To common cultivators such as those in the Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect those kinds of 10,000-foot pillars geniuses were the stuff of legends. These talentless cultivators who might never even reach the Second Stage, the Basic Stage, were simply too lackluster, so much so that it'd be rare for a 100-foot and above to appear. The occasional genius of a generation might reach a 1000, but even then the difference between him and the less talented cultivators would be a mere two to three times: even these so-called geniuses would be effortlessly trashed by a 10,000-foot tall and 2 feet wide monster of an era such as Xiao Wu whose pure bloodline and Martial Way had let her step into the 110% realm… Let alone Cheng Hao whom had been so 'beloved' by his own Sensed Qi he had even gotten past a 110% and reached beyond it, a limit of 115% with his 10,000-foot tall and 101 feet wide pillar!
Even when matched up against other 10,000 feet geniuses, they would still have an advantage form the get-go!
That one single Qi Apparition would dictate whole fights to come before they even took place!
This was how precious one's talent truly was, and knowing that, it could be seen just how pitiful the droopy-eyed girl's destiny was…
For you see, the Treasure Avifauna Qi were a peculiar kind of Sensed Qi. The reason for that is, they ensured the talent of the cultivator to be top tier. For instance, even the lowest grade one, the Emperor Kingfisher Qi, ensured a height of one thousand feet or above, while the highest grade Crystalline Featherdrake Qi boasted a whole 9000 feet, with a chance of achieving even more. However, the way they'd so was… peculiar to say the least.
For starters, each bird naming the corresponding Treasure Avifauna Qi was an actual Primordial Beast that lived in the Nine Heavens. The actual Treasure Avifauna Qi was birthed whenever one of those celestial birds gave birth: at that time, the surplus Qi permeating the eggs would overflow and fall down into the mortal world, enter a mortal's sea of consciousness, and slumber until the host began the process of amassing the Qi strands at the pre-Inferior Stage. At that time, the Qi would take the shape of a 14-layered egg within the cultivator's consciousness and break the first of the fourteen shells, completing the breakthrough into Inferior Stage. From that moment on, whenever the cultivator broke through, an additional layer would break off and nourish their cultivation base, all the way to the Fourteenth Stage, the Divine Stage.
It was similar to how the Immortal Ascension Tower had fifteen rings of Sovereign Qi for Cheng Hao to absorb.
The exception was the added bonus that each shell of the Treasured Avifauna Egg would also contain: it was none other than a part of the Primordial Beast's blessing, which would slowly turn the cultivator into a Treasured Bird themselves. At the same time, it would increase their talent to a fraction of the 'promised' amount.
Although these Treasured Avifauna cultivators would start out with merely thirty-three percent of it at first, in the case of the Crystalline Featherdrake Qi that would be a whole 3,000-foot pillar's worth in talent! Even the lowest Emperor Kingfisher Qi cultivators would achieve a pillar 333 feet high from the get go!
And such talents would increase by a small percentage with each advancement.
By the time the fourteenth layer broke, the host would obtain a second body of the certain Primordial Beast whose egg they had in their consciousness, kind of like when Heavenly Beasts would obtain an auxiliary human body during their own evolution.
At the same time, they would be granted the FULL talent of the Treasured Avifauna; be that a Emperor Kingfisher 1,000-foot pillar's 30% 'Qi to Spiritual Energy conversion'... or a Crystalline Featherdrake 9,000-foot pillar's 75%!
Indeed, at times, the phenomenon of life could only be described as amazing!
It was truly a pity that such a beautiful aspect of life could be tainted by greed…
Yes, greed.
For you see, the tragic thing about all of this was, on one fatidic day, it was found out that higher grade Treasured Avifauna eggs from other cultivators could be highjacked by other Treasure Avifauna cultivators and used to improve one's own talent!
As a consequence of this, a stronger cultivator with the Sensed Qi of the Treasured Avifauna would look for other Treasured Avifauna of higher grades, taking them under their wing and helping them in their cultivation, biding their time… before swooping in to collect the Treasured Avifauna Qi at each major breakthrough!
