Master Arto, the only truly recognized member of the Kong family, weapon master Cayden, and Kilian fought their way through a dense jungle.

  “The core of the Kong Clan…” The boy marveled, open-mouthed, as he walked along an overgrown path.

  Dozens of apemen flew above him, swinging through the air on lianas and ignoring the three figures on the ground as if they were insects.

  A network of countless tree houses, connected by bridges growing directly out of the trees, stretched as far as the eye could see.

  Nothing was carpentered or built.

  Every single branch and every single leaf seemed to be exactly where it belonged, as if the entire jungle was shaping itself according to the clan's wishes.

  "Only a few members of the Inner Academy are allowed to enter this area." Cayden began to explain, "The heads of the various institutes come once a year for a meeting or when they are summoned by the patriarch, and once every ten years, our representative is allowed to enter the ruins. Your mission will be to fight the clan's direct descendants so that you can better assess each other's abilities. You will rely on them in the future, and if you are too weak, they will simply ignore you in the ruins of the dragonlords!"

  "I don't know if I'm looking forward to it..." Kilian replied with a dry mouth, and Master Arto began to laugh, "Just show these arrogant kids what you are made of, and then they can't afford to ignore your power. Hahaha!"

  After a march of several hours, the small group finally reached a clearing in the middle of which stood a gigantic tree with countless fruits of different colors.

  "Welcome to the Ancestral Tree, it is the clan's greatest treasure!" The weapons master declared with a broad grin as he saw the young Qi-Gatherer's astonished expression, "I had the same stupid look on my face as you on my first visit! Hahaha! It is customary for battles within the clan to be fought under the protection of this tree."

  “There you are at last!” Complained a sixteen-year-old apeman, leading a small group of four teenagers, “We’ve been waiting here for at least ten minutes!”

  "These are the clan's greenhorns!" The dwarf grumbled calmly, pointing at one after the other as he spoke, "You can call the snarling one Brother Ji. Behind him are Sister Han and Sister Mailin, next to him are Brother Dan, and on the other side is Brother Luan."

  “I am Kilian, and I am very pleased to meet the honorable members of the Kong Clan!” Said the human boy with a brief bow to the apemen.

  "Before you are allowed to call us by our name, you must first prove your worth!" Li retorted venomously, nodding curtly at Cayden, "Humans are usually useless, with a few exceptions. Let's begin the test right away! Sister Han, you go first!"

  “Greetings, Brother Kilian.” Said the little apegirl, who was covered in fur that sparkled golden in the sun, with a seductive smile.

  She took a step toward the mesmerized Qi-Gatherer and conjured an artfully crafted violin out of thin air, “I may now test your willpower!”

  Even before the lovely lips closed at the end of the sentence, a wild melody began to play, clouding Kilian's mind and drawing him into a world of illusions.

  He stood alone in front of a gigantic army of orcs, who, with loud battle cries and waving weapons, ran towards him.

  “All smoke and mirrors!” Muttered the young calligraphy student, analyzing the flow of Qi around him, moistened his quill, and with one word written in reddish script, he burned away the false reality.

  Immediately, the melody stopped, Kilian's vision became clear again, and a drop of blood flowed from the corner of Sister Hans's still grinning mouth.

  “Good!” She said contentedly and began playing again, this time an erotic, beguiling melody.

  Dozens of beautiful women, some lightly dressed, some not at all, appeared before Kilian's inner eye and danced around him with graceful movements.

  Step by step, they inched closer and closer, and after he enjoyed the beautiful view for a single second longer than necessary, he pulled out his pen again and called out with an almost sad sigh: "Corwynt!”

  Immediately, a blade of wind tore the lovely bodies apart, which then transformed into wisps of mist and floated away.

  Sister Han spat out some blood this time and laughed, "You may be a little bit of a womanizer, but you don't let that cloud your mind too much, at least in battle! Hahaha! You passed my test."

  Despite his now reddened face, Kilian still managed to speak with a firm voice, "The Dao of music combined with illusions! I've never seen anyone fight like this!"

