The morning sunlight passed through the windows of my room and landed directly on my face, waking me up. I got out of bed, stepped out of my room, opened the door of my courtyard, and told a guard to send me my breakfast.
I had to tell him by myself because I had woken up earlier than usual today, maybe it was because today marked the end of my training and I would have to travel to the Xiantian Sect for my recruitment test. It has been 20 days since I sparred with my sister. My progress in these 20 days was nothing short of astonishing as I gained 40% progress from my daily quest and 4% from the two pills(taken three days apart) which allowed me to break through to the 5th stage of Qi Gathering, and the remaining four pills increased it by another 8% which I consumed during the remaining 14 days.
My progress in Flowing River Sword Art got infinitely closer to the Great Success stage, but I wasn't able to reach that mark. Maybe it would take another five or six days.
But I didn't let this setback demotivate me because I successfully achieved Intermediate mastery in my Iron-Bending Monkey Staff Manual.
My status panel looks like this right now:-
--- The Celestial System ---
[[Name: Xuan Yuan (Lucas Silva)
Age: 17
Cultivation Level: 5th stage of Qi Gathering – (8%)
Skills:- Flowing River Sword Art - Intermediate(●●●○○), Iron-Bending Monkey Staff Manual – Intermediate(●●●○○)
Abilities:- Lunar Slash (click to view details)
Items:- One-time use Power card(Increase strength by 3 minor realms)
Quests: CLICK HERE]]
I was quite satisfied with my rate of progress, and yeah, I had totally forgotten that I was using the Lunar Slash consistently and also getting better at it, but I was ignoring its upgrade notification.
I quickly checked its details as I thought of this:-
[Lunar Slash:- level-(3), progress (17%)]
I quickly sucked in a cold breath as I saw that my mastery of this ability had reached level 3, and together with the one-time power-up card, I was confident to perform exceptionally in my recruitment test.
Just as I had closed the status panel, I heard a knocking sound at the doors of my courtyard so I went ahead and when I opened it I again saw a maid who lowered her head upon seeing me and said "Young Master, the patriarch wants to see you in his courtyard," she said as she tightened her knuckles and was probably thinking that I was going to scold her.
I just shook my head at her reaction and said nothing about it and started moving towards my father's courtyard. Upon reaching the doors to the courtyard, the same two guards from before were standing there again and quickly nodded at me and opened the door with the same expressionless face from before.
I nodded at them and went inside and saw my father not in the courtyard's garden so i quickly walked towards his house and just as I was going to knock on the door a sound came from the inside of the house which I instantly recognized as my father's voice, "Come inside and close the door after you enter." he said and then spoke nothing else.
I just nodded at empty air, but I was somehow sure my father might have seen my nod even though he wasn't in front of me.
After entering the house, I quickly went to the first floor and walked towards my father's office, whose location I took from my predecessor's memories, as he used to come here sometimes in the past.
After reaching the door, I took a deep breath and went inside, and soon saw my father sitting on a chair opposite the table from me, and there were two people standing by his side whom I quickly recognized as the Grand Elder and the Second Elder.
I nodded and paid my respect hurriedly as my heart started beating so fast that it might pop out of my chest and I sure wouldn't be surprised by it. I joked to myself in hopes of calming my racing heart.
I stood in front of them as my father started speaking, "Sit down." I quickly sat down on the chair opposite him at the table and looked at my new father as he spoke once again, "Well done. You have not only broken through to the 3rd realm but also have reached the late third stage of Qi Gathering, which honestly surprises me a lot, but I won't pry you for it, as everyone keeps some secrets to themselves in this world, so it's alright." I simply said, "I got an opportunity in the past, father," to which he simply nodded and started talking about why he called me here, and not to mention that he also couldn't see through my actual cultivation as the system was hiding it.
"Get ready, as today by the time of sunset you will start heading for the Xiantian sect with the Second elder, as the test is going to start tomorrow morning, so you will reach there on time."
Honestly, I was quite surprised, not by the fact that I am heading for the sect recruitment today but by the fact that the Second Elder is gonna take me there himself, but I quickly shook my head as I remembered that I was the young master of the clan so my safety would also be important for the clan and my father would certainly try to take precautions if we had some unfortunate encounter.
