Time flew by, and before long, Xiao Yuan was twelve. His high metabolism had made him look like a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old from Earth.
At that moment, Yuan was running home along the street after school at the Martial Arts Academy. His Apprentice Level 6 strength was already one or two levels higher than that of many kids his age.
On Earth, he would have been an Advanced War General, with the terrifying ability to scale walls, leap across rooftops, and shatter mountains and stones with a single punch or kick.
Yet right now, he was panting as he ran. Every step consumed a tremendous amount of energy.
Yuan crouched low, every muscle in his body taut. With a soft shout, he vaulted over a flower bed more than a meter high, where unfamiliar plants grew.
At the peak of his jump, Yuan realized that an old man was passing right where he was about to land.
There was no way to change direction in midair, so he could only keep falling. But Yuan wasn't worried at all.
Sure enough, the stooped old man, who had been shuffling along, suddenly raised his cane with surprising agility and leaned sharply backward. He and the descending Yuan narrowly avoided colliding.
Yuan landed, used the impact to spring forward, and kept running. His apology drifted back from far away: "Sorry, Old Man Luo! I have a talent test today. I'll play virtual games with you another time."
"That kid from the Stone family has some manners, at least!" Old Man Luo called out with a booming voice. "Hurry up and break through to Earth Rank! I'm an old man—I can't take a scare like that!"
"Thanks for the good wishes!" Yuan called back. His voice echoed from far away, growing faint.
Yuan ran up to a three-story townhouse with a small garden of about thirty square meters. A young man in his twenties stood on the lawn with his back to Yuan.
Delighted to see him, Yuan dashed through the gate and threw a dirty, underhanded punch straight at the young man's lower back.
As if he'd seen it coming, the young man turned and lightly blocked the punch with his elbow, easily deflecting Yuan's attack.
Unwilling to give up, Yuan used the force of the block to retreat half a step, then launched a flurry of attacks like a violent storm. The young man stayed where he was, parrying each one with movements like Wing Chun.
Yuan's punches whooshed through the air. He was having the time of his life, and a sudden idea struck him: he attacked with his hands and feet all at once.
The young man had no choice but to retreat a step to avoid Yuan's sudden kick.
Yuan stopped and burst out laughing. "After all these years, I finally made you step back!"
The young man replied helplessly, "You're only Apprentice Level 6. What good does it do to make me, an Earth Rank 9, take one step back? Your training's been paying off, though. Your punches are much more solid."
Yuan said proudly, "Of course! I've already trained up to the third section of the Basic Fist Technique Guide and developed my first Dark Force. I can now exert twice my strength!"
The young man looked surprised. "Not bad, kid. You've made huge progress."
At Apprentice Level 6, Yuan could exert a force of dozens of tons. On Dongyuan Planet, that was enough to lift a somewhat large rock at most.
Even if he doubled his strength, it was still barely noticeable to an Earth Rank 9 fighter, whose strength measured in hundreds of thousands of tons.
A woman in her twenties, who looked like a young married woman, came out of the townhouse and teased Yuan with a smile. "Your father finally gets a chance to come home, and all you want to do is 'fight' him."
The young man was Yuan's father, Autumn. Father and son exchanged a smile, put their arms around each other's shoulders, and walked into the townhouse together. They sat down on the living-room sofa.
Autumn's wife, Doris, asked him, "How many days off do you have this time?"
"Just one. The mining work's been really heavy lately. I had to ask the supervisor ages ago just to get this one day." Autumn patted his son on the shoulder. "It's my son's second talent test. How could I, his father, possibly miss it? Haha!"
"All right. No matter how busy work gets, remember to rest. Don't wear yourself out."
Doris glanced at her son, then gossiped to her husband. "Your son's been popular with the girls at the academy lately. He's already received more than a dozen love letters!"
Hearing his mother say it so bluntly, Yuan awkwardly touched his nose. "I didn't think I was all that handsome. I don't know what those girls are thinking."
Autumn chimed in, "It is strange. This kid's been liked by practically everyone since he was little. Now that he's grown up, all the girls just starting to fall in love like him too."
It had been an unsolved mystery in their family for years. Yuan had been clever from an early age, and he seemed to have a special, inexplicable charm that made people like him.
On top of that, his father's promotion had improved the family's circumstances. His parents were strict with him, but treated him like a friend as well.
All of it had helped Yuan grow into the cheerful, warm, and optimistic boy he was today.
Those traits made him stand out even more among ordinary people, whose lives were generally dull and burdened by the pressure of having children and cultivating.
Autumn looked at his son's face, which resembled his own in a few ways but wasn't especially handsome.
"It doesn't make sense," he said, sounding a little regretful. "When I was young, girls didn't like me nearly as much."
"What? You regret that girls didn't like you when you were young?"
Oh no! Autumn looked up and saw Doris's sharp gaze. Only then did he realize he'd said the wrong thing. He awkwardly touched his nose.
Watching the two of them make the exact same funny gesture, Doris couldn't keep a straight face and burst out laughing.
