Most of the children only lasted thirty minutes before the pain got the better of them and they were forced to discharge the blood chi into the targets. Still, they didn’t wish to leave, as this was a good opportunity to practice, so they continued to take pills and launch attacks at their targets.
Shen and seven others, including Ponma, worked to adapt to the blood chi. Like all chi other than Neutral, your body couldn’t naturally handle it. You had to work with it until your body adapted to it. The Jade Master had said as much to them during one of his lectures two weeks ago, but few of the children paid attention. “Elemental chi must be taken in balance. While your body can handle a slight imbalance, the larger it becomes, the worse the symptoms you will experience. It is only through practice with the elemental chi that one can learn to withstand the effects of the imbalance.” Shen thought that Blood Chi must be like that, but that either it had no balancing chi type, like the elements balanced each other, or they simply didn’t know the balancing type.
Over the next few hours she managed to reach a point where she could handle having four pills worth of blood chi inside her without being distracted by the pain, and three with only minor pain. When the evening meal bell rang, however, she got up. Many of the others had left, but Ponma and the boy who had gotten third place remained behind. She couldn’t remember his name.
“Thank you for the opportunity to train, master.” she said, bowing to the man.
“No, thank you for staying. It gets lonely here, watching the field alone. Seeing the young using it brings joy to my old heart.”
Shen nodded, thanked him again, then went to the dining hall, her group following behind her. She went to main line instead of the free line like the others, and when she got to the front she explained that she had just earned Contribution points that day and didn’t know how to use them. The cashier woman instructed her to think of how many she wanted to transfer, then tap her bracelet to the other Point device. To demonstrate the woman sent her one tenth of a point and had Shen return it. Once she had succeeded Shen bought a bowl of stew for three points, a small loaf of bread for one, and a glass of fruit juice for another. She returned to her table and let all of the other children that had meditated with her taste the stew before finishing it herself.
She returned to the bunk house after eating, seeing the sun start to set. The pain from the Blood Chi was still inside her, as she hadn’t released it at the field, but she had done so on purpose. She wanted to circulate it even more tonight, in hopes of getting over three hundred points tomorrow.
She opened the door to the bunk house and stepped inside, followed by the others that had meditated with her. “Where is everyone?” she asked out loud. She now realized that she hadn’t seen them in the dining hall either.
A few children stirred in their beds and one got up to answer the question, her face streaked with tears. “The snake people came and took them.” the girl said. Shen recognized it as the one that had asked her to instruct them in meditation yesterday. “They said that they were the ten worst performers, and didn’t fit in. Since they weren’t even fit to be outer disciples, they would use them for a different purpose.”
Shen looked at the girl in shock. She didn’t know what they would do to the children, but judging by how freely they used pain on the children, they were at best being tortured or beaten. Shen ran towards the door but an adult stepped inside and closed it behind them. “I can’t allow you to leave.” the man said. “I know this is hard for you, but this is the way of the world, and you must learn to accept it. The weak must suffer, or even die, so that the strong can succeed. You will learn this lesson eventually. I only regret that you must learn it so soon.” Shen tried to move around the man but he grabbed her by the arm and drug her back to in front of himself. “I told you, I can’t let you leave. Remain calm and you will soon be able to leave. We simply can’t allow you to interfere with the ritual.”
It was a ritual that they were to be used for, then. Shen knew what that meant. The man mentioned the weak dying, and a ritual, and she knew that this sect loved to use blood magic. From the stories she had read that could only mean that the children’s blood was going to be used for a ritual, and it was unlikely that they would survive.
Shen had no choice. She had to free her friends and escape from this place. Maybe if they got out of the castle they could hide out in the woods until the Jade Dragon Sect could rescue them? They would need to be able to defend themselves, but more than half of them had daggers and all of them could use blood bolts. At least, they could if they had Bloodburn pills to give them Blood Chi. That was when she remembered that she still had four pills worth of Blood chi within herself. She didn’t know how much pain that would put the other man in, but she had to try. If they could get past that man, they could take the pills from the training field and run, and would have enough pills to protect themselves until help arrived.
She turned like she was going to walk away, then started to create a ball of Blood Chi with both hands. The man was unable to see it, however, because it was behind her from where he stood. Once she had formed a ball the size of her fist she turned around and threw it at him. The man’s eyes opened in surprise as the ball hit him in the chest, throwing him backwards into the door.
