The Jade empire ( Main city)
A rather large crowd of beings, cheered and soon more of them gathered around the already large group. The beings in the back hovered about asking for details of what was going on but the onlookers in the front ignored the questions all together as they continued to scream showing their enthusiasm and enjoyment.
After a lot of pushing around a being from the back had finally been able to come about to the front and from there he could clearly see that the crowd had formed an almost perfect circle and within that circular space a group of teenagers who seemed to be about 18 years of age were fighting or so it seemed like at first glance.
At first this new entrant was a bit taken aback but soon he too had joined in, cheering loudly for the fight after noticing the one, who was being beaten. In actuality if one would stand and look at this scene even for more than a minute they could make out that one boy was being beaten and the others were just beating. The group charged blow after blow , someone screamed in the middle of the attack to instigate "Mu qing, you damned slave! Fight back! I DARE YOU, FIGHT BACK!!" When punches didn't work at driving out a reaction then they started slapping, though the impact of it was less yet it was rather hurtful to ones ego but the boy still didn't react.
He resisted and did nothing other than trying to guard himself. After a while, not being able to get a reaction seemed to have finally made the group of boys lose their interest and after one final kick from the one who seemed like the leader of the group, they finally dispersed. One of the mothers of those teens from the group came about crying just after the boys were done with their daily dose of violence and though she had clearly seen that it was her son who had done all the damage, she still cursed the one who was beaten and then as if worried she shamelessly coaxed her son saying "Son! Next time don't touch that dirty thing with your hand, if you want to beat him then I'll buy you some gloves next time around" , after that she walked away with her son telling him multiple times how he shouldn't touch the other boy for he is an unfilial rogue, and how he possessed an incurable disease, all these being nothing but baseless rumours.
By the time the mother and son duo had reached some distance,the crowd that was bustling about just a few seconds ago, also dispersed some laughing and recalling how the boy had been beaten, some stepping on top of the now injured boy as if he were really just some dirt on the road soon another lady came by and gave a kick to the boy ordering him " Mu qing you better get out of here , don't spread your filth on the road, quick get out before I throw you out."
Mu qing didn't look up to acknowledge the voice but he knew that the voice belonged to the one he worked for, the owner of one of the meat stalls of the grand market area. He slowly got up. His legs aching with pain but without uttering a single word he started walking without looking back. On the other side of the road Feng Xin stood motionless, watching the entire scene play out. He neither smiled nor showed disgust or pity, an unknown expression flashed by his face for what seemed like a mere second then when he couldn't see Mu qing's back anymore from where he was standing ,he finally turned back around and left to join Scar.
Mu qing walked slowly and after what seemed like an hour he finally had left behind the main city and entered the outskirts of it covered in lush greenery. He let out a sigh and took in a deep breath and made his way with slow, steady steps towards the dilapidated cottage, on getting close enough he called out in what seemed like an almost whisper "Ser" and just at that a girl of what seemed like the same age and similar appearance came out she spared her brother a glance before dragging him inside and directed him quickly to sit on a small stool made out of straw and a stack of hay.
Mu qing and Ser were actually twins but both of them still had some distinct features to themselves. Ser was named Serpens by her parents but she insisted to be called Ser and was older then Mu qing by a few minutes and often took the advantage of those minutes to show a sense of authority and seniority but whenever she saw her brother to have been beaten by someone all her authority would melt away and all that would remain was the concern for her brother's well being and a deep sense of hurt mixed in with an unknown rage that she couldn't quite fathom, still she often would hide her feelings behind a layer of pretence thus like always, keeping a calm exterior she signed to her brother asking him " Who did this?"
Mu qing:- You wouldn't know them.
Ser:- Did you defend yourself?
Mu qing:- No. Not right now. I will kill them soon, I'm waiting for that day.
He snickered. Ser let out a soundless chuckle as well.
Neither of them were this cold blooded or immune to pain from birth nor had they inherited these qualities from their parents, in fact their parents had brought them up with a lot of love and care though a higher preference was given to their son but that was to be blamed on the societal mindset. Their family was never wealthy still their father had tried his best to keep them happy and they were able to be so until their 10th birthday before the assassination of the Late royal celestial after that their mother had tried to protect them as well but that had cost her....her life. Ser was also not born with the difficulty in speaking but after their father died ,the two kids had survived through a lot of torturous pain and this inflicted disability of not being able to speak properly was one of them. The people of the empire never seemed to stop their resentment towards them and always found something or the other as an excuse to punish them.
