Aren Lisen

In front of a pair of impressive looking gates stood a young man of about 15 years. He had a neat appearance with short black hair, average looks and an excited expression on his face. He shivered with anticipation as he stood for a moment and looked at the gates in front of him, engraved on them were the words 'Eternal Summit' along with a picture of a mountain peak.

Beyond the gates, a dense collection of trees sprawled over the sloping landscape and the gigantic, ever-present mountain known simply as, 'the Peak', stretching off into the heavens. The young man bobbed up and down on his heels for a moment, humming nervously, then he shook himself and walked forward towards the gates, his faded orange scholar's robes fluttering slightly in the breeze.

He reached the gates and they opened for him, he passed through and walked along the path behind them until he reached a little wooden hut. "Halt!" A commanding voice came from within the hut and a man in green robes walked out, "State your purpose for coming to the Eternal Summit sect!"

"Yes, my name is Aren Lisen. I'm here to try and join the sect as a disciple." The young man replied. The guard continued to gaze at him and he felt a slight feeling of discomfort, although he couldn't determine why.

"Very good, go down the path and wait in the square, there are a few others who are already there." the guard replied a moment later, stepping aside and clasping his hands while bowing slightly, "I wish you good fortune. Hopefully, I may call you junior brother once recruitment is over."

"Many thanks senior" Aren replied, clasping his own hands.

He followed the guard's instructions and found himself in a square surrounded by lush and colourful vegetation. In the centre of the square, a young man sat in the lotus position with his eyes closed in meditation, thirteen other people were dotted around the square, some younger and some older than Aren, but none looked more than twenty.

Most of them were sitting down, some seemingly meditating while others were just looking around, Aren decided to copy them and sat down to the left of the entrance. Having nothing else to do, Aren began to inspect the other youngsters and he noticed that several wore robes with an insignia that he found familiar, but despite thinking hard for a few minutes, he couldn't remember where he had seen it before.

Roughly a quarter of an hour passed by while Aren waited, no one was talking so he felt uncomfortable trying to speak to anyone and he was patient by nature so he didn't feel annoyed by the wait. Eventually, the man in the centre of the square opened his eyes and stood up. As he did, a huge pressure seemed to press down upon Aren's back making him wince slightly, he noticed most of the other people sitting down also had similar expressions of discomfort. This feeling only lasted for a moment, however, before it disappeared and he was left wondering if he hadn't imagined it.

The man looked around at the young men and women arrayed around the square and smiled slightly, "My apologies, I forgot to rein in my aura. Anyway, it's time for the recruitment process to begin, you should all come with me." The man's voice was calm but what he said left Aren speechless. 'That pressure was because of him!?' Aren shouted in his mind, although he showed no outward signs of shock, his mind was in turmoil. He had heard that cultivators were powerful beings who were much stronger than any mortal man, but he didn't expect to experience it so soon.

The man reached into a pocket of his grey robes and pulled out a small emerald disk of jade. As he did so he spoke in a clear voice, "Doaist Ash requesting entrance to the sect!"

A few seconds later a booming voice answered, "Request accepted, please enter junior Ash."

When this voice spoke, the sky which had been blue and with small clouds scudding across, rippled like water before returning to normal. After this strange scene, the man, presumably Daoist Ash, reached into his robes again and pulled out a small rod that had miniature clouds swirling around it which he waved in a peculiar pattern before replacing it into the pocket he had taken it from. A few moments after, a large cloud formed beside him which he stepped onto, "All of you climb onto this, I will take you to the examination site."

Aren and the other young people waiting all stepped forward and climbed onto the cloud, Aren marvelled at the cloud, his eyes shining. He knew what this was, it was a magic treasure! He had seen some similar objects back at his home but this was his first time using one.

Daoist Ash made a gesture and the cloud floated up into the sky, bringing the gasping prospective disciples along with it. Aren stood on the cloud, revelling in the feeling of the air flowing over his face and robes causing them to flutter frantically, when they had first lifted off he had felt slightly unsteady but now he was thoroughly enjoying the experience.

They flew for a couple of minutes, the Peak still towering above them, looking like the enormous leg of some celestial giant. Aren experienced a rare moment of reflection gazing at it, he thought about how incredible it was that all of humanity could live on this massive mountain peak.

He remembered that his family had taught him that this peak was actually brought above the oppressive cloud layer by an incredibly powerful senior many, many years ago. Aren shivered with excitement just thinking about it, how he wished that he could have such power, to be able to break through the clouds and raise a great mountain peak. It sounded too fantastic to be true but deep down, he believed it.

As he was musing, the cloud began to descend through a thick patch of forest, to land in a clearing in which stood several men and women, all of whom seemed to radiate power. Daoist Ash stepped off the cloud gesturing for the recruits to follow suit, he then turned and bowed deeply to the men and women standing before them.