  “Calligraphy in the air…” Brother Li muttered and then called out, somewhat less hostilely, “Brother Dan, it’s your turn!”

  A muscular apeman, about a head taller than the young boy, slowly approached the human Qi-Gatherer and said in a deep voice, "I am Dan, specializing in defense. Show me your most powerful physical attack!"

  Now, for the first time, Kilian took the newly forged staff out of the briefly flashing, rusty ring and began to stir his Qi-soaked blood.

  An ancient aura, like that of some long-forgotten powerful beast, began to spread across the clearing as the energy in its blood and channels began to rotate in sync.

  The leaves of the Ancestral Tree began to rustle joyfully, and the fruits danced to the rhythm of the pulsating Qi.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The expressions of the young apeman changed drastically, while Master Arto and Cayden just nodded in satisfaction.

  As Kilian took up his attack position, Brother Li roared, “Brother Dan, put on your armor!”

  At the last second, before the staff crashed down on the shoulder of the muscular defender, a massive, black, glowing armor made of shadowsteel appeared between the already shredded clothing and the powerful blow.

  With a deafening clang, the staff crashed onto the armor, and a wave of energy flowed from Kilian's body through the weapon, forcing his opponent to his knees.

  “Brother Li…I think it’s your turn!” Groaned the muscular apeman, his face contorted in pain, “We can skip the tests of the other two!”

  “I agree!” Replied the group leader with a broad grin, stepping next to his injured friend and patting him on the shoulder, “Rest! Let’s see how our recruit fares in a real fight!”

  The dark armor disappeared from the muscular body again, and now one could see a broken collarbone, positioned at an unnatural angle.

  Brother Dan approached Sister Mailin, who raised a finely shaped wooden stick and tapped it on the injured bone.

  Gentle, greenish shimmering Qi flowed from the tip of the short staff, disappeared beneath the thick fur, and the fracture healed as if by magic.

  “Kilian, if anything happens to you in the ruins, you can rely on my healing and alchemical abilities!” The monkey girl smiled sweetly at the victorious boy, “But first, you have to defeat our big brother!”

  "I am Li Kong, grandson of our family's great patriarch and the current winner of the clan's annual fighting tournament!" Kilian's next opponent began to explain, as a jet black suit of armor appeared over his body, seemingly absorbing all light, and his hands clutched a gigantic staff, "Show me what you've got! Sister Mailin will patch us up later!"

  Two young warriors, clad in black armor, stood facing each other with raised staffs.

  Kilian wet his pen and grinned challengingly at Brother Li.

  A barely legible inscription flashed briefly on both suits of armor, and two voices called out almost in unison: “LLUCHED!”

  The dark figures disappeared in a bright flash of light, and a tremendous, deafening sound swept across the clearing as the bars of shadowsteel clashed.

  About a quarter of an hour later, two sweat-drenched figures lay on the ground in front of the Ancestral Tree.

  Grinning broadly and gasping for air, Brother Li squeezed out a few words, "Hahaha! Good fight!", while Sister Mailin, her face already pale, sent more and more of her healing Qi into the two young warriors.

  “How can two Qi-Gatherers of the middle circle cause so much chaos?” She asked exhaustedly, interrupting the flow of her energy and holding two small bottles in her hands, the next moment, “Drink this and you should be back on your feet by tomorrow morning!”

  "Truly a good fight! I'm looking forward to our expedition!" Kilian panted with a fiery look, took the potion from the hand of the enchanting, now slightly unsteady apewoman, and toasted the leader of the small group, "To good cooperation, Commander Li!"

  “Those two seem to have found each other…” Murmured Sister Han, shaking her head and looking at the now completely dug up clearing: “You two are impossible!”

  Bare, almost half a meter long feet crunched through freshly fallen snow toward a burning campfire in front of a fur-draped tent.

  An icy wind whipped the thick cloud cover around the hiker's huge body as he climbed down a cliff of a massive mountain range whose towering peaks stood high into the sky.

