Crown Prince Ryoma stood in his tower looking towards the direction of the Phoenix academy where his youngest son was likely entreating his desired patron deity. At over seventy years old Ryoma was still youthful looking as if he had barely aged since he was in his early thirties. His ki was so high that he could have over a thousand years to reach the next stage of ascension before beginning to age again. He was nearly seventy years old and his father the eternal emperor's favored son. If his youngest child was shown to be talented as well his father would reward him with many powers that he currently did not have and he would permanently solidify his place as the crown prince of Sato. He smiled as he thought about his son all of his other children had been extremely talented, but he has a special place for his youngest son and daughter.

"Comeback with good news Eizo..." he whispered to himself with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"I accept you as part of my familia young one. Go now and serve me well."

The young 14 year old boy bowed deeply towards the shrine of the god before turning around a huge grin on his face followed quickly by a look of pure happiness. He had done it, he got the blessing the Phoneix god of rebirth Saisei who also happened to be the patron god of the current emperor his grandfather and his father and was one of the strongest gods in the heavens and led the primary pantheon of the Sato Empire. Nothing could have been better one of the most popular and extremely picky gods in the empire selected him as part of his very small familia. Naturally many of the girls around him were fawning over him, but he didn't care much for the fan girls they all were only looking for an opportunity to try and gain his affections for their own gain. Being the son of the crown prince caused him many headaches over the years only those of similar status could be seen as trust worthy and even then he had to be cautious commoners could not be trusted. They all lusted for power not knowing the responsibility and burdens it came with. Even at 14 he knew that the people of Sato viewed the imperial family as almost mythical existences.

Walking away from the shrine he headed over to Grandmaster Zhou who along with the other masters would be assessing all the disciples that got blessed to see if they could become an inner disciple of the Phoneix academy of the empire. It was common for students to be selected by masters of the inner court some had many students while other masters were much more selective of whom they wanted. Ezio was extremely confident in his ability and never even bothered training as an outer disciples opting to train under his family until now which was not uncommon for high ranking people of Sato to do. In particular in the capital city of Xi’an

As he approached the steps to the main building he noticed out of the corner of his eyes the secret corps that his father sent to protect him should they need to, they were always so annoying, but once he enrolled they would no longer be needed.

Swiftly turning he called out to them "hey! The two of you can leave no this is one of the safest places in the empire I have no further need of you."

Both of them silently listened to the orders and jumped out of view flying into the tree branches before running along the branches out of the academy complex. The black ashes corps were some of the most elite and deadly assassins in the entire empire and he felt it was a bit overkill for them to be guarding him. Ezio was pleasantly surprised that they listened smiling he turned around to go inside.

*THUMP*

Ezio's chin collided with someone's forehead sending both of them onto their asses "ouch!" he grunted to himself. Instantly going to rub his chin

"Hey! Who bumped into me!" Ezio got up angrily his eyes fell onto a girl rubbing her eyes forehead with her eyes closed. Ezio's face immediately flushed when he saw the girl before him. Her face was clear and fair like a polished pearl which contrasted beautifully with her midnight black hair. She was clearly shorter than him her nose just barely touching the bottom part of his upper lip if she stood up. Ezio's heart beat began to beat more rapidly as he looked at this extremely beautiful girl before him. He had been surrounded by many beautiful girls in his short life and never had he seen one quite like this.

After several seconds Ezio realized he was staring and went over to lend her a hand. The girl opened her eyes startling him as she gave him a perturbed look, but that wasn't what was so shocking. Instead it was her piecing blue eyes that stared into his own eyes. As beautiful as they were he knew that the legends said people with blue eyes lived cursed lives and it was best to avoid them which caused him to frown ever so slightly.

What a shame. A girl like this being cursed with such an unfortunate mark. He thought to himself.

"I'm sorry for that" he said holding out his hand.

"Yeah? Well you should be" she said sharply batting away his hand she was clearly upset with him even though she was equally at fault for what happened.

She was rather rude even though it was clearly both our faults she didn't even try and politely reject his apology and issue her own as was customary of two people who bumped into each other.

"That was kind of rude you were also not watching where you were going. Were you not?" Ezio said trying to be reasonable.

At this point Rize had gotten up and dusted off her tunic looking back at Ezio "yeah well, whatever just leave me alone I don’t have time to deal with you." She said moving past him heading into the main building where the assessments were taking place.

Ezio looked at the girl as she moved inside his mouth slightly agape as he realized that she didn't know who he was.

"This girl." He muttered to himself as he watched her disappear behind the doors.

...

Rize entered the assessment as soon as possible she didn't want to waste any time with idle chit chat, the guy outside was as blind as a worm. How he didn't see her was beyond her, but she was too nervous and excited to see if all the pain she went through was worth it for her new deity. She entered one of the testing chambers where a random inner court master would be waiting to assess her.

Entering, Rize, walked briskly into the first available room to see the same young female master she met when she first arrived in the capital so many years ago. She stared at the beautiful woman who was wearing a flowing violet silk robs which were the official robes masters wore to formal events such as this.

"Well look who it is I remember you…it isn’t hard to forget someone with such striking eyes such as those." She said intensely.

"This disciple greets master." Rize said politely bowing before the master.

"This is really a pleasant surprise. Please sit down and give me your hand so I can sense your ki. Please know I am sensing both your level and nature of your ki and blessing."

