Boom!

A person wearing dark colored armor is blasted through the air, slamming into a wall before finally coming to a stop. Their limp body slides down the wall to crumple into a pile at the bottom of it. Another person in dark armor rushes over to check upon them and then the crowd lets out a collective sigh as the person makes a thumbs up signal. Then everyone looks back to the center of the fighting ring where the combatant had just been launched from. A young man is standing there in a fighting pose, having already drawn back his fist and returned to his ready position. He stays in this pose until the judge at the side of the ring finally comes to his senses and makes a declaration.

“Yazhu is the winner!”

Only when the match had been called did the young man relax from his fighting pose. He stood up straight, turned around and then walked out of the fighting ring. While he left, the others at the side of the ring loaded the unconscious man onto a stretcher and carried him out. The man had been knocked out before he hit the wall and they brought him out to be treated by a Doctor. Everyone had been visibly relieved to see that the man was not dead, and once that concern was taken care of all their eyes went to the cause of the trouble. The young man wore dark armor just like every other person participating and spectating the match.

Around the fighting ring were many tiers of stadium seating with room for thousands of spectators. At this time there were only hundreds in attendance, but there was a portion of the stands that was notably more comfortable in appearance. The simple benches were replaced by full chairs which were occupied by the only people that were not wearing the standard armor of all the others. Among these privileged people, there was a very solemn conversation underway.

“As you can see, Yazhu didn’t do any permanent damage to his opponent.”

“If his control is that good, then he could also have won without completely humiliating his opponent and knocking them out in a single strike. The little brat is a little too eager to show off. You need to knock some sense into him.”

The person being talked to was a woman with a dress worn over her armor and she let out a soft sigh, “You’re right. He’s a little too excited to fight and show off his skills. I’ll make sure he realizes that this is only training. He shouldn’t be so harsh upon his own allies.”

“Good. I don’t want us to be like those foolish Sects and Clans that are so busy trying to show off and compete that they cripple their own people and then get rewarded for it.”

Rising from his seat after stating his opinion, Sage left Yijun and walked out of the practice arena. Yazhu was his fourth son, Ling’s third child, and very eager to prove himself. Sage felt the boy needed a scolding, but he would let Yijun try to curb his attitude first. He would only step in if it were to get worse than it already was.

In that regard, he wasn’t that different from his siblings. They were all coming of age and working hard to prove themselves. His first two sons were already making their mark upon the Inner World. One of them had formed a mercenary company, while the other opened up a chain of herbal shops.

Ling’s first daughter, Yaling, had already chosen the path of the Insect Tamer and she was out wandering the world collecting specimens. She already had access to Sage’s collection, but she insisted on going out to see what was out there. Since Sage had released his insects into the wild, thousands of years had passed, so he let her do as she wished, since she might just find something. Jiao’s first daughter, Bingqing, had taken a completely different path, focusing all of her effort on Water based Qi techniques. She mixed various poisons into her water attacks to multiply her combat power.

Little Xing, on the other hand, was quite a tragic child. The little boy with tear stained eyes had never given up and he showed an immense tenaciousness as he grew older. As he grew, it became apparent that his talent was not very high and when he saw his younger siblings surpassing him it might have caused him great pain, but he instead worked harder. When he was just reaching adulthood he took the path that Sage constantly warned them of, experimenting with his own body. Most of the children followed the single perfect recipe they knew of to get a body made of Spirit Jade, but Xingwang tried to forge his own path. He failed in that he ended up with a body of stone. Yet, he still never gave up and continued to force his way forward, spending all day and night training his body to be immune to damage.

Xing’s two younger sisters took strange paths. Yujie constantly quarreled with her older sister Bingqing and so out of spite she trained in Fire elemental Qi techniques. To compete, she developed a poison that turned out to be a flammable mist. Without caring about her two older sisters, Fangdan took directly after her mother. She used the Zhu Clan’s spider, which had venom that boosted physical ability. Sage had watched Jiao use it to get super strength, or at least that’s what he thought. Fangdan went a step further and used the Nine Heart Arrangement to develop poisons that enhanced different parts of the body more than others.

Ling’s three younger children were also on unusual paths. Sage’s third daughter and Ling’s third child, Yawen, used the enhanced pheromones of her Paradise Mantis heritage in a strange way. She said she awakened an ancestral memory and it taught her how to confuse others. Just like that Succubus Beetle, she could make a complete stranger believe that she was their ally, or to simply ignore her presence altogether. Of her younger brothers, Yazhu, was the martial fanatic that just won in the fighting ring. The youngest of Ling’s children was the real oddball and the most disappointing of Sage’s children. He had learned how to use his pheromones to seduce women and spent most of his time being a sleazeball.

The little punk, Yahui, caused the most trouble of them all. Somehow he’d tricked his own guards into doing his bidding and the kid had skimmed thousands of gold coins before getting caught. He was then grounded and even earned himself a punishing training regimen as a reward. At least until he was able to sneak off again. Sage wasn’t sure what to do about the boy so he just let him do what he wanted. Sure, he could capture him quite easily with his power over the Inner World, but then what? Would that make him change his ways? Was he supposed to just beat the proper attitude into him? Yahui was the subject of many discussions between Ling, Jiao and Sage. Ling was exceedingly embarrassed about his troublesome personality and hedonistic tendencies.

Well, nine out of ten is a pretty good ratio at least. They do say there’s always a black sheep in the family, right?