Soul Land: The Savage Star

With nowhere to go, they decided to at least get to another city as staying continuously at spirit city would make them sick. Their destination was the sun moon empire. This destination, in addition to being random, was just too indefinite. They would just go to the nearest city and visit it for some time before leaving.

Said city was named Ti Cang. It was a mid-sized city that mostly served to keep spirit hall in check, not that they knew. Shortly after they told their teacher that they would go there, they were summoned by the dean.

Feng's value to spirit hall was absurd as even though his spirit was still an unexplored mystery, just the first ability it provided, thanks to the crow, was insane. A two times enhancement on two attributes was too useful, even more so when a good part of their elites had either one of these two...

Entering her office nervously, they sat on the chairs after they were told and waited for her to say something. Looking at them intensely, she said " I don't understand something. " Pausing to make the twins more nervous, she continued " Your village is a month worth of travel from here and you don't have any family nor friend in the sun moon empire so, why and for what are you planning to go there? "

Normally, the dean wouldn't give a damn about what her students do or where they go, but it's Feng's we are talking about here.

Nervous, Feng replied " Lu Piao told us that other cities work differently from spirit city and that if we want to have fun, then the best place is the sun moon empire. " That was the truth, though the twins didn't understand what kind of 'fun' Lu Piao was talking about because of their young age.

" Is that so? But aren't you too young to have 'fun'" As she asked this, she saw their confused faces and caught onto the fact that they were still too young to understand what 'fun' meant in this context so she let the matter drop " Nevermind " Taking a purse from nowhere, she added " Take this with you. I don't think you have much money while it is very useful outside. You can go. "

Quickly thanking her after taking the purse, they hurriedly left, though before they could do so she said something that scared Feng a little " And don't forget that spirit hall will always be your home. "

Her meaning was clear, she knew that they were not too loyal to spirit hall although she didn't know that they were not only not very loyal but also rebellious.

What they didn't know was that if they had any less than 15/30 on knowledge, their holidays would have been denied.

....

Soon after, they left spirit hall with a temple knight. The journey was short as they reached Ti Cang city after only half a day of travel. Compared to spirit city, it was small and looked plain. The townspeople were all either dressed in rags from poverty or in plain clothes. The only ones that looked a little good were the guars and high dignitaries, but knowing that a good half responds to spirit hall's rule made the city that had a scouting purpose just another city in its sphere of influence.

The state of the commoners was quite worrying as they all looked poor and up until they arrived at the city center, not even one of them seemed to have had a full meal ever. Feng, as he was quite observant saw this. He didn't realize how dire the situation was, all he knew was that the people were mostly poor but the people seemed wealthier the more they approached the center.

' But, why are they so poor even though spirit city is so near? " As the wealthiest place of all the continent, it would have been expected that cities surrounding it would also be wealthy but it didn't seem to be the case.

Once they were at the city center, the temple knight led them to a good looking inn where they checked for two weeks. After he did that, he disappeared from their side and began to follow them like a shadow, to make sure nothing happens to them and, most importantly, see if they had any thoughts to leave spirit hall or rebel.

The two oblivious kids went out of the inn and visited the city. There was not really anything that caught their interest. On the contrary, the more they saw, the less they wanted to stay. As this time they paid great attention, they remarked that not only were most people poor, but they even had scars, injuries or traces of previous injuries.

This wouldn't have been disturbing if a minority were like this but way more than half of the people had them. ' Could it be that despite their cruelty, spirit hall really is the most righteous? But, why are people like so near to spirit city then? ' As his opinion on spirit went back up, Feng perceived a suspicious hooded figure leaving a dark alley and blending in the crowd.

Not long after, multiple spirit masters, wearing the tunic of soldiers emerged from the same dark alley and looked around. He was sure they were searching for the hooded figure. As if they couldn't find it, some of them dejectedly went back to the dark alley while the others searched in the crowd.

As this didn't have anything to do with them, they just resumed their disappointing tour. Half an hour later, as they were near the exit of the city, they saw the hooded figure trying to escape from the soldiers. After running for a few meters, the figure was caught and maybe because the spirit master was rough, the hood fell and revealed a girl maybe three or four years older than the twins.

She was blond and had golden eyes.

She was somewhat cute, though the fact that a deep scar ran her neck made her look more pitiful. As she was caught, she had a desperate expression while the townspeople just either shook their heads or looked at the soldiers in hatred. From their reaction, it seemed like the soldiers were not the most righteous kind.

Then, quite improbably, she activated her spirit and two rings appeared behind her as one shone and a big explosion sent all the soldiers flying as they were caught off guard. Immediately after, she resumed her escape toward the exit of the city. Quickly getting up with varying degrees of injuries, the soldiers also resumed their chase.

As the commotion died down after they left, Feng went to a store owner to ask him what happened while telling Beibei to stay behind. Looking bored, the store owner replied " If you are not here to buy then f*ck off. "

Offended by the rudeness, Feng went to ask some other passerby, who said " If you want information then it will cost you money. " Speechless, Feng took a silver coin and seeing the man nodding, gave it to him after telling him not to play tricks as he was spirit master.

Not bothered by the threat, the man answered " This girl was most probably spirit hall's new lab rat. Every citizen of this city shares the same fate sooner or later. These b*stards disguise themselves as normal soldiers and do whatever they want ptui. " He spat at the end of his sentence.

" W-What? Why? "

" How would I know why?! This twisted organization just does anything it wants and no one can do anything about it. They rip off our living with absurd taxes and take us once in a while to test some of their f*cked up inventions. And of course, this useless empire doesn't give a damn. All they want is some privileged f*cktards 'monitoring' spirit hall's activity, knowing full well that half of them deflected. " After saying this with rising anger, the man left.

Feng, stunned and honestly shocked stayed there for a while with a vacant look. Spirit was decidedly worse than he had thought it would be. It was only when Beibei shook his shoulders and asked what happened that he got out of his reverie. " Nothing, we should just go back to the inn. " He chose to not tell Beibei about his new discovery and urged him to go back instead.

As he had no way of hearing the conversation, the temple knight just observed them quietly, noting down that Feng should be monitored closely and that he should be brainwashed-advised more thoroughly back at spirit city.