Scene 1 - Rude awakening

Within the fairly large room where the siblings resided, the warm wooden walls excluded a sweet cherry fragrance A young woman stood at the doorway, her wild long black hair made her silver eyes stand out. The woman clothed in violet scanned the room, nodding when she saw the still sleeping siblings. A small smirk appeared on her face before she let out a deafening roar, “Get dressed! You have five minutes before big sister Marley starts getting mad!”

The nine scrambled out of their beds, stumbling around in a daze as they tried to quickly get dressed and stand before the woman in a line.

Marley nodded when she saw their actions, “Humph! Took your time didn’t you, my cute little juniors. The ones called Rune and Vince, step forward!”

As requested, the two stepped forward and awaited instructions, “Open your hands!”

Marley walked over to them and placed a ring into each of their hands. The two examined them in haste; the rings were made of Blue Iron, a material that would glow with a pale sapphire shine.

Seeing as how Rune and Vince were not stunned to receive the rings she continued, “My father, your master, is gifting these two rings. Within them is 100 meters of space you can use freely. Bind them with your magic by allowing your energy to flow into it. Before you can leave this room, you must both be able to bind these rings with your magic. As for the rest of you, I shall be giving you pointers on starting cultivation. Let's begin!”

Rune and Vince sat over on the side, attempting to bind their rings, while Marley stood in front of the seven siblings, getting them ready to cultivate.

Naturally, Rune had trouble understanding the concept of binding until Vince and Marley went and explained it to her. It took five hours before Rune could use the ring efficiently. She noticed that majority of the space inside the ring was taken up by mostly food and water, and started to drool.

Marley was shocked by how fast Rune had bound her ring, as even the greatest of talents took at least a day or two for their first attempt at binding.

It had even taken her herself two days to bind her first ring, and her father had greatly praised her insight. This was a simple rite of passage that every great wizard passed onto his disciples; her father watched the scene excitedly from a mirror in his room; his face had glee written all over it.

A natural thing all wizards knew was that the faster someone bound their first ring, the faster that person would be able to condense and recover their magic!

While it took only five hours for Rune to bind her ring, Vince took seven hours. Clearly, Vice turned out weaker than his sister, thought Master Mo, making him sigh softly.

Though how could Master Mo know that this actually was Vince’s second ring and that it only took him four hours to bind the first!

Alas, Vince had lost his first ring long ago… Vince was no fool, though, he didn’t want to expose this matter even if he was grateful for Master Mo’s kindness. He would not let him know about his past, as that is what it was. The past. Nothing more.

Even though it was surprising to Master Mo for Vince and Rune to finish so early, he didn’t question it much. After all, all the siblings had monster-like talent.

Marley didn’t watch the two work on such a boring subject. Instead, she started teaching the other seven about cultivating, laying out a strong foundation. The siblings worked hard trying to comprehend their soul elements in that period of time.

Sol threw his arms up in displeasure, “Ugh! This is too hard, how am I supposed to sense the qi in the air? Sister Marley, am I even doing it right?”

Chiming alongside her twin Luna agreed, “Sister Marley I agree as well! I can’t for the life of me feel this so called ‘qi’ in the air!”

Marley took out a harmless paper fan and slapped both of them on the head.

“Ow!”

“What was that for?”

“Humph!” Marley snorted with anger at the twins, “How could cultivation be so easy? Even if you are geniuses that don't mean that you can defy the heavens without any effort! Continue cultivating so that you gain battle qi from your respective elements!”

That's the reason why Master Mo had given them more books on cultivation than magic. Marley’s words rang high and clear, the only way for the siblings to grow stronger was to learn everything regarding the theory of cultivation inside those very books!

When Rune and Vince had both bound their rings, Master Mo called out to his daughter just as she finished her harsh lecture, “Marley, bring my disciples to the field room.”

Marley nodded gracefully and rounded the nine, “Come, my junior brothers and sisters, my father is calling for you.”