"Nice to meet you!", Fu exclaimed as she gave him a quick bow and then looked back at me as I muttered, "He's really handsome."
"Yes! He's really handsome! Do you want to introduce yourself?", she said excitedly looking back at me with wide eyes. "Um... alright", I replied nervously and walked forward to greet him. "My name is Bao Zheng. Nice to meet you", I said politely. He looked at me and smiled, "Nice to meet you too, Bao Zheng. I hope we can become good friends", he said. I smiled back at him and nodded. "And I'm Fu Tao", she said as she bowed.
" Alright kids! Since the three of you are all here now then let's proceed entering at the place", the older woman said as she points at the door leading inside the temple. Once we went into the building, a group of guards showed us the way. It was already dusk outside. When we entered inside the temple I immediately noticed something different about it. There aren't any lanterns lighting the place, only candles are burning along the walls. It looks pretty quiet, like we're being protected by the gods themselves. The hallways where we were walking were covered in cobwebs. It's a wonder that there's nobody living in there considering everything is covered in webs. I'm surprised that the temple is still standing after all these years since it hasn't had any maintenance done at all. There are also stone pillars lining the pathway. A few rows of chairs decorated the sides of the hallway and in front of them are various altars filled with various kinds of flowers and incense sticks. I couldn't recognize any kind of flower because they're all unfamiliar to me, except one of them looks similar to lilies. When we arrived at the entrance of the main temple, we noticed that there's already a crowd gathered outside waiting for us. I was shocked to see who they all are. The most eye catching person of them all is definitely none other than the Great Sage himself!
I'm gonna admit it, I thought he'd look more majestic than the last time I saw him at the dragon parade last year. He looked so calm and elegant, like the most important thing he has to worry about is not getting hit by lightning. If he was an angry tiger I don't think I could survive. But that wasn't really the case. He was completely calm. His face was peaceful as he stared at us with a pleasant smile plastered across his face, "It's very good of you to join us here to celebrate your achievement. Please follow me", he said with a gentle voice. With that said, he proceeded to walk further into the temple. After the three of us walked behind him, we finally came upon a big hall filled with several people. Some of them were old and some were young. All of their heads turned to look at us once we entered the room. Master Shang Xian stopped walking as he stood up and cleared his throat making everyone stop their conversations. Everyone quickly fell silent and greeted him respectfully.Master Shang Xian waved to all of them and sat back down again, "Please sit down.", he said. Then, he turned around and faced the crowd again, "Now then.. the day has arrived and everyone is here, so let the ceremony begin!".
"Now please raise your right arms and clasp your hands together. Then open your palms in front of you". Everyone did what he commanded and did as he asked us to do.
"As I said before, the ceremony will start with the words spoken by the me myself", he continued. I felt extremely nervous but didn't show it. Master Shang Xian paused momentarily before continuing speaking: "Today, we are all gathered to celebrate the newcoming of the new students chosen by the Temple's guardian, Grandmaster Li". This caused a loud cheer to resonate throughout the room.
"The first part of the ceremony will include the naming and presenting of the new disciples and their respective names, their specialties, and their accomplishments. This part should take about an hour to finish...", he finished. After he spoke, everyone clapped in unison with joy. Even the guards and servants cheered happily. I smiled and listened quietly. Once the cheering died down, the ceremony began.
"First thing I wanna say is, I'm really proud of all of you for coming and learning so hard just to come here. It took a while for all of you to make it this far so we're glad that you've all succeeded. Now then, I would like to talk about our new students and their individual strengths and weaknesses", he said, raising both of his hands to create silence. After a while of listening to him speak and having questions answered, I decided to close my eyes and listen carefully instead. As my eyes slowly drifted shut, they suddenly snapped open and I realized someone was poking my cheek multiple times. I blinked twice and looked towards who poked me. It seemed like the boy standing beside me was trying to get my attention.
"Hey... you're falling asleep.", he whispered. I raised an eyebrow at his comment. I didn't know that ceremonies could be this boring. After the ceremony had ended by Master Xian leaving for some urgent business. The same woman from earlier came to us and waved her hands, " Hey kids! Come with me and I'll show you around!". Without any hesitation, I excitedly ran to her as Fu Tao and Shen Qhi followed from behind. We started walking around the room until we got to a large door. The woman pointed at it and told us to enter the room. She closed the door and led us inside. The room was empty aside from a huge altar which was facing us. At the center of the altar was a crystal blue gemstone which glowed brightly. "This is the Crystal of Truth, a divine object that helps people see the truth. This will allow them to be able to see the future without having to rely on anything else", the woman explained calmly while staring at the glowing crystal in the middle of the altar. She then took a deep breath and continued talking, "This crystal's power can allow them to travel through space and time itself. Unfortunately it can only help the weak people but not the powerful. Its purpose isn't just for its ability to predict the future. It actually helps the user to control how much power they are able to release using their spirit energy". When she said the word 'power', she started mumbling under her breathe, almost as if she was scared, " Power is the ultimate weapon to kill those who seek to harm us... Power is our best defense against the world. So if you wish to use it well, you must not lose your mind... ", the woman became silent for a moment and mumbled something which Fu and Shen didn't quite heard but since I have great hearing, I knew what she said, '... just like her'. After a moment, we left the altar and she showed the other rooms on the temple. She also showed us our rooms and told us that there would be teachers coming in three days to guide us through the process of training. " That's all you have to know. Good luck on your training, my dear juniors!", she said walking towards the exit and shook her hands off, "And by the way, my name's Lei Fung. I think I forgot to introduce myself earlier".
I looked at the ceiling while humming a song to relieve my boredom. I am so excited for tomorrow because we'll be having an early training. I've been thinking about for hours that I cannot afford to get some sleep. Without knowing, I slowly drifted to sleep as I dreamt about being a warrior.
The next day...
" What are you doing Bao! That's not how to meditate! And you Fu Tao, don't be a softie or else you'll end up dying early! Even you Shen Qhi! Stop lazing around and come here!"