The auspicious sun rose to the sky as it painted the world in an aurora of colours. On the clear lake-like sky were bird chirping as they begun their scavenge for food. Whilst below, at the town a crowd of people gathered together stuffing the streets. Even the stalls and shops were not spared. Mutters of excitement gushed out where the groups amassed together.
"I wonder if anyone this year would awaken a B rank core."
"My Wang clan would be content with a C rank core. B rank core is too hard to come by"
"Talking about B rank core, I heard someone from the Shang clan awakened a B rank core last year."
"How fortunate.."
"It seems there will be a new rising genius in the upcoming years."
...
After spending 55 silver tael on a carriage to Xie Tu town Tu Syaoran was broke. He had less than 10% of the original amount he was given. However with things as it is right now he couldn't do a thing about it.
The wooden carriage with two horses was fast especially compared to carriages back on Earth but it was still not enough to rival a car.
A few hours past as Tu Syaoran took a nap on the carriage. It was only until the driver woke him up telling him they had reached Xie Tu town.
The town was vast. Extremely vast. Of course this was comparing it with a town on Earth. It was large enough to be a city on Earth.
The stone gates towered above as a sign attached to it displaying Xie Tu Town. It was a magnificent view. Tu Syaoran walked to the gate as two soldiers armed with a spear and some armour stood menacingly, side by side.
"10 silver taels to enter, if not scram!" The soldier on the right warned Tu Syaoran as he glared threateningly.
Seeing this Tu Syaoran handed over the 10 silver taels. If it was his previous body, he would of surely resented these guards. However Tu Syaoran was calm about it. He knew messing with these guards was courting death: there was absolutely no benefits in doing so.
As he entered the city he looked at his sad pouch of coins. There was barely any left. He figured that the 200 tael was a test given by the clan. If one used all of it at one time they will go bankrupt and therefore would not be able to enter the town in which one will not be able to take the test. If one saved the silver taels they would have the sufficiency to enter. At the end the one with the most silver taels would benefit the most having plenty of silver tael for cultivation and nourishment from the clan.
He was soon greeted by an elder of Tu clan - Tu Fang Shui. He scanned his memories as he retrieved information about Tu Fang Shui before summarising it:
Name - Tu Fang Shui
Age - 56
Core Cultivation - Upper stage 5 sided core
Clan Position - elder (in charge of new awakeners)
Potential - Will never breakthrough Peak stage 5-sided core without an oppurtunity.
...
"Tu Syaoran! What are you doing? Come accept your token of Xie Tu." Tu Fang Shui snapped impatiently as he took out a token with the word Xie Tu inscribe on both fronts.
Tu Syaoran snapped out of a daze before accepting the token and storing it away carefully.
After that Tu Syaoran was sent to a batch of young people from the Tu clan before being led by Tu Fang Shui to the assembly point.
...
The three clans - respectively the Wang clan , Shang clan and the Tu clan- gathered at the Xie Tu town's pavilion as they waited patiently. The Wang clan on the left wore dark navy short cloaks with a fur coat on the outside whilst the Shang clan wore long leather robes that swayed to the humming of the wind. At last were the Tu clan who's group stood at the centre with rosy-flame robes.
Blended into the batch of 40 young people was Tu Syaoran as he glance around with unfamiliarity. Many thoughts collided in his head. It seemed as if none of his peers fell for the scheme or rather the 'test' as all the candidates arrived. In fact he was one of the finals that had join the group. He contemplated deeply about the situation.
The Tu clan was situated in the south of the town where there was a river as well as low relief. On the other hand was Wang clan whose territory existed on the Qing Mao mountain which is infamous for its cold extremity weather and yearly beast tides. Finally the Shang clan were a small family in Xie Tu town, who expanded over a period of time before migrating to the forest toward the east of Xie Tu town.
"Shang clan, Shang clan.." Tu Syaoran thought as he peered into his memories. Shang clan might seem the weakest without much foundation but according to his previous owner memories they had devastated the other two clans before become the sole ruler of both so he was quite wary when it came to the Shang's clan members.
