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Authors: Cat & Hedgehog
The next day had come and Su Yi barely got any sleep because of the task he had to finish. He got up and went straight to the restroom. He took a shower, since when he arrived home yesterday he headed straight to bed.
Looking in the mirror after showering, he was shocked to see the individual staring back at him. 'That's not me…' Su Yi thought to himself alarmed. He touched his face, his hair, and even pinched himself thinking that he was still dreaming but alas it was reality.
'That is me..'
The change was so drastic that people would find it unbelievable. His eyes widened a little as he realized that this was why Liu Yue was so bewildered last night.
Su Yi quickly uncovered what brought the change, it was the Heavenly Body that he had received from the system. That reminded him, he technically still had a draw from the system. 'Roll daily ticket'
[Daily Gacha Roll in process, Please Wait]
[Ding! Host has received Cake]
[Cake (Mortal): A sweet from another world. It was created with the best ingredients and carefully prepared using advanced technology. It is the best and most ideal cake in the vast universe]
"Ca...ke? I've never heard of this kind of food before…"
Su Yi took the cake and examined it with interest. It was a standard fluffy biscuit, layered with cream. Covering the top was a pink icing that dripped onto the sides, and on top of the icing there were little strawberry pieces. 'It certainly looks appetizing' he thought. Without hesitating, he took a bite out of it, and a soft sweetness coupled with the juiciness of the little fruits on top enveloped his mouth.
"Oh my- This is amazing!"
Su Yi always considered himself as a man with a good stomach and a food lover. This delectable sweet was very much to his liking.
While he was enjoying his breakfast, he suddenly realized something about his newly acquired physique. 'It said something about infinite potential, which means my talent assessment might be outdated… I really took the jackpot on that one! I should try to cultivate for a bit after my daily task and see if anything changed'
After finishing his meal, he went out of his room and headed to the Mission Hall to get his daily task. The officer there in charge of assigning daily tasks seemed bored, on the brink of falling asleep. That was, until she saw Su Yi approaching.
The sleepiness was slapped away just by a glimpse of his face. She felt drawn into his eyes, barely noticing that he had reached the counter.
"Hello, I'm here for the daily task." 'I hope it isn't like yesterday…'
"..." The officer was stunned by this young man. 'Wow, who is he? He's so dreamy!'
"Excuse me, are you feeling alright?" Su Yi asked, confused.
"Oh-Sorry" she shook her head, coming back to herself. "T-The daily task, right? Here, take this."
She handed him a scroll with his daily task written on it. It read {Deliver a batch of herbs to the Alchemy Hall}. Su Yi's lips curved up into a smile, as this task was nowhere as disgusting as yesterday's.
"Okay, thank you, officer!" He ran off to get the herbs, eager to get it over with as fast as possible.
"He was so handsome I gave him the easiest one without thinking… Well, it was a nice treat to my eyes to see that smile, so it's fine."
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After delivering the herbs to the Alchemy Hall, Su Yi didn't want to mope around too much, as he was excited to try cultivating with his new physique. He got to his room and, without sparing any second, sat on his bed in a lotus position and started practicing the sect's basic Qi Refining Stage technique. Throughout the day, the hype he felt from his physique's description only made him more expectant, especially since he had always been progressing slowly.
He had started cultivating 3 months ago and being only at Qi Refining Stage 3 made him disappointed in his talent. 'The Heaven was rather stingy when it came to my talent… And my looks… Let's not dwell on the past too much, at least my palate is exquisite.' Having had this monologue, Su Yi focused up, leaving any useless thought in the back of his head.
It hadn't even been an hour since Su Yi had tried cultivating, ushering Qi from the air, and purifying it before finally circulating it through his meridians. The speed and efficiency remained very slow. 'At this rate, I'll stay at Qi Refining Stage 3 forever.' A small frown appeared on his handsome face as he thought of the possibility of the System tricking him. However, he put these thoughts behind as the cake appeared so there must be some merit to its benefactor.
'Caakeeee'
His thoughts were then transported to the cake he had this morning. It was Heavenly, the most wonderful sweet that he had ever tasted. 'When would I roll this again?' He wondered with expectation.
Before his mind could be further dragged down, a knock on the door snapped him out of his trance. Su Yi quickly got up and opened the door to see Elder Zhen, a respected Elder at the Golden Core stage. Although his ranking wasn't very high among the other Elders, he was still an Elder so Su Yi knew he had to be respectful.
Cupping his fists, he greeted the elder. "Respected Elder, this disciple greets you."
The Elder nodded in response, clearly happy with the esteem given to him by this now-talented disciple. "Su Yi, correct?"
"Yes, I'm him."
"Ho, you truly are a dragon amongst men. Your appearance will get you many beauties" Elder Zhen said with a small laugh. "You remind me of when I was a young hot-blooded man."
Su Yi knew that this elder was known for blabbering about his past so he needed to get him back on track before it went further astray. "Cough, what reason have you come to see me, Elder?"
"Oh right!! Bai Yu, your Task Officer informed me that you have awakened a Physique. Hoho, she was so shocked to realize that it was you as the current you can't even compare to the past you." Elder Zhen stated with a wry smile.
"How did you know I awakened a Physique?" Su Yi asked curiously, making the elder question whether this was an actual genius or a genius of a different kind.
"The obvious characteristic is your appearance change, it's a shared characteristic amongst the most powerful Physiques. Back before either of us was born, someone had experienced this, her talent changing from a lowly Spiritual Level into the legendary Heaven level becoming one of the most powerful and talented fairies of the Era." Elder Zhen explained hoping that this simple explanation didn't go over this special disciple's head.
Su Yi listened with awe at the legendary past figure. He wondered, no he wanted to reach those same heights as well. His face turned resolute and the elder seemed to notice, "Don't worry young man, I'm sure you'll naturally reach those heights with your talent!"
Elder Zhen finally escorted Su Yi inside a room with dazzling images on the sides depicting the founding of the Eternal Sect, the righteous battles they had against the Demonic Sects, and some images Su Yi had no idea of what they depicted. Most importantly, in the middle of this room was an altar with an orb on top.
"I see you recognized the orb young man, very intelligent indeed." Elder Zhen said with a small smile trying to gain favor with the new genius. He hoped that this disciple's talent would be at the Heaven level and if so he would lick his boots no matter what.
"Now, place your hand on the Talent Observing Orb"
Su Yi's heart raced with excitement, previously his talent was at the Mortal level, only able to get in by bribing the examiner. The minimum requirement to join the sect was the Spiritual level talent.
With the talents ranging from Mortal, Spiritual, Earth, and Heaven, theoretically, it would be easy to join as you needed at least a second worst talent to join but around 85% of the population only have a Mortal talent level displaying how hard it was to have a talent higher than Mortal.
He pressed his hand nervously on the orb, praying that his talent had increased. The Artifact shined a bright light before a single imposing word appeared upon both disciple and elder. The word that would decide Su Yi's fate.
"Th-This…" Elder Zhen stuttered looking at the word, unable to comprehend what it meant. It was unbelievable, he had never heard of this occurring. His widened eyes turned to Su Yi before coughing, "It seems that the Artifact is broken..." He said, trying to control his voice, still shocked.
"My talent is…"
The imposing "Mortal" word floated in the air shining a bright light around the room. It had been floating for a few minutes and it hadn't even disappeared, almost as if it were mocking Su Yi for daring to even think his fate had changed.
"still shit."