Chapter 2 - Aptitude Test

"Gather up everyone! Please welcome the proctor from the Grand Star Sect, Elder Xing Lao!!!" A 50-year-old scrawny man, the Village elder shouted enthusiastically towards the gathering crowd

In the crowd stands Long Ren, the 12-year-old boy full of anticipation about the upcoming event. He could only get 4 hours of sleep out of the 12 he prepared.

Going from a fluffy bouncy bed into a piece of a wooden plank in a single night is bound to cause some sleep problems.

Especially when his memory of sleeping on said plank only amounted to 2 years, compared to his 17 years of fluffiness.

Though there are black marks near his eyes, indicating his lack of sleep, his eyes are still full of anticipation.

As the village elder introduced everyone to the proctor called Xing Lao, a burly man, looking to be in his 30s approached the skinny Long Ren.

"Boy, you nervous? HAHAHAHAA!" The burly man laughed while resting one of his elbows on Long Ren's shoulder

Even though he is skinny and malnourished, Long Ren's body constitution is pretty well developed. He stands at a glaring 165 cm tall. Very abnormal for a 12-year-old.

Long Ren looked up to the 180 cm pathetic excuse of a man and saw his mocking eyes.

As Long Ren hated this guy very much, and nothing worse could be done, he usually called him Burly. (A/N: I just don't wanna give a name to the useless side char)

"Shut up, Burly." Long Ren said, with a cold tone

He is the sole reason Long Ren is having a real hard time in this village. He had tried escaping from this village and Burly before, but the nearest one was almost impossible to do by foot, trapping him in Burly's claws.

Hearing his cold tone, Burly's ugly smile turned even wider. He knows what he has done to this 12-year-old boy. He had made him suffer badly these past 2 years for one reason and one reason only. He is too abnormally strong.

At first, when Burly saw Long Ren's abnormal strength, he knew that this boy is special, and if he is to grow for free, no matter whether he had an aptitude for cultivation or not, His position as the village's strongest would be compromised.

Imagine, a 10-year-old boy having the strength of an adult, no, he had even more than that. Only Burly knew that Long Ren's strength at 10 years old was around the same level as his!

Hence, the constant harassment and stunting of his growth.

After 2 years, His labour bore fruit, Long Ren is now so skinny that he barely had the strength of a normal adult.

Though it is true that at first His only reason to stunt Long Ren's growth was just to keep his position safe, as time went on, he started enjoying this.

He enjoyed torturing Long Ren for his own amusement.

Gradually, past Long Ren's hatred towards burly grew uncontrollably, making him adopt a cold attitude towards the world. It is a hatred past Long Ren will remember for life.

And nothing…nothing is better for Burly than when he sees Long Ren's cold face break as he learns that he had no cultivation talent, trapping him in Burly's clutches. Forever!

'Ohh….Long Ren, Hell has just begun!' Burly excitedly said inside his mind. Granted, all this could only happen if, and only if Long Ren does not have any cultivation talent whatsoever.

But Burly was not worried about that.

Since the inception of the village 50 years ago, only he had any sort of cultivation talent whatsoever, and that even led to failure. What chances does Long Ren have?!

Keyword: Was, not is.

…

"CULTIVATION TALENT MEDIUM, SPATIAL ATTRIBUTE!!!!" Xing Lao shouted, excitement and glee apparent in his face while looking at the now dark orb in Long Ren's hands.

Burly: '...'

'Ah, shiet….'

30 minutes later…

After checking each and everyone under the age of 15 for cultivation talent, Xing Lao found no one else worthy of his attention.

While Xing Lao was checking on everyone else, Long Ren is having his cold-served revenge on Burly.

Though he is still malnourished and unable to do anything to Him in public, Long Ren still enacts his revenge as much as he physically could.

Long Ren kept punching and kicking Burly's face and body without remorse. He had awaited this day for quite a while.

Even though his memory of 17 years overpowered the 2 years in here, its hatred sentiment still seethes through his mind.

For 30 minutes Long Ren kept lashing out at Burly, and at the end, He felt refreshed.

No one did anything as they watched the scene. They had after all done nothing as well when Burly oppressed Long Ren, so they will do the same now.

Even if Burly asks for help, no matter how much money they were offered, no non-cultivators would ever offend a cultivator, especially for scum such as Burly.

After Long Ren got the backing of Xing Lao, even Burly is afraid of him. Letting Long Ren have his revenge now is better than retaliating and potentially making an enemy out of Xing Lao right in front of his face.

He would just run out of the village through any means after this, as He knew with one-hundred percent certainty that Long Ren will be back, and at that time, the only thing that awaits him will be death.

Xing Lao got to know about Long Ren's situation from the other villagers, and He is not surprised by something like this, even if Long Ren was just a 10-year-old boy.

Crueler things he had seen, and this,...this is nothing.

Seeing Long Ren already had his fill, at least for now, Xing Lao called him while stroking his groomed 50cm long beard and shouted that they will go.

"Long Ren, go get your belongings, we leave in 10 minutes."

Long Ren nodded and went towards his home, his former home.

Now, hopefully, he could get better accommodation, as He believed his talent was decently good, especially with his Spatial attribute.

Long Ren might not know the full details of the cultivation mumbo jumbos of this world, but, He is pretty confident that spatial attribute cultivators are few and far in between.

Otherwise, why would Xing Lao exclaim THAT happily with just his medium-level talent.

As soon as Long Ren reached his house, He destroyed everything inside, the broken chair, the small wardrobe, and finally, the sorry excuse of a bed. He hated it with everything he had.

Long Ren likes, no, He loves sleeping a lot, sometimes even compromising his study time, social time, and playtime. He compromises basically anything, just to have a good night's sleep.

And the reason he could enjoy it so much is fifty, no, eighty percent because of the soft fluffy bed that he is already missing.

He just realised how luxurious his sleeping habit is yesterday when he laid down on the plank with hollow eyes.

But, enough of that, After penting up his sleeping frustrations, He went to one corner of the house, the sole reason He even went back to this crappy building and not just leave immediately.

He destroyed the poor wooden floor of that corner and removed some dirt off the ground, and in there lay a non-suspicious-looking metal box.

This is the small box Long Ren arrived at the village with, according to his 2 years of memory, this box contains a really small dark blue pendant. The gem is so small it's hard to notice from afar.

Long Ren opened the box and wore the pendant, his body now full of warmth. He didn't know why he felt that just by wearing this pendant, but he knew that this is certainly connected to the 10 years of missing memories.

This pendant is the only clue that he had towards uncovering his memories' mystery.

Thankfully, the past Long Ren is not dumb enough to wear this while working and lose it in the process, courtesy of definitely Burly.

Now that he had the backing of Xing Lao, He wore the pendant, as he really loved the warmth it made him feel inside.

He knew he could still lose it if some greedy eyes coveted it, but if that happens, then it happens. All he could blame was his crappy luck.

Long Ren and Xing Lao then boarded the caravan Xing Lao came here with and said a perfunctory goodbye to this crappy village.

Long Ren will definitely not miss his life here, though he will be back for obvious reasons.