L.O.R.D - Volume 1, Section 3: n.o.ble Lords
L.O.R.D (New Version)
Movie t.i.tle: L.O.R.D (Legend of Ravaging Dynasties)
爵迹
Author: Guo Jingming
Published: 2016
Translation: [email protected]
Volume 1: Divine Beginning
Section 3: n.o.ble Lords
“My name is Shen Yin (lit. G.o.dly sound), I come from the imperial capital of Gelanerte.” She looks at Qi Ling and smiles gently.
“My name is Qi Ling……” Qi Ling, who had wanted to escape, is totally attracted now, if the scenes before felt like a nightmare to him, right now, he feels as if he fell into the most beautiful dream. He stands at her side carefully. In his chest the blood of youth surges; he’s never seen such a pretty girl in this small town. Even the alluring dancing diva from the wandering circus that came to Fauser on tour a while ago is as bland as a peasant woman compared to the girl before him. He feels as if he’s good for nothing as even his breathing is laborious. If he had a mirror before him at this moment, he’d realize that breathing is not the problem at all for his entire face is as red as a ripe apple.
“You should sit down, stop standing.” Shen Yin gestures towards him.
Qi Ling sits down gratefully and hastely. He looks at Shen Yin’s face, so beautiful that she seems unearthly, the terror from before long forgotten, even if a bull-drawn carriage pulls him now, he probably can’t be pulled away.
“Jiejie…… are you a soul master too?” QI Ling looks at her straight on with wide eyes.
“Yes, we all are.” Shen Yin places her hand on the table; on her wrist is the strand of translucent beads. “My clan is quite famous in the imperial capital, everyone in the family is a soul master. They are all my relatives, look at the one who spoke just now, the one right in the middle……” Shen Yin leans over and tells Qi Ling softly, “He is my brother, Kins, he’s always so stoic. Extremely serious.”
Qi Ling glances at Shen Yin who sat closer to him, his breath felt more rushed. He can smell the faint fragrance of magnolia drifting from her body, barely there, not overwhelming, and yet very fresh, as if a flower bloomed in an unseen location in the dark night.
“Woah, are you guys the most powerful soul masters in the imperial capital?” Qi Ling’s eyes brightens, his curiosity for the world of soul powers piping up again.
“You’re talking about us? Our clan is probably quite alright among soul masters, but if you’re talking referring to the whole world of soul powers, the most talented are no longer called soul masters, they are known as ‘n.o.ble Lords’, they are the pinnacle of the entire world of soul powers.” Shen Yin smiles as she explains to the curious Qi Ling in front of her. Since there’s still quite some time before Bing Mo’s appearance, rather than waiting with those of her family in silence, she rather converse with the handsomely-pretty youth before her.
“Ah? Then is your brother a n.o.ble lord?”
“Ah, my brother?” Shen Yin looks at the youth who knows nothing about the world of soul powers before laughing with her hand covering her mouth, “That’s not possible. A hundred of my brother will still be ‘instantly killed’ by a n.o.ble Lord.”
“Instant kill?”
“Yeah……like just now when Gu Die Lijier killed Lu Ya and Tuoka. In the world of soul masters, if the level of soul powers between two are too far apart, if one overwhelms the other, then, the stronger side will be able to restrict the soul powers of the other, and they can kill the other in an instant.”
“n.o.ble lords are so powerful?!” Qi Ling’s eyes widen. “How do they look like? Three heads and six arms? Do they travel on clouds?”
“They don’t have three heads and six arms, but they should all be able to travel on clouds. However, most people may not have the opportunity to meet a n.o.ble Lord their entire life; those who have in the imperial capital are few and far between. To us who learned soul powers since young, n.o.ble lords to us are like deities, they rarely appear in everyone’s vision, or perhaps it’s better to say that even if they appear in cities, they’d remain a low profile and conceal their ident.i.ty. Most of the time their existence are that of legends.”
“How many n.o.ble lords are there?” Qi Ling can’t resist asking.
