The last few days of solace and peace have lured me into a false sense of security. The day after the Day of Reverence for Ancestors, Aunt Meng wakes me up before dawn, makes me eats breakfast, more like a feast, because halfway through I am already full, but mother helps me shove the food down my throat. In my food coma, I have to meditate for daybreak doublehour, which takes more than a couple of Spirit Like Water recitations before I settle in properly to meditate.

               Afterwards, mother takes me her room, something that I had never seen before. It’s pleasantly symmetrical: one closet and spiritual map on each side of the room, with a single king-sized bed right below the single circular window. Three different outfits lay on the bed: the green and red robe; a blue robe; and an orange robe.

               “Choose your favorite robe for school.” Mother says, waving at all three of them.

               “I think I’m good with my current clothes.” I say, looking at the intricate designs of the robes and ready to exit the discussion as fast as possible.

               “Why?” Mother pleads.

               “Because I remember two times I have worn robes, they take too long but never fit me.” I say, displaying my hospital gown. “On the other hand, takes less than a minute to wear my gown.”

               “You know that’s a shirt, right?” Mother says, weary.

               “No reasonable shirt falls all the way down to my knees. It’s a gown.” I say, shrugging.

               “Wearing such an outfit dishonors the family.” Mother says, trying a different type of argument.

               Not really sure how she expects such a reason will work against a six month old, but alright. I will bite. “How, exactly, does being weak, feminine, cripple and sickly honor the family again?” I ask.

               “Who said that?” Father shouts angrily.

               “The servants.” I say.

               Father all but stomps to the door, “why those insubordinate little…I ought to…”

               As much as I don’t care for the servants, I don’t particularly want them dead on my behalf, or at least not for something so stupid. So I say, “You do realize that punishing them for saying those words, rather than dealing with the sentiment that would cause those words, will only give them credence, right?”

               Father sighs, then mother brings the discussion back to the outfits. “These will really impress the girls.”

               Once again, I think just how this argument will work against a six-month-old boy. Even if I was a full seven-year-old boy, I doubt it will work either. In fact, while I remember seeing a few girls in this life so far, I can’t even remember how they look like. “I’m six months old. I don’t care.” I eventually say.

               “Be reasonable.” Mother pleas.

               “I’m reasonably unreasonable. I’m six months old.” I say, but seeing as mother is about one step from coughing up blood, I do a few calculations. Then I grab the pants from the blue robe outfit and wear them, holding them up with a strings that is supposed to keep my upper robes together. “Is this good enough? I got pants now.”

               Aunt Meng laughs and hugs me. “I love you, little Yun.” She says. Then mother and father joins the hugging festival, saying the same thing.

               “I love you all too.” I say, unsure of all this sudden affection.

               Then Aunt Meng tosses me to Ascetic Yang who catches me. “We’ll see you in six months, so have fun at school.” She throws the cloth bag, which has my five spirit stones, to me as well.

               Before I can even say bye and register what Aunt Meng says, Ascetic Yang has already taken me outside and ascended into the sky. “What does Aunt Meng mean by six months of school?”

  “To prepare you for the sect practice down the mountain, the next six months will be spent in a school to ensure you learn everything you need to know.”

               “Lovely,” I say, groaning.

               Ascetic Yang ferries me off to the northern part of the estate. Not quite at the edge of the estate, though the towering walls does prevent any wandering child from simply walking off a sheer cliff, but far enough away where the school can have its own gates.

               The main school building is the giant glass dome, with many floors visible from the outside. Many different classrooms crowd the edges of the dome, but the center remains empty and open, for a giant arena. The dome acts like the center of the compass, for the four giant mansions at its cardinal directions. A little farther away from the dome, but at the respective midpoints of their two mansions, four buildings complete the compass.

               “Seems a bit much for just a school right?” I ask.

               “Learning isn’t the only thing you will do here.” Ascetic Yang says, putting me down onto the ground. “Your rank here will determine your starting position in the sect, your career, your resources and more. While you are not expected to place first, you must at least rank within the top half by the end of it.” She opens the door to the glass dome, pushing me inside before closing the door behind me. “Good luck, Young Master Yun. May you ace your placements.”

҉҉҉

               The inside of the glass dome looks like one of those super advanced college buildings that online commercials try to sell. Glass walls that can double as white boards, many tables combined together like a round table, and some type of formation at the center, which is currently deactivated but perhaps is a projector. All that is missing is some teachers, a few college students and some nonsensical graphics and we got the entire advertisement down to a T.

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               A quiet cough behind me, and I bolt around. A girl taller than my father appears before me. She looks a bit young, like a child, but she looks way bigger than the seven year old average sized child I was expecting.

               She puts her right fist into her left palm and bows. “I am Chen Yingyue, named after reflection of the moon. Six-and-a-half months old. How may I address you?”

               I copy her gesture, saying, “I am Ying Yun, lofty as the clouds. Six-and-a-quarter months old. It is my pleasure to meet a beauty like you.”

               “You’re the…” Cheng Yingyue stammers as she tries to find the proper words, “…famous boy.”

               “How so? I almost never leave the house?” I ask, but I decide I’m not too interested in finding out. “So your surname is Chen, does that mean you are from a branch family?”

               Chen Yingyue blinks a couple of times as she processes my statement. “You don’t know the name of the branches? What did your family teach you last month?”

               “How to wake-up 101.” I say, shrugging. “Went to bed a month ago, woke up three days ago. Been taking it easy since.”

