Coiling Dragon_Book 1 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Read online

  Hogg’s eyes began to shine, and he patted Linley on the shoulder with a mighty clap.

  “I believe in you, son!”

  On the road headed east from the town of Wushan, Linley turned his head and saw the hundreds of familiar faces who had come to send him off, with his father, Hogg, and his younger brother Wharton standing in the lead.

  “Big brother, bye bye!” Little Wharton waved mightily.

  Seeing his father and his younger brother, Linley also waved, his eyes turning red.

  “Father. Wharton.” Linley’s heart was filled with longing.

  Ever since he was born, Linley had never left home for an extended period of time, but this time, he would be gone for extremely long. At this moment, the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, was obediently perched on Linley’s shoulders, not making a sound, as if he sensed Linley’s thoughts. The nearby Doehring Cowart, in spirit form, also looked encouragingly at Linley.

  “Linley, let’s go,” Hillman said. Hillman was escorting Linley to the Ernst Institute, acting as his bodyguard in the event that they met with any bandits.

  Linley unwillingly took one last glance at his family, and then finally forced himself to turn away and begin traveling in the direction of the Ernst Institute.

  “Farewell, my family. Farewell, my home.”

  Yulan calendar, year 9991. The nine-year-old Linley, accompanied by the young Shadowmouse, Bebe, and the Baruch clan’s guard captain, Hillman, departed from the town of Wushan.

  21

  A Congregation of Talents

  The Ernst Institute. The finest magus academy in the entire Yulan continent.

  The Ernst Institute was located in a rustic area approximately twenty kilometers south of the Holy Capital of Fenlai City. The Ernst Institute was founded and financially supported by the Radiant Church. Naturally, it was wealthy and knew how to throw money around. They took up a very large space, with a circumference of ten kilometers. Such a huge academy was nearly the size of a city.

  Outside of the Ernst Institute, few visible signs of human presence could be seen, just an empty mountain range.

  Restaurants, clothing stores, bars, and other sorts of service industries were all located on the campus itself. It could be said that the students of the Ernst Institute spent their entire lives within the campus.

  “What an imposing style.” Linley stood at the gateway to the Ernst Institute. He couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

  The main gate of the Ernst Institute was fully fifty meters wide. Above the great gate was an enormous, crescent moon-shaped construct, covered with all sorts of magical scripts which one could tell at a glance were amazingly complicated. One could imagine how powerful and mighty the magical formation protecting the Ernst Institute was just from seeing how complicated the scripts over the gate were.

  Right now, the main gate of the Ernst Institute was a very lively place. There was a row of academic staff, and a single youth who had brought his admission letter and his proof of identity and had begun to be processed for admission. Linley immediately grabbed his own documents and headed in for processing as well.

  “School officially starts February 9th. Today is February 8th. Based on the notification, students must arrive before February 9th. Since the young man in front of me is also just arriving today, no doubt he also lives rather close to the Institute,” Linley thought to himself.

  The young man in front of Linley could actually be more precisely described as a child. He was half a head shorter than Linley, and there was an old man by his side.

  “Hi there. I’m from the O’Brien Empire, and my name is Reynolds.” The student being processed for intake in front of Linley suddenly turned his head and greeted him warmly.

  Hearing that he came from the O’Brien Empire, Linley was startled. “The O’Brien Empire?”

  The O’Brien Empire, one of the Four Great Empires, was located to the east of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, while the Ernst Institute was located west of it. In order to reach the Ernst Institute, one had to circle around the entire Mountain Range of Magical Beasts from either the north or the south. After all, aside from combatants of the ninth rank or Saint-level combatants, no one dared to directly cross that mountain range.

  The Mountain Range of Magical Beasts was over ten thousand kilometers long.

  For someone to come from the O’Brien Empire, the entire trip would have consisted of at least twenty thousand kilometers’ worth of travel. If they had come from the eastern part of the Empire, the journey would have been even longer.

  It probably would’ve taken about a year or so to travel twenty thousand kilometers.

