Xiao waited for his mother to finish with her measurements before he stepped forward to take his, having to remove his cloak and outer robe, the man was done in a few minutes and moved back thanking Xiao before he was allowed to get dressed again. He watched as his mother handed over five gold coins to the man for the shipment and then making of the robes, she also gave him extra because of the short time that he had to make the robes and honestly if he wanted to keep nay of the gowns he would hurry.

When they were finished they went across to a jewelry store and Xiao stood watch as his mother went through the different gold ornaments, picking out a really large and beautiful one for herself and then she, picked out a few earrings rings and bands along with a chain. When she paid and packaged everything they headed over to a store so she was fitted with new shoes and he got his own pair and then they finally made their way back to the temple going through the same door.

The Priestess lead Xiao to his room and went into his closet pulling out his all black three layered robes and helped him to change into them. He placed a kiss on his mothers cheek and then went out the door and into a large carriage where other girls and boys his age were sitting in wait. Some of them greeted him some even going so far as to give him a respectful bow, he knew they only did it because he was known as the Priestesses son.

He looked out the window until the carriage finally stopped in front of a large white building that was maybe half the size of the temple but was still quite large. He and the other children jumped out the carriage and lined up next to each other, all of them were dressed in black robes of different styles. Only the girls had a sash o red going around their waist and their hair was tied up by a red band.

A tall beast man came out the building and he too was dressed in the black robes, his eyes scanned the line of students and a smile formed on his face "You children make me so proud to see how big you have grown. To be able to see so many of you at once at the coming of age ceremony brings a smile to my face, it's as if I'm watching my own children become the new leaders of our country, I could not imagine a more beautiful sight."

"Okay but before we see you at the ceremony tonight we must have a bit of a competition for you. I once told you that as long as you breath the test you face will be never ending and I hope that you took that to your soul because it is true." He received a nod from all his students and he smiled again " well let's go in and a final test of your strength shall be carried out before you big night begins." He turned and headed in with all the children in tow.

They walked down a grand hall passing all the classrooms and went straight out the back of the school that lead to their training arena. Xiao looked around and could see a few parents watching on with the younger students and looked straight ahead, he knew the Priestess couldn't be here for the simple fact that she was the priestess and was in charge of the ceremony so she had to spend the few hours before it;s time preparing it.

He took his mind off of it and went over to the stand where different weapons were laid out on a rack. The weapons weren't the regular training ones that he and the class had been using every time they trained, but instead the weapons were real and it was weapons that each child parents had had crafted for them. Xiao was quick to spot his because it was the biggest one on the stand and while the other blades were silver and shined, his was as dark as coal and carried a hilt made of pure gold.

He picked up the sword and swung it around in his hands even tossing it in the sky and catching it by the hilt as it landed, as big as the sword was, was as light as it was so he could do anything he wanted with it. The other students stepped forward to collect there weapons, one girl had a blade that was red and curved. She swung it around and shoved it back in it's sheet, before giving Xiao a glance and heading on her way.

Xiao went and joined the line and with a whistle two students went out to the center of the ring and faced each other before the fight begun, one was a girl that carried a bladed whip and the other was a guy that carried a golden scythe. The guy was the first to attack swinging his scythe in the air and then slamming it down on the ground, the earth raised up and went straight in the girls direction, but she was able to jump out of the way and that was the start of the fight.

The guy eventually won when he hooked the edge of the girls whip and swung his scythe around causing the whip to spin around it until she was forced to let go and he kicked her in her stomach sending her out the ring. The match was called and the guy quickly ran over to get the girl and help her up and lead her to the benches. Xiao wondered how lucky she felt because this tournament didn't really count for the grades that said whether or not a person would be part of the coming of age ceremony.

As far as Xiao knew it was only there for fun but he wasn't going to lose to anyone just because he wanted to have some fun, first of all it would be downright embarrassing to lose to people he didn't like too much. And then he was known as the son of the temple and if he lost or did something bad it would reflect badly on the temple and he's rather not have to sit and listen to one of his mother's never ending rants.

So it went on and on a pair of students went up and fought against each other, the losing one of the two went to sit in the stands while the other rejoined the line, until it was Xiao's turn to fight. He held his sword in had and walked into the ring with his opponent, a male that was bigger than him and had horns pointing out of his head. Xiao had seen many children like him before and he was never afraid of them, the bigger they were the harder they fell.

And to be honest Xiao didn't really want to fight, he just wanted whatever this was to hurry and finish so he could return home and read until it was time for him to get ready. The other student swung around his battle ax and screamed as a very unimpressed Xiao, Xioa knew that the child's parents were watching and didn't want to embarrass him too much. So he took his stance as the boy did the same and with one push of right foot he had dashed across the ring going straight past the boy.

For a second it looked like nothing happened and then the boys battle ax went flying into the air and landed straight out of the ring as the boy fell to his knees gasping for breath. There was a few moments of stunned silence and then the whistle went of signalling the end of what people would hesitate to call a fight. Xiao went and helped the boy to his feet before turning and heading out the ring with his sword thrown over his shoulder.

The fight continued until once again it was only him and another student, it was the girl with the curved blade, who watched him with suspicion as they made their way into the ring. He had done the same move the last three times he had to fight and something told him that it might have been a bad idea to do it so many times in a row but he didn't care because it worked. Eac of his fights were painfully short, just the way he liked it.

Soon as the whistle went off the girl didn't wait for him to take his stance instead she dashed forward and tried to do Xiao's own move on him. Everyone in the stands cheered when she went past him and waited to see what would happen to him, but as an unimpressed look passed over Xiao's face they knew nothing was going to happen. He turned to face the girl as she turned to face him and shook his head at her.

He knew she was frozen so he just flipped his sword and threw it at her, the head of the handle connected with her stomach and sent her flying out the ring with a loud scream. Everyone was silent as he made his way over to her, he collected his sword dropping it in it's sheet and then reached down and picked her off the ground. He carried her over to the stand where a man stood to collect her and then Xiao turned to leave the arena and then the school all together.

"Xiao-ping!" he looked back to see his teacher coming after him with a strange mixture of anger and worry on his face and Xiao didn't by the worry part one bit. His teacher stopped in front of him and stared into the younger males eyes before sighing "you know right now I have no idea what to say to you," Xiao gave him a curious look and the man sighed again "I don't know whether to yell at you for hurting your peer so badly or congratulate you on your win but I will tell you that that girl's father wasn't too happy with what you did."

Xiao gave him a blank look and the man shook his head "never mind son, just go home." Xiao spun on his heel and headed out the school yard and instead of hailing a carriage he decided it would be good for him to take the long walk home and use it to cool down. He knew that the only reason the girls father was angry with him instead of his daughter was because it was a known fact that he wasn't one of their kind and no one liked losing to someone that wasn't of their kind if they had no choice but to lose.

He finally made it back to the temple after a long walk that had him soaked through his robes, he went to his room and stripped down before going into his personal bathing area and taking a soak in his pool.