During their rush through the mountain a voice resounded in both of the youths heads. It was the Grand elder, he called a meeting in the commons which is where the two stood, awaiting word on the new dragons that even in that moment shook the entire mountain. Pockets of different conversations among the enormous crowd echoed off the walls of the gigantic cavern. Sheng listened to the people around him. He heard the words ‘third wave’ many times among the numerous voices. Could this be? The long awaited third wave the elders had mentioned.
The crowd quieted to a murmur in an instant and without looking, Sheng and Ru both new that the Grand elder had entered, their unified steps rattling off the walls. They both turned their heads and careened them upward to see the master walking out from a passage in the wall. He was trailed by a group of masked men who were no less fearsome. The air suddenly got heavier, it was harder to breath. The overbearing power of the Nine Dragon elders was ponderous. Nine thrones sat atop a cliff that hung out over the commons, the middle throne stood above the rest. Each masked man took a seat at their respective locations and in perfect unison, summoned their weapons from their storage rings each of which was adorned with a different symbol and placed them next to their seats. The Grand elder wielded a double edged axe with a handle as long as himself and a blade twice as wide. He knocked the butt of his weapon against the ground twice and the enormous group of people silenced themselves instantly. The two knocks signaled the start of the meeting.
A deep voice resounded in everyone’s head. Unlike when Sheng and Ru communicated through a string of qi, this was different and they could hear his voice clearly. It sounded powerful yet ancient. Like the man had been through more than most of the people hearing it could comprehend. Spilled more blood and seen more death than most people residing in the mortal realm could conceive with their limited minds.
“As you all know there are two dragons outside our mountain, they attack with fervor and power unlike anything we’ve seen before.” The elder paused for a moment as if contemplating something. “I assure you, they will not breech our defenses.” Audible sighs of relief could be heard throughout the crowd. The master continued. “Anytime soon… As I’m sure many of you have already guessed, this is the third wave and just like it’s predecessors, we will prevail.” The other elders and myself will defend humanity to our last breath.” A weak round of cheering went through the crowd. “But we cant do it alone. We need everyone to help defend against what lies ahead. These creatures are the most powerful we’ve seen thus far and probably the strongest many of you have ever seen but I can assure you there's far worse to come.” Sheng glanced around the cave and saw many of the people faces ripe with fear. “We need warriors, warriors for a quest that will test their strength and very likely, take their lives, regardless of the risks, it must be done.”
The elders words hung in the air for a few moments before the crowd started to whisper among themselves. Not seconds after the first voice arose was it silenced again. Two beats of that axe and the crowds words died in their throats. Then he resumed.
“As you all know, the fengbao tournament was to be held one month from now on the day of the dragon. The anniversary of the dragon kings triumph over the magical beasts and its ascension thousands of years ago. Now, it will be held one week from today.” Discussions started to rise up again among the younger disciples competing, some anxious while others sounded worried. Sheng and Ru, however, were extremely excited. Those two familiar thumps suppressed the noise once again and Grand Elder, Bi’an, continued. “Furthermore the first, second and third place contestants of the tournament will be the three chosen for the quest I mentioned earlier. Upon successful completion of the task, any who survived will receive a weapon of their choosing from the personal armories of the nine elders, past and present.” At that, the crowd went into an uproar. The elders weapons were crafted by none other than the vermillion bird the Grand elders very own companion. No one knew the true power of the Grand elder but to tame such a beast one would require vast amounts of strength and will. Any weapon crafted by the vermillion bird was worth a thousand of the same item crafted by someone or something else. The giants of the west, known for their fine craftsmen ship couldn’t even hold a candle.
“Silence!” That single word echoed off the walls that still shook from the dragons assault. “We cannot spare our fighters and experienced practitioners for this quest which is why the winners will be taking on such a task. They will have their work cut out for them, as will everyone who remains here, those two dragons out their are just the beginning of the third wave, a precursor, their will be more to come, more to overcome. Prepare yourselves, those of you that will be competing in the Fengbao tournament. As always, it will be spectated by the elders and if someone is caught holding back in fear of the quest, they will suffer dire consequences.” Those words hung in the air, any threat issued by the Grand elder or any elder for that matter was no joke. He said a few Parting words to the crowd and concluded his speech. The elder weapons vanished. Retreating into their rings and the nine masked enigmas returned through the passage in which they came. A silence washed over the cavern and then all at once the crowd burst into discussion.
