In a dark passage headed to the eastern gate
of the final edge sect, lies the eastern gardens.
The pathway headed to the eastern gate was
narrower then other paths while the ceiling of the ice cave sharply declined,
the ground fell into a deep slope that created an odd affect of making it seem
like the path simply ended after seeing the ice wall cover all directions.
It was not until someone walked up to the
wall that they would see the ground and ice did in fact not touch, leaving
enough space for one to walk without touching the ice with their heads.
Light did not fully penetrate the ice above
leaving this area covered in shadow making the area far cooler then the
surroundings.
As the eastern area was outside the sects boundaries
it was up to the individual to bring their own equipment to explore safely.
The pathway to the eastern gate would split
into many sections heading deeper into the ice sheets above or into pits deep
underground where the light no longer reached.
One of the many pathways lead to the eastern
gardens where plants grew in controlled environments making for very beautiful respite
to any lost adventurer, below the gardens hidden deep within the ice lies a
ceremonial chamber no larger then then a tennis field.
The only source of light being that of a
single candle at the entrance of the chamber left this room in almost total
darkness.
Several groups of man and woman stood behind
objects placed in a circle preparing themselves mentally or spiritually while
they awaited the final instruction.
A blue bead the size of a hamster, a small
blade the size of a chinchilla or gerbil, a large hat the size of a tree trunk,
a fruit that looked like an orange the size of an apple and finally a body
covered by a hem mat the size of a brown bear.
"Sect Master, master Nesca we have
finished the preparations" Bowing to one man and one old woman the
attendant waited.
Sect master Eduardo was looking at documents
in his hand while the woman next to him had her eyes closed.
"Then begin, we will step in if anything
goes wrong" without looking away from the parchment in hand he replied.
"As you say sect master!" the
attendant gave a signal to those near the circle to begin.
Over at the disciple selection ceremony the
second test began.
Bran Ai focused his mind as he activated the
meditation cultivation technique that each child had been given on the second
day.
This technique was not unique within the sect
whatsoever and anyone with spiritual roots could on their own recreate it.
Like the discovery of speech and writing in
different parts of the world all cultivators would inevitably create their own
version based on their own experience.
The technique used here was a simplified
version that did not take into account the practitioners spiritual elements, it
was the first step in any cultivation technique – the drawing in of Qi.
Cultivation techniques are a form of advanced
speaking, with each improvement or divergence further deviating from its source
material leading to the creation of new dialects and eventually new languages.
But unlike speaking one cannot just learn all
types of cultivation techniques without compromises.
Many cultivation methods often had
conflicting methods that did not flow with each other, some were element
specific not allowing for just anyone to just cultivate that certain technique.
Some cultivation techniques could also
restrict the practitioner from practicing other techniques forcing the
practitioner to only cultivate one path and even restrict the very food they
ate.
Special bodies and bloodlines can also
restrict a person further, reducing the available options to cultivators, while
some bloodline techniques only work for that specific bloodline and anyone
attempting to use the techniques of that bloodline not of the bloodline may
simply end up crippled.
For now Bran Ai could only practice in the
most simple of ways and as such he could only slowly regain the energy taken
from him.
The discharge and renewal formation would do
most the work for Bran Ai and the rest of the children in this case but
generally the rate of returns relied on the cultivator themselves.
The grains of sand above each kids head had
already been gathered once, this made the energy in the form of grains of sand
much easier to reclaim then to seek for the energy anew.
In general there was no way for the kids to naturally
regain all the energy they gathered over the week in a short period of time,
not on their own at least but that was not the point of this test.
The formation would be doing most the work
today, all they had to do was wait patiently to restore what they had lost.
Bran Ai watched as each grain of sand
dissipated into strands of mist flowing into specific areas of his body, what
would normally have taken a week to acquire took mere moments now.
This was the first time Bran Ai was
experiencing such high levels of spiritual energy rushing into him all at once
giving him a blissful feeling he wouldn't forget.
Kiara felt the same, eight strands of mist
entered her body getting further refined as the body acted like a filter
separating the foul Qi from the pure.
This foulness would not removed from the body
outright, it would pile up inside the body like an invisible discomfort until
the person achieves some major breakthrough that would force this foulness out.
Both Bran Ai and Kiara's' energy strands
continued to increase in number lowering the amount of sand above them at a
rapid pace.
"See I told you it didn't matter if he
only had forty-two grains, look the boy is recovering the energy just as fast
as any other tri-element"
"Oh you're right, he does have some
talent"
"Maybe I'll take him after all"
"In the end having fewer spiritual roots is a
massive edge" one said bitterly.
As one group looked toward the child that
failed the first test the rest took this chance to examine their own top
choices.