"Greetings, respected seniors. I have brought along the last batch of recruits to be tested"

The man who stood seemed to be the leader of the group looked at him and spoke, "You have done well junior Ash, I will be sure to notify your master that you have completed this task most satisfactorily." His voice was deep and profound, Aren was left with a slight feeling of awe. 'Just his voice can be so meaningful, he must be a powerful senior' he thought.

"Many thanks, senior Deepheart." Daoist Ash said bowing again, he then retreated to stand at the edge of the clearing.

The powerful senior, Deepheart, then turned to look at the recruits, "You have all selected to enter the Eternal Summit sect," he said in his deep voice, "The sect is happy to have you, but it expects you to give your all for the sect. Your loyalty is of utmost importance and if you ever decide to desert the sect, your life will be forfeit." Deepheart then looked around at the recruits, giving each of them a piercing gaze. Aren felt a tingle go down his spine when Deepheart's gaze landed on him, he immediately put on a solemn expression and willed himself to look as serious as possible, trying to show that he understood completely.

After Deepheart had looked around at the group he spoke again, "We will now assess your spiritual roots, your latent talent if you will. I would like you all to get into groups of five, each group will come forward when called and each person in the group will stand in front of one of us here," he motioned to the other seniors standing with him, "We will evaluate your spiritual roots and then call forward the next group."

Once Deepheart had finished speaking, the powerful seniors beside him arrayed themselves out on either side around him so that they stood in a line, while they did this, the prospective disciples arranged themselves into groups of five with considerably more confusion. Since there were only fourteen of them in total, two groups of five were formed and one group of four, Deepheart waited for them to finish organising themselves and then beckoned to one of the groups to come forward.

Aren was in the second group of five, in his group there was another young man who looked rather scrawny and very nervous, as well as three young women who seemed to be friends. After giving casual greetings to each other, they stood and watched the procedure as the first group went forwards.

Each of the people in the group went and stood in front of a different one of the seniors, who had all taken out a transparent crystal from their robes. The seniors, or examiners as Aren supposed they should be called, all instructed the person in front of them to tell them their name and where they came from, they also asked if they had ever taken any previous masters or learnt any techniques before entering the sect. No one in the group had had any previous instruction in the art of cultivation, which was as Aren had expected, seeing as they all looked to be about his age.

Once all the relevant information had been recorded on a jade slip, the examiner then held out the crystal and instructed the person in front of them to touch their palm to the crystal, "This is the tool which we will use to evaluate your spiritual root," Deepheart explained to the group at large. The young man in front of Deepheart nervously touched their palm to the crystal and it suddenly began to glow brightly with different colours of light.

"Earth seed, mixed water and wood roots. Not bad young man, you have been blessed with quite a good spiritual base." Deepheart praised.

The young man in front of Deepheart flushed with excitement, or maybe it was with relief, then bowed to Deepheart and stepped back to wait for the others to finish. The others in his group, seeing what had happened, were no longer as nervous and quickly pressed their palms to the stones in front of them, eager to find out what their spiritual bases would be like.

The other people in that group were all more or less the same, with each having either a one element root or a one element seed along with two or three elements in the other. Finally, the first group finished their testing and the second group was called over, Aren was beside himself with excitement, he couldn't wait to find what his seed and roots were. Although he was feeling exhilarated, he managed to maintain a calm demeanour as he walked towards one of the five examiners.

The examiner was a sturdy looking man with a kind face, he looked down at Aren with a smile and began to ask the same questions that had been asked of the first group.

"What's your name and how old are you?" his voice was steady just like his appearance and calmed Aren's nerves.

"I- My name is Aren Lisen, I'm fifteen years old."

"Where are you from?"

"I'm from a branch of the Lisen clan in the sixth band from Earthtower city."

The examiner raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Would you be the young'un that old Sigmund Lisen told me about?"

"That's... Probably, senior."

The examiner nodded his head, "Sigmund and I were very good friends when we were younger, we don't see much of each other anymore..." He seemed to drift off into thought for a moment, then he began to record Aren's answers onto an emerald jade slip, speaking to Aren as he did, "Well that doesn't matter now, it's good to see that you're here. If you have any serious problems I might be able to help you but that doesn't mean you can be reckless, I won't help if you're obviously in the wrong."

Aren nodded vigorously, grateful for the words of advice.

"Well, let's continue, I don't suppose you've had any prior instruction in cultivation or have learnt any techniques?"

"No, I haven't senior."

"That's good, now let's carry on with the test, touch your hand to this." He held out the crystal to Aren.

Aren swallowed and, shaking slightly, he raised his arm to place his hand upon the crystal.