The market was packed with villagers as they walked hurriedly through the narrow passageway to get to the village elder's estate. If it wasn't clear before, Hong Zhao could tell now that this was not a normal event. He noticed many people within the crowd that he had never met before. He saw children who didn't seem familiar. Maybe Elder Huang Ji invited the surrounding villages for a test of strength?
Hong Zhao pushed himself past the crowd of people, hoping to find a break where he could veer off to the side, yet the current seemed to suck him through the gate to the estate. When he finally arrived at the village elder's estate, he noticed the break in the crowd he was looking for and jumped out as quickly as he could. After he was no longer surrounded, he saw another line of people, only this one was of children. He quickly noticed both Li Wei and Li Wuhan at the back of the line and went to join them.
"This crowd is not normal." Hong Zhao said simply as he stretched his arms over his head. He didn't want to complain, but he was looking forward to the nice calm walk he usually had to get to the elder's home. He had not expected such a large crowd to visit Rantori Village.
"Did you think we would only be fighting against the children of our own village?" Li Wuhan raised an eyebrow as he looked at the young boy complaining in front of him.
"I honestly didn't know what to expect." Hong Zhao smirked slightly. "This is my first tournament after all. Is there something I should know? What are we waiting in line for?" He took a step out of line to look at the front. It looked like a few elder cultivators were setting up something he would have sworn was a crystal ball in each line. "Are they going to read our fortune or something?" He asked more to himself than to the siblings.
"Those are qi readers." Li Wuhan said simply. "It will tell the masters what cultivation level we are, that way they can set up fair matches against ranks similar to ours." A smile made its way onto Li Wuhan's face and Hong Zhao could understand why. The siblings were now the fifth star student rank. His sister was only six, while he was eight yet he knew that out of all the villages surrounding Yuan City, there wouldn't be many that could match their strength.
Before Hong Zhao could ask anymore questions, the line started to move. Curious to see how the qi readers worked, Hong Zhao looked past the line once more to see the masters having a child put his hand upon the large crystal ball. When he did, there was a faint grayish light that came from the reader. "Third star student rank." The master said as he wrote down the child's name.
Hong Zhao watched the process happen over and over again. Most of the cultivators that had come were third star student rank. The masters eyes went wide every time they had a fourth star student ranked cultivator. They seemed to believe that such an existence must be a genius to be less than eight, yet still rank four.
The line moved slowly as each child put their hands upon the qi reader. "Fourth star student rank, Huang Yi!" Hong Zhao's attention was grabbed as he looked up at the second line of children. Though it had been months since the encounter, he could still remember the boy who had caused him no end of trouble. As he looked, a young boy took his hand off of the qi reader and looked back at him. This boy wore a white robe with gold embroidery. He looked like he was some noble's son, yet when he looked at Hong Zhao, one would think he were a demon. His eyes met the young boy's and all Hong Zhao could see was blind hatred.
Huang Yi walked away from the line and stood off to the side of the other student ranked cultivators apparently not wanting to be affiliated with anyone. "This is not going to be easy." Hong Zhao murmured to himself as he continued up the line. He was the sixth star student rank, so obviously he was not talking about the matches in general. Yet his mind wandered towards Huang Ji and the last time the old man had seen his grandson. The boy was adamant on getting the village elder position when his grandfather died, so much so that Hong Zhao could tell even though he was banished from the village, he wouldn't let the matter go.
Hong Zhao's eyes began to dart left and right, taking in the other kids for the first time. Some of them looked at Huang Yi with smiles. As he saw Huang Yi return the smiles, he knew this match would not be simple. It wouldn't just be a tournament. He would have to keep close watch on the elder to ensure he would not be harmed. Though he knew these were just student ranked cultivators, they would still be enough in larger numbers to overpower one of a higher rank, if that person was still a student ranked cultivator.
Hong Zhao's eyes roamed the line of students, then masters and finally his eyes met Huang Ji's from behind the qi readers. The old man was watching the students funnel through the qi readers, then motioned them to go to the groups they belonged to. Each student that put a hand on the reader was marked down on a piece of paper before being told to leave.
