The Honoured and The Fallen

The crowd held their breath for some reason, waiting for the paralysis boy with a 'trash imagination' to pull off a miracle, and that's exactly what he did.

The ball shone with a blinding white light and by the time the glimmer faded away, the five 'immortals' were on the verge of fighting each other, all keen to take him into their sect.

The cause of this... was a Low-Heaven Spirit Root, one that hasn't been seen in the millions of miles of the region around us in ages.

When the argument was about to scale up, the City Lord, my maternal uncle bowed and asked them to leave the choice to his son.

Originally, the 5 of them would have slapped him shut, but considering his status as the father of the supreme genius, they shut up and let the boy decide.

As the boy with spirited eyes hesitated to make his choice, I looked around at the rest of my bizarre cousins.

The bullies were looking at it with a mixture of fear and uncertainty, probably cursing their luck.

The pretentious cold cousin was gritting her teeth, probably jealous of all that attention. The childish one and the manipulative one looked at him with bright eyes, clearly imagining their bright futures with him.

As for the newly paralyzed crying avenger, he was openly gritting his teeth. I knew what he was thinking and it was only making it harder for me to suppress my chuckle.

As I was looking around, the ex-paralyzed boy was done with his decision. He chose a sect of Sword Cultivators, much to the distress of the other four sects.

After that, the people kept going back and forth in quick succession, none of them even having a Yellow Spirit Root. I guess it was quite rare indeed.

Soon it was the turn of my cousins. First up was the pretentious cold lady, and again, a blinding white appeared, but instead of white, it was light blue, though, much less intense when compared to the recent genius.

As it turned out, other than having a High Earth Spirit Root, she also possessed a rare Nine-Yin Physique, which would make her cultivation path far smoother compared to others with Yin-attribute cultivation manuals.

She didn't hesitate and chose the sect that only accepted women, thinking of the benefits she would get, a smart choice.

This was the time for the other two female cousins of mine to try to hide their jealousy and bitterness. It was fun looking at their faces like this. After all, rarely do they show their true emotions, always hiding behind their preferred masks until the masks they wore becomes one with their facial skin.

Next up was the first jealous one, the childish one, heh, Medium Mortal Spirit Root. She started crying then and there.

Both former and recent disabled idiots took a step to comfort her. She attacked them with her adorable puppy eyes, the only weapon she had, and as I expected, she was allowed to join the sword sect as the servant girl of the former paralysis boy.

The other victim gritted his teeth, put his crutch aside, skipped towards the table set in the center, and put his hand on the crystal ball. For all those grandiose expressions he kept making, he had an even worse affinity than her, Low Mortal Spirit Root.

Again, I almost guffawed. This time, it was me gritting my teeth, not because I was jealous but to suppress my laughter.

His expressions were just pure gold. Instead of moving away after his dreams fell apart, he kneeled there, begging to be accepted in a sect, knowing full well that it wasn't possible.

Perhaps, he was clutching at his remaining possibilities, perhaps, he really thought the world revolved around him.

Anyway, after he was thrown away, it was the turn for the manipulative one. She had a Low Yellow Spirit Root, meeting requirements. She joined the sword sect as well, most likely to stay in proximity with the talented one.

But to maintain her image as the gracious and kind fairy, before joining the crowd, she went towards the despairing crutch boy to console him with empty words.

The drama wasn't as enjoyable anymore. My dislike towards this cousin was slowly turning into irrational hatred. I needed to clear my mind.

I took a deep breath and look towards the west. The rose-tainted clouds that only gave a serene sense of beauty might have appeared to be an ominous sign to the crutch boy, but to the disciple of the dream immortal, they might have seemed to be the first symbol of his endless future glory. How amusing.

The ceremony was almost done now. It was my turn. The ball didn't blind me, but it was still much brighter than most of the folks.

And so just like my family background, my cultivation talent turned out to be above-average as well, Low Earth Spirit Root.

Even though I wasn't feeling it, it did make me feel like a burden was now off my shoulders. I joined a sect that specialized in Lightning element cultivation techniques, for two reasons.

First, it was the only sect without any of my other cousins, and second, it was one of the only two offers I had.

Others had already taken way too many recruits. A strange five-meter long aerial beast suddenly came down from the sky, and without wasting any more time, I and a couple of others held on to it.

Our sect hence became the first to leave. The disciple that was responsible for this entrance test was perhaps in a hurry to inform his sect about the news of the two great talents that had appeared in this small city.

I didn't care, I was glad to leave.

I had a lot of expectations with my new sect.

...

It didn't take long for the expectations to die. The sect might have appeared to be heavenly and distinct from the mortal world at first, but still, it was just a secular sect. There wasn't much substance to it other than the greenery and the mysterious aura that surrounded everything.

I wasn't treated all that special by anyone. I was given a low-grade cultivation manual for Qi refiners, a badge that identified me as the outer disciple of the sect, a plain azure robe, and a rule book that mentioned all the rules of the sect.

There were many socializing events like I had expected. We were just asked to cultivate in silence, not cause trouble, and receive our monthly quota of talismans, pills, spirit stones, and ration.

I was also assigned a normal cottage for the other disciples, within which I spent a few months without ever going out.

When I left my cottage for the pills and rations, I became aware of the fact that there was supposed to be a tournament for the new disciples exactly one year after our entry within the sect.

It was just a minor inconvenience. I couldn't care less. Just as I was preparing to hole up in my hut for another month, I heard two disciples talking about something interesting.

They were talking about a certain new servant disciple that appeared within the sect. The thing that made him special was the fact that he only had a Low Mortal Spirit Root, while most of the other servant disciples had a Medium or High level of Mortal Spirit Root.

I shook my head, to avoid the thought of that guy. It couldn't be him.

"Even though the Chief servant disciple had been bullying him for no reason for an entire month, he shouldn't have challenged him to a life-and-death battle. Who do you think will win?"

...It was definitely him. Thank you, exposition crowd guys, you've been very helpful.

So I went ahead and asked those two side characters for the entire story.

As it turned out, this guy crawled to the top of the mountain on his crutch and kneeled there until he was allowed entry. So that worked as well, huh?

To be honest, I was beginning to admire him a little for his perseverance. It isn't every day you witness such a determined guy. If only he had a normal thought process, I would've loved to make friends with him.

But a guy like him, that moved like deer in the headlights, with a penchant to forcefully attract the attention of the crowd through his words and antics, was a very troublesome friend to have.

I heaved a sigh of relief and went back to my reclusive lifestyle.

When the new disciple's tournament arrived, I was a Grade-3 Qi Refining Cultivator. As the first stage of cultivation, this was to prepare and optimize the body for cultivation. In this stage, cultivators circulated Qi in their bodies to familiarize themselves with it, refining it into their bodies and using it to make their bodies a vessel fit for laying the foundation for cultivation.

Through the Qi that new disciples subconsciously emitted, I recognized that only one of them was at Grade-3 like me. Well, my cultivation talent was indeed the best in the new batch that had joined this sect and I had done nothing but cultivate the entire year. The other one though was my disabled cousin, that was somehow, no longer disabled but full of energy and vigor.

I saw his gaze land on me, it was malicious, it was creepy. It reminded me of the 'wronged stare' of my manipulative cousin. This guy was openly hostile towards me for some reason.

Sheesh...