Ascending Dragon mountain

She was now dressed in comfortable clothes, her presence no longer threatening. In fact, she appeared like a beautiful elder sister. However, she couldn't conceal her powerful aura from the especially perceptive group of boys.

Seeing her, Kaeln's face displayed a weird expression – this was the woman who had almost caused him to die prematurely. However, thinking back to what she did afterward, he shook his head and greeted her.

"This young one greets Aunt Miao." His weird expression turned into a cheeky smile.

Looking at the charming boy, Aunt Miao let out a light chuckle. "Do not call me Elder Miao; I detest that title. Call me Aunt Miao or Senior Miao."

Kaeln was slightly taken aback but still followed her wish. "I greet Aunt Miao," a cheekier smile on his face.

"Hm," she nodded in satisfaction.

"Are you two not going to greet me?" Looking at the other two, the beauty raised her left eyebrow.

"Torin greets Aunt Miao."

"Raizel greets Senior Miao."

Hearing Raizel's greeting, the beauty couldn't help but give him a side glance. 'This brat. Is he still holding a grudge for what happened yesterday? Hmm…' A cunning glint flashed in her pink irises. She turned to face the distant boy.

"You said you needed a treasure of sufficient power to refine your body, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Glancing back at her, the distant boy nonchalantly said.

"I happen to have something that might do the trick." She said, a light smile appearing on her face.

The boy's face changed as his eyelashes trembled a bit. "And? What does that have to do with me?" Acting cool, he indifferently said.

"I'll give it to you if you call me Aunt Miao." She retorted, her smile growing increasingly large, embellishing her gorgeous face.

Looking at the beauty, even Raizel couldn't help but stare for a moment. He stood there, stumped.

"Ahum." A light grunt followed by a light shoulder tap from kaeln brought him back to reality.

His handsome face turning slightly red, the boy glared at her in embarrassment.

Which only amused the beauty further.

He responded. "Fine then."

"Rai-, Raiz-…Raizel greets A-nt Miao." He stumbled on his words, finally saying.

"Ant Miao? Do I look like an ant? Well, fine, that will do for now." amused, she lifts her hand, the ring on her index finger flashed before a beautiful, heart-shaped fruit appeared on her left palm.

She juggled it a bit before throwing it to the boy.

Catching it, Raizel's resplendent purple eyes started glowing as he took a piece of cloth from a pocket before putting it in.

Seeing that, the woman couldn't help but give him a weird look.

"What?" he asked.

"Here I thought you were from a powerful clan since you're so talented, but you don't even have a storage ring." She said softly with a mocking glint on her face.

"What clan? We are orphans. My grandfather raised me, Kaeln, since we were three; he didn't give us any ring when we left." He stated matter-of-factly.

Hearing that, an expression of surprise appeared on Aunt Miao's face, followed by a sad gaze. With another flash, another object appeared on her hand. Actually, it was two objects.

Two rings were floating above her left palm, one red and one blue. The red ring flew to Kai's side, the blue one to Rai's.

"Those are Spirit-grade storage rings. They have roughly a thousand square meters worth of space. It should last you quite a while. You can store things and retrieve things with a thought."

"Thank you."

Receiving the ring, Raizel stared at it for a second before accepting it, mixed emotions filling his being. He took back out the heart-shaped fruit and willed it into the ring.

Kaelen, on the other hand, placed his ring on his right index finger, satisfyingly looking at it as he waved his hand around.

"Thank you, Aunt Miao." Not forgetting to show his gratitude, he smiled at the beauty as he thanked her.

"You're both welcome," she responded with a smile on her face. Turning to Kaelen, her face turned slightly mischievous as she said, "you've made quite the impression on Yao'er."

'Yao'er,' muttering the name, Kaelen's blazing eyes lit up. "Right. I haven't seen her today; I hope I see her again soon." A bright smile hung on his face as he said.

"You're all gathered. Good." A valiant voice was heard as a giant flying white crane approached the Miao palace courtyard from the sky, carrying Yu Hao and Teacher Long on its back.

Shortly, it landed on a wide-open area inside the courtyard.

The latter jumped from its back, landing near the quartet.

"Sister Miao." He greeted the woman first before turning to the boys.

"I've come to get all of you. Today, I will show you where you will be staying in the sect for the next three years. After which, you will both attend the daily martial art lecture with the fellow disciple of the Ascending Dragon Mountain.

Get on the profound crane."

"Yes!" The three boys excitedly answered. 

"See you later, Aunt Miao." Kaelen went first as he waved at the silver-pink haired beauty.

"Until next time, Aunt Miao," Torin followed next as the duo leaped onto the bird's back.

"Thank you for the gifts; see you." Raizel followed them towards the crane, before jumping, he turned towards the woman to say goodbye and then leaped on the back of the bird.

It's safe to say the boy has moved on from his grudge against Aunt Miao.

"It seems you got closer with them and even made that boy forgive you. You sure work fast." Chuckling, Teacher Long couldn't help but remark.

"Of course. How could he hate someone as beautiful as me for long? It's water under the bridge." Proud of herself, she showed a triumphant smile.

