the multi

Fourth mountain village, Silver Bird Mountains, Shi Prefecture.

Fourth mountain village is the biggest village around the thirty five mountains. This area comes under the jurisdiction of Star Falcon Sect.

The recruitment test for talented children was taking place at the centre of the village, a large crowd was gathered, people from nearby villages were also assembled here.

Adults carried their children and stood in line to participate in the test. Children who didn't understand the value of the test had expectations to see a new world. Many teenagers had hopeful looks on their faces, most of them had participated in the test before.

Every four years, a test is conducted by the Star Falcon sect to unearth and bring talented children from these villages into the sect.

A fifteen year old teenage boy, wearing a tattered dress with patches sewed on it, was standing in front of the sect disciples and elder of the Star Falcon Sect. There was a large clear crystal ball with gems inlaid on top of it, standing in between the teenage boy and the sect elder.

"Name and age?" a sect disciple asked him.

"Su Yuchen, 15 years old." the teen answered.

The teen gave his basic information and then as instructed by the elder earlier he placed his hand inside the large crystal ball through the opening in front of it. He held a small metal pole inside the crystal ball.

Then, visible rays of energy passed from the walls of the crystals into Su Yuchen's hand, who tightened his grip out of nervousness when he saw the radiant energy rays.

The energy flowed through Su Yuchen's hand and then passed into the metal pole.

The blue gems on top of the crystal ball began to shine brightly, and then the yellow gems followed but with lesser radiance.

The crowd broke into loud noises of exclamations.

A big smile spread on the face of the elder, "Top grade talent with top tier water affinity and medium tier earth affinity. An extraordinary talent."

The crowd became silent in an instant, even then some people still chose to chat in low murmurs.

He continued, "Su Yuchen, with your talent, I believe a great cultivator can emerge in this land. My sect can cultivate a genius in realising their potential. Here, this is the disciple registration token. You don't have to undergo anymore assessments. Our sect welcomes you, a gifted child like you can fully display your talent and go further with the help and support from the sect. At the same time if you work hard with discipline and diligence, you may lead the next generation disciples and become the backbone of the sect. I hope you can step into higher realms in the future."

Murmurs filled the ground.

Su Yuchen excitedly took the token and replied, "I will work hard, thank you, elder."

A sect disciple led him to the back where a group a children and teenagers were standing. The sect discipline didn't make him stand with the boys group but stood him up near to his fellow sect disciples. The recruited children and teenagers had expressions of shock, surprise and excitement. Jealousy and envy was also brewing among some of the teenagers as they stared at Su Yuchen.

"Junior brother Su Yuchen, congratulations."

"Thank you."

"Congratulations, junior brother Su Yuchen. My name is Meng Qi, let's take care of each other in the future."

"Thank you, senior brother. Let's take care of each other in the future."

The sect disciplines tried to start a conversation with Su Yuchen.

But they soon retreated after the conversations stopped with only a few awkward sentences being exchanged.

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"Have you gathered the complete information about that child?" the sect elder asked with sharp eyes.

"Yes, elder."

"Su Yuchen is an orphan. His mother died during his birth and he grew up under the care of his father. His father is a hunter who earned his livings through hunting birds in the mountains. Su Yuchen's intelligence grew a lot slower than the average kid and he started speaking only from the age of eleven. His father died of exhaustion and hidden injuries that were untreated. His family was in poverty as a lot of money was spent on treating Su Yuchen. His father died a year ago."

"Su Yuchen is now normal, Senior Sister Tong made a checkup."

"His fellow villagers described Su Yuchen as a kind, naive and withdrawn kid. They found nothing wrong with his intelligence in the last year during which he lived by working miscellaneous jobs."

"No sightings of Fiend cultivators or demons in this area for a long time. No possibility of working undercover for the fiend sects as per the collected information."

The elder spoke said in a relaxed tone, "A good seedling is found for the sect. We can groom him as a talent for our sect. His affinities are also inline with the elders in our faction, he can be taught."

The elder was in a joyous mood as he could make contribution to the sect and earn good amount of sect contribution points from this trip.

There were few possibilities that others could bring a better talent than Su Yuchen in this recruitment.

