Not long after lunch, Hogg sat reading in a reclining chair outside the main hall of the Baruch residence in Wushan Town.

Two figures hurried through the gates. Linley and Hillman had rushed back from Fenlai City, and neither could hide his excitement.

“Father, I’m back!” Linley called from a distance.

“Lord Hogg!” Hillman’s voice was just as animated.

One look at their faces gave Hogg a sudden premonition. He rose at once, his voice trembling slightly. “How did the magic test go?”

The Baruch Clan had languished in obscurity for far too long. This ancient family desperately needed a great figure to restore its former glory.

“Lord Hogg, Ernst Institute!” Hillman blurted. “Linley has been accepted by Ernst Institute!”

Hogg went rigid. His mind emptied, as though he had forgotten how to breathe.

“Lord Hogg?” Hillman called twice.

His thoughts finally returned. Breathing hard, Hogg stared at Hillman with rounded eyes. “Ernst? You said Ernst Institute?”

“Father, this is the acceptance letter.” Linley held out the red envelope.

After a moment’s hesitation, Hogg snatched it from his hand, tore it open, and read the notice inside without breathing.

Two names stood out in bright red: Ernst Institute. Linley.

“Ha... hahahaha! Ancestors of the Baruch Clan, our family has hope again!” Hogg threw back his head and laughed, his whole body shaking as tears ran down his face. “The Baruch Clan has hope again!”

The near-frenzied laughter and streaming tears left Linley speechless.

“Father,” he said softly, afraid to disturb him.

He had never seen Hogg lose control like this. The sight of those tears made his own heart tremble.

The steward, Hiri, came over and stopped in shock. He had no idea what had happened.

Hogg drew a deep breath and looked at Linley, his eyes blazing with emotion. “Good. Good!”

Then he turned. “Hillman! Uncle Hiri! Prepare a grand feast for tonight. Quickly! I’m happy today—truly happy. With a son like this, I can face the ancestors of the Baruch Clan even in death.”

“Yes, Lord Hogg,” Hillman and Hiri answered together.

“Squeak!”

Bebe suddenly leaped out from Linley’s clothes and perched on his shoulder, glaring at Hogg with fury in his tiny eyes.

The message that came through their soul bond made Linley unsure whether to laugh or sigh. Bebe had been asleep inside his clothes until Hogg’s booming laughter woke him. Young Shadow Rats slept a great deal, and Bebe hated nothing more than being disturbed.

Hogg’s expression changed the instant he saw him. “A Shadow Rat? A Magical Beast Shadow Rat?”

“Father.” Afraid Hogg might attack, Linley hurried to explain. “Bebe has already formed a soul contract with me.”

Hogg stared as though struck by lightning. “You... you subdued this Shadow Rat?”

Subduing a Magical Beast required two things: first, the beast had to submit; second, someone had to lay down a Soul Contract Magic Formation. Hogg knew exactly how weak Linley was, while even the weakest Shadow Rat was a third-rank Magical Beast. And Linley could not possibly create such a formation.

“Yes, Father. I subdued him,” Linley said solemnly.

For the first time, Hogg felt that the son before him was utterly different from the boy he thought he knew.

“Lord Hogg, Linley truly did subdue this Shadow Rat,” Hillman said. “I saw it myself. This is the same ‘cute animal’ Linley has been feeding wild rabbits and pheasants in the abandoned houses behind the residence.”

“The animal you were feeding?” Hogg suddenly remembered. He stared at Linley in disbelief. “The ‘cute animal’ in those abandoned houses was a Magical Beast Shadow Rat?”

Linley nodded honestly.

Hogg did not know whether to laugh or cry. That cute little creature was a Magical Beast?

He still had questions about how Linley had formed the contract, but his mood was far too good to dwell on them.

“Enough. We’ll speak of this another time. Uncle Hiri, Hillman—take some guards and begin the preparations. Tonight, we feast!” Hogg’s hearty laughter rang through the residence.

Linley watched his father. In all the years he could remember, Hogg had never looked so happy.

* * *

That evening, the Baruch residence came alive. All dozen or so guards and their families had been invited, and five tables filled the open space in the front courtyard. Laughter echoed everywhere.

“Delicious! Delicious!” Little Wootton grabbed one dish after another, eating with unrestrained delight.

“Congratulations on entering Ernst Institute, Young Master Linley,” one of the guards said, raising his cup. “You’re certain to become a great and powerful magus.”

Linley was the center of the feast. Everyone had been thrilled to learn that he would attend Ernst Institute. Entry into the Institute opened a broad, unimpeded road into the future—a future far too large to be contained by little Wushan Town.

“Brother, everyone is toasting you. I want to toast you too.” Wootton picked up his cup of juice.

His hands were slick with grease. Linley chuckled, then raised his own cup and clinked it firmly against Wootton’s.

“Come on, little brother. Let’s drink.”

* * *

Late that night, only Linley and Hogg remained in the Baruch Clan’s ancestral hall.

The doors were shut. A row of candles warmed the hall and cast flickering light across the ranks of memorial tablets.

Hogg gazed at them, his voice low. “Linley, ever since the fifth Dragonblood Warrior was born, the Baruch Clan has declined with every generation. We even sold our ancestral treasure. Whenever I think of it, I feel unbearable shame. We are a clan of Dragonblood Warriors!”

Linley stood silently behind him.

He felt that shame too. The Baruch Clan had endured for more than five thousand years, and its Dragonblood Warrior heritage filled him with pride. Yet now, even the clan’s ancestral treasure was gone.

“Linley.” Hogg turned abruptly and regarded him with solemn intensity. “From this day forward, I will no longer treat you as a child. You are a pillar upon which the Baruch Clan’s future will rest. Our family’s future depends on you.”

“Yes, Father.” Linley nodded, his resolve firm.

“Wait here. I’m going to retrieve something.”

Hogg entered a secret chamber at the rear of the ancestral hall. A moment later, he returned carrying a book.

“Take this to your room. Study it carefully, and memorize everything inside.”

“What is it?”

Linley accepted the book. Its cover was blank, but four large words were written on the first page:

Dragonblood Compendium.