Theon Airikson: The Trial Begins

There's nothing I hate more than noise, and once upon a time, the four winds sect was filled with it. I guess you could say it was one of the many reasons I was downright diabolical and spoilt at times but, right now I miss it. I miss the hundreds of slaves, servants, and disciples that moved around on their day to day activities. The elders giving lectures, the alchemist cooking up all manner of concoctions foul and pleasant. The engineers and forge masters thinking up the next big technology, and my father scheming, growing in power and making a plethora of deals that would help the sect move forward. But he was gone now, and whether I liked it or not it was up to me to make sure that whatever is left  doesn't go to shit, and not because I'm bound by some obligation, but because if the four winds sect does not stand again, then I am so fucked, and not in a nice way.

Of the Ark-Land left in the sect, only the prime is left standing. It wasn't that large of a land, it was just under ten hectares, housing just the manor, the shrine, and the control chambers. Which was my current destination at the moment. Apart from my mentally challenged mother, just the family butler and head maid was here with me, everyone else was gone. Not that I cared, or rather I did not want to care about being abandoned and betrayed by the people I have Known my entire life. I guess you could say that my father passing away gave me a new perspective on life, I wonder if I really was such a monster as everyone said I was. Was I so terrible that none of them even cared to stay behind and serve the family they swore fealty to, instead they left, ran and never looked back. Taking everything that was of worth with them and leaving me high and dry.

I looked at the control chamber in front of me, it was a peach tree. Though this one was massive, really tall with a lot of hanging Vines and branches and filled to the brim with monkeys of a variety of species. At the very least this was the only thing that was left intact, the annoying infestation of primates. They were a feature of the primary ark land, and hurting them would result in expulsion or instant death from the land itself. Ark lands were rare, they were pieces of unclaimed land masses around the cursed ocean that could be attuned to any other ark land, growing the land itself and adding new features to it. The four winds sect used to have a total of 88 Ark lands, each unique and different in their rarity. Never the less the basic characteristics of this ark land is that it spawns monkeys or rather has an ecology of primates of different species. None of them has ever been successfully domesticated, which made them nothing more than useless free loaders, the moment I see another way, I'm getting rid of them.

The tree had a door that led into it, along with stairs that grew out of it's side, leading up to the door that was midway to the top of the tree. I ascended, taking notice of the fact that all of the monkeys had stopped what they were doing and were ardently watching me. It was jarring and extremely nerve wracking, it was so similar to the time my father and the clan elders had to test me, when they found out my mother had placed a cursed crown on my head in a fit of madness and rage. It made me unable to cultivate, made me useless ..... A monster. Well not that i regret what I have become, it would have just been nice to have power to go with being a debaucherous black hearted bastard.

I came to a stop in front of the door, I looked up to notice a peculiar cloud hanging underneath the canopy of the tree, it was weird, because for a moment I almost felt as if it was looking at me, but it's a cloud, that should be impossible. I moved my gaze back to the door in front of me, surprisingly it was made of iron, or rather it seemed to be made of iron as the door itself grew out of the tree. Nothing strange about that, I've seen people get healed from eating unicorn shit and piss. A tree growing a wooden door was not so high on the strange things list.

However there was a monkey man thing embossed in it… weird, I hated the damn picture already. He was holding a staff, and oh look,  he's standing on some sort of cloud… damn thing looks familiar if I might add. "where have I seen something similar?" well nothing I can do about that, I'd remember it eventually, i shrugged my shoulders and placed my hand on the door, the cloud above me totally forgotten and not even considered for the very stark resemblance it had with the cloud on the door.

[BLOODLINE RECOGNIZED! GRANTING ACCESS TO USER DESIGNATED THEON AIRIKSON!]

Well that was enlightening and at the same time really weird. It was crazy, but this was the first time I was seeing a system message since I was six, since that bloody crown was placed onto my head and it proceeded to sink in, cutting me off from the system and a chance to cultivate. The iron door slid to the side, opening up to a room that had nothing but a table with  a peach floating on top of it. I raised an eyebrow at that as I walked into the room, and as the door slid close behind me I raised the other as my heart let out a loud thump, fear almost taking over me.

But it was silent, and for a while until I decided to move it was just me and the floating peach. I shook my head, obviously I have to eat the damn thing. Did I want to? Absolutely not! Did I have a choice? Also absolutely not! "fuck!" I moved forwards taking three giant steps, grabbed the peach and took one massive bite out of it… … and I won't lie; it was the single most revolting… most tastiest thing I have ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth. Just because my heart is black, it doesn't mean my tongue should be too. And in seconds I found myself rapidly devouring the peach, until there was nothing left but a very satisfied half human, half demon. I shuddered, feeling an itch at the base of my waist that I didn't expect, and even more so when a tail tore a hole through my trousers.

"Oh what the fuck!"

[NEW MASTER ACKNOWLEDGE!]

