"Phew, i have never had a meal like that before, no wonder most wealthy people are fat"
"So this is what It's like to not be a slave, eating to your heart's content, sleeping peacefully not having to worry about someone yelling at you while you're out in the fields working or people spitting on you."
"I've achieved this temporary freedom while risking my life, and if I continue on this path, I'm sure, I will someday be completely free."
The boy thought to himself as he layed on the bed, while plucking meat from his teeth. His belly was now satisfied and no longer making any noises.
"I'm Looking forward to tomorrow.... I'm so sleepy" he looked outside the window as he layed on the bed and his eyelids heavy, the sun had already fallen replaced by the glowing full moon, at the very top of the mountain where the shrine stood. the moon was especially glowing filling the mountain top with silver light, the clouds came once in a while blocking the full moonlight plunging the land into darkness.
He quickly fell asleep as if his body was just waiting for the moment he layed down. This was to be expected. they had spent days climbing up the mountain and were told to take care of the other youths instead of immediately going to sleep in order to rest.
...
"brilliant brilliant keep going" an old man's voice rang out, there was excitement in his voice.
"aargh"
Inside the cave, the surroundings were covered in white light, as the white light shone brightly countless small creatures such as spiders, ants, quickly hid away from the light going under the many rocks in the cave, but everything in the cave still became visible to naked eye
A little girl sat cross-legged legged in the cave her face full of sweat and fatigue. "aargh," she groaned in pain as the white light contracted little by little gathering in her abdomen, the cave immediately became dark as the light faded, the only source of light the cave now had was the moonlight which came through the entrance of the cave, the girl breathed heavily as though someone who was running for days, there was dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn't slept in a long time, she leaned on the cave wall in order to rest
In front of her stood a tall well built elderly man, the elderly man wore jade-green robes. His gray hair and beard reaching down to his waist, Obviously It was elder feng ming
"That was good enough" he patted her head while having a kind smile on his face as he quickly fell into deep thoughts, "she's still in the process of learning so this is to be expected, sigh it's too bad she's not a man. my palm arts are not suitable for her, but she's too talented for me to discard, even if she can't cultivate my palm arts there are countless arts in our jade sect vault" elder feng ming sighed, there was a hint of regret in his aged eyes as he assessed the little girl sitting before him
After many harsh training he found out The girl could absorb the earth qi without having to do anything, and she could also absorb it at a high speed if she wanted to increase her shrine qi, normally martial masters can only absorb a cup worth of earth qi and that little amount of qi needed to be cleansed immediately before it Corrodes their body, by the time they cleanse that little qi they are already tired and no longer have the energy to absorb anymore earth qi, but even if they had some energy left to absorb earth qi their shrine wouldn't allow them to pour in anymore earth qi, meaning they can't absorb anymore qi until that little cup worth of qi gets depleted, this is where most martial masters lacked and stayed stagnant for years and years despite having experience, without the earth qi in their shrine they were no different than mortals, the more earth qi one has in their shrine the more attacks they could unleash.
However the girl's case was different this is where her talant could brightly shine, even if she did nothing her body would naturally absorb earth qi and cleanse it.
"She did not even go through the martial masters ritual, this is truly once in a millennium talant" elder feng ming stroked his long beard as he thought. His eyes were full of anticipation towards the future.
"I'm glad I went on a journey to take in disciples who would've thought I would acquire such a talented youngster. Hmph, if i hadn't met her she would've no doubt fallen into these old bastards hands" there was disgust and loathe in elder feng ming's face as he thought to himself.
"Hmm, this it for tonight tomorrow the other kids will go through the martial masters ritual, I will see for myself what benefits they can bring into the sect, if they're worthless I shall..."
Just as elder feng ming was thinking he was interrupted by footsteps he heard, he quickly looked at the cave entrance and saw a middle-aged woman with eyes deep as the ocean floor and wearing jade-green robes. It was feng jing. she did not speak but nodded towards elder feng ming before slowly coming inside the cave.
"I see you have taken a liking to this youngster, you're even planing to take her as your direct disciple, who would've thought thousand palms martial would take in a disciple" feng jing jokingly said as she crouched down looking at the girl who was leaning on the cave wall with her eyes closed.
"Ahem, well it's just that this girl is extremely talented i couldn't pass her up" Elder feng ming cleared his throat and stood upright as he heard feng jing calling him thousand palms martial there was an air of arrogance surrounding him.
"But anyways I have been busy with this little one how are the others?" Elder feng ming quickly asked.
"Well, they've been inside the shrine for a while now, the martial masters ritual should be going smoothly tomorrow." As feng jing answered there was an expectation in her deep calm eyes.