"Hey! Hey you!"

Bran Ai turned his head, unable to move his body properly in their air.

"Me?" Pointing a finger at himself making a questioning face.

"Yeah you! Why are you not wearing the sect garbs?"the child grabbed his shirt by the collar.

Bran Ai looked at the other kid, then he took a look at everyone else.

Everyone in the group was wearing the new gray sect clothes given to them, some cleaner then others but all wore it.

"I... I want to clean myself up first. The clothes might get messy if I don't" Bran Ai did not have a chance to do this still, having been trapped for several days by the man eating flower.

The child looked at him for a second bewildered by the answer.

"Can't you just wash it after using anyway?" Unless Bran Ai had never washed himself this would be logical.

"I need water, the sect only gave us enough to drink in the morning" having not been around for the past few days this was the only source of water he has had.

"What do you mean? Haven't you gone to the back area? You know the one behind our rooms? There is tons of water there" the kid was confused, water just in the morning? Sounded more like an excuse to him.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, behind our living place" the child tried to make a gesture with his hands attempting to show the action of going around something.

"Is there water there?"

"Did I say something else? Yeah you can practically swim in it" he said sarcastically

"I see! I will try to go after this" Bran Ai took a look at himself, he was still skinnier then the others but not by much.

His clothes being just rags would probably be the only real standout given his current situation.

"Why? Just look down. That is all water, want to go for a swim?" The child pointed down.

It being night time in this part of the world, from above the ocean seemed like a black desert with only the moonlight reflecting back into his eyes.

Bran Ai looked, not understanding what the other child meant.

"Might be a little hard to ask the old guy to take us for one tho, you think he would?" The child asked half questioning himself.

"All of that is water?" Having never seen an ocean, lake or even a river one could swim in, this was a new sight for him.

"Yeah, but it is dark out so no longer blue"

"Blue? So that is the color of the ocean" Bran Ai's version of blue was a bright turquoise that glimmered in the day.

It was from some blue beads he had seen earlier in life.

As for the size of the ocean he couldn't be sure, they were currently several miles up in the sky.

All directions one looked down was pitch black darkness, one could try and guess how far it went but the curvature of the earth prevented further speculation.

"Where are you from? I am- come from a mountain town, not sure where exactly... But there were rivers and mountains that headed into the sea, I remember that" the child went a little quite toward the end.

"I don't know where I came from, It was very hot most of the time, dry. At least that is what I saw, but my parents told me that once there had been more then just that once" Bran Ai didn't have much recollection beyond a years time, he along with most children being too young to remember such things.

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The child feeling like he had lead the conversation to a bad area both for him and Bran Ai changed topics.

"Can you use spells yet? I tired to copy some of the older people but couldn't quite do it right"

"Um no I don't really know what a spell is, let alone know to use one"

A spell what was that?

Not counting the forced cultivation he experienced when awakening his spiritual veins he knew how to meditate because he was able to visually learn to cultivate, spells however are new to him.

"Ehh what, you mean you haven't tried out the spells in the book yet? You know the one's near the end"

"The back of the book? Oh! You mean the basic's of cultivation? I haven't gotten that far yet"

"LET ME TEACH YOU THEN!" The kid looked at Bran Ai with excitement.

He searched throught is clothes only to notice a hole inside one of his pockets.

"Ah wait a second I don't have my things with me, let me teach you later ok?"

"Yeah sure!" Bran Ai replied eagerly, this boy could be considered his first friend maybe?

Elder Qez had been quite so far, it had only been a few minutes since their departure from the final edge sect yet he had already traveled over 8000 kms.

This was not his peak speed, he could double his traveling speed should he really be in a hurry but this was fast enough for his current needs.

'Should I teach them a thing or two before we get there or just leave it up to fate?

Elder Qez struggled internally, these kids were nothing short of sacrifices in this venture.

A few might make it back from this adventure but they won't be the same anymore.

'If they weren't required I would rather not bring them along at all'

Elder Qez took out a green information jade from a small pocket, pressing it to his forehead as he closed his eyes.

Research notes with different dates were recorded in order.

Some of these notes had been written to the sides overlapping older notes with newer research that had been done.

In one page it a certain passage was discribed.

At dawn gold will shine on water.

Men of gold praise the skies.

Golden will be men no more.

Among men will beast reside.

Men no longer only the beast remain.

Golden be the blood of men.

Red be the blood of beasts.

What flows will be of both.

What is lost returned.

What is gained retained.

Only the glimmer of men remains.

Only the golden lead the way.

'A fucking sacrificial ritual, how outdated' Elder Qez had experienced all sorts of things in life, these types of rituals still took place regularly across the world but he considered it as something from a forgone time now.

In general they weren't considered good or bad, it would all depend on the person that practices them.

Most rituals heralded for good fortune, others for mercy.

Not every ritual asked for blood sacrifices, some simply took objects with special energies as the median for the ritual.

This one was unfortunately for the children the worst type.

'If I teach them, it would give either one of em an advantage over the other, I will be directly affecting their fate but the beast part of the ritual is still unclear'

Beast could mean one of lf two things for most rituals.

One: it will turn man against each other the end result being man turning into animals, not factually but metaphorically.

Two: There will be actual animals summoned to fight against them, hence the men will fight and only the beast remains.

Elder Qez hopped for the first one, he didn't like their chances otherwise.

The second option could lead to a total wipe out, that would not help his end goal.

The first option at least allowed for there to be victors hence the part < Only the golden lead the way > would become true.

If the ritual worked the way elder Qez believed it would - due to the research he had done, then this would be a trial by combat.

Hopefully between men.

The reason elder Qez did not bring more experienced cultivators along for this was simple.

He couldn't.

The golden or gold part referred to cultivators, it was a way to differentiate between a nomal human and someone able to cultivate.

While men was the opposite, it refers to normal humans irregardless of gender.

When the phrase < Only the glimmer of men remains > was used, it should mean that one was closer to being a cultivator then a mortal man.

This ritual would act as some sort of awakening ceremony, similar to the final edge sects own.

'Since the children are already awakened I cannot do anything but hope it accepts them, what is important is that they are new to the cultivation world'

Currently there was little different between the children here and any child of the streets, no features can really be seen as different from one another.

Even internally they could not be differentiated.

The only advantage the children held was the faster then average mental development and the use of spiritual Qi.

The former very quickly became noticable while the latter could only show when they use spiritual Qi.

Participating in the awakening ceremony wouldn't really impact them much, at best it will help them raise one stage.

If the children had spent at least a year cultivating howerver things would change drastically.

No longer will the body be as weak as it once was.

Even a child as young as five could easily lift a teenager weighing 52 kgs with little struggle.

This was due to the spiritual Qi become more condensed in the child body.

At that point the body's cells would all have been replaced by something similar to a normal humans cells yet different.

Every part of the body would have had slight changes that lead to the child no longer being considered human only the image of one remaining.