Suddenly the vast pavilion doors opened unhurriedly as anticipation filled the crowd. An interrupted Tu Syaoran and the other 39 members of the Tu clan entered as guided by their elders. Followed after were the Tu's clan upper echelons.
After that the Wang clan entered followed by the Shang clan before the stone colossus door collapsed back into its original positioned.
The Xie Tu Town's pavilion was extremely spacious as the grand hall towered above high as if attempting to reach the sky. As the clans set foot into the gran hall a noticeable old fogey stood in green robes.
"Greetings to Lord Tu Shan" the three clan leaders bowed respectfully.
Tu Syaoran eyes landed on Tu Shan before recalling a piece of memory.
"If I'm right he is Tu clan ancestor huh? He seems fine on the outside but he's only a few footsteps from his deathbed..." Tu Syaoran quietly murmured. He plotted many situations as in his memories Tu clans ancestor had left an inheritance that remained hidden until the Shang clan took over both of the clans. Tu Syaoran knew he needed to obtain this inheritance. There isn't much time remaining before the Shang clan take action.
He needed to take advantage to rise above others. If any opportunities are available, he would strive for it. The only problem he ran into was that the memories didn't signify where the inheritance was left behind at. At most there was only some bits of clues left there and then but surely not enough for Tu Syaoran to figure out where the inheritance is. After a while of thinking, his ultimate choice for the current situation was to focus on cultivation. Whether he could get it or not shall not be a thing he should worry about right now.
...
"Bring the awakening candidates down to this chamber." Lord Tu Shan requested as he brought a grand elder each from the three clans to come down.
Hard and cold were the long journey of stairs filled with torches hanging of from the sides.
The dark eerie chamber was empty with only the lonely rocky pillar with pattern inscribed on it that slept inactively at the centre.
First to awaken their cores were the people of the Shang clans : the first person was called soon after to awaken their core and he took a few steps forward until he was right before the pillar.
He listened to the instruction the elder told him as he slowly put his palm on the pillar. In an instant lights started to gather around his palm before spreading to his limbs, torso and at last his body.
Suddenly the light that had gathered on the Shang clan member disappeared. The elder who had came along side with Lord Tu Shan rapidly arrived at the Shang Clan member before taking out a core symbol.
Soon a light was carved in the air:
"F rank core"
Shang Long, the one who had just awakened his core, sighed as he hoped for a higher rank core.
Tu Syaoran ,who was at the side, looked with pity as the fellow. From his knowledge he knew that Shang clan fellow wouldn't get to far in his journey of core cultivation.
The higher the rank of the core the faster it is to cultivate to higher stages. Core cultivation has two traditional routes one can cultivate on : Core Ranking or Core Expansion.
Core Ranking is measured through the amount of sides a core has which are respectively 3 sided core, 4 sided core and all the way to 13 sided core. In the process of evolving the core into a higher stages there are sub-realms that slightly improves the core: initial stage, upper stage and peak stage. A core that had been freshly awaken would be a 3 sided core - new to the journey of core cultivation.
Whilst Core Expansion is measured through marks left behind by the condensing of the core after expanding to its limit of that realm : Core I, Core II, Core III all the way to Core X.
However it is rarely seen in history that someone cultivates both ways, although if they do they would be unstoppable. Instead what is traditional is having one of them as a main and the other as a sub.
However with that being said cultivating the core to reach higher ranks is the mainstream way of cultivation.
Why?
Core expansion has a high risk rate with the core exploding on itself when expanding and the process cost much more resources and time (which will be less the higher the side your core would be). Even though it has such a downside it would massively increases the overall strength of the core much more than cultivating sides on your core.
Furthermore, one needed a method of expansion to cultivate the path of core expansion. However, these methods had been long lost. The last core expanding cultivator had perished over a hundred thousand years ago.
