Ri sent a glare at Dyon but continued as they weaved into and out of streets, "don't expect the academy to be a cozy place. There is no comradery only competition. You're soft hearted despite your dense killing intent. I can already tell that that's gotten you into trouble before. If you get yourself killed for offending the wrong person, don't blame me for not being able to save you. Not even the king's real daughter has any power.. let alone her cousin."

Dyon raised his eyebrow at this, 'the princess has no power? What exactly is going on here..'

But Ri didn't allow Dyon to ask about it, "this isn't something that the younger generation should be concerned with anyway. The adults are duking it out, and we're still trying to find our place in the world. Nothing more. Nothing less."

"War orphans.. powerless nobles.. seems like the Elvin Kingdom isn't as peaceful as I thought it would be," Dyon said with a chuckle.

Ri sighed, "I'm certain that the kingdom will stabilize. And soon at that," she said with determination.

Dyon gave a side glance to Ri as a light smile played on his lips, 'interesting..'

But, Dyon didn't delve any further into it, "are you sure this really keeps the younger generation out? Normally families fight to position themselves for the sake of the coming generation."

Ri shook her head, "maybe that would be true if our lives were short. But, not only do elves live for hundreds of years even if they had no cultivation, with cultivation, our lives increase exponentially. The king is already over 10,000 years old, and since he's a Celestial Level Expert, he's technically still quite young for an elf at that stage."

Dyon frowned. A Celestial Level expert would indeed be able to live to 10,000, but that was the cap for a human. It seems the elves improved upon this substantially.

'it also seems like I'm dealing with real experts this time around..'

Dyon realized that much of the reason he had survived until now was because although the seniors who hated him were powerful, their level of strength was still within his sights. But, an existence at the level of the Elvin king wasn't something he could even fathom. Despite this, Dyon chuckled. He knew very well that even if he warned himself of this, his personality wouldn't allow him to bow his head.

Ri continued, "that being said, the prowess of a family's younger generation often has a lot to do with how that family is received because they would obviously be the future. Plus, it isn't like every older expert has reached the cultivation level of the king."

Dyon nodded. Honestly, Celestial stage experts were as far as the memories of his master went, aside from dao formation experts. When the sage said he had reached a transcendent level of cultivation, Dyon had assumed he meant the celestial stage.. But, the more he thought about it, the more he thought that maybe the sage had truly meant something that transcended the knowledge they had.

"I'm confused.. if elves live for so long.. and their king is so powerful.. why is there a power struggle?..."

A complicated look flashed across Ri's face, ".. the king is missing and no one knows where he is. In fact, it isn't even that simple," she laughed in what sounded like self-mockery, "the king hasn't appeared in nearly a decade."

Dyon started, 'for a king to not appear in 10 years.. I feel like there's more to this story..'

But, Ri immediately changed the subject. Dyon didn't find this to be suspicious at all, who wouldn't feel complicated when they spoke of their missing uncle?

"anyway, don't be a hot head and hop into the life and death arenas. Don't accept challenges to the ancient games, I suck at them because I'm half human, let alone you being a full human. Be sure to really think about it if you want to use the unique type technique, there's always the possibility of you crippling your soul cultivation as opposed to helping it," Ri seemed to be rushing through information as they neared a massive castle like structure, except much like the rest of city, the stones were made of marble and jade.

What was even more odd was the fact that other than its basic structure, it had no other features of one. It stood in a cul-de-sac, completely out of place with the buildings around it. If it wasn't for the fact that it was hundreds of meters across, you'd never think it was worth its prestige as one of the 3 main academies of the Elvin Kingdom.

Ri smiled, seeming to enjoy Dyon's confusion, "there's another important thing I forgot to tell you. Elves, because our population is relatively small compared to other nations, live on this small island rather than having an entire continent to ourselves like the humans do. That's partially due to infertility issues, but unimportant... The point I'm trying to make is that although the area we take up is small.. well, you'd better not take anything at face value."

Dyon was going to ask Ri what she meant but all his thoughts were interrupted by his surprise. Ri had flashed a badge at the large doors of the castle, and Dyon was greeted with the fresh air from a completely different world.

The castle doors led into a field of flowers and sunlight. There was an elegant jade path leading towards the largest structure Dyon had ever seen. The fields were filled with Elvin students. They chatted and laughed, trained and sweated. The air was fresh and revitalizing. The energy in the air was so dense that Dyon's body almost bulged greedily.

After kilometers of fields, a building reminiscent of ancient times was found at the end of the path. It stretched out as far as Dyon's eyes could see in either direction and was at least 5 stories high.

Ri interrupted Dyon's thoughts, "although you can't see it now, the school building is actually a massive square. Within it, there are a whole bunch of things to do although the most popular is probably the ancient games. So, what do you think?"

Dyon couldn't speak for a while.. 'all of their buildings.. have pocket dimensions within them?! What kind of nonsense is this?!"

Ri's grin was wide as she watched Dyon's reaction with a bit of pride, "welcome to Acacia Academy"

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