Chương 2: The Core Card

Eyes wide, Jianyi stared at the card before him. Celestial Core Card Unique Affinity – Core Card Converts cultivator's qi into any affinity. Evolves. This wasn't possible. A cultivator had one element. One. Sure, there were legends about Heavens-defying geniuses that had two elements, but never, never-ever had he heard of somebody having access to all of them. Lightning started to fall from the Heavens, startling him.

Then, for the briefest of moments, purple eyes, opened wide, appeared in the sky, trying to home in on him. The familiar fear of the eyes threatened to take hold of him—how could they be here? But he took a deep breath and… opened his eyes with a start in the trial room. Loud knocking from the entrance told him to move on. Jianyi stood stock still, unable to process what had just happened to him. Nothing had happened the way it was supposed to…

Another insistent knock from the door behind him interrupted him from his first attempts to understand what any of this meant. It would be impolite to remain in the room, blocking others from going through with their own trial. He steadied himself and turned to the door on the right. With a look back at the formation pillar, he stepped through the door and into a new world.

The new world still had a line—though a short one. The room he entered was similarly sized to the previous one, but that was the only thing they had in common. While the trial room had been bare of all ornamentation except for the imperial dragon banner, this one was almost gaudy with green silk wall coverings, jade urns on wooden shelves, and an ornately carved mahogany desk that stood at the center of the room. Behind the desk sat Administrator Deng, before him a small ornate chest, its cover open.

It had five silk-padded sections holding cards. The largest fortune Jianyi had ever seen. Two other youths stood in front of him, meaning that their cohort had significantly more than one out of a hundred cultivators. The first youth was talking with Deng, while the other seemed as stunned as Jianyi himself. As he stepped a bit closer, Jianyi realized what was happening, despite his mind still feeling like cotton from the events just a few minutes ago.

The Emperor provided each successful trialist with two affinity cards, laying the foundation for a hopefully long and successful life as a cultivator. The young woman in front of the administrator, wearing a fashionable red silk dress and carved jade hairpins, smiled widely as she asked for two Fire affinity cards. With a benevolent smile, Deng handed them over, reminded her to present herself to a sect within three months, wished her well, and directed her to the door on the left.

She briefly looked at Jianyi and the boy before him, acknowledged them with a smile, and left. In a few seconds, it would be Jianyi's turn to get his affinity cards. But which ones? What was he supposed to say? Should he ask for five? No, he didn't know too much about cultivation, but even with his addled brain, he remembered that one could only host two affinity cards beyond one's core card. So he would have to make a choice. Should he just ask the Administrator for help? Maybe that would be best. But then…

likely the man would think him lying. Or maybe even insane. Maybe he was insane and had just imagined everything. What he thought had happened was flat-out impossible, after all! Even in the wildest legends and myths, nothing like that did happen. His heart started to beat faster again. There was nothing in what he had learned in school that gave him any hint as to what to do. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Asking for two cards of the same affinity, as the girl had, was the safest bet. But… would he limit his potential? How was a poor half-orphan ever to get another affinity card? There were stories of people with dual affinities, even if it was supposed to be near impossible. The boy before him in line, in the tight pants that rich merchants in the city preferred, went through the same process and asked for Water affinity cards. Jianyi needed to make a decision.

As the boy left through the same door on the left, Jianyi stepped forward and bowed. Deng's expression did not change at all, but his eyes flicked over Jianyi's well-made but plain woolen clothes.

"Congratulations, young cultivator. It is my pleasure to welcome you as a defender of the Empire on behalf of the Emperor and the City Lord," he said with the same bored voice he had given his speech in the large hall.

"What is your name, young man?"

"Thank you, Administrator Deng. My name is Zhao Jianyi."

"Ahh, of the Zhao alchemist clan?" Deng asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not at all. I'm not from any famous clan; the name is just a coincidence." Deng nodded along.

"Very well. The Emperor, in his infinite benevolence, provides every aspiring cultivator with two affinity cards. What affinity can you call upon, Cultivator Zhao?" Jianyi's thoughts raced. What to say? One? Two? Which ones?

"Have you forgotten already?" Deng asked, chuckling, amused by his own joke.