Tu Syaoran contemplated as he figured that a Rank F core cultivator would be limited by its aptitude by the time they become a 4 sided core.
A core aptitude plays a significant role as it allows the person core essence to become denser.
This would mean a faster cultivation speed which would play a major role in Tu Syaoran. Plus there is no such things as having an overflowing amount of power : the Dao of cultivation is limitless.
In the Legends Of Core Cultivation, the records reveals that if an aptitude of someone's core is high enough there is a low chance of awakening an attributed essence which there are four types.
Aggression - amplifies attacking based core symbols.
Passion - amplifies support based core symbols.
Protection - amplifies defence based core symbols
Sight - amplifies information based core symbols
Despite that, there hasn't been anyone who had confirmed it as the rates of awakening a high rank core is extremely infrequent. An example is Shang clan who had rise up in the last century, they had not had anyone who awakened a Rank A core.
Knowing this Tu Syaoran hoped for a high rank core upon awakening.
After the first Shang clan member awakened his core, one by one the Shang clan members went down to awaken their core.
"F rank core"
"F rank core"
"D rank core"
"F rank core"
"E rank core"
"F rank core"
...
"Congratulation Shang Xua! Shang Fei from your clan awakened a D rank core."
An elder with a smile planted across his face congratulated.
Hidden by the mask of a smile, the Grand Elder of the Shang clan Shang Xua replied sarcastically.
"Tu Xuan, you praise me too much."
Under his mask of joy he gritted his teeth but he knew he could not let lose his temper here.
Next, a bunch of Wang clan members were called ahead to test.
"F rank core"
"D rank core"
"F rank core"
"F rank core"
"F rank core"
"C rank core"
...
"It seems my Wang clan bloodline is extraordinary!" Joyfully, the Grand Elder of the Wang Clan Wang Ling laughed abruptly at the result as he stroked his short grey beard hanging on his chin.
Both Shang Xua and Tu Xuan stayed silent. Envy grew in their hearts. However, Tu Xuan felt more pressured as his Tu clan was next. He prayed in his mind for someone to awaken a good rank core.
Tu clans situation currently was in a crisis as there strongest member of the clan - Lord Tu Shan who has a B rank core I at 6 sides - is on the verge of dying whilst the newly Shang clan is soaring in terms of power and influence with the stabilized Wang clan suppressing the Shang clan.
Although this is good news, they had yet to learn of Lord Tu Shan condition. As long as news leaked, Tu clan would be trampled over straight away.
Tu Xuan dugs fingers into his palm as he frowned. Sweat bathed his skin as he felt suffocated. However he did not show any anxiousness on the outside as Tu clan's members started to awaken their core. As he carried on watching, on the inside he fell into despair.
"F rank core"
"F rank core"
"E rank core"
"F rank core"
"F rank core"
...
"Tu Syaoran!"
Tu Syaoran walked out of the small crowd of people who had not tested as he heard his name. As he arrived before the pillar, he slowly put his palm on the pillar (like the others did) as the light began emitting intensely far more stronger than others. It was as if the sun was right in front of them. Tu Syaoran, who was amidst this light was also taken aback in surprise.
Succeeding the light vanishment was Tu Syaoran who was quickly surrounded by glares of astonishment and envy. Tu Xuan rapidly rushed to Tu Syaoran side before hurriedly taking out a core symbol.
Like before a light burst out of the core symbol generated a sentence in the air:
"B rank core"
Tu Syaoran himself stood there flabbergasted at the result. According to his memories, the owner of this body had awakened a D rank core. But anyway he was content that his core grade was higher. Although all this had happened, Tu Syaoran can't help but feel suspicious. If this timeline is different to what had happened in the memories, could it be that this timeline is not the same?
Could everyone's destiny not be fixed?
Seeing this Tu Syaoran began to consider whether he can still rely on these memories. Or perhaps someone had played around with the memories causing them to be in fact incorrect?
He was unsure but he knew he had to kept the fact that things might not be as planned. Because of his B rank core there will be surely a butterfly time effect. For now Tu Syaoran decided to get stronger to leave this place.
