Baleful Aura

If Elder Jia had asked Zhan Wei to be tested casually out of pity, now he really looked forward to Zhan Wei entering the Mystic Heaven Sect.

Although a bit surprised that Elder Jia chose to spar with him Zhan Wei didn't falter, clenching his hand on the Saber hilt he channeled his qi according to the circulatory route of the Life Severing Saber.

The Life Severing Saber only had two simple moves, a slash and a sweep, it wasn't flashy or elegant just direct and forceful.

" I apologize for the inconvenience ", Zhan Wei said then he lifted his saber and slashed forward with his Saber.

The slash was fast and forceful carrying vast momentum yet Elder Jia parried it with ease by simply by raising his sword.

Not bothered by the fact that his attack was easily deflected, Zhan Wei swept his sword once more.

It was easy for Elder Jia to deflect every of Zhan Wei's attack yet Zhan Wei continued.

Every of his attacks carried with it ruthlessness and bloodlust as his entire body emanated a hint of cold killing intent.

At this point Zhan Wei seemed to have submerged himself in the main intent of the battle technique, " Life Severing".

Without restrain Zhan Wei kept attacking and It continued for a while before his qi ran out, Zhan Wei put his saber into his storage ring and cupped his fist towards Elder Jia in gratitude.

He was about to say something when he hurriedly closed his eyes.

Zhan Wei could feel bloodlust and desolation cloud his mind as a voice seemed to be chanting kill, kill, kill !, causing killing intent to fill his thoughts.

Was this as a result of the Life Severing Saber!

If it was someone else it would have been difficult to deal with the situation but for Zhan Wei it wasn't so.

In his mind sea, his Primordial Chaos God Incarnation stood up and stretched it powerful arms and the dark thoughts that existed as a dark fog in his mind sea was compressed together into a tiny dark ball of gas.

He could have devoured it or expelled it from his body but Zhan Wei felt it would be wasteful, the dark fog could be useful as serve as a form of mental deterrence to his enemies and since it could not affect him anyway there was no need disposing it.

When Zhan Wei closed his eyes, Elder Jia and the rest knew he was dealing with the aftermath of the  baleful aura born as a result of using the Life Severing Saber so they didn't bother him and left.

After a while Zhan Wei opened his eyes and looked around, seeing no one except the around the podium except the guard that brought him to the podium.

Seeing that Zhan Wei was awake he threw a black token with the word " Bright Jade" on it and said, " You have become a guard of the Bright Jade City if you're lucky and can earn enough credits it's not impossible to become a disciple of the Mystic Heaven Sect".

The guard had a sneer on his face as he continued " You have till a week to report to  the inner city ", then he left.

Was it so easy to earn credits, if it was there would be so many guards entering the Mystic Heaven Sect, to him Zhan Wei was going to die of old age as a guard before he even became a disciple.

Zhan Wei held the black token as he looked at it, not bothered by the obvious derision from the guard.

He smiled as he stood up, this was his ticket into the Mystic Heaven Sect.

.....

Zhan Wei and Xia Yunzi met Elder Ye Mo as they left the inner city and they all returned to the inn and after having their meal they retired to bed.

Zhan Wei laid on the bed as he thought about everything that happened in the disciple recruitment test.

He had already decided he was going to join the City guards but there were still things he had to do before he reported to the inner city.

To Zhan Wei the disciple recruitment test had made obvious some of his shortcomings in the area of Qi cultivation and although there were aspects he couldn't change for now, there were still a few he could, most especially he needed to switch to a better Cultivation technique.

The first few decades were the golden years for cultivators and when they could make the most progress, to Zhan Wei his innate aptitude was already bad enough for him not to take advantage of this period.

And although he knew what he had to do, he didn't really know how to go about it, but that wasn't much of an issue to Zhan Wei, he planned to get into contact with Wang Jing.

.....

The next day during breakfast after Ye Mo inquired of them about the details of the disciple recruitment test they both brought out tokens, while Xia Yunzi brought out a token with the word " Mystic Heaven " inscribed on it, Zhan Wei had " Bright Jade" on his.

As he had done with Xia Yunzi as they left inner city, he explained to Ye Mo the circumstances surrounding how he become a city guard and how he planned to earn enough credits to enter the Mystic Heaven Sect.