  “My name is Linley. I’m from Fenlai Kingdom,” Linley courteously said to the boy called Reynolds.

  Reynolds blinked, and sighed emotionally. “Fenlai Kingdom? Then you had it nice and cushy. It took me a full year just to get to Fenlai Kingdom from my home. It didn’t take you too much time.”

  “Right. From my home to here, I travelled for about half a day,” Linley replied honestly.

  “Whoah…” The expression on Reynolds’ face was priceless.

  One of them had travelled for over a year. The other, for just half a day.

  “Students, hurry up.” One of the test administrators nearby urged.

  One of the admission processes for new students was to retake the magus test. After all, the Ernst Institute was afraid that someone might steal an admissions letter and falsely enroll.

  “Coming.” Reynolds went to take the test.

  Upon seeing the results, Linley couldn’t help but feel shocked.

  This boy named Reynolds had high elemental essence affinity… and as for his spiritual essence…

  “Reynolds, eight years old. Spiritual essence, thirty-two times higher than students his own age. Exceptional level.”

  Hearing these numbers, Linley’s eyes briefly bulged. But the test administrator seemed to be very calm, and not the least bit surprised.

  “Linley, what is it? Amazed just by this?” Reynolds said dismissively. “This is the Ernst Institute. Each year, they accept only a hundred students from across the entire Yulan continent. Which one of them is not an amazing talent? My results can only be considered average, across the student base.”

  “But the Ernst Institute does show some favoritism to the Holy Union. They accept fifty students from the Holy Union, and only fifty more in total from the other Four Great Empires. It’s so unfair.” Reynolds sighed.

  Linley chuckled when he heard this.

  The Ernst Institute was founded by the Radiant Church. Of course it would show favoritism towards the Holy Union.

  “My turn.” Linley ran towards the test giver as well.

  Reynolds wrinkled his little nose. “This fellow called Linley is from the Holy Union. He no doubt had a much easier time being accepted than me. I bet he isn’t as talented as I am.” Reynolds was extremely confident.

  But when the test administrator reported Linley’s results, Reynolds was shocked.

  “High spiritual essence, exceptional elemental essence affinity? And dual-element affinity for earth and wind?” Reynolds was totally speechless.

  Exceptional elemental essence affinity was already extremely rare, but Linley was not only dual-element, but had exceptional affinity for both the wind and the earth elemental essences. This was a true talent, one rather more formidable than even himself. After all… dual-element magi were extremely powerful.

  “Reynolds, don’t just stand there looking silly. Let’s go.” Linley laughed.

  “Oh.” Reynolds was a year younger than Linley, but judging from appearances, seemed three years younger.

  Linley and Reynolds accepted their Ernst Institute student IDs, then acquired their residence keys. At the Ernst Institute, all students, regardless of wealth or economic background, had to live together. Tuition fees and residence fees were totally waived.

  However…

  “Hey, you have to pay tuition?” When Linle
y saw the old man accompanying Reynolds pull out the tuition money, he couldn’t help but feel shocked.

  Hillman, besides Linley, laughed. “Linley, the tuition waiver and rent waiver provided by the Ernst Institute are only for members of the Holy Union. All others have to pay an extremely high fee.”

  Reynolds nodded also.

  The old man next to him smiled at Linley. “That’s right. This isn’t just the rule for the Ernst Institute; the number one warrior academy in the Yulan continent, the O’Brien Academy, does the same. They provide a full tuition waiver for their own Empire’s students, but charge an astronomical fee for students coming from other places.”

  Linley wasn’t stupid. He immediately understood.

  “Linley, my young master has the same residence key as you. The two of you should be living in the same residence. I hope that in the future, the two of you can help each other out.” The old man said.

  “Okay, Grandpa Lomu, you can go back now. I’ve already arrived at the Ernst Institute., Reynolds said unhappily

  “Uncle Hillman, you can go back as well. I can take care of myself.” Linley smiled as he spoke to Hillman, and Hillman nodded back, satisfied. “Then I’ll go back now, Linley. Work hard,” Hillman encouraged.

  Linley smiled and nodded.

