Su Ming

Three days passed by quickly. Before dawn on the morning of the ceremony, the moon illuminated the silver peaks of the Moon Palace.

Within a core sect elder's tower, a black haired child's big silver eyes opened with a jump due to the loud knocking on his door. He looked around curiously at the unfamiliar bedroom.

Although large, the bedroom is rather simplistic. He slept in a large luxurious bed, directly across from a 3 meter tall door. By the bedside is a nightstand with an aged book on top of it. On the book's leather cover were the words, "The Heavenly Seal Technique". On one of the walls is an open door to a walk-in closet. Next to the door is a full-body mirror.

As he tied to recall why he was here, the knocking continued. With a wave of his hand, a gust of wind formed, and opened the door. A young woman in servant's robes, with blonde hair and brown eyes stood there patiently. She quickly arrived at his bedside and bowed slightly. "It's time for you to wake up, young master. Today is an important day after all. The sect master will be calling for you soon, and you mustn't be late!" she quickly spoke.

Studying her familiar face, the boy slowly started to recall her name. Before he could think further she looked at him in concern. She asked nervously, "Are you still having trouble focusing? If you are then the fourth elder will happily help!"

After a short pause Su Ming said, "I feel fine. Just tired. I'll head to the sect master after a bath."

Although unconvinced, she slowly nodded her head. "I'll prepare breakfast then," she said in a gentle voice before leaving.

After the door closed, the boy floated in front of the mirror. He looked about seven years old, was just a meter tall, and had short black hair. The two most noticeable things about him was a thin gold bracelet on his left wrist, and his silver eyes. The boy continued to stare at the mirror for a while, before looking at the bracelet.

Over 10 minutes passed without any changes. Yet, in the next moment, everything seemed to click.

He is Su Ming, the youngest elder of the Moon Palace. He was taken in by the Moon Palace when he was just a few months old, but unlike most children, he was extremely special.

Su Ming was already at the nascent soul stage when he was taken in. The sect leader said his cultivation was probably because of some secret technique allowing him to be born at the nascent soul stage. Although there must have been an unimaginable price for such power. He even had a bracelet that changed to fit his wrist, and would reject anyone else.

Due to his cultivation and young age Su Ming was personally cared for by one of the core second elder, and lived on their mountain. They had to have someone nearby strong enough to stop the power he unintentionally releases. Although he learned to control his powers enough to stop when he was about 3.

Although, the second elder cared for him, she was often busy. So, trusted disciples would often take care of him.

His life started to really change when Su Ming, despite being a child, became a core elder a week ago. There was a big discussion about it between the elders and the sect leader. They ended up deciding that anyone belonging to the sect, should immediately become a core elder once they reach the nascent soul stage with an age restriction being 13 years old. This age restriction can be lowered to as little as 7 years old, if it's decided that the cultivator in question is mature enough.

Although young, Su Ming has always shown intelligence beyond his age. After only a year he would try to speak, and stopped throwing tantrums. Though he still released energy due to his emotions. Regardless, at 5 he could speak, and write fluently. He could even start understanding more abstract concepts. His growth has been even larger in the 2 years since then.

Seeing this growth, the elders eventually decided he could become an elder. However, he can't take and use the sect's resources like other elders.

This change caused Su Ming to become the youngest elder throughout the Moon Palace's history. Like all other core elders, he now has his own mountain. To make sure he's cared for, a particularly good natured disciple become his official servant. Unofficially, she's a mother figure to Su Ming and his caretaker.

The changes to his status were hardly the only change that happened. He also started having a hazy memory, and would have trouble focusing. Although no one knew what was happening at first Su Ming soon found out.

The mysterious bracelet he was found with was forming a deeper connection with him. This bracelet was some sort of legacy, presumably left by his parents, and needed to connect to his soul for him to truly use it.

After a week, an initial connection was made. All he could do for now is call the bracelet to him, and take out the "main legacy". The legacy of course being the technique on his night stand. Now that a connection was formed, the memory will disappear until a deeper connection starts to form.

Su Ming remembered last night and the technique he read. The oddest thing is that it talks about an innate "seal". Yet, no one has an innate "seal". That would make drawing in qi impossible. Yet, Su Ming could feel that his current cultivation was cultivated using that technique.

Su Ming could only shake his head and sigh. Clearly his knowledge on cultivation wasn't deep enough to understand this technique.

Su Ming flew into the air while reminding himself of the many changes. In a moment he disappeared, reappeared. Now at the downstairs bath, Su Ming prepared to bath himself

After bathing, Su Ming went to the dinning room. Now in the grand core elder's robes, he looked like a noble. The robes are an abyssal black with intricate lines of silver throughout. An undecorated silver ring, which was a gift from the second elder, flew onto his left hand.

Su Ming then flew to the dinning room. After a few minutes his maid, Lian Mei, walked in. She had a plate of food, consisting of various magic beast, and fruits.

Placing the food down, Lian Mei leaned over. "Today is your first time at a disciple acceptance ceremony, so learn about the process. And don't make trouble for the other elders. Good luck young master," she lightly said as she rubbed his head.

