On a perfect green luscious plain, a chain of seven horse-driven wooden carriages was slowly moving, each carriage containing at least twenty-five barrels of grains with three adults and two children. As they slowly moved across the dusty brown dirt road, an old man peeked out from the back of the carriage that was at leading the seven.
"Everyone! We will be arriving at the Aranea Sec in an hour! Please be ready!" shouted Ol' Wilson, informing everyone about their soon to come arrival.
The message was spoken so loud that it easily reached the last carriage. Inside the last caravan, was forty barrels of grains and two children, a boy and a girl, who were conversing.
"Aurie, when we arrive at the Sect, please promise me that you will always stay by my side and not leave me otherwise I may not be able to protect you if the disciples decide to hurt you," said Leo in an extremely serious tone.
"Ok, I promise to stay next to you," replied Aurora instantly, having never seen Leo speak in such a serious manner, she couldn't help but subconsciously agree.
Soon, about ten in the morning, a large steel-reinforced wooden gate stood on the bottom of a range of several short yet wide hills in the far horizon, surrounding the gate was a tall large seven-meter stone wall that encircled the whole range of hills. The hill was completely filled by traditional Chinese houses that were made of wood on the lower half and several grander houses appeared in the middle half and there was a single grand mansion on the peak of each green hill. As they made their way to the wooden gate they were welcome by a large light wooden banner that was stuck on the top of the gate with 'Aranea Sect' written on it and several guards who were standing on guard, holding spears.
"Halt! Show us your entry badge!" one of them called out as they walked to the front carriage.
"Here it is," said Wilson as he reached into his backpack and brought out a red steel badge with eight legs like small spikes protruding out from the sides with the word 'food' firmly engraved on the backside of the badge.
After confirming the validity of the badge, the guards opened at the gate and the caravan slowly made their way into the Sect.
"Is it that time of year already?"
"Look at those villagers, what are they here for?"
"They are here to pay their food offerings,"
Discussions broke out as the caravan slowly rode on the stone street as they passed by the sect disciples who were slowly walking, doing their own business. Eventually, they rode on for another fifteen minutes before the entire caravan came to a steady halt.
"We have arrived at the sect's food storehouse," Ol' Wilson announced, "All children are to stay in the last carriage and wait there until we come back to get you."
Leo peeked his head out as countless children slowly climbed on to their caravan, he could see that Ol' Wilson seemed to be greeted by an elder of the Sect and upon closer inspection, he could see that the elder had the same level of cultivation as Wilson. After all the kids had successfully gathered in the last carriage, the adults could now begin to unload the hundred and eighty or so heavy barrels of grains as the children diligently waited. It took about ten minutes for them all to bring and store the food inside.
"Right, now that all that has been done, all you kids can now split up into groups of two and you guys will be accompanied by an adult. You guys are free to roam the sect but you must make it back by four. Now listen carefully, do not bump into anyone, and do not say anything negative to anyone," Ol' Wilson warned as he assigned an adult to each pair.
"Leo and Aurora, you will be with uncle Nate. Although I want to personally take care of you guys, I will be busy talking with the elder and discussing prices so I personally cannot join you two," said Ol' Wilson with an apologetic look.
After this short announcement, all the children and adults slowly started dispersing as they all went their own ways…
Leo, Aurora, and uncle Nate started roaming around the sect while Nate was explaining about the place.
It turned out that the village had always been providing this Sect with their food and in exchange for it, they would provide the village with cultivation art and some weapons. This had gone well at the time when this deal was established but however, throughout the years, the sect disciples started looking down on the villagers and some were bullied because of it. Now they were just abused, but the village is forced to keep supplying this sect with food as it was their only source of warriors and defence.
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind fired brushed past them. Curious and confused, they immediately looked towards the direction from which it has come. Their gaze fell on a large colosseum-like building, which was built from hard white stone. There were numerous emotion-filled cheer and rowdy roars coming from inside the building.
"Uncle Nate, can we go check it out? It would be useful for us to see cultivators fighting in the arena," asked Leo as he saw this as a chance to see his first fight in this world. This would show him what to expect when people fought and he wanted to see if the fight would be like those super intense awesome fights in anime.
"Sure, just stick close to me and don't wander off," replied Nate as he saw no reason not to. He had been given strict instructions from Ol' Wilson to avoid the sect master's hall so as long as they avoided walking in that direction then they should be alright and not run into trouble.
As they arrived at the simple wooden arena gate, they were immediately questioned by the annoyed guards but after hearing that they were from the village, they were given entry with the mindset that 'their reaction will be amazing to see as we show off the strength of our sect.' As the trio went inside, they found out from a small gossip that today was the sect's monthly ranking competition.
"Where should we sit uncle Nate?" Aurora shyly asked.
"We should sit in the back, that way we can observe the fight but not gain much attention," Uncle Nate replied after thinking for a few seconds. And just like that, they walked up to the top stand of the colosseum which were empty due to the lack of energy and view of the arena below.
They didn't have to wait long for the first fight as the moment they sat down, a pair of cultivators walked to the battle floor and started fighting each other. This was indeed an eye-opener for both Leo and Aurora but since both had been practising the dual art, they were not that surprised.
As the two cultivators fought, each collision created shockwaves shaking the arena. It was easily discernable that both were very evenly matched and the fight had become where the one with the most stamina would last the longest and win.
Eventually after exchanging over fifty moves, one of them made a small misjudgment and that resulted in his opponent landing an acute blow on his face which sent him speedily flying to the bottom wall of the battle floor.
"YAHH!" cheers and roars of excitement filled the arena as the crowd went wild from such an entertaining fight, a few seconds later, the officiator came and decided the results.
After watching a few more matches, Leo and Aurora started getting bored, the first fight was the most entertaining one so far, the rest were extremely slow and boring so they decided to plan to go somewhere else.
"Hello, milady!" a voice rang out as soon as they stood up to leave. As they slowly turned around to see who was talking to them, Aurora and Leo saw an ugly slightly bloated teenager with a red buzzcut walking towards them wearing expensive robes and a shiny eye-catching spider pendant on his neck. As he walked towards them, Leo saw that Uncle Nate's expression was extremely tense and this gave him a very bad premonition.
"He-Hello," said Aurora quite shakily as she greeted him back.
"I was just walking by when I managed to catch a glimpse of you guys here. I am Spindra Weaver, the son of the Sect Leader," said the young teen as he emphasized on 'son of the sect leader.'
Hearing this Leo, Aurora, and Uncle Nate quickly bowed respectfully and stood on one knee as Aurora respectfully replied, "Young Master, it is an honour to meet you. I am Aurora Wellbloom. This is Uncle Nate and this is Leo Areia."
"Would you guys like to join me? I want some friends to play with and it's almost lunchtime. Would you like to join me at the dining table?" asked Spindra as he tried to act as glamorous as possible.
"Uh… I'm sorry young master but I made a promise to Leo that I would stay next to him during this whole visit," said Aurora as she desperately tried to find an excuse to reject him.
Seeing that she was quite opposed to his suggestion, Spindra forcefully put on another calm and collected expression as he suggested "Then we can also bring Leo along. You wouldn't have a problem would you?"
"I'm sorry but we were told to make it back to our caravan before four. And due to our status, we should not be eating with someone as glamorous as you. So forgive us for rejecting your offer," Leo swiftly denied as he felt something fishy about this situation and he grabbed Aurora's hand, gave a bow to Spindra, and walked off with stressed Uncle Nate following close behind.
Seeing both of them leave, Spindra no longer bothered to keep a good boy face and he gave off an evil smile as he glared at Leo as if his eyes could possibly chop him up and his attention then moved Aurora as he lustfully looked at her.
"This is my Sect, and I am the young master of this place, I can do anything I want. Who are you to stop me," he angrily spoke as he also made his way to the opposite exit of the colosseum.
After the trio once again arrived on the streets of the sect again, Leo quickly turned to Uncle Nate and said to him, "Uncle Nate, can you go to uncle Wilson and tell him to plan to leave as soon as possible? Please hurry and tell him, I will take Aurora and we will wait at the caravan, don't worry."
Hearing this, Uncle Nate nodded and started quickly walking off to find uncle Wilson. He made sure not to run to not gain any particular attention.
Seeing that Uncle Nate was gone, Leo suggested, "Aurora, we can't roam these streets any longer. This was what your parents were warning you about. Let's go back to the caravan and train in my mind space."
"Why?" Aurora cluelessly asked.
"That boy did not have any intention of being friends with us. There was an evil expression hidden in his eyes. We need to go. Just follow me,"
"Sure. Um... Leo?" Aurora agreed but then worriedly asked.
"Yes?"
"What if Uncle Nate and Uncle Wilson and the others don't come back?" she worriedly asked Leo with her wispy teary purple eyes.
"Well... If they don't come back by the time that we are done with training then we can go and look for them, alright?" Leo came up with a quick idea from the spot.
"Ok then," Aurora slowly nodded as her worries were slightly lessened with Leo's idea suggestion.
And so the pair quickly made their way into the caravan and hide there while practising their arts.