"…" The two, one young child dressed in little more than pants and a man wearing a white, grey daoist robe stood still staring at each other in a stand-off.
Shu He had no idea what to do, he instinctively felt that he couldn't escape this man and yet he felt no sort of ill intent from him, the man's stance was casual, and his eyes lacked any sort of aggressiveness, rather there was a hint of confusion growing withing.
"Huh… no reaction?" Chao Shi said with surprise before he continued to speak to himself "He's young and doesn't look like the hard-headed reckless type that doesn't care for fear…" He whispered to himself while scratching his chin before looking up at Shu He again.
"Hey kid" The man beckoned Shu He to come closer.
"My name is Shu He" Shu He felt the need to correct him, he may be a child in age but didn't like the condescending way he was called 'kid'.
"Shu He then, have you not heard of the Titanic Steel Sect before?" He asked with a hint of disbelief.
Shu He paused for a second thinking of how much he should say, he knew nothing about the general rules of the cultivation society, but in the end just decided to go with it, there was no point in messing around when being straight was the simplest answer.
"Until today, never" He spoke sincerely.
"Hoh, that's odd did your teacher never tell you anything?" Chao Shi questioned, crossing his arms after doing so.
"…I don't have a teacher" Again, he was honest, both because he was stuck in a situation without weapons and presented with a foe he couldn't win against that was also non-hostile.
He had activated his Keen Sight to observe the man, and he was left breathless, the body of the man in front of him was similar to that of Dong Jie, it was like a whirlpool of QI entering and exiting a core area of his body, cycling through his meridians, organs, muscles and blood, the flow was strong, so many times stronger than the flow inside of him, but it wasn't just that, he felt that this man's Qi carried a sharpness he hadn't felt before, Shu He felt that if he got too close he would be cut to ribbons.
"No teacher? So, you're self-taught? How rare… then how did you become a cultivator?" Chao Shi continued leading the questions.
'I feel like I shouldn't mention the merchant, Bo Lin, if people are meant to teach others about cultivation directly what he did might be out of the norm' Shu He concluded in his mind before answering.
"Accept the heavens, ignite the flame; the path before you shall unfold" He recited 'that' line.
The man, Chao Shi's eyebrow rose as he listened and nodded.
"From there, of course makes sense… but really, no help at all from anything or anyone?" He pushed the question.
'I really don't want to mention Bo Lin so… I'll push it all on him!'
"There was someone that came here not too long ago who gave me some tips that helped me, he was from the… Trembling Earth Sect? His name was Dong Jie" Shu He decided to frame Dong Jie as his main helper, he wasn't sure if he needed to but just decided to do so.
The moment the Trembling Earth Sect was mentioned, Chao Shi's facial expression twitched slightly as if annoyed and the moment Dong Jie's name left his mouth his expression twisted in disgust.
"That bastard was here? I knew I'd heard he was in the area but… hopefully I don't see him" He clutched his head like he had a headache.
"You know him?" Shu He asked curiously, he didn't understand why Dong Jie's name deserved such derision.
"Of course! He's a prominent member of the Five Sects, and an annoyingly conniving one at that…" Chao Shi huffed in annoyance.
'Seems there's a story here' Shu He wanted to hear about it, but it seems he wasn't going to get to.
"Anyway, forget him, you didn't promise to join the Trembling Earth Sect did you?" He asked, pointing directly at Shu He.
"Ah, uh, no? Why?"
"You should join the Titanic Steel Sect!" Chao Shi said with a smirk.
Shu He had all but gave up his caution at that point as he almost stumbled at Chao Shi's declaration.
"Uh, why?" Shu He asked.
"What do you mean "Why?" you're a cultivator! A cultivator should join a sect to get resources and guidance! It's common sense" He explained.
'He's right… but'
"I don't want to leave here yet" he said, gesturing the way back to Greengate village.
"That's not a problem, there's no rush, entries aren't for a few years anyway" Chao Shi mentioned.
'Dong Jie mentioned that as well, do all sects hold their entrance test at the same time?'
"Then why are you asking now… also… How do I know that your sect is the best for me? I only know of two…"
"Ahh that's right I almost forgot; you know nothing right? Then allow me to explain".
Chao Shi went over to a tree and with a wave of his finger a branch fell off, Shu He saw next to nothing other than a slight sense of sharpness and the next second it was cut, he then brought it over and drew a circle in the dirt.
"This is our country" he said, tapping the edge of the circle he drew.
'So, our country is a perfect circle? Or is it just for ease of drawing…' Shu He began thinking, but he paid close attention, he knew little to nothing of the larger world out there.
"As for its size… let's see I remember them saying it was something about 3 million kilometres squared or so?... I'm not too sure how large that is honestly, maths was never my thing".
Shu He's jaw dropped when he heard the size of the country.
'Are you kidding me? That's fricking massive!!!'
Chao Shi then proceeded to draw another circle in the centre of the first and drew five lines in the shape of a star separating the circle in to five sections, six if you included the middle circle.
"This-" he poked the lower right, or the south-east section of the diagram "-Is where we are now".
The stick marked an area on the outer area of the circle.
"And this is what you people call the 'Capital', which is the main city of the Earth region named Rockfell City".
Chao Shi went on to draw a symbol in this world's language, it meant 'Earth', the same one he saw on Dong Jie's clothes.
"This entire section is said 'Earth' region and is under the ownership of the 'Trembling Earth Sect'".
"So, the city lord of Rockfell doesn't own it?" Shu He questioned; this was what he was brought up to know.
