Chapter 14 - Introspection (Part 2)

His cultivation rank was also correct.

But that wasn't what got his attention. What he found more intriguing were the sections related to his talent.

It said there that, apparently, his Qi cultivation talent was graded as a 5. This could mean a lot of different things, depending on the scale that was being used in this measurement. For example, if the highest value that could be recorded in that section was a 10, that would be vastly different than if it was 100 or 1000. Unfortunately, there was no explanation regarding this issue.

Another thing he had to keep in mind was the fact that he had no idea what the average for the regular population might be. Even if the highest value possible in that section was a 10, that did not mean the average value for the overall population would be a 5. It could be higher or lower.

This meant any conclusions made right now would have to be taken with a grain of salt and further investigated in the future.

For now, he would assume that the values of talent would go from 1 to 10 and that 5 was supposed to be the average.

With these assumptions in mind, a curious picture would emerge.

Lao Jianming, the supposed biggest genius of his sect, someone who had established a new record time for reaching Foundation Establishment, and someone whom everyone envied, ended up having completely average talent for cultivating. A truly dramatic revelation.

This might sound weird at first, but it wasn't that hard to believe.

Lao was born in an environment that promoted cultivation progress to its maximum. He had access to all the resources he might ever want, the best facilities and locations to train, and the personal guidance and protection of one of the most influential people in his sect.

All these points made up for whatever he might have been lacking in talent.

One thing that he had to give Lao credit for, though, was his intense drive to get stronger. Arthur already knew how determined Lao had been in his life when it came to cultivation, but this made it even more impressive.

Lao himself was probably aware of his own shortcomings. But that did not seem to impact him in the slightest. He continued marching forward with a completely unshaken confidence. All the praises and expectations everyone had for him would, for any other person, start weighing on their mind, as the idealized version everyone had of them would start clashing with their mediocre reality. It would be enough to drive anyone crazy.

Not Lao, though.

He seemed to have a drive to brave through everything to achieve his objectives. And he would not allow his talent to get in the way. If he was mediocre, he would make himself a genius. If there were people more talented than him, he would make sure to leave them all in the dust.

With such average talent, even with all the other factors he had in his favor, the amount of success Lao achieved was still amazing, largely related to his own hard work.

After all, in cultivation, the most important aspect, after luck, is talent. If your talent is lacking, you'd be hard-pressed to keep up with people around you, regardless of how many resources you use.

And for this, his respect for Lao had grown considerably.

However, this information did not bode well for him in the future. With such average talent inherited from Lao, he would have a harder and harder time getting stronger in the future. As the realms get higher, his lackluster talent would become more and more evident, causing him more and more difficulties.

This would then be made worse by the two years that Lao had lost after leaving the sect.

Cultivation was something that advanced faster the younger you were. Your body would be more adaptable and filled with energy, allowing it to continuously mold itself as the cultivation path required.

As you got older, this process would get harder and harder. So, these two years, while not a very long period in the grand scheme of things, would end up creating several problems for him in the future. He would have to run against the clock to recover the wasted time.

Still, Arthur was not disappointed. In fact, he looked forward to it. Being forced into a corner, forced to take certain risks if he wanted to succeed. Maybe he would be able to learn more about himself in the process.

And it's not like everything he was seeing was negative.

The other two cultivation paths, body and soul cultivation, both showed a talent level of 8. This was far better when compared to his talent in Qi cultivation.

Again, he did not know the specifics of the scale used to measure talent, but at the very least, he could be sure that his progress in these two paths would be far smoother when compared to his Qi cultivation journey.

His talent for body cultivation made sense. Ever since he reincarnated, Arthur had been completely shocked by the incredibly athletic build of Lao's body. It was like he was born to be a warrior. So his talent in body cultivation did not come as a surprise to him. If anything, he felt like it should have been even higher.

The one which left him a bit perplexed was the soul cultivation talent. The number of people being able to follow the soul cultivation path was already extremely low. But to add to that, not only was he apparently able to cultivate it, he actually seemed to have a massive affinity towards it.

He wondered why, though. Lao didn't strike him as someone who would be a good fit with this style of training. Soul cultivators usually were calm and collected individuals, with an extreme affinity for sensing the emotions of those around them, very in tune with the world around them, and with an extremely high affinity towards arts.

Excused to say, Lao did not fit the bill at all.

So, could it be that the Soul cultivating talent came not from Lao, but rather from himself?

It made sense. After all, Lao's soul was no longer residing in that body. So if an appraisal of his ability to follow the soul cultivation path was conducted, it would follow logic that it would be his own soul being appraised rather than Lao's.

If he thought about it that way, this made a bit more sense.

Though, it was still somewhat odd and ironic that someone who hadn't really understood what it meant to be human and never really experienced the essence of humanity for himself would be able to follow a cultivation path related to the strengthening and tempering of the human soul and essence.

Regardless, this was good news. Him being able to follow the soul path would allow him to reach the goal he had set for himself back in the library, that of achieving absolute perfection. By reaching the pinnacle in the three cultivation paths simultaneously. He was curious as to what the view would be like from that summit.

And his talent for body and soul cultivation being high was even better for him. After all, Lao hadn't trained in these paths at all.

So Arthur had to make sure to even out his progress in these two paths with his progress in his Qi cultivation. Otherwise, he would run the risk of having both of these two paths closed off permanently, due to his Qi cultivation getting too advanced and preventing progress in the other two from happening.

This high talent in these two cultivation paths was certainly a welcome surprise.