Way of the Knights

---action

The five people from the second batch who made it out were then led to a nearby building. 

"Everyone, this will be where you will stay for the time being." The leading disciple spoke, "We have to wait until the rest of the participants are done taking the Aptitude Exams before the Smelting Trial begins."

"There are several rooms available within this building. You can pick any room you want, upon entering the room, it will immediately give off a sign that it's occupied. Please take this…"

The disciple then handed out some strange device to every participant. Raven grabbed his and inspected it a bit. The device looked like a pearl, it has a murky red color and smooth surface. 

"These pearls could be used in tandem with your current badges. Once you enter your room, you can inspect it using your perception and you know how it works. The pearl will also serve as a communication device, we can send you a message through it so that you'll know when we the Smelting Trial will begin."

"Alright, my work is done for now. Please rest properly and prepare for the next exams." The disciple them wrapped his fist towards the participants and bowed for a bit before leaving them on their own. 

Raven stepped forward and entered the room. He opened his ocular technique to try and see if he could inspect the rooms with it. It worked but he quickly figured out that there's no difference between any room be it the amount of energy present of interior design so he might as well choose something in random. 

After picking a room, he placed his hand on the doorknob and entered without hesitating. He heard a faint droning sound which caught his attention. He looked at the door and saw that it was flashing with a bright red light. Such a thing wasn't there before which made him think that the red light is the sign that a room is occupied. 

Raven shrugged and stepped inside, closing the door behind him as he entered. After locking the door, the interior of the room is now completely visible to him. 

The interior of the room didn't really surprise him since he already saw it during his initial inspection. Each doors leads to a separate space that's fit for anyone to seclude themselves. The interior space looked very similar to the one he had back in the Martial Emperor Sect. 

If there's any difference, it would be the fact that the bed is nicer, there is a kitchen and there's also a hot spring and pond nearby which he could use to clean himself.

"I actually want to sleep for a bit but I have no idea how much time I have before the Smelting Trial begins. It took me months to finish the first exams but in reality, only an hour or two passed outside. Well, I guess I'll just unwind first to lessen my mental fatigue."

Raven then walked towards the hot spring in large strides. He took out a bottle filled with aromatic herbs and calming powders from his spatial ring and let those steep in the hot spring before dispersing his clothes which was made out of laws. He then walked towards the hot spring and rested his back while closing his eyes to feel the gentle heat comforting his whole body. 

After a couple of minutes, he then took out the pearl that the disciple gave to him earlier and inspected it once more. 

A barely noticeable glint appeared in his eyes as he held the pearl on his hands. 

'Interesting…' He scoffed inwardly, 'There's actually a tracking rune within this. Though it might make sense for the Ancient Elysium Sect to place one, the problem is that it wasn't them who planted this.'

'If the sect planted this rune, then its use would be to locate this pearl should it go missing. But it wasn't them who planted this, the only culprit I have is the Twin Star Academy but why would do something like that?'

Raven closed his eyes and from an angle, it seems like he was inspecting what's inside the pearl but in reality, he wasn't. He was actually reviewing some of his memories on Runic Inscriptions to see what's the true purpose of this tracking rune. 

After a while, he then opened his eyes and cold smirk found it's way to his face. 

'I see…' Raven snorted inwardly, 'So this tracking rune, tracks me instead of the pearl. Not only does it tracks me, it also captures a wisp of my Spiritual Mark, which would then be visible to whoever planted this rune. What a devious move.'

Spiritual Mark could also be said as an individual's identity, it's the mark of their soul which is completely unique to them, not even twins will have the same arrangement of spiritual marks. In some places, specially those who were secretive and reclusive, they confirm someone's identity through spiritual marks since it is the most fool proof way to confirm one's identity. 

What makes this situation a bit risky is that, there are some people who have abilities to deal with Spiritual Marks. Some forces of evil could completely replicate it, extract all knowledge from it, revise it and so on. And since spiritual marks serves as someone's proof of identity, tinkering with it could cause some serious harm to the owner. 

Although those who could tinker one's spiritual marks are too few and far in between, they still exist. Those who could, are mostly shady characters which are also powerful.

And Raven still hasn't forgotten the fact that the Twin Star Academy has two Empyrean Knights. 

'Not only did you people place a tracking rune on the pearl which belongs to other people, you also placed an observation rune in this place. I don't know what you people are planning, but if you think that I'll easily give you what you want, then you're thinking too highly of yourselves.'

Upon his initial inspection, Raven already saw the observing rune within this place. He ignored it since he's using the properties of the Twin Star Academy and it would make sense for them to do something like this. 

Now however, he didn't think so. 

'If my soul hadn't recover this much, then I wouldn't be able to do this, but now…fooling you is as easy as turning my hand, even if you're an Empyrean or not.' 

With his eyes still close, a rumble occurred on Raven's soul. His soul silently chanted some mysterious mantras and a film of light suddenly covered his soul. The whole process took a few minutes to take effect. After all, creating a false cover for his spiritual marks isn't a simple process. After doing all this, he inspected his fake spiritual marks once more and nodded inwardly. 

'Alright, at least I'll be able to cover my track for now. Let's see what this pearl is for then.'

Raven sank his perception within the pearl and a wave of information was displayed on his psyche. What made him smile coldly is the fact that the process of the tracking rune capturing his spiritual mark was too secretive, in fact if he wasn't paying close attention to it, he would've missed it entirely. 

The moment that the wave of information appeared on his mind, the tracking rune used that moment as a cover to capture his spiritual marks, the process wasn't painful, in fact it couldn't even be felt at all. Which means that whoever did this definitely knows what they're doing. 

However, due to Raven's delicate preparations, the rune captured the wrong thing, which caused Raven to laugh coldly inside. 

He then stopped paying attention to this and proceeded to view the information that the pearl contained. 

The information contained a list of items which was prized using two currencies, one is through Spirit Stones and the rest are with Merit Points. 

Raven was somewhat overwhelmed with how many types of items the list contains. In fact, if he wanted to make his life easier, he could use some pre-sets to filter out the list, making his search easier. 

The list wasn't lacking anything. Clothes, armors, weapons, jewelries, materials, ingredients

He could even buy things like tickets which he could use to enter some sort of facilities or training areas, bloodlines, slaves, guards, hell even a specific titles privileges that he didn't know about were also for sale. But of course, everything has a price. 

The amount of items that could be bought using Spirit Stones were awfully limited even though they have endless supplies for it. Most of the items available were only affordable by using merit points.

Raven stared at the list for a while and a sudden impulse took over him. He used the filters and searched the list for somethings, but he was met with a good news and a bad news. 

The good news is, a soul of a Crimson Dragon Emperor is available through this list. He could also invite an able blacksmith to infuse the dragon soul to his gloves.

The bad news were…

#667. Crimson Dragon Emperor's Soul - 1,500,000 Merit Points. 

#18. Empyrean Ranked Blacksmith Services (One Time Consumable..) - 2,000,000 Merit Points.