The next morning, Elder Sevus woke all the initiates up with a clap of his hands that sent out a wave of shimmering ki. The ki washed over the initiates, sending shivers down their spines and causing them to bolt awake. Startled, Verus sat up and blinked the sleep from his eyes. It was still dark out and the sun was barely peeking over the horizon. Nonetheless, he saw plenty of porters up and about as they prepared the caravan for departure.

“All of you get up. We’ll be going through the basic forms before resuming our journey. There’s no reason for you all to skip out on your training. Many of you will need all the help you can get if you want to succeed at the sect headquarters,” Elder Sevus told the sleepy initiates as they jumped to their feet. “The competition there will be fierce for temple wards such as yourselves. Many other disciples will be coming from loftier backgrounds.”

The stern elder then led them through the usual early morning routine they’d done every day back at the mountain temple. It was comprised of full body stretching and some martial art forms that woke the body up, got the blood flowing, and aided ki circulation.

As he exercised and concentrated on controlling the flow of ki through his body, Verus wondered about the other disciples Elder Sevus had mentioned. He knew that young cultivators from all stations of life joined the sects, including nobles. Obviously, they’d have access to expensive resources such as herbs and medicines that boosted cultivation, but how much of a difference would that make? The journey from Origin Realm to Foundation Realm was supposed to take years of diligent practice. It was also supposed to be hard to do quickly, regardless of resources. Only skill and discipline would allow you to build your ki core and open your meridians, and no one at the temple had lacked discipline.

When they were done, Elder Sevus left, and some porters brought over their breakfast. They didn’t have long to eat because the caravan soon began moving again, forcing them to pack all their stuff up and jump back in their wagon.

This was basically the routine for the next several days. The initiates were woken up by Elder Sevus to do their morning exercises, then they grabbed a quick breakfast before getting on their wagon and travelling for the rest of the day. There was very little deviation from this schedule, although the scenery did begin to change. The wild forests and grasslands started to be replaced by fields of rice or wheat, and the caravan passed the occasional village as they approached more civilized lands. Many of the villages were new, having just been founded by colonists from other imperial lands. The empire was ever expanding and developing.

In fact, on the fifth day, the caravan passed a large group of colonists being escorted to their new lands by a force of a hundred soldiers from the imperial army. Despite Elder Sevus’s annoyance, the caravan had to stop and clear the road for the army. Elder Sevus was probably a much higher ranked cultivator than anyone in the small escort force, but even the Great Wind Sect couldn’t afford to interfere with the duties of the imperial army.

Verus watched the soldiers and colonists walk past with interest. The soldiers marched in formation and were very different from the caravan guards. They all wore the same armor and uniform, a thick shirt made from gold-like metal scales over a white robe. The rest of their armor was comprised of vambraces, heavy boots, and metal caps with nose guards. To stand out, their officers had red plumes rising from the top of their helmets. However, the most important difference was the ki they radiated.

Reaching out with his senses, Verus tried to get a feel for their cultivation level by sensing the ki they gave off. It was difficult since they were pressed so close together, but he got the impression that they were almost all stronger than him, but weaker than an elder of the sect. Most of them were probably at the Tempered Realm, which was what came directly after the Foundation Realm. That was the first Realm that cultivators were considered combat ready and able to look after themselves. While an elder might look down at someone of that Realm, getting so many soldiers to that level was still very impressive, and the result was a truly powerful fighting force. Verus knew the imperial army used a special method to do it, to make up for the fact that they didn’t get the best or most talented recruits.

“I hope I don’t end up in the army, marching all over the place like that,” an initiate to Verus’s left moaned.

“It wouldn’t be so bad. I like their uniforms, and even if we do badly on the tests we’d end up as officers, not grunts.”

“Even the officers were marching on foot. Sect elders get to travel through the sky on flying swords or clouds,” Verus pointed out. He knew which he’d rather be.

Soon, the soldiers and colonists had marched past though, so the caravan got back on the road and the young initiates found other things to discuss. Most of their conversations were dominated by what they thought the capital would be like. Verus had his own ideas, which he tentatively aired.

The conversation between the initiates lasted until the end of the day when the caravan came to stop. Thankfully, the initiates had exhausted both the topic and themselves by bed time, and they fell asleep with ease under the night sky.

Verus woke to screaming. The jarring and unexpected noise violently scattered his pleasant dreams. Despite the commotion, his body felt oddly heavy and his eyes refused to open completely as he tried to get up and failed. What? Shouldn’t he be panicking right now? Instead, he was still lying on his back. It was like something was pulling him back to sleep, preventing him from waking up properly. Maybe something was. Focusing, Verus began performing the Faithful Soul Ward, and as his ki surged through his body, the dark power stifling his mind was violently dispersed.

