"So mom, what exactly is cultivation?" After Shino had gotten back from the library. He immediately started to bother his mother about cultivation.
"Cultivation is the act of absorbing energy from the heaven to turn one's self into a higher being. Well, that would be the most basic explanation of it anyways." Shino's mom replied to him, smiling.
As his mother said, that was really the most basic of explanations. But Shino was surprised to see his mother's expression take a turn for the worse. "You see Shino, let me tell you a little story about our world."
"The world was not always as peaceful as it is now. The world had always been a place filled with strife but as a people, we got by. We had managed to get enough food to eat, and even when we had our disagreements we would always solve them eventually."
So imagine how unprepared we were when otherworldly invaders came to our planet to take it over. No one was prepared for the carnage that was about to be issued. The invaders you see had completely dominated us, slaughtering man and woman, discriminating against none."
Shino could see the graveness in his mother's eyes as she told the story. So far this was surprising news to him. He couldn't have imagined that this world had this deep a background.
"Wait, mommy. Do you know where the invaders came from? And why were they able to kill us so easily?"
His mother's expression had gone back to normal. She pinched his cheeks as she complimented him. "Good question honey."
"You see, we don't know where the invaders had come from. We only knew that these aliens had been able to do things that no human being had ever been able to do before. They could drill through the ground, and fly. They could command the power of celestial bodies. Some could even control and transform into beasts."
This made more sense to Shino. It seemed that before the aliens had come, this planet seemed to be the same as earth. Shino had realized that he was acting too calm for a child that was just told about mass murder.
He started to hug his mother, so as to putt on the illusion that he was scared.
"We had almost been killed been killed to the point of extinction when seven heroes rose up to save humanity."
"I never knew that there would be such a cliche ending to this story." Shino thought. The story had seemed interesting enough. An alien species had invaded this totally untouched earth. They slaughtered its inhabitant's almost to the point of extinction.
But the story had taken a cliche turn of events when the 7 heroes had been introduced.
"You see Shino. There were seven continents in this world. But we were all disunited lacking any knowledge of each other. When the aliens had invaded in an effort to survive, all the continents united to fight against the invaders."
"But although we may have been united, we were still nothing compared to the invaders. So if it were not for the seven saints we would have all been exterminated."
"You see. The seven saints could use powers comparable to the invaders. Some would even say that they were stronger than the invaders. They were so powerful that with a twitch of a finger they could part oceans and move mountains."
"Wait..." This description seemed very familiar to Shino.
"Saint Solomon," Shino whispered.
Shino blushed as he saw his mother lift up one of her eyebrows. "Good job Shino. Yes, Saint Solomon was one of the seven saints that saved humanity. He was actually said to be one of the strongest of the saints. And I think you may already know this, but he is also the founder of our Saint Kingdom."
Shino could do nothing but just nod his head. "Sigh...They would have found out sooner or later, it doesn't matter."
Shino had kept on trying to keep the facade that he was just a little child and not a genius. In every novel, he read about geniuses. They would always be people that would want to kill the MC prodigy while he was still a child.
And with his currently powerless state. If he could not protect himself he would be in big, big trouble.
"But mom, what does this have anything to do with cultivation?" Shino just decided to ask the big question. The sooner he could get closer to cultivation. The closer he could get to his goal of becoming stronger.
"The power that the seven saints could utilize was actually the power of cultivation. You see...they were the first to develop a technique to absorb the power of the heavens to become higher beings."
"With there powers, they had managed to beat the invaders. Now soon after they had defeated the invaders, the seven saints had disappeared, leaving only the technique they used to become higher beings to the world."
The chance that Shino had been waiting for had finally come. As his excitement had finally reached its peak. He asked his mother, "So mom when can I start cultivating?"
"You can cultivate Shino. But let me ask you a very important question; Why do you want to cultivate?"
Dumbfounded at the question his mother had just asked him, Shino just stood there with his mouth agape. "What type of question is that to ask a child?"
This question actually stumped Shino. He had always wanted to cultivate just because he wanted to. The whole point of cultivating was to become more powerful. But why? For what reason will he need to become powerful.
"Mommy, I want to get stronger so I can protect you and daddy from bad people."
This was all that he could say for right now. He had not experienced life right, and he couldn't say anything about what he wanted to achieve. For now, he just wanted to cultivate and become stronger.
"Remember the question that I just asked you. In the future, the same question will be repeated to you. And at the time you must answer it with all your heart." Shino just watched with his mouth still agape as his mother cuddled with him.
"Cough Cough!!!"
"Am I disturbing anything around here?" Shino turned around to witness his dad, leaning by the door.
"No honey your not." Shino could just helplessly sigh as he was put on the floor by his mother.
"Did you grab the materials for Shino?" Shino's mother asked his father.
"Yes." His father said shuffling about.
"Wait, mommy. Did daddy get something for me?" Shino had already gotten an inkling of what was going on, and he could not have been more excited.
"Shino I thinks its high time, we took your aptitude test."