The farewell was bitter, but not without its excitement.

  To think that the next time you would see your family would either be as a 'powerful man of heaven' or as a failure who came slinking back was heavy in your gut.

  Your family had given everything to purchase you a ticket to the nearest Sect that ruled over the land.

  You, Dei, was given a chance of a lifetime, but it was now down to you to make the most of it.

  The journey you imagined didn't exactly live up to reality as you were bundled in with nineteen other children between the ages of ten and fifteen like fish in a tiny box. Still, the discomfort was a low price to pay for where you were heading...

  The Azure Lotus Sect. It seemed like a dream. Despite the fact they took in roughly fifty new people a year, more than a few returned to the surrounding villages, disappointed or burned out.

  You remember your father once saying that they 'caught a hundred guppies to find a golden salmon' with a snort.

  You still remember when one turned up in your village, donned in a shimmering blue robe that seemed to be made of sapphire-like threads. He was kind but distant as he looked around. The man seemed to be of another world and he was careful as he interacted with anyone.

  Always needing a single moment to shake a hand or touch a door as if measuring how much strength he needed at any given time.

  It was him and that strange crystal that changed your world.

  You still remember his smile as it lit up.

  "Stone Rank four. Very promising for someone so young," he had said, words that meant nothing to you as a farmer's child.

  He touched the strange crystal and it changed to show a symbol that he nodded at. His next words were just as strange, he said that you had talent for...

  'The Sea of Consciousness'.

  It told you nothing but the man said it was a good 'base' to have. He had swiftly moved on before you could ask anything, but soon you would have knowledge at hand.

  The heavens itself!

  "Stop shoving," the slightly bulkier kid next to you grunted and shoved you hard into the end of the bench.

  The heavens could come after some earth and space, honestly.

  ---

  The ocean of emerald trees stretched out for miles as the carriage slowly eased its way down a mountain trail, allowing the children inside to see the forest.

  "Where's the golden bits?" a girl asked curiously and the driver snorted from the front of the carriage.

  "It begins to turn orange about ten miles inland," he said with a smile as if he enjoyed their shocked expressions.

  "How can a forest be so big?" someone else asked.

  "It's roughly two thousand miles to the heart of the forest. The entire thing is ringed so the emerald trees cover the outsides followed by orange then red and the heart is golden and where the most important places of the Azure Lotus Sect reside," the driver explained calmly.

  "How many days of walking is that?" another kid whispered.

  "Enough to make you less chubby, Giro," the first girl muttered at him with a glare.

  "Are we going the whole way?" you asked after a moment. The driver shook his head.

  "No, no," he laughed, his features hidden under a wide-brim straw hat.

  "The Azure Lotus has inner and outer compounds. We're heading to the first of such places in the Emerald Ring. There's four such in the Emerald Ring and they help ensure the Sect has constant trade and contact with the outer world. Besides, none of you would make it past the Orange Sea alive, even in the Guided Bamboo road," he nodded to himself with a sigh.

  Each question the driver answers just filled you with more questions.

  But the carriage moved into the first shadows of the trees and there was... something in the air of the forest that pressed down on you for a moment.

  Sea of Consciousness check: 1/1 Pass.

  Some of the kids shuddered and curled up while others lost all color in their faces. You? You shrugged it off after a moment, getting a long look from the driver before he urged his horse onwards.

  Next to you, the girl you vaguely knew from the fields in your village, also looked fine.

  "Poor Giro, if he lost any more blood he'd look like fish meat," she tutted at the shivering boy at their feet. She gave you an odd look.

  "But he isn't failing the test. I promised his sister I will make a man out of him," she said as she helped Giro stand after a moment.

  "You're a bit mean to him," you said and she grinned.

  "He ate my momma's packed lunch in the carriage. Now I can't taste momma's cooking until I go back home," the girl said with no hint of regret at her behavior.

  "I slept in and didn't get any breakfast. I thought you were offering it to me when you showed it to me, Kika," Giro muttered sadly.

  "I was teasing you for missing breakfast, not offering a solution," Kika said with a huff.

  What... a weird pair.

  Still, you looked around the path the carriage was moving down, the trees forming a sort of wooden tunnel that let in enough sunlight to cast a dozen shadows.

  The forest didn't feel safe but it wasn't oppressive either.

  It was only a slight flash of something that made you spot a rock at the side of the road then a similar one on the opposite side slightly down and then more.

  "What are those?" you asked and the driver eyed them.

  "Barrier Stones, they keep this path free of the ambient Qi of the forest mostly. Without it, odd things can happen. You could end up walking the same spot for days or end up across the other side of the forest in an hour. The stones make this path, and the other three paths through the Emerald Ring, safe and predictable for newcomers or traders," he said with a smile as if praising you for noticing them.

