He was boy 5 cm taller than me with blonde hair, golden eyes and a white and perfect skin that would make many women jealous. He was wearing golden clothes showing at his shoulders the royal emblem of Heaven Dou Empire (I don't know why but I have a sense of familiarity with him, like he is someone really important and special).
Seeing me, he made a light bow and presented himself "I am honored to finally meet the famous young master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Clan. I heard great things from your father. I am Xue Qinghe, crown prince of Heaven Dou Empire".
I bowed a little more than him showing my lower statue "The honor is mine. Who did not know of the genius and future emperor? My name is Ning Bai, your highness".
"You do not need to be so formal, as your father student, I consider both of us the same so you can call me without honorifics. Qinghe is fine". He said smiling brightly.
(Woah is like he is shining). "In this case call me Bai" I answer. My dad left the room saying " I will leave the young generation to talk alone".
All alone in the room, Qinghe said "Now that we're alone there's no need to speak formally. I'm happy to meet you and I would like us to be friends. Being the crown prince, there aren't a lot of people that I can befriend on similar terms. And I want to be in good terms with you and your clan that it's one of the 3 upper clans".
"Yeah, I think that father prepared this meeting for me to make one friend. The majority of the time I spent training and you never know if the people that approach you are only interested in the power of the clan. I'm happy to finally met you, my father talked a lot about your great character and intelligence, there's also your talent for cultivation known for everyone" I paused thinking to continue "Rather than having a pleasant talk while drinking tea what will you say of a little spar? I think that the best way to understand each other is crossing fists, in my case a sword".
He surprised at first but rapidly changed his face to a teasing one that cannot hide a little arrogance in his eyes "A little spar it will be okay. Don't worry too much because I'm gonna restrain a bit. There has never been an opponent of my age that could contend me, easily winning all fights. I expect that you will be a bit better".
"Oh you don't have to worry, you won't lose your invincibility in your age" I paused and grinned "because I'm a year younger".
Qinghe laughed "How arrogant! I'll like to see if you have the strength to be".
Then I guided him to the nearest training room and positioned one in front of the other distancing 30 m between us "Ning Bai 11 years old rank 33 control system Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sword spirit" I introduced myself invoking my sword spirit, showing 2 yellow rings and 1 purple.
"Xue Qinghe 12 years old rank 41 power attack system, Heavenly Swan spirit" He said while a big white and glowing swan appeared at his back with 2 yellow rings and 2 purple.
We stayed quiet without relaxing our guard, both knowing that could be changed in an instant. At this moment, Qinghe said "As you're the younger here, I shall permit you the first move and as you're one realm lower I won't use my fourth ring skill".
"Oh, what an honor" I replied activating my skill <2nd skill: wood stamina> turning my sword green.
At that Qinghe observed his body with a disgusted expression saying for himself "It seems a little more difficult to move my body" He thought a little "No, it is not that is more difficult, it's that it consumes more energy moving" He then turned to me "It's some kind of stamina absorption ability?".
"As expected of a genius, you deduced my skill in a moment" I answered.
"In this case, it seems that there's no need for worrying if I finish quickly" He pointed his palm towards me <1st skill: Light explosion> condensing spirit power in a bright yellow sphere form and shooting it towards me.
I quickly pierced forward
"Clap!Clap! Congratulation to stop my first skill, its debility is that it explodes in contact. So is easy to escape from its damage for ranger attackers. How will you react to this?" He said pushing forward both of his arms <2nd skill: Heavenly Descend> the swan at his back charged towards me.
I slashed downward my sword, activating in one instant <1st skill: Fire Power> increasing my power and decreasing his.
At that Qinghe smirked until my shield stopped his swain, causing it to disperse and for his face to distort "How can this be? This skill ignores defenses, passing through them, only being possible to evade" He calmed himself "So it must be some sort of defensive skill with some attribute to stop this kind of attack. How lucky for you".
"Hahaha, yeah it's only luck, big brother Qinghe".
He flinched a little but then continued. "Let me see how good you're at close combat" He charged quickly at me <3rd skill: Heavenly Swain Transformation> the swan seemed to fusion with him, spouting feathers all around and 2 wings on his back as he started to shine.
He threw a punch at me that I easily blocked with my sword, then he throws a shiny kick at my right side (It seems that the shine is a concentration of his spirit power, hitting harder).
I bent my right leg <1st skill: Fire Power> blocking with my knee his strike. Even when one leg blocked, he tried to do a lower kick with his other leg. I jumped back, avoiding it and letting 5 m distance between us, also deactivating my skill.
"It seems that your ability is to improve your strength and speed and some application of your first skill is to make an explosive power. There's also the almost impossible flexibility" I explained.
His face contorted a little and charged another time at me, continuing attacking with some kicks and punches, sometimes even using his first skill to make explosions. I blocked or evaded his attacks, dodging to one side, jumping, twisting my body and in the cases of explosion using my intent and first skill. Even though his attacks were powerful and quickly, they were very predictable, causing his face to contort more with every attack evaded.
"Your fighting style is too rudimentary, you surely usually only need to overpower your opponent with power and speed but if it can be coped, it's no difficult to prevent" I say.
Finally, his facade broke and showed an angry face, but it only lasted a moment, immediately changing to an arrogant one "You shall feel honored, not a lot of people need me to not restrain myself. You shall see my 4th skill" He shouted, jumping high, flying 20 m over the ground while opening his wings.
<4th skill: Feather Rain> out of nowhere tens of brilliant feathers appeared and started falling slowly until he said "Dance!" then the feathers gained speed and were pushed towards me.
I maximized my Mind Eye, sensing the feathers' movement (Impossible to evade or block all of them, but with more speed)
I pierced the ground
<3rd skill: Lighting Speed> reducing the speed of Qinghe and his feathers and increasing mine- I ran toward him, slashing no stop the feathers while dodging some of them. I couldn't evade all and I received some cuts but not enough to make me stop (1 second)
I arrived under him and jumped up piercing up
In this instant, my right leg shined with a yellow electric light
(I don't need it now) I slashed toward him but when my sword was almost reaching him, some light surrounded him and exploded, pushing me and making me unconscious. While closing the eyes, the last image was a blurred view of 3 pairs of wings and an exquisitely beautiful face of a girl.