Druidic Cultivation | Six

“Honored Guests and Seniors, this young cultivator already has a sect engraved within her heart and has arranged her discipleship ahead of today’s ceremony. I apologize for inconvenience but I cannot accept any of your invitations.” When she spoke her voice was like the spring breeze, gentle and fleeting. She sounded respectful but not grievanced, as if she couldn’t care less about their feelings and only spoke out of courtesy. 

“Ridiculous! Who dares to poach disciples before the official awakening ceremony is held? Which sect thinks themselves above the rest and above the traditions?” An elder from the Boulder Crab sect shouted out loud. Every sect there knew it was hypocritical to say that considering that the Boulder Crab sect was well known as the sect that ninety percent of the Huang Family attended, often arranging attendance ahead of time. The elder only spoke up in a rage because such a prime talent had been sniped away from one of his sects usual candidates. When he’d seen her martial spirit he’d been excited, but now he was angry.

None of the other sects called him out on his hypocrisy, any many of them even shouted alongside him to demand a name. They were all green with jealousy and wanted to know which sect dared to subvert their process of divvying up the talents as each sect there desired to have such an outstanding genius. In many eyes, her refusal to speak the name of the sect was even an admission of weakness. Otherwise, why would she not request to join the sect she’d already agreed on ahead of time and grant them face?

Huang Niao did not reply and only bowed once more to the sect elders, again to the overseer, and then walked off stage to the side where everyone who had completed their assessment was. The crowd parted as the girl strutted straight toward the back while she reaffixed her veil and eventually made her way back to where City Lord Huang was sitting.

The noble examinations continued and a few more people were called up. One boy caught Feng Jiao’s attention not because of his martial spirit, a grade seven sea turtle with a small bush upon its shell, but because of his selection. He turned down an invite from two top sects and requested to be admitted to the God Tree sect. Feng Jiao decided to remember the name Qian Bei and befriend him when he was admitted, the boy seemed respectful enough. 

The next big commission came when a strange young man named Shengui Yun took the stage. He stood tall and straight like a spear stabbed into the stage, staring down his instructor. Instantly the little gossip mongers behind Feng Jiao filled him in on the situation, even if they didn’t realize it. Strange how vocal the onlookers in this world were.

“That’s Shengui Yun! He’s a high ranking noble from the Tyrannical Mountain Dynasty! His father is a city lord of one of the largest cities and a rank six Bone Forged! What is he doing here?” A bitty little girl who’d scarcely stopped chattering away since the start of the ceremony whispered harshly to her friend, another gossiper that seemed slightly more informed.

“Why else? He’s here for Huang Niao! They are close in age, so why wouldn’t a noble try and score a beautiful wife for his son? It even explains why the Black Warrior Sect is here and tried to recruit young lady Huang, they wanted to help matchmake. Shh, shh, they’re starting!” The girl’s voice was annoyed, not from the question but because Huang Niao would be able to land such a promising husband without even trying. Whether it was her beauty, background, or talent, she had the two gossipers beat by a long show. Trying to compare them would be like comparing a brick to a fine sword, it was possible but there was really no reason to because anybody with eyes could see that the blade shined brighter.

Shengui Yun received the Qi infusion and awoke his martial spirit. A large black cloud formed behind him before quickly taking shape and shifting to a dark green color.  The overseer announced that it was a peak eighth grade martial spirit called a Green Scaled Box Turtle. The draconic scaled turtle preened as Shengui requested to join the Black Warrior Sect and was instantly accepted. He cast his eyes over to Lord Huang’s sitting only to see that Huang Niao was no longer present and an ugly grimace appeared on his face.

Shortly thereafter the nobles finished their individual awakenings and overseers came onto the stage and took their places in the many substages. A formation lit up the ground in each area and names started to appear before the overseers, who would then call out the name and await the inspectee. The process for the minor nobles and commoners was much more streamlined and allowed the overseers to make up for lost time and breeze through the group. After a while, Feng Jiao noticed a pattern.

Only boys were going up to each stage and as the group of boys started to dwindle, Feng Jiao noticed the remaining ones were looking younger and younger. He theorized that it was dual purposed because the younger one awoke their Qi, the better their aptitude in the martial arts would be. Having an extra year or two of youth to train went a far way as the formative years of one’s life were good for, well, forming the foundations of martial cultivation.

The group got smaller and smaller as those that finished took their spot on the opposite side of the stage to await the ending of the ceremony, the point in which the commoners would either be called out by a sect or request to join one. Feng Jiao started to get a weird feeling in his stomach as he realized the implications of going from eldest to the youngest, men reaching puberty before the age of ten was not a common occurrence in this world. 

Finally, the last group of eighteen were called up at once and evaluated. The ‘talent’ of the majority of the six hundred boys that had tested averaged between grade four and six martial spirits. They also had a much larger failure rate, and only two boys had a martial spirit in the core formation, both grade seven. Although those two could join a top sect with a bit of luck, most of the commoners would petition to join medium sized and small sects. The last of the eighteen boys stepped off stage and the overseers prepared to start welcoming the young girls. 

What they didn’t realize, however, is that there was still one boy left to test. The formation below the foot of one of the overseers started glowing white again and a name appeared before him, bright white letters suspended in the air and mocked him. The overseer’s first thought was that one of the boys had either skipped the ceremony or was sitting with his family. It was, however, required of him to call out the name and give the kid a chance to appear, so that's what he did.

“Feng Jiao, substage one!” The grumpy overseer shouted. He didn’t feel like being there, due to him nursing a hangover that had been giving him a headache all day. His job was his job, however, and nobody forced him to drink the night before so he could only continue evaluating kids. He was running low on Qi, and couldn’t wait to swap out with the female overseers.

Feng Jiao’s eyes trailed over to the overseer that had finally called his name, last as he’d assumed it would be. To Feng Jiao’s surprise, and slight annoyance, it was the same overseer that had snapped at him to group with the girls. Feng Jiao walked forward and pushed his way out of the crowd before hopping lightly up onto the stage and walking over.

The overseer saw the young girl walking over to him and recognized her as the one that had been trying to stand with the boys. He fully expected that she was coming over to plead with him to wait for her brother to arrive, having probably gone to the shitter or something. Girls like this one really annoyed the man, looking down on the world because the gods graced them with beauty. They constantly used their looks to manipulate men, and never followed through!

The girls around started at Feng Jiao’s departing back with confusion in their eyes. Most of the six hundred odd girls recognized the girl they’d all assumed would be competing for the title of number one beauty, and wondered why she was walking over. Others fumed at the harlot that was so obviously trying to attract attention to herself again. Why couldn’t one just be content with their god given looks, why did they need to shove it down everyone’s throat?

Boys and men alike stood up in the bleachers to look down at the beauty who they’d not noticed buried in the crowd of young girls. She was around the age of ten and wore a long and slim robe. Her frame left much to be desired, lacking any chest and having a very small but round behind. With grey hair that seemed to shift colors in the light and dark grey eyes framing her face, the girl would definity grow into a beauty. 

Finally that girl arrived in front of the sneering overseer. With both hands clasped, she bowed and spoke to the man. Her words resounded around and caused a silence. 

“Junior Feng Jiao greets esteemed overseer. Age ten, son of Feng clan of Crouching Grass Village.” The beautiful young boy looked up and smirked when he saw the nasty look on the face of the overseer and other men that had been tracking his movements and lusting after his body.