Chapter Nine

A never ending war plague the Kingdom of Liang, their citizens' livelihood was heavily affected. Resources were scarce, because of these; slavery runs rampant across the land. But that's not enough to cause headache to the royal family and its officers. Mothers became widows and children became orphans, even though the King of Liang compensated those families who lost their love ones in war, it was not enough. Having no choice the King of Liang desperately conquered those abandoned villages and gave it to the people who lost their homes and cultivate different kinds of crops and livestock. But these are for long-term plans, what the King of Liang did was to enroll those orphans to the Fallen Star Sect!

The homeless young orphans who desperately tried to live just for another day, finally has hope. The King of Liang's announcements change their fate of being a scum in the society, who will do anything just for a scrap of food. The Fallen Star sect's reaction were surprising favorable and agreed to this proposal.

The Fallen Star sect is the only institute under the Kingdom of Liang who trained people that have a chance in shedding their mortal body and become a cultivator. A martial cultivator in the mortal world was akin to gods, they fly into sky, control weather, and riding a divine beast. Mortals can only worshipped them in the distance, and every year children below ten years has a chance in becoming martial cultivators whether you are from a respective family or a commoner.

However in the past only few children will show promise and even those who was recommended by an influential family can only pack their bags and go home. The sect was very strict in choosing new disciples but due to the war their standards of choosing change dramatically.

Many young orphans showed great aptitude in cultivation, one after another shocked the elders who preside over the recruitment process. Seven out of ten young boys or girls below ten years old will pass the Sect's entrance exams turning into a commotion. Maybe because of the harsh environment caused by war forcing these poor souls to adapt to it and become stronger. These were the elders' thoughts. Even the King of Liang who didn't expect much was beaming with happiness upon hearing the news.

Due to the support of the King of Liang and the promises he made, the people whose doubt was preventing them from sending their own child was now convinced and flooded the Fallen Star sect with more applicants for testing, creating chaos in the recruitment area.

In these past few days, the King of Liang was beaming with happiness, even the servants and his concubines can clearly feel it. However it didn't last long when a messenger from the Fallen Star sect requests an audience.

"CALL EVERYONE HERE RIGHT NOW! I WANT TO KNOW MORE DETAILS ABOUT THIS!" said the roaring King of Liang. When he stared at the kneeling messenger of the Fallen Star sect, his anger rises.

The once vacant Palace Halls were now filled with influential people. And inside the throne room; Head division leaders, and generals were present; household leaders were also in attendance whether they're doing something important or not. Some were even grumbling on how precious they're time was, but the King ignored all of this.

"Headmaster Sun I want to know the details about the message you sent me!" said the King of Liang coldly. His mood was at worst right now, they need capable soldiers that can fight back against the people of Han Empire and now some talented youngsters died on an unknown expedition without his knowledge?! He can only grit his teeth in frustration and wait for information.

Wearing a white robe, Headmaster Sun was a middle age looking man. With a peaceful aura surrounding his bearings, his smiling eyes shows that he didn't care about the King who was showing a hostile attitude in front of him.

"Greetings your majesty!" bowing slightly to show his courtesy he continued. "As you can see the current situation is like this…a few months ago in the Ruined Temple of Goddess Lily showed a phenomenon in the sky. Where a disciple who was training at the area reported this to us, so we sent a team in a scouting mission…according to their last report was that they saw a huge door and without our approval they went inside to explore. Weeks later the life tablet of Elder Song, Wang Wei, and Chen Gui exploded so the disciple who was in charge of those life tablets alerted us" said Headmaster Sun calmly.

A commotion erupted among the officials inside…

"How come no one told us about this?"

"So they were not ambush by the Han Empire…"

"This is the first time a door appeared in that place, as far as history goes there's never been anything worth our attention in that training ground…"

"That's right we only send disciples below Core formation realm there to train, there's nothing else is in there, we clearly explored that place already…"

"And you said in the message there were five of them who went inside, I only heard three broken life tablets, what happened to the other two?" ask the King of Liang. Hearing this everyone quieted down and waited for Headmaster Sun's reply.

