An Eventful Day

Qing Shan descended from the last rock platform, landing on the green grass below. He began walking toward the stone city. As soon as he arrived he would go look for the sect.

According to Senior Teng, there was a sect in every major city in the third layer. Even some of the smaller towns had some clans.

Qing Shan walked up to the city and noticed Qing Shan descended from the last rock platform, landing on the green grass below. He began walking toward the stone city. As soon as he arrived he would go look for the sect.

Qing Shan walked up to the city and noticed two guards standing at the front gate. They seemed to be laughing about something… Once Qing Shan got closer, the guards noticed him. Qing Shan watched as a visual change came over their faces, as they both stopped smiling and let out two scowls. Qing Shan walked through the gate in confusion not even noticing how hard the gate was slammed open.

As soon as Qing Shan entered the gate, he saw three more people walking across the street in front of him. He would have normally ignored these people. But all three of them were wearing identical red robes that read 'Fallen Sky Sect'. These must be people from one of the sects that Senior Teng informed Qing Shan about.

"Excuse me, but do you know how I should go about joining your sect?"

The people, two men and one woman, looked over.

"Ah, you must be new in town. Are you a descender, by any chance."

"I guess it was obvious, huh. Yes, I am from the first layer, and I have just arrived on the third layer."

Qing Shan did not notice the woman and the other male look at each other after he said this. The two began talking, but it was too quiet for him to hear, even with his senses.

The man in front of Qing Shan smiled.

"Oh that is amazing! You came here all the way from the first layer. You must be a prodigy or something. How about we three show you around town, and then we can bring you over to our sect to sign up for the entrance test."

Qing Shan agreed.

'I guess I'm just lucky. Who would have thought I'd meet such nice people as soon as I arrived.'

Qing Shan followed the three around the city. They showed him a few good markets, the location of their sect, a few good restaurants, even some of the best bars in town. Now all that was left was for them to show him a nice and cheap inn.

Qing Shan enjoyed the company of the three people, and he realized that he had really not had that much appreciation for company lately, especially from people his own age. That one man that talked to him first, Chen Xiao, had been really welcoming and fun to talk to, but the other two, who were apparently a brother and sister by the names of Liao Lei and Liao Ai, had seemed a bit distant. They were talking to each other most of the time, so Qing Shan did not get to know much about them other than their names.

Qing Shan had learned a fair amount about Chen Xiao already. Apparently, he was one of the strongest people on the inner ring of the Fallen Sky sect, and he was already an Origin realm cultivator at the same age as Qing Shan. Qing Shan had learned a lot about the man, but this was the thought that stayed with him the longest.

'I guess I am just common garbage here, eh. Well, not that that is anything new for me…'

"Qing Shan! I've told you a bunch about me, but I think that we would all like to hear about you. For instance, what's your cultivation level? What is like in the upper layers?"

"Oh sorry for not saying anything…"

Qing Shan told them a few things about the upper layers, but that was apparently not enough to answer their questions. He told them his cultivation level, and was informed that the Liao siblings were also peak Formation Soul.

The group began walking around while talking, and before Qing Shan even knew it, the group was in an alleyway.

"Where are we?"

"This is just a shortcut. There are a few nice inns just a few minutes from here."

'Damn. Must be nice to know all of the shortcuts in a city… If only I had that skill in Rising Sun City.'

Puchi!

'Ouch! What was that? It felt like a knife…?'

Qing Shan whirled around, suddenly seeing Chen Xiao grinning ominously behind him. He was holding a knife!

Qing Shan looked around, instantly on his guard and alert. He began to take note of the situation. He had a deep stab wound in his side, but it seemed to have cleared any vital organs. He was bleeding out fast, and would soon fall unconscious from loss of blood if he did not stop the bleeding. He had three attackers, one of the at the Origin Soul level, plus two others, which he should be able to take down. The only hard thing in this situation should be lasting long enough to escape into the louder streets. Surely they wouldn't attack him in broad daylight?

Qing Shan backed away from Chen Xiao as fast as his wind movement skill would take him; he really needed to give that skill a name, maybe if he got out of this mess. Luckily, Qing Shan managed to keep out of Chen Xiao's grasp. He was now closest to Liao Ai, the girl. Qing Shan let out all of his strength, punching the girl in the side. In this situation, he barely had enough time to move his aim from her face. Punching a girl in the face, no matter her looks, was not something that should be done.

Liao Ai keeled over and Liao Lei ran over to help her. Qing Shan swiftly took the boy down too. Qing Shan made sure not to kill them, as he did not want something like murder looming over his head as soon as he entered the third layer. He was already looked down on as someone from the upper layers. The last thing that he needed was blood on his hands.

Right after Qing Shan took down the Liao siblings, he felt the tickle of flames on his arms. While he was barely burnt due to his physique which had been burned too many times to count, he was still somehow cut into by the flames.

'What is this!'