***
Ramsay ignored the calls of the Grand elder in favor of his training. He could still hear the powerful voice in his head while he worked out. The small stone room scorched black by his current exercise. Now that the tournament had been pushed forward he decided it had been wise to skip the meeting. He may be punished for it later but winning at all costs was his only goal and being punished by the watch would be far less painful than the wrath of his father. As the only heir to his family and sole practitioner, it was vital that he won the tournament. The money and status given to the winner could be enough to settle their debt, possibly even gain them a seat on the council. Now, with the chance of a weapon from the elders vault on the table the possibilities were so much more.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
An object hovered in the air above the young man who sat with his knees folded beneath him, it was a dark blue disk with a white tiger painted in the middle of it. The flat disk had razor edges and was about two feet in diameter. Ten feet away, directly in front of Ramsay a man in robes bearing the same colors and symbol as the disk, mirrored his pose.
Sweat dripped from the young man as he concentrated on the object. A warmth flowed through his lower dantian where his qi was stored. It traveled through the meridians in his body, these were pathways like veins that allowed for the flow of qi instead of blood. They resided within him but didn’t interfere with his physical self, instead residing within his spiritual self. The qi flowed smoothly from his lower dantian, located three finger widths below the naval and two behind it, to his upper dantian where he fused it with world energy that he was currently absorbing, transforming it into yuan. Both world energy and qi were invisible to human eyes but could be sensed through their spiritual body, thus making it hard for one to find a proper balance between the two when fusing them. The better the balance between the two, the more powerful their yuan.
Yuan was the main energy that cultivators used to perform feats of power. While qi had some of the same traits as yuan it wasn’t nearly as powerful or versatile. The same went for world energy to a smaller degree. With qi one could use it to propel an object such as a sword or spear at their foe as if it were launched from a bow or in Ramsay’s case, make the disk hover above him. With yuan, however, being the fusion of qi and world energy one could also grant the aforementioned sword or spear the traits of whichever type of world energy was fused with their qi, transforming it into yuan.
Each cultivator was born with a sensitivity to one or more kinds of world energy as well as to what degree they could control and absorb it. Most cultivators had an affinity to only one kind and many of them had a weak affinity at that. The luckier ones had a more powerful affinity or even more than one. Usually if that was the case and they had the ability to control and absorb more than one kind of world energy their affinity turned out weaker for one or both energies but not always. The affinities were ranked as such. Weak, moderate, superior, exceptional and prime. Each of the elders had more than one affinity and each of them were superior or above. That alone made the Nine Dragons sect heaven defying. The Grand elder had 3 affinities, two of which were superior and one which was prime. A living legend. The only others with so much power were the saints who had all either perished or disappeared.
Ramsay was somewhat of a prodigy himself he had an affinity to two elements, earth and water. Each of his affinities were exceptional. That, paired with the fact that he was a practitioner made him extremely rare and potentially powerful. Only three people knew of this. His father who happened to be the man sitting In front of him, his mother and himself. His father made a motion with his hand that signaled the start of the current round of training. The large man stood up and the room heated up to an unbearable temperature. Already sweating from training Ramsay became soaked. He focused and didn’t allow the temperature to distract him. Due to neither of his affinities being fire, he had no additional tolerance to it, furthermore his water affinity made him have even less of one.
In a split second his father had moved, which Ramsay hadn’t seen, what he did see were four fireballs the size of his head closing the distance between them. Despite the urge to move, he stayed still with his eyes closed. The speed in which the orange streaks moved seemed impossible to stop with such a small distance. Then the disk moved, or more accurately, teleported. The disk appeared in front of one fireball causing a small explosion on contact then disappeared, reappearing in front of another repeating the same action until all four were nullified. The whole thing happened in under two seconds. The temperature dropped somewhat and his father smiled.
“Good, Ramsay, you are improving.” Without another word, eight more of the fireballs appeared and were dispatched just as quickly, all except one. The razor disk blinked in and out of existence, each appearance was followed by a small explosion. Seven explosions, the disk disappeared, appearing for an eighth time only there was no explosion. The disk blinking into existence a moment to late. Ramsay’s world disappeared, replaced with orange and yellow. The impact yanked him from his place on the ground and flung him against the wall.
A loud popping sound ravaged his eardrums and his robes had practically vanished in the inferno, consumed by the fire. Bits of smoldering cloth fluttered around the chamber. The stone wall cracked on impact as well as something within his body with a sickening crunch.
Ramsay’s arms shook, the reinforced bones at their limit.They shook while he climbed to his feet and saw his father rushing toward him, arriving in almost a blink of the eye.
Only it wasn’t to his aid, a look of fury branded into the man's features. The head of the Axton family, Adrionus yanked Ramsay up by his long hair and jerked his head toward him so they were face to face. The man screamed but it was all nonsense to broken ears. Spit flew from his father's mouth which he barely noticed, he was used to it.
Pain tore through him and his vision blurred further with the addition of a backhand. His head snapped to the side and he crumpled to the ground, finally released from the older man's grasp. The world spun and he lied there knowing there would be not help until his father sent someone to tend to his wounds. Numb to the pain, Ramsay thought about his brother, how he’d fought back against his father and how he wouldn’t make that same mistake.