"Yes, Father, I have prepared everything and will certainly make sure to get recruited as a personal disciple," I said with quiet resolve in my voice, at which my father nodded with satisfaction and told me to meet the second elder at the gate of the clan, to which I hastily agreed and then paid my respects to them and walked out of the courtyard.
But the thing which surprised me the most was that all this time, the Grand Elder and the Second Elder hadn't spoken to me. Well, I should start getting ready to go for the Sect Recruitment Test as Luo Cheng has already gone off in the morning to reach for the Recruitment Test by the early hours of tomorrow but I as the young master I was would be going with the Second Elder but reaching tomorrow morning when we started the journey in the evening today, how will we be able to move that fast? Well, no need to ponder about it as I am gonna find out the reason that evening anyway.
On my way back to my courtyard, I once again found my sister Xuan Ling standing in the halls of the clan. I even started wondering if it's her way of telling me that she always knows where I am and what I am always doing? Like I couldn't care less about that fact, as my secrets were mine alone, and that couldn't be known to anyone.
I knew that she was here to talk with me, but at least try to start the conversation instead of standing there quietly and not saying anything while staring like she's gonna drill a hole through my head just with her eyes.
I simply sighed in mind and strolled towards her at a calm pace while wondering what she was here for.
As I reached a respectable distance near her, I stopped and greeted her by bowing a little and not doing anything else, as she was stronger and older than I was. Then I started asking "Why are you here, sister? Do you need me for something?" to which she simply replied with a light smirk, "Can't I visit my dear little brother without any reason?"
Yeah, and you think I am gonna believe it, I thought to myself, though I still spoke politely to her, "Absolutely not, sister. You can meet me anytime, as I am free most of the time."
She didn't want to or maybe felt it wasn't worth beating around the bush so she simply said "I am gonna go for Azure Cloud Sect Recruitment Test tomorrow in the morning with my father and I heard that you are gonna head out for your sect recruitment in some hours at the sunset so I simply came to warn you that if you fail to get accepted as a personal disciple and become just a mediocre outer disciple then get ready for multiple rounds of spars with you dear sister."
She spoke the last words with a slight smile on her face which caused my entire body to shiver for some unknown reason.
"Yes, don't worry, sister, I will certainly become a personal disciple as I never want to feel the pain of your beatings in the name of spar... ahem, I meant as not to lower the dignity of the clan," I spoke the initial words in a low tone, so I hoped she hadn't heard that, as I had subconsciously muttered them.
She didn't seem to have heard it, or maybe she just ignored it and simply nodded and started walking towards, and before leaving, she uttered just three words, "All the best", which I somehow found odd coming from her mouth, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly, so I stopped thinking about it.
When the Sun casted golden hues of sunlight on the horizon, I walked out of the clan gate and at the entrance standing there in the side was the Second Elder, he saw me and nodded at me to come forward as he summoned a giant Vermillion which made my eyes bulge out as this bird was one of known beasts to be very aggressive and was very hard to tame even for cultivators stronger than itself.
But the reason I was trembling was because it was my first time seeing a 6 meter long bird and i was sure it might weigh more than 250kg but it looked quite gentle but still didn't ease the fact that it was gonna be my first time riding a beast and that's how I came to know how I was gonna reach the sect this fast.
I controlled myself from continuously trembling as I saw the Second Elder casually walking forward and with a jump sat directly on it but the beast didn't react to it so I also walked forward and slowly climbed on top of it and just as I sat on it the bird screeched and at a speed which I was sure reached around 120km/hr, the bird directly started flying in the north-west direction and the speed was so much it made me want to throw up but i held it in as I also had to maintain my dignity but it really felt like sh*t and I swore to myself I won't climb one again until i could fly myself and get well versed in travelling at high speeds.
And that's how a young boy who will be shaking this whole world and bringing all his enemies to his knees was starting his journey in the setting Sun. Who knows what the future might hold for him, but he wasn't the one to back off, and his first journey was going to start from the Xiantian Sect. So this would be the start of the story of a boy who would be later known as "Eclipse of the heavens."