Ch 13 - Five Heavenly Masters

Early in the morning, just before the sun rose.

Xu Ming got out of his bed and made a small cup of spirit tea from his stock of lingxi leaves.

Gripping the cup in his hand, he took a sip out of it and put it down. Xu Ming made a small fire in the grove next to his cultivation cave abode and heated up the bamboo bath that he'd crafted in his free time, and made the concoction required for his body cultivation.

Xu Ming took off his clothes and started shivering a bit in the chill of the morning's frosty blue light. He was a child after all, and was able to have the same strength and toughness as a tough adult male because of his proficiency in body cultivation. However, with the lunar frost periods approaching, the temperature would only get colder.

Speaking of which, this was also Xu Ming's first time experiencing this sort of erratic climate. Apparently, due to special conditions in the continent, there would be sporadic alternations of climate from hot, cold, freezing, pleasant, dry and then to hot in periods of 3 years each. There wasn't a standard seasons system in this place, and it was just starting to switch from the cold periods into the freezing periods, which was officially named the lunar frost periods.

From what he'd heard about the local myth, Shuang'gu Taishang, the son of the moon god, abandoned Lunguang, the daughter of the Wind God and eloped with the fertility goddess towards the Great Yan Continent. With his wrath, the moon god disowned Shuang'gu and cast a spell over the Great Yan Continent, forever changing the weather of the continent to be freezing for eternity.

However, when the kindly Sun God heard the cries from his followers and believers and saw their suffering, the Sun God didn't want the people to suffer because of the mistakes of the Moon God's son. Thereby, he cast another spell to cancel out the moon god's punishment. The Moon God, upon learning this, was also furious with the Sun God and fought with him for three years and two months. Because of this, every three years, the temperature changes from cold to colder, and then warm to warmer.

Xu Ming didn't know how much of the myth he believed in but it was a pleasant way to pass his time, listening to Senior Sister Xia chatter away at her station, who seemed to have quite the penchant for storytelling.

He moaned a bit as he got into the bamboo tub, allowing the concoction to sleep into his flesh. Xu Ming followed the manual as he cultivated, sealing some of the concoction in his flesh.

After about thirty minutes, Xu Ming got out and started his physical training. He started lifting weights made of heavy stone and metal, using the environment around him to train his muscles and flesh. This was apparently the way to cultivate flesh, according to a senior brother who specialised in this field. The special concoction of herbs would seal itself in the flesh and heal the muscles as they were injured, helping them to grow stronger every time.

This took up another hour of Xu Ming's time, and he took a bath to clean himself up and head towards his cave abode, and cultivated for an hour, according to the Eternal Script.

Xu Ming had been making good progress.

After a good productive morning session, Xu Ming headed to the Peak Hall and had his morning breakfast from the service station there while chatting with Senior Sister Xia, who truly seemed to treat him like a smaller brother.

"Oh, hard at training again? I told you, take it easier, little Ming!", Senior Sister Xia pouted as she lectured Xu Ming.

Xu Ming laughed as he said, "I have no choice but to be diligent, Senior Sister Xia. My talent is average so I should work a little harder in cultivation to make up for it."

Senior Sister Xia looked like she had tears in her eyes and she patted Xu Ming and said, "It's not easy for you, little Ming."

"Speaking of which, I heard that there's a new cultivator on the rise lately."

Xu Ming's interest was piqued, and so was another senior brother who happened to be passing by.

"Oh, Fellow Daoist Xia, greetings. I've heard of this new cultivator too.", he spoke as he greeted Senior Sister Xia.

"Oh, Bu Fang, it's you.", Senior Sister Xia greeted the senior brother who looked a little bit chubby, but had an astute figure of about 205 cm, and had muscles in all the right places.

Bu Fang continued, "They're saying that this newbie cultivator is the newest addition to the four heavenly masters, and that he's from the Xinniang Sword Sect. Oh right, it should be considered the five heavenly masters now."

"That's what I heard as well. Oh, little Ming, you probably don't know what the heavenly masters are. They're the four most talented people under the age of 20, in the entire continent. They're truly powerful people, and will one day inherit the mantle of their respective powers. They're far, far above us.", Senior Sister Xia spoke.

Bu Fang spoke, "You'll probably need to know this information one day anyways, so let me introduce them to you."

"In the west, Fang Xi, titled the Asura King, 16 years of age. He's the inheritor of the Red Tar Towers, the continent's most feared assassination group. His most feared feat is assassinating a golden core cultivator when he was sleeping in his own bed, and managing to escape without raising any alarms."

