Memories / Taboo

**POV**

I had a dream, a long dream.

In my dream, I was walking with my father and mother while holding hands in the garden.

Then suddenly, the sky turned red, a black hole suddenly appeared in front of us.

My mother... she let go of my hand.

My father, although he didn't let go, I could sense his hand shaking.

Mother turned around, she squatted down and embraced me in her arms.

Her face was wearing a smile, a gentle and kind smile. But her eyes were filled with sadness.

" Xiao Feng, my cute little darling, don't forget the promise that you made me ... I hope you grow up and become a gentle and kind man "

Then she walked through the hole.

My father was still shaking

" My son, don't worry. I won't disappear, I will always be by your side. "

This is the last time I saw my mother.

I saw this dream countless times in the past.

I nearly forgot about this dream.

No, it was not a dream...

It was my memory.

Then, I woke up at a scream.

" Xiao Feng! "

Who was calling me? it was my father's voice...

I opened my eyes, I saw a face.

It was a beautiful girl, her eyes were red, like my mother's.

I would have probably mistaken her for an angel if not for her tattered clothes and the blood covering her forehead.

But above all, what surprised me was that she was wearing the same smile my mother had.

I asked her who she was.

My memory became fuzzy at that moment.

The smile on that girl's face faded, It was now filled with sadness.

Did I repeat the same mistake as in the past? Was it my fault that my mother left me?

My heart was beating fast.

Then my father came and embraced me in his arms

" Father?! "

" Don't worry son, I'll always stay with you ... "

It was these words that he said to me in the past.

It was these words that made me comfortable in the present.

I slept again...

It was only after a certain event, that I finally began to remember my last 3 days...

**POV/End**

Qianli woke up the third day.

She had recuperated enough of her strength, and her injuries seemed to have been healed.

The woman who was here yesterday, treated her when she was asleep. She also left her with a new pair of clothing.

Qianli was now ready to participate in the exams again.

She headed out of the room, she faintly heard someone talking and crossed the hall till she saw a familiar place. Apparently, she was still in the Academy's corpus.

The crowd of people was still there, people were still passing the exam.

She heaved a sigh of relief, fortunately, the exam was 4 days long, so she still had time to pass the other 3 exams.

During the time when she was asleep, the majority of people succeeded in passing 2 tests. Some even passed the 3rd test.

And only 5 people finished the whole exam.

Of course, not counting those who did drop out, or were chased away for causing troubles or cheating.

She walked through the crowd and saw a familiar face.

It was Xiao Feng!

She remembered what happened in the city Lord's mansion 3 days ago.

She wanted to know if he recovered his memory. Her heart was still aching for some unknown reason.

When she headed to him, she suddenly stopped. Two girls jumped out of nowhere and stood beside him in a familiar manner.

One of the girls was holding his hand. While the other one was casually chatting with him.

" Xiao Feng! I heard you got full marks in not only the physical and spiritual but also the aptitude test, it's really incredible! Even my little sister barely managed to get a 4 on that aptitude test! "

" I just had some luck."

The one girl who was holding his hand was the fairy maiden, the other one was her big sister.

" But you know, even if it's luck, you should be proud of it. Not only you are the few ones who got hold of this record, but I think that even in the entire exam you may uphold the first position. At that time, those sects will fight among themselves to recruit you. "

" haha... "

" If only my little sister could learn something from you... "

Hearing her complaints, the fairy maiden shot a disagreeable stare at her big sister.

" Hmph, big sister you meanie! I also could've scored full marks if I wanted to !"

" Then do so instead of playing around like 3 years old! "

" Haha..."

Xiao Feng kept smiling awkwardly at this situation, in the past 2 days he got acquainted with these sisters while he was training in the courtyard to prepare for the exam.

His power became even fiercer, and he managed to breakthrough from the 8th rank of profound Realm to the 1st rank of the Spiritual Realm.

If others heard of his progress they would have been frightened to death.

