The plaza of maple town was particularly filled today as the talent ceremony was taking place today.
People were talking with one another, ladies gossiping about who would go where, men joking about those who won't join the sects, and small children looking , with stars in their eyes , at the centre of plaza where the desciples of sects were standing .
Maya, Tony and Peter were from aqua, boulder and moon sect respectively and were chatting among themselves.
"Do you reckon, we will find good seeds this year". Maya asked the other two as she observed the 15 children standing at a little distance from them.
"May be .... There are those family children this as well this year , so maybe". Tony replied as looked at the children.
" Yeah ... The rejected ones by the 2nd ranks huh".
"What do you think Peter ? Any luck for us this year or the others will win?" Tony asked turning to Peter who looked like he was in deep thaught.
" Huh.. yeah may be , there have to be some good seeds since you know that realm will open in 2 to 3 years ". Peter said coming back from his daze.
" Yeah , that realm will open as well, anyways it looks like everyone is here so should we start?" Maya asked the other two .
Tone and Peter both noded their heads . Maya taking the cue got in front and said
" Alright everyone, we will start the ceremony now so please come one by one and place your hand on this white ball while sitting down on the platform ". She said this as she placed the ball on the platform .
Back to Ethan
When he heard the voice he looked in front and saw that the lady has placed a white ball on ground and the 1st person , a boy,has already gone .
He went to the platform sat down and took the ball in his hand . He closed his eyes , for a moment nothing happened and then the ball started to shine in yellow colour. The boy opened his eyes and looked the at shining ball in his hand . He than looked at the at sect desciples who were looking at him in disappointment. Placing the ball on ground, with teary eyes he bowed in front of them and went back to his family who were crying as well.
The world is never fair is it...
And so the ceremony continued , there were 2 boys with orange colour, both of whom went to boulder sect , then one boy went to moon sect. There were 3 girls , two orange and one red who chose to go to aqua sect and the red one went to moon sect . At which one the desciple from moon sect looked very happy.
After some time Tom's turn came . He nervously went ahead and sat down taking the ball in his hand . He closed his eyes and waited . After some time there was orange colour emanating from the ball , looking at this Tom started laughing. Calming down he saw both boulder sect and moon sect were welcoming but he chose to go to boulder sect in the end .
It was Ethan's turn now , calming his nerves he went ahead and sat down on the platform. He took the ball in his hands and closed his eyes.
Doing so he also remembered a particular conversation he had with sister Clara 2 years back.
2 years back..
The orphanage was quite that day as summer was there with the sun shining in his all glory.
Clara had come today to meet Tris and Brown. They were having conversation in the hall when Ethan came from his room upstairs.
He saw Clara had come so greeted her as he sat down on the chair nearby.
"So Ethan, do you exercise daily?". Clara asked him as she saw him sat down .
"Yes ... I do it daily"
"Good , a good body is always necessary for cultivation."
" Sister Clara.."
" Yes?"
" What is talent awaking ceremony exactly?"
"Huh? Where did that come from?"
" I was just wondering.. is it really important to know what color your talent is?"
" Hm.. well since you must know that the ball used during is made of ore which takes on different colours in different mana densities namely-
Brown
Yellow
Orange
Red
Green
Blue
Violet.
With brown representing lowest density and violet representing highest density."
"Yes , mother and father had told me about it."
"Hmm.. this mana density although is a good way gauge how densly a person's body consists of mana but only when that person is raw. By raw , I mean he hadn't started cultivation yet. This can be used as reference to understand a body's natural affinity to absorb mana.
Take me for example, during my awakening ceremony I had red level talent but that was when I had no cultivation but now when I am in liquid phase of martial desciple realm , if I were to take the test again it will show me at blue or violet level .
Since my body is now full of mana . So this ceremony is good only for people with no cultivation, but as we start to cultivate it looses meaniat some point, I had heard that 2nd grade sects and above sects consider this test as a waste of their time only ."
"O... I had no idea, so does that mean that even if I don't get a good result in that ceremony I could still become a cultivator " . He asked her nervously.
At this Clara stood up and came up to him , she smiled at him and said " ofcourse Ethan, don't worry. Calling it talent awakening would be wrong actually, it should be called talent identifying instead."
