The door creaked open as Ao Ruang entered and found a much different environment than he thought before him there were between twenty and thirty other youths sitting in the room, ranging from fourteen to eighteen years old. The male to female was slightly skewed towards the male side and none of them seemed particularly pleased to see him.

Several sets of abnormally angry eyes pierced through him as if they wanted to skewer him while standing by sight alone. The entire atmosphere contrasted with the feeling in the air. The room was decorated with intricately designed furniture. The room was divided into two-thirds by a set of folding rice dividers which allowed for the light behind to be cast into the room giving it a warm cozy feeling.

A few seconds passed as Ao Ruang stood there awkwardly before a thick, but well muscled boy stood up and approached him.

“Welcome to Lady Feng’s courtroom!” he said boldly without any hint of hostility.

Ao Ruang could tell all the other disciples were sizing him up as the boy who was perhaps two years older than him bowed slightly, putting his hand to his chest in a formal greeting.

Hesitating for a moment Ao Ruang responded in kind, his eyes keeping on the others to see their reactions. “Thank you for the welcome. I didn’t catch your name.”

“Don’t mind them! All newcomers to Lady Feng’s court are looked at with suspicion. The more disciples the less attention she can afford to give everyone else. My name is Liu Gu from the Liu clan, the imperial city.” He said his face was waiting for Ao Ruang to react to the news.

Ao Ruang didn’t have any idea who the major clans in Firedawn were let alone the Imperial city for the kingdom.

“No one cares!” a deep confident voice said a hint of smugness could be sensed in it as well. “The Liu clan is a minor clan of the Imperial capital which is why you are here and not in some super sect there.”

Ao Ruang’s eyes caught the speaker who was a handsome youth around two years older than Ao Ruang himself. Though unlike most people his head was shaved leaving only a short stubble of hair on the top of his head his face was long and hawk-like. Standing up he approached the two boys.

“My name is Shao Ti, but that isn’t important, let's move past formalities and hear what we all would like to know.. What is your age, rank, and attribute and from which family clan do you hail from?” he said bluntly.

Liu Gu frowned, but didn’t respond to the other youth who had attacked his family; he knew that he was right. Ultimately his own goal was to get this same information, but he simply had more tact than Shao Ti.

Ao Ruang already didn’t like the Shao Ti character; it reminded him of the people in his own clan that picked on him, but he also didn’t want to make enemies on his first day in the sect, particularly of those who are also disciples of the same master. “Err I am thirteen years old and do not have any family clan that you would have heard of. I attained the Iron Warrior rank 8 and my attribute is blood.” Ao Ruang felt that his blood attribute would be known by the whole city within two days anyways if it wasn’t known already so no sense in hiding it from the disciples of his soon to be new master.

Shao Ti nodded, along with a smug face until he heard the blood attribute rank eight was pretty common among elite disciples of the sect and particularly among Lady Feng’s chosen, but blood attribute was a extremely rare attribute in fact most assumed it had long gone extinct as most rare attributes can only be passed down by blood lineage. Moreover it manifested in a kid who wasn’t from any major clan at all. This told him that it was a dark horse with little backing.

“Well it is nice to know some talent has finally arrived; it has been awhile since our Lady brought anyone worth mentioning.” Turning around, Shao Ti went back to his seat.

Right as Ao Ruang was about to take a seat himself a familiar mature and womanly voice came from the front of the room.

“My disciples, I see you all had a chance to meet your newest brother...Ao Ruang.” From the shadows behind the large stone chair that sat at the head of the room raised above the floor to give it a dominating presence.

Lady Feng emerged wearing similar attire to what she had worn previously with Ao Ruang.

Taking a seat she delicately crossed her legs and looked at one of the boys who looked around seventeen years old. “Lin Yi. Please attack Ao Ruang...oh and Ao Ruang do your best not to be beaten black and blue.” Lady Feng didn’t say anything more and just rested as she watched closely.

Ao Ruang stood slightly dumbstruck as a youthful boy stood with a sadistic grin on his face. “With pleasure my lady!” Lin Yi barked as he stood up and faced Ao Ruang.

With a roar he charged at Ao Ruang. Whose eyes widened by the ruthlessness of the entire situation he hadn’t prepared for such a conflict at all nor did he have significant fighting experience besides measly defense he had to learn to not be beaten to a pulp by the kids in his own town.

Ducking below the first fist and standing back up Ao Ruang looked around to try and predict the next blow, but before Ao Ruang could react, a foot struck his stomach sending him flying backwards knocking any breath he had out.

Snapping out of his shock, Ao Ruang stood up and got into a defensive position to fight. Just as he had gotten up Lin Yi had already descended on Ao Ruang ferociously. Blocking the first attack he tried to throw a punch back before it hit nothing, but air where Lin Yi’s face used to be.

