Su Lin exhaled as she finished one final cycle of the Hollow Spirit Mantra. As her qi settled from the circulation technique, she opened her eyes and looked around her tiny room. Except for a bed and a small set of shelves, there was nothing else within the thin wooden walls. This room had been hers for the past four years, ever since she was chosen to join the Shallow Grave Sect. She hoped that after tonight, she would be leaving this room to the next group of aspirants while she ascended to the sect proper as a true Disciple.
Standing from the bed, she decided to take one last look through the market street. According to her seniors, every time a group of aspirants were about to take their ascension test, disciples from the sect would be permitted to come down from the sect and set up stalls to sell items that they could use to make the false dantian for their jiangshi. The most commonly used item was a small spirit stone, but sometimes one could use a rare treasure or unusual treasure to make a special jiangshi. So far Su Lin had yet to see anything that seemed worth taking a risk on, but today perhaps she would find something special. Once outside, she looked at the long row of doors on the aspirant's dorm, and decided to ask her fellow aspirant Buxing to join her. Buxing was only a few doors down, and she softly knocked on the door in case she was also meditating. After a few moments, the door opened to reveal a teenage girl dressed in the same plain gray aspirant robe as her, with long dark hair carefully ordered in several braids.
"Su Lin? Why are you here?" Buxing asked. Su Lin smiled softly and replied, "I was about to check the disciple market one last time, would you like to join me?" Buxing nodded and stepped out of her tiny room, closing the door behind her. "I might as well. It's a way to spend time until the test tonight." The two girls idly chattered as they walked through the village to the market, set along the edges of the open space near the village center. There they saw several black robes disciples scattered about, sitting on rugs and blankets with various items in front of them. Standing behind each disciple was a white robed jiangshi, silent and motionless. Su Lin recognized a few disciples from the previous days, and ignored them. They had nothing to interest her. One disciple caught her attention though, as he had not one but two jiangshi behind him.
Buxing excused herself to examine the wares of a disciple with several herbs on his rug, while Su Lin continued towards the disciple with the two jiangshi. He smiled and greeted her as she approached. "Ah, good morning junior sister! Looking for something for your first jiangshi's false dantian? I have a few items that might interest you. Come take a look." He waved a hand over his goods. Su Lin eyed them carefully as she approached. There were a few seeds, a ring, a lump of what appeared to be gold, and two thumb sized bits of ore. "Good morning, senior. What can you tell me about each of your wares?" She asked. He nodded and answered. "The seeds are from a crimson lotus found near a hotspring, the ring was once worn by a senior cultivator and exposed to qi for long enough to contain a residual amount, the false gold is fitting for a false dantian, and the ore is unknown." She frowned as he finished speaking.
"What do you mean the ore is unknown?" She asked. "Ah, I found these two pieces and one more while exploring the wilds to the west. The other piece was given to my master, but even he did not recognize it. It conducts death qi quite well, but there is too little of it to use for anything, and no one would know how to work it into an artifact." Su Lin nodded, thinking about the strange ore. If it was good at conducting death qi, it might just be useful. "May I examine the ore?" The senior disciple grinned and handed her a piece. "Of course junior sister." She closed her eyes as she tried to push her qi through the small lump, and to her surprise it flowed as easily as if it were within her meridians. Part of her wanted to use a spirit stone for the false dantian, a safe and relatively easy method to create a jiangshi. Another part of her, the part that dreamed of being more than just a simple village girl, wondered if perhaps she could use this strange ore to create something special. Su Lin opened her eyes and looked at the senior disciple.
"How much for the ore?"
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That evening as dusk approached, Su Lin stood outside the northern village entrance with the other twenty-nine gray robed aspirants of her group. They awaited an elder from the sect to take them to the testing ground. She felt at her pocket, where the ore she purchased from the disciple sat. She had barely managed to haggle him down, and it took all her accumulated merit points, but something about the ore called to her. Buxing stood with a few other aspirants, discussing the upcoming test. The other girl had purchased one of the senior's crimson lotus seeds. Su Lin wished the girl good luck, but thought that anything found near a hotspring would be unsuitable for making a jiangshi's false dantian. A place like that would have saturated it with too much yang aligned energy, and was most likely doomed to failure. She shook her head and turned towards the nearest aspirant, Lu Maozi. He had always done well in their classes, and accrued many merit points. Studious, driven, and proud, several girls in their group admired him. Su Lin just felt it was unfortunate his face was a bit too round to appeal to her, otherwise she might have considered pursuing him as well.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Brother Lu, did you find anything good in the market?" He turned to her and shook his head. "No, I only went to see what they were offering. I had no interest in actually using anything they were selling. There must be a reason the sect suggests using spirit stones for the false dantian. I believe anyone who tries something different will fail." Su Lin's eyes widened momentarily. What Lu Maozi said made sense, and for a moment she worried she was going to fail. Her hand went to her pocket, and she calmed herself. No, she had found something special, she would succeed. "What brother Lu says is logical. But perhaps some will surprise you. If spirit stones were the only way, surely the elders would have said so." He narrowed his eyes slightly at her, then turned to face the mountain where the sect was located. "We shall see." He said.