He collapsed on the floor and started jerking like he was in intense pain, and his chest started to smoke. As Shen watched the cloth of his robes fell away where she had hit him and the skin started to bubble. Several children vomited at the sight of this, but Shen managed to stop herself. “Come on.” she said, and ran outside, hoping the children would join her.
As she ran for the training field she heard the alarm bell start to sound. How had they figured it out so quickly? Had the man been under watch? As she looked around for answers, however, she noticed over a hundred black streaks in the sky, flying at them from the direction of the setting sun. The Jade Dragon sect must have finally arrived.
She lead the children into the training field, but the instructor stepped in front of her. “You are not allowed to be here at this time. In fact, it is my understanding that all outer disciples are currently restricted to their quarters. Please return there, or I will have no choice but to stop you.”
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“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t do that. They are about to kill my friends, and I need the Blood Burn pills to stop them.”
The man shook his head. “That is something I cannot do. The ritual you wish to stop is being carried out by the Sect Master himself. If anyone were to aid you, they would be executed, just like you will be if you continue this madness. Please, return to your room.”
“The Sect Master will be stopped soon enough.” she said to him. “I believe the Jade Dragon sect are attacking in order to get us back, and they won’t stop until we are freed.” She was pretty much parroting a line she read in a Cultivator novel, but it sounded good in her head.
The man nodded his head with sadness. “I believe that as well, however, my orders are clear. I cannot allow you in this place and you must return to your quarters. I’m sorry.”
Shen nodded. “So am I.” She formed a Blood Bolt in her palm and fired it at him. He collapsed on the ground, his body curling up from the pain.
Ponma went over and took the keys from his waist. “I’ll check the warehouse.” he said. “My father was a merchant. I can at least do that.” Soon he came out with several medium sized jars of Blood Burn pills and one of a second type. The label read “Blood Recovery pills.” He wasn’t sure what they did, but it sounded like medicine, so he knew they would be important.
All of the children there took two Blood Burn pills, having adjusted to that many through meditation, and they left for the main building, seven other fighters behind their leader. Many of the inner sect members ignored them, noticing that the Jade Dragon invasion was a bigger threat, but some tried to stop them. To that, Shen could only respond with a blood bolt. Only a few of them realized that this was more than just a group of Outer Disciples breaking the rules and fired back. Two of the other children had been hit by attacks from the Inner Disciples, but the adults had held back the strength of their attack enough that the children recovered within a few minutes. The children, however, didn’t hold back and the adults were left on the ground unconscious or writhing in pain.
Soon they managed to reach the central building of the castle. “Magical Research” the door was labeled. They tried the door, but it was locked. Next, Shen gathered up as much blood chi as she used on the first guard and threw it at the lock. It made a sizzling sound but did nothing to the lock.
With no choice, she decided to use her strength. She picked up a stone statue nearby and started striking the door with it. The door shook and bits of wood chipped off, but it didn’t break.
“Excuse me.” said a man behind her. She started to form a blood bolt in shock, but then noticed that he wasn’t wearing a snake mask. He dressed like a martial artist, wearing the same style pants that the men of her village wore when doing combat training. The man knelt down. “Hello. My name is Yu Bang. I’m a Foundation level body cultivator from the Jade Dragon sect.” He pointed to the blood bolt in her hand. “Those things are kind of dangerous. Are you sure you want to play with them?”
“I know what I’m doing.” Shen said, then threw it at the lock, hitting its center.
“Not bad.” said Yu Bang, “But since blood chi doesn’t do much against iron locks, and would only scar the wood, do you mind letting a strong man give the door a try?”
She nodded and stood back. Yu Bang stood up and ran his shoulder into the door. The wood flexed and a large crack formed down it. Yu slammed into it a second time and one of the doors split in half, causing the other one to fly open. Two snake masked men inside fired at them, but the children returned fire, being careful not to hit Brother Bang, and the snake men fell over in pain.
“Not bad at all.” said Yu Bang, rubbing Shen’s head. She was about to tell him to stop when another man landed his sword near by. They actually flew on swords like the stories said!
“You want to deal with the children or fight?” asked the man.
“I’m going to fight.” he said, then took a few steps towards the destroyed door.
