Pick Your Arts!
“Unfortunately, words don’t have no place here, I’ve gotta check if you’ve awakened your blood. Otherwise, no entry. Don’t be nervous boy, I’ve no interest in knowing which bloodline you have. One advantage of staying in our sect is that nobody’s gonna pry about your bloodline, especially if you ain’t eager to tell about it.” The fat guy said, lethargically.[A]
With his worries eased, Shi Mu continued to ask questions in an easy manner, “so the Bloodline Sutras House is within the General House?”
“We have three General Sutras Houses, for primary, junior and senior disciples respectively, but only one Bloodline Sutras House. I can get you there from any one of the general houses. This stuff can wait, let’s examine your blood first.” The fat man shook his head and brought the conversation to an end. He turned one of his hands palm up and a bronze mirror appeared in his palm. After muttering some strange incantations to himself, he shook the mirror in front of Shi Mu.
A pillar of light, the size of a finger, rushed out of the mirror, right into Shi Mu’s body, where it disappeared. Shi Mu felt a strong vibration in his body, which stirred his blood and made it burn in his veins. Simultaneously, a buzz came from the surface of the mirror, where some dark red rays were gathering.
“So you are a bloodline warrior. Come with me.“ The fat man put away his mirror and turned toward a small gate at the back of the room. Shi Mu did not ask any questions and followed him closely.
After a short amount of time, he arrived, with the fat man, in a small room, whose floor was thickly engraved with silver ring-like patterns and some enigmatic characters. Together, the patterns and strange characters formed a huge circle. The fat man led Shi Mu to the center of the circle, then he moved one of his fingers and muttered some incantations before waving his arm in the air. A yellow paper charm appeared in his hand, and he dropped it, letting it float to the floor. As soon as it touched the floor, it turned into a ball of blazing fire, and merged into the circle on the floor.
The circle enlarged, and tiny rays of light rolled up from the floor, causing Shi Mu’s body to shimmer, and then disappear.
Seeing that his incantation was successful, the fat man murmured in satisfaction, “who knows how many more bloodline disciples are comin’. Better ask for more charms.” Hands at his back, the fat man strolled off leisurely.
Shi Mu, on the other hand, felt incredibly dizzy, because the world seemed to be spinning around him. Finally, the swirling ceased, and he found himself in an empty hall that he had never seen before. Not a soul was with him. Shi Mu started to observe the surroundings, and found that the hall was made of a certain white jade, and it was spacious enough to hold hundreds of people. A translucent light cube was slowly rotating the the air. Inside the cube, hundreds of different sized balls of light were floating around.
Just as he was staring at the screen, a cold female voice resounded.
“My name is Auntie Dream, keeper of the Bloodline Sutras House. The balls of light you are looking at are samples of all the bloodlines that have ever appeared in our sect throughout its entire history. But you’re not going to get to choose anyone you wish. You’ve got to have the particular bloodline required for each art. You may end up finding that no arts fit, if your bloodline is some rare type. Now, throw one drop of your blood up into the air, and balls of light, fit for your bloodline, will drop down for you to choose from.” The voice snapped, its source untraceable.
Though feeling weird, Shi Mu bit his finger and swung it up into the air. A drop of blood was flung into, and then seemingly absorbed into the air by an unknown force and just floated there, swirling in a circle. After a while, the cube rippled and projected a silver streak of light at the blood drop, which gradually disappeared as red characters began to emerge on the cube. One character after another, soon the cube was covered with characters. Meanwhile, the numerous balls of light, that had been floating slowly above the screen, all paused and began to flicker. Soon, two balls of light, one big and black, the other small and red, whizzed down our of the cube and into Shi Mu’s hands.
Shi Mu grabbed them tightly in his hands, and found them to be a piece of black bone and a patch of hide of some unknown animal that had glowing red fur.
“Hehe, good for you, boy. You’d got two pieces! Put them against your forehead and you’ll get introductions to these two arts.” The female voice came again, as cold as before.
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