The world as it stood, was ran by one simple principle. Power, nothing more nothing less. From the power to; rule, create and destroy as one wished. All the way down to the insatiable desire to gain more power. It's a bottomless pit, or maybe it's an endless mountain. But through all this, the people of this world continue to climb. That's the danger of power.
A natural consequence of a world dictated by the pursuit of power, is the desire for talent. In most cases it is impossible to quantify talent, which makes talent next to impossible to rank. However, this wasn't the case in the world of cultivation.
Cultivation possessed a rigid ranking system, simply due to the nature of cultivation's rules. simply put, as one absorbs ambient aura and integrates into one's body and soul, they will reach certain bottlenecks and as they pass these bottlenecks, they discover that people who haven't yet passed the same bottlenecks cannot compete with them regardless of effort.
A natural extension of this is the talent system within cultivation. A cultivator's talent is defined simply by how easily they can pass bottlenecks. A simple way to determine this is aura absorption speed and volume. The speed being how quickly one can absorb aura, and the volume being how much aura one can take in during a single sitting.
Based on these two principles the world of cultivation has been able to place one's level of talent into a ranking. It was upon this ranking that the Heavens day ceremony was developed.
The ranking for talent was set up as such (in ascending order): White, Red, Yellow, Blue, Gold and diamond.
To put this in context, the continent's peak talents such as; Victor, Luther Noctis, Gillian and Ira's heirs were at the gold level (it was also theorized by many that the Four Ascending Kings were at the gold level but it had never been confirmed).
***
Isabella was bored, so very bored, and tried too but that was a different matter. Right now, she was mainly bored.
For the last month her parents had been telling her that today was going to be a very exciting day.
They lied.
She had been sitting in this stuffy ballroom for hours listening to boring music and boring adults talk about boring gifts. There was even this super boring play that she had to sit through. And to top it all off, all these random strangers that she had never met before kept staring at her, and she didn't like it.
The sad thing was, every time she would start fidgeting or say "Mummy daddy I'm bored, can we do something else now" the only replies she got was; "Just sit still for a little longer it's nearly over." Or "Be a good girl and settle down."
The final nail in the coffin as far as Isabella was concerned, was the arrival of Peter Invicta and Ira Tyrannus. When these two men who everyone claimed were equals to her parents arrived. Her parents focus was shifted towards them and away from her.
"Hmph" So much for this being her special day.
***
It was time for the days main event, the talent testing.
In a world such as this where power was valued above all, the talent of an organizations younger generation was of upmost importance. After all the current generation wouldn't be in power forever.
In truth this was the main reason that many of the powers were so quick to accept he valley's invitation. After all Isabella's birth was a potential road block on their path to hegemony.
The weaker nations and sects, have been biding their time and building up their forces, since the end of the 1000-year war and the establishment of the Sage's Valley and the Aeternum Empire as the hegemons of this era. Their reasoning was simple since they didn't currently have the strength necessary to compete with the Four Ascending Kings, they would simply wait until their inevitable decline in strength that came along with old age. After all, not even the most powerful of cultivators could escape the whims of time.
Their plan was to wait until the four kings weakened and use that opportunity to usurp their positions as the rulers of this continent. And if things went really well then, they would even use that chance to end their lives as well.
However, Isabella's birth was an unexpected hiccup. extraordinarily improbable, considering the difficulty that powerful cultivators have in conceiving. So, consider the shock these forces experienced when they heard of her birth.
Their main concern was her potential, considering her parentage, the chances of her possessing average or poor talent was extremely low. However, on the off chance that Isabella did have low talent, then that would be cause of rejoicing within the weaker powers as their plans could continue as is. On the other hand, if her talent was as high as they expected, then the plans currently in place would need to be scrapped.
After all, her parent's teachings plus high talent had an almost 100% guarantee of creating another ascendant.
***
As the master of ceremonies ascended the stage, the ballroom descended into silence. Before the MC could make his declaration, those present already knew what was coming. This was the moment that they were all waiting for, the outcome of this test could determine the continent's status quo for another generation.
"Ahem!" The MC cleared his throat even he was getting nervous.
"Today is a very special day, not just for the Sage's Valley, not just for the greater continent at large, but rather today is a special day for the young miss of our valley. After all today is Isabella Libertas-Sapientiae's third birthday and to all of us who call the valley home that fact alone is more important than anything else. Could you all please join me in wishing the young miss a happy birthday!" Loudly declared the MC.
This statement set off a ruckus in the ballroom as the guests all collectively declared their well wishes to Isabella.
After taking waiting a while for the room to return to silence, the MC continued.
"While our continent is divided in many things, we are also united in just as many. One of the things that unify us are our collective customs. The most important of which is the Heavens day ceremony that all children must go through at age three. This ceremony is one of the oldest that we have, with millennia of history behind it. Today is the young misses Heavens day. However, rather than making this private as it has been for many years the sect masters decided to make this a public affair. As such I hope that you will all be supportive of our young miss as she goes through one of her life's defining moments." He said.
"Please welcome to the stage miss Isabella Libertas-Sapientiae." The MC finished.
As Isabella along with Charlotte climbed the steps leading the stage, they were greeted by the applause and enthusiasm of all who were in the ballroom. As disgruntled as the powers were, they still retained enough common decency to not take out their grievances on a child especially one as young as Isabella.
Looking around at the many people in attendance, as well as feeling their collective gazes centered on her person was a surreal experience for Isabella. As extroverted as she normally was, the feeling of hundreds of strangers staring at her was extremely stressful. Luckily for her she had her mother close by and that fact alone was enough to calm her down somewhat.
As she arrived on stage, she was greeted by an array etched into the stages surface. This was the talent testing array.
Its function was simple, activate a person's aura points and channels and glow a certain color in accordance to the talent of whomever was seated in its center. White, red, yellow, blue, gold and rainbow (For diamond).
When they reached the array, Charlotte instructed Isabella to sit in its center.
"Remember what I told this morning?" Said Charlotte.
"Yes" replied Isabella, "Just empty your mind and let the aura flow naturally"
Seeing that her daughter knew what to do Charlotte smiled and activated the array. As the array started up, the aura in the atmosphere began to rapidly descend upon Isabella's body and the array started to glow.
Rushing through white, red, and yellow before it slowed on blue before transitioning into a gold glow. However, when everyone thought that things would stop there a blinding rainbow-colored light filled the room.