Soul

At the top of a sturdy mountain above it was the azure blue sky and the yellow sun that seemingly gave light to all life. There stands various people, be it adult, elderly, children, they were all here and the focus of attention was various teenager's. Today is the day that they'll awaken their soul it's precisely the " Misty Mountain " Sect's awakening ceremony.

The awakening ceremony is held every three years, many people look forward to it specially the young generation for they were nervous and excited about their awakening

" Nervous " because their aptitude dictate's their life or in another words this awakening ceremony is a major turning point in their lives depending on what kind of aptitude they awaken.

" Excited " because they can finally gain the chance to cultivate, just being able to cultivate itself is a major turning point in everyone's life.

Seven out of ten people can cultivate, meanwhile the remaining three will become mortals. The difference in treatment between mortals and cultivators is like the difference between heaven and earth itself, mortals struggle to find food in their everyday lives, cultivators can abuse them and people will turn a blind eye about it. Most mortals ended up being traded as slaves, it's safe to say that they're at the lowest part of the food chain.

Legend says that humans were originally beings at the level of God. They then comitted a huge crime and " The Omnipotence " punished them.

From then on humans have become mortals but there was a human who dares defy the heavens he found a way to regain the godly prowess humans originally had and that's by awakening the soul.

The soul is what contains the power humans originally had. You awaken it during awakening ceremonies held by sects, clans, et cetera. There are locks in your soul and by breaking each of those locks you'll slowly regain your power. If a human had five locks in his soul after he breaks each of those locks he will regain a portion of his power, and those locks will then be replaced by another locks with the same quantity and a stronger locks.

After a human awakens his soul he will be called a cultivator with the cultivation " Nature Green Soul Fifth Stage " after breaking a lock they'll have become " Nature Green Soul Fourth Stage " and then so on after breaking four locks he'll have gained the cultivation " Nature Green Soul First Stage " and by breaking the final lock he will have ascended to " Blood Red Soul Fifth Stage " and the locks will then be replaced by another stronger lock with the same five lock by breaking them all over they'll have slowly regained their power and reached another level of cultivation.

And talent or aptitude in cultivation is determined by the number of locks you have there are people who only have three locks and that's a C grade talent, 5 Locks - E Grade Aptitude, 4 Locks - D Grade Aptitude, 3 Locks - C Grade Aptitude, 2 Locks - B Grade Aptitude, 1 Lock - A Grade Aptitude.

The lesser the locks the easier it is to cultivate once someone awakens his soul and found that he only have one lock in his soul he'll have become an A Grade Talent and with the cultivation of " Nature Green Soul First Stage " he don't have to go through Fifth, Fourth, Third, nor Second stage because he only have one lock in him.

The same goes the moment he ascends to Blood Red Soul Realm he will automatically be " Blood Red Soul First Stage " with the same one lock.

People then call those with lesser locks to have more talent in cultivation. There are those who have five or four locks but managed to defy the heaven and made a name for Themselves. There are also people who has four or five locks but with their talent in battle they're able to battle those with higher cultivation. Unfortunately people don't value these things and they only see those people with lesser locks as talent and disregard other kind of talents.

And today is precisely the day these youngsters attemp to awaken their Soul. "line up properly, those who don't line up properly will be exempted of their chance to awaken their souls hmph!" A slim old man said while stroking his beard.

When the youngsters heared what the old man said they immediately lined up properly, awakening their souls is a one in a lifetime chance they need to grasp it as soon as possible. Waiting for the next ceremonies means they've delayed three years of cultivation and that's something they didn't wan't.

"old man Xie Chen is too strict but let it be we can't miss this chance"

"he's always been like that, thinking highly of himself hmph!"

"it's not like he can exempt us hehe he's a mere old man assigned to take charge of the ceremony"

The youngsters muttered among themselves. The ceremony started and as expected most of the participants has E Grade - Aptitude and the lucky one's have C Grade - Aptitude

"ohh!! see this see this old Yan Hiek my grandchild Yun Xien has B - Grade Aptitude hmph! what can your Yan Rie do?" an old man named Yun Keh in white clothing said so mockingly at an old man named Yan Hiek in black clothing besides him.