  “Linley, let’s go.” Reynolds warmly grabbed Linley by the hand, and began to run into the Institute.

  “Farewell, Uncle Hillman.”

  Hillman and the old man both watched the children enter the Institute. Only after a long time did they depart.

  After saying his farewells to Uncle Hillman, Linley and Reynolds entered the Ernst Institute together. The Ernst Institute was filled with shady groves, lakes, stone bridges and ancient buildings… an ancient aura permeated the entire place. Just from the size of the giant trees, which seven people would have to surround in order to hold hands, one could imagine how old the place was.

  “It really is something. It isn’t nearly as gaudy as some of the newer institutes. This is what is known as ‘sophistication’.” Reynold’s curious eyes took in their surroundings while he spoke.

  Within the Ernst Institute, as a one-time event, there were many instructional signs telling students where each location was. Clearly, this was intended to help assist the new students.

  “Linley, let’s go find our dorm.” Reynolds, pulling Linley’s hand, began hurrying in the direction of the dormitories.

  Dorm number 1987.

  Linley and Reynolds had completed their admission processes at the same time, one after another. Most dorms held four students. When Linley and Reynolds arrived at the dormitory area, they couldn’t help but sigh in amazement. At first glance, there appeared to be thousands of stand-alone dormitories.

  Among the thousands of dormitories, there were even a few two-story apartment style dorms.

  “1987, 1987…” Linley and Reynolds inspected the dorm numbers, running south nonstop.

  The dorm area was numbered very logically, beginning from 0001, with each row housing 100 individual dorms. When Linley arrived at row 20, he saw dorm 1901. And then, as they continued running east, Reynolds began to pant for breath, until finally, they arrived at dorm 1987.

  22

  The Bros of Dorm 1987

  “Whew, I’m exhausted. Linley, how come you’re in such good shape?” Reynolds was panting for breath, but Linley didn’t feel anything.

  “What, you are tired already?” Linley started to laugh. How short a distance had they just run?

  He didn’t even feel too tired after running from the town of Wushan to the Ernst Institute.

  “Hey, just put it down there. Right. Put the box down there. Put it down carefully. If you break it, there’s no way you can afford to compensate for it!” From within dorm 1987, the clear voice of another youth could be heard. Linley and Reynolds glanced at each other, then entered curiously. Immediately upon entering, they saw several muscular men busily moving things about.

  A gaudily-dressed youth was standing in the center of the room, directing their moves.

  Immediately upon seeing Linley and Reynolds, the young man’s eyes brightened, and he excitedly ran over. “Haha, you guys are my dormmates, right? I’ve waited so long for you guys. Up ‘til now, it’s just been me here. Lemme introduce myself. My name is Yale, and I suppose I just barely qualify as a member of the Holy Union.”

  “What do you mean, you just barely qualify as a member of the Holy Union?” Reynolds mumbled, and then said, “My name is Reynolds. I’m from the O’Brien Empire.”

  “My name is Linley. I’m from the Holy Union’s Kingdom of Fenlai.” Linley smiled as well.

  As long term dormmates, in the future, they would be together for a long period of time.

  “Oh, Reynolds, Linley, I am so happy to see you fellows. Hey, where did my exercise equipment go?” Yale turned his head and stared at his servants.

  “Exercise equipment?” Reynolds blinked at Yale. “Yale, what do you have those for? Are you going to be a warrior?”

  Yale wrinkled his nose as he chortled. “Although I am a dignified magus, I still need to work out and have a good physique. Otherwise, how will I be able to seduce beautiful women? There are many beautiful women amongst the ranks of the magi. And the female magi of the Ernst Institute are not only pretty; they are also very classy. Plus, there’s a lot of face to be gained by being able to brag to others that I have an Ernst Institute student as my girlfriend.”

  “Uh…” Reynolds was speechless.

  Linley didn’t know what to say either. Seeing the exercise equipment, Linley wanted to go work out, but he didn’t expect that these were the tools which Yale planned to use to do bodybuilding to seduce pretty girls.