And most importantly…
Those chance for improvements that the cultivator had lost to others, they would never be able to get back! Even if they were to steal eggs from others themselves, it would be to no avail, as the foreign eggshells could only help one to improve one's own layer, and not to create ones from scratch. As for the talent that had been promised them, it would be lost to another… forever.
Truly tragic and pitiful.
And to think it would happen to this girl, whose outstanding intelligence he had the chance to discern from her action, was ever the more saddening and bitter: just imagine finding yourself being gifted with such a boon and an exceptional brain capable of processing all that information at a young age, looking at the future with bright eyes… before having to hand that same future over to somebody else!
The girl's exclamation of "I was destined to great things, to see the world from the eyes of a paragon! And yet, that fate was snatched from me!" referred to just that: becoming the livestock for other people to reap the rewards from, watching somebody else soar in the sky with wings that should have been yours as you thread the ground instead, and look on, dispirited and bitter, only able to curse at the unfairness of it all…
As for her claim that "And even after all that, I still have to suppress myself to the point my talent has been maimed, nipped at the bud!", it was referred to the fact that not only did she have her talent stolen but she would also have to try her best to prevent any breakthrough in her cultivation as long as she could, hoping to delay the inevitable theft of her promised talent for as long as possible.
Indeed, this Rin girl had said his best: she had truly been maimed. Her bright future had been taken over by a stranger that she would have to call 'Master' during the day and only be able to curse as a Bastard at night…
Akin to how people would have to bow to Tian and curse his tyranny behind his back.
Her rage and situation, in a similar way, could indeed be said to resemble Cheng Hao's very… own?
"…" The youth frowned.
Was that… right?
Had that question been asked a thousand years ago, it surely would have been.
Heck, a few months ago too, he would have undoubtedly said yes.
However, as for right now…
After a long period of silence, enough for the first stars to emerge into the darkening sky, Cheng Hao's furrowed forehead relaxed and he shook his head, uttering a single word…
"…No."
"…'No'?" Hearing Cheng Hao's reply, Rin turned her head over, the droopy-eyed girl's expression slightly puzzled as well as a little bit irritated, "Whatever… might you mean?"
"…" The golden-eyed child smiled but did not reply. He instead glanced off in the distance, as if he were peering upon some distant land. Only then did he open his mouth again and gave voice to his thoughts:
"You say you find in me a kindred spirit, one that can understand you… And I indeed do. I understand you better than anybody else on this godforsaken land could ever possibly do!"
"Just like you, I also used to be moved by senseless revenge. In fact, I used to be a sanguinary and bloodthirsty weapon that only wished to watch the world burn, to inflict pain, to defeat the powerful that took away what was rightfully mine, that took away the one life that to me was far more important than the world itself."
"Long before you, I had an enemy I deeply yearned to crush underneath my feet once, thousands of times, that I'd dream about killing and torturing day and night, to the point sleeping became more of a torture than going without it and cultivating to exhaustion instead."
"However, once I followed that road until the end, I just realized the futility of it all…" The child first rubbed the bridge of his nose and then looked at the gray-robed beauty straight in the eyes, "Too bad, it was way too late by that point: that hatred had been ingrained in my soul for so long already as a warsong that would never stop booming in my head and would only grow in intensity the closer I got to my goal, never to quiet down."
"That was 'back then', though."
"Now, for some odd reason, that booming warsong is no longer loud enough for me to be unable to think straight, I no longer see my fluttering robes as I would war flags, and my eyes no longer look at the world as if it were a battlefield."
"That seething rage… does not dictate who I am anymore."
"Yes, I understand you, and I know the rage within you as well as I would know an old friend. On the contrary however…" Cheng Hao shook his head and delicately placed down the empty glass of that delicious damasked Chrysanthemum Beer that had started it all, "You… You have too long a road to travel before you can even come CLOSE to understanding me!"