Over the week, Ace spent a lot of his time catg up with his mother, who was ecstatic to see her son in one piece. The remainder of his time ent with Aiden, who was helping to refine his use of 'Impose' aating in an attempt to further his prehension of the ws of fire.

  Early one m, all the remaining disciples of the Pavilion were sat around a rge table outside Milianna and Lance's eating what could only be described as a feast prepared by Julius and Milianna.

  "Fatty, you really outdid yourself," Faye excimed as she sat ba her seat, her belly puffed out in front of her, uo eat another bite.

  "I almost wish I went oraining exercise with your team if this is how you guys were eating every day," Yuna added.

  "If you had goh them, you would've died." Faye snorted disdainfully.

  "I said almost, you wench!" Yuna snapped back.

  Even though the retionship between all ten disciples was good, Yuna and Faye bickered non-stop whehey were together. Fortunately, before their squabbling could ruin the mood of the others, Wukong's voice rang out from behind them.

  "Oii brats, it's time to stop zing around," the ape-like man voiced. "Lauriel has summoned you all."

  "I thought after being inner disciples, we didn't have any more enforced lessons," Julius said as he relutly got up from his seat to go back to the Pavilion with the others.

  "This isn't a lesson," Wukong replied. "It's to talk to you all about the future of the Pavilion."

  "Future?" Joel asked. "Does that mean we're going to be accepting a new batch of disciples?"

  "Why are you asking now? Won't you find out when you get there?" Wukong zily asked back. "Ahh, right. Sixth sister. Aiden told me t you as well. Master apparently left you something for your training before she left."

  "Ahh, okay. I guess we'll e too then," Milianly replied as she took Lance's hand, following after her fifth martial brother and the other kids.

  As they he Yin-Yang mountain, Ad Wukong's heads suddenly turo the west.

  "Looks like I'll get to enjoy a little show this m," Wukong said with an amused smile as he turo Ace, who merely rolled his eyes.

  "How troublesome," Ace sighed as he came to a stop as if he was expeg pany.

  "What is it?" Killian asked as he and the others all turheir heads to search for whatever Ad Wukong's senses had discovered.

  However, before Ace could respond, the powerful presence of several individuals appeared in the distance.

  Though their senses weren't as strong as Wukong or Ace's, they could guess who the newers were from Ace's rea.

  It wasn't long before they could see the 'visitors'. In the sky, flying towards them, was a giant Silver Tailed Hawk of the eighth rank.

  From that distahey weren't able to see if there was ating on the beast's back, but they could see two humanoid bck dots flying leisurely beside it.

  "Looks like we've attracted quite the weling ittee," A middle-aged man with greying temples dressed in a long blue robe chuckled as he looked down at the group on the floor whilst calmly flying beside the hawk.

  "It looks like yonna have quite the audience for your battle today after all, little Wharton," A burly man dressed in a simple and unadorned grey robe and ah-coloured heavy sword strapped to his back said whilst also looking at the group below.

  Wharton, the burly brown-haired youth wearing a pair of baggy white bottoms with no top, opened his eyes as a wicked smirk suffused his lips.

  "Good," Wharton said coldly as the grip around the rge war bde lying across his p tightened. "If it weren't for the fact that I was worried he would've escaped, I would've invited all my peers to e and watch me humiliate that little rat."

  "Son, remember to crush him in the most domineering ossible," The brown-haired woman said from behind him. "The pride of our Baru 't be allowed to be tarnished by the likes of him."

  "Yes, Mother, I know," Wharton replied calmly.

  "That arrogant brat won't stand a ce against you, young master Wharton," Brutus added fawningly from the back of the eagle as he looked down towards the ground, uo hide his excitement.

  Wharton g the man behind him lightly before disregarding him entirely. There was a time when Wharton looked up at the representative behind him who had recruited him, but now, with his meteoric rise at the academy, he wouldn't usually pay a man like that a sed gnce.

  The only reasons he was even allowed to e at all was firstly because he had promised him all those years ago that he could witness as he crushed A the future, and sedly, Brutus was the one who had found where Ace had been 'hiding' after all this time.

  The burly saint dressed in grey looked at Wharton helplessly. He was Haydson, the man aowledged by the masses to be the most powerful saint on the Yun pne.

  He had taken the young Dragonblood warrior as his disciple almost three years ago now after being thhly impressed by the youngster's incredible talent and even more impressive work ethic. It was only after that that he learnt that the biggest factor behind his disciple's drive to improve was avenging the loss he had suffered a couple of years prior.

  At first, he just assumed Wharton's need for revenge would dissipate over time as he improved and was introduced to a wider world, but the shadow this boy Ace cast over the heart of his disciple was to. It also didn't help that Lina would tinuously whisper thoughts of revenge in Wharton's ears.

