Wei Ren waited for five minutes. Suddenly there was a loud band on the door.
Old man Xiong came with his arms holding a mountain of books, manuals and scrolls. There were even some ancient bamboo strips that had strange symbols written on them.
He dropped all of this on the table in front of Wei Ren. Some of the books fell on his head.
Then he waved his hand and a mountain of papers appeared on the floor. He waved his hand again and a giant elephant sized barrel of black ink also appeared with a lot of feather quills.
"Ahh." Wei Ren sucked in a mouthful of cold air. This much ink would last at least a whole century and the amount of paper was enough to write a letter to every person in their kingdom.
Old man Xiong felt proud when he delivered everything to Wei Ren and stood there with a puffed chest.
Wei Ren, who was getting crushed to death by all these things, didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
He struggled to climb out of the cultivation manuals and sent old man Xiongong away.
"He hasn't changed one bit." Wei Ren shook his head.
He organised the things a little and sat down. He picked a book at random and started reading. During his past years he had already learnt the common knowledge about the world of cultivation but he still wanted to refresh his memories before jumping into the Starmist Law.
"In the Vast Expanse Mortal world the main powerhouses were all cultivation organisations. In this realm there are seven such powerhouses. Two clans, three sects and two cultivation schools. They all originated thousands of years ago. All such organisations have only one goal i.e. immortality.
During ancient times, man found ways to become stronger. It was simple. Absorb elemental qi from the surroundings and use it for your own good. As time passed cultivation became more and more profound and new ways of acquiring power were established. Many powerful individuals carved out a path for their future generations. These days there are innumerable cultivation techniques, myriad spells and abilities. The levels of cultivation have also been clearly divided. These stages are Qi Streams, River Formation, River Expansion, Soul Spirit Formation, Soul Spirit Transformation, Earth Immortal, Heaven Immortal and Mortal Dust Immortal.
As Wei Ren was reading with a fanatical look appeared in his eyes. All his life he had secretly yearned to cultivate. But he couldn't. And now he might have a chance.
He skimmed through the book. And after reading it for a few minutes he threw it aside.
"I can't fantasize about these things. I should follow small steps to achieve success.
The first stage of cultivation is Qi streams. In this stage a person opens nine streams of elemental qi which are like the gateways through which the qi is drawn from the atmosphere. After successfully opening these nine streams a person advances to the River Formation stage.
The reason Wei Ren couldn't cultivate was because he had no meridians or a dantian. Meridians are the channels for the qi while the dantian is the storage. without these it is impossible to cultivate. But the Starmist Law defied this main requirement. When he read the first law which is the Earth law he found out that Emperor Starmist who was born with very weak meridians figured out a way to increase his talents. His idea is even a bit tyrannical. It is to destroy all meridians. Instead of opening nine big Streams of elemental qi in his body he opened thousands of smaller streams in place of his meridians. He collected incredible amounts of elemental qi in his dantian almost to the point of exploding and then used his Starmist Law to create a stable network of flowing qi. This method is very dangerous because destroying your meridians can even lead to death. Leaving you no time to start cultivating the Starmist Law. But this was not the case for Wei Ren. He didn't have meridians to begin with.
Wei Ren started feeling admiration for Emperor Starmist while reading through his Law. But there was still an issue here. Emperor Starmist had a dantian but Wei Ren was born without one.
The very first step of cultivation was to bring strings of elemental qi into your body using your dantian. Wei Ren felt a headache coming his way. He started searching through the cultivation manuals for a method to secrete qi in his body without a dantian.
"I wish I could talk to my father about this." The memoryi seal Emperor Starmist had cast on him not only sealed his memories from the outside world but also forbade him from telling anyone about the Starmist Law. A sharp pain flared in his tongue when tried to ask about it to his mother.
The sun had set hours ago. Moon was high in the sky. Wei Ren was still in the dao repository, looking through the texts to find any clue he could. His brown hair was dishevelled and his eyes looked sleepy.
Suddenly he stopped and gazed at the surroundings.
"I am looking for the answer in the wrong place. I don't need to find a technique to absorb qi. Because I would still need someone else to use it for me and push qi into my body. I need to look for medicinal pills that retains qi inside a person's body for a long time, or maybe a treasure that has a similar function." He had insight.
"Old man Xiong!!" He yelled.
The same silly face popped into the room. "Yes, young master, how can this little bear be of any service?" He asked with utmost reverence.
Wei Ren was too tired to care about this goofy old man. "I need a catalogue of all medicinal pills that can give the user a large amount of elemental qi to store in his body. Also bring the special treasures catalogue." He said with his tired voice.
"As you command, young master." Old man Xiong bowed deeply and left.
He was back, after a minute with two huge scrolls.
He laid them in front of Wei Ren and left in a similar weird fashion.
One scroll was red while the other was green.
Wei Ren opened the green one first. It was the list of medicinal pills he had asked for.
"There are so many!" Wei Ren was shocked to find the different types of pills available for his use. "I bet a lot of cultivators use these. In a life and death battle, if you exhaust your elemental qi, death is inevitable. Using these pills can save your life.