"No, Administrator, I am sorry. It is Metal."

"Oh, how fortuitous for you," he reached for one of the sections of the chest, "I have observed that the Metal affinity is slightly rarer in the city than the other four, you have a powerful path ahead of you." He grabbed two cards and made to hand them over.

"And… Earth," Jianyi exhaled the words as if he had just come up from a deep dive in the sea. Administrator Deng froze. His gaze slowly rose until he looked Jianyi in the eyes.

"Are you suggesting that you have Metal and Earth affinities, Cultivator Zhao?" his voice calm, but his hand gripping the two affinity cards hadn't moved, and his eyes were a lot more focused than before.

"Yes, Administrator Deng, that's why I was a bit slow. I am still shocked," Jianyi said quickly. Slowly, Deng retracted his hand with the two cards, very deliberately returning one of them and picking another.

"You are quite the intriguing young man, aren't you. Your family will be ecstatic, don't you think?" Jianyi thought for the first time about what his mother would say.

"I am sure my mother will be pleased… hopefully." He knew that she wouldn't.

"Ah, mothers can be understandably nervous about these things," Deng chuckled.

"Nobody else who can celebrate with you?"

"No, not really." Deng nodded decisively.

"Well, we can't have you not appropriately celebrated, can we?" He handed over the two jade cards to Jianyi, who looked at them with reverence. Earth Affinity Common Converts cultivator's qi into Earth affinity. A single golden strip denoted it as a common card, but it was still beautiful to him. He wondered how his father had felt when he had received his first Earth affinity card. Metal Affinity Common Converts cultivator's qi into Metal affinity.

"Quick, quick, put them away." Deng supported himself on the desk as he got up.

"I will take you out for a proper celebration."

"That is very kind of you, Administrator Deng, but I don't want to impose, and my mother is probably waiting for me at home."

"Oh, don't worry, what is an hour or two, now that you are a cultivator. Hop hop, just wait a minute while I inform my assistant to take over." Deng did not seem willing to take no for an answer, and Jianyi was still reeling from everything that was happening. He was concerned about making his mother worry, but he didn't want to offend the important man either, so he acquiesced, and the large man stepped out to speak with his assistant.

It felt like seconds had passed when Administrator Deng opened the door and waved at Jianyi to follow him, giving him not enough time to reflect on anything.

"As you can probably tell, I have quite a bit of experience with the best restaurants in the city," Deng said with a chuckle as he patted his belly.

"I will treat you to an early lunch that you will not forget, even once you are up on the mountains with the sect! Do you have relations with the Fivefold Spear Sect, or any others?" Jianyi shook his head as they walked through the corridors of the palace.

"No, I don't know anybody there. I was just planning to present myself when the time comes." Deng nodded.

"Good, good. That is the right mindset." They left via a backdoor without meeting anyone, and Deng led him through the busy streets of Shiqiu City. Over the next fifteen minutes or so, the administrator regaled Jianyi with stories about the various restaurants and delicacies in town, before they took a turn into a smaller alley, where, according to Deng, a true hidden gem in the restaurant scene was located.

Jianyi had never been to a fancy restaurant in his life, but he could well imagine that nobles and the rich would frequent places that they could brag to others about. If he had money, he would stay in the nicer areas of town, though, but to each their own, as his mother often said. At the end of the alley, Deng knocked on a door. After a few moments, it was opened, first only a slit, then fully, and two broad-shouldered men could be seen nodding to Deng, who waved Jianyi forward.

"Isn't this exciting? The restaurant is downstairs." He pointed at wooden stairs in the back of the otherwise empty and plain room. Jianyi had mixed feelings; this did not look like a restaurant as he had imagined it, and the two guards were not dressed as if they were expecting honored guests. Instead, they wore the sturdy, reinforced woolen clothes that he associated with mercenaries and merchant guards. Shrugging, Jianyi continued onward, down the stairs. Behind him, he heard heavy footsteps.

As he turned around, he saw the two guards following him.

"Move!" one of the guards behind him yelled. Jianyi's heartbeat quickened. This did not look like the celebration he had been promised. He had never lived in the truly dangerous areas of town, but he knew a bad situation when he saw one.