Chapter 02;

Zise was already aware that he was a cultivator as he could already feel the mana circulating inside his body,

a special few talented kids could even start cultivating before they reached the age of five however they couldn't absorb and origin crystal before they reached five years because their bodies weren't strong enough to handle it.

the few that insisted either died or had their cultivation crashed forever turning them into vegetables so no one attempted it anymore.

to test for mana levels, a cultivator from the nearest city would be sent to each village to pick up the talented children.

these children would then be taken to the city's academy where they were taught the basic cultivation techniques and the basics in body forging. at this level they are also introduced to weapons.

it was at this level that one chooses which cultivation path they would follow throughout their life. before the cultivator arrived, Cai Yue took Zise aside and explained to him about his parents.

Zise replied that he was already aware about his parentage because when his mana started circulating in his body the seal on the ring was broken, inside the ring he found many things.

however he could only take out two things, the others seemed to have been sealed as well and he could only recieve them after increasing his mana level.

the first thing he recieve from the ring was a group of letters addressed to him from his birth parents, one of the letters explained their unfortunate situation that led to him being in Fengbao village.

he says that he understood form their descriptions that his father was named Sheng Min while his mother was Zhang Yun

the other thing he recieved was a cultivation method called the transcendence manual, he says that he didn't understand it at first.

luckily he has had a full year of practice and now he can practice the first level of the five levels of the transcendence manual.

he then tells he that despite knowing all that he still considers her as his mother for she raised him alone despite knowing nothing about him,

he tells her that this is the very reason he chooses to retain his name Hui Zise, after a tearful hug Zise heads to the village chief's house, this would be the place where the cultivator would wait for the village kids.

Cai Yuer brought Zise to be tested as well and as they wait in line, several kids get tested, most of them failed to even reach level 1 but at that moment someone was tested and the result was mana level 5.

this was Di Shin, his parents were both some of the better handling people in he village, although 5 was the lowest, he was the first to achieve that in the village for over a decade.

usually the test ends with the highest having at most mana level 2. although this would make this person outstanding among regular people, the highest he could ever go was level 20 and the could never exceed level 20,

only those at level 5 and above could exceed their supposed limit with hard work and determination, those people wouldn't be abandoned of course however they also wouldn't be considered cultivators.

their only out was either to become a wandering cultivator or join the empire's army where they could recieve training and a little resources to help them reach their limit.

the next person was Feng Jun the son of the village chief Feng Po who awakened level 4.5 meaning he was simply a hair's breadth away from qualifying,

however the chief didn't insist on him joining but rather decided that Feng Jun would be taken to enlist in the military academy to be trained as a soldier, the qualification for this was a mana level of 1 and above.

these children would become military officers and commanders while those that enlisted at 15 years would become foot soldiers.

the testing resumed at a steady pace until it was Zise's turn, in the village there were mixed reactions about him, since his mother had no husband many called human bastard or an outsider.

despite how hardworking he and his mother were they were still mistreated, it was why his mother had kept all that money a secret.

upon his arrival at the testing site many mocked him and when it was his turn to be tested many even turned their back to walk a way since he was the last one in the line.

they believed that he couldn't pass that test in any way all except the village chief, the village chief was the only reason Zise and his mother still lived in the village.

he alone believed in them and treated them well, he was also the only reason Zise was okay with leaving his mother alone in the village.

the village chief had known Cai Yuer all her life till her parents passing during a monster raid, her parents were both soldiers and they were close friends to his parents.

he understood that Yuer must have had a good reason to keep all the information about Zise a secret so he wasn't about to interfere with that.

the cultivator tested Zise's muscles and bones to confirm his age however even then he was shocked to see that he could detect mana circulating in his body.

this was a characteristic that Zise was already a cultivator and from the concentration of mana in his body he should be close to level 10 if not beyond it.

to confirm his suspicions he granted Zise the testing rod, it was a cylindrical contraption with ten holes in it,

it was the weakest mana tester as well as the most accurate for those at 5 years, to test one would hold the rod in their had and circulate their mana in their body,

every person had mana in their bodies however the concentration of mana differed which is what would determine one's mana level.

as Zise held the rod and circulated his power, energy flowed into the rod and as it rose the onlookers were shocked, even those that had been fleeing turned back to look clearly.

as they watched his mana rose from o to 1, then to 2 then to 3, as it slowly rose they were shocked, if he reached 5 he would become a cultivator, the second one in the village in decades and even if he didn't reach 5 he already had a foundation to become a high ranking military commander.

as they watched his mana washed level 5 however it didn't stop, it kept rising to level 6 then seven and everyone was dumbfounded.

this was because no one had ever achieved mana above level 5 in the history of the village, and Zise was already reaching level 9 as they watched.

as he approached 9 however the speed of the rise dropped drastically that it was rising slowly now, it seemed like he was approaching his limit if not already there.

the cultivator told him to calm down and let the mana free on its own following the path of his meridians, and as they watched the level kept rising slowly until at the end it finally reached level 10, at that point the top of the rod glowed with purplish gold light.

none of the regular people understood what was happening as this was the first time for them however the cultivator was shocked, he knew what the purple light meant.

at the first bottleneck one's elemental affinity would be recognized however they wouldn't be able to obtain it until they reached level 40.

however knowing it allows them to know the direction of their cultivation, there were 10 major elements in the universe namely water, fire, air, soil, light, thunder, wood, metal, space and time,

some of these elements had variations like water having ice, soul having sand and so on however these elements were ranked based on their power

at 10 was wood, then metal, then soil, then light, then water, then air, then fire, then Thunder followed by space and finally time.

of the ten elements the top two couldn't be awakened by cultivators making lightning the most powerful element a cultivator can awaken.

space and time were meant to be studied once one obtained level 100 cultivation base. only a demigod would be powerful enough to study these two elemental laws.

Zise had not only achieved mana level 10 as a 5 year old child, but in the future he had the potential to awaken the lightning element which is a top tier element.

the appearance shocked everyone quiet however Zise simply turned to his mother with a massive smile only to see tears welled up in her eyes, it was like a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

from there the cultivator told the two kids Zise and Di Shin that they should prepare themselves as he would be taking them with him in a few hours.

Zise returned to their small house with his mother who then granted him a small pouch, inside the pouch were golden coins.

on seeing the coins Zise was shocked, he asked his mother where she got the money from, she told him that it was left by his parents as they died, they wanted her to use it to take care of them, however the money was just too much for their village so she hid it away.

he tells him that originally they were 500 gold coins but as of now, she had exchanged 50 gold coins into 50000 silver coins and 50 gold coins into 50 million copper coins.

she tells him that so far they have used just one million copper coins in five years leaving him with 49 million copper coins for Zise to use.

Shocked, Zise simply looks at the money and remembers all the times he hadn't asked his mother for things he wanted because was sure they didn't have enough money.

now he realizes that his mother had kept all this hidden from him on purpose build his character well and once again he appreciates his mother.

he takes the pouch and even though he wanted to leave her with atleast one million copper coins she told him that she doesn't need it.

she says that with him gone the little money from her farm is more than enough for her, besides where Zise is going in the city there are many things that require him to spend money.

she tells him that before he is taken under the banner of a sect, he had to pay yearly tuition of 10 silver coins to the city academy

in addition he needs to take care of his meals and clothing as the academy will only pay for the lessons,

however if he is taken under an organisation, the organization will take care of everything and and he may even be taken to their sect.