With a mouth already full of food, Su Ming seriously nodded. Seeing his cute nod, Lian Mei chuckled before walking away.

Once he finished eating, Su Ming wasted no time. He immediately flew up and out the building. It wasn't long before he reached the sect master's peak.

Once he got close to the sect leaders pavilion, a middle aged woman quickly caught his eye. "Auntie Jiang!" he exclaimed in excitement, as he flew into her arms.

It's natural he'd be excited. She is the second elder of the sect, Xin Jiang, and she's the most important person in Su Ming's life. When he entered the sect, she took care of him. She's also the one who taught him most of what he knows. This goes for both knowledge about the world, and cultivation.

"Well aren't you excited?" the woman teased with a gentle smile. "Let's go greet the sect master," she said with Su Ming in her arms.

After a short walk, they stopped at a large set of doors. Xin Jiang put him down before asking, "You ready to begin your first official day as an elder?"

Su Ming looked carefully at the light blue haired elder, before nodding. Xin Jiang immediately stepped forward, as the door opened on its own. They entered the grand meeting room.

"Greetings, sect leader!" the two said politely as they bowed towards the sect leader at the head of the table.

"You two are as close as ever," the sect leader casually responded with a smile. They both sat down and everyone soon looked towards the sect leader.

The sect leader had short, light blue hair, similar to Xin Jiang. This is because they, as well as the fourth elder, are from the Xin family.

"Today is the disciple acceptance ceremony," Xin Guang turned serious. "The most pressing topic being who is allowed to accept disciples. There is a limit to the amount of resources we can give after all. If too many disciples join one mountain the sect will become unable to give enough resources to each disciple," the sect leader patiently explained the obvious, so that Su Ming would easily understand.

"I suggest that I and the third elder shouldn't accept anymore disciples," a reply quickly came from the first elder.

"Why can't I accept more disciples? I have less disciples then the rest of you by far!" the third elder was surprised, and felt unreconciled.

"That's true. However, your entire mountain focuses on experiments for alchemy and body cultivation. The resources you are given already make up 10% of the total sect resources, despite your lack of disciples. Even then you and your 4 disciples use up those resources faster than any other mountain. The only reason you could do so till now was because of the decent results. What do you think would happen if more disciples were added to your already high cost mountain?" the first elder calmly explained their reasoning. So calmly in fact, that this situation was likely anticipated. The third elder's face became progressively uglier. In the end he just let out a defeated sigh.

"Don't worry. No one will get in the way of your research or take from your share of resources. You just focus on bringing us a sect wide body cultivation method, just like you dream of," Xin Jiang, the second elder, calmly consoled the third elder.

Xin Guang seemed satisfied with this conclusion as he moved on, "I think it's time we discuss the most pressing question." The sect leader then asked with great importance, "Should the sixth elder, Su Ming, be allowed to take in a disciple?"

"I say he shouldn't," the first elder once again calmly stated his opinion. "Even if he's a nascent soul cultivator, he's still just seven years old." The third and forth elders nodded their heads in agreement.

"I disagree," Xin Jiang calmly retorted. "I spent the most time with him so I know him best. He may not quite have our understanding of cultivation, but he will soon. Although we don't know how he progressed, we know that he has a solid foundation. He also has a greater ability to sense qi and the soul then even the sect leader! To be able to surpass someone an entire realm ahead of them, especially when it comes to their senses, is absolutely absurd! To give a date, his understanding of cultivation will almost certainly catch up with ours in a year's time or less. Besides, he even has a special legacy that even we dare not mess with"

"Even if that's true he still has practically no experience teaching others. Not to mention he has no real combat experience, or an area he specializes in," the first elder was thoughtful but remained resolute.

The sect master held up his hand to stop the argument. He slowly stroked his chin a few times in deep thought. After some time he rose his head and asked, "If we don't give him a chance to teach how will he ever learn? After all he's already a core elder. He'll have to take in disciples at a much younger age than anyone here." The first elder remained silent and looked towards the sect leader with questioning eyes.

After a moment of silence, the sect leader made his suggestion, "Why don't we give him a disciple? Normally we, as the core elders, needless to say, only take in the best of the best. However, this case requires something different. Instead of giving him a disciple that clearly deserves to be part of the core of the sect, we give him someone that will likely make it to but never pass the inner court?" As the sect leader kept speaking some elders put on looks of understanding and worship. The sect leader continued to speak with confidence, "We'll get an inner court elder to watch him teach, give him advice, and fix any misconceptions his student may form. Once the elder feels that Su Ming is an effective teacher he will be able to take in disciples as freely as the rest of us. All in favor?"

All the core elders ended up agreeing, with the exception of Su Ming himself. "What if I find a disciple I like, that isn't likely to join the core of the sect? Can they become my disciple then?" Su Ming innocently questioned.

"You may make them your disciple, instead of the disciple we choose," The sect leader, although a bit surprised, quickly agreed.

Su Ming smiled brightly, before agreeing.