“I would hurry up and open that sword scroll before storing both scrolls in that ring of yours. Just in case the highly unlikely event of someone breaking in happens, your cultivation master would acquire your head as a new wall ornament if you lost them.”

  I quickly rushed over to the sword techniques scroll and opened it, feeling the knowledge rush into my head. I placed both scrolls into my ring before I even bothered to look at the knowledge. Like the movement, it was also out of focus except for the first section that instructed me how to swing a sword from up to down then turn the blade and swing from left to right, it also told me, how to rotate my wrist while doing so.

  “If you're done, hurry up and come sit, the ceremony is about to start” she loudly said to me.

  “What? I thought the ceremony started tomorrow” I replied as I walked over and out the sliding doors to the balcony.

  “It is tomorrow, meditation takes time, remember.” she said offhandedly as she waved her hand at the screens sorting them into groups.

  I looked at the screens as they slowly shifted around into groups, I noticed on the left there were boys and on the right were all girls. The pretty kids were near the middle, where the less attractive ones were on the sides. I was about to ask what the hell was this sort of sorting when Itshu Biyu volunteered the information.

  “Hurry and sit,” she said, causing me to glance at a nearby seat before sitting in it. Once I was seated, she waved her hand at the screens and continued. “Alright, on the left as you can see are all the boys, the ones that most likely have a bloodline or trait that involves their skins being more attractive are in the middle and the ones that either don’t have a bloodline at all or one that leans towards something less attractive are on the far sides, and it is the same for the girls.”

  “Should I be concerned about that?” I asked slowly.

  “No, it will be resorted again, the best people to watch in the middle, after the testing round is complete.” She replied.

  She suddenly clapped her hands and a screen appeared inside the glass railing showing the group of people all waiting for the ceremony to start. I could easily see all the children, I tilted my head as I started noticing they were grouped by ages. There were the kids between 14-16 towards the front. Behind them were the 17-19 year olds, and the back row held the people clearly in their 20s.

  “The old ones are all over twenty and their best chances of joining the sect are as servants to do all the work like engineering or housekeeping. The young ones, down the front, have more potential due to not having failed the first time, and will go first. All the big ships will, of course, fight over them. If you like one, use the hand print in your armrest while looking at the kid. Okay?”

  I nodded my head as a loud chime went off over the entire grounds getting the attention of all hopefuls as well as everyone in the stands and sky box’s causing a hush to fall over the grounds. Before a loud booming voice spoke from seemingly everywhere.

  “GREETINGS! And welcome, to all Deacons and Commanders. We here at the Vaticolm Ceremony Grounds also welcome all the young and returning hopefuls that are eager to join the highly sought after positions in the VOID WALKING SECT!” He screamed the last three words before a thunderous clapping rose from the stands. I thought I could also hear some stomping.

  *******

  Yue was standing in the front row with her twin sister Xia. They both had just turned 14 a month ago and an older man who they had met in line while they were waiting to get into these grounds had said the closer they were to 14 the more potential the sect people would perceive them having. Apparently, it gave them more of a chance to be accepted as a cultivator. He had also told them to remember him if they managed to get into the inner sect and want a servant to help them as he had failed to get in twice now and was trying one last time to get in as a servant so he could get his hands on a cultivation technique and have a chance to live at least a little longer than the mortals.

  Yue glanced over her shoulder looking for the old guy but couldn’t see him anywhere. A moment later her eyes face the curtained wall with numbers on them, each number had a person in black robes standing in front of it staring back at the large group of people in common clothing. She pulled her dirty coat a little tighter around her as she felt nervous. Her parents were considered poor mortals that worked for a big factory just to have enough money to feed her and her siblings. She glanced up into the air a little as she heard the big booming voice again.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Alright, as most of you are aware we will be starting with the youngest hopefuls first, they will go up as their names are called to a numbered curtain and be assessed for their spiritual roots and bloodline!”

  Yue couldn’t figure out how the children were organised, it was certainly not alphabetical order as a kid's name starting with X went before a kid starting with A. It wasn’t until half the kids had gone up through the curtains that she realised it had something to do with the tokens they had been given when they registered. A few moments later her name was called, and she was directed to curtain 268 as she approached she found a young man standing by the curtain, and he slowly pulled it open as she approached indicating for her to step though. He followed her in, letting the curtain close behind him. She found herself in a small, curtained square with a pedestal and an orb sitting on top. The man smiled warmly at her for a moment before holding his hand out to indicate the orb in front of her.

