Trash or Talent?

Within the Blue Sky City, the capital of Blue Sky Kingdom, a roaring and deafening shout were heard coming from one of the noble's mansion. Outside of the room where the shout was coming from, a large congregation of people were seen with various age. The old ones have imposing and noble aura while the youngest ones are fidgeting around in excitement. In front of the crowd, stood a middle age man and a young boy around the age of 7 years old.

The middle aged man is Tian Yi Hao, a high elder in the noble house of Tian while the young boy standing beside Tian Yi Hao is Tian Yi Mao, his eldest son. Tian Yi Mao looked at the closed door of the room and asked with concern, "Daddy, will mummy be alright? Is she in alot of pain?"

Tian Yi Hao was about to reply when suddenly, "It's out, the child is out!" Tian Yi Hao with one smooth motion, grabbed Tian Yi Mao's shoulder and rushed into the room.

In the delivery room, the midwife wiped her face full of sweat and wrapped the infant which was just born as she thought to herself, "My God, this child look so pretty and also huge! So heavy!" The midwife was about to put the child down when the door of the room was swung open. She looked at Tian Yi Hao and broke into a smile before saying, "Such a big kid coming out from such a delicate mother, and both could actually be safe. It is a blessing from the Heavens my lord."

Tian Yi Hao just smiled at the midwife's comment and rushed to the side of the mother and asked, full of tenderness, "Rou'er, are you alright?" while Tian Yi Mao ran in front of the midwife and looked at the child in her arms.

"Daddy, Mummy, is this my little brother? Why is he not crying?" asked Tian Yi Mao with a puzzling look on his face. The midwife was surprised and looked back at the child, trying to figure out the reason why the child was not crying. She raised her hand and was about to spank the child's bottom when the crowd outside the room started clamoring and exclaiming loudly, "Why has the sky suddenly turned dark? The sun can no longer be seen anymore."

The mother, Ling Rou Rou, looked at her husband lovingly, then at the crowd outside. She started to get worried and asked, "Yi Hao, is this a bad sign from the birth of our son?" Tian Yi Hao turned and looked at the dark clouds outside which covered the sky as far as the eyes can see and started to crease his eyebrows. A few of the older generations standing outside the room are spotted with the same look while gazing at the dark clouds.

Out of a sudden, a loud bang was heard from the sky, like the opening of a new universe, which instantly stop the clamoring from the crowd. Then, a bright light flash so dazzlingly and flew across the horizon straight into the room. Everyone present did not see what happen because the light was too bright, even for someone like Tian Yi Hao with a high cultivation.

The bright light rushed into the child's body and disappeared. The child which was quiet all this while, started bawling out loudly while the dark clouds outside started to disperse. Seeing their newborn son crying normally like other child, Tian Yi Hao and Ling Rou Rou smiled wryly and shake their heads. Although the phenomenon was no longer there, many of the people in the crowd along with Tian Yi Hao and Ling Rou Rou kept ruminating about what does the phenomenon a moment ago signified.

Tian Yi Hao thought for a bit before voicing out, "I hope the phenomenon does not mean anything bad for our son. To seek for an answer regarding Heaven's phenomenon, we have to seek for the Heaven's Inquirer but his whereabouts in the continent for the past few years have been very illusive. Hmm.."

"We will then put a word out to seek for the Heaven's Inquirer, as long as my baby grows up healthy and happy, I will be fine with that." Ling Rou Rou said with a smile on her face.

"Yi Hao, what about naming him Yi Ren. Tian Yi Ren." Ling Rou Rou asked with excitement and looked at Tian Yi Hao expectantly.

Tian Yi Hao nod with a smile on his face, then took Tian Yi Ren from the midwife's arm. Tian Yi Mao was excited and asked his father, "Daddy, can I hold my little brother?"

While the family is chatting away happily in the room, the crowd outside started inching closer to the room. Three middle age men walked out from the crowd, spotting on imposing robes and holding an apparatus that looks like an orb in their hands.

