A weird machine

Scratching and poking at his injury for no good reason, Wei Sha continued towards what he could only imagine as the second test.

'What's my progress.' While walking there, he remembered the card Lin Siniang had given him earlier.

The card out of his pocket, a frown grew on Wei Sha's face. 'One percent? So there are a hundred trials?' No matter from which angle he looked or if he wiped it, the card showed his advancement being one.

"How many tests are there?" However, as the state of this palace was so corrupted, he had an inkling of the number being false information too. At least he sure hoped so.

[Hundred] Lin Siniang responded.

Wei Sha's lips pressed against each other. 'Well, what can I do. There's no backing down anymore.' Lin Siniang had, minutes ago, been ready to end him because he seemed incapable of continuing the tests. There were no doubts in his mind that if he were to withdraw, he would be killed. 'Guess I need to push myself harder.'

They arrived at what appeared to be a medical bay of sorts. Wei Sha grew excited. 'They fix you up after every test?' A hopeful thought crossed in his mind.

Lin Siniang turned into a sign. [Aspirant, sit] She pointed at a chair, surrounded by stacks of medical equipment. And machines?

"Got it," he confirmed just in case before following her instructions.

[Aspirant, stay put] Lin Siniang reverted to her, what Wei Sha called, original form. Then she floated around him, strapping him into the chair so Wei Sha couldn't move a muscle.

Still, with his eyes, he watched how she brought a machine, placing it right in front of him. A sharp needle protruded at Wei Sha's abdomen from the machine. 'She's going to stab me with it?' He thought to himself. There was no reason to ask, for if she wanted to murder him, it wouldn't have taken her this long.

Lin Siniang nudged the machine from its sides.

To Wei Sha, this appeared as her aiming the needle. And Wei Sha recognised what she aimed for, his soul space.

"You want to see my aptitudes?" He also understood why.

[Ye-s, al-l aspirants -re test-d] Lin Siniang answered while still poking at the machine.

"Anything specific you are looking for?" Although he hadn't been tested yet, he somewhat knew his aptitudes since they were hereditary to a large degree. If one's parents were strong, the child would be strong if not stronger.

This reminded Wei Sha of a serious complication, Li Li. Everyone knew his mother's soul space and everything else were in a storm of a century due to her mysterious sickness.

'It'll be fine.' Wei Sha didn't feel pressured. 'If anything, mother's sickness will bring me strength!' He even convinced her sickness wasn't a drawback but a boon!

A clicking noise drew him back to reality. Lin Siniang had started the machine now pushing its needle towards him.

[Relax. Reminisce of the past] Lin Siniang spoke words programmed to ease the patient, though her monotonous tone might have produced the opposite effect in Wei Sha.

Nevertheless, acting as she wanted, Wei Sha exhaled deeply and thought of memories long since passed.

X

"Wei Sha!" someone shouted for his name. "Come here!"

Wei Sha studied his surroundings from a lower than usual angle, blinked. 'Why am I here?' He found himself standing on his courtyard.

"Wei Sha!" The shout came again, angrier.

"Yes, father!" Knowing where he was, Wei Sha played along.

"Look at what father found you!" Wei Sha ran to his father, who looked from the perspective of four-year-old Wei Sha towering. His full height wasn't even to his father's knee.

Wei Sha looked at what Wei Dai dragged behind him, tied to a rope. "Who's he?" he asked, though already knowing.

Wei Dai pulled the rope, bringing the demon nearing death to his feet. He grabbed his head and turned it around so he could stare into his prisoner's eyes. "My son wants to know your name, slave."

"Sen Sen," Trainer Sen spoke, blood flowing out of his mouth as he did so.

"His name is. . ." Wei Dai pondered. "Trainer Sen."

"Why did you bring Trainer Sen here?" Wei Sha cocked his head and acted curious as a four-year-old demon should.

"As you know, father's busy."

"Very busy," Wei Sha corrected, hoping to discover something useful in this flashback.

He sure did, as when Wei Dai heard him he narrowed his eyes. "Yes, very busy." His hand clenched on Trainer Sen's head, trying to mush it.

'Oops,' Wei Sha realised his mistake. "Don't worry, father. Son understands why father is busy."

"Good." The anger present in Wei Dai's lessened. "So, Trainer Sen here will help you with your physical training."