“Seven,” Shen Yin’s face under the light looks as if it’s carved from the most flawless jade, not a blemish in sight. “Since the start of record-keeping in the Aslan Empire, there has been seven ‘n.o.ble lords’ and there is only seven. Only when the older n.o.ble lord dies, will there be a inheritor who fills in the place of the previous n.o.ble lord. ‘n.o.ble lords’ will not increase, neither will they decrease, there will always be only seven. The inheritors of the lords are known as ‘Disciples’, every n.o.ble lord has their own disciple.”
“Are they all so powerful?”
“Of course not, not even close. n.o.ble lords are ranked based on the strength of their soul powers, from ‘Lord to the 7th Degree (7th Lord)’ to ‘Lord of the 1st Degree (1st Lord, Top Lord)’, their soul powers get stronger and stronger. The top three n.o.ble lords, before they become n.o.ble lords and even after they became n.o.ble lords, almost none of us knows who they are or how they look like. They’ve almost never appeared publicly in Aslan. I heard from the people in my family that before I was even born, there was a year when tens of thousands of soul beasts in the Valley of the North lost control at the same time for reaons known. The imperial capital gathered many soul masters to the Valley of the North to stop the soul beasts from heading south. At that time, my mother saw the ‘Lord to the 5th Degree’ appear to lead the soul masters in subduing the soul beasts. That is, in the history of my clan, the highest-leveled n.o.ble lord any of us ever saw. n.o.body knows how grand the soul powers of n.o.ble lords actually are; no one ever saw the appearance of their soul beasts either."
“Why hasn’t anyone ever seen them? Even I already saw two, a lion and a b.u.t.terfly……oh no, perhaps it’s a bat……I don’t know what that thing was, I didn’t dare to examine it, too scary, that thing had countless sticky tentacles, don’t even mention how horrifying it was.” Qi Ling tells Shen Yin softly while glancing sneakily at Lijier at the same time, fearing she’d hear.
“Of course it’s a lot easier to see an average soul master’s beast, I let out my soul beast often too. It’s different for n.o.ble lords, first they themselves rarely appear, we don’t even get to see them usually; secondly their soul powers are terrifyingly powerful, there’s rarely the occasion where they’re required to release their soul beasts.” When Shen Yin talks about n.o.ble lords, on her face is the express of infinite respect and idolisation.
Qi Ling takes in her heavenly appearance. Unable to stop himself, he envisions how n.o.ble lords are like. After thinking for a while, Qi Ling suddenly remembers and asks Shen Yin: “Jiejie, what is your soul beast?”
Shen Yin purses her lips as she smiles, saying: “I shouldn’t tell you, I’m scared I’ll frighten you.” After saying that, she points to the spot where there had been silver-white webs before, Qi Ling suddenly remembers something, looking pale, he says: “Don’t let it out……those things are what I’m most afraid of……” He pauses, “Then they are really the most powerful in the world? That’s almighty!”
“Yes, actually you should say that they are the seven most powerful of our Aslan Empire. Because the entire Odin Mainland consists of four countries. Apart from our water source Aslan of the West, there’s also the fire source Foliaier Empire in the East, the wind source Inde Empire of the North, and there is also the largest and most mysterious Garcia Empire, which is the earth source in the South. In every country, there are seven n.o.ble lords. So you should say that the twenty-eight of them are the most powerful masters of the soul on this landma.s.s.”
“Oh yeah, jiejie, why do all of you want to capture that thing known as Bing Mo?”
“If you’re able to capture it, you can turn it into a soul beast controlled by your soul powers, no matter if it’s for battle or making it do other things, it can help a lot. Usually the soul powers of soul beasts are greater than that of the human. So put it more simply, you can take soul beasts as your own weapon. Also, Bing Mo is a high-leveled soul beast of the element of water, so to us born in the Aslan Empire, it’s a great soul beast to have. Because we’re born in this region where the land’s nature is water, our soul powers have a natural strength to control water. That’s why so many people want it, but those not of a certain level are just here to lose their lives.”