The incident had taken place after a year of the assassination, the two kids were really hungry and their mother had fallen very sick so unable to resist their hunger and also being worried about their mother's health the two had finally gone outside in search of food in spite of their mother telling them not to. They were only looking around and that is when Ser had come across a sweet shop and had only placed her hand on the counter to look at the sweets for the bright shapes and colours of it had intrigued her but just then , the sweet seller had caught a hold of her tiny hands while he accused "Thief! Thief! Just like your father, what better to expect from such treacherous blood", he had soon gathered a group of onlookers by his rather rough and loud accusations. Ser had always been a bit hot headed it was just that she was good at controlling her temperament but listening to the man bad mouth her father for more then what seemed like hours, had finally made her loose her calm exterior, she couldn't bear it and with that she had bitten the sweet seller as hard as she could have, her teeth piercing through the skin.
She was 11 years old at that time, defenseless and quite weak without any strong or flourishing spiritual powers and this grown man had then minimised his rage by cutting off the tongue of the little girl to exact the revenge of the bite. She had screamed at that time, a ear piercing scream. She had screamed out of pain and agony yet no one had paid any heed to her pain as if it were nothing, except for her little brother who had tried his best to make the man stop his blatant act of cruelty. Ser had been afraid that day, she had felt what fear for one's own life felt like, the suffocation of such fear had left her unconscious for hours after that. It was her brother who had somehow managed to run away with her. Due to her young age at that time her spiritual ability especially her healing ability were practically almost non-existent so she hadn't been able to heal her wounds and later on when her spiritual powers had developed, it had struck her that the cut off tongue had been kept as a trophy of valliance and later on cut into further pieces and burned by the sweet shop seller as he boasted around to everyone "best way of punishing an evil child" , and the others had laughed, so with this scenario,even if she wanted to heal herself she was not able to do so. In the absence of the organ itself the attachment chant which was meant for healing wounds would no longer work on the thing and it would be quite useless to try and hence she had given up on fixing this flaw of her, quite reluctantly and had gotten over it rather quickly.
As she couldn't form words anymore no matter how hard she tried she had finally decided on learning sign language after picking up some of the books related to it from the trash segment of the Jade library hall of discarded and torn books but Mu qing on the other hand had cried rather bitterly, he had cried for what seemed like an entire month after all hopes of his sister's recovery were lost but now that they had grown up, Mu qing seemed like he didn't know how to cry anymore.
He had stopped crying since the past three years not a single drop was let out, it seemed like his tears had suddenly dried out after the day of their mother's death. Even today when he was beaten and stepped on by hundreds, he hadn't cried out, this change in character that Ser had experienced first hand, throughout the past years suddenly made her throat a bit dry. She slowly patted her brother's head in an affectionate manner then signed again :- " It'll be okay". She always used to say that and "always will" in the future Mu qing thought to himself as he returned the gesture with a bitter sweet smile of his own. He said in a soft voice "soon, it'll be okay soon, we'll make it so , together, just one more year... just one more year but for now we need to leave and you know why Ser, let's prepare and get out of here before they come."
Everybody knew that the grand battle was soon to come, mathematically there were still approximately 2 years left for the battle but practically there was only one year left. The final year before the 'Celestial year' was more like a warm up to the event of the grand battle. The final year would lift all the divisions of the sections. It was like a purification bath for sinners to wipe there sins clean and start out on a fresh basis and this fresh basis came with a price of utmost ruthlessness coupled with hard work. The compulsory age to enter and qualify in the battle was 19 so during the final year the experienced beings would be desparate, plotting, strengthening themselves and sometimes even slaughtering without hesitation to bring forth there authority while the younger ones who would for the first time enter the battle would be busy during the final year, collecting there spiritual manifestations whether it be in the form of weapons, omens or something else and getting acquainted with them. All these preparations of both the experienced and young beings were important so as to rise to the top and build an army capable enough to wage war in the Grand battle of the celestial year against the already well refined armies of the royal celestials and for that ,one needed to show their superiority to the other beings so that the others would want to follow them in order to rise up in society .
This was no tournament of sorts, it was the raw madness of a war. The final grand battle of the celestial year was only fought if the beings standing after the battle of armies most likely the royal celestials would challenge the Supreme ruler to a final grand battle which would be the last battle of that particular celestial year, and this final grand battle would be one to determine the worths and power of both individuals as to decide who was fit enough to be the Supreme ruler . This grand battle of the celestial year had still two years to start but had only one year left of it's peace before the chaos.