Wen Yu stretched lazily under the metallic parasol as he watched his 'twin' sister absorb spirit force from a brown hex stone.
He was now five years old and had a broader understanding of the laws of this universe. Over ten thousand years ago, mankind managed to achieve a break through and figured out a way to travel across the galaxy.
The Earth at that time was already experiencing a major breakdown as the ozone layer was finally depleted and the sun glare became so unbearable that humans had to resort to living underground.
Draughts and earthquakes were the order then and the animals were dropping dead like flies. This in turn led to an even greater food shortage which threw the world directly into chaos.
Countless scientists pulled at their hairs thinking of methods to make humans forcefully evolve in order to withstand the pressure from the rapidly changing atmosphere, and that was when the first otherworldly species were discovered.
The Xochs were heavily built with ink black skin, split tongues and slits for eyes. Their spaceship had encountered a rift and had crashed into Earth's home galaxy, causing them to be captured by the human astronauts.
Although they were insanely strong, the humans on the verge of extinct still had more numbers so the Xoch scouts were quickly subdued.
The rocket scientists managed to reverse engineer the technique of intergalactic travel from the Xoch spaceship and that started their mission to move to a different galaxy.
Not long after, the captured Xochs managed to reach out to their mother planet and a war broke out. The two parties could barely understand the other's language so diplomacy was not even considered.
Humans were dying at an even faster rate which fuelled the creation of the Xs gene. It was modified from certain prominent genes found in the DNA of the Xochs and merged with the human DNA.
It gave birth to amazing results and triggered the very evolution the scientists had strove for for years. It made the humans stronger with the ability to harness the force of the Universe which was later converted to what was termed spirit energy.
Long story short, the Xochs were driven out and the humans managed to move to a different planetary system in time to witness the implosion and disintegration of their own solar system. Earth, the other seven planets and billions of asteroids were gone. Just like that.
They had continuous skirmishes with the Xochs, who had declared them their ultimate sworn enemy, over thousands of years as they tried to rebuild their home and establish a functioning law system.
Wen Yu let out a breath of hot air as he adjusted his position. He didn't blame the Xochs though. Even he was dumbfounded when his light brain transmitted the historical events to his brain. The humans basically made the Xochs their stepping stone to the vast galaxies.
But then again, their survival was on the line and they were facing extinction. It was later found out that the Xochs had been aiming to plunder virgin planetary systems so it was possible the humans would've been hit hard if they didn't act first.
He picked up a palm sized hex stone. The current humans seemed to be the final products of the Xs gene. They were now classified into different classes according to their spirit potential.
They were D, C, B, A, S, SS and SSS ranks. These ranks basically indicated how far a human could go in the assimilation process but they all started out the same.
For example, if one child had C rank potential and another had SSS rank potential, they'd both have to start assimilating spirit force from the Ginger phase.
The distinction between the two was that a child with a C rank potential would never be able to assimilate enough spirit energy to get him past the Yellow phase. In other words, they were stuck at that one point all their lives and could never advance due to their low potential.
But the SSS ranked child could continue on after the Yellow phase to the very peak of power being the Crystallized god level zone.
They were a total of eleven phases: Ginger, Yellow, Green, Turquoise, Azure, Magenta, Silver, White gold, Platinum, Obsidian and the Crystallized god level zone.
Starting from C rank, a person's potential could enable them to advance two phases.
So basically: C rank allowed for Ginger and Yellow, B rank for Green and Turquoise, A rank for Azure and Magenta and so on until the SSS rank which only contained the Crystallized god level zone.
This meant that him, a person with C rank potential, could only assimilate to the Yellow phase before experiencing a road block for the rest of his life.
His sister on the other hand, had SS rank potential so she could conveniently stroll through the phases until the Obsidian phase and then her assimilation ends.
The humans were still trying to breakthrough the boundaries of spirit potential but there were no results yet.
Another fluke was that although people with SSS rank potential could breeze through the other phases, not all of them are able to Crystallize their spirit energy in order to breakthrough the barrier between the Obsidian phase and the Crystallized god level zone.
Ha. Ha.
It should also be noted that although he made it sound simple, advancement was quite difficult and it could take decades to move a single phase higher.
The average lifespan of humans nowadays was fairly high so people were quite patient. The average human could live up to a hundred years before their health begins to deteriorate while the ones capable of assimilation could live up to two hundred and fifty years.
He shook his head sadly. He'd tried absorbing spirit force but it always felt as though his spirit sea was hollowed out and could barely contain any spirit energy. It was like trying to fill a basket with water.
What was worse was that his body was weaker than most due to the damage his spirit sea had sustained when he was captured as a baby.
He would have paid little mind to it but one of his greatest pleasures about this universe had become a sore spot to him due to his lack of talent.
He was crazy about Mechas. It was one of the most intriguing inventions of this age but sadly, he would never be able to operate one.