Chapter 5

Lying down in his bed, Li Jie threw a bag of gold coins in the air before catching it on the way down. He kept repeating this process like clockwork while reflecting upon the events that occurred recently, flashing back mentally to the scene back in the training field.

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“Rise Li Jie, Zhu Hao. From now on I am indeed your master,” Zhu Que said with a rare serious expression on his face, “Your kowtows just now have signified to the Heavens our relationship as student and master. If you honor our bond, I shall too until the very day my soul departs this plane.”

Zhu Que walked up to the two young men and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. In that moment, both of them felt a connection being forged with their master on the deepest level of their soul. Overcome with emotion, Li Jie and Zhu Hao clasped their hands and gave a deep, deep bow.

Zhu Que, smiling slightly, strolled past the two before turning around and giving them a huge slap on the butt, sending them tumbling into the ground.

“I have decided to accept you as my student, and you have decided to accept me as your master! I will not accept any more bowing nor kowtowing! Now return to your homes and prepare to move yourself and your families into the sect!”

As Li Jie and Zhu Hao prepared to depart, Zhu Que stopped Li Jie and said cryptically, “Li Jie, let me go with you, there’s something we need to discuss.”

They both bade farewell to Zhu Hao and embarked on the road back to Li Jie’s house.

-----

By now the sun was beginning to set, casting long shadows of both Li Jie and Zhu Que onto the ground. Li Jie walked up to the front door of house and noticing it was unlocked, opened it.

“I’m hom--” before he could finish his sentences, he was lightly tackled by his mother with tear-stained cheeks. The tears began to flow again as she hugged her son as tightly as she could with her bony arms.

“My precious son, are you okay?” His mother barely managed choke out these words between her tears. She wanted to ask so much more: Where had he been? Did something happen?

“Mother,” said Li Jie, returning the embrace, “I’m fine. Sorry something came up today, but I have some great news! I got accepted into the Soaring Flame Sect!”

At this news, his mother finally let go of her son and looked at him, planning on congratulating him for his success. But her eyes noticed the large tear with dried blood on his shirt caused by Fang De’s sword and the various bruises caused by the first “training session” between him and his master. Her face slowly became more filled with terror as her imagination filled populated her mind with images of her son being beaten up and stabbed.

Li Jie, noticing the expression on his mother’s face, quickly explained, “Mother these wounds are from practicing with my new master! He used a medicinal pill to completely heal me so I feel perfectly fine!”

Li Jie flexed his biceps as if to show how healthy he was. His mother, who was about to burst out again, slowly calmed back down but some of the terror still remained deeply etched onto her face.

“Ahh but I did end up ruining the shirt you made for me,” said Li Jie, sheepishly looking away from his mother’s eyes, “Sorry about that...”

By now, her previously terrified expression had been replaced with one of relief. She reached up and laid a gently laid a hand on her son’s cheek thinking, ‘When did my son grow up and become such a reliable man?’

As she was thinking this, a rare smile appeared on her face. Seeing her absolutely divine smile, Zhu Que who was watching silently from behind, temporarily lost his composure and immediately thought, ‘This woman, she must be a goddess.’

“Don’t worry about something as silly as that, let me buy you a new shirt. Let’s get rid of this tattered thing.” His mother suggested, pointing to his torn shirt.

A small look of shock appeared in Li Jie’s. “But... this is my most important possession in the entire world. How can I just throw away something you lovingly made for me?” He protested, since to him that shirt was truly valuable.

His mother’s eyes twinkled as if she were about to start crying again, but she took a deep breath and gave another rare smile at her beloved son, Li Jie.

At this point Zhu Que coughed awkwardly finding it incredibly difficult to intrude on the precious moment between mother and son. Li Jie noticed the cough and mortified that he forgot about his master, hurriedly apologized almost bowing once again but remembering his master’s words, “Master! A thousand apologies, this disciple is unworthy!”

He politely gestured to Zhu Que and said, “Mother, this is my new master from the Soaring Flame Sect.”

“It is an honor to meet the mother of my disciple. My name is Zhu Que, Patriarch of the Soaring Flame Sect.” His eloquent words contrasted greatly with the sight of the giant man bowing to the skinny woman.