"In the north, Cao Ge, titled the Sword Prodigy, 17 years of age. He's the inheritor of the One Sword Palace, the strongest sword sect in the continent. His best feat is tearing through the hall of the fearsome Grey Wolf Bandits with his own created Cao Sword Style."

"In the south, Ling Zhiyun, titled the Illusionary Beauty, merely 15 years of age. She's the young master of the Moon God Pavillion, and her best feat is taming a golden core ferocious beast all by herself at the age of 10."

"In the east, Hu Shang. Not much is known about this young master because he's from the seclusive Shang Monastery. However, we do know that he's the youngest prodigy in a thousand years to ring the Shang Bells three times."

"And the newest prodigy, Lin Feng, from the Xinniang Sword Sect, a tier one sect. All of the other sects have been supreme sects, above the tier one sect. However, Lin Feng's talent is immeasurable. He's only 8 right now, about the same as little Ming here, but he's actually in the 6th level of Qi Refining and has mastered basic sword intent. He's reached the advanced level in 3 different sword manuals, and has the "Pure Heart" that hasn't appeared in the Great Yan Continent for a long time. He's truly incredible."

Xu Ming paused for a moment before saying, "Oh, I actually know him, he's my friend."

Senior Sister Xia let out a giggle and knocked on Xu Ming's head as she spoke, "Yeah, right. Bragging isn't a good habit, little Ming."

Xu Ming grumbled, "No one ever believes me when I say the truth. By the way, Senior Brother Bu Fang, how do you know all of this?"

Bu Fang replied with a smile, "Well, I'm a member of the internal affairs branch under the Longevity Peak, so I have to know this stuff. If you ever want to know anything about the world, you just ask your brother here."

Xu Ming bid farewell to the two seniors and headed on his way towards Elder Qin's little abode, reporting on time for his duties.

"Ah, Xu Ming, right on time as always. Do me a favor, you don't have to help me create pills today. Please deliver this letter to the Peak Master of the Combat Peak.", Elder Qin spoke as he handed a letter over to Xu Ming.

Xu Ming agreed to the task and headed slowly towards the combat peak, which was located at a much lower altitude compared to the Longevity Peak. This wasn't anything to do with the status or position of the peaks, but rather because there was much more flat land area for training on the lower altitudes.

Xu Ming, after 40 minutes of riding on a young horse, reached the Combat Peak which looked like it was fully fortified inside and out with sturdy stone defenses. Everywhere you looked, there were flat training grounds and lots of disciples training fiercely with each other.

Suddenly, a loud thud caught Xu Ming's attention.

"Hah! You trash! You don't deserve to be in the basic training group, Mo Xiao. You can barely take three hits from me!"

Xu Ming saw three youths, about 12 years of age, surrounding a young boy of about the same age.

The boy named Mo Xiao gritted his teeth but didn't say anything, in fear of being abused by the group.

A young lady, who happened to be spectating near Xu Ming, shouted with disgust, "You don't even have the guts to stand up for yourself, Mo Xiao? No wonder Du Maomao left you for Fang Ren."

Mo Xiao stood up, grit his teeth and said, "Shut up! You're not qualified to judge me!"

The young lady sneered as she spoke, "Well, do you only know how to scream at harmless girls? Tough towards the weak but weak against the tough, huh?"

Mo Xiao's face turned red and grit his teeth as he squeezed his hands, but didn't dare to rebutt.

The youths surrounding Mo Xiao laughed with great relish as they made fun of the young boy.

Xu Ming watched all of this occur from afar but had no intentions of going in and playing the saviour or hero. Despite being harsh, the young lady was indeed right in her in words.

Also, Xu Ming exclaimed how strange other Peaks were in comparison to his own. Back in his Peak, harmony was the name of the game, and everyone got along with each other, while here, there was fighting and bullying at every corner.

A man put his hand on Xu Ming's shoulder all of a sudden, startling him a bit.

"Well son, quite the difference from your own Peak, huh?", he spoke as if he knew what Xu Ming was thinking about.

Xu Ming didn't reply, but merely nodded.

"In your peak, everyone lives very long and has to co-operate with each other across centuries, and will most likely see each other for all their lives because they don't risk their lives all that often. That's why it is called the Longevity Peak.

However, in the Combat Peak, people die and go missing all the time. The environment here isn't quite as forgiving, and thus the law of the jungle tends to come out very often. That's why it is harsher here."

The man spoke as he smiled at Xu Ming, "Now, I heard you were coming over, Elder Qin's protege. Come with me, I'll take you to the Peak Master."