said, "If you want to talk about it, just know, as a friend, I'll always be here to listen!"
Hina aggravated expression lightened slightly as she sighed, "Maybe some other time."
Yan Mei smiled happily as she nodded her head and said, "Good night Hina!"
"Good night, Yan Mei," Hina responded as she used a water spell to douse the candles.
Fei Lei woke up the next morning realizing that the cog had vanished, he began searching the room like a madman, when he suddenly noticed that there was a Roman Numeral 1 number on the cog birthmark around his wrist.
"What happened?" Fei Lei scratched his head as he realized he could do nothing about it.
Fei Lei then sighed before he said, "Well this sucks!"
Fei Lei had no idea what the cog was or what it was for, and now it was gone. To top it all off, he also had some random tattoo appear on his wrist overnight. Fei Lei was beginning to think he had messed his physique up somehow during his compression.
Feeling frustrated by his lack of conclusions, Fei Lei then walked outside his room and was received by the Yan Mei and Hina's cheerful greeting.
"Good morning, Fei Lei!" The girls shouted at the same time.
Fei Lei smiled and rubbed the back of his head, "How's it going, ladies?"
"Wait, did you always have that tattoo?" Hina asked as she inspected the visible roman numeral.
"It just showed up, I know I didn't have it last night. Say, Hina, did you do this?" Fei Lei asked with a suspicious stare.
After eating breakfast Fei Lei did his usual morning practices, this time he was joined by Hina and Yan Mei.
Hina couldn't completely keep up with Fei Lei's work out routine and had to rely on the boost spell to finish, while Yan Mei could barely complete the light workout prepared for her.
After the physical work out, Hina and Fei Lei sat next to each other to practice their breathing techniques.
Yan Mei watched on with a bit of jealousy as she tried to copy them by observation.
Hina opened her eyes and noticed Fei Lei's Breath was different than her's, Hina then leaned in and asked, "That doesn't look like any of the breaths Teacher taught us. What is it?"
Fei Lei opened an eye and said, "Do you have a way to contact Tetra? I know I'm still on my warrior's pilgrimage, and I can't ask for help, but I want to give Teacher something."
Fei Lei tossed over a leather scroll from inside his spatial ring.
When Hina caught it, she began to read through it with a fervent attitude, as a fellow practitioner of the 4 Season Breaths, she could truly see the value in what he had given her.
Hina then quickly memorized the content of the scroll before saying, "I'll send this out immediately."
Hina poked her head out the nearby window and whistled as a large falcon came flying over. When it landed on the window frame, she held her arm out and let the bird rest on her wrist.
Hina handed the scroll off to it alongside a note that she wrote up in a manner of seconds. Hina then tied a note to the falcon's leg as it took the scroll and flew away.
Hina moved back beside Fei Lei and nodded her head as she continued her new breathing technique.
"Trained bird, huh?" Fei Lei said when Yan Mei sat in between them.
"No fair! I want to learn it too!" Yan Mei pouted with puffed up cheeks.
Fei Lei laughed and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before he said, "You know, you can read it too?"
"Really?" Yan Mei asked with stars in her eyes.
"Sure! You just have to get Teacher to agree to take you in as his pupil!" Fei Lei teased her, getting her revenge for the time she mentioned having to marry her if he wanted to see her family's spells.
Yan Mei jumped on Fei Lei's back and bit his ear while mumbling, "How dare you! I'll teach you to play with a maiden's feelings!"
Fei Lei's hairs stood on end as he felt a shock run through his body, his blood started pumping and in more than the normal places, he tried to shake her off, but Yan Mei was clamped on tight.
"I'm sorry! Call the bird back, I'll ask for Teacher's permission!" Fei Lei implored as he hunched over.
Hina giggled at their lovey-dovey attitude and started to practice the Nature God's Breath. She suddenly felt her body grow lighter and the condition of her health was slowly being improved.
Hina looked to Fei Lei and smiled before she thought, "I guess I'll have to keep my promise."
After morning exercises, they gathered up their belongings and left the hotel to return to the tournament grounds. By the time they arrived, they saw that numerous people had already gathered, filling up many spectator seats, even though they still had a few hours until it got started.
