*whoosh* *swoosh* *swoosh*

  It was a sunny day and the wind was blowing, sending cool breezes to relief the heat.

  Chen Yi found himself in an open field outside of two buildings.

  On his walk through from recent days, he has passed this place before. This place was a school that taught kids from age of eight onwards about basic knowledge such as mathematics, history, physical education, language and literature.

  According to the man from before who came to talk with Shen Jin the other day, children who were eight or nine years old before autumn of that year will be enrolled to the school automatically as long as they're children of Shen clan.

  Those children will have to attend this school for four years before graduating, then they would have to do self practice until they are sixteen years old to prepare for the awakening ceremony.

  To put it bluntly, they were left on their own.

  Chen Yi walked around and found Shen Tian Yi not long after. He was sitting on his table thinking of something else while the teacher talked to the class.

  Chen Yi observed him for a while when the bell rang and signal the end of school.

  Shen Tian Yi stood up from his table and walked out of the class like the rest of the kids. Unlike many of his peers who were happy to finally get home, Shen Tian Yi was sad and frustrated.

  Not long after leaving class, he was called out at the school gate by a group of six boys older his age.

  They slowly surrounded him and walked together in friendly manner like a group of friends, but from the looks of Shen Tian Yi's face, that doesn't seem to be the case.

  The group of boys gradually walked to an old run-down house just outside the village. Further away, to a place where 'mortals' live.

  In the house, there seems to be someone already there, waiting just outside the front door. That person looks to be a boy not older than fifteen. He was quite a handsome teenager, tall but possessed quite the small frame compared to boys his age.

  However, when the group of boys walked past the gate of the house, their attitude suddenly changed. Before they would talk to loudly to each other without a care in the world despite passersby giving them the looks. They would talk about all sorts of things, sometime harassed female 'mortals' on their way, or 'teased' Shen Tian Yi when they feel like it.

  But when their eyes met with the boy sitting at the stair, their attitude suddenly did a hundred eighty degrees turn and they become obedient as a dog. After a brief moment, a boy in the group suddenly called out.

  "Boss, we've brought him." A skinny boy said.

  "Yeah boss, we've brought him. He seems to have gotten quite tame compared to the last few times we saw him." A chubby boy chipped in.

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  "Of course he is, he should behave at least this much when he's with the boss." A tall boy with quite a large and muscular build compared to his peers added with a serious look.

  All the six boys laughed in unison and suddenly stopped when the 'boss' stood up and walk their way. He then bend down a little to match Shen Tian Yi's eyes level and said:

  "So, where is the money?"

  "..."

  Shen Tian Yi did not reply and only look back at the 'boss' in the eyes without saying anything. Through his eyes, the 'boss' could see a pride and an unyielding determination. Looking at those eyes suddenly make the 'boss' really frustrated, he punched Shen tian Yi in the face so hard that it made him fall on his back.

  "This son of a b*tch, you must think I'm easy since I've been so nice to you isn't it? I've been asking for you nicely for just a little bit of money for over a month now, but I haven't see even a little bit of Life essence stone around here did I?" The 'boss' questioned.

  "I told you, I don't have any money." Shen Tian Yi retorted as he got up while rubbing his face with one hand, his nose seemed to be bleeding.

  "You? Have no money? Then what's about all those inheritance your parent left for you? Even if you cannot inherit them yet until you've come of age and possessed the necessary qualifications, everyone in Feng Yu mountain know the clan bestowed you six hundred thousand Life essence stones, two bamboo houses and servants of four family when you were five. A few Life Essence energy stones are nothing to you, yet you refused to share them with your friend, your senior. Isn't that too selfish?" The boss asked with a honest look as if it's a normal thing that Shen Tian Yi should have done.

  Towards this, Shen Tian Yi only smirked and spitted at the boss's face as before replied:

  "Friends? you call yourself my friend? Would friends do each other like this? You only came to me because you want my money and you knew it."

  Shen Tian Yi turned to leave when he suddenly felt a hand on his left shoulder, followed by a punch on his face as he turned to look back.

  Moments later, the 'boss' jumped him and beat him to a pulp. Shen Tian Yi tried to resist but whatever he did seems to has no effect, even the six boys that brought him seemed scared witless.

  Because they knew, if they tried to stop the boss, the one lying there next would not be Shen Tian Yi, but them.

  The boss's eyes were bloodshot, his face dark like water as he has never felt angry and humiliated like this before, he felt like he could kill the kid right here, right now, with this anger. Worst of all, he felt defeated, like he just lost to this eight years old child somehow.

  'Why, why are you so confident? How can you still keep your cool when faced with someone above you, someone who's better than you every way possible? How can an eight years old kid be so determined? Then what about me? What would that make me then?'

  The more he think of it, the more pathetic he felt and the angrier he got. He continued to punched Shen Tian Yi nonstop and beat him down even if he stood up and tried to fought back. After the rain of punches and kicks, Shen Tian Yi finally stopped moving as he lost consciousness.

  However, that didn't stop the boss from attacking at all. He kept punching and kicking the unconscious Shen Tian Yi. Seeing this, the six boys began to panicked as they are afraid Shen Tian Yi might actually die.

  One of the boys, the tall and muscular boy, stepped forward and tried to stop the boss by grabbing his arm and stopped it firmly in place.

  "I think that's enough boss, you really went too far this time."

  The boss suddenly stop his actions and turned back to look at the person who stopped him, his eyes red, his two fists were covered in blood.

  "Get your hand off me." The 'boss' demanded.

  "No can't do boss, I'm doing this for your own good." The tall boy said while looking annoyed.

  "... So you think so too huh? You think are strong, you think you are above me just because you have slightly more strength than I do?" The boss asked calmly in a challenging tone.

  "And what's about it? We all know I'm stronger than you, we just didn't say it because we were afraid it would hurt your pride. So we just played along, but you really got ahead of yourself and gone too far this time." The tall boy said with an angry tone while feeling increasingly annoyed.