The fifth test is history on the Ying Family history, its branches and more. Chen Yingyue takes the exam first, tells me the answers and we both walk away with twenty-five points each. The examiner almost coughs up blood when he sees this but since there’s no rule for this, he adds a little note before anyone else can take the test, prohibiting such cheating. Though, someone could just do it a little farther away and what can he do about it? Not my fault my soul cultivation grants me good enough memory to cheat.

               A little crowd appears around us as we take the sixth test, a strength test, and I attune Awareness to ignore them. If my xianxia info is right, most of the time they will hype the test if it increases the chances of me failing by a smudge. I try a five jin weight easily, then the ten jin, twenty jin is barely possible, so I quit. That got me a full four points. Oof.

               Chen Yingyue flexes on me by starting with one hundred jin, then does one hundred fifty then stops. She already gets the full twenty-five points after that, so she doesn’t bother. Turns out she is at the peak of the first physical realm as well, and I’m kind of jealous. She has only been at the physical cultivation for two months.

               The seventh and eighth tests are speed and endurance runs. I hardly place well in either due to a lack of a physical cultivation, which is to be expected I suppose. I get three points for the speed one, and five points for the endurance one, since revolving my qi a bit helped assuage my exhaustion. Chen Yingyue gets fourteen for the speed test and twenty for endurance.

               Chen Yingyue tells me her answers for the first exam but this examiner must have heard about my amazing feats at the history exam because he changed the exam and I walk out with a zero. Double oof.

               Chen Yingyue gets one-hundred ninety-one points, which puts her second on the ranking. I get fifth place solely because my qi quality gives me seventy five points by itself. So I end with a score with one hundred eighty-nine points. I can already picture Ascetic Yang coughing up blood because I got fifth place through despite not knowing a single word of the classics. She has been trying to drill vocab and classics into me since I was born and I win without any of it. F for respects.

               Ranking is still subject to change, but about three-quarters of the children have already taken the test – the average is for girls is about one hundred forty, and boys is about one hundred twenty. Definitely the advantage from puberty falls heavily on the girl’s side – most boys have only been able to physically cultivate for about a month and mentally cultivate for about a month and a half. That means girls get a few weeks more time for both types of cultivation.

҉҉҉

               Chen Yingyue and I part ways to go to our separate mansions – girls to the west and north, boys to the south and east. Apparently the competition we just did determines the dorms we get into as well. North and south dorms for the high rankers, east and west for everyone else. Not exactly sure how the rooms with be distributed when about a quarter of the children have yet to take the test, but apparently those children hail from lower branches and are unlikely to do rank in the top half, at least during this first test. I was not supposed to rank so highly earlier, so I am not going to sleep on the ranking.

               Since I am first among the boys, I get the biggest room within the southern mansion. It takes half of the fourth floor, with my own personal bathroom, a bedroom larger than Aunt Meng’s, a closet and an extra room that I am not quite sure for. Cultivation perhaps?

               Ascetic Yang sits my dining table, made of full jade, just so that the painting of the Five Cardinal Beasts – the Azure Dragon to the east; the Vermillion Bird to the south; the White Tiger to the west; Black Tortoise to the North; and the Qilin in the center – remains visible. She’s reading a stack of papers, on the top of which is the scores I have just achieved on the competition.

               “You did exceptionally well in the exam…even if due to some unorthodox methods.” She says putting the papers down.

               Well, excluding my qi quality score, I am below average. Asectic Yang knows that as well, hence her compliment rings hollow. “I will just do it properly on the next one.” I say, taking a seat at the table. “I was under the impression you would have left.”

               Ascetic Yang chuckles and shakes her head. “No. The Clan Elders will only teach you how to use qi, train your body and more. More mundane affairs will be taught by your guardians and servants, if they so choose. That role has been assigned to me.”

               “Sounds easy enough.” I say.

               “Building relationships, teamwork, leadership and more will also be facilitated by me.” Ascetic Yang continues. “This is supposed to be a test run when you go down the mountain, but it is here where you will make important allies and friends. Where you will try, fail, then try again. So don’t be complacent with your current ranking. There’s much to do in these six months.”

               “Alright.” I say as I get up to move to my bed.

               Ascetic Yang simply grabs my collar and starts walking out of the room. “First things first. Allies and friends. That means meeting people, not bed.”

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               She brings me straight towards the other two rooms on the floor. The two groups of people are already in the hallway and the boy who ranked third invites us all into his room. Multiple servants make his bed; decorate the walls, shelves and bathroom with war paintings, calligraphy and more; arranging his closet. One has already made tea and passes it out.

