Be The Icy Beauty: A Xianxia/Cultivation Tale

Perched atop a building, Zhang Yi watched with curiosity. Upon the wide grassy field had gathered a large crowd of youths and their parents. Bakers, farmers, merchants and even the goddamn Jiang Family. Nearly every family in the village had come to have their children take the Immortal's 'test' to join the Copper Egg Sect. After all, regardless of one's wealth or status, the chance to become an Immortal was something absolutely invaluable! If one's child managed to join an Immortal Sect, it would be just like the old saying of A carp jumping through the Dragon's gate.

In fact, even teens above the age of fifteen, whom the Immortal had said would not be allowed to take his test, had come and joined the crowd. Perhaps they hoped to slip by unnoticed, but Zhang Yi would be surprised if the Immortal lacked the power to tell someone's age or weed out those too old.

This was an Immortal after all, and his means were likely far beyond what any of them could imagine.

After spending some time merely observing the gathering of villagers, Zhang Yi quickly scaled down the back of the building he had stood upon. Digging his fingers into the gap between the bricks as he descended, Zhang Yi soon neared the ground. Letting go of the wall, Zhang Yi's wooden sandals smacked against the sandy yellow soil as he landed.

Then, Zhang Yi quickly walked into the back of the mass of people, slowing bobbing and weaving through the crowd until he reached its front.

For several minutes the young boy waited silently. Then, a few dozen feet from the crowd exploded a large cloud of thick, purple smoke. As the fog cleared, the silhouette of a man appeared. The tall, well dressed Immortal from yesterday strode forth powerfully from within the crowd, his copper-coloured robes swirling in the wind.

The Immortal's eyes flickered over the large crowd, silently assessing it. A pleased grin crept across his face for a moment, before it was wiped away in place of a dignified and solemn expression. The Immortal raised his sleeve over his mouth, clearing his throat.

"Enough waiting, let's cut to the chase! You are all here for one reason! You all wish to gain the chance to cultivate, to transcend the bounds of mortality and become Immortal! However, my Copper Egg sect doesn't accept just anyone. I will be conducting a trial, and only those who pass shall be allowed into the sect. Before we start, I will need to ask each attendee some questions. Answer me honestly, because those who do not shall regret it once the trial begins!" The Immortal shouted.

His voice was loud and rich, reverberating across the open field. The Immortal seemed to possess an aura of power and charisma that Zhang Yi had never felt from anyone before. The boy gulped, feeling the burning ambition within him flare higher. Soon the trial would begin!

"Now, all attendees, all of you get in a line!" the Immortal declared, swishing his arm with regal decorum.

Zhang Yi and the youths immediately followed his orders, stepping forth from the crowd and lining up before the Immortal. Once the line had finished forming, the Immortal strode towards the head of the line. The copper-robed man arrived to stand in front of the person at the front of the line, a tall girl with black hair and a fair complexion. Zhang Yi recognized her as the eldest daughter of the Xian family, tailors who catered to the village's richer elite.

"What is your name?" the Immortal asked first.

"My name is Cao Ya, honoured immortal," responded the girl nervously.

''How old are you?" continued the Immortal.

"I am thirteen, honoured Immortal."

"What you are skilled at?"

"Oh... well, I know how to sew and knit. I also know how to make dye and some basic medicine."

"What is your family background?"

"My family are clothing makers. We've lived here in Jiang city for four generations."

After the girl finished answering the Immortal nodded to himself, reaching into his sleeve and retrieving a thin notebook and a strange utensil. The utensil seemed to be a long, thin rod of silver metal whose tip dripped with black ink. The Immortal began to scribble in his notebook with the utensil, quickly marking something down. Once finished, he looked back at the girl.

"Hold out your wrist girl," commanded the Immortal

Cao Ya complied, lifting her arm into the air and holding it outwards. The Immortal leaned down, pressing the tip of the utensil against the bare skin of her wrist. He quickly inscribed several markings with the black ink dripping from the utensil's tip.

