Ren's wardrobe was easily put away into a small blue spacial bag, that Ai carried on her person.
Blue, green, red, black, and purple robes and trousers of differing thickness made up his clothing assortment. Three items of one colour each, for winter one, summer one, and one for spring and autumn. Only any shade of grey and white was left out.
"You should really consider getting something to put in your house, it still looks almost the same as on the first day." Ai suggested.
Ren just shrugged, he didn't think that there was anything he needed, and having some kind of paintings or decorations hung up was not something he thought highly of.
"Well, work for another time I suppose, though surely your friends would like to decorate the place with you. Anyway, let's get going." Ai said, without letting Ren respond, making him sigh in exasperation.
They ran up the mountain roads, bathed in the last rays of the red, fading sun, Ai ahead, leading the way with sure step. After running for around ten minutes, she turned her head to Ren. "Ren, do you even know anything about the other prodigies, their names, how many there are, or something else, anything really?" She asked Ren, with a voice that suggested she had not thought about the possibility of him not knowing about the other participants.
"No?" Ren said with a drawn out voice. "I thought that I would just be told all about it when I meet the others. Is that not right?" Ren asked innocently, while still keeping up, as they jumped over a small stream.
Ai closed her eyes and took a deep breath, continuing their ascend. "The damn old man." She mumbled. "OK, Ren, I will just have to give you a small rundown of how things will work, and who we are going to meet, when we reach the top." Her voice turned more serious. "Firstly, there will be multiple elders in attendance, as well as the Sect master. All of them will be Masters, strong ones at that, with the first elder even being a Grandmaster, who is rumoured to be on the cusp of Transcendence." When Ren didn't react to her saying this in any way, she added. "You have to know Ren, there are only two other Grandmasters in our sect, the Patriarch, who is the former Sect master, and the second elder. Those two will not attend, though, as they mostly seek out opportunities to improve, outside the mountain." She said it in an almost reverential voice, and slightly increased her pace, making Ren struggle to keep up with her.
The foliage seemed to zoom past them, all manner of trees, different rocks and buildings hanging onto mountain cliffs. Ren took it all in, as Ai continued to talk.
"The elders who will attend, that I am sure of, are the first elder, Zhang Jin, who is also called Cloudgrass, the fourth elder, and seventh elder. But you don't really need to worry about them too much, as you will not interact with them a whole lot, I hope. Our Master, Darkhaven, is the third elder, by the way." She made a sharp turn and jumped up a few rocks lined with moss, Ren following still. "Which is remarkable, of all the Masters on the mountain he is arguably the closest to the rank of Grandmaster. Onto the other young talents. Beside yourself, I know that there will be one from the body division, the illusion division, and the heart division respectively."
Ren was quite confused, and it showed, shouldn't every division have at least one talent?
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Ai caught his expression and directly went on, as if she had read his mind. "Unfortunately not every division has a talent that matches the description of the meeting. Mostly they are simply a little too old to be introduced like this, but even then these recognized genii have something to set themselves apart from their peers, making it harder to join them. All of the other talents have something special about them, and you will see that easily enough, as you talk to them."
The climb was mostly silent after this, and though Ren wanted to know the names and ages of his new peers, Ai simply told him that he would just have to ask them. It confused him greatly, as she previously said that he would have to know more about them. He didn't question her further though, she was right, he did just have to ask them if he wanted to know more about them.
The night dragged on, and the two of them had already run for some hours, though Ren had the suspicion that Xiao Ai didn't push the pace too hard for him, they came upon a strangely shaped compound, shaped like a heptagon, but only the sides were the estate, while the enclosed area looked like different parts of a garden, with a bamboo field, a river meandering through it, cutting it in two like a Yin Yang symbol. Framing this enclosed area was the main estate, seven sided, presumably for the seven divisions, with shining roof tiles in differing colours. There was a deep bloody red, shining gold, steely grey, soft green, deep dark blue, matt white, and a shining black. All of this was located in a small valley that made up the top of the mountain, framed on all sides by lush greenery. Ren could even see some sheep grazing in the distance.
Ai directed them to the grey section, where multiple entrances were framed by red pillars, supporting the towering roof. Ren had not really been aware of it as he looked on from an elevated position, but the sections of this estate were gigantic, at least four stories high and around fifty meters long at their shortest. Considering that the sect likely used all this space sparingly at best boggled Ren's mind.
"Come on in Ren, you can explore the compound later all you want, but we should get settled in first. Tomorrow is an important day, after all." Ai told him, as she entered through the massive wooden doors.
Shrugging to himself, Ren followed her, it wasn't like he couldn't observe what he wanted all the time anyway.
Focusing more on sensing his surroundings he could already make out multiple people in different sections of the compound, some were sleeping, meditating, talking, or even running around. There were eight others in total, and four were children. While most of them had the presence of Novices, one even felt like an Adept, to Ren's shock. Even more startling was the presence of one man who was sleeping in a rocking chair under the white section of the roof on a wooden patio. His spirit was tightly contained, but the veritable sea of light that bombarded Ren's senses when he focused on the man, was enough to deafen his senses. The man even opened one of his eyes and smiled in the direction of Ren!
Nobody had ever noticed him observing them, until now.
In response, Ren even flashed his spirit, and circulated the domain of the sword. He had not yet had any significant success with it, in his opinion, but he was able to let small streams of spirit run around maybe five centimetres from his body. It wasn't much, and the art felt sluggish still, but he could already carve up wood or block the hit of a Novice. The near omnipotent praises of Sundering Sword were still a dream of the distant future, though.
"Ren, I am going to sleep today, I had a long day and an even longer mission prior to it, do you need anything before I go?" Ai asked him, for once looking tired, and already rubbing at her eyes.
Ren shook his head. "No, I'll just take one of the other beds later. Good night, Ai."
"Yeah, there are plenty to go around, we have this wing all to ourselves, just don't go too wild, and remember to be ready by dawn tomorrow." She thought for a split second, searching for something that she could have forgotten, but simply shrugged. "Good night, Ren." And then vanished behind a light green door.
Ren entered meditation, and spend his night observing the other occupants of the estate, making sure not to look at the man in the rocking chair too closely.