‘Patriarch?! Did he just say Patriarch?! As in the highest ranking member of the entire sect who makes all the decisions?!’ Li Jie’s face filled with shock, much to Zhu Que’s amusement.

“Oh my, thank you much for accepting my son as your disciple,” The sobbing now fully out of her system, she spoke in a lyrical voice which sounded as delicate as a crystal glass. She clearly did not fully understand the meaning of “Soaring Flame Sect”, “Patriarch”, or “disciple”, much to Li Jie’s embarrassment. Zhu Que was only further amused by this odd family.

She introduced herself, “My name is Li Ruo Lan.”

Unable to hold himself back anymore, Li Jie excitedly explained, “Because I joined the sect, we can move into our own mansion on the sect grounds. Also my master has gifted me a hundred gold coins to pay for any medicines and doctors!”

Li Jie lifted up a small velvet sack that jingled as he passed it over to his mother. Hearing his words, Ruo Lan should have been incredibly happy, but only a sad expression briefly appeared on her face before she forced a slight smile.

“Li Jie, you hold on to the money. Forgive me but I am tired, allow me to retire to my bed.” She said, giving a slight bow to Zhu Que who simply nodded in return.

Li Jie, quite confused, went after his mother only to be stopped by his master who pulled him outside and shut the door behind them. A pained expression flitted across his face before become serious for the second time today.

“Li Jie, there’s something you should know,” he began slowly, “14 years a man approached me with his wife and newly born son. He paid an immense price and only requested one thing before disappearing: ‘You must protect the lives of my wife and son but go no further than that.’

“I accepted partially because of the reward and partially to get away from those old farts who were always nagging at me in the sect. Just because I like to drink with the students... Ahem, anyway I digress. As you might have figured out, that baby was you and the woman was your mother. The reason I’m telling you this now is because you became my disciple.

“My spiritual sense immediately detected the irregularity in your mother’s body. I daresay that the number of people in this empire who can detect the rot in your mother’s body can be counted on one hand. Anyway what I’m trying to say is that her disease is not a simple illness, but rather something far more deadly. I can’t tell exactly what’s wrong but one thing is for sure: She is completely cut off from nature as if the Heavens have cursed her.

“I don’t mean that she can’t absorb qi, no, it’s far worse. The very lifeblood of nature that sustains and nourishes our soul rejects your mother as if she were a foreign substance.”

Li Jie felt the dread rising in his heart with every word his master said. His fears surged out of control, threatening to consume him. It only got worse when his master’s expression changed to one he had never seen before.

Zhu Que took a deep breath before saying, “At this rate your mother will die in less than two years, and there’s not a single treasure or medicine I know of that can possibly heal her. All we can do is relieve her symptoms.”

His master’s words hit him like sledgehammer. Li Jie, however, managed to regain his senses after a few seconds. He would not simply give up that easily on his mother’s life.

“Master, thank you for telling me this and for everything you’ve done so far, but I, Li Jie, will not forfeit my mother’s life without struggling to the bitter end. The Heavens have cut my mother off? So be it, I will climb up there and drag them down here. I will force them to save my mother. The Heavens, legendary magical beasts, or even gods themselves. I don’t care about any of that, if I have to destroy them all to save my mother, then there’s only one path for me to take.”

Seeing his disciple’s desperate struggle, Zhu Que felt nothing but compassion and a bit of pity for the young man.

-----

Li Jie caught the sack of coins for the last time before it suddenly disappeared, sucked into Li Jie’s new spatial ring. The other gift from his master was a spatial ring that allowed its user to store non-living items into a separate pocket dimension, ready to be accessed any time. It had a volume limit but that was only a concern for merchants. For any cultivator serious about cultivation, a spatial ring was standard equipment.

In a single day his life had been turned upside down. Fang De stabbing Zhu Hao, his master killing Fang De, the fight with his master, and finally the revelation about his mother, all of these events floated endlessly within his mind.

“Argh, there’s nothing I can do just yet. I should prepare myself to enter the sect.” He said with frustration in his voice.

Li Jie calmed his heart and began his nightly routine of meditation.