  All things sidered, Haydson couldn't really care less about Ace or this challenge; he just wao help his disciple overe this shadow before it ate him alive.

  "I finally found you," Wharton ughed evilly, gring at Ace as his group nded on the ground before the group from the Pavilion. "You 't run or hide anymore. Today I'll finally avenge my loss from back then and show you the invincible might of the four supreme warriors."

  "No thanks," Ace replied casually before turning his attention back to Haydson, thinking about the enigmatic steps the man took to move through the air.

  It wasn't just him. Each of the students was staring at the man in shod a hint of awe. To them, each step he took made it look as though he was telep, a feat that should have been impossible.

  'That must be the effects of the profound mystery of World Walking.' Aoted to himself.

  Though he hadn't actually made any breakthroughs as a result of reading up on the profound mysteries of the various ws, it allowed him to widen his horizons, meaning he was better prepared to deal with anything that might e his way iure.

  Seeing the way he was still being looked down on after all this time did wonders in igniting Wharton's fury; it took all his willpower not to attack directly. Ace's arrogance was simply too infuriating.

  "Hmm, I remember you," Kenyon, the middle-aged man on the left of the hawk, said lightly as his eyes fell on Wukong. "You're that brat whantly camped outside the Academy a decade ago and challenged all the students."

  "Challenged?" Wukong smirked. "You meaed. If it weren't for that Olivier, who had already graduated, returning to fight on behalf of his alma mater, no one would've beech of this king.

  The shamelessness of you idiots from the O'Brien Empire really knows no bounds."

  If Ace rofessional when it came to infuriating people, then Wukong was a grandmaster.

  Kenyon wasn't only a saint, he was also the disciple of one of the four deities on the ti. There was no mortal who didn't dare show him the utmost respect wherever he went. So being on the receiving end of Wukong's clear disdain angered him in ways not even he himself knew possible.

  He had only e today out of boredom, having already been visiting Haydson when Wharton got the news of Ace's location. He never expected to be treated in such a manner.

  If it weren't for the sound of Haydson's voice cutting through the rising tension, there was a good ce Kenyon would've made a move there and then.

  "That's enough," Haydson said indifferently. "We're here to make a formal challenge. Do you accept or not?"

  "If that little lizard wishes to challenge our top student, he'll have to beat me first," Killian announced as he stepped forward fearlessly, gring at the brown-haired youth gritting his teeth in an attempt to suppress his anger.

  "You? In what world are you qualified to even challenge me?" Wharton sneered.

  "This so-called Yin-Yang Pavilion is full ant fools who don't seem to know their pce," Kenyon said indifferently. "One's a piece of trash who'll never reach the saint realm because of a soul defect, one's an arrogant mutant hybrid who doesn't know when to bow his head, and one foolishly decides to challenge a Dragonblood warrior who's obviously superior in every way."

  Hearing his words, other than Ace, who saw this whole ordeal as nothing but a fard Killian, who was gring daggers at Wharton, all the other disciples were trying their best not to ugh after hearing Kenyon's 'assessment'.

  Fet now; Wukong was able to defeat a beast of the Early saint rank back when he was at the eighth rank. They had no idea how much stronger he'd bee after breaking through to the ninth rank, but no one doubted he was strohan Kenyon.

  As for Killian, other than Ace, Amira, and Julius, he was defihe stro student in their cohort after his ret breakthroughs. He was more than qualified to challenge Wharton, who was merely a warrior in the middle stages of the fourth rank.

  But the ent that made them ugh the most was his assessment of Ace. As his cssmates, they all knew what had happeo him after being captured by the Dark Alliance.

  Won't reach the saint realm? His insights into the natural ws had already surpassed most saints!

  Still, he couldn't be bmed for his ignorance. Last, the public had heard, Ace really had no affinities.

  Although it was true that as a saint, he should've been more than capable of sensing Ace's mage-force, Aiden had taught Ace that one of the ingenious uses of 'Impose' he'd created, which allowed those who'd reached the impose realm to hide their cultivation levels.

  Acc to Aiden, because of the power of Ace's soul and the level his prehension of the ws of fire had reached, the only ones able to sense Ace's cultivation when he was hiding it were those at the prime saint levels and above, or those with souls as powerful as Aiden himself.

  It wasn't a teique Ace had muterest in inally, but it came in handy in this situation. After hearing what Brutus had doo Joel, he wao teach the representative a lesson he would never fet.

  "What are you brats ughing at?" Kenyon snapped as his eyes sed the group coldly before falling on Milianna. "It's you!"

  P.S. Support me oreon listed below to read ahead - Release rate is at least 2x as many chapters every week! XD

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  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon

  Book 5: Chapter 22 - Ranking petition (3): Joel's Breakthrough