“Fine, then. I’ll wait with the kids until someone else arrives.” The man touched his sword and it glowed before shrinking and disappearing into his rings. Storage rings were real too? Now that she thought about it, the Snake Master had given them bread from his own rings. “Hello, kids.” the man said, looking nervous. “I’m Lo Chang. Foundation level magic cultivator. We should probably stay outside, so no one gets hurt.”
“But we want to fight.” said Ponma.
“Yeah, they have our friends and are going to kill them in some sort of ritual.” added the third place guy. Din something? Dan? Shen really needed to learn his name.
“Oh.” the man said. “That sounds important.”
“Don’t patronize us!” shouted Shen, also copying a book she read, as another woman landed beside her. The woman was probably in her fifties and also flew on a sword.
“In that case, how about I leave you here with Elder Sister Gin Sha and I go look into it.” Chang looked up at Gin Sha and, without waiting for a response, ran off to join the battle.
“Come on, children.” the woman said, “Let’s let them handle the fight and go back to the bunk house.”
The other children started to leave with her, but Shen stood where she was. After a few seconds the woman turned around. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“Shen.” Shen answered.
“Let’s head back to the room, Shen.” she said, holding out her hand.
“No.” Shen said defiantly, confused by the sudden change. “I have to rescue the others.”
“The other Jade Dragons are fighting them. Let the adults fight.”
“But I want to help them.”
The woman looked and her and a scolding tone entered her voice. “Don’t argue. The front line is no place for a little girl. Now come on.”
“No.” said Shen, stepping back and raising her hand as a red ball formed in her palm.
“Then you leave me no choice.” the woman sighed and flicked her wrist. A green cloud flew from her hand and struck Shen in the face. Suddenly Shen was very, very tired, and fell to the ground, the blood chi harmlessly dissipating from her hand.
When she woke up she was lying in a bed. The first thing she realized was that it wasn’t in the bunk house. It was too comfortable and the sheets were too nice. The second thing she noticed was that she couldn’t feel the blood chi inside of her.
“Hello.” said a woman as she walked over. The woman had green hair and looked to be in her late teens. “I’m Emma. What’s your name?”
“Shen. Mo Shen.” she responded. “Where am I?”
“You are in a clinic in Jade Dragon Town. You were brought here after your rescue so that we could help you. You and seven other children had some sort of demonic chi inside of them, and we had to remove it. I think it was affecting your brain. Making you violent.”
“No, I…” Shen thought about it. Was her willingness to hurt people that got in her way because she was being corrupted? Did the blood chi make her throw a tantrum? “It’s called Blood chi.” she said. “Those pills we had produced it.”
“Oh, yes, those.” Emma said. “We had to take them away and put them into storage. They were really dangerous. The Blood Recovery pills are over there, though.”
“Oh, those. We weren’t sure what they did, but they sounded like medicine. What do they do?” she asked out of curiosity.
“Oh, they make you recover from blood loss faster. They will come in handy if the Body Cultivators go too far in their sparring sessions again. It’s almost as if they like getting cut. So, are you feeling okay? If so I can take you to the other children.” Shen nodded and Emma gave her a set of clothes. She noticed that her dagger wasn’t with them. They probably considered it a demonic relic. If only she hadn’t left her hatchet with her backpack back in the village. She didn’t like being helpless now that she had been able to defend herself.
Once she had put on the simple robe and sandals Emma lead her to a nearby building where all of the children were waiting. Unlike her village, where the buildings were mostly made of wood and used wooden shingles to keep the rain out, this building was made of plastered stone and had clay tiles on its roof. The building had many rooms in its hallways and the walls were also covered in plaster. “This is the Recruit building. You will be given a room here until you turn thirteen or one of the families in the sect want to adopt you.”
“Wait, I’m going to be adopted?” she asked. It was a strange feeling for an orphan to know that someone might want to adopt her.
Emma shrugged. “Maybe. But even if you aren’t, the sect will do everything it can to give you what you need to grow up strong and healthy, and to cultivate.” Emma left her in the room with the other children and went back to work.
An hour later she was given a room with one of the other girls, Wong Mae, the eight year old that asked her to teach them cultivation a few days ago. After evening meal she went to the common room and lead Wong Mae and anyone else that wanted to join them in cultivation. Most of the others just wanted to rest, but a few, including Ponma, joined her.