Chapter 14: Aptitude Crystals

Later that day, Eric's dad got home, but it was a bit earlier than usual. Eric sensed his presence when he was outside the doors to the house and got a little nervous. He didn't really know how to explain that he was at the 2nd Layer already.

He was able to fool Liam and Lily with lies, but he seriously doubted that method would work on his father. As of right now, the only chance he had to avoid that topic was to rely on luck. To be more precise, he was hoping that his father wouldn't notice what layer he was on.

Blake was incredibly strong; compared to him, Eric was a speck of dust.

From this information, Eric came up with two theories.

The first was that with such a high level of cultivation, Blake would be able to know precisely which Layer of the Spirit Apprentice Realm Eric was on because of the level of intensity of his presence, as he was way stronger than Eric.

The second was that since Blake was at such a high level of cultivation, the difference between the first and second layer of the Spirit Apprentice Realm was too miniscule for him to notice without focusing on it; similar to how a human wouldn't notice if an ant was a child or an adult, because to humans, ants were just weak little ants, all of which they could effortlessly crush beneath their feet in less than an instant.

Eric hoped that it would be the second case where his father wouldn't really care about the difference of the layers and would just believe Eric when he said that he was at the first layer.

As his father entered the house, Eric decided to go downstairs to tell him the news himself. It would be weirdly suspicious if he hid the fact that he broke through in such a short time from his own father.

When Eric reached the living room, however, he could tell from his parents' faces that his mother had already told his father the good news.

"You already broke through? As expected of my son, he has such a terrifying speed of cultivation!" Blake guffawed as he took out three shiny, precious looking crystals from his space ring.

"You remember a few days ago I told you that I will bring you something? Well, these are what I was talking about back then. I bought these today and was planning to give them to you when you broke through, but now that you are at the Spirit Apprentice Realm already; I guess it's time to test your aptitude for the three paths of cultivation." Blake said as he placed the crystals on the table in front of his son.

As he heard this, Eric breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't even payed much attention to the crystals in front of him yet. He was glad that his father didn't observe him with his Qi to check his current cultivation level. This time, luck was on his side.

If he were the one to tell his dad that he had broken through, Blake would most probably check his cultivation level himself and come to realize that he had broken through two layers, instead of one.

What had instead happened was that his mother told him this, and therefore, Blake already knew that Eric had broken through and didn't check for himself.

Since he was way stronger than Eric, if he didn't focus on his son's presence, he wouldn't be able to find out that he was at the second layer instead of the first.

Eric was please that he had successfully avoided the worst case scenario and decided to see what crystals his dad had bought.

Eric looked at the crystals and felt a presence from them. They were all the size of a clenched fist in size and were shiny and translucent in nature. The three crystals were yellow, red and blue in color. They weren't just some ordinary crystals and Eric had a hunch about what they could be.

He wasn't exactly sure, though, so he decided to use his system to confirm his suspicions.

He looked directly at them and a Scam System window appeared.

[Aptitude Crystals…

'Oh, so they were indeed Aptitude Crystals…' Eric thought as he read the first line and quietly continued reading.

[Aptitude Crystals

Effect: These crystals measure the aptitude for soul, body and mind cultivation.

The aptitude of a cultivator is the measure of how compatible they are with soul, body and mind cultivation. With a higher aptitude, there will be a lot of benefits and advantages for the cultivators. Some of these advantages include lesser time required to comprehend various aspects of cultivation and a faster speed while cultivating.

Normally, these crystals look like ordinary shiny, translucent crystals. However, when a cultivator injects some of their qi into them, they will start to glow in different shades of their respective color.

The yellow crystal measures the aptitude of cultivating the soul and will glow in these shades in ascending order of the cultivator's aptitude:

1) Faint Yellow

2) Yellow

3) Dark Yellow

4) Light Gold

5) Gold

6) Radiant Gold

The red crystal measures the aptitude of cultivating the body and will glow in these shades in ascending order of the cultivator's aptitude:

1) Faint Red

2) Red

3) Dark Red

4) Light Crimson

5) Crimson

6) Bright Crimson

The blue crystal measures the aptitude of cultivating the mind and will glow in these shades in ascending order of the cultivator's aptitude:

1) Faint Blue

2) Blue

3) Dark Blue

4) Light Azure

5) Azure

6) Deep Azure]

As Eric quickly read the text displayed on the Scam System window, his father explained him the same thing, but in a more informal manner.

Blake decided to give a short summary of what he had explained to his son.

"Basically, the brighter it glows, the higher your aptitude. After you inject your Qi into any of these crystals, just wait and watch. They will change their shade and glow brighter every couple seconds and when they eventually stop, they will no longer change shades."

Blake performed a short demonstration of using the crystals and showed Eric how the crystals exactly functioned.

As he did this, though, the Scam System opened a profile and noted his aptitude for each of the cultivations.

[Name: Blake Tyler

Age: 37

Date of Birth: 11 November

Cultivation

Soul: Spirit Master Realm 3rd Layer

Body: Bone Forging Realm 10th Layer

Mind: Not a cultivator

Aptitude

Soul: Gold

Body: Light Crimson

Mind: Blue]

Eric was a bit surprised after looking at his dad's aptitude in soul and body cultivation. It made sense why people called him a genius.

"Oh, by the way, don't try and put in more Qi to increase the brightness of the crystals; that won't work." Blake said jokingly as he patiently waited for Eric to process all of this information.

Eric had a confused look on his face, but the reason was not because of the crystals themselves; it was something related to them, but not quite the crystals themselves. For the time being, however, he decided to divert his attention to the matter at hand: the aptitude crystals in front of him.

'Please be something good. Luck, don't screw me over!' Eric hoped in his mind as he held the yellow crystal in his hand.