"Not really, he doesn't own anything; What he does is handle the distribution of land and taxes to and from other mortals and when he needs to, he requests the sect's help" Chao Shi explained.
Having explained that, Chao Shi went on to explain the other four sections, pointing out the capital and the sect that owns it.
They were as follows –
To the south-west was the 'Metal' region, the capital is 'Orefine City' and the sect that owns it is called the 'Titanic Steel Sect'.
To the north-west was the 'Water' region, the capital is 'Riverflow City' and the sect that owns it is called the "Everlasting Ocean Sect".
Directly to the north was called the 'Wood' region, there the capital is 'Brightwood City' and the sect that owns it is called the "Sleeping Forest Sect".
And finally, to the north-east was the 'Fire' region, the capital is 'Flamekeep City' and the sect that owns it is the "Raging Inferno Sect".
Shu He let the information sink in, all of a sudden his view of the world has expanded greatly, but there was one question on his mind.
'Isn't it a little too perfect?'
The shape of the country, the distribution of the borders, he assumed they weren't actually straight like this, but it looks like an intentional set up, however it was just a thought, he had no reason to ponder on it for too long.
He looked up at Chao Shi who had paused the explanation.
"What about the centre?" He asked, wondering why he hadn't spoke about it.
"We'll get there, but didn't you want to ask about the sects?"
"… Yeah" Shu He said, remembering one of the main reasons for this explanation.
"Put it simply, the sects specialise in the element that they take their namesake from, if that wasn't obvious, while some sects have more of a specialty than others if you don't care about the elements in particular there isn't a good reason to choose one over the other, you're just starting out so there shouldn't be any preference". Chao Shi said.
"What about Apothecary work?" Shu He asked, it was his main specialisation right now, if there was a Sect that specialised in it he would love to go in the future.
"You're into that sort of thing?" Slight disappointment showed on Chao Shi before it was quickly washed away "If you want to learn pill concoction methods and skills then the Sleeping Forest Sect would definitely be the one, but the other Sects also have pill divisions that don't fall too far behind, you should only consider there if all you want to do is work on pills." He said with a slightly less enthusiastic tone.
"But- You shouldn't underestimate cultivation, strength is important, personally after seeing your skill with a bow I think you have potential and that's why you should come to our sect, we specialise in weapon cultivation, other sect cultivators may use weapons, but we focus on mastering them!" He explained with a large burst of enthusiasm.
"I'll consider it" Shu He gave a non-committal answer.
'If I can advance my skills as an Apothecary and go to new heights, I'll take that route; I do want to grow as a cultivator, but what I want is still the same.' He thought.
Chao Shi breathed out a heavy sigh "Well, I tried… Anyway-".
The stick in his hand marked the dead centre of the diagram, inside the smaller circle.
"This is The Capital, Iris"
"Iris?" Shu He was surprised at the name, completely different from the other regions.
He waited for Chao Shi to explain more but he just stood staring at Shu He.
"Is that it? Is there not a sect there?" He questioned.
Chao Shi smirked.
"No, there is no sect here, this entire circle is the territory of Iris, the majority of it is composed of closely linked cities all surrounding the capital itself, however this place is incredibly important; In this city resides the strongest cultivator in the country know as 'The Iridescent Emperor'".
"Strongest? What level of cultivation is he?" Shu He wanted to know; he only knew the first three right now.
"He's at the limit of mortal cultivation" A slight longing reflected in Chao Shi's eyes as he said this.
'The limit of mortal cultivation?'
"Mortal? I thought cultivators were no longer 'mortals'?" He asked, confused as to the designations he had heard recently.
Chao Shi scratched his head and spoke "Ah, well it can be a bit confusing at first, but when we refer to someone as a mortal we mean someone that hasn't started on the path of cultivation, but when we use the term 'mortal' in reference to cultivator, we mean the first 9 levels of cultivation, within these you are still a mortal".
"And after?" What would you be? Shu He was incredibly curious.
"I don't know, I'm still a 'mortal' myself".
"Oh…" disappointment surged over Shu He.
"Anyway, there's one last thing you should know, about the sects"
"…?" Shu He pushed away his disappointment to listen again.
"I'm assuming that when you think of a 'Sect' you think of an independent organisation" Chao Shi asked him.
"Well, yeah" That was exactly what he thought, that's how he'd assume it worked as someone who grew up in this world and someone who had read many fictional stories with Sects in his old life.
"You'd only be half right, while there are smaller sects here and there the Five Sects that I just pointed out are different, they're in fact five parts of a whole, and the last part is Iris itself" He pointed to the capital on the dirt diagram again.
"The five sects were created under the Iridescent Emperor himself and are all allied with one another sworn to protect the country, they also have plenty of exchanges between one another including cultivation techniques and resources, this is the reason why unless you want to go after the sect's specialty, it doesn't really matter where you go".
"Oh!" Shu He was rather amazed, he expected there to be some sort of border conflict or enmity between sects, but this was a pleasant surprise and made him want to enter a sect even more.
Chao Shi breathed out a sigh of relief "Well that's all I'll teach you for now, it's getting late so shouldn't you return to the village?"
Shu He gazed at the sky through the foliage, the sun had begun lowering itself to the horizon, so it was indeed time to return home.
He spent time tidying the area, collecting his arrows, washing himself and getting dressed.
Shu He then started to make his way home, cloak covering his body and all, he took a few steps then looked to his side where Chao Shi stood.
"You're coming as well?" He asked, he thought Chao Shi just came upon him randomly, why is he following him?
"Of course, I was meant to be going there anyway" Chao Shi said with a smile.