Before the test ended, there was an incident.

  The girl that tested Li Tian and I was a fast worker, she ended up covering the majority of the contestants by herself.

  She arrived to the second to last man lying down, when she tested him, her device turned a bright red colour and a low beeping sound came from it.

  The man’s eyes suddenly darted open as he leaped towards her with all his strength, he held a dagger in his hand and a maniacal grin on his face.

  He ruthlessly aimed towards her neck, a killing blow.

  Before he managed to even get halfway, his head hit the ground with a sickening thud, blood splattering all over the floor as the blood had no head to flow to anymore.

  The girl now held a sword in her hand, coming from seemingly nowhere. She shook it and the blood on the sword splattered to the floor, a look of disgust crossed her face.

  “There's always one idiot from the Death Sect who tries something.” She said as she rolled her eyes.

  I felt sick. It was the first time I witnessed a murder.

  No, self-defence. She was attacked first.

  But it was still deeply unnerving for me. I shook my head; I could of course feel my deficiencies. I can’t continue to be like this, even if it felt wrong, this wasn’t a place that allowed me to have these feelings. This was the normal here and I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that.

  I need to adapt. I need to change.

  The City Lord clicked his fingers and a few people with official looking robes came over and took the body away, each of them unfased by carrying a recently decapitated body.

  The girl now made her way back to the stage before making another announcement.

  “There are one hundred and twenty of you left. Split into three different lines and wait for further instructions.”.

  We silently did as she told us, some of us were shaken by the incident, while others didn’t seem perturbed at all.

  Li Tian put a hand on my shoulder to silently reassure me.

  We all split into lines, Li Tian and I in one and Jiao with Li Xiu in another.

  Three of the five manned the testing orbs whilst the other two directed people towards them.

  Just before the testing started, the girl once again announced something, “Only Middle grade Spiritual Roots or above will be accepted, the type is irrelevant.”.

  My heart pounded, hoping I had middle grade Spiritual Roots.

  Then, the testing started, uncaring for my nerves.

  I closely observed those being tested, watching the line I was in, the right side.

  It was the exact same girl who made the announcements and did my test who was manning the orb.

  The orb turned a very dim shade of blue as a young man placed his palm on it, “Ungradable Water. Fail.” She said, not impassively, although not coldly.

  Then when a young woman approached, it turned a fuller colour of red with a hint of grey within, “Low grade Fire and Metal. Fail”.

  Failed. Failed. Failed.

  “Middle grade Wood. Pass.” She finally said, as the orb turned a full shade of green. She directed the timid looking young girl that passed to stand behind her.

  The pass rate was not high, only one in five so far.

  Then another twelve failed. And I was at the front of the line.

  The young man directing us told me to go up the stage to be tested, I gulped and walked up the stairs, each step up causing my heart to pound harder and harder.

  I walked up to the testing orb, then she told me, “Place your hand on the orb.”.

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  I complied, feeling the cold surface of the orb on my palm, my hands were sweaty, and I hoped that wouldn’t interfere with anything.

  I could feel nothing, but the orb clearly reacted to something. It took longer than the others to settle into a colour, it took much longer…

  It didn’t settle into a colour.

  She frowned.

  Oh no.

  “Do it again”, she commanded, and I quickly took my hand off, waited a moment for the orb to go back to neutral before placing my palm back on it.

  The same thing happened.

  She frowned even deeper, then she turned her head towards the Elder, she gave a salute and bowed before speaking, “Elder, this lowly one requests some assistance.”.

  I tried to hide my nerves as the Elder approached, maybe it was my imagination, but he felt different to others, he had a sort of presence that felt inhuman.

  “What is the matter?” he asked us softly, there was no annoyance in his tone that carried authority.

  “His results are unusual.”, she motioned for me to place my hand on the orb for a third time.

  The same process repeated once again, the exact same way.

  “Hm, how peculiar.”, the Elder stated. He turned towards me while stroking his beard, a common habit to do when thinking.

  He muttered something to himself before he then turned towards the girl, “This child has Mutated Spiritual Roots, the orb cannot process the change. I will block it from testing anything but the quality. Same rules as usual will apply.”. He then turned towards me.

