'... Ye Min waited all this time for me?' Hei Tu thought, somewhat surprised to see the cute girl in maid's uniform standing at the gate of the house.
'No… she probably just came out to wait for me when she heard news that the awakening ceremony had ended,' he shook his head lightly, recalling the same.
The Awakening Ceremony couldn't be said to be exactly as he expected it would be, but it also wasn't far from the convention he grew used to from reading Chinese novels in the past.
In the end, several youths awakened something comparable to a "Dantian," with some celebrating their high cultivation talent, while others lamented their low talent but still felt relieved when they looked at those with no talent at all, who were all inconsolable, their faces filled with hopelessness.
Even Fei Sha, the friend of the original Hei Tu, who had a determined smile on his face and big ambitions and convictions about becoming an important figure in the clan, was left devastated after failing, unable to walk properly, in an even worse state than others who failed to awaken their apertures.
So when Hei Tu returned after his own aperture had been evaluated by the elder, he saw him alone in a corner with a vacant look on his face, while Hi Zheng quickly came over to tell him that Fei Sha needed some time alone to think about what had just happened.
He agreed readily, not only because he didn't know what words of comfort to offer Fei Sha but also because he had already established in his mind his focus on observing as much as possible from the awakening ceremony.
But Fei Sha's helpless state, along with that of the others who had failed the Awakening, served as a strong reminder of the words his father had told him before he left home. Especially now, he reflected that he could easily have been one of them—lost and helpless after transmigrating, lacking the ability to become a cultivator in a world that seemed to be ruled by cultivation.
Coming back to the ceremony itself was relatively long, and from what he could see from the youth's whispered conversations and facial expressions, there was a mix of boredom during the wait and excitement when their turn finally came, only to fall back into boredom again as they had to wait for everyone's awakening to finish.
The highlight, however, was a short, cute-faced girl named Su Ah—the girl Zi Heng had previously mentioned wanting to marry, something Hei Tu hadn't paid much attention to at the time, but his view changed when she ended up being the one with the highest talent, achieving B-grade and managing 38 steps.
However, contrary to his expectations and seeing the reactions of all the other young people, she returned with a somewhat cold expression and a hint of helplessness that he could clearly see in her eyes, which made him thoughtful for a moment as he paid attention to the murmurs of the young people around him.
Through these murmurs, as well as a casual conversation he pretended to have with Zi Geng, he quickly discovered that Su Ah was the clan leader's third daughter and had shown great signs of intelligence and reasoning from a young age, which led the youths of the clan to expect that she would be an A-grade talent—a grade he already understood to be the highest. But, contrary to their expectations, she was only a B-grade talent.
So, even though she had awakened with the highest grade and the only B-grade talent in this year, he could easily deduce why she seemed to have a slight look of disappointment and why the academy elder, who usually showed little emotion, had a complicated look on his face.
"It's good to see you back, young master Hei Tu," Ye Min said softly with a cute smile. "Congratulations on successfully awakening your aperture!"
Hei Tu was pulled from his thoughts by Ye Min, who was now slightly bowing before straightening her posture, still keeping a bright smile. He nodded, not surprised that she knew he had succeeded in the ceremony, as the elder had informed them that the families of everyone who participated in the ceremony had already been notified of their results.
"Your father is waiting for you in the living room to offer his congratulations, so I was asked to escort you there as soon as you arrived," Ye Min spoke politely and diligently, not seeming to waste any time.
"Of course, you can lead the way…" he replied nonchalantly, trying not to show that he had to follow the girl because he didn't know where the living room was in his own house.
Ye Min, hearing this, bowed again and began leading the way, making light conversation along the way. Hei Tu was content to chat with her, even though he no longer needed to deduce much from her words; however, talking with a beautiful girl is an enjoyable experience for any young man with his head straight.
Soon, after walking through the well-decorated corridors, he arrived in a well-organized living room decorated in the same style as the rest of the house.