"Mmm"
Back to present -
Ethan ,as he thaught of that conversation relaxed and focused on the ball in his hand . Nothing happened for a few moments but then the ball emitted red light .
Looking at this both male cultivators had smile on their face .
Ethan opened his eyes and saw them smiling. Looking down at the red ball in his hand he let out a smile . Placing the ball back on the ground he stood up . And looked at the sect desciples.
"Would you like to join the moon sect kid?" Peter asked him .
"Or you could come to boulder sect where all the powerful men go". Tony said while receiving a stink eye from Peter.
Ethan was glad to hear that he got the invitation from both sects , and not receiving invitation from aqua heart was a no problem for him since he had never considered the option to go there.
"Thank you both seniors for this offer . I would like to join the moon sect." He said while looking at Peter.
At this Peter gave him a smile and said "ofcourse ofcourse, you are more then welcome here. For now go back to your parents. I will call for you when the ceremony is over. "
"Yes". Ethan replied and went towards his parents who were smiling at him .
They took him aside from the crowd .
"I am proud of you son " tris told him as tears started to form in her eyes ..
"Why are you crying mother " Ethan asked with concern as he saw this .
" No son , I am just very happy that you got accepted in the sect, it's just there is something we have to tell you" . As Tris told this to him she took out a locket and handed it to him .
"Take this , you know that we are not your birth parents and when you arrived at our house you were wearing this locket. Keep it safe ok"
Ethan looked at the locket in his hand and then hugged Tris tightly. "You are still my mother "
"Ofcourse I am silly , who said I am not . Hey why are you standing there like a goofball ."
Hearing this Mr Brown turned towards them and wiping the tears in his eyes said "nothing dear I was just waiting for my turn "
Hearing it Ethan got near Brown and hugged him as well.
"Now Ethan" Mr brown said " there is something we need to tell you ."
"Yes , what is it?"
" We have been very lucky in our life , even though we were not able to have children, but we still had you 5 in our life and we are happy for it . The other 4 are already well , and we are proud that all of you were able to join a sect, but now we will be moving from this place"
"Moving? But where?"
" Since you all are off to sects now , we both thought it was time we set off from this town as well.."
"What does that mean. You are going somewhere right? Just tell me where and I will visit you."
"That's the problem son . Cultivation is long and dangerous journey where people can do anything for revenge and we don't want to become burden on any of you . So we will set off to somewhere , that way we will never be the bounds we could become one day."
At this there were tears coming out of Ethan's eyes , trying to wipe them off he said
" but that would mean I can never meet ever again."
Tris came up to him and took him in her arms . Patting his head she said " don't worry son , cultivators live a very long life and we won't be able to live that long anyways , so we want you to become someone great, so great that we can hear your name resounding even when you are far away"
"Hmm I will " he said while coming out of her hug . Turning towards his father he hugged him and heared
"You remember the promise you made to me , don't you?"
"Yes father I do "
"Good then become very strong "
"Mm"
"Alright everyone we are ready to go now "
Hearing the voice coming from the sect desciples they saw him asking everyone to go to him .
"Alright son, take care of yourself and become strong. "
He hugged them one last time and moved towards the sect cultivator. He saw there were 5 other who were going to the moon sect one of whom was from the Ross family.
"There you are , now then everyone is here we will be going to the moon sect" he said this as all the children came near him .
Al of them knew how they were going there and were in anticipation.
Just then a strong wind fell on them as they saw a giant bird landing in front of them . They saw 2 other birds as well one front of Aqua sect party while one in front of boulder sect party.
The bird that came for them was black in colour with yellow eyes that were pearcing and there was a constant pressure emanating from the bird .
"Alright everyone this is the beast we will be using to go to our sect , this belongs to our sect and was raised inside the sect. Well you will find it later , for now climb it's back and sit tightly."
Everyone did as he told them to and sat down .
" Don't fall ok. Right then let's go"
Swish boom!!
And with that they were in air , the ground started go further and further away , Ethan saw his parents standing in the crowd and gave them a last wave . Which they waved in return.
And just like that they were gone towards moon sect . Everyone with anticipation and carrying ambition to become strong.
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This is it for the chapter . Do comment in the comments section and drop some stones as well , you know to keep me motivated to write more and better. Love you everyone.
Crom out