Two years and nine months ago, on the rugged slopes of a towering mountain, three young cultivators—Ainsley, Aldrian, and Violette—found themselves embroiled in a heated sparring match. The air crackled with anticipation as they circled each other, their movements fluid and precise. Violette watched from a distance, her heart pounding with excitement as she awaited the outcome of their intense training session.
"Ainsley, Aldrian, come on! We need to get back to the tip of the mountain where your parents are," Violette called out, her voice echoing against the rocky terrain. "We have our first cultivation lecture to attend now that we've finally passed the first phase of our physical training."
"Fine, fine, we'll be on our way soon," Aldrian replied, his gaze locked on Ainsley as they continued their sparring match. "Just let us finish up this spar, and then we'll be right after you."
As they exchanged blows, Ainsley seized an opportunity to gain the upper hand, launching a flurry of punches and kicks with lightning-fast reflexes. Aldrian, however, was not one to back down easily. With expert precision, he blocked Ainsley's attacks and retaliated with swift, calculated strikes of his own.
Their movements were a symphony of motion, each strike landing with precision as they danced across the mountainside. But in the end, there could only be one victor. With a final, devastating blow, Ainsley delivered a knockout punch that sent Aldrian crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust.
"Oof, that's gotta hurt," Violette winced, rushing forward to check on her fallen friend. "Ainsley, you really went all out this time."
Ainsley's chest heaved with exertion as he looked down at Aldrian, a mixture of guilt and concern etched on his face. "Yeah, maybe I got a little carried away," he admitted, extending a hand to help Aldrian to his feet. "Sorry about that, buddy."
Aldrian groaned as he slowly rose to his feet, rubbing his jaw gingerly. "No worries, mate. Just another day in the life of training with Ainsley," he joked, flashing a lopsided grin despite the pain.
With the sparring match concluded, the duo rested a little way below the mountain summit, their bond stronger than ever. And as they prepared for their first cultivation lecture, they knew that no matter what challenges lay ahead, they would face them together, as a team.
A young man is seen, or more correctly barely seen moving at blinding speeds up a mountain side as he finally stops near the top panting for his breath. When he finally stops you see a second person with him except, they are hanging weakly over his shoulder. he is tall and quite muscular for his age. Of course, it's Ainsley "Darn that Violette, she ditched us while we were resting also how did she get up here so quickly?" He complains to himself. hoping his mom is out working on something instead of at base since she had already warned them against unnecessary fighting. as he walks further towards the mountain top a giant tree over 1000 meters tall is seen standing in front of him. When suddenly he hears Violette's voice.
"Yeah, Ainsley and Aldrian were busy sparring again, so they'll probably be late again," Amelia scowled, overhearing their conversation.
"Those boys need to learn to stop; one of them always gets too rough and hurts the other. I, for one, am tired of healing them when that happens. But you should be pretty excited, Violette. I mean, it does mean you get the chance to get more individual soul path training," Amelia remarked.
"SHHHHHHH, please don't say anything about it out loud. They don't know about that yet. I want to surprise them!" Violette exclaimed, a serious expression on her face. Then, noticing Amelia's apologetic expression, she softened her tone.
"Sorry about that, but they are already here, and they could definitely hear all of that, considering they are sitting behind that tree just left of us." Two figures emerged from behind the tree.
"Haha, of course, you knew we were here, Mom. But hey, I was just hoping you weren't using your spiritual sense. Alas, I wasn't that fortunate!"
"Enough of the nonsense! First thing, one of you help me out and heal me already. I was thrashed by this monster next to me!" Aldrian exclaimed.
Violette walked over reluctantly. "Ugh, fine!" she said with a sour expression on her face. "How many times is this already? It's at least sixty between the both of you, and that's just my healing, not Amelia's. You both need to calm down."
"And next, how dumb do you think we are, Violette? Of course, you have already started cultivating your spirit, or else you wouldn't be able to heal us. I know it's your innate technique or whatever, but you still have to enter the path of cultivation suited for your technique before you are able to use it. You should've known that wasn't going to fool us. We may spar a little often, but we do pay attention during the lectures," Amelia interjected, clapping her hands.
