Chương 8: Waking up

Jianyi opened his eyes and jumped out of his bed, his heart pumping, completely lost where he was. Slowly, it came back to him—though it felt almost inconceivable that all the things that he remembered had actually happened, and in just one day. The trial, the Celestial Core Card, the abduction, meeting Elder Sun, the cave, the revelations about the Celestial Confrontation, the potential link to the purple eyes that had been haunting his sleep for so long, the sect, the test… THE TEST!

Jianyi had just calmed down, and now he felt the blood rushing through his veins again. Finding out what the test was had to be his highest priority. He wanted nothing more than to fight against demons—but he wanted to do it on his own terms, he needed to get strong to defeat them, not to be thrown at them after only the briefest of training without a chance of survival. He wanted to seek out Minghao right away, but a glance out of the window told him that he would probably have to wait a bit longer.

Despite falling asleep during the afternoon, it looked like it was early morning; it was dark outside, but he heard birds singing, so the sun would be rising soon. It was shocking that he had slept for so long—and maybe even more so that he had skipped his evening exercises—but for once, and truly only once, he forgave himself. His body and mind had been at the limits of what they could take. Given that he still had a bit of time, Jianyi turned to explore his room.

The bedchamber was simple, with a bed, a cupboard, a small desk, a chair, and two paintings of the sect buildings on the mountain in the morning mist. It also held a small rack for spears and a mannequin for robes that he didn't have yet. The cultivation chamber centered on a two-paces-wide circle, slightly sunk into the ground. Jianyi could make out faint metal inlays in and around the circle, which he assumed were formations.

Five small hollows were set around the circle, waiting for something to be placed within—though Jianyi had no idea what. There were no windows in this room, and the walls were dark gray, allowing no distractions to enter. The whole thing felt like a dream come true. More space than he knew what to do with and a dedicated space to cultivate—he was a cultivator now! Despite the weight that the granite of the room around him oozed, it still felt unreal.

He smiled—maybe for the first time since before the trial—and let the feeling sink in. After a few moments, he returned to his bed chamber. He prided himself on his methodical, structured approach that had seen him through school, and his fresh mind told him that… he was hungry, having skipped nearly every meal since yesterday morning. Addressing that needed to come first. After quickly washing up, he stepped outside to find the kitchen, but he found a tray with cold cuts outside his door waiting for him.

It was probably Xu Minghao bringing him dinner, which he hadn't touched the night before. Jianyi gratefully took the tray into his room and ate dinner for breakfast. The food was very good. Two kinds of meat, one was chicken, the other he couldn't identify with a light sauce to dip them in, and some rice. It was cold, but that didn't matter. To top it all off, there were even a few slices of mango.

He didn't know whether this was done as it was his first day or a regular occurrence—it was a small highlight in a difficult time. With a full belly, thinking about everything that had happened the previous day felt a little bit less daunting, but time was short—he estimated he had half an hour before he was to meet Minghao, and he still wanted to do the exercise that Elder Sun had shown him.

The one thing that he needed to do for his own sanity was to check on the Celestial Core Card in his dantian—was it real or just a figment of his imagination? He settled down in the circle in his cultivation chamber and tried to somehow find it in the space below his navel. It didn't work right away, so he tried to use the same breathing method he had learned for the visualization training that he had done so faithfully for years prior to the trial.

He sank into a relaxed state and, after a few minutes, found the small flicker of qi that Elder Sun had shared with him in the basement of Administrator Deng's house. That was it, though. His Core Card was invisible to him. His shoulders slumped slightly. Whether that was just a lack of knowledge or whether there were other barriers, he did not know. Though a tiny bit of doubt remained, with the help of twelve hours of sleep, he was now fairly sure that the things that he remembered had actually happened.

There was a card in his dantian that could be used for all elements; it did say 'evolves'—whatever that meant—and the Heavens had shown their anger at the development. The last thing was something that worried him, but he didn't know what it meant, and there was nothing to do about it right now, so he put it to the side. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Further deliberations about the revelations of the previous days would not help him now, either.

Instead, he committed to reading up on the Celestial Confrontation and the demon that might be behind it all, but alone in his room, he could make no progress on that. With a deep breath, he put all of that to the side and assumed the lotus position. He began the exercise the elder had taught him the day before, which would help him unlock the storage ring the elder had given him. The flicker was still there, and while he couldn't be sure, he felt like it was a tiny bit bigger than it had been before.

Still, try as he might, he couldn't grasp the flicker, let alone draw it out and direct it to his new ring. After the half hour was up, he left the chamber, grabbed his spear, and headed toward the courtyard.

Minghao was just entering the courtyard as well and waved at him with a smile.

"Good morning. You probably needed the rest, didn't you?" Jianyi nodded vigorously.

"I did, thank you so much for leaving the food by my door. I hope it won't be necessary in the future." Minghao waved him off.