They're called the black and white rivals named the White Yang - Yun Keh and Black Yin - Yan Hiek they were originally childhood friends and as they grew older they've started competing against who's better at which and the two holds real emnity against each other there seems to be a reason between this emnity but no one knew.

Yan Hiek coldly snorted "My Yan Rie's turn is yet to come just you wait old fart, my Yan Rie will have a B Grade - Aptitude no less than your Yun Xien!" this Yan Hiek didn't dare mention A Grade - Aptitude this aptitude is extremely rare and very few people across the northern continent has it. They can only dream about B Grade - Aptitude at most.

It's Yan Rie's turn and he began on sitting crossed leg after some time his soul awakened and was evaluated by the ceremony evaluator as B Grade - Aptitude with only two locks.

Old man Yan Hiek immediately gave a mocking glance. After Yan Rie it's Luo Feng's turn he wore a black and white robe with handsome facial features making him stand out from the crowd.

He walked towards the altar and sat crossed legs as his soul awakened it was evaluated as D Grade - Aptitude he stood up and left the altar and gave his thanks towards evaluator "thanks for the evaluation!" even with D Grade - Aptitude he greeted people as if nothing happened.

After this it was Ren Zu's turn he was an orphan rescued during the war of the five continent no one knew his origin and no one was interested in finding it out neither.

Ren Zu walked towards the altar and sat crossed legs as his soul awakened and it was then evaluated as D Grade - Aptitude he sighed in his heart "this should be enough" as he said so while leaving the ceremony.

While he was walking towards his home he suddenly heared the voice of an old man this voice seems like the voice of Yun Keh the White Yang "it's good that the evaluator didn't dare reveal that you only have a C Grade - Aptitude hmph! of course he won't with the wealth i gave, it should be enough to shut his mouth up!" Yun Keh said this with a nervous tone while snorting coldly.

His grandson however didn't feel the same, for him it's not a bad thing to have a C Grade - Aptitude and he strongly believed that one can soar through the heavens even with just a mere C Grade - Aptitude. It's understandable that he thinks this way despite the fact that he's the young master of Yun Clan, he grew up reading the novels of heroes who soared through the heavens even with their weak potential and as time passed he slowly idiolized them and this shaped his morals and principles as he grew older, it could be seen from his expression that he's unwilling with what his Grandfather is dragging him into.

As Ren Zu overheared the details of the conversation he listened carefully as he breathed profusely.

suddenly Yun Keh shouted in a cold yet nervous tone "who's there?!" he said this due to the fact that he seems to have felt the presence of someone listening them, even though this Yun Keh is not an investigative cultivator, with his sixty years of experience he slowly developed this kind of instinct that warns him in the face of danger.

However Ren Zu immediately walked away by about twelve steps and then kneeled on the ground and shouted with an angry yet sad tone "w-why do i have a mere D Grade aptitude?!t-this kind of life, damn it!" while saying this he punched the ground so strong his hands started to bleed.

Yun Keh who thought that someone heared the conversation however saw this scene as he thought to himself "hmph!? just some lowly cultivator with no special backround with a D Grade - Aptitude!" as he said this he immediately walked away with his grandson, he didn't suspect Ren Zu or anything for him it's just some mere lowly cultivator suffering from his mere D - Grade Aptitude.

After seeing that the grandfather and grandson has left, the corner of Ren Zu's mouth immediately turned into a slight grin as he said "i was almost caught red handed there, heh but the people of the righteous path are really morons" he said this with a mocking tone.

Ren Zu thought this way because of how simple it is to remove suspicions, and that's precisely because of the mindset of this righteous cultivators.

Most righteous cultivators has this respect the strong and disdain the weak mentality therefore those who they see as inferior will immediately be regarded as someone who can't threathen them as demonstrated earlier Yun Keh immediately disresgarded his suspicions of Ren Zu once he saw him acting that way.

Ren Zu then proceeded to recite a poem

" The Opossum. In playing

dead, the opossum plays stupid.

Many a predator has therefore left it

alone. Who could believe that such an

ugly, unintelligent, nervous little creature

could be capable of such deception "

— Robert Greene

as a wise cultivator once said "play a sucker to catch a sucker appear dumber than your mark"

No one enjoys feeling stupid. Consequently, a great trick is to make your opponents feel smarter than you. Once they believe themselves to be more intelligent, they will never suspect that you have any ulterior motives.