Ao Ruang could feel the complete gap in ability between himself and this Lin Yi.

Several minutes of vain effort to fight back ended with Ao Ruang beaten badly, his body bruised and bloodied from the attacks.

Lady Feng asked several times as she tapped her finger on her jaw. The other disciples knew all too well Lady Feng’s ritual of testing the new recruits this way for most of them; they were beaten within an inch of their life and then Lady Feng would personally attend to them and heal them.

Standing up Lady Feng motioned for two of the disciples to carry the hurting Ao Ruang to her chambers. “You are all dismissed tomorrow. I will be testing you all.”

Ao Ruang didn’t remember much about the fight; it had turned incredibly fuzzy in his memory.

A fist came barreling towards the side of Ao Ruang’s face and his instinctive reaction was to block, but he was too slow. As quickly as the fist had come it was intercepted by a thin layer of blood that erupted from his arm. No thicker than a bed sheet, but strong enough to dull the impact of the fist causing Ao Ruang to tumble to the side from the momentum force Lin Yi’s fist crashed into him.

The onlookers were surprised by Ao Ruang’s ability as it wasn’t common for Iron ranked warriors to manifest their Ki until they were Black Iron rank. At most they would be able to slightly change their normal attacks, but not manipulate it in such a way as it would coalesce into reality.

Even the normally calm and cold Lady Feng raised her eyebrow slightly by the sudden change.

Ao Ruang landed on his side, but scrambled to his feet. He had next to no combat experience and right now it showed. He didn’t even try to control the blood veil that came out of his arm. It had been completely instinctual.

Lin Yi didn’t hesitate more than a second before he flashed to the otherside of Ao Ruang and sent a kick into his face, flying to the other end of the area. At this point Ao Ruang became a punching bag and that was the last thing he remembered.

Rubbing his temples he sat up and looked around. The room was dark, but had blue lights along the entire edge every few feet or so. Ao Ruang sat up and realized he was half naked his chest was bare. A mirror sat across from the bed. It was the first time that Ao Ruang had a chance to see his body in a long time, but he had become much more muscular, his body well toned giving a y-shape look. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, but they had yet to turn red yet which he was thankful for.

“Tell me Ao Ruang. Where does someone gain such cultivation and not have any combat experience?” a voice said curiously causing Ao Ruang’s eyes to shift over to where it came from.

Lady Feng was sitting in a large chair that was nearly twice as large as Lady Feng herself. In one hand she held a goblet, a dark purple wine filled it half way, while her other hand held a small dagger that was barely longer than her hand. She twirled it by its looped hilt in a circle while she stared intently at Ao Ruang.

“I am very interested in your Ao Ruang, but I need to know that you are not going to bring me troubles in the future with any unexpected secrets. Tell me where you gained such powers and cultivation and you are free to go.”

Ao Ruang felt his heart leap to his throat as he heard her words...they sounded innocent enough, but in reality they were a threat and he could feel it. His instincts told him to run, but it would be futile to run from someone with such a large gap in cultivation with himself.

“I...I er...I.” Ao Ruang sputtered before shaking his head and just telling as much of the truth as he could without compromising himself. “I was incredibly untalented in terms of combat from my village deep in the mountains to the north. In fact I was considered talentless. My skills were not even mediacore during our village’s test for youth. I encountered a strange artifact that once I touched it took some of my blood and rushed into my dantain. Ever since I have been able to control my blood at will and control the spilled blood of others. Every Time I saw blood spilled it would form into an orb and rush into my dantain and I would gain much cultivation experience and spiritual power increases.” Ao Ruang obviously left out the fangs and blood sucking part, but felt his story was legitimate enough to convince her.

Closing her eyes Lady Feng stood up and threw the knife into the wall on the side “I believe you. Such occurrences happen in remote parts of the world often enough. You probably encountered an artifact. All it will do is benefit you in the future. Such is your fortune, but you need to make up for it if you are to catch up to naturally talented individuals specifically in combat. An artifact has been the crutch to many young cultivators.”

Lady Feng had bought it completely. Ao Ruang was silently proud of his acting skills. It was shocking that he had come up with something so convincing from the top of his head, but it worked and she filled in the gaps that he was lacking.

“Now that we addressed that it is time for you to be shown around the sect. I will have Lin Yi whom you met earlier show you around. Is that understood? Starting tomorrow we will be starting lectures so don’t be late.”

Snapping her fingers the doors opened and LIn Yi the boy who had beaten Ao Ruang so harshly strode in and bowed to Lady Feng.

“Take Ao Ruang and show him around Lin Yi then be sure to report back to me once he is settled in his housing.”

“As you wish milady.” Lin Yi bowed before motioning Ao Ruang to follow.