Zhang Yi craned his neck to get a good view of what was written, frowning slightly. He could not see very clearly from this distance, but he thought it looked like a special type of merchants shorthand used commonly by traders in the east that his grandfather had shown him. Perhaps the Immortal was a foreigner because Zhang Yi had never known anyone from the northern area to use it.

Having finished asking his questions, the Immortal moved onto the next person in the line, repeating the process. He would ask them their name, age, skills and family background, quickly writing in his notebook before marking something down on the wrist of the person. Soon it was Zhang Yi's turn and the Immortal looked down upon him with a piercing gaze.

"What is your name?" asked the Immortal.

"I am called Zhang Yi, honoured Immortal."

"How old are you?"

"I am eleven years old."

"What are you skilled at?"

"I am well versed in martial arts. I have much experience doing all sorts of odd jobs, like gardening, upkeeping tools and such. I know how to tend to a shop and handle finances."

"Family background?"

"My grandfather was a shopkeeper, but I am orphaned."

The Immortal nodded upon hearing Zhang Yi's answer, scribbling a little in his notebook.

"Hold out your wrist," the Immortal commanded.

Zhang Yi followed the man's instructions, holding out his arm. The copper-robed man bent down, gripping Zhang Yi's wrist tightly and scribbled upon it with his strange utensil. After marking down several things, the Immortal released Zhang Yi's arm from his tight grip and moved on to the next person.

Once the Immortal was several feet away from him, Zhang Yi raised his arm up, staring down at the characters inscribed upon it. As he had thought, it really was the eastern merchant's shorthand.

Zhang Yi's grandfather had been in the process of teaching Zhang Yi to read it before dying, but Zhang Yi only knew a few basic words and the numerals. There were several words he could not read, along with two numbers. The first read 'eleven' and the second read 'fifty'. Zhang Yi furrowed his brow in thought. He could guess that the first number probably referred to age. Zhang Yi was eleven years of age and had received the number eleven. However, the meaning of the second number was more inscrutable, though Zhang Yi did not have the time to dwell on the matter since the Immortal had finally finished inspecting everyone in the line.

"The test begins now! Follow me!" the Immortal shouted. "Parents, stay here. Any attempt to interfere with the test will result in automatic expulsion for your child."

Turning around the Immortal began to jog away from Jiang City. The line of children immediately broke apart, every individual rushing to catch up with the Immortal. Zhang Yi followed nimbly bursting into a run.

'Is this perhaps some test of endurance or speed?' Zhang Yi wondered internally as he ran.

Pushing the thoughts away, Zhang Yi focused on running. Without stopping for nearly half an hour, the Immortal ran. He lead the children from the wide, grassy plains that Jiang City sat upon into nearby woodland where tall trees filled the air with their branches. By now several of the youths were visibly exhausted, sweat dripping down their overheating faces. The sons and daughters of the richer members of the town, these were the people who had probably never done real physical labour in their entire lives.

Ignoring the weary children, the Immortal continued running, leading them deeper and deeper into the woodland until they arrived before a massive, wide river that gently streamed through the woodland. The Immortal finally stopped running, turning to face the attendees who slowly gathered towards him.

"Great. Now the real test can begin!" declared the Immortal.

The tall man reached into the sleeve of his robe, pulling out a large leather sack. As the Immortal opened the bag, a rich medicinal scent drifted outwards. The Immortal dropped the bag to the ground, turning to look at the waiting children.

"All of you come up and grab one of the green pills inside the bag," instructed the Immortal.

Following the Immortal's instructions, Zhang Yi quickly walked up to the bag, leaning down and grabbing a pill from it. Though he was first, the other test-takers were not far behind him, all quickly crowding around the bag to grab pills of their own. Soon every boy and girl held a pill, milling about in waiting for the Immortal's next instruction.

As they waited, Zhang Yi lifted the small orb to his nose, taking a deep breath. He inhaled the strong herbal scent of the pill, thinking deeply.

"I recognize this scent!" Zhang Yi suddenly realized. "This is Elder's Rest!"