"Alright, I'm going too. I'll see you later." As he said that, he floated toward the head of the crane before it slowly flapped its wings, creating powerful winds and soaring in the sky.

Finally seeing the crane fly away, Aunt Miao saw them off with a wave before turning back towards her palace to meditate.

"I look forward to your growth, boys." She mumbled to herself as she disappeared into the palace from her courtyard.

 ....

Around the middle section of the numerous mountain ranges that constitute the sect's territory, a large mountain stood proud. This floating mountain had every characteristic the others had, except it didn't have the purple trees of the Miao mountain. However, one thing made it stand out; from its lowest point to its highest point, a dozen abodes could be seen. On the way to the top, there were a dozen excessively large martial art terrains where disciples were practicing their skills. At its top, you could see a dragon-like structure soaring towards the sky. It was unknown if it was man-made or a natural occurrence, as it merged so perfectly with the mountain peak.

At the foot of the mountain, a large crane landed, and five people got off its back.

"We're here," Teacher Long announced arrival as they all got off the bird.

"Follow me; I'll show you living quarters," he said, leading the way.

The group followed him as they made their way up the mountain. They could see numerous disciples aged thirteen to sixteen practicing martial arts. They all had a peculiar look to them, and all seemed very talented.

A few, in particular, caught the trio's attention. The first was a short black-haired boy, about fifteen, so two years older than Kaelen and the rest. Black shadowy substance emanated from his body as he would disappear from his position, reappearing meters away and slashing forward with his longer than average, dark purple daggers. They left a mix of black and purple along the air. Screeching sounds could be heard, though they were separated by a few hundred yards.

The second one was a blue-haired girl, about 14 years old. She wielded a five-foot-long short blue spear as she nimbly did a succession of thrusts, slashes, sweeps, and slams. Her technique was so exquisite despite not doing any particular martial art. It was beautiful and precise, yet deadly.

The last one was the most interesting. He was very tall at 1.85m. He looked about sixteen and seemed to be among the oldest on the mountain. An earthen yellow glow covered his body as he wielded a giant heavy curved blade. In front of him was a ten meters tall boulder that had countless cut marks all over it. His eyes closed, he lifted the blade, pointing towards the sky. With a steady step forward, he did a clean slash at the boulder.

A weird metal collision sound reverberated in the air as the boulder vibrated slightly, an additional cut mark appeared where the teenager slashed.

"Whoa, they all look pretty cool. Though that last guy doesn't seem very strong; he barely left a mark on that boulder." Kaelen remarked as he watched the teenagers practice.

"Don't underestimate him; it's not that he's weak but that boulder is made of highly condensed iron and other metal. It's ridiculously hard; only elemental resonance cultivators with elemental reinforcement in their attacks can leave a scratch… All of the people here are talented people that all had special grade foundation when they passed. There are about thirty of them in the mountain, so it's a relatively unpopulated area, the practice spaces taking up most of the mountain. Though only 3 of them had the hidden dragon level foundation, one from each of the previous three years. It caused quite a ruckus back then as years can pass without there being any." Yu Hao, who was among the group, explained to the rest.

"Hoh. Are they the three then?" Torin, who was standing beside him, asked curiously.

"Nope. Two of them are in seclusion trying to break through extreme stages; the last one took a mission and left the sect, soon he can will on to the next area so he won't be here long after he comes back."

Nodding in understanding, Torin looked around the mountain expecting to see someone as the group proceeded forward.

"Wait, isn't Jin Kun qualified to be here? I don't see him among the other disciples." he asked doubtfully.

"This isn't the only such mountain; the sect is quite big after all. There are two other mountains that only take exceptionally talented new disciples: The Crouching Tiger Mountain and the Soaring Phoenix Mountain. The first one has more disciples than us at around fifty; all of them have reached the Houtian 11th extreme. They previously had some that reached the 12th extreme, but those have moved on to the next stage. The other one is the Soaring Phoenix Mountain, led by Teacher Rong Bing that you folks met earlier yesterday; she only takes female disciples though. They have around twenty disciples, so fewer than us. However, there is one that reached the Houtian extreme, though she's about to move to another mountain. Jin Kun should be in the former."

Hearing this, Kaelen, who was walking in front of him, turned back intrigued. "Wait, do all disciples have to move after some time?"

"Not necessarily; if you accept a teacher as your master, you can stay in their mountain. Moving forward does not always happen either; you must either reach elemental resonance by three years from entrance into the sect or the 10th extreme Xiantian stage. If not, then you become an outer court disciple and live in the mountains near the entrance we've passed by. Graduating after reaching either elemental resonance or the Xiantian 10th extreme, you must take someone as a teacher, after which you move to that person's mountain. Generally, disciples choose elders, so the majority never stay in their teacher's mountain."

"What did you choose, Senior Brother Hao?" Curious, Raizel, who was beside Kaelen, asked.

"You guys haven't guessed yet?" He said as he looked at Teacher Long in the forefront.

"Hoh, you're Teacher Long's disciple?" Exclaiming in realization, the trio all looked at him in surprise.

"Yep," Yu Hao confirmed as he nodded.

"We're here." Teacher Long's voice was heard from the front, looking towards him, the boys saw a relatively large building.