TL: Etude
In a messy bedroom, on a wooden bed.
"My head hurts so much!!!"
"Am I… still alive?"
Ye Tian's confused thoughts slowly cleared, and memories of his past life gradually surfaced.
At the same time, a new set of memories merged with his soul.
"I've traveled through time!"
He chuckled bitterly, for this body was not his own, but belonged to a boy with the same name.
He came from the year 2019, but it was now 2119, also known as the 100th year of the new era.
In other words, he had arrived in a time one hundred years later.
This era was known as the Qi Era, also referred to as the Talent Era.
Ye Tian absorbed the information of the last hundred years in his mind.
In early 2019, Earth had many spatial rifts appear, and countless beasts emerged from these rifts. Humanity fell from the top of the food chain, barely surviving under the threat of the beasts.
In an attempt to fight the beasts, humanity used firearms and other modern weapons, but a mysterious substance appeared on Earth, later called Qi, which disrupted the structure of these weapons, rendering even nuclear bombs as useful as scrap iron.
Humans were thrust back into an age of cold weapons, and were hardly a match for the beasts with such primitive tools.
Fortunately, the first beasts to arrive were low-level beasts, giving humanity a chance to survive.
After much research by scientists, humans discovered that the mysterious substance known as Qi could be harnessed. A new profession emerged – martial warriors!
Train the body, absorb Qi, break through human limits, and become a martial warrior.
Simultaneously, human talents were awakened.
Only a few had talents, and the most common was cultivation talent. Cultivation talent determined a person's potential achievement. Besides cultivation talents, there were other talents like blade talent, flame talent, ice talent, etc.
Relying on talents and warriors, humans gradually could contend with the beasts. However, most of the Earth was occupied by the beasts, with only a few areas held by humans, where they established survival bases.
Worth mentioning, Earth had expanded hundreds of times, possibly influenced by Qi.
"Qi, talents, beasts, what an exciting world!" Ye Tian took a deep breath and smiled.
Perhaps coming to this era was a good thing for him.
But soon, his face turned somber.
"When the spatial rifts appeared, and Qi descended, a very few Earthlings awakened talents on that night. Cultivation talent is innate and doesn't need awakening, but other talents can be acquired later in life. For Earthlings back then, talent awakening wasn't a blessing but a curse. Without a strong enough body to handle the power, talent awakening was suicidal. According to records, many humans were destroyed by the tremendous force brought by talent awakening, either dying or becoming crippled."
"It seems I awakened some unknown talent back then and my entire body...exploded!"
Ye Tian was sure that he had absorbed countless Qi, his entire body exploded, leading to his death.
"What talent did I awaken back then, powerful enough to cause my body to explode? Even though humans from a century ago might awaken talents suddenly without adapting to Qi, most of them would just swell up or become crippled. I must have awakened an incredibly powerful talent, but sadly, after time-traveling, I can't know what talent it was!" Ye Tian felt quite regretful.
After sorting out his past life and current era's information, Ye Tian slowly examined his new body.
This body was 15 years old, the prime age to start cultivating in the Qi Era.
Before 15, a body was still growing and was not suitable for cultivation. The exception was if some powerful families used precious treasures to accelerate body growth for early cultivation.
15 was the golden age for cultivation. After 20, even if one has high talent, their future achievements would be limited.
"Thank goodness it's not an old man's body, or I'd be doomed."
"Wait a minute…"
Ye Tian's face suddenly changed.
He finally remembered something from his memory, which was the talent of this body.
This body had very low talent!
Weak talent!
In this era, the most important talent was cultivation talent. Cultivation talent was categorized from low to high as weak talent, low-tier talent, elementary/basic talent, intermediate/medium talent, and high talent. It was said that there were even higher levels of talent above high talent, but Ye Tian didn't have access to that information.
Once someone turned 15, they could purchase a Talent Stone to check their own talent, but this was limited to cultivation talent. Other types of talent required specialized Talent Stones to be checked.
His predecessor had excitedly bought a Talent Stone at the age of 15 and checked his talent in his room, only to discover that he had weak talent. Out of despair, he died of a broken heart, which benefited the transmigrated Ye Tian.
"Damn it, weak talent. This is the worst cultivation talent. There's no hope of becoming a martial warrior at all!"
Ye Tian also felt hopeless.
Martial disciples and martial warriors were the first two levels of cultivation. Martial disciple was not considered a real level, while martial warrior was the first real level, requiring a thousand catties of strength to reach.
But to become a martial warrior, the minimum requirement was low talent, which was a level higher than weak talent. Although someone with low talent might only become an early-stage martial warrior in their lifetime, they at least had hope. Once they became a martial warrior, even at the early stage, they were considered powerful figures, towering above ordinary people.
But those with weak talent were stuck in an awkward position. Even if they cultivated for a lifetime, they could only remain as martial disciples.
"If only I could change my talent!" Ye Tian comforted himself.
"Knock, knock, knock!"
A series of knocks sounded on the door.
"Brother, are you in there?"
A young girl's voice came from outside.
Ye Tian knew it was his sister in this life, Ye Yu, who was 13 years old.
He opened the door to see a cute girl who looked like a porcelain doll.
"Brother, what's your talent?" Ye Yu asked curiously.
One's talent was always kept a secret. Unless it was a close relative, asking about someone's talent was considered taboo. After all, nobody wanted their talent to be known by others. For example, some people with high talent might become targets for assassination if their specific talents were revealed.
In this world, such things have happened before.
So, nobody was allowed to ask about others' talents.
However, Ye Tian wouldn't blame his sister.
"Little Yu, brother's talent is pretty good. I can definitely become a great martial warrior in the future!" Ye Tian looked at Little Yu with a slight smile, but the smile was filled with bitterness.
But the next moment.
His pupils contracted, he was shocked!
A virtual image appeared on his retina.
Human: Ye Yu
Cultivation Talent: Low
Ice Talent: Elementary (Unawakened)
...
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