Elder's Rest was a potent sleeping medicine that, once ingested, would knock someone out cold in moments. It was used commonly by doctors to treat insomnia and nightmares. In fact, Zhang Yi's own grandfather had often taken the pills at night because he had trouble sleeping. However, given the size of the pill, whoever ate it would sleep for several days straight.

"Now, all of you eat your pill!" ordered the Immortal.

All around Zhang Yi, children began to gulp down the pills, but he hesitated. Why would the Immortal want them to eat sleeping pills?

A thought suddenly struck the boy.

'Perhaps the test is to see who is knowledgeable enough to recognize the sleeping pill and avoid eating it?' Zhang Yi thought to himself.

It was a risk, but Zhang Yi's gut told him he was on to something. The boy tightly gripped the pill but did not eat it, watching as the children around him suddenly began to collapse. In seconds, dozens of them had fallen face-first onto the floor. However, along with Zhang Yi, two other remained standing, also having chosen to forgo ingesting the Elder's Rest.

The first was that girl from earlier, Cao Ya, and the second was the Jiang family's heir. The three remaining children glanced at each other. A frown spread across the Immortal's face as he stared at the standing three.

"You three didn't eat your pills. Why was that?" he asked, a subtle undertone of annoyance filling his voice.

"Those were Elder's Rest pills," replied the Jiang Scion. "My guess was that the test involved recognizing the pills and thus not eating them."

"I had the same thought process," concurred Zhang Yi.

"You are incorrect. Eat the pills," ordered the Immortal. "Unless you want to fail my test!"

Zhang Yi frowned. It seems his gut feeling had been wrong. After a moment of hesitation, Zhang Yi lifted the pill to his mouth, dropping the green orb onto his tongue and swallowing. Immediately, a hazy sensation flooded through him. Zhang Yi stumbled backwards, falling to the floor. The last thing he saw before his vision turned to black was the Immortal's cold face staring down at him.

----

Dizzily, Zhang Yi groaned. A horrible throbbing pain filled his head like someone was repeatedly hammering on his head with a wooden mallet. Ignoring the ringing in his ears, the boy stumbled to his feet drunkenly. Zhang Yi blinked as he glanced around his surroundings, his vision horribly blurred. Yet even through his blurry eyes, Zhang Yi could just about make out the sight of black iron bars. The young boy stepped forward, groping at the metal with his hands.

Several moments of inspection later and Zhang Yi had confirmed his suspicion.

He was in a cage.

He was in a cage!

A burst of panic filled him, but Zhang Yi clamped down on the emotion, forcing himself to calm down. The boy took a deep breath and began to think deeply. He had just been in the woods... Taking the Immortal's test!

'This must be the next part of the trial!' Zhang Yi realized. 'Maybe I have to escape the cage?'

By now his vision had cleared up enough he could make out the lock holding the cage door closed. It was a large iron padlock with a strange, circular keyhole. Before Zhang Yi could contemplate further, a nearby voice interrupted his thoughts.

"You're awake. Nice to finally have some company," laughed the voice.

The boy spun around, finding the source of the voice. Within a cage adjacent to Zhang Yi's own sat a scrawny boy. The boy had a long black ponytail that hung behind his back and tanned bronze skin. Zhang Yi frowned as he tried to recall the boy's name.

"If I am correct, you are He Zhao, from the He Family?" Zhang Yi asked.

The He family were the village's only blacksmiths and were fairly wealthy. Zhang Yi knew very little about them, given he had never really had the money to buy anything from them.

"I am. Might I ask brother to introduce himself?" He Zhao replied.

"I am called Zhang Yi," Zhang Yi responded quickly. "Now, do you know where we are or what's happening?"

"Nope. All I know is that after eating that pill I woke up in this iron cage. Shame I didn't bring any tools or I could have picked this cheap lock in moments," He Zhao chuckled.

Zhang Yi nodded. It did make sense a blacksmith would know how to get past a lock. Making locks and keys was a part of their job description after all.

