Ch3

AKITO

It didn't take long for Akito to climb the mountain the next day. The situation with the public officers was over pretty quickly once he showed his cultivation pass and described the incident. He was left to his own devices when one of the witnesses described the same story.

The Mount Haven is known for its high Qi concentration which is present in the fog surrounding the peaks of the mountain. The entire mountain ranges of Mount Haven consist of more than twelve peaks. The richness of the Qi helps the cultivators cultivate more vigorously and compared to other sects they advance pretty quickly.

The competition was held in The Nirvana peak of Mount Haven, so Akito went there directly. After the inspection in the gate where they checked his cultivation pass, he was shown to registration and where his cultivation level would be checked.

Otaro Hall was situated about 10 minutes' walk from the gate. When he arrived there, he saw few numbers of cultivators waiting in queue already. Akito joined the line hoping that the test would be one on one rather than in front of everyone.

As he stood there trying to blend in, he heard the people standing in front of him talking to each other.

"I heard from someone that kotaishi-sama (crown prince) is attending the ceremony this year, can you believe that." The cultivator exclaimed excitedly to his peers.

"If I am not wrong this would be his first public outing after his brother died, right?"

"But Kotaishi (crown prince) Shinsuke Saito-sama is a very terrifying person. Did you know that he killed someone when he was just 7 years old. Just imagine what kind of monster he would be."

"Hold your tongue you don't know who may be listening. We should not be speaking about the Crown Prince as such."

Aki did not know much about the crown prince but he did know that originally the elder brother of the current crown prince was assassinated hence the younger brother will be the heir now. The younger prince had not been spotted outside the castle after his brother's death. This would be the first time people would see him after he was anointed as the heir to the throne.

It didn't take much time afterwards, soon it was his turn to enter the hall. There was an elderly gentleman waiting with a young lady in the hall.

"Konnichiwa, Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." (Hello, pleased to make your acquaintance.) He bowed to the elder martial artist and the young lady present showing respect. His master had drilled him with etiquette and proper behaviour because he was a wild child and instances like these bring forth the warmth and the memories with them.

"Name and your sect's name please." The lady asked him in a monotone voice. She must have been bored doing this from yesterday.

"Akito and I don't belong to any sect."

This earned a raised eyebrow from the elder cultivator other than that they seemed very disinterested in him.

"Please come this way." The lady cultivator took him away to an adjacent room.

The room that he walked in had an open ceiling, with a stream of sunlight falling on the only thing that occupied the room, the Heavenly Earth stone. Aki had heard about this from his master. There are few elements present in this realm which can detect the level of a cultivator.

There are some kinds of liquid, stones, then he has also heard of orbs which can show the level of cultivators. Basically, you need to push your condensed Qi that is stored inside you to flow through your fingertips into the stone. The stone will crack according to the strength of your cultivation. More the number of cracks higher one's strength would be. Once you stop the Qi flow to the stone, it will go back to its original state.

Knowing what he had to do, he did not wait for the instruction. Aki moved towards the stone and slowly let his fingertips grace the stone and started concentrating to pull his Qi from his meridians. Soon he felt the familiar rush of warmth flowing from his core towards his fingertips into the stone, he looked at the number of cracks forming with no surprise.

He already knew his level when he left his master but the surprise which was absent in him was not the same with the lady present there. She expected the wandering cultivator to be a low-level cultivator but the results shocked her as her eyes were wide open that she even forgot to take the results.

Aki cleared his throat indicating the women to take his results. Red hue spread the women's cheeks as she hid her embarrassment in a not-so-subtle cough. Quickly jolting down the result she showed the young man the exit as she rushed to the old man.

Akito hid his excitement behind his poker face as he walked out but there was a small spring in his walk. He knew that he was not an ordinary cultivator but sometimes looking at the reaction of people who underestimate him gives him a small amount of satisfaction.

Whatever happiness he was feeling they vanished into thin air when he stepped out of the pavilion. There was some kind of situation happening but he couldn't see much because a small circle of crowd was formed.

He decided it was better to just walk away but not to be ignorantly stupid, he decided to just observe from the crowd. His master has advised him that one should not jump into situations without assessing everything and also to keep an awareness of what's happening around him. Akito was not used to the presence of many people at the same time because from the time he could remember it was always his master and him in their forest.

He didn't know much what happened here but there was a young woman who was crying in the ground and a young man was kneeling in front of her trying to protect her from the guy who was standing above them sneering down at them.

"My lord, you cannot ask of this from my sister. She is a very young cultivator who just had her 15th Birthday please reconsider, this is unfair." The young man begged the guy standing above them, Akito noticed that he was clearly terrified of the other guy.

"Unfair…. this is not unfair. She tried to seduce me, then proceeded to insult me and now has smeared dirt in my clothes, kuso (fuck). Do you even know how much it costs."

"We are sorry my lord, but since when was punishment for smearing a little dirt which was an accident destroying her meridians."

"I gave you an option, didn't I. Either she becomes my servant or destroy her meridians. I am a benevolent lord; I gave you an option, so choose."

The verbal debate continued on but Aki ignored them to listen to his neighbour's conversation.

"Ichihara is an arrogant bastard; can you believe this. How can he ask the young woman to be his servant or destroy her meridians. Such a shame, young generation has no morals."

"What can we even do about it. His father is the leader of Kyotaro family and he is the heir apparent. They are rich, influential and have the favour of the Tokugawa's. We cannot do much just hold it in and don't speak anything."

Aki did not know much about the Kyotaro family but he did know the Tokugawa's. His sensei had asked him to consider studying under Kijuro Tokugawa and he did not want his chance to go away by doing something against the family. Reluctantly he looked away from the pitiful girl and her brother and turned the other way to walk off.

Just at this moment, the crowd let out a gasp which made Akito turn around to witness the rich fool has taken out an Imperial Whip. The guy was stupid enough to threaten a weapon less cultivator in Mount Haven with an Imperial weapon, how dense can a person be.

Imperial Weapons are wielded by cultivators who have surpassed their Foundation stage. Imperial weapons are not one of the strongest out there but they are famous for polluting the opponents Qi and making them weaker as time goes on eventually leading to their death.

"If you don't want to choose, I will make the choice for you." Ichihara sneered as he raised the whip to strike them.

There wasn't even a moment to think, Aki flashed forward without even thinking appearing before the brother and sister.

to be continued-----------