He browsed through the vast number of pills but none of them suited him. After all, digesting a medicinal pill is very difficult for mortals. Even cultivators can explode if they use a pill that is too powerful.
"There are nine tiers of pills. All people at Qi streams stage can use mostly rank two pills. Anything higher will be devastating for them. I should find a tier one cultivation pill for me."
He searched for a whole hour and was just about to give up.
"Found it! A tier one pill called White grass pill. It gives users a steady supply of elemental qi. Even mortals can use it after diluting it with water as a supplement." Wei Ren read it with joy and jumped onto the table. He could see it. A ray of hope. When he looked out the window it was already early morning. He didn't even bother looking through the special treasures catalogue.
He was shocked. " I should go back to my room, otherwise mother is going to be very angry that I didn't rest at all."
He ran back to his room and took a cold shower to shed off his tiredness and changed into a new set of whites robes with blue roses on it. Just like his father.
He was used to not getting a proper rest. After all, several years in the army can change anyone. Taking a cold shower was how he energized himself.
He asked one of the guards to bring him breakfast.
"Today is my coming of age ceremony. I hope nothing out of the ordinary happens.
He was just walking out of his room when he saw his father and mother standing there.
Emperor Yan saw what Wei Ren was wearing and a sense of pride entered his soul. Feng Yu also looked happy to see how handsome her son had turned out to be. Even more handsome than his father.
"Are you ready?" Emperor Yan asked Wei Ren with a smile.
"Yes father." Wei Ren said with confidence.
"Then let's go." Emperor Yan put his arm around Wei Ren's shoulder and said with a similar confidence.
They all knew that this ceremony was not going to be easy for them. Several people would question Wei Ren's right to the throne because of his inability to cultivate. But all three of them were ready for anything that was thrown at them.
A giant luxurious carriage was waiting for them at the entrance to their palace. Hundreds of maids and servants were also present. Two long lines of armoured guards formed a formation to protect them from all sides. Seeing this, Wei Ren was not sure how he felt. Because in the army this kind of extravagance was called foolish. He liked it when things were kept simple. They sat silently on their way to the Grand Royal palace where the ceremony was going to be conducted.
Emperor Yan didn't live in the main palace; he chose a more secluded place in the capital as his house.
They stopped after half an hour. Seeing the old familiar streets reminded Wei Ren a lot of his childhood. Commoners stood on the side kowtowing on the ground as their party travelled through the main streets of the city.
The Grand Royal Palace was a huge building. Giant golden pillars were erected on either side of the entrance. A giant blue rose was carved out of some unknown material and placed in front of the main entrance. It was almost a hundred meters in height.
Legends say this rose was actually made by the Emperor Wei Shan, Wei Ren's grandfather during a legendary battle. After the fight it was moved here to showcase his battle prowess. Although he died in that battle, Wei Shan protected his kingdom with his life. Children of the Blue Rose Kingdom grew up listening to Wei Shan's stories of heroism.
Wei Ren wondered if his father was also this strong. He knew his father had the title of being the strongest person in the kingdom but his exact level of cultivation was not known.
"Maybe mother knows." He thought.
"I bet they are all waiting for us." Emperor Yan said and walked out of the carriage.
He walked with his family into the palace. Bells started ringing as he entered his palace.
Inside of the Royal palace was even more amazing. Priceless stones and metals were used as mere decorations. There were almost a hundred seats of officials and behind each official were more seats. Most likely for their families.
Seeing that their Emperor had arrived. Every person in the palace stood up and bowed deep.
Emperor Yan walked up upto his seat at the top. Wei Ren and his mother followed behind.
Wei Ren was already familiar with all these customs and rules.
While he was walking up to his seat he could feel a lot of gazes fall upon him. But he kept a straight face just like his father and walked on to his seat.
All the people present in the Royal palace sat down only after Emperor Yan and his family had taken their seats.
"I thank you all for coming to this joyous occasion. Our sons and daughters have finally matured. They have reached the age where they will start making their own decisions and carve out their own paths in this life." Emperor Yan took a pause to look at everyone' face and continued.
"Let the ceremonies begin."
The Wei Royal family had several branches.
Other than the main branch, there were several others which have been fighting for the throne for several centuries. The branch of the family that has the throne is given the title of main branch. Currently Emperor Yan's family was the main branch. Other than Feng Yu and Wei Ren there were several others who belonged to this branch. Wei Tian was also a member of the main family. About 20 elders of their royal council were from the main branch. Hence they were all in the favour of Emperor Yan. But others were controlled by the rest of the branches. Each branch is named after the family head's name. For example Wei Ren's main branch is called the Yan family, named after his father. Other strong contenders for the throne are Ming family, Huan family and Ling family. These families also had a similar number of elders as the Yan family but they didn't have Wei Yan.
As soon as Emperor Yan ordered, an old and frail looking elder who was sitting at one of the high ranking seats got up, walked to the centre of the hall and pulled a scroll from his sleeve and opened it. It was the list of names of youngsters from all the families who had their ceremonies today.
"From the main Yan family...Wei Ren!" He said in a thundering voice that swept through the entire hall.