There were several strong Mages in the crowd standing side by side while preparing for their upcoming match.
When Fei Lei, Yan Mei, and Hina arrived, they stood out quite a bit because of how they passed their tests the previous day.
Suddenly, a group of Mages wearing waved pattered robes walked started to approach them. A man with long green hair and the complexion of a maiden, led the pack as he looked over at Hina and smiled as if they were good acquaintances.
The guy was a standard thin lady-killer type and was around the same age as Fei Lei. Next to him, were your standard brown-nosers, and a few dozen girls swooning over him while moving about as a crowd.
When he stopped in front of Hina, he couldn't help but glance at Yan Mei.
"Hina, so good to see you here, and who is your lovely friend?" The unknown man said staring at Yan Mei's body with a perverse look.
Even though he couldn't see her face because of the hood she wore, the bottom half of her face, and the curves outlined over her cloak, was enough to make him lust after her.
Fei Lei frowned and stood in front of her, the man reeked of sex and blood.
Having a good idea, Fei Lei activated his Danger Sense Spell and attempted to discover a new use for it. When he tried using the spell to feel out the guy's intentions, Fei Lei suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head and released his control over the spell.
He didn't know if this was a warning for his level of threat, or if he succeeded in trying to direct the spell to target someone's intentions, but only with repeated use and continuous experimentation, would Fei Lei come to understand how useful it was.
Yan Mei frowned as she saw his pained expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
Fei Lei smiled and said, "It's nothing. Anyways, Hina, how do you know this guy?"
Hina scowled at the man that had approached and said, "Ugh, I thought I smelled trash."
The girls standing around the man Hina insulted frowned, "Don't you talk about Sheng Lu like that!"
"Just because you're the headmaster's favorite doesn't mean you're better than my Sheng Lu!"
Hina rolled her eyes and said, "You girls are blind, you don't even know what a real man should look like!"
Hina then pulled up Fei Lei's shirt and shouted, "See these abs?! See these pecs?! This is what a real man should look like! Not like the toothpick mages being babied at school, and especially not some girly boy like Sheng Lu!"
Many of the girls shied away from Fei Lei's exposed upper body while covering their faces, though, a few of them were peeking through their fingers.
"If you want to catch my attention you should at least build a strong body," Hina said in a playful tone.
Fei Lei quickly pulled his shirt down with an embarrassed expression on his face before both he and Yan Mei gave Hina an angry stare.
"Hina!" Yan Mei shouted before saying, "You can't go showing off the goods like that."
Hina snorted as did more than a few who were spectating. Fits of girls laughing and whistling at Fei Lei made him want to sink into a hole and hide.
"You're getting me back for last night aren't you, was I too rough?" Fei Lei grinned and turned the tables on Yan Mei.
Her face lit up like a lantern and turned completely red before Hina made it worse.
"Ooh, what is it that you did last night? Did you sneak out of our room for some fun time and not invite me?" Hina said placing her arm around Yan Mei's shoulder. "I thought we had something special."
Now two people wanted to bury themselves in a hole, and all the men's hatred towards Fei Lei manifested into cussing and swears.
"I'll kill him! Let me go, Dwane!" A deranged spectator called out as his friend grabbed him by the shirt.
"Easy, Yukinami, you saw what that guy did to that stone pillar." The one known as Dwane spoke to calm his friend.
"Go and get killed by a honey trap already, you bastard!" A random hater shouted.
"What kind of luck do you have to get in order to have two babes like that?!" Another spectator asked.
Sheng Lu did not like the attention Fei Lei was getting as he stared daggers at him and said, "You're that Non-Elemental cheater from yesterday? Right?"
Fei Lei frowned and gave him the finger before he replied with, "I am a Non-Elemental user, but I never cheated."
Sheng Lu was a little puzzled at Fei Lei's gesture but ignored him like he wasn't there, he then turned to Hina and said, "Hina, I hope to see you join my party today. In fact, I could even pull a few strings and make you vice-captain."
Sheng Lu didn't actually have a party, it was more like his cronies and his harem.