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The morning sun assaulted Li Jie again as he struggled to wake himself. But this time, the sunlight didn’t come from dirtied windows surrounded by ramshackle wooden walls, but rather a perfectly flat clear pane of glass crafted by a cultivator. Through the window a small courtyard with various colored blossoming flowers could be seen. Li Jie hopped out of his bed which was at least triple the size of his old one.

A week had already passed since becoming a disciple in the sect. His master helped Zhu Hao and his family along with Li Jie and his mother move into the sect’s housing located at the edge of sect territory. Today, he would head out with Zhu Hao and his master to formally enter the sect. Li Jie looked forward to beginning a new chapter in his life.

As soon as Li Jie stepped out of his mansion, he saw Zhu Hao waiting outside whistling a tune. Right after the two friends greeted each other, the air shimmered and Zhu Que appeared right next to them as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to be standing there.

Li Jie and Zhu Hao, somewhat used to their master’s weird antics, simply sighed inwardly.

“Master, do you really have to keep appearing out of nowhere like that?” Zhu Hao complained.

“Boy, do you not understand the value of an awesome entrance?” He replied with a grin on his face.

“Master is the last thing I think of when someone says ‘awesome” Li Jie muttered.

*Whap*

Out of nowhere, a lightning fast finger flick left a red mark on Li Jie’s forehead.

“Now that our morning banter is over, shall we get a move on my disciples?”

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On their way to the main sect grounds, the two young men were reminded once again of the sheer size of the sect. The Soaring Flame Sect was surely worthy of being called a major sect. Within its territory, half a million people lived, roughly 20% of them being disciples of the sect, the rest being their families and other auxiliary support. Shops, restaurants, blacksmiths, all of these services could be found scattered throughout the sect. It truly was a city within a city.

Located in the direct middle of the sect territory, the main sect grounds held the housing for disciples as well as anything related to cultivation and combat. It could be split into three primary zones: outer court, inner court, and core zone. Each zone represented the type of disciple who inhabited the area.

Outer court disciples ,in essence, were only nominally a part of the sect. Everyone starts in the outer court for the with a few exceptions, and those with little talent stagnate here. They received access to a few cultivation resources and lower level martial skills, which to most people was already an incredible treasure in of itself. Around 90,000, or 90%, of the disciples were located in the outer court.

Inner court disciples could be considered true members of the sect. They enjoyed access to significant cultivation resources like free cultivation pills and had access to nearly all of the martial skills the sect had to offer. These disciples could also receive personal instruction from one of the many elders and instructors of the sect. Of course, one had to prove his talent through an examination in order to get into the inner court. Around 9900, or 9.9%, of the disciples were located in the inner court.

The core disciples, being above the inner court disciples, were the most important asset to the sect. The sect groomed these disciples with the intention of them becoming the next supporting pillars of the sect. They naturally received the best when it came to cultivation resources and martial skills. There were only 100 core disciples at any given time and in order to become one, an inner court disciple had to defeat one of the 100 in an all-out fight. Deaths were common in these struggles.

In a few minutes of light running, the master and disciples reached the massive 20 meter tall gate that served as the primary entrance to the main sect grounds. An equally tall wall extended on both sides as far as the eye could see, inscribed with numerous runes along its entire length. They observed a flood of young cultivators entering through the gates.

“Oh I forgot to mention,” Zhu Que suddenly stated as if he just thought of something, “Today is the outer court disciple examination. As the disciples of the esteemed Zhu Que... uhh.... I cannot allow you to... uhh.... take shortcuts due to my position. Thus you two will take the exam!”

Zhu Que smiled broadly as lied through his teeth. He couldn’t just say that he had forgotten to fill out the proper paperwork. ‘What kind of master would they think I am if I told them I forgot?’ He thought.

Li Jie and Zhu Hao could tell from his expression that the real reason for making them take the test was something stupid. They both sighed inwardly--a habit they picked up after meeting their master.

“Everyone please hurry, the cultivation level exam will begin soon,” a qi-enhanced voice rang out, “Shortly after the cultivation level exam, we will begin the combat exam.”

The two young cultivators found themselves suddenly thrusted into the surging crowd due to a certain giant pushing them; they managed to turn their heads around just to see their master with a silly grin plastered on his face and waving his hands as if he were a father sending off his kids.