Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Ao Ruang woke up early in the morning and walked alone towards the assessment; he wasn't certain what was going to await him there, but when he asked Yi Liling to go with she was slightly dizzy from his last feeding. While he preferred to have someone with him, Ao Ruang knew he was already requesting a lot from Yi Liling and she had yet to demand much in return. It was necessary for him to keep a good relationship with her as she was far more knowledgeable generally about things here.

Ao Ruang wanted to make sure he was extra good so his crimson eyes would turn back to black. He noticed that the more voracious his hunger the more blood red they became and he had no intention of revealing his unusual eye color to people who might guess it’s nature. To still be safe he still wore the thin veil that covered his eyes and nothing else. If one were to see him they would assume he was blind or had a scar he didn’t wish for others to see.

While he still wasn’t entirely sure what he was let alone if it was well known enough to cause some of the more powerful cultivators of the city to realize what he was.

Walking down the streets of Firedawn was surreal; it was the first chance he had to actually see it in any detail. Even early in the morning the streets were bustling and shops were opening. A single street of this city was larger than all the buildings of his village. Plus almost all the buildings were three to four stories tall. The white stone buildings contrasted sharply with the firestone tile roof tops.

The line for the assessment wasn't enormous, but with a city of several million there was bound to be a decent number of young Ki cultivators who showed up. The rules were fairly straightforward; one had to be under the age of fifteen and at least of middle Iron Warrior rank, but that was only to qualify. It didn't guarantee any of the big sects would pick you. Ao Ruang wouldn't have qualified had he not gained this power to cultivate the blood he consumed.

A senior disciple of the various sects managed the registration and held a simple soul stone which measured one's Ki levels. If they were Iron warrior at least they would be fine to enter.

Ao Ruang looked around nervously as most of the people here were quite young. Clearly much higher talents than himself. If his realm was the peak of the Iron warrior realm, but Yi Liling's blood was becoming less and less potent in advancing his rank so he couldn't make the push into the Black Iron realm yet.

From what Ao Ruang was taught back in the village, the Iron warrior realm was split into three sections early, middle, and late each of those breaking down into three stages. From there one would advance to the black iron realm. This was the realm that separated the average person and a true cultivator. Black iron allowed one to completely surpass the physical abilities of what one could achieve naturally with no cultivation. From there was the silver realm which would transition to black silver, then gold and black gold until one reached the peak of the warrior realms all together. From there it was not talked about to people who hadn’t even reached the silver realm.

As the line made progress it finally came to his attention that it was his turn to put his hand on the white stone everyone else had touched.

The process was simple: inject your Ki into the stone and the amount of rings determined how close one was black iron realm. To pass one needed minimum of two rings.

Grabbing the stone it quickly shined and showed two rings with a third ring barely visible showing he was just into the late stage iron warrior realm.

The disciple in front of him wore gray robes with an emblem of a ghostly hand holding a rose. Which represented the Ghostly Whisper Sect. The sect he needed to get into. Unfortunately he looked far from impressed.

"Pass, move on inside and await for further orders." He said with no enthusiasm.

"Thank you." Ao Ruang bowed and moved past the table into the large arena where several hundred other potential recruits for the sects lay.

After several minutes the last of the accepted candidates filtered in making the total number of kids just over a thousand.

Before Ao Ruang could size up his peers, an old man who bore a long white beard and red and yellow robs stopped upon a large pavilion above them.

"Hello young people. Today is a big day and I am sure you all are excited to join a sect, but for the sake of those who may jot be familiar. Let me explain the purpose and rules of the assessment."

Ao Ruang couldn't contain his pure excitement. Never would he have dreamed of leaving his hometown let alone joining a major sect of a city many many times larger than his home.

'Let's do this.' Ao Ruang thought with a smile.

...

The Elders of the four major sects made a point to come to see new recruits at least at one of the quarterly assessments in Firedawn city. It was important not just for taking in talent into the sect, but if they could find a potential personal disciple it would greatly benefit them in the long run.

Today, whether by luck or not, was surprisingly full of various elders from the various sects of Firedawn. Which was of course a huge benefit to Ao Ruang. Little did he know that they were all here to fight over two very important youth of the city along with some other talented youth that would come out as well.

Ao Ruang stood among the other potential disciples along the far edge of a large arena that was split up into three sections. Each section represented a test by the four sects to determine a disciples potential and talent.

The elder who had stood up to announce the rules was actually part of the city Lord's mansion who while not a sect often still recruited talented students itself. "The first assessment will be testing your cultivation level. The use of artificial spiritual Ki enhancers is forbidden. The second test will determine your Ki attribute. You should all know an attribute or lack thereof is not the end all be all, but it can focus you into a specific direction. The third and final round is where you will challenge a deacon from one of the four sects to show your knowledge of combat."