Hina wrapped her arm around Fei Lei and Hina, then smiled before saying, "How many times do I have to tell you? Listen closely this time, I'm going to say real slow so an impudent person like yourself can understand. N~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o!"
Everyone on the stage and in the audience started to laugh, Sheng Lu wanted to be the center of attention, but not in this manner.
"Besides, I've already joined a team. Listen up folks, we're the Mages of Fantasia, we're going to be the best adventuring team since the Mana King's party!" Yan Mei laughed as she held out her card.
Everyone that knew her or knew of her, gasped.
"That Hina joined a team?" An Adventurer who was spectating said with wide eyes.
"No way she must be bluffing! My Hina would never!" One of the males from her Mage School laughed like he was losing his mind.
The crowd from her school gossiped around them like hens with their heads cut off.
Fei Lei then turned to Hina and asked, "Can you make him leave, he smells like he doesn't know how to bath, and he has a habit for killing, based on the level of iron in the bloody scent, I can determine his last kill was most likely a young girl."
"How dare you slander me! You...you filthy peasant! Yes, that's it, you look like a work slave with all those disgusting muscles! Hina you should keep better control over your servants!" Sheng Lu's eyes widened as he went on the defense.
Suddenly, he had could feel the cold air of death's presence, Sheng Lu stared over to see Yan Mei pointing a flame arrow between his eyebrows.
As she fired the shot, Sheng Lu chanted a verse of an ancient language, making a shield of water appear and surround his body.
As the arrow made contact it evaporated the water canceling out both of their spells.
The force from her attack blew back the hood from Yan Mei's head and displayed her gorgeous appearance for everyone to see. The crowd was gasping at her beauty. While they gawked, Yan Mei had already drawn back her bowstring and aimed another shot at him.
Fei Lei placed his hand up and stopped her, he looked to Sheng Lu and smiled.
"Call me a slave again..." Fei Lei let a deathly pause in his sentence for dramatic flair before he pointed his finger to Sheng Lu's throat and finished saying, "...and I will kill you."
As he warned Sheng Lu the crowd began erupting into laughter.
"Some shitty Non-Elementalist thinks he can beat one of our school's elites." Someone from Hina's school chided Fei Lei's declaration.
"Hahahaha, I can't believe an Adept thinks he can beat, me, an Erudite!" Sheng Lu couldn't stop laughing.
Yan Mei huffed as she undid her spell and said, "Shut up! Scum like you has no right to insult my man!"
Everyone's jaw dropped at Yan Mei's announcement, Sheng Lu could feel a surge of jealousy when he said, " Hey I recognize you, Aren't you from the Huǒ clan?"
Yan Mei puffed her chest out, knowing full well that Sheng Lu comprehended who she was the moment he laid eyes on her face.
She then held out her family token and said, "I'm from the Yan Royal Family, my father is Yan Chi, my mother's name is Yan Yun, and my grandfather is Huǒ Shu. This is my proof!"
The crowd gasped when Sheng Lu bowed, "My apologies, I am Sheng Lu Sheng, form the Sheng clan's main-branch family."
"Second-rate noble family, I've never heard of you!" Yan Mei insulted Sheng Lu while crossing her arms and stomping her foot.
Sheng Lu's eyebrow twitched, seeing his expression made Fei Lei laugh a little, which in turn, made Sheng Lu even more embarrassed.
Sheng Lu ground his teeth before he stared at Fei Lei with a venomous glare. He looked like he was about to strike out and chew on Fei Lei's throat, when suddenly, the voice of an older male called out, "Enough!"
"Big brother, Sheng Tai!" Sheng Lu called out with a happy grin.
An older looking version of Sheng Lu appeared in front of his little brother. He had long green hair, snake viper like eyes, the same body type as Sheng Lu, and even smelled worse than his little brother.
Fei Lei covered his nose and showed a disgusted look on his face and thought, "How many people has this guy killed? He smells worse than that bandit leader."
The worst part of it was that he could also smell nothing but female blood coming from him.
Seeing his disgusted look Sheng Tai frowned and said, "What? What are you looking at, scum?"
A thick aura that seemed superficial and filled with malice poured out of Sheng Tai. He was revealing his Mana and flaunting to scare Fei Lei, but only succeeded in making him want to puke.