"Anyway, since you are all here, I will start with the proper first training and testing of cultivation. Follow me," she continued, turning and walking away without waiting for an answer.
"Finally!" all three cheered before rushing after her, barely keeping up with her slow pace, even though they were running. Amelia smiled to herself without any of them noticing.
"It looks like they've truly grown, considering they couldn't keep up at all before. All three of them are truly talents unlike any other! Other than Violette, who has just barely started training her soul, they've not even started cultivating yet. But they can still resist the spatial power around them. I know all I'm doing is enhancing the gravity, a tiny bit, but a regular person wouldn't stand a chance of keeping up with me."
When they finally reached the base of the tree, Amelia stopped. "Alright, we are here. I know you guys can't feel it," she thought to herself. "But this place is coated in spiritual energy, quite a lot of it as well. So, to begin with, I will explain what exactly cultivation is, and how you will begin to progress through the steps. To begin with, cultivation is separated into multiple different realms, each one unlocking new power for you by absorbing the energy of heaven and earth. It starts with strengthening your body, and yes, I know you have been doing this, but you haven't been cultivating; you have just been doing regular physical training in an area saturated with spiritual energy, which naturally made your body and even your souls stronger than an average person. Anyway, to start with, I want to make it clear you are each talented in your own way. Obviously, Ainsley, you are my son, so you definitely inherited a cultivator's body and my talents. Not only that, but you have already been given a boost into cultivation; I just sealed it when you got here so that you didn't accidentally hurt yourself before understanding what was going on. Second, we have Aldrian. You have an unreal amount of physical strength, and from what I have seen so far, Ainsley can only match you in that because even though his progress has been sealed, he is still technically a cultivator. Lastly, we have Violette. You're the exact opposite. Now, even
though you are probably stronger than your typical cultivator of the same level, your real strength comes from your soul to the point that your soul unconsciously shields you from danger. Of course, you also have a cultivator's power from your family. I only noticed these things from watching how you all reacted to my gravity manipulation, so I could be a little off. Nonetheless, let's start with testing your talents and affinity, then I will help you get started cultivating and, of course, unseal your cultivation, Ainsley."
Amelia then brought out a small grey crystal-looking object in the shape of a diamond. "This is what will be used to test your talent and affinity. The color the crystal changes to is your talent level; I'll touch on that a little more in a bit, and the color of the rays of light that shine from it is your affinity."
"Wait, so it will show two different colors?" Aldrian questioned. Amelia nodded, expecting the question anyway.
"Yes, except for under some rather rare circumstances like a lightning cultivator having a purple-grade talent, etc.," she explained, trailing off for a moment in thought.
"Mom?" Ainsley questioned, bringing her back to the present.
"Oh, it's nothing, sorry. Just got lost in thought. Your grandpa was one of those such exceptions. Not that it matters for you all. Anyway, let's go through the talent grades. To start with, even the lowest one of these grades can cultivate, just at varying rates. But even someone with the lowest grade will still become an insurmountable obstacle for a regular mortal. The lowest grade can cultivate but still has a certain level of blockage from spiritual energy, while the highest has a perfect alignment with heaven and earth as well as yin and yang, so they can absorb spiritual energy without any such hindrances. Anyway, that's enough background. If you touch it and it stays grey, it means you have no talent. Anyway, it goes like this:
Grey - No talent as a cultivator. You're basically just a regular mortal. You still can cultivate, though your progress is less than one hundredth of anyone else.
White - You're average. If you were found by others, you wouldn't get help getting cultivation resources and would be told to serve your betters.
Yellow - You can be considered to have some talent and would be considered a warrior in an average tribe. This is also the lowest talent required to enter a small sect.
Orange - Over 80% of cultivators don't even reach this stage. Those that do won't find it hard to enter a medium or maybe even a large sect, depending on your elemental affinity.