"You seem very cheerful for someone trapped in a cage." Zhang Yi observed curiously.

"I try to stay optimistic," He Zhao shrugged. "It's always better to work on a solution than simply lament about one's circumstances. Do you have any ideas?"

Zhang Yi shook his head silently while glancing at his surroundings. By now his headache and dizziness had mostly cleared up and he could see just fine. Dozens of cages stood side to side within a dank but well-lit cellar. In each cage lay one of the boys from Zhang Yi's village. They had all taken a pill, and they had all ended up in these cages. However, none of the women who had been at the test were present. Perhaps the Immortal had given them a separate test?

The musty scent of wet and rotting wood infused the air, along with the subtle and distant sound of dripping water. The cellar's walls were lined with yellow-wood planks that reflected the light of the lamps hanging from the ceiling. A single door sat in the middle of the wall in front of Zhang Yi, another large lock covering its handle.

Zhang Yi sighed, looking back to his cage with a more critical eye. The cage was made from several inch thick black-iron bars, with a gate at the front. The floor of the cage was made from wood rather than iron, however, and the front gate was locked by a large iron padlock. Those would be the two weak spots.

As Zhang Yi investigated the cage, he heard a far off groan. A few dozen feet away, inside one of the cages, a boy drunkenly stood upwards, rubbing his head in obvious discomfort. Zhang Yi frowned slightly as he recognized the boy. It was the Heir of the rat Jiang Family, Jiang Fang.

"What in heaven is going on?" the boy loudly groaned, blinking his eyes rapidly.

"Looks like another one has finally decided to join us," He Zhao said.

The newly woken boy slowly turned in the direction of He Zhao's voice, rubbing his eyes. His vision was probably still too blurred from the pill to see properly.

"Who said that?" the boy asked sharply.

"It's me, He Zhao. " the young blacksmith answered. "And before you ask, I don't know any more than you do, Jiang Fang. We all just woke up in these cages. I think this must be the next part of the Immortal's test."

"I see..." Jiang Fang sighed upon hearing He Zhao's words.

The next several minutes were spent in silence as Jiang Fang slowly oriented himself and Zhang Yi continued inspecting his cage. He began to knock his fists on the wooden planks at the bottom of the cage. From the dull clink his knuckles made, it was clear there was no hollow space underneath he could utilize to break out. The wooden floor of the cellar upon which his cage's own wooden bottom sat must have laid upon solid ground.

Then, a loud wooden creaking noise came from the cellar's wooden door. Zhang Yi and the other awake boys looked towards the door, watching the copper robed Immortal step through it. Dense smoke drifted from a large incense pot that sat in his hands, filling the room with a pungent scent. Zhang Yi immediately began to cough uncontrollably from the smoke, covering his mouth with his sleeves. As the smoke drifted through the cages, the boys still sleeping began to cough and wake up, stumbling to their feet.

"Honored Immortal, may you please tell us what is going on?" Zhang Yi asked. "Is this the next part of the test? If so, what do we do?"

"Test? What test?" the Immortal said, chuckling.

By now, all of the other boys had fully awoken. The sound of groan and grunt cut through the air as two dozen youths slowly worked through the disorienting effects of the Elder's Rest.

"...The test to join the Copper Egg Sect?" Zhang Yi replied, confused.

"Join the Copper Egg Sect? Don't make me laugh! You didn't really think any of you fucking peons would be joining my sect, did you?"

A sharp silence filled the air as the Immortal's words registered with the newly woken boys.

"...What did you say?" asked one boy in shock.

"I said, none of you fucking peons are joining my sect, and you're deluded if you ever thought that would happen," the Immortal laughed loudly. "No, you're all here for a very simple reason. I need some money to buy pills and selling slaves is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get that money. You should all feel honoured. Aiding me in my cultivation is the most important thing any of you trash will accomplish with your pitiful fucking lives. Now, the slave auction begins in an hour and I need to go wake up the girls. Can't have my merchandise sleeping on me!"

To stunned silence the Immortal turned around, slamming the door behind him.