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Blue Sky Kingdom is one of the many kingdoms in High Sky Continent. In the continent, there are multiple dynasties, kingdoms, sects and academies. The whole continent is rife with conflicts and wars all year round. The way of cultivation for the people in the continent is to start by comprehending a concept to pave the road for the integration of their inborn spirit into their spirit vessels. An inborn spirit could be anything from human shaped spirits, animals, beasts, plants, weapons, tools, pills or nature. An inborn spirit is given by the heavens but the growth of the spirit depends on the master's comprehensions, beliefs and imaginations.

To start the cultivation journey, a person has to start by comprehending a chosen concept of their own, normally based on the kind of spirit they have. There are millions upon millions of concept out there but usually, a cultivator will stick with one concept and grow with it throughout their journey. Many believed that the type of spirit are hereditary, which means that if your parents have spirits which lean towards fire concept, you would almost definitely also have the same type of spirit.

With this beliefs, dynasties, kingdoms and clans are usually built upon a single concept. The house of Tian centers around the concept of slaughter. All of the direct descendants in the clan have spirits related to slaughter and practices slaughter cultivation. Descendants that deviates from the main concept are normally shunned by the rest and transfer out of the main compound.

Everyone will have a spirit vessel when they're born. No matter how high your comprehension of a chosen concept is, if you do not have a spirit vessel, you will not be able to step a single foot in the cultivation journey. There are different types and levels of spirit vessels. The levels of a spirit vessel are split into Dao, Law, Concept, Spirit, Nature, Mist and Original. With Dao level spirit vessels being the highest ever mentioned in history and Original level spirit vessels being the most common among cultivators in the current era. The level of a spirit vessel is usually determined by the amount of impurities that blocked the vessel. All newborns will be tested to check the type of their inborn spirit and their spirit vessel.

One of the middle age man, with a nasty look, stepped into the room and said, "Yi Hao, it's time to check his vessel and plan the allocation of resources for him. Even if you're a high elder of the clan, your son will not be an exception to this tradition." Ling Rou Rou scowled and was obviously dissatisfied but there's nothing that can be done.

Tian Yi Hao grunted as an approval and hold Yi Ren's plump little hand out. The middle age man brought the testing orb out and put it into contact with Yi Ren's hand. The orb will shine when it detected the existence of the spirit vessel while awakening the appearance of the inborn spirit above the newborn's head. The intensity of the shine will determine the quality of the spirit vessel and words will be displayed for any special types of vessel.

After waiting for around 5 mins, there's no shine coming from the apparatus. Tian Yi Hao was surprised and shouted with a dark shade on his face, "Tian Mo Ming, what are you doing?! Why is the orb not functioning?!" No matter how bad someone's talent is, there will still be light coming out from the orb. If there's no light, there can only be two reasons, either the apparatus is broken or the person being tested has no spirit vessel, which makes him fated to only be a mortal.

The middle aged man named Tian Mo Ming was also surprised by the results. "Impossible! The orb used is a new one as instructed by the patriarch. There is no problem with the orb which means..." mumbled Tian Mo Ming as he sneaked a peak at Tian Yi Hao's face and the child in his arms. Tian Mo Ming hurriedly said, "The orb definitely has no problem. Let us do the test again."

10 mins later, the orb is still silent without any light. At this time, Ling Rou Rou started to sob quietly as she said, "So what if my son can't be a cultivator, he's born into the Tian family, son of a high elder, he can still live out his life being carefree and happy." Tian Yi Hao was disappointed but tried his best to hide it from showing.

Tian Yi Mao quietly walked up to his father, took Yi Ren into his arm and walked to a corner, looking at his little brother, he determinedly said, "It is alright if you can't cultivate, your big brother will cultivate quickly and protect you! No one will be able to harm my, Tian Yi Mao's little brother!"

Ling Rou Rou looked at her sons and was comforted by Tian Yi Mao's determination to protect his little brother. She smiled gently at Yi Mao and said, "My Yi Mao will definitely cultivate quickly and become strong enough to protect his little brother. Since you have already integrate with your inborn spirit, you will definitely be amazing!"

Tian Yi Mao was excited after hearing the encouragement from his mother and started brandishing his fist around while the crowd outside silently snickered and shook their heads.