Green - You have reached a level where every small sect would kill to have you.
Oh, also, a sect is like a really large group of cultivators that come from all over. Anyway, back to it.
Blue - Now, even medium sects would fight for you. Of course, they have many more talents just like you, so they wouldn't go to war or anything like that.
"Time out," Ainsley intervenes. "You're talking about sects and all this, and the cultivation world or whatever, but if they were going to war or killing for people, wouldn't we have heard about it?" As he says this, Violette and Aldrian nod, as they were similarly confused.
"Just give me a moment, and I'll get to all of that as well. Anyway, where was I?
Brown - You are one the top talents in the world, and any sect, including large ones, would love to have you. Medium sects would go to war; small sects could get wiped out of existence. This is also the level in which Sacred Lands would start accepting you.
Now, before you ask, Sacred Lands are basically like the absolute power in a country, to put it plainly. You have tribes all over that are varying sizes. Basically, they are like people fighting with knives. Then you have sects, again varying sizes. A small one would have pistols, while a medium would have fully auto machine guns, and a large, they have C4 and rocket launchers. Then, finally, the Sacred Land. They are basically a place full of live nukes. No one would risk offending them. Of course, this is all figurative; none of them actually have these kinds of weapons. It's just a way of demonstrating the power they hold. As a lone cultivator, you don't want to offend even small tribes, as you're sure to be in trouble that way unless, of course, you've got the strength to deal with the repercussions.
Anyway, next we have:
Purple - You are considered a genius, and anything other than a large sect has no right to consider having you as a part of them.
Red - You are a monster. Sacred Lands wipe even the largest sects out of existence for talents like you.
And finally:
Black - You are one of a kind. Some places, including Sacred Lands, don't even believe that this is an actual level and haven't even heard of one of these talents in thousands of years.
In general, like I said earlier, you don't see much higher than orange; it's actually rarer to even see that. By far the most common is white. Of course, I had an orange talent, so I was extremely lucky. It may not be the best, but it was still rather good."
"What was Dad's talent?" Ainsley asks, curious.
"Well, I know he might've wanted to tell you himself, but he might not make it back before I send you all away, so I'll tell you. He was a red talent, one of the only four I've seen in over ten thousand years."
"RED, and wait, ten thousand years!" Ainsley exclaims! Amelia laughs.
"Yes, red, and yeah, ten thousand. For your information, I've been around for much longer than that, though I won't tell you an exact amount. Tehe." That's when Aldrian interrupts.
"Anyway, I thought you said grey was the lowest, so why is white the most common? Not that it's a bad thing, but wouldn't that mean we would've seen a lot more cultivators around us?"
"Ah yes, that's my bad. Actually, I meant those averages for the cultivation world, not here. For here, I would say you'd be lucky to find a single grey talent to activate the crystal, since it's been so long since people have cultivated at all here, much less having more white talents than grey."
"Okayyy," Aldrian replies hesitantly. "I still want information on the cultivation world, but that can wait until you're ready to tell us."
"Actually, I have a question too," Violette, who had mostly been quiet on the side, jumped in. "So, a little earlier you mentioned that some places didn't believe in the black talent affinity, but you didn't seem to have that doubt. Why?" Amelia smiles.
"Smart! Yes, you're correct. Well, you remember me mentioning rare cases of the same color showing and my dad being one of those such cases, correct?"
"Yes," they all answer together as Aldrian and Ainsley become interested in this topic as well.
"Well, it just so happens that he had a darkness element affinity as well as a
black level talent."
"BLACK!!!" all three exclaim.
"Yes, a black talent. That's actually the only reason I've reached the level I am today because he had an abundance of cultivation materials that could help me. Anyway, who wants to go first? I'll answer any other questions later, and of course, I'll tell you what your elemental affinity is as well. Oh, and one last thin_" as she says this, Aldrian immediately starts walking towards the crystal.
"Let me go first; I'll set the bar real high. HA! I might even get a black talent."