kingdom falling | gyuricky

four.

There were no activities scheduled for the rest of the day. By the time all the cultivators had settled into their living quarters it was already evening, and the mountain peak looked like the tip of a new paintbrush dipped in hues of purple and orange. Gyuvin headed out to go look for Hanbin so they could eat dinner at the dining hall together.

"Hyung!" he called out, waving, amidst the people walking along the corridor. Hanbin's living quarters were just a distance away from his own. From the amount of quarters he could see, it seemed like there were more than a hundred cultivators here for the training camp.

Hanbin was talking to someone when Gyuvin approached him. "Gyuvin-ah, this is Zhanghao from Moonrise Palace. He's my neighbor. Zhanghao, this is my junior, Kim Gyuvin."

Zhanghao was dressed in the same light but resplendent clothing as Ricky, and he held himself with the same regal, poised grace. "I've heard about you," he said, smiling. "Kim Gyuvin of Meteor Court, with a cultivation core that could rival the heavens."

"Ah, please don't say that," Gyuvin returned despairingly. "People love to talk. I'm just average."

"I look forward to seeing your skills tomorrow, regardless," Zhanghao said. "Training starts tomorrow morning and the first thing they're doing is conducting a simple test of all the cultivators' skill levels and specialties, so they know how to assign us training groups and partners."

"Right," Hanbin nodded. "Shall we go and get some dinner? If we wait much longer, the food will all be gone."

Hanbin was right. As they'd been chatting, the corridor that was full of people had cleared out in the direction of the dining hall.

The selection of food available was very wide, considering they had to cater for the tastes of people from all over. Gyuvin helped himself to a portion of white rice, grilled pork belly and fresh vegetables, sitting down next to Hanbin at one of the tables. The other cultivators, similarly, seemed to have made some friends amongst their neighbors, and he could see a mix of colored uniforms dotting the dining hall.

Only one group sat away from everyone else, eating quietly in their own circle. The cultivators from Moonrise Palace were eating together, five or six of them. Everyone else around them seemed to have noticed too; there was nothing gravely wrong about eating with your own sect, but in a place like the training camp, it seemed like a waste not to take the opportunity to make some friends and connections. Either way, it didn't give people the best first impression of them, in terms of friendliness.

"I thought Zhanghao-hyung would have eaten with us..." Gyuvin trailed off.

Hanbin shrugged. "I think their sect has their own rules. No one really knows how Moonrise Palace trains, anyway."

Moonrise Palace, compared to all the other sects, had always been known as the most reclusive of sects. The Palace itself was located at the peak of a mountain somewhere up North, and the terrain there was just so brutal, snowing all year and with subzero temperatures, that no one even really wanted to pay a visit there, anyway. The cultivators from the sect still descended the mountain to take care of matters within their jurisdiction whenever they were called upon, but otherwise, their involvement with anything other than themselves was minimal.

"That one over there is my neighbor," Gyuvin gestured with his shoulder.

"Which one?"

"The blonde one."

"Oh," Hanbin stopped craning his neck once he got a look at Ricky. "I wonder if his hair is naturally that color."

"I don't know either," Gyuvin replied. "Haven't gotten a chance to ask."

Hanbin's other neighbor was a cultivator about their age called Kim Taerae from the Seven Star Manor sect, whom he'd promised to introduce Gyuvin to some other time. Out of all the sects, who seemed to have at least six cultivators each representing them, Meteor Court looked to be the only sect that had only two representatives, but Gyuvin supposed it made sense.

Sects like Moonrise Palace and Lunar Valley had over a thousand cultivators under them at any given time, whilst Meteor Court at its peak had just over four hundred. Besides, the training camp would last for half a year, and throughout the duration of the camp the regular functions of the sect would still have to continue, namely training, patrolling the surrounding cities within their territory and attending to the commoners' needs where they arose. It didn't make sense for them to send so many of their top youth cultivators away at once. Anyway, Gyuvin and Hanbin could come back and impart the knowledge they had learned, so everyone would benefit regardless.

Gyuvin headed back to his quarters after dinner. He'd kept what Zhanghao had said in mind; training would begin tomorrow, starting with a placement test to determine the skill level of every cultivator in the camp, meaning he had to be adequately rested so he could perform well the next day.

They hadn't used much of their spiritual powers at all today, in fact he hadn't for quite a few days ever since leaving Meteor Court, other than simple spells like enchanting the door at the inn to lock or activating illumination talismans in the carriage when it got dark. As a result he didn't really feel tired or drained, but he did his best to sit quietly and meditate in silence in his bedroom for the timespan of a stick of incense, just to make sure he would be in a good state tomorrow.

Just as he finished his meditation and got up from where he was sitting, the announcement of an incoming communication array sounded out in his head, and Gyuvin closed his eyes, allowing the array to open up.

This communication array was more advanced than the simple message arrays that were more commonly used. It allowed for the receiver and the sender to have a short conversation in real time, much more convenient and efficient than sending several message arrays back and forth.

"Gyuvin-ah, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. It's my first day at the training camp."

"Ah, the training camp for the Spirit Beast Hunting Festival you told me about. How is it there?"

"The grounds are really nice, I wish you could see it. Hanbin-hyung is with me, but he's in a different area than I am."

"I can't talk for much longer. My break from my meditation shouldn't be too long. Take care, okay? I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Goodbye. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

The array closed and Gyuvin opened his eyes, staring up into the ceiling. Wooden rafters criss-crossed the roof, holding up the structure. A small lantern burnt on the low table at the other end of the room, but save for that and the faint moonlight, it was dark.