"The two life tablets belongs to Li Jie and Zhang Min, however we don't have any means to know their situation right now. So we sent five teams with ten members each, their mission is to guard the door and wait for the return of the scouting team" said Headmaster Sun with a smiling face.

"Humph, you better make sure no more casualties will occur this time, we are already losing as it is, and we need more capable soldiers! We don't have time and resources in exploring ruins!" said the King of Liang with a tone suggested that he doesn't want to hear any more bad news.

"Understood your majesty, if it will make you relax a bit we also sent Shangguan Wan'er into this mission, she likes to explore ruins the most" said Headmaster Sun.

When they heard the name Shangguan Wan'er the officials can't help but smile proudly even the King did the same.

Five years ago during the recruitment process a girl of ten years of age was one of the applicants ready to be tested. Wearing only ragged clothing that exposes some skin, this shows that this girl was a slave. The disciple in charge the recruitment process merely glance at her and repeat the instructions he was given and guide them through the process, albeit lazily.

"This pedestal is called the All-seeing stone, you do not need to do anything just simply put your hands on it and it will give lights with different colors. When you know what color your light is, you can come report it to me after you're done" After explaining the disciple went back to his wooden chair and small desk then waited for the slave girl to finished.

The slave girl clearly doesn't mind about the attitude these people showed her, she's used to it anyway. Looming above her was a huge stone, the All-seeing stone people used to identify a person's potential in becoming a cultivator.

The All-seeing stone has nine transparent crystal orbs embedded unto it, when used will emit different colors. But right now all crystal orbs were gray white waiting for participants to light them and get their results. Before her turn most participants produced colors between yellow and green, she also saw rare blue colored light which made the surrounding disciples praised him immensely.

She did not want anything else she just wants to have a place called home; maybe she can finally have that when they accepted her. Like most people, she feels excited at the same time nervous. If she passed the test that would be great, if she fails she'll just go back to that cold place and wait for death.

Extending her thin and pale right hand, she felt the cold and smooth surface of the stone. The transparent crystal orbs that were dull seconds ago. Produce white light that she felt holy. It was warm and not aggressive on the eyes she can clearly feel at peace staring into this light. But not a second later all nine orbs blasted a strong energy that throws the surrounding people away. Only she was standing still with her eyes closed.

The different colored light expanded to form a cocoon and covered the slave girl into a protective shell. After a while cracks formed and like shattered glass, exploded out and the girl was now emitting an aura that suffocates the participants and disciples a like.

The slave girl slowly opened her eyes and felt she was reborn, unbeknownst to her the blood in her veins is now different from light and dark red, from time to time it will show different colors that releases energy and strengthens every part of her body.

Looking at her surroundings, she noticed that the place was a mess; people were crawling on the ground. It's like a hurricane just passed by.

*RUMBLE* *RUMBLE* the All-seeing stone slowly collapsed to the ground creating dust of dirt. Shock. She couldn't understand what just happened, all she did was followed what the disciple said. Not knowing what to do, she silently sighed. "Well I might as well wait here doing unnecessary things might make things worst" she thought bitterly. Standing like a statue she waited for the disciples of the sect, whether they will punish her not, she could only live it up to fate.

Out of nowhere a beautiful middle age woman appeared in front of her. Her robe was fluttering in the wind together with her pitch black hair. Her smile that gives her comfort slightly thaws the coldness in her heart.

Like a lost child in the desert the appearance of this woman who became her master afterwards set the world into motion.

"I see that's reassuring if Shangguan Wan'er is leading the expedition, then we can only wait for good news" said the King of Liang. His anger subsided, but when he thought about the loss of three talented youngsters he couldn't' help feel pain in his heart.