  “I’m eight years old. How about you, Yale?” Reynolds was clearly very open-minded.

  Yale was extremely tall. The nine-year-old Linley was already 1.5 meters tall, but Yale was half a head taller than even Linley.

  “Me? I’m ten. Haha, but I’m not getting any younger. My elder brother lost his virginity at age twelve. I’ve got to make some preparations in advance as well.” Yale’s eyes shone.

  “What does ‘losing virginity’ mean?” Reynolds looked questioningly at Yale.

  “Yeah, what’s ‘losing virginity’?” Linley also looked curiously at Yale.

  Staring at his two dormmates, Yale became momentarily speechless as well. Next to Linley, the ghostly form of Doehring Cowart was holding his belly as he laughed uproariously. This made Linley ask him curiously, “Grandpa Doehring, why are you laughing?”

  “Young master, we’ve arranged everything,” an extremely muscular man said respectfully.

  “Mm. You can leave now. Go back and tell my father that in the future, if there isn’t something urgent, not to bother me. Oh, right. Remember… every year, he can’t forget to transfer money into my magicrystal card. He should know very well that a magus needs a lot of money for his magistaff and socketable gems,” Yale said loudly and casually.

  “Yes, young master,” the man said respectfully.

  Yale nodded, satisfied, then dismissed the men with a wave of his hand, as though he were a general.

  “Magicrystal card?” Reynolds stared at him in amazement. “The magicrystal card is only offered by the ‘Golden Bank of the Four Empires’, which all four of the great empires established together. I heard that the processing fees for requesting a card totals a hundred gold coins.”

  “Right on.” Yale was quite knowledgeable about this. “The minimum starting balance for a magicrystal card is at least a thousand gold coins. But I’m afraid that a thousand coins wouldn’t be enough to even sustain a month’s worth of expenditures for me.”

  Linley, upon hearing these words…

  “Rich guy,” he sighed to himself.

  His own father gave him only a hundred gold coins each year for living costs. In fact, in Linley’s eyes, a hundred gold coins was more than enough. After all, most commoners would only make twenty o
r thirty gold coins in wages after a year of hard labor.

  “You really are a rich guy. My dad only gives me two hundred gold coins a year.” Reynolds mumbled, “And he even said that he wants me to spend my time focused on studying magic.”

  “Just a hundred for me,” Linley laughed. “But for a simple life, it’s enough.”

  “Bah, bros, my money is your money. If you run out, just come find me! In the future, we’ll probably be living together for decades. We’ll be bros for decades. Why quibble about ‘yours’ and ‘mine’?” Yale was extremely expansive, but just as he finished speaking…

  Linley and Reynolds both started.

  “Decades?” Linley stared at Yale in shock.

  Yale said casually and naturally, “Linley, you can only graduate from the Ernst Institute if you reach the rank of a magus of the sixth rank. For a magus, the higher you progress, the harder it becomes. For most people, it takes a couple decades to become a magus of the sixth rank.”

  Linley frowned.

  Decades? He was going to be a fiscal burden to his father for decades?

  “Grandpa Doehring, why didn’t you tell me this?”

  Doehring Cowart’s voice rang out in his mind. “Linley, relax. For most people, decades will be needed to reach the sixth rank, yes. But under my tutelage, I can let you become a magus of the sixth rank in just ten years.”

  Ten years.

  In ten years, Linley would only be nineteen years old. Only now did Linley relax.

  “Is everyone here already?” A clear voice rang out as a child walked into the room. Approximately the same height as Reynolds, this child looked a bit more mature. “Hello, everyone. My name is George. I’m ten, and I’m from the Yulan Empire.”

  Yale, Reynolds, and Linley all gave basic self-introductions to the newcomer.

  “The Yulan Empire?” Linley was startled.

  The Yulan Empire. The most ancient of the empires of the Yulan continent. When the Yulan calendar was first started, ten thousand years ago, the Yulan Empire controlled the entire Yulan continent. And then, as time passed, the Yulan continent began to fall into war, causing the Yulan Empire to fragment as well.