3 Bad luck makes everything crumble.
Prologue 3.
Two years seemed to pass by in a flash for Yao Jun. In the mornings he would train with his father and Uncle Wuying, in the afternoon he would go out and play with the other children of the Yao clan, and in the evening he would spend time with his mother.
After two years of training, he had grown taller, his cheeks were no longer round and cute like they used to be. His features had started to grow more distinct and delicate, making him resemble his mother. Coupled with his shiny black hair and glimmering black eyes, he was considered very handsome.
Today was a very special day in the Yao clan, so Yao Jun had gotten up earlier than usual to prepare. Today was the day that all the children that were at a certain age would get to learn what their inborn power was.
There were two ways to find out what your inborn power was. The first was by letting it awaken naturally, which would happen when the child turned ten. The other way was by having someone else use their strong cultivation to drag out your power, allowing you to awaken it prematurely.
Once every year, the Yao clan would gather all the children who were seven and awaken all their powers. This was done because waiting till they were ten to start training them was too late, but starting when they were six was too early.
Yao Jun had asked his father to awaken his power several times already, but his father had always just laughed and said that there was no need to be impatient, forcing Yao Jun to wait.
At noon, the children and their parents all gathered in the large square located in front of the main building. At the center of the square stood three old men clad Yao clan robes. Their robes were decorated with golden threads, showing off the high status that they had.
"I am eighth elder Xiang, and I will be responsible for this year's awakening. Next to me are ninth elder Rong and tenth elder Duan Bo."
One of the old men standing in the square spoke up as he was looking at the crowd. His words instantly caused the people to straighten their back and hold their breath. In the Yao clan, below the patriarch was the vice patriarch, and below the vice patriarch were the ten core elders. Clearly, these three men belonged to the highest of echelons in the Yao clan.
The three core elders quickly organized all the children, making them stand in a single line. Since it was only the children that were seven years old taking part, there were only around 30 children, which was considered a rather small number.
The awakening was very simple. The child would stand in front of the eighth elder, and the eighth elder would input his Qi into the child's chest. The eighth elder would then make the Qi course through the child's entire body, forcing the inborn power to manifest itself.
Yao Jun was placed at the front of the group, so he only had to watch a few people undergo the awakening before it was his turn. Watching the children in front of him undergo the awakening, he got more and more excited. After each awakening, the eighth elder would speak out and explain what the power could do.
One of the children awakened the power to control stones, causing the ground around to him to quake as his power awakened. Another one awakened the power to produce different sounds in his surroundings, it seemed rather useless, but it could be good for transporting information in emergencies.
After waiting for what felt like an eternity, it was finally Yao Jun's turn. He stepped forward and stood in front of the three old men, his heart pounding in his chest. His father had the extraordinary power to control space, while his mother had the power to control ice. What sort of power would he awaken, when his parents were already this awesome?
The eighth elder stretched out his hand and placed it on Yao Jun's chest, a scorching stream of energy quickly entering Yao Jun's body, coursing throughout his entire body. The energy dug into every corner of his body, seemingly looking for something.
When the energy reached the area around his heart, there was a reaction. Yao Jun could feel his chest start vibrating, a strange energy appearing next to his heart, instantly swallowing the scorching energy of the eighth elder. After the scorching energy in his chest was swallowed, the strange energy started coursing through his body, quickly swallowing the rest of the scorching energy.
After all the scorching energy was swallowed, the strange energy returned to the center of his chest and settled down. After a short moment, the strange energy coagulated and started forming a simple, black gate. After the black gate was fully formed, it flew out from his chest and appeared in the air ahead of him.
Everyone was looking at the gate with expectation in their eyes. The gate started slowly opening, but the moment it started opening, Yao Jun noticed that something was wrong. He could not feel anything from the gate floating in front of him, it was completely dead. Once the gate was completely open and people expected something to appear, nothing happened.
The gate was completely silent and without movement. The people looked at the gate for a bit longer, still waiting for something to happen. After this continued for a few minutes, people gradually realized that something wasn't right.
"Empty gate, no uses."
The eighth elder spoke out, his voice completely emotionless. Yao Jun's power was worse than a bad power, it was completely useless. At least a bad power could be used for something, it might even have some situations where it was useful. But the gate in front of him was completely empty, with no signs of life or energy, it was completely useless.
Yao Jun stood there, his face blank and pale. He, of course, heard what the eighth elder said. He understood that his power was useless before the eighth elder even opened his mouth, but he simply couldn't accept it! He had waited for so long to awaken his power. He wanted to get a strong power, to follow in his parent's footsteps and fight the Demon Race, to defend the Yao clan. How would he ever do that with a useless power?
His mind went completely blank, so when he saw his parents step forward to come and pull him back, he panicked. He had spoken so confidently about how he would follow in his parent's footsteps. They chided him whenever he said it aloud, but he could also see the pride that they were trying to hide deep within their eyes. Now he had turned out to be useless, a burden.
The shame he felt caused him to panic, so he did the first thing he could think of, he ran. He ran away from the square. Ran past all the people that were standing there, looking at him. He could see the pity in their eyes as they looked at him. Those who he didn't have that good a relationship with were even looking at him in scorn.
"Don't look at me!"
He couldn't help but scream out as he ran, covering his face with his arms. He didn't want to see their eyes, didn't want to see their pity. He kept running until he was home, then he ran into his room and shut the door, quickly locking it. After he locked his door, he sat down on his bed and covered his entire body under his covers, curling up as he laid there in silence.
He knew it already, that everything was over. His power was useless, he was nothing but a burden to his parents and the Yao clan. He knew that this was how life was, a single mistake and everything you have can crumble. But what made it even worse for him was that it wasn't even one of his mistakes that made everything crumble, it was simply bad luck.