"Congratulation Tu Xuan!" a depressed Shang Xua who stood on the side exclaimed.
Alternately, Wang Ling eyes pierced into Tu Syaoran eyes making contact. Retaliating fearlessly, Tu Syaoran looked back causing Wang Ling to look a different direction before declaring proudly
"Wang clan also has a B rank core cultivator. This is nothing special! Hmph"
The Grand Elder of the Wang Clan angrily waved his arm before turning around to leave.
At the corner Tu Syaoran snickered as he watch them left.
What B rank? If i remember correctly that B rank awakened two years ago of the Wang clan is long dead. Tu Syaoran thought whilst ignoring the compliments as well as the jealousy directed to him through the people around him.
The one giving compliments? Bootlickers
The one giving jealousy? Fuck them. If they are jealous of us it means they are inferior and what can the weak do when the world is a strong eat weak?
He looked at his bowl-size core with 3 sides as it was overflowing with essence. Having the experience obtain the from the orbs in his sea of consciousness, he began to exhaust his essence as he sent them piercing the walls of the core. His essence level began to fall ridiculously as he resisted coughing up blood. As it was only memories and he had not experience it first-hand he made a mistake but even so his cultivation did progress (only by a little).
Resting he made sure not to do anything too intensive that could cause more harm until he recovered. He closed his eyes as he waited patiently.
Following Wang Ling, Wang clan left the chamber as the Tu clan members continued to awaken their core.
"F rank core"
"F rank core"
"E rank core"
...
Tu Xuan eyes glowed in excitement as he thought of the aspect of Tu clan becoming the number one clan around Tie Xu town. With a B-rank core, they now have a chance to rise and escape their crisis whilst thriving forward to rival Wang clan's B rank core cultivator as well as supressing the newly Shang clan. But there is only six month before the annual tournament for the younger generation.
Recently Shang clan had awakened a rank B core cultivator and in a span of a year he has already become a peak 4 sided core cultivator. To catch up, Tu Xuan was determined to groom Tu Syaoran using the clan resource at disposal. He sighed as he felt a mountain of pressure disperse.
As the Tu clan exit the chamber, they met up with the other two clan and Lord Tu Shan who was conversing with Shang Xua and Wang Ling.
"I've been handed 20 outer disciple quota for the Qian Kingdom prestigious academy! Each clan will each get five spots with the remaining five spots be given to the clan who wins the annual tournament!"
Lord Tu Shan announced valiantly as he roused excitement in the crowd. There was almost no one in the crowd who did not know of Qian Kingdom prestigious academy : Qian Academy. The famous righteous cultivator - Qing Long - who originated from Qian Academy used his cultivation to kill another core cultivator a realm above of him. When news got out the whole world was stunned speechless. It was known that the higher the realm the higher differences in power. Still even at the lower stages it is rare to see someone have an advantage over a higher realm cultivator. Not only that the academy has once before produced a 10 sided core cultivator before. From a 9 sided core to a 10 sided core is a massive chasm in terms of breakthrough difficulty and strength : like a mortal to an immortal.
Tu Syaoran thought about it for a long time. He decided that he would not go. According to what he knows so far, there was an inheritance left behind by a once famous evil core cultivator who was known for his merciless slaughter. In his plan, he was going to wait after he awaken his core before going to the inheritance. Plus he has no memories of the so called Qian Academy as he hadn't fully assimilated his memories yet. Being such a weak being with high potential, he could be schemed against and die without knowing how he died so it was a better choice to stay here and not enter somewhere he had no information or neither the power to keep himself safe.
As the awakening ceremony ended, there was a celebration banquet that all attended to in which Lord Tu Shan gifted each awakener 1000 silver taels before they were returned back to their clans village outside the city through a large carriage. However before Tu Syaoran left, Lord Tu Shan walked up to Tu Syaoran before gifting him a 3 sided core symbols - Behead.
...