" You are improving, to think a couple of months ago you could only channel your Qi in short bursts."
A strong, male voice echoed through the open yard followed by a warcry from a female. Yuanchen chuckled as he weaved between a fury of attacks from a blond haired woman wearing maid clothes, his footsteps showing a level of control that surpassed even masters of the stealth.
The woman let out another cry—her blade swung in a high arc aimed at Yuanchen's left shoulder.
Yuanchen raised his right hand, a hand covered in steel alloy and implants pulsating with neuro-Qi connected to the nerves of his damaged hand.
The sword clang with the hand and he pushed her back.
"At this rate, you will have the strengthening foundations down and be able to move to selecting your own path. Gaia, you should be proud." the corners of Yuanchen's face tucked upward, his blue eyes gleaming with pride as he gazed at the maid huffing before him.
Gaia scoffed and gathered her bearing, she placed her sword in its sheathe and did a slight bow. "You shouldn't go around giving me compliments like that Master Yuanchen, what would the others say? You are giving me, a maid lessons about strengthening my core. Do you know how bad that will reflect on you as my master?"
Yuanchen let out a hearty-laugh and placed his hand on her head ruffling her hair, much to Gaia's displeasure. "You think too much about what people would say. No one cares about me, I'm the prodigal son with failed implants remember? I can't cultivate my Qi, much less connect to the leylines like you can, in comparison, you are more of a cultivator than me."
"Don't say that!"
" But Gaia, it is the truth. I've seen how my father looks at me, how the elders talk about me. I'm a talentless waste. I'm sure they want me dead at some point."
"..."
Any cry of denial died in Gaia's throat—she knew very well the harshness the young master faced when it came to their sect. Having been born and his body rejecting the implants for cultivation at birth, the elders gave up on him ever tapping into his latent potential. But Gaia, despite being a maid, looked at her master in admiration.
No cultivation ability of his own, he kept a smile and helped out those who needed help. Was friendly to all the maids, and chore boys when everyone was mean and condescending because they came from the lower Heavens.
"I understand." She mumbled.
Yuanchen smiled and ruffled her hair one last time. "I have to get going, my brothers are going to be furious if I am late again and I can't risk that now." He let go of Gaia's hair and made his way to the entrance to the courtyard.
Gaia stood there, watching the broad shoulders of her master disappear into the entrance where the sun did not dare touch. His messy, short black hair against the nape of his alabaster-pigmented neck. Her heart, flattering from just the immoral thoughts she had regarding the man she looked upto and admired.
^
The courthouse was in peril, the round tables filled to the brim by the Sect elders and at the head of the round table sat a man of imposing height. The man had long, yet thin black hair tied by a set of golden pins behind his head—dark grey eyes and a bushy beard. He wore dark robes that hid the gauntlets made from the finest of gold beneath them. He was Tiang, the Sect leader, known as the great lion of the west.
Tiang sat there, listening to the frantic elders regarding the intrusion into their public archives and the leaking of the Guardian Scripture. His lips thinned and he closed his eyes briefly, before he snapped them open sending out a wave of electromagnetic pulse originating from the implanted circuits within his body. The wave washed over the courthouse, the pillars supporting the building cried out in fear, the floor lost its stability and shook, the windows cracked and silence reigned.
"Would any of you, calmly explain what is happening without talking over each other?" His stern voice commanded over the silence.
One of the elders, a man with long pointy ears with short orange hair and beard stood up. The expensive ornaments he had on his clothes clinging and reflecting in the light of the sun that crept through the north faced window. "Sect leader Shen, it has come to our attention that, that bastard... I mean master Yuanchen has leaked the Guardian Scripture to the outside, the contents of the Scripture are now at jeopardy. Because of him, the sect's 100 year secret would be at the mercy of other sects that wanted the Scripture."
Tiang placed his hands on the table and intertwined his fingers—the allegations against Yuanchen were concerning, he however, was the Sect leader and as such he needed to verify if the claim from the Sect elder was correct. "Who found out?"
As if a Christmas tree lit up, the elder hopped around from where he was and stood at the center of the table. His round belly wiggling with every breath he took and he channeled his qi through the nodes of his feet—the floor blossomed into an array of blue lines and when converging around him, created a screen which revealed the accused and what he was accused of.
On the screen, it showed Yuanchen in the Sect's archives during the belly of the night—the footage cut from when he entered, to when he came out and it briefly showed him assassinating two of the guards that had been posted to guard the archives. The footage ended directly after and the chaos resumed.
The elders were calling for Yuanchen's head, he not only leaked the Guardian Scripture but also murdered in cold blood— the elder that had revealed such looked at Tiang and the corners of his lips tucked upward into a smirk, a smirk that told "what are you going to do now?".
Tiang's eyebrow twitched and he tapped his finger on the table splitting it in two from his raw strength. His dark grey eyes blazing with fury, he glared at the elder, he knew the intentions behind that look. He was challenging his morality, to see if he could be deemed fit to be the leader.
"Get me Yuanchen." Tiang commanded the soldiers within the courthouse, his voice carrying a degree of absolute order.
^
Yuanchen walked behind the Sect Cultivators with a confused look on his face—he received word that his father demanded his presence at once, but their direction was most puzzling. Whenever his father called him, he was always called to the study not the courthouse which was across the main building.
Yuanchen watched as the soldiers knocked and announced they had arrived with him, he could hear the hushed whispers when he walked into the courthouse—in the back of his mind, Yuanchen knew whatever he was called for, was not something that was good. He barely took another step when his legs gave out and he found himself staring at the marbled floor, his hands supporting his upper body from directly impacting the floor. Shoes appeared in his line of sight and he raised his head to look at the owner of the shoes.
And it was elder Juin.
Juin ran his hand through his scruffy, orange beard as he glared at the fallen man. He couldn't take it being looked down upon by a reject that was fortunate enough to be born into their prestigious Sect, not just as a lowly noble child, but as the child of the Sect leader making him one of the four successors to the Sect should Tiang die, or be unable to lead—in his glare was unbridled hatred for Yuanchen, he was the only one outside of the daughter to have separate ambitions from him. The other two? He could easily convince with his ability to join him, they were simpletons, easily influenced with a bit of coercion.
"Do you know why you are called here?" Juin's boot pressed against the crown of Yuanchen's head.
Despite the humiliation before the elders, Yuanchen kept a straight face and shook his head.
A flash of pain followed when Juin kicked him on the side of the face making Yuanchen bite his lip and blood oozed from the corners of his mouth—the force of the kick made Yuanchen lose his balance and he stumbled to the side before he caught himself mid-way to falling.
Juin's action was awarded by praise from the other elders and discontent from Tiang who just sat there and watched as everything unfolded.
"You dare play dumb with me? But no matter since I cannot bring your execution even when you murdered two of the soldiers in cold blood all I can do now is to atleast punish you. Shen Yuanchen, son of Shen Tiang, the Sect leader you are hereby banished from the Sect because you've been found guilty on two counts. Murder is the first and leaking of Sect information is the second. All that you held, and the title of successor to the Sect leader is henceforth stripped with immediate effect."
Yuanchen could barely process what happened when his head started to feel light and a domineering instinct to sleep overpowered his desire to question, to clear his name, to shout there has been a misunderstanding and that he was falsely accused for something he did not do. But the instinct to sleep took over, and his eyes glazed over before he fell to his side and the floor beneath him glowed as the gears underneath rotated, splitting the floor into two and...
He fell through the hole.