"So, how do you feel, young man? You've just passed the most important moment of your life," Hei Zhong, who was seated in an armchair facing away from him, said the moment Hei Tu entered the room along with Ye Min, who quickly bowed before taking her leave.
"I feel... relieved... I was truly worried about failing, so now that I didn't, I'm even more determined in my future cultivation," Hei Tu said, standing by the entrance to the room.
"Hmm, well as you know, five out of every ten fail in this ceremony, but that's mainly due to they being clan members with diluted bloodlines... The vast majority of those who fail are children of mortals for several generations," Hei Zhong spoke slowly, imparting a wealth of valuable knowledge in his words. "Since you're the son of two Gu Masters and descended from a family that once had an elder, your failure was highly unlikely."
"Of course, there are always exceptions, like your friend who ended up as a mortal despite being the son of two Gu Masters…" Hei Zhong rose from the armchair and turned to him, speaking with a look that seemed to imply that he understood that this is why Hei Tu had been nervous about his own awakening.
After Hei Zhong finished his words, Hei Tu simply nodded slightly.
"Well, it's also important for you to understand what your innate talent signifies," Hei Zhong approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Among this year's participants, you rank above average in innate talent, with your aperture half-full of primeval essence."
Hei Tu, listening to these words, nodded as if he fully understood their meaning, even if he didn't. Of course, that doesn't mean he wasn't trying to deduce them based on what he already knew about this world.
This quickly led him to guess that this "Primeval Essence" must be equivalent to the Qi of this world, confirming that the primeval stones Zi Heng mentioned—lamenting how he didn't have many to spend on good wine to celebrate his awakening—must be this world's equivalent to spirit stones.
He deduced all this quickly, which by now was becoming a small habit for him, as he had done it repeatedly over the past day.
"How do I check this myself? You know, in practice, not just the theory you taught me before... since it would be better if I already knew before joining the clan academy," he spoke without fear of sounding strange for not knowing how to check his own aperture.
This was because, through his conversation with Zi Heng, as well as some other youths who seemed to know the original Hei Tu and came to speak to him after the ceremony, he discovered that none of them knew how to see their own aperture in practice. All they knew was a bit of theory in how to do it told by their parents in the past.
"Well, I couldn't teach you earlier because practicing is impossible without an aperture, and even now, but I was planning to do so, and with the academy starting the day after tomorrow, it wouldn't take long before you learned to inspect your aperture under the elder's guidance, So having some experience will be a big advantage…" Hei Zhong said with a serious expression on his face as he removed his hand from his shoulder, "...and I understand your youthful enthusiasm to begin cultivating as quickly as possible, so I'll teach you."
"Sit there in meditation in the lotus position," Hei Zhong directed, pointing to a corner of the living room with a chair that seemed mixed with a bed covered by a Chinese-style rug.
He nodded quickly in agreement, obeying his father without needing to think much about what he meant by the lotus position, as it was the classic meditation pose used by cultivators in almost all the Chinese novels he had read.
As soon as he sat in the lotus position, he heard his father's next words, "Actually, in the academy, when the elder teaches you to inspect your own aperture, you won't take this position, but it will make it easier for you to inspect it even if you just awakened it today."
Saying this, Hei Zhong approached him, "As you know, your aperture is located in your abdomen between your two kidneys, and while it's infinitely small if seen from the outside, when you inspect it, you'll find it infinitely large."
While his father said this, he gestured with his hand for him to close his eyes, which he did promptly.
"You must ignore everything else and focus your senses on this infinitely small yet infinitely large point…" Hei Zhong spoke slowly to him, who frowned slightly, trying to do as he was told, "…you will gradually feel a shapeless, weak, but extraordinary pressure."
"And using this sensation that you'll quickly grow accustomed to, in addition to feeling it more intensely, you'll directly visualize your aperture."
Hearing these words, Hei Tu, who was sitting with his eyes closed in the lotus position, breathing lightly in a rhythmic manner, nodded.
"Of course, how long this takes depends on both the innate talent of a Gu Master and their latent talent, so A-Grades find it easier due to their higher amount of primeval essence compared to a D-Grade," Hei Zhong spoke quickly, as if remembering this important detail.
"But latent talent allows a D-Grade to inspect their aperture before an A-Grade if their talent is exceptional, but these are exceptions."
"So keep in mind that inspecting one's own aperture can take around an hour for the most talented, and for those less talented, it can take up to sixteen hours or more," Hei Zhong said to Hei Tu, who was intensely focused on a small supernatural sensation originating from his abdomen.
In fact, contrary to what Hei Zhong said about it taking some time for him to feel this sensation, it was quite the opposite for him. The moment he closed his eyes, he felt a shapeless pressure between his kidneys so strongly that he was surprised he hadn't noticed it before.
This led him to deduce that his status as a transmigrator must have certainly helped in this process, as unlike the people in this world who must be accustomed to the existence of primeval essence as an unchangeable truth of life, for him, such things were mere topics of imagination and books.
So, if he were to describe it, it was a sensation completely unfamiliar to him, entirely outside of what one might experience in the physical world, yet at the same time, he felt an odd familiarity with it, as if it were an integral part of his being. Gradually, he felt his mind touch it, like a thin veil that was becoming increasingly clear to sense and see.
With each moment, the faint sensation, which felt like a formless veil, grew stronger. Not only that, but it also took a perfectly spherical form surrounded by a thin membrane of light that flickered slightly, leaving him speechless for a few moments.
Shortly afterward, as if guided by instinct, his mind entered without obstacles into the sphere of faint light, which appeared as small as a grain of sand, only to reveal a sea of clear green waters stretching endlessly in sight, contained by walls of faint light that flickered lightly like the walls from the spherical form.
'Infinitely small, yet infinitely large…' he thought quickly, finally understanding completely what his father meant.
"I managed to inspect my aperture… it looks like a half filled sea with clear green waters surrounded by a wall of white light," Hei Tu said calmly, opening his eyes to see his father's slightly shocked face.
"Already? Are you sure? Barely over forty minutes have passed…" Hei Zhong spoke with a complicated, doubtful expression to which he nodded repeatedly in confirmation.
Even if hearing this, he also felt slightly perplexed, as during the time he focused his mind on accessing his aperture, he lost much of his sense of time. But even so, he felt that the entire process took much longer than the forty minutes his father mentioned now.
In fact, he initially thought it had taken him a hours to inspect his aperture, which is why he immediately told his father when he managed to do it, but now it turned out he was wrong. Fortunately, it's not as if this had negative consequences; rather, he imagines that showing great cultivation talent to his father should be a good thing in a world governed by cultivation, with the only potential drawback being greater expectations and pressure from him in the future.
Of course, some might say that displaying high talent in a cultivation world would only bring danger, and that's true if shown to strangers who might develop envy or fear of his talent. But he now spoke to his father, whom he judged to have quite a good personality, so he didn't have great reservations about revealing his talent to him.
Moreover, this isn't a typical clixe Chinese novel world where at every corner, there's some young master or elder who would kill an innocent young man simply for displaying a bit of talent.
"This is quite impressive… definitely demonstrates an such high latent talent," Hei Zhong said with a serious look before becoming slightly pensive.
"Well! You should go rest a bit or celebrate with your friends for now, as this will be one of the last days off you'll have for a while!" He changed his expression to a broad smile, as if offering a fatherly encouragement.
"And before I forget to tell you, your mother didn't come to congratulate you because she's at the clan's healing hall with your sister, but she promised to make your favorite dish tonight in celebration."
Hearing this, he nodded, trying to appear excited while hoping in his heart that his culinary tastes wouldn't differ much from those of the original Hei Tu. He then walked quickly out of the house, already having a place in mind where he had agreed to meet Zi Heng.
After bidding farewell to Ye Min, who happened to be at the exit as he passed by, he strode quickly thinking of his destination—the bar of the man who sold the original Hei Tu the black rock, Long Dong!