Prophecy Of The Stars

21. PECULIARITY

Six months passed by, in the blink of an eye.

The new teenagers who entered the sect, with excitement and passion, all now tempered down, remoulding themselves into serious and responsible persons, now training diligently, in the large practice hall of the sect.

The mentors looked at them with satisfaction. During the last six months, they managed to see the growth of these students, and also the rise of a few talented ones among them.

Each masters from the different factions, secretly kept a tab on those potential ones, so they could rope them into their branches, before the other factions could.

Wan Huang's life passed by, without much troubles in the sect. Apart from the friendship she had with Wan Fang, Ren Weilin and Yun Shan, she didn't have much interaction with her other fellow disciples.

These six months also saw the silent formation of two cliques among the new disciples.

The most talented ones among the new disciples, known as the neo five stars with their group of followers,  and the others who stayed out from the clique, minding their own business.

The eight others were ignored by the new five stars and their followers to the point, that they would not even spare a glance at them.

Lately, Wan Huang's cultivation showed signs of breakthrough into the next level.

The  spiritual QI rich environment, the steady supply of QI spirit pills and the proper guidance from masters, helped her to push her current level into its peak form for a breakthrough.

Of course, her hellish torture in the Red Jade Palace by xiufeng could not be discredited.

From conjuring up a small ball of fire, to converting it into steady flames that danced on her palms, she managed to raise her flame attribute, to the second level. She now just needed a small push, then she could walk to the sixth level of profound earth stage.

The next day, all the new disciples were summoned to the public square. The junior masters from the various factions were also present.

One master from the external affairs section strode forwards to the middle of the dias.

"Six months ago, you all came into the sect as it's new disciples. Throughout these months, we saw you all grow up, polishing and exhibiting your talents, learning and persevering through our training, you all proved that our eye for talents were not wrong".

"Just cultivating and practicing inside the sect is not enough. You all will go out into the world one day, to survive on your own. You will need to practice what you once learned here".

"To help your training, the sect issues missions once every six months, mandatory for all of you to complete it. Apart from that, you are allowed to take missions, to complete on your own. Each one is required to complete eight missions in a year excluding the ones issued by the sect".

"You will be rewarded with honour points, after your mission is completed. You can exchange these honour points for weapons of your choice, pills, lending cultivation techniques or you can use it to redeem a room in the cultivation pagoda".

The junior master's speech ignited a wave of murmers within the crowd.

The cultivation pagoda, was a seven storied, spiritual QI rich site in the entire sect.

Built in hexagonal shape, with seven levels, it had a total of forty-two rooms. The breath of QI was less dense in the first floor and richest on the seventh floor.

The honour points for each level was different too. Four thousand honor points for three hours in the first level to, thirty-four thousand points on the seventh level. Each one could redeem a room in the cultivation pagoda, only once in a week.

Disciples on the hundred rank list were entitled with special previlage. The rules for using the pagoda was same for them, except that the honor points amounted less.

Just being inside the sect brought visible changes to their body, not more to say of cultivating inside the pagoda.

The murmers died when the junior master cleared his throat.

He gave a few guidelines and spoke about things to be taken care of when they were out for mission and dispersed the gathering.

The missions to be carried out by them were posted on the large notice wall of the sect. They were divided into groups of four and each team had two days to prepare for the mission.

Wan Huang was teamed with three 'unknown' fellows. Their mission was to capture an intermediate ranked demonic beast and extract its demonic core.

The teammates met up to plan their route and other trivial things and then went their own way.

That night, Wan Huang noticed the surge of spiritual QI in her body and quickly entered the Red Jade Palace.

She immediately entered into a meditative state, guiding the wildly rushing spiritual QI in her body towards her dantian. The small green core in her dantian started pulsating with the influx of QI and a green halo surrounded her body.

Seconds, minutes and hours passed. Wan Huang fell into a deep trance. Her body started trembling and then a shudder originating from her dantian rushed through her whole body.

The trembling ceased and the rushing energy calmed down, the pulsating green core was now calm, with a slight bluish hue covering it.

The green halo that surrounded her also showed a bluish tint on it, albeit slight.

Wan Huang opened her eyes and the first thing that she saw was, xiufeng staring at her in perplexed manner.

He walked forwards to stand in front of her.

"Circulate your spiritual power". He said.

Wan Huang raised her eyebrows in confusion but still obeyed him. A green halo imbued with bluish tint surrounded her.

She glanced back and forth between xiufeng and the halo that surrounded her, when she noticed a peculiarity.

She had a green aptitude core, so whenever she pushed her powers out, it would be green in colour, but now she saw a mix of another colour in it.

Wan Huang questioned xiufeng. But he evaded her questions, mercilessly chasing her out of the palace.

Wan Huang returned to her bed thinking over the peculiarity and xiufeng's strange behaviour. She decided to ask him again tomorrow morning.

Various thoughts ran through her mind which were soon blanketed by the wave of drowsiness that washed over her.