Ascending to Immortality

Chapter 8: Green wood art

The valley was huge and full of greenery. At the entrance there was huge arc written on tope of it with golden words ' Heavens down valley'.
The place looked very majestic and nice.

After conversing with the youth next to him. Ena discovered that his name was Liang Yu, he was from a mining family. He seemed like a nice guy so Ena conversed with him for a while then went to pick a hut for himself.

His gaze drifted around for a while trying to find a good a place.

There was was a cottage made of rock in front of it was a huge tree. Ena likes trees so he picked it.

He washed himself and changed to a new set of clothes then jumped on the bed to sleep, he was very tired.

He looked at the roof and couldn't stop himself from smiling ' I made it at last. Father and mother will be proud of me' murmured to himself.

... ..

The morning's air was cold, the sky was clear and it was down. The sun rose slowly warming the surface of the earth with it's gentle and warm rays of light.

There was a good smell lingering in the air. His stomach started grumbling even though he was still asleep. Li Ena opened his eyes slowly to find a muscular young man with a bronze skin and a bright smile looking at him. It was Liang Yu.

"Hey, you finally woke up, the sun has risen already".

" Good morning, by the way didn't your parents teach you not to barge into other peoples houses without knocking the door".

"I actually did but you didn't answer so I let myself in, anyway take this" he took two rice balls and threw them to Ena while speaking " I woke up early and I was bored so I went around exploring and I found the dining hall thus I took my fill and brought some food for you. I figured you won't make it before the food runs out and it seems I was right".

Li Ena caught the rice balls and ate them like a hungry wolf. He smiled and said "thanks Liang Yu".

" Don't worry if you need anything tell me. We are fellow disciples after all. Now go wash yourself. I think it's time to go see master".

Ena stood up and hurriedly washed himself then went with Liang Yu to their master's house.

The house was very humble and simple, in front of it there was a small medical garden full of medical plants giving a refreshing fragrance which calms the mind and lifts the spirit.

The interior of the house was like a like a library even thought it wasn't big it was full of a variety of books.
In the middle there was a medium sized round table covered in books and papers.

Li Ena looked around with amazement, he loved books and this place was like a dreamland for him.

When the two came in they bowed and greeted with a respectful tone.

Master Xiao was sitting on a chair and skimming through the various books and document. He looked like he didn't hear anything and kept focusing on an old tattered book with yellow pages written with an ancient language.

Being ignored they felt wronged in their hearts but they didn't voice a word. Li Ena wanted to go explore the books but he stopped himself. He was a new disciple and didn't want to leave a bad impression on their second meeting so he restrained himself.

After an hour when they couldn't bear it anymore master Xiao turned to face them as he said" You are now my disciples so I will teach you some martial arts but first take these" he took two hexagon shaped crystals and gave one to each of them and continued " Close your eyes and focus on the crystals".

After doing as they were instructed. The crystals started shining with various colors. Liang Yu's crystal shined with five different colors: green, gold , blue, red , brown. While Ena had four colors: green, red , blue and brown.

Master Xiao stared at the colored light expressionlessly while excitement appeared in his eyes which he hastily hid.

"Five and four colors not bad. Each of you can pick one of these" he flickered his hand and five different colored books appeared. He handed them to the both of them and said " If you pick one you can never change it. Liang you can pick one from the five. Li you can't pick the golden one"

Li Ena and Liang Yu looked At each other and then said with a respectful tone "Master we are incompetent please pic for us".

" Alright then Liang Yu take this metal book it's called agile metal art and you Li Ena take this Green wood art. Both of you are forbidden from showing it to anyone if I discover it being leaked you will be directly kicked out and I will check your progress after five months if I find no progress you will be kicked out. Every week go to the medical hall and pick your supply of pills to help your cultivation. Everyday you have to put the same bracelet you used on the test and run five kilometres and do two hundred push ups and two hundred squats after that started practising the arts I had just gave you and don't you dare neglect your training or you will be punished as for the rest of the day you can do whatever you want". Said Master Xiao as he gave each of them a book.

"Understood master".

" I forgot to tell you. You have a senior brother. He is out on a mission right now. When he comes back you can ask him for some guidance. Here take your sect uniform and your identification jade" he took two white robes and two Jades and gave them to the both of them.

"You can leave now".

Li Ena hesitated a bit before he said" Master are we allowed to read the books here".

"You can read whatever you want, they are not that much special anyway".

" thank you master" said Ena with excitement.

After they got out. Li Ena felt relieved, he didn't know why but when he  faced master Xiao, he felt afraid and every inch of his body was trembling. His stares were like that of a cold merciless beast staring at him. Now that he left he felt better.

During the following days Li Ena excitement never faded even though the training was tough. Master Xiao was strict as he supervised their training and after they finished he taught them about the body structure and acupoint locations as well as the meridians and energy channels and how to to practise their cultivation techniques.

The two were basically isolated from other children. They spent their time practising their cultivation techniques and didn't vander much in the sect.

As Ena practised the Green wood art, he got more and more amazed. This technique wasn't complicated, it was simple but mysterious. Whenever he practices it he feels some kind of hot energy in the air. When he directs it in his body it doesn't listen which left him helpless.

During this time he understood more about the sect. Each peak is a separate department where  martial artists train. There is the law enforcement peak managed by third elder, the adventure peak where people can take missions to go outside the sect, the medical peak where people train in the various medical techniques and medicine making, the blacksmith peak where all the weapons are made, the beast taming peak where beasts are tamed as for the last two peaks they are for outer disciples to train in and the final one is the Red jade peak where the sect leader live.

Master Xiao wasn't really a member of the sect. Rumors says that he was invited by the sect master to protect the sect in cases of danger. They say that master Xiao wiped a whole sect because they didn't give him a medical plant he asked for. The sect at that time was in need for powerful people so sect master played a huge price and invited him to settle in the sect for a while, because of that everyone are respectful to master Xiao.