Ye Mo nodded his head in approval, the present arrangement was already the best, right from the beginning he wasn't certain Zhan Wei could enter any Sect in the Canglan with his aptitude, if he could become a member of City guard and from there get the opportunity to become a disciple then it was perfect.

Time flowed like the river and it was already the third day, time for Xia Yunzi and the rest to report to the inner city.

The previous night Zhan Wei couldn't find any sleep as he was very anxious, although he was happy Xia Yunzi could become a disciple of the Mystic Heaven Sect but he was also worried.

That same night Ye Mo had also called them once more and told them he was leaving the next day for the Ye Clan, giving both Xia Yunzi and Zhan Wei a communication talisman to use to contact him and a storage ring each.

The next day at dawn, Zhan Wei and Xia Yunzi both bowed in gratitude as they watched him leave, Ye Mo had been protecting them from the Eastern region till now, without him it would have been very difficult for them to survive till now, he was their guardian.

Zhan Wei spent the next few hours strolling around the City with Xia Yunzi,  before escorting her to the inner city gate, the Elders were going to leave today with those that had been accepted as disciples.

Watching Xia Yunzi leave Zhan Wei felt feelings of loneliness wash over him, sighing he turned back and left.

he and Xia Yunzi separating was outside his power so the only thing he could do was get stronger and earn enough credits, he thought as he calmed down the feeling of unease that disturbed him.

After getting back to the inn Zhan Wei checked the storage ring Elder Ye Mo had given to him, before leaving Ye Mo had already told them what their rings contained.

Xia Yunzi's ring contained her inheritance from her parents and the Great Xia empire while Zhan Wei's contained the legacy of his Clan and a gift from Xia Tianming.

Zhan Wei was shocked as his consciousness swept through the storage ring, he felt the amount of things inside the storage ring was enough for him to live leisurely and create a bit of foothold anywhere.

Even with the destruction of the Eastern region hanging over their heads, his Parents, his family, Xia Tianming and the Empress were still thinking of their wellbeing.

For the first time in a long time he teared up as emotions he kept hidden gushed outwards, his Parents , Xiaoyue, Xiaomei, his Clansmen, Xia Tianming, Zhao Funji and those he fought.

Zhan Wei felt a rush of unpleasant emotions fill his heart, he didn't know if any of them was alive or dead, rage and angusih tormented him from within.

Zhan Wei was cold, indifferent but that didn't mean he didn't feel, he just dealt with it different but now they all came rushing out.

That together with the pain of Xia Yunzi and Elder Ye Mo leaving and being alone gripped him as he shook.

Zhan Wei felt another form of fog cloud his mind sea, it was unusual and evoked a different sense of emotion from the ones he got from practicing the Life Severing Saber but it was in essence the same.

Same nature, same dark eerie incense like fog, what was this things, unlike the first the fog this time around was born as a result of his emotions not due to influence as before from practicing the Life Severing Saber so he took a second thought about the nature of this fog.

The only reason Zhan Wei could be aware of the dark fog was because his mind sea was open and his Primordial Chaos God Incarnation was powerful enough to observe every corner of it.

Usually only cultivators of the Purple Mansion realm who had opened the mind sea ( sea of consciousness) and had powerful souls were aware of things of this nature, soul energy and it's different forms of essence.

After observing clearly Zhan Wei noticed an order in his mind.

Usually his mind sea consisted of an endless stretch of water and blue skies above.

On top of this stretch of water his two incarnations existed facing each other.

His Primordial Chaos God Incarnation stood tall dominating the endless sea and reaching the sky above so it had always only attracted Zhan Wei's attention and as usual his Human Nascent Soul sat cross-legged with it's eyes closed serenely afloat the waters.

His Human Soul incarnation had always been the same to Zhan Wei from birth but now it was different.

According to the texts he read from the Zhan Manor Martial Pavilion, the Nascent soul was the root of consciousness.

The dark water corrupted some of the waters of his mind and even his Nascent human soul had a few dark spots on it's figure but as before Zhan Wei used his Primordial God soul to absorb the dark fog and compressed it into another ball of gas.

After making sure his mind sea and Nascent soul was void of contamination of the dark fog, he thought back.

Those dark fogs, what were they !..

.....