Xun Feng: "Does anyone want to say what happened when you fell asleep? It's okay if you don't want to explain, I won't force you. If it's embarrassing or makes you uncomfortable, there's no need to do it."
The children remained silent, and their heads dropped. Even the Princess didn't want to say anything. Seeing that, other elders became a bit annoyed and one elder even began reprimanding them: "How shameless! You use the Academy's resources and don't even want to answer when honored elder asks you a question! How dare you feign ignorance?"
Just as he finished speaking, the violet light extended from the wall and coated him inside. That elder became flustered and stared at the old man with confusion present in his eyes. When he saw the old man's grim look, the elder's heart almost stopped.
It was precisely this old prophet who was responsible for judging the elder candidates and assigning them their ranks so if he wanted to revoke his 'eldership', he could do it in a blink of an eye. That's why he reprimanded the children to garner the old man's trust, intending to express his loyalty, but that only resulted in a scornful look from the old man.
As he realised how much he screwed up, the violet light suddenly shrank around him and in the next moment, he found himself outside the building he was in previously. Cold sweat rolled down his back at the thought that he almost lost his position because he merely reprimanded some children. The elder felt wronged: "Are those children really so important that I was expelled from there just because I said a few words? Is there any justice left in this world?"
Inside the building, all the elders who had the same thoughts as the previous elder instantly dispelled those thoughts out of their minds, but how could their faint changes in expression escape the old man? He faced them and skimmed through everyone with his eyes as the violet light coated all those who had similar intentions. All of them found themselves outside in the next second as only a few elders left inside.
With the lesser amount of elders inside the room, the previously tense atmosphere became slightly more relaxed.
The old man turned to the children once again and apologised: "I'm sorry for this, they don't know the severity of the issue. Now then, does anyone want to say what happened? If not, we'll consider everything done for today."
As expected, the children remained silent. Just as the old man was about to give up, Asura Ryuu spoke: "Elder, can I ask something?"
The old man's eyes shone as he stared at Asura Ryuu: "It's this kid, interesting. Let's see what he has on his mind..."
Xun Feng: "Go ahead, don't hold back."
Asura Ryuu: "Has there been a case when someone didn't bond with their Soul Spirit?"
Xun Feng thought a bit about it and shook his head: "No. As far as I know, there hasn't been such a case in history. Even if it's merely a blade of grass, everyone would awaken their Soul Spirits. It's just a question of quality."
Asura Ryuu: "Then, what is the usual process of forging a Spirit Emblem, can you give us an example?"
The old man looked at Asura Ryuu and felt slightly strange for some reason, yet he couldn't grasp what the reason was. Asura Ryuu gave him a different feeling, but he couldn't pinpoint why. Taking this into consideration, the old man thought a bit and answered. He wanted to understand why this little guy seemed different from others.
Xun Feng: "Usually, when one finds their destined star, the process is done automatically as the star forms a connection with them. They just need to be willing to form a connection with the star and feel its aura. If they aren't willing to and there are two or more stars that they can connect with, they have a bit of a choice by rejecting other stars they don't want to connect with, but in the end, it's up to the stars whether they want to connect with you."
Asura Ryuu: "Oh! So after connecting with a star, does it integrate with you or not?"
Xun Feng: "What kind of question is that? Of course not! How can a star possibly integrate with yo-..."
The old man suddenly stopped, and his eyes immediately became sharp. His old eyes suddenly started overflowing with incredulity and a hint of joy in them.
Xun Feng: "Did that happen?"
Asura Ryuu pretended to be a child who was caught in the middle of doing something bad and nodded his head while looking at the floor.
The old man's mind was chaotic. He found the one! This little boy is the one he's looking for!!!
Xun Feng: "Child. You may be... a chosen one."
Asura Ryuu's eyes flashed with something mysterious and he looked up again, pretending to be a surprised innocent kid.
Asura Ryuu: "What does that mean?"
Xun Feng: "Huh? You don't know? That means you are a very gifted child. You should be happy because the Academy will take a very good care of you in the future. You will be able to be as strong as this old man one day!"
Asura Ryuu: "But... how are you sure I am the one?"
Xun Feng: "Haha, that's easy! Because what you described has never happened before!"
It was at this moment, the Princess spoke: "But, the same happened with me!"
The old man's brows furrowed, and he looked at the Princess with reprimanding eyes. He thought she was jealous of this kid and wanted to be the chosen child because she was a Princess, so she lied about it in the heat of a moment. But when he saw the princess's crystal-clear eyes, his heart let a hint of doubt creep in. His old eyes suddenly flashed with shock as he thought of a possibility.
Xun Feng's head raised faster than the speed of sound as his eyes fell on other children, a powerful and heavy aura oppressing everyone: "Anyone else?"
The children felt suffocated and scared, which was what the old man wanted to achieve. Under this condition, not a single child could lie. To his surprise, even though they were trembling, every child raised their frail small hands.
It was at this moment that in the old man's mind, a boom resounded. It was not a boom of shock but his heartbeat - it almost went out of his control. With his strength, if he urged the Spirit Energy to circulate to his heart and didn't bother to suppress it, all the children would fall unconscious because of the Spirit Energy shock. Luckily, he subconsciously suppressed it - otherwise...
His old beard shook as he slightly opened his mouth, yet nothing came out of them. Only after a long time did one word creep out as he trembled once again: "Impossible."