Zero woke in the evening, in front of a tavern that smelt of vomit and urine.
Grouchy looking men set up a small bonfire in the corner of the establishment. They had cups of strong rice wine that he could smell from ten feet away.
His head felt like it was on fire, his ears were ringing. He raised a hand to hold his head and found that his hair was gone. All that was left were stubble hairs. It was not clean shaven.
Huh. Had he shaven it after all? But when? He looked to the dark sky above.
It was evening. The evaluations!
Not caring how he had ended up in a shady part of the village or how he had shaven his ghoul hair, he dashed to the village square. As he ran, limping slightly from his arrow wound, he hoped there was still time.
In the middle of the village, there was a grand gathering. The people who lived in this village were up to a hundred and almost every one had come to watch.
There was bonfire in the middle of the crowd. The entire place was casted in reddish hues.
Zero could see a group of youngsters like him on the other side of the fire from where he was . They had formed a semi circle, backing the fire and facing the three soldiers.
The men were no longer dressed in their imperial attires but had put on black cloaks. He observed they were not alone. A lady had joined them. She was tall and lithe in shape and her cloak was white, different from the men. Her dark hair had been cut short, dancing just below her ears.
She was not particularly fair or beautiful, but her bearing outweighed even the men. A fan lay in her hands. The ribs of said fan appeared to form spikes at the tips. A weapon.
The lady in white pounded the fan gently against her palm.
In a sharp, clear voice, she said, "Silence."
The excited murmuring of the crowd ceased at once. Only the sizzles and crackles of the bonfire could be heard. Somewhere in a distance, a raven cawed.
"For the past three years, during the winter festival, our beloved emperor goes out of his way to enroll youths with a potential for cultivating."
The villagers resounded cheers. The lady's face was stern and she raised the fan to halt them.
"Our evaluation methods have changed this year, in light of some...events. Affinity to Yang will no longer be our target but yin. "
A hush fell over the crowd. Yang in the cultivation world, as far and little as they knew, was the commonplace. Of course, there was need for the balance of Yin and Yang but times had changed.
In the new world— the one the Heavenly emperor had built after the Great Nascent wars— the entity of yin had been stigmatized.
Dark Qi was yin in its evilest and most concentrated form. Yin was the cold, the night, darkness, gentleness and silence. It was the north side of a hill and the south bank of a river. It was death.
Yin and Yang had been in balance from the beginning of time until the wars between the demons that had gone into hiding and the cultivators who had returned to their legions in the mountains. Since the Nascent war, the concentration of yin matter had increased by a million fold, demanding drastic amounts of yang cultivators to battle the strange creatures and entities that this extreme concentration of yin had conceived.
So when the villagers heard that the tests had suddenly changed in favour of yin, the very dark Qi in the air, they were shocked. Low murmurs ensued immediately.
"Silence," the lady in white commanded again. A calm but emotionless expression was on her face. She was like a rock, cold and unfeeling.
"If everyone may move ten feet away from the bonfire at once? I'm not sure anyone is desperate for any untold accidents now, are they?"
The lady did not wait for their response; the crowd was too busy murmuring. She spread her fan in a quick motion in the direction of the bonfire and it roared, flames enlarging, sparks flying. The villagers backed far off, much further than ten feet away. Zero who could not see much from the crowded back, was pushed by the commotion. He used this situation to push himself further, ending up at the front of the crowd.
His eyes fell on the three soldiers in black behind the woman. They took out grey coloured boxes the size of torsos. Each box had a large round hole in its front. They placed it on the ground.
The lady stood back as these boxes were lain. She had turned to observe the youngsters that had been brave enough to come forward. She hoped this worked. They had to find promising results in this village. The time was drawing near.
Six boxes in total had been placed on the ground. The soldiers stepped back.
"Alright then. If you still remember, there are three evaluations. A test of strength, a test of Qi perception and a test of knowledge. This time, we shall test for one thing only. "
There was a slight pause.
"We shall test for purity. The more corrupted and Mutated will be selected."
The woman waved her hand slightly. "Begin."
Zero's eyes widened slightly. He had a fair shot then didn't he? He probably had a good share of corrupted energy. However, he chose to watch the other youths try first, wanting to understand the nature of the test.
The soldier with the half braid came forth. He stood tall and glanced back to look at the lady who now stood staring at her feet. He seemed to raise his shoulders even higher. He was intimidated by her presence, Zero observed.
"In groups of six, you will come forward. Lie on the ground, place your head in the box. If the wood breaks, you pass. Within the box, you shall face a challenge unknown to us evaluators. "
"These boxes are B grade spiritual objects controlled only by foundation establishment cultivators and above. They've been designed to measure corruption levels through a challenge that will be set according to a person's nature. "
"Please, step forward."
The youngsters exchanged nervous glances. Not many of them liked the sound of a test like that. They had all watched their fellow village folks who had participated in previous evaluations.
The tests were always kept simple. Combat and test of innate skills.
This was not a test they had seen or even trusted.
"We do not have all night. Please begin to come forward. " The half hair soldier bore a deeper frown than before.
He was about to speak up again when a boy emerged from the semi circle. He was dressed in a plain grey hanfu. There was a short sword tied to his waist and his steps were nothing short of confident. He bowed to the evaluators and proceeded to lie on the ground.
Without any hesitation he plunged his head into the hole of the first box.