So he kept a low profile and hid his true strength to that of the 8th rank of the profound realm.

The fairy maiden was particularly attracted to him this past two days. Other people may not enter her sight, but when she saw that his power was that of the 8th rank, same as her. She kept following him.

As a boy, how could he not understand her way of thinking?

It's only because she was a special guest in his house, that he kept laughing awkwardly at his situation.

" ... how did become like that... "

He tried to remember what happened to him from before, but couldn't. It was a part of his soul was missing.

While the two sisters were continuously arguing, he turned around to the crowd, and there he saw...

It was a young man with fiery red eyes, he was also looking at him.

At that moment, he finally recovered the memories lost!

At the same time, he turned around to where the young man was standing, but he couldn't find him anymore.

She came, she really came... Qianli...

Qianli walked past the crowd to the spiritual test.

After giving her name to the elder, he turned around and shot a glance to her before allowing her to enter the room.

" This test consists of testing your spiritual power, your Qi, and also your realm. You can consider this test as two tests. "

She shot him a dumbfounded look, he then casually smiled and said to her

" Elder Yu told me what happened in his test, he is my brother, so don't worry. That's why I'm giving you a hand and helping you pass 2 tests at the same time. Of course if you still choose to pass ... "

" No it's fine, thank you, Elder. I appreciate and accept your kind intentions! "

Good little fellow, it seems you have quit the attitude, knowing when to advance and when to retreat.

It the world of cultivation, being kind and polite isn't always the best way. You have to be at least a little bit selfish, arrogant, etc... Or else if we abandon our sentiments, how are we cultivators are still considered humans? why would we disown our origins?

" What you have to do is to force your Qi out of your body, and attack that puppet there. It will measure automatically your Qi density, your realm. But more importantly, it will also tell you which attribute you are. "

The attributes are known as the 7 elements: wood, water, fire, earth, metal, lightning, and light.

There is no stronger element, nor the weaker, it all depends on the strength of the user.

But some attributes are more suited for certain areas than others.

For example, the earth attribute gives great strength to the body, the lightning attribute gives the user a boost of velocity and speed, the light users are suited for healing, etc...

Qianli never tested her attribute.

Not because she never wanted to know, but it was forbidden by her master.

He explicitly warned her to never test it out. If not it will only cause her troubles, and if other people find out she may get herself killed.

Of course, she wouldn't dare to disobey his orders, but since now he was dead. She had at least to know or else she wouldn't understand why to hide it.

She was curious by nature. So when her master forbad her of searching her attribute, she understood that maybe it was a taboo attribute.

Taboo attributes are attributes who once were known, but most people who used them began to show some tendencies to kill endlessly without care.

There existed 3 taboo attributes, The Blood divine art, The poison mist art, and The Darkness.

For example, the blood divine art gave the cultivator a boost of power as long as he fed on the blood of other cultivators, the Poison mist art like his name means that the cultivators use poison to kill or enslave the others. As for Darkness art, it was unknown because it disappeared a long time ago.

" Well, let the test begin! "

This time this elder didn't go back and close the door like the one at the first test, he stayed with her.

Qianli Concentrated and exercised the last bit of her mental strength, and shot a wave of Qi out of her body.

She had never done this type of attack before, she never had to.

Afterall she was not capable of training and cultivating like others or so she was told, so her Qi never changed from the time she was born.

This Qi that was shot out of her body was her natural Qi, her life force as to say. The quantity and quality never changed during her lifetime. But the Qi fluctuation was strong enough that it surprised the elder.

Hmmm, her Qi's quality is not bad, it's calm but powerful indeed. And the control she exercised on this attack is amazing.

The Qi hit the puppet, and the elder took out an orb similar but different from the first test.

He then said

" Hmmm let's see, you are at the 6th rank of profound Realm, average... "

When she thought how her 13 years of training in the high heavens in martial arts only and barely got her to advance to the 4th rank, she laughed awkwardly...