  “Child, you will be tested again at the sect, if you pass.”, he then placed a finger on the orb, turning it to a green colour, presumably he had Wood Spiritual Roots. He then motioned for me to press my palm back on for the fourth time.

  It slowly dimmed before brightening again, then the girl passed my final judgement.

  “Middle grade. Pass.”

  Phew.

  It felt like years were taken from me after that, I stood behind the testing area and the Elder returned to his conversation with the City Lord, seemingly forgetting all about me.

  Feeling relieved, I greeted the other girl and then turned my focus to everyone else.

  It just so happened that Li Xiu was being tested beside me sat this point. She placed her palm on the orb with no signs of nervousness.

  The orb turned a full colour of black, I had never seen black before and didn’t know what it meant, however, the Elder clearly did. He stood up abruptly and walked over.

  “The heavens have blessed my Cloud Sword Sect! High grade Special Roots! Darkness, how marvellous.”, Li Xiu smiled gently, as if it didn’t bother her at all what her Spiritual Roots were. She was then also told to wait behind.

  Unfortunately, the next person wasn’t so fortunate. Poor Jiao.

  He had Low grade Earth Roots and was failed. I felt truly sad about seeing him go, that could’ve easily been me, and it felt unfair to see.

  I had to divert my attention to the man walking up the stairs though, Li Tian took every step with upmost confidence, walking directly to the orb and placing his palm on it before the he was even asked to.

  There was no reaction, for a moment my heart stopped beating, worried that there was a problem.

  But of course, there was no problem. The orb burst with bright purple light which caused the Elder to stand once more. He laughed loudly, “My my, another one! High grade, Lightning!”.

  Li Tian grinned as he walked over to me, he gave me a bear hug, delighted that I passed.

  “Well done!”, I congratulated him, genuinely happy for him. He just shrugged and said, “I didn’t do anything.”, which was technically true, but if anyone, he deserved the success. He was extremely hard working and was a genuinely good person.

  “Yeah, yeah whatever. Congrats anyway.” I said, which caused him to smile.

  “Thanks!”.

  We watched the rest of the process in silence, contemplating on what it truly meant to pass the test.

  I was accepted into the sect, which it was a huge commitment. A sect was a new home, it was somewhere that was hard to get in, and harder to leave.

  I wanted to join, but the reality of the situation was still nerve wrecking to me. I looked over at Li Tian, he didn’t seem as bothered as me, but he was also clearly deep in his thoughts.

  Eventually, everyone was tested. Including me, seven people had passed. It was a brutal pass rate; I could only be thankful that I had somehow passed.

  The same girl then dismissed all those who had failed and gathered those who had passed.

  “We will depart tomorrow when the sun rises. Any questions?” she asked.

  Nobody said for a few moments, then the timid girl who was accepted first spoke up. “W-when will we see our families again?” she asked timidly.

  The girl from the sect softened for the first time, “When you get to the sect you can accept missions in the area, you will be able to visit then. There are some other ways too, but that will be the easiest.”

  “Thank you, m-miss” the timid girl said.

  “You may all call me Senior Sister Wen. If nothing else, meet again here before dawn, we will leave without you if late.” She informed us before turning around and joining the Elder and others, who were still sitting and chatting.

  An hour after that, I had everything packed. I used the wooden chest with my valuables inside, neatly packing a few sets of robes within with some other essentials.

  I made sure to keep the letters and drawings safe from any damage, and I decided to wear the jewellery.

  I looked within the mirror for the first time in a while. I was a different man since the last time, my muscles were more defined, along with my features.

  The necklace fit me well and I thought it suited me, along with the black and white rings. The black ring on my left and white on the right. I felt quite stylish for once and I was very happy with my current appearance.

  To be able to carry the box on the journey to the sect, I made some makeshift straps and put them on the box with my limited DIY skills, but it worked.

  After making sure my limited possessions were ready to go, I went to bed for the final time in my home. Yes, this place felt like home now and I was reluctant to leave it.

  Though my trepidation there was also excitement, I wasn’t hesitating on leaving because this was something I absolutely wanted to do. Become a Cultivator.

  It took me a long while to fall asleep, visions of what my future may be like flew through my mind, gruesome deaths, glorious victories or even a life of mediocracy. All were possibilities.