The Medallion

Frowning, Marcia touched her back subconsciously. Worry was written all over her beautiful eyes. So tensed up, she began mumbling to herself, "Oh, no. I should not have trusted that guy. What if he cannot keep the secret? What if he accidentally lets slip? To avert a disaster, I have to take precautions.

In the first place, he has lied about his name, but since he is a royal spirit manipulator, it will not be difficult to find him. To get started, I'll need to investigate his whereabouts. I can't rest until I find him. Only then will I be at peace..." Suddenly, Marcia calmed down and stopped mumbling. An unexpected idea had struck her.

In an abrupt turn, her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Where are the maids?" she commanded.

Promptly, two maids in white brocade showed up and bowed in deference. Respectfully they asked, "What is the order, General?"

The dragon mark on the left arm of Marcia faintly flickered, then, by a mere lift of her finger, the water below them swooshed through a thin and long drift. An outline of a face soon condensed into shape by her magical powers.

"He is a royal spirit manipulator. I need you to find him at all cost. I don't mind even if you have to scour the entire Imperial City. As soon as you find him, come back and let me know. By all means, keep it all below, to avoid raising eyebrows," Marcia cautioned, after thinking for a moment.

"Yes, as you wish," the two maids readily took the order.

They left and began their search straight away, but they made every effort to stay under the rudder. So everything went on as usual, for several days without any surprise.

to be a difficult sparring partner in his martial arts training. Fortunately, he could learn from Mia the Illusion Technique she applied in their daily practice. He could now apply it quite skillfully himself. The only consolation he had was that Mia was pushing him to give his best in training and he hoped it was good for his strength and endurance. All the bruises and

arts—two for each part of the body. Apart from illusions, the other elements of spiritual martial arts were not so much complicated. General formation in spiritual martial arts required specialization for best results. Each disciple had to choose a skill and stick to that, for the rest of the process. That meant everyone having a specialty, either in palm, feet or finger skills. But Illusion Techniques were quite different from the general spiritual martial arts. Here, one could practice the Illusion Techniques while showing no nature of his or her dragon spiritual power. Illusion Techniques always left room

and a beast were embroiled in fierce fighting, deep in the thick woods.

lungs, Rocky moved in a split second and flew up to kick. His movements were blistering.

any sign of panic. On counter attack, he hit

to sustain the assault by his palm skills, until Uriah could not put up anymore. But Uriah, unfazed at Rocky's palm roared, wagged his two tails and struck back bravely by his

again?" Rocky exclaimed, slowly getting down on

followed Rocky to the ground, excited about the competition. He was yearning

help but chuckle. Thanks to Uriah for being a great sparring partner, Rocky had improved a lot in such a short time. But to his surprise, Uriah was also learning a great deal from sparring with rocky in practice. Not a single day of their mock competition had Rocky defeated Uriah. In most

to the lakeside and sat down cross-legged. For a while, he meditated to gain inner peace and then began to cultivate on the Mysterious Dragon Skill. There was a big

was relatively mild.

he was surprised to find everyone busy, preparing for what appeared to be an important event ahead. There was even a group of handymen, hanging festival red