With the unnatural fatigue gone, Verus’s heart immediately began pounding. Something was very wrong! His eyes popped open as he threw his blankets off and jumped to his feet. Nearby, his fellow initiates seemed to be struggling to get up, but Verus quickly spotted the source of the sound. Several feet from him, an initiate was struggling with a glimmering transparent shape. It loomed above him, pulsing with sinister light in darkness before dawn.

“Help me!” the initiate screamed as he tried to kick and punch at the figure. His actions seemed futile, as his blows simply passed right through his attacker.

Wide-eyed, Verus stared at the thing as goosebumps rose on his skin. It looked sort of like a giant ghostly cat, although its proportions were eerily skewed. Its limbs were elongated and its eyes were black pits, like pools of living midnight. It had to be some type of spirit. Raising a glimmering paw, the spirit cat clawed at the face of the boy it was fighting, and he fell screaming with a bleeding gash across his face.

Verus stepped forward to do something. Taking a proper stance, he began circulating his ki and trying to come up with a plan of attack. As he watched, the spirit cat then turned toward a still body on the ground beneath it and growled hungrily. Was that another initiate? Was the beast going to eat him? Steeling his resolve, Verus prepared to leap at the huge ghostly beast that was about to tear his fellow initiate apart. A subtle glow appeared around his fist as he channeled power to it. Physical attacks apparently didn’t work, but maybe ki enhanced ones would.

However, Verus didn’t get chance to attack. There was a loud crack as a blast of lightning swept past the initiates and slammed into the violent spirit. The cat spirit screeched and reared back as if in pain, and then Elder Sevus was there. Appearing out of nowhere with his green robe swirling around him and a furious scowl on his face, the senior cultivator slashed at the spirit. In his hand was a steel blade that glowed and left a faint trail in the air as it cut the spirit in half. There was another cat-like scream, and then two halves of the spirit simply faded away, leaving nothing behind. A moment later, the sword disappeared as if it had never existed, leaving Elder Sevus standing amidst a crowd of wounded initiates that were too terrified to speak.

Standing there slack-jawed, Verus felt a horrible crushing pressure he hadn’t even been consciously aware of dissipate. He wobbled, suddenly unsteady on his feet.

“Get me the caravan master this instant!” Elder Sevus yelled at some porters and guards that had run over to see what was going on. Seeing the furious look on the cultivator’s face, they immediately spun around and hurried away to obey his command.

Elder Sevus swept his intense gaze across his students. His expression grew darker after seeing that one of them was cradling a wounded face and another was unconscious on the ground

“What happened here?” he asked as he knelt next to the unconscious initiate and turned him onto his back. Thankfully, the young student seemed to be breathing.

It was the student with the claw marks on his face that answered. Verus knew his name was Chet, but not much more about him. “I couldn’t sleep, so instead I was practicing Faithful Soul Ward while I lay in my roll, Elder. Then, all of a sudden, I felt a cold sensation wash over me, so I opened my eyes and saw that thing looking down over Davos. That’s when it noticed me and turned my way, so I got up to defend myself and yell for help. That was when you arrived.”

Elder Sevus nodded. “The ward saved you from the spirit’s slumber spell. You were lucky and it was brave of you to try and fight, but next time, at least remember your training. That was a spirit. Physical attacks couldn’t hurt it. You should have used ki based techniques. You’d have died if I hadn’t showed up.”

“Ah, sorry, elder!” the initiate responded as he bowed his head. “Please tell me, is Davos going to be alright. What was that spirit trying to do?”

“Davos does not appear to have been permanently injured, although his ki system has been shook up. He should wake up before too long. As for the spirit, that should be obvious, it wanted you all asleep so that it could rip out your ki and devour it.”

That was when the caravan master appeared with several guards. The furious glower reappeared on Sevus’s face as he went over to face to him. “You assured me that this caravan was properly warded! My charges were injured by a spirit that penetrated your supposedly secure perimeter!”

Clearly terrified, the merchant shook as he bowed deeply. “My caravan is warded properly. I swear it upon the heavens! I purchased the wards from a proper Lightbearer devotary myself, and I spared no expense. Only the best would protect us when we travel near the border. I’m no greedy fool, looking to save pennies and lose blood!”

Elder Sevus huffed disdainfully. “That remains to be seen.”

Several servants then hurried over to tend to the wounded as the merchant and the elder walked away to converse. Verus simply let out a deep breath and sat back on his bed roll. It was earlier in the morning than he usually woke up, but there was no way he was getting back to sleep now. Not only was his heart still beating harder than normal - echoing in his ears, but people were rushing around and yelling. It seemed like the caravan would be setting out early today.

