"What? Why do you o check my mother?" Ace asked defensively as he backed away slightly.

  Even Mathias looked at Aiden in fusion, not uanding what this Martial Uncle of his was thinking.

  As he was bag away, Ace's eyes suddenly bulged in shock as he heard Aiden's voice directly enter his mind.

  "Calm down, kid. I promise I have no evil iions. It's just that your soul is very… Unique! I want to pare it to your mother's to see if this odd mutation is a result of your unique bloodline or if it's something pletely uo you."

  Ace wasn't surprised that Aiden knew about his and his mother's bloodline abilities; Wukong had obviously been the oo tell him. What shocked him was the fact that this rank-nine warrior had the ability to speak to him telepathically.

  'Is that a bloodline ability as well?' Ace wondered as he looked incredulously at the man.

  "Ace, is everything alright?" Milianna called out worriedly as she prepared to step forward, only to promptly be put behind Lance.

  Lanew he wasn't a match for any of the adults here today, but he'd die before he let anything happen to Milianna.

  Even Killian reached for his axe upon feeling the rising tension. He may have been happy to take Mathias as his master, but in his heart, there was no one as important to him as Ad Milianna. They were and always will be the closest thing to family he has. Like Lance, he wouldn't hesitate for a sed to give his life for theirs.

  Mathias watched his new disciple gre at him threateningly with a helpless smile before turning to face the man who caused the misuanding with an almost pleading expression.

  However, Aiden didn't even look at his wife's disciple. Instead, his eyes remairained on the boy in front of him with a carefree smile, patiently waiting for him to make his decision.

  Ace didn't reply immediately, his mind was still spinning. After getting over Aiden's telepathic abilities, his mind focused oual tent of his words. 'He said my soul was unique? Could he be right? Could it be because of my bloodline, or is it because of my reination? Could that be the reason behind my ck of affinities?'

  He khat if it was truly because of his reination, then seeing as that was his most closely guarded secret, he never should've allowed a strao get so close to his soul in the first pce. As, he didn't know much about the soul at all. It simply never crossed his mind that his secret could be found out like this.

  But there was no use g over spilt milk. All he do now is move forward, and this could be a way for him to finally get some answers.

  Even though he hadn't let it show, his ck of affinities had definitely bothered him. When he first heard about the path of mages, he both hoped and assumed he would have a strong fire affinity due to him being the user of the fire devil fruit in his st life.

  Then when he heard that he couldn't even bee a saint without an affinity…

  He'd be lying if he said he wasn't affected, but he refused to believe there wasn't a fix. This world was so big, aill knew so little about it. As far as he was ed, there was definitely a solution; he just had to find it.

  "It's okay, mom. He just wants to see if my talent was ied from you." Ace expined calmly.

  As he turned around, he was slightly surprised to see Land Killian's tense expressions, but after everything they had already been through together, it was uandable.

  As Milianna came forward, Land Killian apanied her oher side like loyal guards. Something that made the mother and son pair smile helplessly. A warm feeling rose within, but he still turned baathias and Aiden with an apologetic smile.

  Wukong and the others watched this se with an amused smile, but no one said anything. Ultimately, they were more ied in what Aiden had to say reference Ad Milianna.

  "Ooh, how iing," Aiden said in surprise.

  "What is it? Is something wrong with my mom?" Ace asked hurriedly.

  "No, nothing. It's just that your mom is quite the talent herself." Aiden said, catg everyone by surprise. "Milianna, was it?

  Age – 24

  Warrior Cultivation – Rankless

  Mage Cultivation – Rankless

  Spiritual Essence: 80x above average – Exceptional

  Elemental Affinities:

  Light – Poor

  Life – Exceptional.

  You also have one of the purest souls I've ever seen. If it weren't because you were about ten years too old, your talents would be enough to earn you a spot here in the Pavilion."

  Every single person was shocked by that annou. Her talent as a mage wasn't too inferior to Julius'. Especially as she also had an exceptional affinity to one of the four edicts.

  Wukong had just said how rare they were, ahere were four people, including Mathias, with an affinity to a.

  Whilst everyone else was shocked by her talent, Milianna was still ed about her son's results.

  "Is there something wrong with Ace?" She asked when she realised the man still hadn't announced Ace's.

  "Huh? Ooh, no, there's nothing wrong with your son." Aiden answered holy. "Ace:

  Age – 8

  Warrior Cultivation – Mid-Rank Two

  Mage Cultivation – Rankless

  Spiritual Essence: Over 100x above average – Perfect

  Elemental Affinity – None."

  As his words came out, the other kids looked at Ace like he was a freak of nature. With a spiritual essence 100x above average, he really was a freak of nature. But when they registered his spiritual affinity, their looks turned into ones of either pity loating.

  Ace didn't seem to notice their looks as he tio stare at the dark-skinned warrior as if he was waiting for him to tinue.

  It was then, though, that Aiden's voice re-entered his mind.

  "If you finish first in the round, I'll tell you what you want to know."

  Ace was just about to ask what he meant when Mathias stepped forward.

  "So that cludes the testing. As you all now see, in terms of talent, ead every one of you are among the best of the very best. We here at the Yin-Yang Pavilion believe in quality over quantity, but that talent is meaningless if it doesn't trao actual bat ability. So we're going to py a little game of King of the ring to see who the stro student amongst the first years is." Mathias announced immediately, getting the attention of each student. "The rules are simple. Whoever fahemselves the stro ehe ring. They will then be challenged o a time by their fellow cssmates, and from there it bees wiays on. Each student only has one opportunity to challenge, so make it t.

  The winner will receive 100 tribution points up front and 10 points a month for every month they remain ued.

  You should know, tribution points be used to redeem anything from magic spells of every element for every rank to warrior teiques to oo-oraining from myself or any of the other instructors of the pavilion."

  As his voice waned, Lazerim, who'd just been ting silently to himself, raised his palms, and a 20x20 meter ring suddenly rose from under his feet.

  "Now I know each of you is tired from your climb earlier, so to allow you to perform at your best, we've prepared a portion of essence milk for each of you," Mathias expined as he summoned oal fsk after another and began throwing them to each of the students to catch. "For those of you who don't know, essence milk is a liquid drained from Stactites that are ri natural essence.

  The older the stactite, the more profound the effects. Unfortunately, yours were drained from 10-year-old stactites, which are still pretty much as young as you get. Though it won't have any drastic effects, it'll still heal you of any fatigue and minor wounds you may have."

  Opening the fsk, Ace saw an almost glistening white liquid with an incredible aroma.

  He didn't hesitate for even a sed before draining the fsk of every drop.

  His eyes widened as he felt his hunger and aches vanish just like that, but when he remembered Aiden's st words to him, he g the man one more time.

  Feeling Ace's stare, Aiden smiled lightly and shrugged indifferently before proceeding to ignore him.

  'Fine, if I o bee king of the ring to get the answers I want, then I'll end this quickly.'

  Before anyone could react, Ace used [Soru] to appear in the tre of the ring as he removed his on from his back.

  Holding the cold hard shaft of his give in his hands, his dark eyes sed each of his cssmates as a fident grin suffused his lips. "e!"

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

  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon: Book 3 - Chapter 10