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"It's really hard to image that he had something wrong with his mind till a few years ago and now suddenly he is on a higher pedestal than us."

"He was a baby that could be easily frightened. It's unbelievable that his status makes me timid to stare at him now."

"Actually it's relieving to see Su Yuchen sitting there quietly like a doll. I couldn't forget the arrogant acts of Zhao Feng every time he returns to the village. He returned twice but still made those days the most chaotic days of our villages."

"Hey, let Su Yuchen sit with us. Someone invite him."

"The sect disciple made him stand aside from us. Let us follow the same till we reach the sect."

"Do you think we can meet him again once we are inside the sect."

"Do you think, will Su Yuchen ever return to our village?"

"I bet he will. He might even want to leave the sect if the people there are too disturbing for him."

"What you said might even become true."

A small group of teenage boys sat together on the flying boat and starting chatting. As children from neighbouring villages, some of them are acquaintances and a few of them are even friends. Their conversation naturally involved the teen who was revealed to have the top quality talent.

Su Yuchen sat near to them and was in deep thought.

Some sect disciples had tried to strike up conversations with him and once again had to retreat when the dialogues between them were too basic and awkward.

Su Yuchen could hear some of the conversations between the teenagers as they didn't try to hide anything from him.

He came out of deep thinking and was eavesdropping on them when they began to name him in their conversation.

This behaviour made him feel funny as he was trying to eavesdrop on the conversations of teens who are mentally 10 years younger than him.

In his opinion, his mental age is older than them.

Su Yuchen calculated his mental age as 25 years old. He combined his previous life on earth with the active time he spent in this cultivation world.

A 25 year old eavesdropping on 15 year old teens is a funny hobby that he developed in the village. He is filled with embarrassment about this hobby.

He listened a lot of about him from them, and he grew to neglect their bad remarks about him. He tried to make some changes to his behaviour. He feels happy when they speak something good about him.

On earth he never cared about what others felt about him. Lack of gadgets to spent his free time on might be the reason for these changes, he always felt.

Still, these teenage boys are his only close relationships in this world.

Among the teenagers in that group there were teens he played games with regularly, some of them even dragged him to do some naughty acts. Almost all of them were his friends and there were some acquaintances whom he met during festivals.

Eavesdropping on them could clear his mind off from disturbing thoughts about his future.

"Move aside, give me some space." He just stood up and went to sit with them.

The sect recruitment made him think about a lot of things regarding the future.

He was worried about his future after entering the Star Falcon sect. He knew it is impossible for him to stay together with his fellow villagers in the sect, as they all would be allocated to different areas in the sect after they entered it. Right now he doesn't want to leave his fellow villagers.

More than the joy of entering the sect, this separation filled his heart.

Su Yuchen never expected running to his home in the rain would let a lightning take him away from his father and mother.

And now he had a late realisation that his newfound relationships would be broken after his decision to enter the cultivation world.

He doesn't know how to deal with this separation and he didn't even know how he got over the separation from his previous life parents and friends.

The loneliness of separation from his parents should have been unbearable. Glad his mind was in a muddled, confused state for more than a decade to make him numb from the pain of separation.

However, his family in this cultivation world was still filled with loneliness and despair. He failed to improve his family situation and his father had to experience suffering till he died. That man had to pass away without seeing any of his desires and dreams about his son grow in front of him.

He is glad these teenagers took him with them to play, took him away from loneliness and pain.

And now these relationships that were built during the year his father passed away might one day stop suddenly without him knowing.

The children might not think about the separation seriously but he couldn't stop thinking about this. As he knew that he might not even recognise the last moment that they would spend together.

He still doesn't want to have this inevitable separation from these 15 years old children.

Once separated they may never interact with the same closeness as before.

Chapter 2

On the flying boat.

The children were in amazement as they saw the sect buildings from afar. Every building they were seeing felt like a palace to them. They have never seen a palace but these buildings matched their imaginations of a palace.

The sect was located in a large area in the middle of a forest. From the sky it looked liked a city. The sect was divided into areas with walls around them. There were two circular walls within the sect. The children and teenagers guessed them as the boundary between outer sect, inner sect and core areas. They have heard about this.

For Su Yuchen this sect gave the impression of a big town. Except the buildings were from ancient times, built rich and maintained better. 

