Chapter 5: 5.The sect master accepts a new disciple.
Hao Shun was led to the giant pagoda in the middle of the other tall pagodas. The inside of the pagoda was lined with golden lion statues and the carpet was of intricate design. Spiritual artwork shifted and shone, striking awe into the hearts of the onlookers. The pagoda was bigger on the inside. It was a mind-boggling thing to encounter as a hick from a backwater village.
Elder Li closed Hao Shun's jaw. He was proud of his sect. Oh, how he loved to see people impressed by the greatness it presented.
The next floor was even bigger. In glass columns, people were sitting in the lotus positions, pipes were coming in and out of their equipment. They all wore loose-fitting gowns. They seemed to be in a deep trance.
The next floor seemed to be made of boundless darkness. Only when the two stepped onto the floor, cubes flew in and laid themselves underneath Hao Shun and Elder Li's feet.
Gone was the awe, and what replaced it was the fear. A fear of heights to be exact.
Seeing Hao Shun trying to balance himself on a single cube, he laughed and picked Hao Shun up so he wouldn't be so scared. Hao Shun hugged Elder Li's neck and closed his eyes until the scary floor was over.
He was out of his depths and then some. Hao Shun quickly realized he had to go with the flow here. What was stressing Hao Shun out, even more, was the fact his friend Yao Lei was suspicious of this sect. Hao Shun was saved by that gut instinct several times. Otherwise, he would've got the short end of the stick several times.
There was this time the fisherman's son tried to unload his work onto Hao Shun by promising his father would take Hao Shunas as an apprentice. There was this time Wang Ging and his gand tried to lure him into somewhere out of sight. Yao Lei stopped that too.
Eventually, Hao Shun and Elder Li arrived at the throne room of the Namjin mountain sect. There was no edge in the room the edges were supposed to be there ever moving into fractals and disappearing. The act of looking at it made his eyes hurt. The fractals thus forced his eyes to a certain spot. It was a source of light, and within that source of light, a silhouette of a man.
One moment The silhouette was infinitely distant, the next moment he was face to face with Hao Shun. The poor boy screamed in terror.
The sect master's voice echoed in his head. The words were both heard by his ears and spoken directly into his mind.
"Learn the seven stars cultivation manual."
He then placed his jade palm on the boy's forehead and the boy's eyes shone. Complex esoteric concepts directly flowed into his mind. The seven-star cultivation art. Art that uses karmic ties between the planets orbiting the sun to pull the highest quality of cosmic qi from the universe. It's an art that only people with spiritual roots who can handle anything can master.
Hao Shun's five-element high-grade yang spiritual root only lacked affinity to the Yin element. However, the shift between yin energies and yang energies was easy so, the seven-star cultivation art was fitting for Hao Shun.
"Cultivate according to my guidance."
Hao Shun's breathing quickened and suddenly he found himself in an endless stretch of darkness. He was the only thing in every direction.
His eyes surveyed his surroundings. Nothing, nothing, nothing. He could hear his heartbeat. A specific terror settles in—a sense of smallness, emptiness.
After what seemed to be an eternity Hao Shun felt something alien invade his body. It traveled through his meridians and caused searing pain. The impurities were being violently pushed around along with the meridians they were attached to. A large portion of them got pulled loose and expelled by the violent flow.
Hao Shun guided the energy according to the seven-star cultivation manual. With every breath, illusory shapes of planets and their moons appeared and disappeared.
When Hao Shun's consciousness returned to his body, he was sitting outside of the sect master's seven-floored pagoda, being watched over by Elder Li. His body was covered by a sticky and smelly goo. He let out turbid Qi from his mouth and opened his eyes. Elder Li smiled at the young boy.
"So, how was it? You've cultivated fire the first time."
Hao Shun picked a piece of impurity off his arm and played with it between his fingers while curiously inspecting it.
"It was the most terrifying thing I've experienced."
Elder Li was a cultivator who practiced a fairly normal scripture. He couldn't imagine the act of simply practicing an art to be scary. As long as you knew what you were doing, and were careful, cultivating was fairly safe unless the cultivator was breaking through a minor or major realm. For that reason, cultivators were able to cultivate for a long time without another person looking out for them.
Elder Li guided Hao Shun to the bathhouse. When he arrived there, his friend Yao Lei was there.
Before he could say anything, Hao Shun interrupted Yao Lei's words.
" Did you know our sect master knows how to reach into someone's mind? Isn't that crazy? Our sect master is so powerful!"
Yao Lei got the message. What Hao Shun actually said was:
"You aren't safe within your own head."
Yao Lei brought two and two together in his head. He understood that if he didn't side with the Namjin mountain sect within his heart genuinely, one of these days, he might suddenly drop dead somewhere. That was what mind reading meant in this situation.
Yao Lei glanced at Hao Shun. Since his friend hadn't been obliterated by the sect master, that meant he didn't have anything against the sect master in his head, or the sect master wasn't as intolerant as one might think.
As long as Yao Lei didn't convince Hao Shun that the Namjin mountain sect and its sect master were dangerous, he would be safer. Yao Lei very much thought the Sect Master was dangerous. According to what Hao Shun has described, the shameless leader of this organization spared no expense flexing on a little kid. The gaudy displays were both offers and threats.
"Be a part of us and have a share of all this wealth and power."
and,
"Be against us and suffer the wrath of all this wealth and power."
The fact that they even bothered to do so indicates that they would gain a lot if Hao Shun stood with them. It was fortunate and unfortunate for Hao Shun. Hao Shun now has to walk a fine line. If he is too trusting, he will get used until he is used up, get backstabbed, and die. If he is too rebellious, he is of no use to the sect and he will die. Yao Lei felt sick to his stomach.
Yao Lei understood one thing. If he wanted to protect his friend, he had to get powerful and be quick about it. He also has to avoid getting too entangled by the sect's inner machinations.
The boys dried themselves and left the bathhouse, their bodies were clean of the stinky gunk. They hugged and split to their respective dorm rooms. Since Yao Lai is a yin cultivator, he decided to cultivate a bit under the stars. The black and dark blue sky had white dots like someone spilled shining grains of sand. The screeching of bugs pierced the otherwise silent night. The haunting calls of distant owls and the rustling of leaves as a gentle breeze swept through the sleeping trees.
He breathed in and out to ready his mentality for cultivation. It required a bit of focus. He carefully took in spiritual energy and guided it to his spiritual root. Unlike the previous time, the energy was gentle. It smoothly traveled through his meridians, only stopping a bit at the remaining spots where impurities were located.
Yao Lei felt his body getting nourished. It was as if it was starving of a certain substance until now. A tingling sensation ran throughout his body. It was the sign that his body was full and the remaining Yin Qi was turning its energy into the cold as a part of its natural process. Yao Lei was alright with feeling a bit of chill. but since it was a sign that he should stop cultivating and let his body digest, he listened to his body.
His roommates, who looked like hicks like himself, were a comfort in a sea of unknowns. "Hello friend I'm Feng Da, fatty here is Zhang Ru, and the skinny one over there is Heng Wu. What's your name?"
Yao Lei smiled. These were your run-of-the-mill normal people. Such people far outnumbered every other kind of person. Thanks to these people being the majority in the world life was bearable. Yao Lei couldn't imagine having to look over his shoulders every waking moment.
"My name is Yao Lei. Nice to meet you all. I will be your roommate from now on."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone