Hidden deep beneath the Golden Peak mountains, somewhere in a forgotten cave system stood the mighty Nine Dragons Sect. Sheng sat dutifully in his chair, jotting down notes from his rambling teacher. In his raspy voice, Master Ro spoke of various types of world energy that one could harness through their qi.
“Certain cultivators may focus on a single type while others may practice many and build vast arsenal’s of techniques.” The scratchy voice fell on deaf ears. Sheng didn’t care, not even a bit. This was common knowledge and he had better things to be doing. Instead of boring himself to sleep, the young man had a better idea.
Slowly, a strand of qi, about the size of a hair snaked through the air. This minuscule hairline of qi was attached to his index fingers and slithered between the desks of the cramped classroom, finding its way to a beautiful youth sitting directly in front of old man Ro who was oblivious to the fact that no one paid any attention to his lecture. The piece of qi made contact with the girls back and immediately he could understand her thoughts and she, his.
“Wanna go to the falls later?” The girl didn’t even react to the familiar voice in her head.
Although the thread of qi only allowed them to interpret each other's thoughts and not actually hear each other’s voice Sheng imagined hers as she relayed a single thought, her tone was laced with honey, sweet and rich. All of that packed into a single word.
“Sure.” Is all she said. Sheng leaned to the side and noticed that she was drawing in her sketch pad. He relayed an apology through the thread and immediately disconnected it. Ru hated when people interrupted her during her drawing. Without Ru to talk to Sheng shifted his attention back to Master Ro’s lecture which he noticed was actually becoming interesting.
“There have been a total of six saints and to become one, a practitioner must first become a sovereign. To do that, the stakes are high and nearly impossible. The fact that the twin saints even existed was heaven defying.” Sheng listened intently even though he already knew everything master Ro was teaching. He loved hearing about the saints and their power. “To become a sovereign, aside from reaching the peak of the mortal Realm one must bond a weapon to their soul and animate it with its very own core. To attempt that and fail, would be disastrous. If a practitioner failed to bond the weapon properly they would risk Qi deviation or even death. Becoming a sovereign is only the first step to becoming a saint and to reach such a realm of power one must…” Ro trailed off and stopped mid sentence. The last grain of sand fell to the bottom portion of the Hourglass on his desk and with that, class was concluded. Sheng didn’t have any more for the day and neither did Ru.
Sheng got up in unison with the rest of the class the moment that the master waved a hand to release them. He was near the back and had to follow most of the students before getting out of the stuffy room that had been carved into the side of an enormous cavern. As he followed the congregation of youths out the door, a massive space opened up before him.
The students dispersed and went about their business. Some went immediately to the giant spring that encompassed much of the ground floor. The Nine Dragons Sect had hundreds of luxuries to enjoy, each of which could be found somewhere in the complex cave systems beneath the golden peak mountains. For ages the mighty sect was exclusive. While many others held annual testing dates, the Nine Dragons handpicked their cultivators and honed their skills. That was before the cleansing.
With the arrival of the cleansing and the dragons, the most powerful secs banded together to preserve what they could of humanity. Following the twin saints war most of the most powerful practitioners and cultivators were either killed or wounded beyond repair, Valerio and his brother Abraxas used methods only known to the saints to disable their enemies beyond repair. When hope was nearly diminished and the sects warriors dwindling, the elders of the Nine Dragons Sect ascended from their home beneath the mountain and saved as many as they could. Now, their cavernous dwelling was far from exclusive, housing the last remnants of humanity.
As the class quickly spread out with most of them heading to the springs, sheng picked out Ru standing alone. She noticed him as he approached her. “Can you believe how boring that lecture was?” Ru immediately launched into her everyday rant of how she despised the boring classes. After taking in so many new disciples the sect had to create all new courses that ranged from beginner to advanced stage cultivators and some to specifically cater to certain practitioners abilities. Everyone the sect couldn’t immediately discern as powerful was thrown into the beginner courses along with anyone to young to show their potential. Which included Sheng and Ru since the cleansing occurred when they were only twelve. With the annual Nine Dragons tournament approaching fast both of them were eager and finally of age to compete. It had been six long years of rigorous training to prove themselves. A relaxing time at the falls was just what they needed.
***
The falls roared, the celestial cascade ruffled the body of water beneath it where Sheng and Ru sat with their feet submerged. Sheng had his eyes closed and on the outside he seemed relaxed. His steady breaths and calm demeanor feigned sleep. Instead of observing the beauty of the waterfall He looked inwardly to his three Dantians and many meridians encompassing the body. The qi flowed and circulated at a leisurely pace as it always did. It was semi-transparent. Even though his eyes were closed, Sheng felt the world energy seeping from the body of water, it permeated the air around him as any sort of world energy did when an abundance of a certain element was around. With the massive waterfall and giant pool of glittering water beneath it the free flowing energy was abundant. Sheng bathed in the relaxing power of the water. He opened up his pores and he observed the qi inside him change, adapt, its leisurely pace sped up and the semi transparent color changed to that of the golden water. Then he opened his eyes and let it all disappear. Something else demanded his attention.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
A beauty even more glamorous than the golden falls focused intently on a piece of paper in her sketch pad. Her pristine fingers flew across the page, pencil in hand. The drawing was hidden from Sheng but he knew that whatever it was, it would be breathtaking. In order to distract himself and keep from interrupting, he averted his gaze to the shimmering rays of sun that slipped through the cracks where the water invaded the depths of the mountains. The only place in the entire sect where the sun could be seen, it took their breath away and the two of them loved it. He enjoyed the beauty alone, patiently awaiting Ru to finish her drawing. A slight shimmer emanated from the rays and Sheng recognized it as their specific energy. He found it everywhere, the shimmering. The stone making up the walls of the cave even glowed with their own kind of power that he knew very well was what made up their infrastructure. He also knew that he was the only one that could see it.