               “I am Fang Wangyong.” The boy says, doing the courtesy bow. The boy is not quite as tall as Chen Yingyue, but with red hair just as long in a ponytail. Wearing a complementary red robe, he looks the picture-perfect fatty young master.

               On the other side of the spectrum is Tie Lijie, who is just as tall but lean. He wears a fancy black robe but, contrary to his muted clothing, he is animated and all smiles and extroverted.

               “I’m Ying Yun.” I say. Ascetic Yang whispers in my head, so I continue, “from the main branch.”

               After a few more minutes of banter, we three kids move to the other side of the room and let the adults do their little thing. Tie Lijie and Fang Wangyong jump straight into cultivation.

               “I practice Three Fires, One World. A technique found by Ying MingTian himself, brought to apex by Ying Wanglei.” Fang Wangyong recites, patting his chest. “At high ranks, I will be inexhaustible, control three flames. And I can become an alchemist and blacksmith.”

               “Three Hearts Beat As One, founded by Tie Wanglei, is even better.” Tie Lijie says. “At high ranks, I will be indestructible, have three hearts. Can be an alchemist, blacksmith, fighter and defender.”

               Both eyes fall onto me. “I practice Mind’s Eye. So I can sense stuff better and my mother gave it to me. I guess I can be a scout?”

               “Lame.” Fang Wangyong says.

               “Boring.” Tie Lijie says.

               I do not know whether to laugh or cry. “You use modern techniques, right? Mine is ancient so I have yet to get a physical and mental portion yet.”

               The two seem unconvinced.

               “How about we compare soul cultivation ranks instead - the high ranks are so far away.” I say. I may not care too much about being first among six-month-old boys, but I would like to last a single day on my throne.

               They jump at the opportunity and I can only smile. I have cultivated five times longer than either of them.

҉҉҉

               I leave Fang Wangyong with a cat’s cradle in my hands, made of my own qi. Getting the two of them to even see my qi was the biggest hurdle – apparently half-Divinity qi blends in with the environment. I can see it because it’s attuned to me, but the two had a really hard time until I brought out large amounts, almost a tenth of my qi dantian’s worth.

               The hard part for me was getting the strings not to merge with each other. Making the cat’s cradle was simplicity itself, but letting anyone grab the strings to play the game only fused them together. After crossing that hurdle, came the fact the strings would disperse the moment they left my hands. Easy enough. Just use a little more qi and extend the string. Except then both of them wanted some qi strings to play with.

               Fifteen odd minutes later, Tie Lijie got the brilliant idea of manifesting his element to burn my qi. One, I do not get an element until the third rank, so I am a bit jealous. Two, stop breaking my qi. Three, the endurance match is on because I am confident I can outspend both of them in qi.

               Once the door is firmly closed and locked, Ascetic Yang asks, “when did you open your meridians?”

               “What makes you so sure?” I ask, curious.

               “You exhausted outlasted the two despite spending more qi for each string you made.” Ascetic Yang says, making sure to look me dead in the eye. “While a higher cultivation rank may increase your qi capacity, they are much bigger than you. Hence, they should have more qi than you regardless. Not with 300 spiritual strength anyway.”

               That’s not an angle I considered before. Perhaps it was a bit reckless to style on a few six-months-old babies. “In the cauldron.”

               Ascetic Yang’s face distorts like she has eaten crap. She grabs my hands and channels some qi into it. A tickling sensation travels up my arm, like being caressed by wind. I jerk my arm away, but her grip is too strong. More and more of her qi flows into my body as she scours my meridians, her disappointment melting away as she does so.

               “That’s better than I expected.” Ascetic Yang says, releasing me. Her qi goes inert.

               I try absorbing her qi but its like a brick of gold, unresponsive. Ascetic Yang gives me a smug look that half freaks me out, so I plop myself onto the bed and get to work. I refuse to believe I cannot beat some qi into submission.

               Its wind characteristics have gone, but its qi compression is higher than mine – pure solid – so my liquid qi smashes into it like putty. Ineffective. Fine. If it is just compressing qi, I can do that too. It is a bit harder to do so without an example to properly analyze, but within moments of my thought, the qi fractures into smaller lumps.

               She goading me, I realize. As I begin to fume, I redouble my efforts. No need for Spirit Like Water – my anger fuels my enthusiasm to new heights. My first few attempts make Ascetic Yang’s grin so long I’m afraid her mouth will fall off her face.

               After dipping into my spirit stones for some qi, then trying again, I make a little bit of a breakthrough. The qi difference between liquid and solid qi is bigger than between gaseous and solid, so I underestimated by quite a bit. No problem. I got spirit stones for days to address this.

               I mean, assuming that the foreign qi within meridians do not harden and clog my meridians. Ascetic Yang would not do me dirty like that, right?