"Master the boy is doing well, look his
absorption rate has reached twenty-eight strands if he keeps this up we will
have to offer him the moon!"
"I see that! You don't have to mention
every little detail" the master disciple duo both grew concerned, it was
not that they can't afford to offer the boy a good deal, simply should they
offer too much would the boy stay interested in formations? Or would he simply
use all the funds he gained to practice general cultivation rather then a
single wholehearted pursuit into the world of formations.
It was not bad to simply cultivate of course,
just not what would be required of a possible future formation expert.
"I still see no swordsman candidates,
pity" the long faced man sighed.
"What's to pity? More then half of them
will take up the sword either way, they always see it as some badge of honor to
know some basic swordplay" this person talked as if he had not taken a
sword class before.
"Half ass'ery like that won't make a
difference they will simply waste a good sword" the long face man stood up
to leave.
"It would be great to have some more
bowman in the sect" a lean man put in his two cents.
"Everyone tries their hand at archery as
well, even I've done it"
"Archery is for skill-less
cowards!" The long face man exclaimed.
Man-shik had some troubles at last, the rate
at which he was taking in energy seemed to be far slower then the growth he had
originally showed.
Fifteen strands flowed into him with no signs
of increasing.
He looked around 'everyone seems to have
around the same amount of strands as I, is this much easier then the first test
or is something wrong?'
Man-shik had a rather large Qi bowl but a rather
narrow entrance, it was normal in that sense.
Looking at Bran Ai and Kiara, each of them
had fifteen and sixteen strands of energy respectively while it seemed one more
strand of energy kept growing on Bran Ais' sand pile, albeit with struggle.
Kao was different then them his sand pile
splitting into twenty-nine strands and counting with no signs of fatigue.
Man-Shik looked at him feeling like he had
failed somehow, he didn't like the feeling.
"Oh we have quite a few reaching thirty
strands, this is much better then I had expected!"
"If the world had not been polluted do
you think they could reach seventy?"
"Seventy? Jajajaja No, we haven't seen
any fifties in a hundred years by now"
"Such prodigies can't appear anymore. Not
because it's impossible but because the outside world has degraded spiritual
roots and veins beyond our control now, it is not the children's fault. Even if
some talent appears their body will be a waste"
"Even we can't leave recklessly anymore,
all the Qi in the outside world has become murky"
"Well, you never know some world shaking
genius appears today"
"If one above even fifty appears today
they would have been the genius of a generation!"
"Not quite, they would still be the
genius of the generation they are part of, just not as good as previous
ones'"
"Ah that's right"
"To be born in this era is really a pity"
Kao looked around 'All three of those guys
have stopped at a mere sixteen strands, less for that annoying boy. It seems
everyone is around the same area as well, I can only see eight others with a
count above twenty'
He could not be sure as to the level of
talent that would be shown here today but now he knew it wasn't much.
'Had I not cleansed my meridians multiple
times I would have ended up the same as them'
The formation he had trapped Bran Ai in
earlier had three simple effects.
Firstly it gathered earth energy, this earth
energy was one of his elemental bases and as such would greatly aid him.
Secondly it limited the amount of foul energy
in the surroundings from entering the formation, effectively creating a sort of
mesh that only allowed semi-clean energy to enter greatly reducing the strain
on the body and mind.
Lastly it forcefully opened more pathways in
the body of those inside the formation, this one was what caused both he and
Bran Ai to collapse.
Having used the formation three times total
twice more then Bran Ai, Kao had gained access to about five to seven more
channels every time.
As for Bran Ai he gained only six even
thought he had been the one to take the brunt of the force the first time.
Kao's strand gains seem to slow down after
reaching thirty-two along with two others.
Only six of the children kept constantly
adding new strands greatly increasing the expectations of the onlookers.
"If they reach forty we can consider
this batch as not half bad"
"If even one passes fifty it can be seen
as the sect having gained a golden core elite"
"If only it was that easy to reach
golden core"
"Its been forty years since we last gained a
new elite, aren't we due another?"
"All we've gained these past fifty years was several
thousand new foundation establishment lifers"
The majority of the crowd grew bitter.
Aakriti watched both the children as she listened
the spectators comments.
She had been in the kids shoes not so long
ago, it had only been around sixteen years since she entered the sect and had
no idea at the time just how much this day truly impacted her future.
'If I had done bad on that day master would
never have taken me in'
She had reached seventy-one grains of Qi and
thirty-eight strands of Qi when she had first arrived making her a talent in
the eyes of others, although her current state could only be seen as fickle.
'They can only blame their bad luck now, if
they don't work hard from here out... well I'm sure they will find out'