All the other initiates seemed pale and shocked as well, even the usually unflappable Warin. Davos didn’t wake up right away, so he was taken away to rest by several porters. Elder Sevus returned soon after that – after apparently coming to some agreement with the caravan master – and led them through another series of forms as if nothing had happened. Verus found the exercise to be exactly what he needed. Focusing on his core and controlling his muscle movements energized him and helped him relax after the shock of the attack.

When the exercises were over, Warin wasted no time in striking up a conversation with Verus. “Wow, can you believe that we finally saw a spirit! It was quite the sight.”

“It tried to devour us and almost succeeded!” Verus replied in disbelief. “So much for spirits not being so dangerous.”

“It was still amazing. Don’t give me that look. You do enough worrying for both of us, my brother. One of us has to look at the bright side, otherwise we’d both be hopelessly depressed.”

Verus glanced over to the tall grass growing along the side of the road and the wild lands beyond it. “Well, perhaps I haven’t been wary enough. It’s dangerous out here. There are bandits and demi-humans, and spirits can appear almost anywhere at any time.”

A shiver went down Verus’s spine as he remembered the insidious aura of the cat spirit. It horrified him that a limitless number of creatures like that lurked unseen in the spirit realms beyond the physical world. Some of them could be watching him right now. It was just a good thing that Elder Sevus was here.

The caravan set off after that and the rest of the day continued mostly as normal. The one small change was that it began to rain that afternoon and the initiates were forced to sleep in their wagon. Pressed up against each other, there was no room for them to stretch out, but the proximity was comforting after the attack in the morning. Verus slept next to Warin, which ended up being a mistake. In the middle of the night, the chubby student rolled over and almost crushed him. Verus had to shove him off and readjust before he could get back to sleep. Sometimes his friend could be a pain.

The next two days also passed without incident, and the caravan made great time. The huge soul beasts pulled the wagons forward with startling speed. The mountains were now long gone, and the forests had been completely replaced by field after vibrant field. The road was also wider, and the caravan began passing more and more travelers. They even came across other merchant caravans, although none of the were pulled by soul beasts of any sort. They used simple horses or mundane oxen.

Then, on the third day after the spirit attack, the capital city finally appeared off in the distance. At first it was just a blurry outline on the horizon, but it quickly came into focus and grew larger in their sight as they approached. An hour later, the speedy pace of the soul beasts carried the caravan close enough that they had to slow as the traffic around the city grew thicker. A few minutes later, they came to a complete stop as something up ahead blocked the caravan’s way.

Leaning out over the side of the wagon, Verus gasped as he took in the sights. All around him, his fellow disciples were doing the same. Shining white walls stretched out before Verus, completely filling his view to either side. Beyond the walls, stood row after row of tall buildings with tiled roofs of various colors. Some were large bulky buildings while others were graceful towers. The capital was far bigger than Verus had imagined!

However, the walls and everything else were dwarfed by the huge tower in the center of the city. It rose up into the sky, seeming to challenge the heavens and lord over all the world. Square at its base, it gleamed as the sunlight played across its smooth crystalline exterior, until the tower peaked at a triangular top with no overhang or proper roof. Its design was nothing like that of every other building in the city. With little in the way of decorations or features, it almost seemed to have been made from one huge piece of crystal.

Most impressively, despite the vast distance to the top of the structure, Verus could easily sense the thick clouds of ki that swirled around its peak. The subtle energy glimmered like a rainbow storm. This was no simple building, but an incredible piece of architecture created by the empire’s cultivators to display their power and ability to dominate the world.

As the disciples gawked, Elder Sevus suddenly appeared in front of his charges and gave them a solemn look. “Don’t be blinded by the wonders you will soon have before you, young initiates. Prepare yourselves. The Great Wind Sect has sheltered and aided you your entire lives. That ends now. Heed my warning. Here you will be tested and your true worth as cultivators discovered. Some of you will fail and lose your lives, while others will stall in your cultivation and never amount to anything as members of the sect. If you wish to rise to greater heights than that, like a true cultivator of the empire, you will have to struggle with everything you have and face countless dangers.”

A chill went through Verus as he listened. He didn’t believe for a moment that Elder Sevus was trying to scare them, not after the spirit attack. He was telling them nothing but the truth.

Turning, Sevus then laughed darkly. “We will leave the caravan now and enter the provincial capital on foot. This may only be a backwater world that has recently been conquered by the Heavenly Empire – one among countless others – but to sheltered young disciples like you wards, it will probably be the grandest place you will visit for many long decades.”