A short time later, a man in black robes trimmed in the white of an elder descended towards their group. He was trailed by a woman in robes as white as his neatly trimmed beard. Every conversation abruptly ceased and the aspirants cupped their fists in salute. The elder looked over the group as he touched the ground, before nodding in satisfaction. "Good, everyone is here. Follow me." He turned and began walking towards the mountain, everyone quick to follow behind him. His jiangshi fell in behind their group, watching over them all as they marched to the testing grounds. By the time they reached their destination, night had truly fallen and the moon hung low in the sky. They had arrived at a clearing at the base of the mountain, thirty corpses were laid out on the ground near an ominous black coffin. Nothing grew within fifty bu of the coffin, the soil dark and barren. The elder stood next to the coffin and addressed the group of aspirants. "You will each have one attempt to raise a jiangshi, and become a proper disciple of the Shallow Grave Sect. Those who fail will be given one more chance to make a jiangshi at a later date. Let's not waste time, step up in whatever order you wish."
Su Lin watched as Lu Maozi stepped forward first, head held high as if the test was nothing but a formality. The elder turned toward his jiangshi and motioned towards the waiting corpses. "Meili, bring a body to the coffin." The white robed woman, Meili, quickly strode to the corpses and grabbed the closest, easily moving what looked like a middle aged man with almost no effort. She placed him into the coffin, then stood next to the elder. Lu Maozi pulled a small spirit stone, no bigger than a fingernail, from his pocket. He pushed aside the funerary robes to expose the abdomen of the corpse and withdrew a small knife. After making a small incision just above the navel, he inserted the spirit stone and began murmuring to himself. All the other aspirants watched with baited breath as sigil engraved on the sides of the coffin began to faintly glow. Lu Maozi placed his hand over the place he inserted the spirit stone, and after several tense minutes he stepped back visibly drained. With effort he straightened his back and spoke to the corpse in the coffin. "Stand up." The corpse twitched, then slowly pulled itself up. Solid black eyes gazed lifelessly ahead.
The elder nodded to Lu Maozi. "Pass. What is your name, disciple?" Lu Maozi smiled and saluted the elder. "Disciple Lu Maozi, elder." The elder made a dismissive gesture and called out, "Next." Su Lin watched on as one aspirant after another made their attempts. Nearly half failed, mostly the ones who attempted to use something other than a spirit stone. Buxing nearly succeeded, but moments after her jiangshi stood up it began to smolder. Her victorious smile fell away as the elder calmly watched her jiangshi burn to ashes from the inside out before declaring her attempt a failure. Su Lin felt pity for the girl, but quickly pushed her from her mind. It was nearly her turn, and her stomach was twisting inside out. She clenched her fists at her sides, took a deep breath, and stepped forward.
When she reached the coffin, the corpse inside was a young man. The cause of death was obvious, as a portion of the throat had been torn out, probably by some beast. Like the other aspirants, she made a small incision just above the navel and inserted the ore she had chosen for the false dantian. Su Lin took a moment to calm herself, then reached out and began to circulate her qi through herself, into the corpse, and then back to her own dantian in accordance with her training as an aspirant. The qi flowed easily, smoothly cycling as it was supposed to. Every cycle more stayed within the corpse, less flowing back to her. She closed her eyes, focused entirely on igniting the false dantian. It was then she realized a problem. The ore she had chosen conducted death qi too well. The technique required it to circulate and pool in the false dantian, but it was flowing out as quick as it flowed in. First, she tried to circulate more through the corpse, but it didn't help. She desperately tried to think of what to do.
In a moment of panic, she grabbed all the qi in the corpse, and tried to force it all into the false dantian at once. She felt a tug on her inner qi as the ore seemed to drink it all in, pulling more and more from her own dwindling reserves. Just as she was about deplete herself, she felt something. It was different from a purely physical sensation, different even from the spiritual feeling of qi. There were no words to appropriately describe it. Qi flowed from the false dantian of the corpse, cycled once, then stabilized. Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, Su Lin opened her eyes and stepped back from the coffin. Looking down at the corpse, voice shaky, she spoke. "S-stand up." The corpse slowly stood up and opened it's pitch black eyes. A smile bloomed on her face as she heard the word she wanted to hear. "Pass. Name?" "Disciple Su Lin, elder." She replied, then turned to look at her first jiangshi. She was about to order it to follow her, when her heart which had begun to calm started thundering in her chest. Instead of staring lifelessly straight ahead, it was staring at it's hands.