"Mom let me go and call Bing Mei'ren, it's not often that I get to tease her about being late." Jiu Xian said sentimentally, recalling his childhood about how Bing Mei'ren was a morning person and how she teased him if he slept in late, which honestly used to happen pretty often.
Releasing his hand from her index finger he ran up to the house next door. The house was old and looked like it needed some repairs here and there but the inside of the house gave off a cosy and warm feeling.
Jiu Xian and Bei Mei'ren had been neighbours ever since he could remember. Sadly Bei Mei'ren's parents had disappeared suddenly, leaving her to fend off for herself in this cruel world. Jiu Xian and his parents took care of her to the best of their abilities but for some reason she still refused to live with them in their house.
Jiu Xian entered her room and found her asleep like a log with a book covering her face. He slowly sneaked to her, gently removing the book he lightly poked at her nose. This action result in Bing Mei'ren rubbing her nose in annoyance, but still not waking up. Jiu Xian kept repeating the process till her eyes slowly opened.
~Blink~~blink~
Bing Mei'ren stared at him in confusion.
"Hurry up and get ready or we will miss the 4 arts sect's assessment. I'm waiting outside my sleeping princess." He tried to tease her but failed miserably as she just nodded indifferently and went to get ready, forcing him to take a tactical retreat as he went outside the house to wait for her.
Jiu Xian and his mother had to wait for 30 minutes before Mei'ren appeared wearing lose pink pants and a flowery robe shocking Jiu Xian as Mei'ren hated pink colour.
When he looked at her face he was even more shocked than her wearing pink clothes. Her eyes which were supposed to be deep blue were black and her black had turned white from the ends.
He clearly remembered her eyes were still blue and her hair black.
"What's wrong Xian'er?" His mother asked.
"You don't see anything wrong with Mei'ren?" He answered her question with a question of his own.
"hmm... no, I don't see anything wrong with her. She is looking very adorable as always." His mother stared at her for a second then nodded before answering.
"I think I didn't get enough sleep." He said to diffuse the situation and stop his mother from suspecting something was wrong with him, but inside his brain was working overtime, question and possible answer to his situation churned his thoughts.
His mother led both of them all the way to the sect, during their journey Jiu Xian subtly asked Mei'ren questions about their childhood and found out that her answered perfectly matched his memories, what he did find odd was that she was also very knowledgeable about the 4 arts sect, which even his mother did not know much about.
'Where the hell am I?'
...
Yao Qing and 'Ao Tian' reached their destination with their families rather quickly; a mountain filled with mysterious aura and beautiful trees and flowers.
Situated at the foot of the mountain was a large shining gate erected with some kind of wood. Two middle age cultivators in what appeared to be sect issued uniforms were standing at the gate welcoming their potential future sect members.
"Welcome to the 4 Arts sect. You and the boy can head directly inside and follow the mountain trail to reach the arena where the outer sect elders will test you. Your parents will have to head back and may come to pick you up tomorrow." One of the guards said.
"Yes respected immortal." Yao Qing and Ao Tian replied. Bidding their parents goodbye they headed up the mountain.
It had taken some time for Yao Qing to let her current situation sink in. Everything felt the same yet somehow different, she often found herself wondering what happened.
Yao Qing also felt some incongruity regarding Ao Tian. On paper he was the same as in her memories but she still felt something off about him. Her instincts were telling her that something was off about this whole sect and cultivation thing.
"Yo, where have you been lost? We've reached the arena."
Ao Tian's reminder pulled her out from her thoughts.
Many children were gathered in many lines supervised by cultivators of the 4 Arts sect, some chatting, and some looking excited while some looked anxious. Yao Qing pulled Ao Tian to join a line at random.
She looked around to find any trace of Jiu Xian and granny but she found nothing but strangers in the crowd.
It didn't take long before it was their turn to be tested.
"Next two" The elder in charge of their line called out and they answered.
"Hold this stone, close your eyes and try to focus on the stone." The elder said in a bored tone, handing a white, crystal-like stone to each of them.
Taking the stone from the elder Yao Qing closed her eyes and focused on the stone, in mere seconds she felt something inside her body rush towards the stone in hand.
The elder saw the stone shine a brown light and smiled in acknowledgement.
The stone shone in brown light immediately followed by blue then purple lights, finally stopping at bright green colour.
"Earth Grade spiritual root! You are fated to be a cultivator. Take this token and head over there."
Yao Qing opened her eyes without much surprise as she remembered Granny telling her about the grade of her root. Yao Qing sighed looking at Ao Tian who was creasing his brows besides her tightly clutching the stone which did not seem to respond to him at all.
"~sigh~ Looks like you don't have any fate with immortality, return the stone and you can head back or stay at the menial disciples residence near the foot of the mountain till your parents come back to pick you up."
"NO! Let me try one more time. I am destined to be a cultivator."
The elder started to look annoyed and wanted to scold the young boy in front of him but stopped at the world of the Earth grade girl.
"Respected Immortal, please let him try again, just one more time. Please." Yao Qing used her charm to the max pleading the elder with her hands joined together.
It seemed liked her actions and charm had some effect on the elder as he allowed Ao Tian to take the test once more but on the promise that she would consider taking someone he knew as her teacher.
Ao Tian held the stone and focused on it with his entire being.
The stone finally responded after some time, a dim brown light flickering from it.
"Hmm... You have a low grade root." The elder said with disappointment. Seeing how the girl had earth grade root he thought that maybe the boy had heaven grade or higher roots and the stone malfunctioned but he was gravely mistaken.
"Boy, your roots barely qualify as low grade, your journey as a cultivator will be very difficult and slow compared to your companion here. Are you sure you want to join the sect." The elder continued hoping the boy would be discouraged to join, after all half-roots like him were a waste of the sect's resources.
"Yes elder, no matter how hard the journey is, I, Ao Tian will never back down."
"Fine. Take the token and go. Just remember—you'll start as a menial disciple."
Yao Qing and Ao Tian headed to the place pointed out by the elder.
...
Jiu Xian took the test and everything went as it was supposed to, the stone shone with a Green light, proving his roots at Earth grade. Standing aside he waited for Bing Mei'ren's turn, due to bad luck he was not paired with her but with some random boy as he stood just before her in the line.
Bing Mei'ren stepped forward and took the stone from the elder.
~hiss~hiss~hiss~hiss~hiss~hiss~hiss~
Brown, blue, purple, green, white, then gold—the stone flashed through every hue before settling on gold and dissolving into dust.
"Heavens finally took pity on our 4 arts sect! First an earth grade root and now a supreme Grade root. HAHAHA!" the elder conducting the test jumped and laughed with immense joy.
"WHAT!" Jiu Xian's eyes opened wide with shock and fear. He clearly remembered the day his wedding was crashed and Bing Mei'ran went with the immortal fairy. She said that Mei'ren had heaven grade roots.
This was the moment Jiu Xian realised that this was an entirely different world from the one he had live in before time travelling and that this Mei'ren is different from the one he knew.
'I need to find Qing'er and Granny as soon as possible' he thought as his mind filled itself with immense fear and doubts.