"Heaven is boundless energy. Earth is the only vessel to harness it."
This was a common saying in the world, and no cultivator could contest this universal truth.
Heaven produced an endless supply of mystical energy known as aether, an otherworldly force that sparked all life and held limitless power, capable of destroying or creating.
Earth, however, crafted the forms—called 'bodies'—for living beings to inhabit and created manifestations for them to use.
Without Earth's ability to shape and direct this celestial energy through manifestations, the power from Heaven would remain untapped and unusable. Without Heaven's aether, all Earthly creation would remain lifeless.
This was the fundamental principle behind cultivation. Without the union of Heaven and Earth, there would be no life.
Yet, Heaven and Earth were considered capricious to their creations. They could be benevolent or malicious. They could be generous or greedy. They could be kind or cruel.
Cultivation was the prime example of this.
Heaven would decide someone's talent at birth. If Heaven is generous, a person will have a high talent and cultivate without issue. If Heaven is greedy, a person will have a low talent and will be forever destined to be a servant of the strong.
On the other hand, Earth decides a manifestation's fate. If Earth is generous, a person will obtain or ascend their manifestation without issue. If Earth is greedy, a person will never receive the desired manifestation.
They were fickle and unpredictable.
However, sometimes, Heaven's generosity would overflow, and Earth would hold it back. Other times, if Earth was too giving, Heaven would restrain it.
Merging with a manifestation is a prime example of this balance. A cultivator must be of the same rank as the manifestation to use it. It was a rule that balanced Heaven and Earth.
Without talent, a cultivator cannot access Earth's generosity. No matter how abundant Earth's gifts are through manifestation, they remain out of reach without Heaven's approval through talent. Even if they acquired a rank 9 manifestation, without the talent to cultivate, they wouldn't be able to use it.
However, it was also the same for the other way around.
Similarly, without Earth's approval, even the most heavenly talents cannot fully express their aether without the gifts Earth provides—its manifestations. What was the point of having a heavenly talent if they were stuck with rank 1 manifestation?
There is a delicate balance between Heaven and Earth, each exerting influence over the other.
Yet, this balance is not absolute. Cultivators can use resources to enhance their talent, and talent can, in turn, forcefully ascend or obtain manifestations. Cultivation, in essence, involves defying Heaven with Earth's support and using Heaven to challenge Earth's constraints.
...And then, there is Perfect Potential. This rare and extraordinary talent represents the epitome of Heaven's generosity.
It allows a cultivator to filter aether at an unprecedented rate, allowing them to absorb an infinite amount of the purest aether with no bottlenecks in their cultivation.
But for those who have this heavenly given talent, Earth would never be generous.
The perfect potential, while overwhelmingly powerful, had a fatal flaw. Anyone with this talent would never be able to live long. Their bodies, a creation of Earth, would slowly break down, unable to withstand the infinite amount of aether.
It was both a blessing and a curse.
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Elias stood before the ancestral throne, his face neutral, yet internally, he was truly perplexed by the small whirlpool on his abdomen. "A... whirlpool?"
The vortex wasn't big, far from it as a matter of fact. The whirlpool was very tiny, even more so than most children. However, it was still a whirlpool. This wasn't supposed to happen. His rune shouldn't have allowed aether inside his body. Yet, there was a vortex, inhaling aether.
After some thought, he focused on his rune and made a shocking discovery.
Within the void of his rune, a tiny dot of pure white light appeared. Like a lone star in a pitch-black void, it shone brightly. A small string of aether had somehow managed to penetrate the darkness of the rune, creating the star, but the rune's power quickly suppressed this string.
Though this star was small and nearly invisible, unable to gather even a trace of aether due to the surrounding darkness, it was still there.
As the small vortex slowly subverted until it completely stopped, Elias remained unmoving, lost in thought. He pondered countless theories, but one kept resurfacing: Is it because of his rank 10 Perfect Potential?
In the game, players could never possess an aperture due to the Rune of the End, which would destroy their talent and replace the aperture.
But now, Elias had both his rune and an aperture. He genuinely did not expect this. Were there more secrets about Perfect Potential than he had known? Elias had never paid much attention to those with this talent, viewing them only as short-lived, early-game, undefeatable bosses.
'My talent somehow reawakened because of an Awakening Stone... But even more surprising is that this aperture isn't being pushed back despite my rune's suppression. Now that I think about it, my Perfect Potential has resisted the initial awakening phase of the rune, resulting in a clash between my talent and my rune. If I hadn't forcibly dispersed my talent through candies, my rune wouldn't have been able to suppress it at all.'
If Perfect Potential was the epitome of Heaven's generosity, then runes could be seen as the epitome of Earth's generosity, and Elias would have both. Although, Elias' rune was a bit peculiar and probably not a creation of Earth.
Yet, he wasn't the least happy about it at all. Firstly, because he couldn't, and secondly...
'I don't even know if I can even use my aperture as my rune is heavily suppressing it. If having an aperture doesn't give me enough benefits, then... I must find a way to destroy it permanently... Or I will die as soon as I rank up,' he thought with a still neutral face.
After a moment, Elias finally snapped out of his thoughts when the elder placed a mask on his face.
The mask glowed and changed color, shifting from pure white to light gray.
"Rank 1 gray potential," the elder announced.
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A little note from your favorite author:
Someone pointed out a little mistake I made, and I am very sorry about it. The colors of manifestation don't match talents, and I did not notice it. Both color potential and Manifestation color should match now. Here's a list of talent/ manifestation colors depending on their ranks.
Unranked: No Color
Rank 0: Black (there's no such thing as a black manifestation. I corrected it in the previous chapters. Elias previously destroyed rank 1 manifestation, meaning that they were Gray. Not black or brown.)
Rank 1: Gray
Rank 2: Brown
Rank 3: Purple
Rank 4: Red
Rank 5: Blue
(I will mention the rest of the colors later on!)
Please let me know if there's still a mistake, and I will correct it ASAP. Thank you :D