"Fifth star student rank?" The master looked at the qi reader in confusion. "There must be something wrong with the reader." He put his own hand on the reader after Li Wei took hers off. He looked at his own cultivation rank. "Mine is the ninth star student rank," He was looking at the orb with confidence. Apparently he noticed there was no malfunction within the reader. "You must be working yourself crazy to have a cultivation this high at your age." He smiled with admiration in his eyes. "Try to remember you are also a child, don't work too hard right off the bat, you might wear yourself out."
"Thank you for your kind words, Elder." Li Wei cupped her hand with her other and took a slight bow. She then moved away from the line and took a stance off to the side, away from everyone else. As she moved, many of the children's eyes had followed her.
"She is a fifth star student rank at such a young age?" Someone asked from the back of the line.
"Such an existence isn't normal."
Hong Zhao smiled as he saw the attention the young girl was getting, yet he grimaced when he imagined what was going to happen when they saw his. he was hoping to avoid a spectacle, yet it was clearly not going to be the case. He had seen nothing but third through fourth star student ranks as he watched the masters sort the children. He was going to be an existence all on his own.
"Sixth star student rank!" A master called out in surprise. "This cannot be right!" Hong Zhao's eyes narrowed as he took in the commotion from two lines away from him. Another master seemed to be trying to sort out some sort of malfunction with his qi reader. He had read his own cultivation which seemed to be accurate, then had a mysterious girl put her hand back onto the qi reader. "It still says the same." The master murmured as he marked what had to be her name on a piece of paper. Before he could say much else, the cultivator moved off to the side, apparently not at all comfortable with the looks she was getting.
"Sixth star student rank?!" Another incredulous voice rang out from behind Hong Zhao.
"She is some sort of freak!"
Hong Zhao grimaced once more as he made his way up the line. It was now Li Wuhan's turn, yet he couldn't take his eyes off of the other sixth star student ranked cultivator. She seemed to want to melt into shadows as she stood alone in her own group. Hong Zhao had a pang of pity for the young girl. She looked to be no older than he was, yet he could tell that she had the mental fortitude which suited her age. Though she must have spent her entire life training, something told him it wasn't by choice.
"Young man, could you step forward?" A voice caught Hong Zhao's attention. His eyes left the mysterious girl's young form and instead fell upon a waiting master. Apparently Li Wuhan had finished with his own inspection.
Hong Zhao sighed, it was time. He walked slowly to the qi reader and reluctantly put his hand on the smooth globe. A faint pure white light burst within the reader. "You are a sixth star ranked cultivator, even a quarter of the way through as it looks." The master's eyebrow went up. "Either these qi readers need to be worked on, or this generation is full of geniuses. He sighed, "What's your name?"
"Hong Zhao, Elder." he cupped one hand in another and bowed to the man, as he had seen Li Wei do.
"Alright." The master marked Hong Zhao's name down on the paper he was holding. "You may as well get yourself acquainted with the other cultivator of your rank. You will be fighting against her at the end of the day, most likely.
The master motioned Hong Zhao away with a wave of his hand. Instead of going towards the Li siblings, he made his way to the girl. As she noticed him approaching, he could have sworn she tried to shrink back a little more, but then noticed she was up against a wall.
Hong Zhao smiled sympathetically at the young girl. "It's never easy to be different, is it." He said matter of factly instead of as a question. "The moment you are labeled as the strongest, it's almost as if a wall surrounds you. Though the strength of this wall can help support you, it also gets very lonely when no one can get through, don't you agree?" He leaned against the wall and looked out towards the other cultivators still being examined.
"Um," Hong Zhao heard a slightly unintelligible response from next to him. "I guess you could say that." The girl finished sheepishly.
"My name is Hong Zhao." He bowed slightly to the young girl. "Since we will most likely be trading pointers within this tournament, I thought I might get acquainted with you." He smiled sincerely at the young girl. He had not thought that another cultivator might be his rank before they became ten years old. It was a requirement for children to go to the academy after the age of ten if they were fifth star student rank or higher, so he knew she had to be much younger, or they might have made an exception for such a genius.
"My name is Ren Cai." The young girl bowed in the same manner Hong Zhao did. "It will be an honor to exchange pointers with you." Her eyes came up after the bow and Hong Zhao could make out a hint of hazel within them.