Ru released a heavy sigh of relief and finally looked up from her page, her eyes glittered. A grin grew between her cheeks and Sheng knew why. She laid her pencil and sketchbook down and closed her eyes. He glanced down at the page but Ru forcibly averted his gaze with a palm to his cheek, knowing he would try to look. “No peeking!” All he saw was black on white just as the drawing disappeared and the page along with it, leaving a blank piece of paper. For a few moments Ru didn’t move and Sheng stared at his best friend, she glistened in the light spilling off the falls. Time froze and all that remained was Sheng and Ru, he didn’t hear the falls and paid extra attention to her steady breaths and the rise and fall of her chest. His cheeks turned red and he begged for a distraction. His wish was granted a moment later in the form of a giant splash that nearly washed him and Ru into the water. Once the giant wave retreated back into the larger body it came from, Ru’s art was finally revealed. A gargantuan turtle floated in the sparkling pool. It encompassed nearly the entire body of water. Exquisite flora grew from its great shell. Trees coated it, green, pink, red leaves and every other color one could imagine could be found somewhere within the heavy foliage on the turtle's back. Suddenly, it just disappeared.
Sheng looked to Ru who grinned from ear to ear. “Did you like it?”
“Did I like it?” Sheng’s eyes widened. “I loved it! Your work gets better every time I see it.” Ru blushed. “And it didn’t take you nearly as long to summon it from your ring this time. Given that things massive size I’d say your improving by leaps and bounds.” Ru was known to the world of cultivators as a practitioner, any cultivator can become powerful but anyone who is a practitioner has an advantage over the rest. Most of the time.
A practitioner is born with a skill unique to themselves, they can wield qi and world energy just as any regular cultivator but with the advantage of some sort of skill that no one else is able to do. Ru’s was the ability to animate her drawings, this skill used in conjunction with the storage ring she’s received from her father as a gift allowed her to call on any drawing at any time to aid her. If she had shown this ability to the battle masters they would have immediately hauled her off to private tutors and intense training to hone her ability, instead, she’d decided to unveil it at the Nine Dragons tournament.
The event was spectated by the elders themselves. Each of which bore a mask reminiscent of the dragons they represented. Each battle was held within an arena of the elders own creation that were brought forth from giant storage circles, they worked similarly to Ru’s ring accept on a much larger scale.
Sheng was a practitioner as well and many other disciples that would be competing. A handful of the more battle hungry students revealed their abilities early to receive training from the masters while others thought it better to surprise their opponents. Each contestant would where a mask of their own creation to conceal their identity, only allowed to reveal it once the tournament was concluded. It was the perfect opportunity to display one's abilities without the judgement of age or reputation.
“Do you think it’s ready?” Sheng smiled at his friends bashfulness.
“I do.” The pair grinned at each other. Then, the serene nature of the falls transformed. The ground beneath them rocked. Each of their eyes darted to the small opening in the top of the cave. Dragons, dozens of them, headed straight for the mountains. The sky rained golden snakes and the two of them watched and listened. Horns sounded, reverberating off the walls of the hundreds of caves. They looked to each other, then back to the sky and then each of them leaned back once again, relaxing and enjoying the view. Sheng’s with his hands behind his head and Ru laying her head on his stomach their bodies forming a T Shape.
“This should be good,” The pair watched from the safety of the mountain as three tiny figures emerged from the golden peaks and met the dragons head on.
“Only three?” Said Ru.
“I don’t see any angels, they should be able to handle it.”
Soon after the cleansing and the emergence of the dragons the ‘second wave’ as they called it appeared. Angels, humanoid magical beasts, each of which dwarfed the dragons in terms of power, appeared. That’s when the real war began. Some angels, known as Dominions, lead groups of dragons. Those were the weakest. Others roamed the lands killing any cultivators they could find as lone wolves, those were classified as seraphim. These could range anywhere from the strength of a Lord to that of a sovereign and although they hadn’t seen one as powerful as the latter it was a well accepted theory among the Nine Dragons masters and elders that they existed.
“I wonder if master Qiuniu is up there, watching him fight is amazing, almost as if he is dancing. Some even say he’s as graceful as the soaring dragon Feilong, as gentle as a zephyr and as fierce as a gale” Ru’s awe inspired gaze was fixed on the slice of the sky they could see from the opening in the cave ceiling. Her question was answered when the sounds of the loud horns were replaced by that of a beautiful lute. The melody came from the sky where the scene was anything but beautiful. Three tiny figures flashed in and out of sight as golden blood rained down from above. It was truly a horrifyingly gorgeous sight, one to behold.