Ao Ruang frowned deeply upon hearing the last assessment. He himself was not particularly skilled in combat as his new found powers were...well new and he didn't have experience in combat besides being beaten by others. The first test was simply a more refined test of the one used to gain entry and was there mostly to probe out who had talent.

Before long the first youth was called up to the arena today there were only about one thousand applicants. Ao Ruang watched intensely to make sure he knew what to expect. The freckled youth took out his hand and placed it confidently on the stone orb that sat in the middle of the platform.

"Age fifteen, Bing Feng" the young man said.

As he finished speaking the stone lit up with four light gray halos that represented the fourth rank of the iron realm.

Ao Ruang's eyes widened. The boy was older than him yet had lower cultivation. This was surprising to him. He had always been the last when it came to cultivation, but there was actually someone inferior to his past self.

The deacon who was in charge of the test frowned "No pass." Without a single second of hesitation two disciples came up and escorted the young man off the platform and to the exit of the arena. Not a single person in the audience was surprised by the results. Being fifteen and only at that cultivation was someone who was destined to never rise past his mediocre talent.

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The young man looked dejected, but it wasn’t unsurprising. If he was a year younger it would have been passable, but the difference between a year of cultivation was a large gap.

Ao Ruang watched as many began to pass and some others began to be rejected as well. Just as he was about to get bored waiting the crowd began to grow excited as two around his own age walked forwards one was a boy and the other a girl. They looked similar in appearance, both had strong sharp facial features and light brown eyes. Ao Ruang immediately guessed they were related, but that wasn't what caught his eye; he noticed that they carried themselves much more confidently than the others.

"Did you hear those are the twins of the Tang clan."

"Yeah I hear they were said to be top talents of their generation."

"Which sect do you think they will choose?" several voices whispered amongst themselves as he listened.

Ao Ruang's heart trembled when the surrounding candidates didn't even question that they would pass the assessment, the only question was who they would choose. Leaning forward he watched as the young boy walked up the stairs first.

The young man put up his hand and announced his name quickly "Tang BoLin, age thirteen."

Like all those before him rings began to form on the stone quickly sprinting past four rings to eight rings.

The entire arena had a collective gasp as they saw the youth was only two steps away from Black Iron realm at the age of thirteen. While not completely unheard of in a city like Firedawn such talent was proof that the youth would grow to be a great warrior. Without waiting for the Deacon to snap out of his short daze Tang BoLin walked off the stage towards the second area.

"Err! Pass!" the deacon said before turning to the youth's sister.

Like before, the girl who by many would be consider very cute and once she matured would be a fierce beauty. Her eyes only glanced at her brother who was walking off the opposite side of the stage without. Ao Ruang was eager to see what the sister's rank would be.

Putting on her slender hands onto the stone she gave a confident smile. It wasn’t the smile of someone who was over confident that was certain.

"Tang ChaoXing, Age thirteen."

Immediately like her brother all the halos lit up and immediately came out to be nine. Which was one step away from the Black Iron realm. The crowd went into an instant uproar upon seeing the results.

"This talent is unheard of in Firedawn! To be one step away from Black Iron at thirteen is simply too insane!"

"This is surely a sign of the Tang Clan's rise!"

Various voices had different reactions as they processed the scenario, but all were in agreement that these two were talents that all the sects would be fighting for.

Ao Ruang pitied the next person who would be called up as it would make whatever cultivation they had seem miniscule.

"Next. Ao Ruang! Please make your way up!"

Ao Ruang's heart stopped for a split second as he heard his name. What a joke he had completely jinxed himself.

'Fate is a bitch. This is what I get for thinking that way.' Ao Ruang sighed inwardly, resigning to his fate of looking mediocre.

The whole crowd seemed to be thinking of the same thing as he was as people gave faces of pity towards Ao Ruang.

Each step up to the platform seemed like a deep and heavy heart beat. Ao Ruang knew he would pass the first round, but he had never formally tested his cultivation level and knew it was high enough to get past the first round.

In the middle of the platform the deacon stood in front of the platform and waited for Ao Ruang to reach within arms length of the stone.

"Give your name and age. After that place your hand onto the stone you will feel a stirring of your Ki. Ignore that and just allow it to flow between yourself and the stone." The Deacon said as if reading from a script.

"Ao Ruang! Age thirteen." he said, his voice trembling slightly before placing his hand on the stone and closing his eyes.

Several moments passed and no sound came from the crowd or the Deacon. Ao Ruang kept his eyes closed, but finally couldn't hold it back and opened his eyes to see the Deacon's wide eyes. Looking down where his hand was placed the stone had eight gray halos lit up. Ao Ruang surprised himself considering he had only been in the Iron Warrior realm for such a short time it was truly not within his expectations. What was odd was he had barely gotten the third outline of the ring before.

With a huge grin Ao Ruang removed his hand from the stone and stepped back waiting for the Deacon's order. Just as he stepped back the entire arena broke out into conversation as the black horse of the assessment had just come out and no one knew who this youth was.

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