"Yes," Trainer Sen didn't object and acted along, just like everyone else.

At first, Wei Sha thought about asking about his real cultivation; however, decided against it. "Thanks, father!" he spoke, eyes glimmering. "Thanks a lot." He ran to Wei Dai and hugged his father's massive leg. So massive his hands didn't wrap around it.

Hugging Wei Dai's leg with all he got, his ears caught Wei Dai's laugh. "Good boy." His other hand came to caress Wei Sha's hair.

Wei Sha giggled before backing off.

Again, the temptation to ask, for example, Wei Dai to spend time with mother appeared. Yet like before, he wanted to see if his father could act in a different matter, and so focussed on his wants.

"Now can you show father what you have learned?"

"Yes!" Wei Sha remembered that Wei Dai had been at the front for a year before coming home with Trainer Sen. "I'll show you what I picked up in your absence," he spoke with a proud tone as he grabbed a dagger from his father's belt.

"Good." Wei Sha's trick of picking the dagger impressed Wei Dai, and the compliments didn't end there. Wei Sha had trained for five or six years on a regular schedule before the Awakening Ceremony, so he knew how to spin a knife.

More compliments followed as Wei Sha dry-practised with the knife which to his body size appeared as a long sword.

In the ending position of his practice, Wei Sha spoke, "Thank you." Got up, bowed.

Wei Dai laughed again. "I thought you wouldn't have learned anything." In a way, being in the right since Wei Sha didn't start practising before the age of nine or ten. Like most demons, laziness had plagued Wei Sha in his youth, dropping him in social standing and favour with Wei Dai.

Wei Sha panted as he listened. The dry practice had taken a toll on his feeble body. However, in his heart, he felt a tingle of pleasure, as if approval from Wei Dai mattered?

"I realised, slouching all day and eating grapes fed by a slave—"

"Boring?" Wei Dai finished Wei Sha's sentence.

"Father is correct."

"Excellent!" Wei Dai clapped his hands. "I should find you an actual teacher?"

Wei Sha glanced at Trainer Sen, at his horrified face. 'Sorry.' He kept those words to himself before answering, "With a better teacher come better results."

"Correct." Wei Dai crushed Trainer Sen's head without a second thought. "I'll find a real Laozi to teach you. A person tailored to your needs."

The more he listened to his father talk; the more Wei Sha became boggled. 'If I had been different would have father been attentive of me?' In a sense, he hoped everything proceeded the way they did because this was a flashback, not the actual past.

On the other hand, the tingle in his heart had become a warmth. This brought a fact he could not argue against. If he had to choose, he would take the attention and care over the coldness.

"Son, will not disappoint."

"I can't see how you will." For the last few sentences, Wei Dai had spoken in a tone Wei Sha hadn't heard ever. His mannerism had never been this peaceful and loving.

"Does father have anything else?" The situation seemed too good, so Wei Sha wanted to end it.

"Hmm. . ." Wei Dai pondered. "Maybe I could visit your mother, as I'm here."

"Yay!" Wei Sha made a u-turn and dashed towards the house in front of Wei Dai, who followed him with casual steps.

Jovial laughter followed him as he ran inside the house. "Mother! Father is back!" he shouted, running through a corridor.

His small feet were slightly faster than Wei Dai's strides, so he got to the room in which Li Li was in the process of crafting talismans first.

"Mother, father is coming!" he repeated and turned to see a sight the four-year-old-him had made. A fancy lounge chair next to which two slaves held trays, on the other were grapes, and on the other his favourite toy.

Wei Sha felt puke rise in his throat. 'How lazy was I,' he thought while running straight at the slaves.

"Hide!" he snapped with volume Wei Dai wouldn't pick up. "Hide!" He pushed them behind a silk curtain. Of course, his strength wasn't enough, but the message it sent did the job.

The two slaves tiptoed behind the curtain and then disappeared from sight altogether.

In this time, Li Li had become aware of his existence. "Father? You mean Wei Dai is coming here?"

"Yes." Wei Sha nodded his head as if he were a chicken gobbling rice.

When his nods ended, and he had studied his mother, who grew excited from the news, he realised, 'Mother's skin has a better texture of red.' Over the years, Li Li's complexion would turn paler.

"Li Li, my dear, I'm home!" Wei Dai barged into the room.