  “You're back!” Laughed a figure about three meters tall, eyeing the newcomer and poking the embers of the fire with a long stick, “Has she considered the clan's offer?”

  "Former Brother Thrym, the mother of our hearts, sends you her greetings. She is pleased that you have returned to your homeland and that she doesn't have to kill you!" Said the three-and-a-half-meter-tall giantess, clad in thick furs, and looked at the man sitting before the fire with sparkling eyes, "Your gift, the first part of the Ancient One's Script, has ignited a fire in many of my younger siblings! For that, I want to thank you!"

  "Sister Belana, although I ran away back then, I still fondly remember our time together!" Replied the silvery shimmering halfgiant with a gentle smile on his lips and continued to stare into the embers, "Will mother finally receive me?"

  “She requests your presence to begin negotiations with the Kong Clan!” Replied the young, curly-haired woman, and after a brief pause, she added in a murmur, “It's great to see you again!”

  "Anyone who leaves their home loses the right to live among the giants! This has always been the will of the elders to protect the cohesion and strength of our families. If this rule is broken, the culprit will be impaled upon his return! But you, the lost son, come home and bring us a script that can secure our future! Without this deed, your life would be forfeit…" Thundered a commanding voice through a gigantic wooden hall.

  At the end of a long table, on an ivory throne, sat the orphanage's matriarch, who was over five meters tall.

  “Mother of my heart, I set out to protect our survival and now return to my old homeland with knowledge and allies!” Thrym spoke slowly, head bowed, and a contented smile on his lips.

  "Stupid boy!" The giantess roared, shaking her head, "It is the duty of the old and strong to secure the future of our young ones. Not that of a half breed!"

  “The ways of the ancestors are driving our people to extinction!” The member of the Kong clan shouted irritatedly, “Once we stood at the top of this world together with the dragonlords, and now we have to hide in this icy cold!”

  “Enough of this!” The orphan mother waved her hand, “Many years have already passed, and yet your will and stubbornness remain unbroken…but this time you shall have your wishes!”

  A massive, iron-reinforced wooden door burst open, and Belana entered, accompanied by three other young giants.

  "The prophecy of the last Giant King states that our legacy will be linked to the ruins of the dragonlords! Now that the beginnings of the Ancient Ones' Script have appeared, it is time to face our dark past and atone for our mistakes!" The powerful female voice echoed through the vast space, "You five will enter the realm of our former allies and work with the Kong Clan alliance!"

  In another place at another time, Connor, Edana, and a boy of about the same age as them stood before Amena.

  "Brenton Arian, as the youngest grandson of the royal house, you will lead this expedition! Your task is to bring Lady Edana and Lord Connor safely to the troops of the Kong Clan. The rift in the fabric of magic is large enough this time to send five more Qi-Gatherers of the middle circle to the ruins of the dragonlords! The leader of the joint expedition this year is the Kong Clan, but I also trust in your wise mind to make the right decisions when needed!

  Fal Arian, protector and ruler of our house!” Amena read from a scroll of parchment and patted the silver-haired boy on the shoulder, “ Our grandfather has complete confidence in you, and so do I! Take care, my little cousin! You should probably dye your hair to hide your lineage, otherwise the orcs will be able to detect your bloodline from afar.”

  "Orders received and understood! But my hair will stay as it is, because my eye color would give me right away anyway!" Brenton replied with a broad grin and the official royal salute.

  After a brief pause, he asked, "May I assemble my own troops?"

  “Hahaha! I knew you'd want to bring your friends!” Amena laughed playfully, then quickly became serious again, “You may, but this time it's not a game! Keep control of them.”

  “What did she mean by 'keep control'?” Edana asked curiously after the three teenagers were alone again.

  "I've founded a group of hunters under an alias to gain some combat experience in the real world, and it's time my companions learned my true identity. Some of them are a bit stubborn and conceited, but they're truly strong!" The king's grandson explained with an enchanting smile, "I'll prepare everything, and in a few days we'll be off!"