From then on, I observed the two fighting every night. At first, they started off calmly so I could observe and learn, but after that they got serious.
It was a good way to track my progress, I could see more and more of their movements as time went by, and even understood some of them.
I also spent more time with Li Xiu, she was an interesting personality, playful like her brother, but had a cold demeanour unlike Li Tians warm one.
They both had one thing on common, love for fighting. They were both battle freaks, maybe Li Xiu even more so, like a true battle maniac, she went a little crazy whenever she fought. that was exactly why she usually trained alone, to not accidently injure anyone.
Fortunately for her, she had a brother like Li Tian, and he was the one person her age she couldn’t dominate in a fight.
We ended up always having lunch together at Li Xiu’s place, apparently the three of us were always close, but that technically wasn’t me. Now, I felt as though it was actually me who was close to them now.
Finally, this routine stuck. I would get up, read a little, go train either physically or build resistance to Qi, then eat lunch with the siblings, train more if I could, do my hobby, and read again before bed.
It was very draining, but I made sure to take some days off, so I didn’t burn out. Also, I enjoyed it, using Qi was amazing and getting physically stronger felt rewarding, reading was very calming, and I learnt a lot of helpful things from it.
It was repetitive, but good.
This held up until a few days before the day of the exam.
I was doing my usual sparring with Li Tian, by now I was faring much better, although of course Li Tian didn’t go all out, he still needed some amount of effort to win now, compared to his no effort of before.
After we finished the spar, with him calling “Dead.” only three times, he said “Take the couple next days off. The exam is soon and it’s probably best to be at your peak for it.”. So soon?
I didn’t keep track of the days, losing myself in my training. I felt like a new person by now.
Nerves started to creep up on me, but also excitement. I had worked my ass off for a while now and it was time for some results.
I went back to my room and relaxed for the next few days, I took lunch with the siblings, we chatted and had a good time, not talking about the impending exam. We just enjoyed each other’s company.
I also did as much gardening as I could, to take away stress. interacting with Qi was also fun for me, not in a training sort of way, more like getting better understanding of the way it worked. Feeling the properties and reactions of the different types were fascinating.
I took careful notice of when there was more of one type, or less of another. On hot days there were more Fire Qi than usual, and when it rained there was more Water Qi.
I had even seen one Lightning Qi before, on a particularly rainy day, it was a purple crackling ball of energy that felt dangerous to get close to.
On the morning of the third day, Li Tian greeted me at my door. “You ready?” he asked. “As much as I can be.” I replied
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I had finally dressed in the best robes I had, wearing a primarily white robe with blue lining. I did my best to present myself well.
We then met up with Li Xiu at the gate, surprisingly Jiao was there too. “We need to hurry” Li Xiu said, “It starts soon.”.
I followed them along the city, able to take in its size now, it was huge. I never really took an interest in exploring it, but now I regretted that. Only slightly though, everything else was much more important.
We eventually reached a large clearing; it looked to be organised for today’s event.
There was a stage built in the centre, upon it were six chairs and three orbs in front of them. I recognised those as testing orbs, they would be able to tell the quality and type of Spiritual Roots we have.
Sitting on the chairs were four men and two women. They were all young except for the two men in the middle, one middle aged and the other was older, they were chatting to each other.
There must’ve been over a thousand people in the clearing, all of differing ages. It was very noisy, but I could just about hear Li Tian speaking, “It should start soon.”.
As if those on the stage heard him, one of the men stood, his voice reverberated throughout the area at impossible volumes, silencing any other chatter.
“Welcome all, I, as the city lord would like to introduce Elder Dong Ling.” at this, the older man stood up next to the middle-aged man who was the one talking.
“Thank you for the introduction, City Lord Lu Cheng. Today I am here to test those who wish to join my Cloud Sword Sect, I wish you all luck.”, his introduction was short and sweet but it gave all the information we needed.
As the two men sat back down, apparently done with the speeches, one of the girls that were sitting with them stood up.
She spoke to the crowd, “Please separate into those who wish to take the test and those who are here to watch, spectators please make your way to the back.”
At this, the crowed moved in silence, bustling in their actions, showing their eagerness to adhere to her instructions.
Soon there were much less people than before, maybe around five hundred or so, all relatively young.
She then spoke again, “You will all now be tested for character, anyone who wishes to leave must do so now, this is your last chance.”. She then waited for a full two minutes. Nobody left.
She said nothing else, then a golden object appeared in her hand. It resembled a pocket watch, but instead of a clock inside there was a moving swirling pattern inside.
As soon as I looked into the pattern, I felt my mind go blank.
I groggily awoke with the girl standing above me, she looked down at the object in her hand that showed a green light.
“You pass.” She spoke to me with no emotion, “Go stand over there” she said while pointing to the side, there were about ten others standing there, including Jiao.
I got up and walked over to him asking what happened, he said “I don’t know man, I passed out when I looked at that treasure in her hand, then I woke up to her telling me I passed. same for you?”.
I sighed, “Yeah, I was the same. Anyone failed yet?”, he chucked and told me “I was one of the first to wake, the pass rate is about 1/5, watch.”.
I listened to him and observed the process, each of the young people who sat beside the Elder and City Lord were now standing over those participating in the test, all holding the same golden object.
They would stand over them and watch what colour the object would turn, a pass was a light green, and fail was a red one.
The colours also had differing levels, being dimmer and brighter, but ultimately the decision was based on the colour, even a very dim red wasn’t accepted and a very dim green one was.
I noticed someone testing Li Xiu, her colour was a bright green, the brightest I had seen so far. She got up and walked over to us.
“You guys passed? Great!”, she said.
“Surprised?”, I joked back, to which she replied “Kinda.”, which silenced me a little…
While observing the process, I became quite proud of my result, it was clearly one of the good ones, although not as bright as Li Xiu’s for sure.
The three of us were now all focused on Li Tian, he was one the last to be tested. The same girl who tested me now stood over him, staring intently at the object.
The colour almost blinded me, it was an extremely bright green. For the first time the girl sounded surprised, “You… Pass.”. She even forgot to tell him where to go afterwards.
The elder on the stage who didn’t seem to be paying attention leaned forward slightly, clearly this piqued his interest. He asked something to the City Lord and nodded to the answer he got.
Li Tian looked around and found us, he almost skipped towards us with a massive smile on his face. “You guys made it! Unbelievable!”.
We all rolled our eyes at him, we all knew he would pass, but he sure likes to exceed expectations…