After a long ten hours journey, the flying boat descended in the Star Falcon Sect. Although the children were fully excited, they remained silent and maintained discipline under the presence of the elder.

After they landed, Su Yuchen left with the elder to register his identity. Others had to follow the sect disciples to participate in further assessments to determine their eligibility as a outer sect disciple and menial disciple.

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Inside the temporarily arranged Disciple register hall.

"This is your storage bag, you can store and carry your things easily with this. You will have your inner sect uniform inside it. The bag also has, a book on basic cultivation knowledge, 10 stellar rocks and 30 astral refinement pills. Next we will meet the sect master, try to be calm, silent and respectful. Be confident and when asked a question, try to speak with the leader without stuttering." The elder gave instructions to Su Yuchen after completing the registering formalities for new disciples. As an inner sect disciple candidate Su Yuchen needs to meet the sect master before declaring his eligibility.

Su Yuchen eagerly took the storage bag and said, "I will show my best self." as a reply to the elder. He doesn't know the value of other things, but the stellar rock could be converted to 1000 gold shells. Gold shells is the highest denomination of currency. He didn't even earn 1 gold shell by working a whole year. Now he got 10 stellar rocks, that's 10,000 gold shells.

The elder placed his hand on Su Yuchen's shoulder, took him into the air and led him to the centre of the sect where the main hall is located.

Su Yuchen could see the bustling streets in the sect from above. Some were travelling on beast mounts and some were using horses, donkeys. It was a strange experience for him, seeing people in identical attires roaming in such large numbers in the streets. This city is filled with the blue colour of the outer sect robe. This was a grandeur experience than seeing the students gathering from the top floor in his school.

Few people were flying in the sky above the sect, there's a serious lack of traffic in the sky compared to the traffic in the streets. He guessed that there may be some restrictions in the sect.

The elder passed through the gates of the inner sect, no one stopped him. Shockingly as the elder flew into the sky the view below changed, he could only see a barrier below. Through that barrier all he could see are the buildings, courtyards and arenas inside the barrier. No person or beast was visible from the sky.

When they were in front of the gate of the innermost area, the guards stopped them. After a jade token on the elders waist lit up and a guard turned his head to check on a mirror on the wall, the guards let them in. 

Su Yuchen and the elder had to walk after entering the centre area, flying should be restricted in the core area.

The majestic palaces and halls that came into his view stunned him. The walls of these palaces had to be built from crazy amounts of gold, silver and high quality construction materials. The patterns on the halls and palaces were inlaid with gems and jewels. Many details on the important structures of the buildings were made with shiny colourful metals that he doesn't recognise.

Su Yuchen looked around and appreciated these buildings as he walked. 

After a while he realised that it was actually a long walk to reach the main hall. He stared at the buildings as he walked and soon reached the main hall.

The main hall is just gigantic. It is majestic and imposing. The pillars of the main hall are too wide and its height is so tall a person will fell that its width is thin. There were many inscriptions and beasts inscribed on the pillar. The walls are too big in length and also had many things inscribed on them. The roof is like a golden crown adorned on the main hall.

This majestic structure was not seen by him when he was on the flying boat. He doesn't know why it was hidden from outside.

Two huge black tigers were resting on both sides of the steps with two guards standing besides them. As they passed them he felt the pressure from them. This pressure instantly shook his mind.

Su Yuchen's thoughts didn't divert anymore as he walked on the steps, he was in a state where he was concentrating on every step he was taking. And thus his tiny figure in front of the main hall began to make him nervous.

When he entered the main hall Su Yuchen gathered his courage to look in front. In the big, spacious, grand hall, a middle aged person was sitting on a high raised platform. From him he felt a sharp glance for a second. The elder led him near to that man and then bowed to him. He also followed the elder and bowed to him. He should be the sect master of the Star Falcon Sect.

After the ceremony, Su Yuchen's brain realised the information that there were other figures sitting in seats on both sides. Surrounded by them his nervousness grew more and more. They should be the main elders of the sect.

The elder said, "Sect master, I brought a talented child from my recruitment mission in the mountain villages. This child, Su Yuchen has a top grade talent with top tier affinity to water element and medium tier affinity to earth element." He continued confidently, "I believe he can become one of our sects finest disciples and I want to make him an inner disciple."

