Thinking along this line, Sofie grabbed a hand of both her mom and dad.

Her dad felt his little princess grab his hand and thought she had forgiven him for earlier. Not stopping at this, Sofie's dad savored the feeling and held her hand even tighter then before. This sadly resulted in Sofie letting go of his hand, due to the sudden pain from the tight grip.

*****

Making their way to the gathering ground, Sofie looked at how empty the place was compared to how packed with people it was yesterday.

The disciples from the scorching sun sect was standing in the center of the gathering ground, supposedly waiting for the children that were chosen to show up. Sofie could even see a few of the children that got chosen from yesterday standing together with the disciples from the sect and chatting with them.

"M-mom…!" Feeling a little sad at the idea of leaving her parents, Sofie looked up at her mom and grabbed her hand tightly.

"It's okay Sofie. It's not like you will never see us again, right? Just like your big sister, you will be able to come and visit us from time to time. Other than that, did you not want to be strong like your big sister?" Sofie's mom looked at her lovingly, as she genuinely wished for her daughter to enter the sect. After all, only the strong were respected in this world, she had already heard many stories about how the world worked from her eldest daughter.

The best way to stay alive was to become a strong cultivator. Remembering this, Sofie's mom did not feel bad for letting her daughter enter the scorching sun sect. After all, if she entered the scorching sun sect, she could become a cultivator and maybe even become strong like her big sister.

"O-okay, I-I will get a good present for mom when I return home, like big sister always do!" Hearing her mom, Sofie resolved herself and promised to get a present for her mom when she returned home again.

"Are you here to join the scorching sun sect?" Sofie made her way towards the disciples from scorching sun sect together with her mom and dad, only to be stopped midway by a boy a few years older than her wearing the official robes of the sect.

"Y-yes?" Not knowing the reason, she was stopped by the boy, Sofie answered before her parents, as a confused light entered her eyes.

"Please make your way over there, ah, it would be a good idea to say goodbye to your parents now." The boy said, as he pointed towards the place Sofie saw the people who got tested yesterday were chatting with some people from the sect.

"W-why?" Looking saddened at suddenly leaving her parents, Sofie asked the boy.

"Well… we are leaving in another five minutes or so… You also need to go and register before we leave, so you might not have enough time left when you are done to say goodbye to your parents."

"Ah! I-I see…"

Realizing the boy had no ill will behind his words, Sofie sighed to herself and felt a little bad for doubting his earlier words.

"M-mom…!" Turning around, Sofie looked up at her mother with a struggling expression.

"It's fine, just go ahead and make sure to make us proud like your big sister!" Sofie's mom saw her expression and rea.s.sured her daughter.

"Y-yes mom, I will make sure to bring you a great present next time I return home!" Determination shone on her face, as she answered her mom full of spirit before taking her backpack from her dad and making her way towards the group of disciples from the scorching sun sect.

"E-excuse me, where do I register?" Having made her way into the group of disciples, Sofie asked a person wearing the robe of the sect.

"Ah, just go over to elder sun. He is the person who conducted yesterday's test."

"T-thank you very much." Sofie made a full 90-degree bow, before she quickly ran off in the direction, she spotted elder sun at earlier.

"What a lively little girl." The senior who informed Sofie about the registration said with a slight smile at his lips, it was always nice to see some energetic kids and youngsters joining the sect. The senior was young himself but had sadly not realized his way of conduct becoming more and more like an old man.

Sofie on the other hand quickly ran through the group of disciples and soon saw elder sun sitting quietly on a chair with a smile on his mouth, clearly enjoying the weather. Sofie stopped running and slowly walked in front of elder sun. "Elder sun."

Hearing someone call out to him, elder sun slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the direction of the voice. "Ah, it's you little girl. Are you here to register?"

Nodding her head in answer to elder suns question, Sofie saw the elderly man take out a piece of paper.

"Just write your name here." Elder sun said, as he pointed at the bottom of the paper he took out. Sofie had already learned how to read and write, so she quickly wrote her name at the bottom of the paper.

"Good, you can now be called a disciple of the scorching sun sect. Go and prepare to move out, we are leaving in a minute or two." Elder sun said as he closed his eyes and started relaxing his body in the chair.

Sofie did not know what to do, so she decided to just sit down on the ground and wait around before they left, sneaking a look at her parents from time to time.

*****

"Get ready everyone, we are returning to the sect!" Elder sun stood up from the chair and called out to the disciples of the scorching sun sect.

The disciples from the scorching sun sect quickly stopped chatting with each other and started moving towards elder sun, who soon started moving out of the village followed by both old and new disciples of the sect.

Sofie followed elder sun as well but did not forget to sneak out of the group to give her mom and dad a quick hug, before moving back into the group of disciples moving out of the village.

The river village was located close to a mountain range called the sunfire mountain range. The mountain range had gotten its name from the founder of the scorching sun sect known as ancestor sunfire.

Sofie looked up at the giant towering mountain range and could not help but let a sigh of admiration escape her lips. From when she was little, Sofie had always wanted to climb the sunfire mountain range and enter the scorching sun sect, that was rumored to be located somewhere deep inside the sunfire mountain range.

Walking for a bit longer, Sofie saw a group of monsters that looked like giant lizards breathing out fire from time to time standing at the open field present outside the town.

"Hiiiiii!" Not being able to help herself, Sofie let out a slightly high-pitched sound that was followed by her shaking in fear, as she looked at the giant fire breathing lizards in front of her. The other children and young people from the river village did not fare much better than her.

"Haha, no need to worry, these are the fire lizards of the scorching sun sect, we will ride them back to the sect, so I recommend you get used to them." Elder sun started laughing the moment he saw the poor children seeing a demon beast for the first time and quickly tried to calm them.

Sofie, like the rest was still fearful of the fire breathing giant lizard in front of her, but quickly saw the disciples from the scorching sun sect mount the fire lizards with no problem.

"Just go towards a fire lizard with a disciple on it and let them help you out." Elder sun said, as he mounted fire lizard as well.

Mustering up her courage, Sofie walked towards a fire lizard that had the same kind senior sister, who got her a chair yesterday on top of it.

"C-can I sit w-with you?" Sofie mustered up her voice and asked the senior sister, while looking fearfully towards the fire lizard.

"Of course, just take my hand." The senior sister said, as she leaned out of the seat on top of the fire lizard and stretched her hand down towards Sofie.

Sofie shyly took the hand and soon found herself siting on top of the fire lizard with the senior sister behind her holding what looked like reins. Feeling way safer than being down on the ground, Sofie unconsciously leaned back into the senior sister's chest and slowly closed her eyes to enjoy the feeling.

Feeling the breeze on her face and the soft body of the senior sister behind her, Sofie slowly felt herself dozing off, just barely managing to make out elder sun saying to take off towards the sect, before falling asleep.