For some reason no one else seemed to notice this, they merely acted impressed by his almost solid 4th level Sigil.
"My brother's Iron Blood Sigil is unbeatable, he can even fight on the front lines using this spell!" Sheng Lu bragged.
Fei Lei frowned as rage-fueled expression appeared on his face that would scare an Asura under the bed, he growled slightly before saying, "I think I'm going to kill you two. How old were they, 10? 12 years old? How much blood have you two drank?!"
The two brothers frowned suddenly because they thought their clan's secret had been leaked by someone, and that Fei Lei knew too much.
Before the Sheng clan were considered Nobles, one of their ancestors inherited a Necromancer's legacy and rose to prominence almost overnight, and because of rumors that their family's ancestor is Prime Magus, no one questioned how they got that powerful so quickly.
The spell allowed one to absorb the vitality and Mana from the blood of their targets, the downside was that male practitioners could only absorb from females, and females could only absorb from men.
The Level-1 through Level-9 Blood Devil Spell, the higher the level of the spell, the greater amount of Mana and vitality the user could harvest from their victims.
Sheng Lu was about to say something that could give their guilt away when his brother slapped him and grabbed him by the collar of his robe. Sheng Tai then stared at Fei Lei and said, "I don't know what you're referring to, but if you're trying to slander my family you should think twice!"
Dragging off his brother, Sheng Tai shot Fei Lei one last ferocious look as Fei Lei shook his head and said, "I only speak the truth, sure I omit things from time to time, but I don't think I've ever really lied."
Yan Mei and Hina smiled as they gave Fei Lei a thumbs up, approving of how he handled that situation.
As the crowd slowly dispersed, Yan Mei moved in close to Fei Lei asked, "What did you mean by how old they were?"
Fei Lei frowned and explained what he smelled.
Hina then grimaced as she said, "There have been rumors about that family having problems with their citizens disappearing, mostly slaves and young women."
Fei Lei's knuckles cracked, "How powerful is the Sheng clan?"
"Our Teacher would have to go there himself to destroy it, not many people know this, but their family ancestor is Prime Magus, and their current Clan Leader is an Arch Wizard. Although, if either first-brother, second-sister, or third-brother worked together, they could probably wipe them off the map." Hina answered.
Fei Lei smiled, "I really want to meet my older brothers and sisters one day."
Yan Mei was shocked to hear what Hina said, the number of Prime Magi that a family had, was the utmost important factor in deciding the Tier of Nobility for that family.
For instance, the Huǒ clan has 7 Elders that are Prime Magus Mages.
If you were to put them on a scoreboard then, a single Prime Magus would be worth 1500 points, every Grand Warlock is worth 1250, Arch Wizards are 1000, Warlocks are 500, Wizards are worth 250, Sorcerers are worth 100 Erudites are 50 Magi are 10, and Adepts are worth 1.
All of the Huǒ clan's numbers added together, make them tier 7 family out of 9 tiers. With the Yan Clan's forces included, they barely met the mark to be considered a Royal family.
In order to become an Esquire raked Noble family, you would have to have at least 500 Points. If you want to become a Tier 2 Noble family and be considered a Baron you'd need 1000 points.
2,000 for Tier 3, Viscount. 3,000 for Tier 4, Earl.5,000 for Tier 5, Margrave.7,000 for Tier 6, Marquess.9,000 for Tier 7, Duke.15,000 for Tier 8, Arch Duke.20,000 for Tier 9, Royal.
Contribution Points are also added to this score, so someone with lesser quantities of Mages could rise through the ranks without being discriminated against. As long as they did something to benefit their empire, they could be awarded more points and resources.
If Yan Mei's family had even one more Prime Magus join their ranks, they would rank up, receive more land, and be rewarded additional training resources from the current Eastern Emperor.
If a clan like the Sheng has hidden the fact they have a Prime Magus, then they may secretly have more. "I have to tell grandpa about this!" Yan Mei thought to herself.
While trying not to think of the terrible things her family told her about corrupt noble clans and the things they did, Fei Lei patted her shoulder and said, "I think it's time for the show to start."