               Chen Yingyue rubs her forehead. “I don’t even know where to begin, but yes, I am from one of the branch families, a high ranking one.” She bows once more, before saying, “please excuse me, young master Yun. I must take my exams.” Then she leaves.

               I follow her as I have nothing better to do. She soon stops and turns around. “Stop following me.”

               “This hall just goes one way, why don’t we walk down together? Fate must have brought us together.” I say.

               She does not have a retort, so she begrudgingly agrees. We soon arrive at the arena, which is broken into eight giant sections, four on each half of the arena. The first one is based upon some classical book, which I have never heard before, much less read. So I sit on a nearby bench while I wait for Chen Yingyue, close my eyes and check my spiritual strength: 879.

               I thought the cauldron was a physical boon, but apparently it helped out my spiritual self quite a bit. I begin deep meditation as a reading comprehension test probably will take quite a while. I finish about half of my meditation cycle before I feel a tap on my shoulder and open my eyes. Chen Yingyue has appeared.

               “What you get?” I ask.

               She holds up two fingers. “Aced it. Got 25 points.” She says, pointing at the scoreboard next to the testing site. A larger one right next to it shows total points and some children already have a hundred odd points. “Let’s hurry to the next one, some people are almost already done.”

               The next testing site is just a series of crystal balls. ‘Qi quality measuring zone’ its banner says. Chen Yingyue shakes her head at this one, bows then holds her hand out to let me go forward.

               “Not confident about this one?” I ask.

               “Mine is only Houtian mid-rank.” Chen Yingyue.

               I shrug as I step forward. Neither of the letters even mentioned qi quality so I have forgotten about it and my family has yet to test it after my coma fiasco. The examiner asks for my name, then directs me to the closer crystal ball. Both hands grab onto the ball as I pour a bit of my qi into it – weird that there’s such a requirement, as that means everyone taking this test is at least of the first cultivation rank.

               The crystal ball glows as bright as the sun, so I close my eyes and remove my hands.

               “Half…half-Divine!” the examiner shouts.

               “That can’t be right.” I say, cleaning my ears. “What was the quality?”

               “My eyes must have been mistaken.” The examiner says, nodding. “Please try again.”

               The crystal ball once again shines. The examiner coughs, then says, “It’s really the half-Divine realm. I can’t believe it.”

               Well if I truly have half-Divine quality qi, then that’s seriously overpowered. Ratel really did me a solid, since qi quality is notoriously difficult in improving. Also explains why neither Divinity bothered to mention it – any more improvements and I would become a Divinity myself.

               I turn to the examiner and ask, “so what’s my score?”

               The examiner says, “why don’t you take a few tests first then come back? We are still deciding on how to count such a score.”

               Chen Yingyue is at another testing stone, but rather than looking at her results, she is looking at me weirdly. “How is that even possible?”

               “I’m just lucky, I guess.” I shrug. “What’s your score?”

               “15.” Chen Yingyue frowns. “Just Houtian mid-rank like expected.”

               “That’s still pretty good.” I say, patting her back because I cannot reach her head.

               The third test is a simple spiritual cultivation test. Chen Yingyue gets ‘282’ and I get ‘300’. She’s apparently already at the peak of the first soul cultivation rank. As for my number, I have given up on trying to understand it, just saying my qi quality might make up for the cultivation rank difference, which she eats up easily. Either way, we both get 25 points and move on.

               The fourth exam is fourteen torii gates in a row, each about a yard apart. ‘Dao Heart testing’ the banner reads. Passing each torii gate is worth three points. We take the test at the same time since we have the space. The first five gates are easy, but starting with the sixth, a pressure befalls me. Chen Yingyue also feels some of it as well and slows down. The seventh, eighth, ninth are manageable, but I revolve my qi throughout my body to deflect some of the pressure. The tenth one brings me into a different realm, red strings wrap around him, pulling me back. When I turn around, I find faint outlines of my original family and friends but their faces are blurry and I cannot recall a single name.

               My breathing speeds up. My thoughts flash. I clam up. I lose my footing as Spirit Like Water begins to chant within my mind, and it only takes me a few moments to realize I am the one chanting it, in English. The illusion disperses, I stand up and continue, uncomfortable. There’s not much that fazes me, but the atrophy of my memories is certainly one of them.

               When I reach the eleventh torii, the world turns black once more. A single gravestone with Melvin Donahue, the name of my past life, scatters into ash when the wind blows, leaving a candle with too big a flame. Once the wax all melts away, another gravestone, this time with Ying Yun, on it appears. This stings a bit more than I would like to with the revelation of my lake of life. But the despair passes.

               The twelfth and thirteenth torii are similar: abandonment by my current family, followed by the death of my current family. These ones, while painful, do not land as hard. My family members are all stronger and older than me, but also have more skill and lifespan than me. So I hardly flatter at either torii.

               The fourteenth torii sends two giant orbs around me, whose presence along sends me onto my knees. Ratel and Li Angry, my mind shouts, even if I have never seen them before. I understand they are both illusions, but a mixture of guilt, curiosity, and pity well up towards Ratel for summoning me but dying in the process. My feelings for Li Angry are much more mixed – he feels much more distant and formal, but has been instrumental for my summoning and reincarnation, so I cannot be too harsh against him. However, if he does not explain my paltry lifespan in the next letter, we may have a problem.

               The sutra Spirit Like Water plays once more, but I am already standing up once more. Once I get more than a yard away, the pressure disappears. Chen Yingyue has already completed the trial, faster than me, and we both walk onto the next one with forty-two more points under our belts.