The goodbye was brief, almost emotionless with both twins rising their walls with their father present, and Tang Yin found herself soon again on Jiang's back.

Holding on with her hand to his back as they navigated at the highest altitude and speed, the countries below them.

Five years, five years, and then they would meet again. She made a grim expression; it was going to be dirty and exhausting training, probably the worst so far if she wanted to make it somewhere with it. A long way to go. Looking at her missing arm, she needed to hope that Gale would be able to make her a new arm, with just one arm, things would be more difficult than they already were.

"At least I don't have to worry about holes in my memory anymore," she muttered to herself and leaned close to Jiang's scales as they soared towards the ocean that spread below them into the horizon, melting with the sky in the distance.

She let herself slide down Jiang's back and then fell, the wind in her face, she spread her wings and then feathered her fall.

Right above the waves, she stretched her hand and touched the sea, the cold wet feeling on it comfortable as she turned, and Jiang joined in, flying right next to her as they soared through the sky together. Soon, small birds joined them. Yin blinked, and then she noted they were spirit beasts. She stretched out her hand, and one of the birds landed on it as she slowed down and looked right into its awake and clearly conscious eyes.

It chirped before taking off, making turns around her.

She turned with it. Fascinated and amazed at the same time. Blow her was a school of silvery fish, their scales gleaming in the sun. Somehow, she felt almost comfortable as she was surrounded by spirit beasts when the birds headed their own way back towards land.

An intense beat of her Wings and she shot forward, Jiang right next to her.

--

Ning Feng felt it inside her, the turmoil, the volcano boiling, something she had kept bottled up for the first time since she was a child, as she entered through the gates of Seven Treasured Sky. The emblems of Shrek and Tang Sact feelimg as if they were burning through her clothes.

Raising her head, she took a deep breath.

Ning Rong Rong and Oscar put their hands on her shoulders.

"You'll do just fine," Oscar said with his daredevil grin while Rong Rong nodded with confidence.

Then she took a step and re-entered Seven Treasures, alongside the sect leaders. The gates closed behind her as she was surrounded by familiar yet strange sights.

People clothed in white robes, often oozing nobility and filled with quiet elegance. There was nothing fierce about them, all polite smiles and words.

She strode after the others as she held her head high.

Feng knew who she was, where she stood today. A spirit master, a talented one in her age group, strong and better than most at fighting. There was no reason to hide anymore, no reason for her to cover in the corners of rooms anymore, all because she was a stutterer and talking didn't come as easily.

She was Ning Feng, with all the reasons in her hands to be proud, and no one could take that from her anymore.

In fact, she would make sure that no one could ever take anything from her again. A title Douluo that was what she aimed to be after all. Already, she and Rong Rong had broken the norm and like Rong Rong Feng was determinded to reach the nine tiled pagoda, and nothing would stop her. Who cared if she was a little less talented?

She would just work harder.

"Feng, my little Feng." Someone said, and she turned, seeing her mother.

"H-Hi, Mom." Feng smiled and found herself in a hug from her mother. She returned gently.

Five Years.

She had five years to make sure she grew stronger than ever, burying her head in her mother's neck, her memory for a moment flashed to Xie Yue. In five years, he would be stronger as well, and the next time they would be more than rivals, then competitors.

They would be enemies.

--

Gale was tinkering on the piece in front of him, and the cogs were starting to work correctly. His mind entirely focused as he was jerked aside with a yell from Damian. They both crumpled ot the ground as Damian's far larger figure curled over him, cursing.

Gale was shell-shocked. As above them, something exploded, and pieces of their home flew through the ground. Everything was muted when Damian grabbed him. Screamed something to him, but he could not hear. But it didn't matter either, when Damian dragged him along, Gale followed without protest.

He knew Damian would have all the reasons to do so. He stumbled as slowly the sound returned.

He blinked when Damian cursed like a Sailor.

"What happened!" He said, and Damian told him to be more silent.

Oh, he guessed he was speaking too loudly.

Still, slowly, slowly, his feeling of sound returned as they made their way into the convoluted alleyways of Vast Sea city. Damian was gasping as he was growing tired while navigating through the labyrinthine slums as if he were born in them.

"We have a problem." He said, and Gale tilted his heundeWell figures if someone just bombed his lab into the sky.

"What?"  ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novelFɪre.net

"The underground. I mean, the local Port Mafia is after my head." He said, and Gale blinked.

"What?" Now sounding more shocked than asking.

"My father is dead," Damian said.

"He left everything to my brother and me 50/50. My stepmother is trying to kill me. She hired Assassins. Good ones."

"F*ck." Gale said and frowned. "That will be a problem. Can we ask the others for help?"

"I know we need to get to the church, I mean, the retirement home...the nuns, you know. I don't want to ask the othrrs for help. It'smy issue, I feel bad enough dragging you into it."

"I know." Gale nodded. "But help from the nuns will not be cheap." He then pointed out. "Their help will cost us an arm and a leg, maybe also our souls, if we are not careful."

"They like you." Damian pointed out, and Gale shrugged.

"Not enough to change their cutthroat ways." He clarified. "They are too old for it, follow me."

Gale led himself and Damian to the nuns' hangout. A church, once upon a time, had been worshipping an old god. The god of the outcasts, now it was just a ruin left in the slums from times long past, a pretty ruin inhabited by a gathering of the most dangerous and infamous people in retirement in the entire Vast Sea City.

Gale entered and was greeted by an elderly woman with a bright smile, her white, blind eyes that saw more then they should falling upon him.

"Gale, what a nice surprise to see you. I thought I wouldn't have the pleasure anymore." She said, and Gale walked to her, bowing down to hug her gently.

"Hello, Madame Choi." He said, a bit defeated, of course, they had gotten wind of the happening already in here. "It is nice to be alive as well. I suppose from everything you know why we are here."

"Of course, of course." She said and patted his head. "And we already prepared ahead of time, too. Also for lovely Damian over there. I tell you, boy, if I were sixty years younger, I'd jump your bones."

"It is a pleasure, Madame Choi." He said, slightly amused by the old woman who had once been the most fearsome Mafia Boss in Vast Sea City.

"The pleasure is all mine." She said and then walked ahead with the two of them following her. "We will help you."

"The question is what it will cost me," Damian said, and the old woman smiled, rising as a bony figure.

"Five Years, Five Years of your life it will cost you. We have plans, young Damian."

"I see." Damian gulped, and Gale, next to him, tensed as he put his hand on his friend'sfriend's shoulder. They would get through this together somehow, somehow being the word of the hour, but that was what they always did.

Somehow they managed.