  "How can Qi do that?" you asked, having no clue what Qi was honestly.

  There was silence and the driver took a moment to answer.

  "There are more wonders and mysteries under heaven than all the stars in the sky. None as great as the truth of Qi and its gifts," he said sagely.

  Every kid was suitably awed. Even you.

  ---

  The North Compound of the Emerald Ring looked like a nearly normal elegant town with temples dotting the clearings and some set into trunks of massive trees. Streams babbled through the center and a high white wall surrounded the place. Smaller houses were set around the large roots of the house, built around them and beautiful stairs circled trees to create layers to the city, some reaching all the way to the top of the forest.

  The gates were already open as they approached and the two men standing guard looked at ease as if they expected no trouble. Across the town, unobstructed by any building, the gate leading deeper into the forest was shut tight and men stood more alert atop walls.

  You had a feeling that there were no barrier stones on the road on the other side.

  The entire place felt like a hollow turtle shell with defensive spots where the legs should be.

  The carriage stopped inside with the kids inside and around, normal looking people mingled with people dressed in pale blue, nearly white, robes. Merchants bartered with fresh chicken meat, imported goods from places you had never seen, and even some caged up birds or rabbits.

  Most of the buyers were the younger people in the near-white outfits but a few of them wearing a slightly deeper blue color passed by without even sparing a glance at the goods. You watched the bluer robed figures narrow down on key merchants, finding some innocuous item or thing that you couldn't see the importance of but the cultivators clearly did.

  Your father, ever a man of words, would have said 'smart birds eat the plumpest berry before the others'. The older members knew what was valuable amidst normal items, but you couldn't stare too much longer as a stern looking woman in a gray-blue robe appeared.

  "Attention please," she called and her voice was clear like a bird song. Her hair was pulled back in a bun and despite some gray flecks in her black hair she didn't seem that old.

  "I thank you all for enduring the ride here and want to commend you all for the courage it takes to leave your homes behind to make this journey," she began and you had the feeling she wasn't being sarcastic, she looked them over slowly as if taking them all in.

  "Soon, you will all undergo a period of trial where myself and a few others will test you all as potential students of the Azure Lotus. Know that I expect your best efforts but even then, more than a few of you will not make the cut," she said and the words fell around you like iron chains.

  "If you do end up failing, there is still employment you can undertake in the sect. If not, you will be returned to your village and most of the money your families paid for this journey will be reimbursed other than the sum we pay the drivers," she said as if money was a thing she simply didn't have time or care for.

  "My name is Kie Gayun. Before we begin, are there any questions? Any doubts in your mind?" the stern woman asked, encouraging them to speak up. You noticed a few of the robed cultivators were watching the scene with odd smiles.

  As if they were remembering themselves where you and the other kids once stood.

  "Why are you called the Azure Lotus sect?" a squinting kid asked as if he needed glasses. The woman didn't seem surprised by the question.

  You suspected not a lot surprised this woman.

  "Our elders cultivate azure lotuses in the heart of our sect. Legend says that doing so for three years without stopping can make you immortal. I don't think that is true but they aid cultivating immensely and have been our symbol since our founding," she explained patiently.

  You wondered why people didn't just take the lotus flowers if that was true?

  Maybe the lotus always had old people on it?

  With no more questions, Kie led you all to a large looking building set between two roots of a massive tree. Once inside, people were taking one by one into a room to change into a pure white robe with their name recorded on their left sleeve.

  You eyed yours, the symbols appeared almost by magic.

  Dei Nhatz.

  You clenched your hand.

  It was time to shake this world and become a mighty king!

  Or just afford chicken any time you wanted.

  You weren't picky yet.

  ---

  You were all gathered in a brightly lit hall that smelled of fresh sawdust and wood smoke. You noticed the group of twenty had become twenty-five between the time you changed your clothes and to arrive in the hall. They looked like the rest of the group, a collection of kids of different ages, but they had a different air about them.

  They were near the front of the sitting group but somehow they set themselves apart by sheer posture.

  "I heard they're from Yhoma, the town closest to the Emerald Forest to the north. We passed near it when we were travelling in the carriage, but those kids didn't come with us, they got their own carriage" Kika whispered to Giro and you wondered how she knew that.

  You couldn't tell one kid from Yhoma from another from Jushu.

  "Attention," Kie Gayun said as she emerged from a sliding door at the back of the room. Behind her, sect members in very light blue uniforms carried scrolls and a box of crystals. The crystals looked stacked like potatoes in the crate, tossed in with little care.