"Don't worry about it. We've all had these days." The man paused and observed Jianyi for a moment—almost to the point that it became slightly uncomfortable, and Jianyi wouldn't have known what to do with his hands if he hadn't had his spear to hold on to.

"You seem eager to get going, am I correct?" he asked. Jianyi nodded.

"Very much so! I have trained every day, but mostly on my own, and our teacher in school could only do so much with fifty students at the same time…" Minghao stroked his chin.

"Good, and we will get to it quickly, but I investigated a bit yesterday evening, and it turns out that there is a duel scheduled for in a few minutes on the inner sect training ground. Maybe that could be interesting for you—sure, they are more experienced than you, but Elder Sun sets a high bar…" he said with a small smirk. Jianyi's eyes lit up.

He had seen a few fights in the streets—and of course Elder Sun on the previous day—but for different reasons, neither of those experiences seemed like the right measuring stick for him. Those were robes that were either for the wrong occasion or so much bigger than him that they were meaningless. But seeing disciples of the sect—something that he still struggled to believe that he was now, even if only provisionally—that would help him calibrate his progress. He nodded eagerly.

"That sounds very exciting. Thank you for organizing this!" Minghao laughed.

"I didn't organize anything. These days, damaged pride is less of an issue in the sect than it was in the past, but from time to time, egos collide, and disciples feel like a duel is the only way forward," he shrugged, seemingly indifferent.

"It suits our purposes this morning, though." Jianyi left his spear in the courtyard's weapon rack, and together they walked down the mountain towards the shared facilities of the inner sect in the light of the rising sun. Mindful of using the opportunity to talk with the experienced cultivator, Jianyi collected his thoughts and cleared his throat.

"Minghao, Elder Sun mentioned yesterday the test on intake day—it might have been me being so exhausted, but I didn't really understand in detail what will be tested and how to prepare?" Chuckling, Minghao responded, "The elder does not always care about these details, in particular if it is something that he considers an internal sect thing. But in this case, nobody can tell you details about the test because they are being kept a secret, so that nobody has an unfair advantage."

After brief consideration, Jianyi thought that that was good—people with more resources would otherwise be in a much better position than him. But still…

"Can you share what will be tested in principle? Is it a tournament?"

"No, it usually is not a tournament. The one thing that has remained constant since the test was introduced is that it is a test of potential. They don't test how good you are with the spear, but they do test whether you will have the ability to learn. So, somebody who is strong and has a lot of endurance will likely be in a better position than somebody who has never exercised in their life.

And the same is true for the spiritual side; they don't expect you to be a Core Formation cultivator, but somebody who has made some progress on the initial steps will likely have an advantage." That was a lot more information than the retainer's first response. But it worried Jianyi—gut-clenchingly so. Not the physical part—he had trained so diligently that he could not imagine not being competitive… But the spiritual side… He had no knowledge outside of legends of old.

It put the discussion with Elder Sun later that day in a completely different light. He needed to make the best of that opportunity. Right there, he promised himself to do whatever it would take to close the likely gap to the sons and daughters of families that could and would carry their offspring on these first steps. He could not imagine that nobles would let their children be part of the body cultivation regiments with a high likelihood of death.

Deep in thought, Jianyi almost missed their arrival at the training grounds. It was a large area, partially hewn into the mountain to create sufficient space. It included an arena—with benches overlooking sparring rings—and an open section for weights, bows, and other practices that didn't fit within a twelve-paces-wide ring. A few dozen people—disciples all, based on their robes—had already congregated in a corner of the arena, overlooking one of the sparring rings.

On the arena floor, a man and a woman stood facing each other. Both wore sect robes, with their chests covered with leather. In between them stood another disciple, but his robes were slightly different. Instead of the pale blue highlights of the two contestants—and all the other disciples Jianyi had seen so far—his were a brilliant jade-white. Minghao pointed towards a couple of seats relatively high up, behind most of the other spectators, and they settled down.

Jianyi considered for a second whether he should ask the question burning in his mind, knowing that it was probably not the most important one, but it bothered him so much.

"Minghao, in the stories, cultivators never wear leather armor, always silken robes…" He half expected the man to laugh at him, but to his surprise, Minghao's expression was serious.

"Yes, well, the truth is, robes that can withstand the demands of continuous fighting are quite expensive, and the war has made the Emperor and the sects careful in what to invest. It is easier and cheaper to produce sturdy leather armor than to enchant robes." Before the previous day, Jianyi would have been surprised by this piece of information, but in light of Elder Sun's revelation about the state of the war, it made a lot of sense…

He was interrupted in his musings by the man between the two contestants speaking to both of them, then stepping out of the fighting area, touching a jade plate outside the ring, and then quickly bringing his arm down, signaling the beginning of the fight.