Chapter 16: City of Immortals
One week later...
Devotion's long journey was finally coming to an end. He could see the looming city walls of Wanchen in the distance. In just a few hours, he would be there. Devotion nearly salivated at the thought of cooked, seasoned food and a warm bed.
As he approached, Devotion placed the cloak over Ysmir once more. He decided to hide Ysmir unless he saw other magical beasts within the city. He wasn't sure of the rules of a place like this. After all, Devotion had never been to a city full of Immortals before.
Devotion took a second to take a deep breath, then walked to the city gates. Two guards stood on either side, nodding at him as he passed through.
"Strange." Devotion thought to himself. What was the point of guards if they let anyone in without questioning? He pushed that thought out of his head for now.
Looking around, Devotion's jaw dropped. This was truly worthy of being called the City of Immortals! All around him, unimaginably tall buildings loomed, cultivators walked in the streets, some riding strange and wonderful magical beast mounts. Upon seeing that, Devotion removed the cloak, allowing Ysmir to breathe fresh air. It almost seemed to sigh in relief.
However, the most wondrous thing was when Devotion looked up: high above, cultivators flew through the skies! Devotion saw a sign board to his left, quickly heading to it in hopes of directions of some kind. Instead, it was posted with rules for Wanchen. The rules were relatively simple: no fighting, no killing, and no stealing in the city streets. Any disagreements could be resolved in the battle arenas, save when tournaments were hosted.
Devotion had never heard of rules for a city before. He assumed some form of higher power had to be governing the streets, to ensure these things never happened. Whoever that was had to be unimaginably powerful! Devotion's mind was blown based on how much he had learned these past few weeks. He really had been just a frog at the bottom of the deepest well imaginable.
Looking around, Devotion found a map posted on another board. He weaved through the crowd, taking a few moments to completely memorize the map. Examining it, he saw a couple points of interest: The Trading Hall, the Court of Sects, and the Craftsman Center. Each of these areas seemed to be important for Devotion to go to and see what they had to offer.
After he found an inn to stay in and drop his belongings in, Devotion headed immediately to the Court of Sects. In it, he saw countless First Rank cultivators, all crowded around different tents set up for different sects. There were a total of five sects present in the Court of Sects. Asking around, Devotion learned it was recruitment week. Each of the major sects in the City of Immortals were trying to find new talent, by allowing First Rank cultivators to have their aptitude tested. If they were high enough, they could join as an outer rank disciple!
This was very convenient for Devotion. He took the time to read the name of each sect that was recruiting: The Mechanism Sect, The Mage's Guild, The Heaven-Defying Battle Sect, The Cosmo's Searching Sect, and The Summoner's Guild. Devotion's eyes shone at The Summoner's Guild. He knew that was where he needed to get into, although he supposed it wouldn't hurt to apply to all of them.
Devotion went to the place with the shortest line: The Mechanism Sect. In fact, there wasn't a line at all! Devotion assumed they were done taking applicants for the day, but was proved wrong when an older woman beckoned to him from the tent. Shrugging, Devotion followed her inside.
"Come to join the Mechanism Sect, have you? Yes, yes, this is quite good!" The woman spoke, seemingly half to herself and half to Devotion. He was started to get a little weirded out, but he ignored the feeling. "Your hand. Yes, your hand. Give it to me, we must test your blood!"
Seeing the strange look on Devotion's face, the old woman chuckled. "To test your aptitude. Yes, yes, your aptitude, very important, you must be conjurer for the mechanism sect!" Devotion was having serious second thoughts. No wonder the line had been so short. The old woman didn't let him protest, pricking his finger and drawing blood with a strange device. He watch as she sprinkled the drop of his blood onto a disc, and sensed as she probed the disk with her spiritual strength.
"Hmm, intriguing!" She exclaimed, after a long pause. "Your destruction and restoration, garbage! Horrible! But your conjuration..." She looked at him in wonder. "It is extraordinary! You must join us, you are prodigy! Stay here, I shall get the Duke!" With that, the old woman was gone, sprinting out of the tent.
Devotion decided not to wait for her to return, instead getting in line for the Summoner's Guild. He knew they were the ones that could help him. Maybe they could even identify Ysmir and tell him more.
Devotion stood in the long line for nearly an hour, until a cold voice shouted from the tent.
"Next!" Devotion stepped into the tent, squinting his eyes to adjust to the bright light within it. A stout man had a similar device to the old woman, beckoning towards Devotion. He took Devotion's right hand and drew blood, dripping it on a similar disk device, although this one appeared much higher quality than the old woman's.
The man took a second to examine Devotion's results. Seeing the poor results for destruction and restoration, he was about to dismiss Devotion, when his eyes went wide. "Stay here one second. I'll be back." The stout man suddenly used some technique to instantly vanish.
This was not shocking to Devotion. He knew his conjuration aptitude was high, so it was no wonder it would turn heads.
Meanwhile, the old woman frantically returned to the Mechanism Sect's tent, with another, tall man following behind.
"I tell you, sir, he had the highest aptitude, yes, yes, that I'd every seen! We must admit him at once! And he had this strange fox with him too, yes, yes, a fox." However, her excited ranting halted when she returned to the tent and he was gone.
"I say, Muriel, there isn't anyone here." The man following her said. "You must have scared him off. No matter. I'll find him. Give me the aptitude disk, it'll give me his aura." The old woman handed it to him, and the taller man headed out, ready to find his next prodigy.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone