Ming Long watched in stupor as Sheng Tian threw in herb after herb, controlling the flames before ultimately lifting the lid of the cauldron. Ming Long walked over and saw 7 light green pills sitting in a small pile of dust like pearls.
His jaw trembled, "...Dear Heavens..."
Ming Long's heart almost jumped out of his chest when he heard Sheng Tian say that this was not all.
Sheng Tian looked around the warehouse and found a few slabs of iron. Taking out a brush and some blood vials, Sheng Tian began to draw symbols on the slabs.
Seeing this, Ming Long fell to his knees, much to Sheng Tian's surprise.
"Uncle! What's wrong?"
His uncle chuckled before wiping tears from the corner of his eyes, "Hahaha! Tian'er, do you realize how fortunate you are?"
He placed his hands on the boy's shoulders, "To obtain the inheritance of an Alchemist and a Formation Master, Tian'er, you will surely rise up to the Heaven's!"
-
The following days and weeks passed as Sheng Tian practiced his alchemy and inscriptions. Ming Long had spread the news to everyone in the village, to which they held another massive celebration.
When they asked Sheng Tian if they could see where the rock was, Sheng Tian lied and led them to a random area in the forest, before pretending that the rock had disappeared.
Sheng Tian then performed alchemy in front of many people, before setting up simple Formations around the village to improve the quality of life.
First he made several Qi Drawing Formations which gathered the qi in the surrounding area and condensed them in the village, thus making the area richer in qi.
Then, Sheng Tian made 4 Beast Repelling Formations around the village after he had the villagers gather a large amount of magical beast blood. As the name suggests, this Formation would keep beasts away from the village, thus they would not have to fear magical beasts attacking the village.
The boy continued using his newly acquired abilities to help concoct large amounts of pills, and even inscribed a few degraded body inscriptions on the experts.
Soon enough, 3 months passed by in a flash, and it was time for the Elder of the Sky Sword Sect to come and collect the spiritual herbs.
At noon, everyone gathered to watch as a white robed figure descended from the sky on a sword. It was a man with a long gray beard and even longer gray hair. With his figure illuminated by the sun, he seemed like an immortal descending from the skies.
"Elder Zhou"
Ming Long greeted the man and handed over a storage pouch containing this year's contribution.
The elder scanned the contents and nodded, "As reliable as always, Ming Long. Sigh, if only the other villages were like this"
"I assume they are attempting to cut corners again?"
"The usual," the old man said, "Anyways, I assume you don't have anyone for me?"
Ming Long suddenly smiled with pride, "Actually, I do"
"Oh?"
Ming Long patted Sheng Tian's back, making him take a step forward. The elder looked as the little boy cupped his hands and bowed.
"Sheng Tian greets elder"
"Ohoho!"
The man leaned forward, "What a surprise! Seeing the look on your face, you really have faith in this little one"
"Of course!"
Not wasting any more time, the elder took out a stone tablet from his sleeve.
"Sheng Tian was it? Place your hand on this stone tablet and it will tell us your cultivation talent"
Complying, Sheng Tian placed his right hand on the stone.
Weng!
Suddenly, blinding white light shone and all the lights on the tablet lit up, much to the elder's shock. A moment later, the tablet cracked and shattered into thousands of pieces.
"T-this!!"
Elder Zhou's once bored looking eyes now widened with attention as he stared at the youth who cracked the talent measuring tool.
Ming Long frowned and placed a firm hand on Sheng Tian's shoulder, "Elder Zhou, what just happened?"
Shaken from his reverie, Elder Zhou waved his hand and a flat piece of jade appeared in the air.
"Boy, put your hand on the jade tablet!"
Sharing a glance with his uncle, Sheng Tian stepped forward again and placed his hand on the jade tablet. A moment later, what had happened to the stone tablet repeated itself with the jade tablet.
The elder collapsed to his knees, making Sheng Tian wonder why so many people like doing that in front of him. Ming Long stepped forward in shot and shook the elder.
"Elder Zhou! Explain what is happening!"
The old man grabbed Ming Long's arm, no longer looking as refined as before, "We have a once in a million year genius here!"
""What!?""
Everyone went into an uproar when they heard the elder's assessment of Sheng Tian's talent. At this moment, it is certain that Sheng Tian will be able to join the top ranks of the Sky Sword Sect in the future.
Then, the poor elder almost had a heart attack when he heard Ming Long mutter.
"To think that his talent for cultivation is as great as his talent for alchemy and formations"
"G-give me a moment," the elder said as he clumsily took out a communication jade and spoke into it.
The elder had seen the new formations around the village and felt the aura it contained. He was sure that it matched the child's and quickly notified the higher ups of the sect. While none of them could see it, hearing about such talent instantly sent the elders into a frenzy and even got the sect master involved.
Sheng Tian's immeasurable talent alone is of great value to their sect, and if one includes his achievements in alchemy and inscriptions then it won't be hard for him to rewrite the sect rankings.
The villagers then began talking about what they just witnessed in low, fervent voices. They were also shocked to know that such a youth was among them even as they had witnessed his feats for the past 3 months.
10 minutes later, Elder Zhou handed a spatial pouch to Sheng Tian.
"Y-young Master... take this spatial pouch and pack your things. We leave in 3 days for the Sky Sword Sect"
-
3 days passed in the blink of an eye, and Sheng Tian had long since packed his things and said his goodbyes.
He stepped onto the flying sword and left with Elder Zhou, with the entire village waving after his slowly shrinking figure.
...
Sheng Tian didn't know how long they traveled for. He had dozed off after getting used to the scenery below him and sent most of his focus into his sea of consciousness.
Suddenly, Sheng Tian was then awoken by the elder's voice and saw their destination.
It was a massive mountain that seemed to pierce the sky and shoot up into the clouds. Several smaller mountains surrounded it with countless buildings lining the sides. Occasionally he would also see a flying streak, almost like a shooting star, and realized that they were other cultivators of the sect that could fly or owned a flying treasure.
They descended towards one of the smaller mountains and stopped in front of a large manor at the top. If he recalled what Elder Zhou had said while they were flying correctly, this mountain peak is reserved for young in-name disciples that were still too young to cultivate.
"This will be where you live for the next few years. We've prepared this manor for you among other benefits. It's all in the jade slip provided inside the spatial pouch"
Moments later, Elder Zhou flew away in a hurry and Sheng Tian was then left all alone in front of the huge manor.
"Do I really get this entire mansion to myself?" he asked to himself.
Walking towards the front door, Sheng Tian took out the identification badge he had been provided.
Click!
The door was unlocked in an instant, allowing Sheng Tian to go inside and look around.
The inside was more spacious than anything the boy had ever seen and had many rooms. There was a cultivation room, an alchemy room, several bedrooms, and an herb garden in the back. The entire manor was even lined with Formations like the Qi Gathering Formation and Soundless Formations.
Not knowing what to do, he looked inside his spatial pouch.
His new spatial pouch had a 10 by 10 by 10 cubic meter space within and contained what he got from the elder as well as his personal items; spare clothing, vials of blood, his cauldron, his gold identification badge, a jade slip and some pills.
Sheng Tian decided to spend some time reading the information contained in the jade slip.
It states that he is currently an in-name disciple and has nothing to do except for some miscellaneous tasks he could perform at the In-name Mission Hall for contribution points.
However, because he had a gold identification badge, Sheng Tian was exempted from doing these missions. He then reads that the ranks of badges are bronze, silver, gold, sky, and dragon, with the latter 2 being only obtainable by true disciples.
Sending his consciousness into his badge, Sheng Tian could see that he had 5000 contribution points already in there. Furthermore, he could go to the servant hall and pick out 3 top quality servants for free and can even call for an elder to bring him around.
What Sheng Tian didn't know was that even top core disciples would have to work their asses off to earn contribution points and top quality servants are mostly not bought even by elite disciples who are above core disciples because of their absurd cost.