The 4th rank was barely considered as the beginning of cultivation. After all, only after the 5th rank will one's own body begin to produce Qi to cultivate.

The elder continued

" As for your attribute, it's... "

She was waiting for his answer, and her heart was racing.

" ... No attribute ... "

She muttered softly

" What? Elder, did I mishear? "

" ... the color is pitch black, it doesn't correspond to any attribute "

" Well don't worry young fellow, maybe your attribute hasn't appeared because you are still in a low rank, it's often like this. "

" You just have to train good enough, and someday you will discover your attribute! Anyway, you got 1 point in the realm test because after all you still are at the 6th rank, so the future you'll probably start slowly to cultivate and be slower than the others but don't forget there is always hope. "

" As for your spiritual test, well considering how you were injured before and had barely enough strength to manipulate your Qi, I'll give you 3, not 4 points! "

" Yes Elder."

At his words of encouragement, they left the room, she was somewhat disappointed.

Inside the room, the puppet that was hit earlier but the wave of Qi began to corrode slowly.

After finishing the two tests, the elder took her token and inscribed her points. Then she headed to the location of the last test.

The booth where the aptitude test was, however, closed.

A piece of paper was hanged on the front saying

" The aptitude test will be held the last day at 7, be on time! "

The crowd was stupified at this information

" What the... the booth was opened the last two days why isn't the elder working this day too?! "

" Doesn't he think of himself too highly? "

Numerous remarks were thrown, people were mad because they had to wait for another day before taking this exam.

" What about those five who finished the exam? "

" What do you know, that was yesterday, the elder just took a glance at them and gave them their marks ... "

" What's with this aptitude exam either way! It sounds stupid! "

Qianli stood there silently for a while not knowing what to do, then she decided to head back home.

At the end of the day, the Elder Yu was meeting with the Elder Zhu in a certain room. Both of them were sitting around a table drinking tea.

Elder Zhu was none other that the bearded Elder from the first test, he was a representative of the void sect's branch, as for Elder Yu, he was the representative of the green raven sect's branch.

Although these 2 were Elders from different sects, they were in fact brothers who shared the same blood.

Elder Zhu suddenly spoke

" How was it, did you find her interesting? "

" Eh, brother, I have to say, you really have an eye for people! " Elder Yu responded

" Didn't I say so? hahaha "

" ... Brother, her realm and spiritual tests were lacking "

" Euh, what? "

" But what bothers me is not that, when i returned to the room with another candidate, the puppet that was still standing there when i finished with your seedling, it disappeared. I only found some small chunks of wood. "

" What do you mean? "

" If I'm not mistaken, then her attribute is Darkness "

" Darkness? are you joking? It has not appeared in the mortal world for who knows how long! Even in other planes they do not exist anymore! What's more, the Darkness record has been deleted from history long time ago. If not by our family's background in the Ghost immortal world, we would not necessarily know about it! "

" I'm not joking, I still have to be certain of this matter, but since the puppet was corroded, it only means this possibility. Brother if she were one of those, what do you think we should do? "

" If she really has the Darkness attribute, she either has to die, or perhaps ... "

" You don't mean to do that brother ! If they discover you the consequences are going to be terrible for not only you and i, even the entire mortal world may face destruction and ... "

" Don't worry, don't think too much about it, for now let's say in the official report that she has no attribute. And as for the sect where she will go, send her to the Everlasting Star Academy. I don't think there are people like us on this plane who know about this, but we can't be sure, we lack strength and we can't even protect ourselves, much less this girl. If she really is who i think she is, the only way for her to survive is to learn the truth from there. That guy is still searching after all, he will be able to protect and help her."

" Brother, it seems all these years.... your heart softened... "

" Hmm... I wouldn't say so, it all depends on her capabilities ... luck plays an important factor. "

At that, the two Elders stopped talking and continued drinking their tea.