Rize followed as she was ordered quickly giving her hands to the woman who grasped them firmly putting her thumbs on her wrist where a doctor would normally feel for a heartbeat. As she waited she could feel something in her soul stir as she felt an intense power broiling inside of her.

The woman's eyebrows raised up in a moment of surprise. "Dear, what did you say was the god that blessed you?"

"I didn't say master, but the god who took me in goes, by the name Naga-Jin." Rize stated matter-o-factly.

The woman's eyebrows furrowed as she tried to recall that name, but no memory came to her mind. She didn't think the academy had a deity by that name, at least in the time that she had been here at the academy shaking her head she let go of the girl's hands "you've passed, not extraordinary amount of ki, but satisfactory enough to join the ranks of the inner court. The nature of your ki is not something I have ever come across so I cannot assess you based on that. You may leave now dear" she said sweetly despite the words were laced with criticism.

However in her heart Rize didn't care, she had finally gotten into the inner court after so many years of training and now she could finally go and see her mother regularly as outer disciples had to go through much more strict observation. She exited the door behind the master that signified that she had passed.

Today, was the beginning of her putting all the naysayers in their place she thought as she walked through the door.

...

Ezio waited in the large circular room along with the other disciples who had passed he observed all of the new inner court disciples carefully that came in anyone of them could potentially be a threat or a rival in the future. Watching for a couple minutes he was quite happy the rude girl had not made it through. Served her right for what she said to him.

Just as Ezio was about to leave his spot leaning against the pillar to look around one of the testing room doors opened and from behind it came the rude blue eyed girl and his head immediately gave him a headache just thinking about that this girl had made it through. He really disliked her a lot, simply for rubbing him the wrong way. Considering her status she should try much more to be cordial with people so they would see their initial impressions of her eye color were mistaken. Choosing to ignore her, Ezio left to speak with some of the other disciples as they waited for their briefing from Grandmaster Zhou.

"EHEEM!" A voice clearing his throat broke through the chatter from the disciples "Welcome new inner court disciples I know it is late into the night and you must all be anxious to rest so I will keep this short. Congratulations on making it you are the upper echelon in the entire empire no matter what happens from here on out, you've done what less than 1% of the people of our fair empire has been able to achieve" he gave a small grin before continuing "take the night to rest well for tomorrow we will get right into it and prepare you for your new lives as inner court disciples.

Rize sat in her new room which to her disappointment was not much different than her old room in the outer court which disappointed her. Stripping off her clothes she looked herself once over in the mirror turning around she looked at her back. In the mirror something shocking was on her back from the nape of her buttocks to the top of her shoulder was the tattoo of a white serpent with red eyes going along the left side of her back. The tattoo had the snakes head opened up with two fangs out dripping what seemed to be a venom. The serpent was simple yet elegant and solid color, but still had a unique and sensual beauty about it despite being a snake. It didn’t look like any serpent she had ever seen before.

'What the hell is this!' she thought as she awkwardly clawed at her back trying to see if it was real. After several attempts to get it off she resigned and accepted that it was really permeant. Was this a byproduct of being blessed by Naga-Jin? She thought as her previously panicked demeanor disappeared followed by curiosity. As she looked at the beautiful tattoo it was considered highly inappropriate to get tattoos in Sato and often caused people to assume you were in some sort of religious cult or gang.

Great…one more thing for people to misunderstand about me.

"Do you like it?" she turned around again to see her reflection replaced by a giant white serpent with pure red eyes "I think it isss quite tassteful if I do ssay so mysself."

Rize grabbed her blanket and covered up her naked body "What do you want!" she said blushing quickly covering up her youthful body.

"Child there is no need to feel embarrassed, as beautiful as you are I am a god who has lived countless millennia. Seeing your body is not something I am lustful towards. You are now my first and most important disciple so I plan on being very active in your development that tattoo is not simply me staking my claim to you. It is a representation of the change your ki has undergone from my blessing."

"Lord Naga-Jin please explain to me why you've never had a disciple before... is it because you are not well known?"

"No child I am very popular, however people do not know my name though even asss they bessseech me. The farmer who wishes to drive away pests or the assassin who uses snakes venom as his weapon all honor my name unknowingly. Countless centuries ago I was once widely known, but not as much today I am nearly completely forgotten…until you came upon my door step."

Rize understood what Naga-Jin was. Basically he was a god that most people would never readily admit to following, but many relied on without knowing.

"Child you will need to learn to cultivate properly, it really isn't much different than what you were doing before, yet you will notice a difference in how it affects your ki and your inner ki sea. I recommend you get a weapon that works well with the abilities my blessing comes with as I have many plans for our future together. Pray to me when you are alone and let me train you, those masters have little experience dealing with the sort of deity I am, but still learn from them as for in the future your enemies will come from many of the major gods and goddess you encountered today."

“Lord Naga-Jin… you mentioned enemies…whom will be my enemy?”

“All in due time child. For now train and become strong.”

Rize nodded listening to her new deity intensely and she started to grow attached to the tattoo as well, gave her a bit of air of mystery, not that she planned on showing anyone. A hint of worry entered her heart, but at the same time she felt that even though she felt an aura of wickedness from Naga-Jin she also felt that he did not judge her at all based on her appearance.