Her attempt to act stern had failed, so she gave her husband a fierce glare and turned toward the kitchen. "I made Sandworm Rolls, which you two both love. Finish eating, then hurry up and take Yuan for his talent test."
The Talent Grading Room still had the same staff, and little had changed in its furnishings over the past nine years, apart from the addition of a few new employees.
Seeing the boys and girls who had just finished their tests wearing pained expressions, Doris was very worried. Autumn could only comfort her quietly as they waited in line.
Yuan, however, took it in stride and reassured his mother. "It's okay, Mom. At worst, my head will hurt for a couple of days."
The second talent grading was a Brain Domain Width test. It involved examining the brain and required fairly advanced energy-processing machines, as well as the use of law-patterns.
The technology hadn't yet reached the convenience of the later era, when Luo Feng took his test at Earth's No. 9 Ancient Civilization Ruins. The test subjects still had to endure some pain.
Yuan lay down, and once all the equipment was ready, the test began.
A sensation like electricity surged through his entire body. Yuan felt as if heavy stones were pressing down on him, and his whole face contorted in pain.
His parents watched from the side, their hearts tightening.
Yuan felt as if he were plummeting at high speed into an ocean filled with mist. Was this the legendary Consciousness Sea?
Dense fog surrounded him. Yuan felt as though he had been flying for a long time, and yet perhaps only an instant had passed.
Through the thick mist, he saw a huge, dark-purple, diamond-shaped crystal standing before him, radiating a dazzling light that filled him with wonder.
"Brain Domain Width: 37. Grade A+..." The staff member called out each parameter. Even someone as experienced as him was astonished by the result.
"Spiritual Force concentration: C... C-minus?"
The staff member was puzzled. He tapped the device in his hand, wondering if the testing equipment had malfunctioned.
A high Brain Domain Width meant abundant Spiritual Force. Some people with exceptionally high talent even had Spiritual Force that condensed into a solid form while they were young.
Like Luo Feng in the future, whose Spiritual Force had formed a solid, dark-gold sphere in his mind.
After waking up, Yuan somehow forgot about the purple crystal he'd seen in his Consciousness Sea.
He only said that he'd flown through the Consciousness Sea for a long time without seeing any Spiritual Force in liquid or solid form.
Yuan's parents refused to let him take the test again. If the equipment had a problem, why should their son have to suffer through it a second time?
The staff member was at a loss and didn't know what to do.
A Brain Domain Width of A+ was high enough to be reported as a talent, but his Spiritual Force concentration was far too low.
His mist-like Spiritual Force was only a little higher than that of someone with no talent for becoming a Spirit Reader.
And Yuan's development so far certainly hadn't seemed to indicate that he had Spirit Reader talent.
Spirit Reader talent generally revealed itself little by little before a person finished growing into adulthood. It developed along with their strength, but its true potential wouldn't become clear until they were an adult.
That was why Luo Feng, who had been an Advanced War General on Earth, already had the strength of a War God as a Spirit Reader.
Yuan, also an Apprentice Level 6, was only looking inside his Consciousness Sea for the first time. He was still young, after all.
In the end, Autumn persuaded the staff member. "It's enough that my son has Spirit Reader talent, isn't it? We'll have Yuan follow the path of a Spirit Reader and break through to Earth Rank on his own."
"Then he can use that to help his martial strength break through too. That'll save us a ton of resources that would otherwise go toward breaking through with outside help, and he'll still have a chance to reach Flying Star Rank in the future."
"Even if my son really does have some special talent, it'll show itself once he reaches Earth Rank, won't it? We won't be burying a genius."
"All right." The staff member was convinced and gave Yuan an overall C+ rating that didn't need to be reported. Everyone was satisfied.
By the time they left the Martial Arts Hall, night had fallen.
Autumn said to Yuan solemnly, "Don't tell anyone about your Brain Domain Width of 37. Especially not your grandparents!"
Doris gave her husband a meaningful look and nodded in agreement.
Could Yuan's father have gone through something similar in the past?
Yuan found his parents' behavior strange. But when he pressed them, they both insisted nothing was wrong.
Autumn changed the subject. "Now that you've taken your second talent test, you can start cultivating Genetic Origin Energy. Have you forgotten?"
That was right. Yuan was excited. No matter how high or low their test results were, kids with youthful confidence were never willing to accept that they might lack talent.
Before the age of twelve, they could only passively absorb energy, so their strength grew slowly.
The boys and girls all dreamed that when they cultivated Genetic Origin Energy for the first time, they would reveal the talent that had been "buried" in them.
Then they could quickly become powerful and rise to the top.
There were plenty of examples of that every century, but far more often, reality poured cold water on their dreams...
Autumn had already hurried back to the mine. After being promoted to captain of the mining team, his pay and benefits had increased four- or fivefold, and he'd moved into a townhouse provided by the mine.
The family's living conditions had improved considerably, but as the person in charge of production, Autumn rarely had any free time.
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