In midst of the elders words everyone's attention shifted to Su Yuchen.

The sect master narrowed his eyes and a wisp of energy flew from him into Su Yuchen's body. The wisp of energy travelled inside his body and examined him. 

Su Yuchen trembled.

"This boy sure has potential, Elder Shu. Letting him stay in the outer sect will waste his talents."

Elder Shu's eyes gleamed as he listened to the sect master.

The sect master looked into Su Yuchen's eyes, "Our Star Falcon sect doesn't promote disciples into the inner sect so easily and you haven't even began cultivation, but your exceptional talent can still warrant a spot for you in the inner sect."

Su Yuchen tried hard not to avert his eyes and concentrate on what the sect master is saying.

"Many want to enter our sect for resources and prestige. Why do you want to join our sect?" The sharp eyes of the sect leader were penetrating Su Yuchen, "Why do you want to cultivate, Su Yuchen?"

Su Yuchen thoughts slowed down when he was asked a question. He thought for a reason for cultivating. Some answers like strength, protection, freedom came to his mind, but he wasn't satisfied with them. He became anxious, bowed and just replied, "I want to cultivate and reach as far as I can."

What's with this answer! Did he really answered like this! Su Yuchen felt his body temperature decreasing within seconds, he could feel the coldness his body was covered in.

He continued to answer with whatever that came to his mind, "I heard about the reputation of the Star Falcon Sect for a long time. I dreamed about becoming a part of this sect and make contributions."

Now he didn't dared to raise his head.

The sect master of the Star Falcon Sect was observing Su Yuchen all the time. When he saw him blanked out, thinking to reply, he knew this child was ignorant. The answers are also the same.

Even then he still spoke, "Su Yuchen, you are young without any experience of the cultivation world. The sect will train you, provide you with resources and guide you to experience the world. From this day forth, you will be a disciple of the Star Falcon Sect. You will start as an inner disciple."

Su Yuchen hurriedly replied, "I am honoured, sect master."

The sect master replied, "Good, I hope to see your strong will and resolve on your path."

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"Is the third elder faction going to have another talented disciple?"

"An ignorant village child. Do you guys think he will try to learn and progress?" The sect master remarked.

"Even if he tries in the beginning, he might degenerate and even waste his talents."

"That happens all the time."

"These poor children, they easily lose their obedience. Once that happens they stop behaving in a disciplined manner."

"How did this child behave? Anxious and panicked. He is too ordinary and ignorant. He should be 15 and still doesn't have a reason to cultivate. Can we expect discipline from children like him?" The sect master asked.

"All the disciplines are same, they are not diligent in cultivation and don't progress according to their potential."

"Without discipline when can you find diligence in cultivation from them?"

"All that talent in the sect is getting wasted because of our failure to discipline them."

"Is it really our incompetence? I argue that it is their fearlessness. They know we, the elders, wont monitor them all the time. They just want to relax." 

"The path of cultivation is filled suffering and sacrifices. Which child is ready to face them everyday? Which among them is ready to persevere? Once you breakdown all you want to do is to relax and once you relax you don't want to suffer again." The sect master continued, "Say, how many disciples that had been promoted to the inner sect remained motivated to progress in cultivation? Haven't they relaxed? Haven't they felt the joy of superiority and control? The happening progress we see among the sect disciples, it has been only due to the environment of artificial competition we created."

"Running this huge sect is a huge burden on us and still these idiots form factions and obstruct us from maintaining a healthy atmosphere in the sect."

"If all of us had worked together to maintain discipline among the disciples maybe we wouldn't have had a need for the artificial competition among the disciples. We could have had nice spare time without any worries to delve into cultivation."

"Those elders whose potential had faded, they obstruct others from progressing."

"They could just obstruct the disciplines from degenerating."

"That means they have to work."

"Those who always think about obstructing others and cause problems, do they even want to work?" The sect master asked.

"They aren't contributing anything to the sect." 

"They are contributing for the downfall of our sect by letting disciples see their means of obstructing others from cultivating."

"Is our sect even going to last long with these parasites?"