  “Please place your hand on the orb, it will draw a bit of your Qi and test your roots and bloodline.” He said gently.

  She slowly stepped forwards, feeling a nervousness that was both excited and worrying. She was eager to join this sect, her uncle had failed three times to join it but still to this day spoke of it with reverence and was over the moon with excitement when he had found out her sister and her had registered for the ceremony. She wanted to make her uncle proud by being accepted into the sect. Her hand reached the orb and rested gently on top, she felt a gentle tug on something near her naval and felt it just up her body, down her arm and into the orb from her hand.

  “Yue Tan of the Commoner Tan family, no clan. Yue Tan has a Moderate Sky, Void Qi Dao Root with a Jade Wolf Bloodline!” Her token screamed from her hip, making her jump with fright.

  The man watching from the side half bowed to her before turning and pulling a curtain from the back open, letting her continue on as he smiled warmly to her. As she stepped past him, he whispered to her.

  “Congratulations, you will make it into the sect for sure, I strongly recommend you agree to join the Vitrucach Ship.”

  She turned her head to look at him confused, but he had already dropped the curtain, vanishing from her sight. She turned back to find a young woman in the same black robes with a few kids standing next to her, waving Yue over to them.

  “Come on, no time to dawdle. In case you are wondering, only you the fool watching over you and the deacons with their commanders heard your results as the curtains all have formations on them to block all sound. Which means you may or may not already have someone interested in selecting you to join their ship or join them in their planet side locations. Now we are waiting for one more to round out our ten hopefuls before we move onto the next task.

  The speech was repeated when a boy about her age appeared shortly after with a slight addition of ‘and we are walking, follow me this way please’ before the woman turned and walked off down the field to where a huge platform was waiting for them.

  “Alright, I will hand you ten off to the next disciple just up that staircase, they will be handling the arena and will tell you what to do next.” She said as she turned and headed back towards the curtains.

  Yue slowly followed the group up the staircase, where she found an old man waiting for them. On the other side of the arena was another old person with ten more kids.

  “You!” He said, pointing at one of us randomly. “Go into the arena and fight the other child, display any potential you have, for instance any techniques you may already know to impress the deacons and commanders. If you don’t have any that is fine, just try to win, and if your opponent does have a technique, then try to last as long as you can. The longer you last, the more impressive you will be.” He said like he had said it a thousand times before. He suddenly grabbed the boy and pushed him forwards onto the platform.

  Yue noticed a young girl from the other side getting the same treatment and silently watched them for long enough to figure out neither knew how to fight and were mostly just slapping each other. Her eyes turned to the other children and started to wonder if any of them had techniques. Her eyes landed on a young girl who was wearing expensive looking clothing and had a haughty look on her face like she was better than everyone else.

  The fight soon ended with Yue’s side winning and both kids were ushered off the platform and down another staircase on the far side, before Yue nearly jumped out of her skin when the old guy reached past her to grab the kid standing next to her and tossed him forwards onto the platform. The rich looking girl slapped the hand that reached for her away and calmly walked out onto the platform. The fight lasted seconds after the rich girl used a technique to move across the platform and slap the young boy to the ground. Yue felt her mouth fall open in shock before the rich girl was escorted off the platform and the young boy carried.

  Swallowing nervously, Yue turned her eyes back to the young children standing waiting before she felt that old hand grab her and push her forwards onto the platform. It was her turn to show she knew exactly nothing about fighting other than what her uncle had taught her.

  *******

  I had watched Itshu Biyu rearrange the screens constantly as the information on them was updated with spiritual roots and bloodlines. After the kids reached what looked like a fighting arena, information was soon added with techniques they knew or how well they managed to do against said techniques. The ones that fought without any techniques involved were simply labelled as having potential for this or that technique or fighting style. A few images already claimed to have selections from a few locations or names, and a few of the kids even had multiple selections.

  My eyes were watching the fight between a void Qi root named Yue and some other commoner. It looked a lot like the slap fight the first two had on that platform. However, Yue looked like she was trying to weave with each step to keep herself on the left or right of her opponent. When she would attack, she would lean back before lunging forwards and turning her body to give her hand as much thrust as she could before she slapped the other boy. The fight ended after twelve moves, with Yue as the winner.

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