  The scrolls... they had a fancy blue ribbon around their body to keep them sealed.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Now that we are all together, I will explain the very basic steps of your journey ahead. I have brought you all a Sense Crystal and one of our Sect's basic cultivation scrolls. To use either of these items requires the basic ability to shift your Qi inside your body," Kie explained as she stood tall and rigid like one of the trees outside.

  "Qi is existence. It is everything we know and everything we have yet to know. Sages that have lived close to twelve hundred years have dedicated their lives to studying this force of life. Some of them have come away only to admit that they will never stop learning," she explained, smiling as if the topic was one dear to her.

  Twelve hundred years? Isn't that like... really old? Were these the old people in charge of the other old people?

  Someone raised their hand like they were back in community school.

  "Is twelve hundred the oldest?" they asked excitedly when Kie nodded to them to speak.

  "Indeed not, but such people who study often forget to cultivate. Curiosity is a never ending string and you must have control to step back and accept you have learned enough for the time being. There is the opposite problem of those who do nothing but cultivate hit limits because they don't know their Green King weeds from their Sparrow Song roots," she said dryly.

  "Now we shall begin your education immediately. To open the cultivation scroll or use the sense crystal requires a small manner of control over your Qi so I will be teaching you all a very basic universal means to feel the flow of your Qi. When you can control it or even simply move it, the scroll in your hands will open and I will escort you to a private room where I shall help you use the sense crystal," Kie explained and sat down on the floor gracefully.

  You listened as she explained how to make your spine straight and how to breath in a strange in and out manner. It felt a lot like trying to fall asleep but with a hard bed.

  You tried to do as she said, wondering if you had a talent for moving your body's energy?

  Body: 0/1

  It turned out that the answer was a solid 'no' on the innate talent. All five of the kids from Yhoma had already left the room with their scrolls and to your surprise the confused Giro was not long after.

  He had done it, but it was clear he wasn't sure how he had done it.

  Kika looked to be turning red as she abandoned the breathing part of the exercise, trying to strain Qi out of her body with sheer stubbornness. You shook your head and focused once more.

  Qi roll: 16.

  DC: 3. Pass

  Inside your body was a strange... 'thing'. It felt like when you spun too fast and your head felt out of your control, rushing up and down your body. It felt warm, warmer than the rest of your body but only because you were paying it attention.

  When you focused on it, it shifted ever so slightly and in your hand the seal on the scroll broke. You were in the first ten of the twenty five kids to do so. That made you feel happy despite the task seemed to be something any cultivator could do.

  But you were a kid and they were old men.

  Kie led you to a room that was elegant but small, the only thing inside was a large cushion. She handed you the crystal with a smile.

  "Well done, Student Nhatz. Now, we shall see what elemental affinity you hold. Just manipulate your Qi once more and the crystal shall change color to match your innate element," she encouraged.

  You did so, watching as the crystal turned from a dull gray to a bright white. Kie blinked and then made you repeat the act a few times.

  Each time, the crystal lit up like a firefly was trapped inside.

  "Is that bad?" you asked, not sure of her reaction. Kie shook her head kindly.

  "It's just rare to see light or dark in a new student. They're not often elements that come naturally to people. They require a different sort of person," she explained.

  "You are the second one so far this year in the north," she added with amusement. She encouraged you to read the scroll and see what you could glean from it until the others were done.

  You knew Kika had managed to pass as well because she was cheering all the way down the hall and pass your little room as she did so.

  You didn't know anything about the elements, but Kika had to be fire or lightning.

  The scroll before you hurt a little to look at it.

  Sea of Consciousness: 1/1

  But it wasn't enough to stop you from actively devouring it like a man desperate for water. The scroll didn't act like ink on paper, it was like someone had carved light into paper and told it to stay. You could see the letters, know them, but when you tried to recall them with your eyes closed, you could only remember their 'impression'.

  Azure Lotus Seedling Cultivation techinque..

  This scroll contains a basic means to gather wild Qi from the world into oneself and transform it into energy to grow as a cultivator. This basic scroll allows for one to train their body, dantian, and sea to rank 1.

  There was even a note that you barely could understand at the bottom.

  Essence of the lotus can even help you raise your affinity to both earth and water to rank 1. Only those with the innate talent of the sea of consciousness can read this early.

  It was eye-straining to read but you could read it. Before you could try this cultivation thing, Kie returned and informed you it was time to be settled into your new home.

  Twenty-Two students had passed this simple test.

  Three had not.

  ---

  The area to the east of the sect compound had a series of similar looking huts built on large thick roots of a tree. The huts started off barely on the root and ended up all the way to the last hut which was inside a small hollow of the tree itself.

  "The trees of the Emerald Forest produce noticeably more intense Qi than the ambient air. Living closer to the tree makes it easier to cultivate and is reserved for the first student to pass the test, but it can be exchanged or won through official challenges," Kie explained and a tall slender boy with neck-length blond hair smiled at the hut.

  He was the owner of that hut.

  "Isn't that a little unfair?" Kika risked asking and Kie took it reasonably enough.

  "We nurture talent. Just like we do not make the less innate talented kill themselves to keep up with the rest, we do not hold back the more talented to make the others feel better. This is still an investment of the Azure Lotus Sect after all," she explained. Kie smiled at you all.

  "If it bothers you, then I am sure that it is sufficient motivation to become stronger and issue a challenge, yes? Having something to strive for can be a good aid," she added as she stopped before the first hut.

  "Inside each hut is a map and a timetable of the different classes available to you. We will not wake you nor force you to attend any class. You are students now and we expect you to take responsibility for your education. At the end of each month, we shall be testing your progress and if it is sufficient, we shall continue your education. If it is insufficient then you shall return home with a good story," she said calmly. Her dark eyes swept the group once more and you felt like a mouse before a hawk.

  "I advise you all to take the lessons to see where your talent and interests form. Even then, sometimes taking a class you haven't in a while may offer a unique perspective on how to advance yourself. Knowledge is not limited to 'alchemy' or 'lightning'. Knowledge is only reliable when it stops being background noise and becomes a tool you can use to grow," she lectured.

  Some kids had somewhat tuned out and proved Kie's words had not become their tool.

  "My office is in that hall you were in before, the Green Oak Hall. At any time, you can come see me if I am free and I shall do my best to guide you on the correct path. I may not walk that path, but I know where you can begin to do so," she promised quietly.

  People raised their hands to ask about food or if they lost their shoes.

  Kie explained every student got a weekly income of 5 bronze merits, a currency only used in the sect. Free meals were cooked and provided to all students and members of the sect at 6am, 2pm, and 8pm. Things like clothes or ink could be purchased at a resource center, mixed in with all the market stalls below.

  You listened as she explained about the merits.

  To avoid 'certain' families pushing their scion ahead with a steady cash flow of the country's currency, the sect operated on their Lotus Merits, a valuable currency in the sect but useless outside aside from collectors.

  New cultivation techniques and useful tools for training could be gained through these merits, but usually at such a rate that a weekly allowance of 5 bronze wouldn't be any good.

  This was where she explained about the Task Board.

  "For your current rank, they are nothing more than chores such as sweeping the street of leaves or helping restock the public library, and more. To more experienced members, the tasks stop being so much 'chores' and become a little more intense," she warned the group.

  Kie explained how a common task for those only a few ranks above was hunting in the immediate area for Moss Wolves and Dark Root Spiders.

  "Anyone to take a task above their rank will have to get permission from me or another similar ranked member. For the record, I am Iron ranked 5," she said and a few of the kids looked impressed but you had no context for that other than you were 'stone ranked 4'.

  Seeing the confused looks, Kie merely smiled.

  "'Cultivators and Qi' is a solid class. I would recommend it. I must since I teach it," she said with a smile and walked off.

  The group dispersed with some kids asking the blond boy questions as he stood there impassively, sort of soaking in the attention without giving it his own in return. You walked off, seeing Kika at hut number fifteen, arguing with a girl with dark hair as it turned out huts of rank 10 and above were co-shared. Giro was at hut number 7 and you were at 8.

  Inside was a bare living space with only a smaller room at the back showing a bed. There was no bathroom and it wasn't until you poked your head out the door that you saw at the bottom of the tree, nestled in the roots was a largish room marked with the symbol of a restroom.

  In the next 'hollow' of roots there was a smaller building with the sounds of gurgling water and steam, indicating some sort of bathhouse.

  A water wench was outside with buckets for those who would prefer to wash in their home.

  It seemed like the restrooms were almost added as an afterthought. Did cultivators not poop?

  Inside, as promised, was a map of the town and a list of classes.

  There was more than you expected. A class for swords, a class for herbs and flowers, a class on monsters, a class for each of the elements, and more. You spotted a few interesting ones for beginner classes in Alchemy and Inscriptions, but they were held more frequently than classes like taming or healing down the list.

  You made a note on where the library was, the general store, and a training field.

  There was so much, but the note left by Kie Gayun said you were to rest today. Tomorrow... was the new dawn of your life.

  A life filled with delicious chicken.

  You meant... enlightenment.