[BLOODLINE RECOGNIZED AS HYBRID HUMAN AND WINDICE ROYAL MONKEY]

[BLOODLINE RECOGNIZED AS DIRECT LINE TO THE GREAT SAGE EQUAL TO HEAVEN SUN WUKONG!]

[FLOWER AND FRUIT MOUNTAIN TRIAL WILL BEGIN FOR FULL ACCESS TO CORE DIRECTIVES AND SYSTEM]

All of a sudden the world fell away and I found myself at a river behind a tall hill, and from the hill the water rushed down, making a powerful cascade as the waterfall glistened with a purity unlike anything I have ever experienced. This place was familiar to me, however I had only seen this place once before, and it was by accident as I had stumbled here as a kid before. But since then I have never been able to find it, and now all of a sudden here it was in front of me. I crouched down, looking at the river as it flowed past, brightly colored koi fishes swam about without a care in the world. There were massive rocks and boulders stuck in the river with some of them placed evenly underneath the waterfall, and finally there were monkeys, lots and lots of monkeys, and they were all just sitting there watching me.

[TRIAL: WALK THROUGH THE WATER CURTAIN CAVE AND COME BACK TO BECOME THE MONKEY KING! UNLOCK ALL ACCESS TO FLOWERS AND FRUIT MOUNTAIN]

A monkey king? Absolutely not! And as if to prove just how messed up of a situation this was, the tail that had suddenly grown out of my body waved itself into view, prompting me to release a growl of annoyance. This was fucked up beyond all fucked up measures and it was making me so fucking angry and in a lot of fucking ways. I really wanted to fuck something up as this fucking trial was forcing me to fucking accept something I didn't want to fucking accept!

"I hate Monkeys!"

"Well it's not as if you have a choice." I quickly turned around at the voice, completely shocked at who I saw here.

"Mom? What are you doing here?" I asked her as I quickly rushed to her side to hold her hands, her thin frame looking like a reed that could be blown away by the smallest gust of wind. She stiffened as I touched her, and while the reaction to her own son coming close to her hurt me, I still chose to swallow it as I led her to a well sized rock to sit on the river bank, her bare feet sinking into the river as she let out a contented sigh.

"I came to visit my family, it's been such a long time since your father trapped me in this human body, with him dead I finally have access and a chance to come back here and meet with my family. Look,  there's my father." I almost wanted to cry, I had a great deal of fear and love for my father, but even with how black my heart was, I can not even begin to imagine the hell he had put my mother through. He drove her crazy, made her think she used to be a monkey,  just so….

"Its that you daughter?"

"Jesus!"

I screamed out loud as a macaque with snow white fur and bands of blue and green running from his face to the middle of his back appeared out of nowhere. Now normally a macaque, monkey should be about the height of a four or five year old, but this dude was over nine feet tall and had fangs that made me weak in the knees, and it was much more worse when you consider the fact that he was talking, a giant monkey that can talk. Unless he was a demon beast with an extremely high cultivation this shouldn't be possible, however here it is, the unthinkable happening in a world where the impossible was the general norm.

"It is good to see you again Baba. Look it's my son's turn to take the trial, I believe he would pass, he is one of us after all."

The only response she got was a wild roar as the giant macaque smashed his fist into the ground and rushed at me, grabbing me by the neck as he raised me up, his gaze blood red and filled with rage and anger.

" This thing is an abomination! He should not exist! He does not deserve, in fact forget deserving he is not worthy! Daughter you are back, you can be queen once again! Allow me to end this stain, this blemish on the legacy of the great sage!....let me kill him!"

My eyes widened in surprise as I turned to look at my mother, I felt a chill so significant I shivered in the hands of what I now realize was or rather is my grandfather. She hesitated, I saw it in her eyes, for a few short moments she considered doing what he asked of her, it made me wonder why she hated me so much, why is it that no matter what I do or try to do I can never be good enough for my mother. She wanted me dead, she didn't want me…

"No! Father how dare you! He is my son! My child! If I say he is worthy, then you are unworthy to even judge his worth! Now put my baby down! Or I'll show you just how dangerous a mother monkey can be, especially when she's a demon descended from Sun Wukong himself."

My crazy monkey of a grandfather put me down with a loud grunt, and then right before my very eyes he shrunk until he was… well tiny. He looked at my mother for a while before going to pick a rock of his own to sit on, his gaze dull yet still burning with Killing intent. I felt so lost, and this was saying something as even with my father's death I have not been caught off guard yet.

"You have questions, there is so much you need to know, and I will tell you. But only on the condition you pass the trial in front of you." My mother said as she slowly got back up to her feet, causing me to look back at the waterfall as I wrapped my hands around my sore neck. I turned to her to ask.

"What if I fail?" in response her eyes turned a bright gold, with red right in the middle before she said to me.

"Then I'll kill you Myself!"