Qing Shan whipped around, suddenly seeing Chen Xiao holding a sword made of flames in his hand. Qing Shan could tell with a glance that this was not an enchanted sword. It had been created from a Martial Origin Technique.

"Tch!"

'Why can this bastard use such a cool technique!'

This sword was definitely not something that Qing Shan could beat. Even with hid perception of time, there was no telling what this sword would do. It was moving randomly and flickering like flames. It did not even have a solid form! Also, this guy was in the Origin Soul realm. He had to have a bunch more techniques that Qing Shan had no clue how to handle.

"Welp. I know when I've been beaten. See ya!"

Qing Shan quickly grabbed his locket, smirking at the dumbfounded look on Chen Xiao's face.

Qing Shan quickly collapsed into the Spring of Time, healing the few injuries that had gained.

"I hate pretty boys. They all are such posh bastards that think everyone is below them!"

Qing Shan decided to sleep the night inside of the Primal Pocket Dimension. At least this way, he would not have to spend any money. Why couldn't those guys have waited until after they showed him the cheap inns to beat him up?

Qing Shan exited the Primal pocket dimension after a day. Luckily, no one witnessed him suddenly appearing in an alley. After yesterday, he now had no problem finding the Fallen Sky Sect. While he hoped that the people there were not like the ones he met already, he did not really care if they were like that. If they were, he would just beat that attitude out of them!

In just a few minutes Qing Shan had traversed the entire stone city, and found himself standing in front of a beautiful collection of large buildings. These buildings made up the Fallen Sky Sect.

Qing Shan walked up to the front entrance, about to walk in. He did not bother waiting as there were no gates. However, as soon as Qing Shan stepped through the entrance, two figures appeared at his sides. These two figures were middle-aged men that stood tall and firm, with cultivation far above Qing Shan's. Presumably, these were the guards.

Qing Shan nodded toward each of them in turn.

"I would like to join the Fallen Sky Sect. How must I go about doing so?"

The two men exchanged surprised glances. They both looked at Qing Shan in a new light, perhaps finally seeing the level of his cultivation.

"Of course. With a cultivation such as yours, you may even be able to instantly become an Inner Ring disciple! Luckily for you, the next entrance test is in only a few days. Come back in the morning three days from now.

"Alright. I will see you then."

Qing Shan walked away from the Fallen Sky sect, and decided to look for some work around Fallen Sky City to occupy him for the next few days. Qing Shan knew exactly where he would look for work. As Chen Xiao had showed Qing Shan around the city, he had pointed out three different Runic Forging shops around the city. Two of them where high class shops, and only excepted apprentices that were at the Origin Soul Realm. However, the last shop was a more humble shop, with prices that were quite affordable to citizens. This shop had no distinct apprentices, and even the Liao siblings had spoken up to praise that shop.

Qing Shan quickly found the shop. It was called The Smith's Respite, and it had a nice look from the outside. Qing Shan walked in, and immediately took pleasure in the quaint environment. This shop gave off the same vibes as a childhood home, even though it looked like nothing of the sort. It just had a nice feeling to it. Qing Shan walked up the front desk where a short and stocky man, about a head shorted than Qing Shan, yet aged about forty years, stood selling his goods. The Shop was full of people even at this early hour. It seems that the Liao siblings praise was not unfounded.

"Have a nice day, madam."

"Oh thanks a lot young lass."

Qing Shan watched as the man sold his goods to the hoard of people in the shop. He decided to wait in line.

"Are you new in town? I haven't seen you around here. So, what do you want to buy?"

"Actually, I am looking for work, and wondered if you had use for an apprentice Runic Forgemaster."

"Oh."

The small man's eyes went wide.

"Why don't you come talk to me around noon. I close my shop for a lunch break, so if you come around then you won't be holding up my customers."

Qing Shan nodded. However, instead of leaving the shop, he decided to look around a bit.

The goods in the shop were all of good quality, most of them at least as good as senior Teng's work. Qing Shan did not really spare a glance at some of the more beautiful works, as those surprisingly did not have very complex runes. Instead, Qing Shan looked at some of the older pieces, and some of the more beat up pieces. Surprisingly, all of these had lots of runes on them, some of them too complex for Qing Shan to understand.

Looking around the shop, Qing Shan suddenly felt his senses spark. He whipped around, almost running into someone. Qing Shan looked at the pieces in his view, trying to see which piece had caused such a reaction. In Qing Shan's view, there were a few more ordinary pieces and some of the more ornate pieces. However, the piece that drew Qing Shan's interest was a small, iron ring. Qing Shan walked over to it. Looking at the small piece, it was definitely much more amazing than any of the other pieces here. It had so many runes that you could. Barely see any of the surface of the iron. Most importantly, Qing Shan couldn't understand any of the runes.

If Qing Shan had looked up at that moment, he would have seen the short man beaming at him from the front desk, his eyes glinting.