Registration

"You! What are you doing!" Zhu Yan pointed his finger at me.

"What, sir? We've just made a deal, don't go backtracking on me now." I said while forcing the smile I was having back down.

"Y-you… what… WHAT?!"

I could feel his 17 year old's mind short circuiting right in front of my eyes. His mind struggled to come up with a reasonable explanation and was confused on what to feel. In the end, after I didn't give him an answer, his emotions landed on anger.

"Fine! Die!"

*Fu–!*

With a light sound, Zhu Yan's sword lit up with ethereal flames visible to the naked eye. Layer upon layer of crimson air emanated from Zhu Yan's sword. The meaning of Zhu Yan's name was vermillion flame, and his true essence also shared this fiery property. Therefore Zhu Yan's skills were often associated with fire.

As the crimson air waves surged from Zhu Yan's blade, the hot summer air that had enveloped the field began to turn into a scorching wind.

Fiery true essence flooded into the Scarlet Flame sword. Zhu Yan then slashed down at my head!

"Hm!"

Before he could though, I leisurely kicked his thigh with my left leg.The strike knocked him off balance and he missed my head.

*CLACK*

The sword hitted the ground beside me and left a two meter long gash on the stone tiles.

The noble beside him tried to talk.

"How dare you-"

"Shut it you fool." Zhu Yan cut him off.

After he regained his footing, he took a good look at me for a while. The confused look on his face slowly drained away as the realization made him grunted.

"Hm. Why is a Senior staining his hand in the problems of the younger generations?"

"And? Are the Heavenly Abode's disciples so degraded now? To deal with someone who hasn't even entered the Martial House yet?" I responded.

He looked at my clothings and the bloody hide bags on my shoulder. Before sighing and whispering out loud. "Why are experts so eccentric…"

"Fine, sir. I'll let him off for today."

With a *weng* sound, the long sword returned to its sheath. Zhu Yan then gave Lin Ming a long look before turning and walking away. The group of confused nobles followed him to ask questions.

I sigh with relief on the inside. Zhu Yan had mistaken me for an expert. In the cultivation world, everybody can see through others' cultivation as long as their realms aren't too far apart. The only exceptions are unique treasures that can hide cultivation, or if the other side was truly a mortal like me.

The first exception was impossible at the lower realms, no one in the Sky Fortune Kingdom would even have heard of such treasures. The second exception is even more ridiculous, no mortal would have been able to fend off that strike from a cultivator.

A genius at the peak of the Third Stage of Physical Training like Zhu Yan wasn't able to see through my cultivation, making it believable that I was at the Pulse Condensing Stage or higher. As arrogant as he was, Zhu Yan was willing to offend someone at the top of the food chain.

There were about 100 Pulse Condensing Stage masters in the sky fortune city, if Zhu Yan wasn't careful, he could bring trouble to himself.

Another reason he took me so seriously is because I didn't use any true essence in my kick, yet, it was able to throw him off balance. A feat like that would require a martial artist born with Innate Divine Strength to be at the Fifth Stage of Physical Training at the very least.

After making sure the group of nobles was out of sight, I walked back into the line only to find my previous spot taken over.

"Ah."

I looked around and found the people on the line staring at me.

'Welp, back to the rear I go.'

The wait was very awkward after that. Some people started to realize I was a fraud and were whispering to each other while looking at me like a dead man.

"It can't be? He's the same as us?"

"He just played Zhu Yan like a fool, He's dead."

"How could he have survived?"

I didn't care though.

'A thousand taels~ a thousand taels~' I hummed in my mind.

At first, I was worried that I might have to go hunting for a month before having enough money to start practicing inscription, but with this, I won't have to waste precious time.

One year from now, the South Sea Demon Region will come and invade the Divine Phoenix Province.

Six years from now, the Nine Furnace Divine Kingdom will come and invade the Sky Spill Continent.

Thirty years from now, the Saint race will come and invade the Divine Realm.

Forty thousand years from now, the Abyssals will come and invade the 33 heavens.

I need to be prepared, and the best way for now is to throw my money at the inscription field.

It was only for another hour did I finally reach the front desk. A mortal official in white uniform was manning the station. His mood seemed to be gloomy, but he was keeping it professional. If I was a mortal and had to dress in a thick uniform in the middle of summer for hours, I'd probably be pissed too.

"Name?"

"Peng Tian"

"Age?"

"I don't know."

"..."

The official looked up at me.

"I presumed then, that you don't have a documented proof of age?"

"No?"

He took a deep breath and handed me an application form.

"Can you write?"

"Of course."

He then pointed towards the writing tools on the table; a brush and a jar of ink.

"Oh…. I haven't used a brush before." I awkwardly scratched my head.

The official was stunned for a bit. His tired eyes whirled up to match mine.

The look he gave me was much scarier than Zhu Yan's.

'The novel didn't include any of this!' I indignantly lamented.

He then sighed and wrote it down for me.

"Please go to the district office by tomorrow to sort out the details. Now, the next question, what is your cultivation level?"

"None"

"..."

The official looked up at me again.

"I'm born with Innate Divine Strength." I explained.

To the credit of the offcial, he only nodded at me before going on to the next question.

"Do you have documented proof of martial talent?"

"Nope."

As if he already expected my answer, he pulled out a bundle of cash from under the desk.

"The fee for the martial talent's test is 3 taels of gold."

I handed him a banknote worth 10 gold taels then got my change.

He gestured to a blue stone tablet on my right. "Please put your hand on the array, remember to close your eyes, and we'll begin."

The stone tablet is roughly a meter high, with five levels of dots engraved on it.

I placed my hand on the stone tablet and felt the array activate with a flash. I felt a tingling sensation all over my body. This sort of feeling continued for several dozen breaths of time until I heard the official say, "Measured."

I opened my eyes and looked. I saw that the light beam of the stone pillar had risen to the third dot and overflowed by about one-half.

"Middle Grade Three Martial Talent." the official announced.

I could hear the snickerings and whispering behind my back, I didn't need to know the content of the conversation as I could already guess.

In Sky Fortune Kingdom, half of its citizens have no martial talent to speak of and are unsuitable towards the path of martial arts. As for the other half, at least eighty percent of them have a Grade One Martial Talent. Even if these people were to practice martial arts, they would not be able to reach anywhere. One in ten of the remaining people have a ninety percent chance of having Grade Two Martial Talent. If these people were to be diligent in their practice of martial arts, they have a chance to accomplish something in life. However, becoming a master of the martial arts would be near hopeless for them.

My Middle Grade Three Martial Talent could be considered as a high-class existence in the kingdom. However, compared to the talents in the Seven Profound Martial House, I would be the bottom of the barrel.

Still, it didn't stop the official from continuing my registration.

"Do you have a letter of recommendation?"

"No."

"All right, please stand still." The official then proceeded to periodically look up at me and write down something.

"Do you have any unique identifying features on your body?"

"What?!" I panicked.

'D-does he know about the tail?' I sweat dropped.

"I mean, do you have any features we can confirm your identity with on the day of the assessment? To confirm you're not registering for someone else?" He explained.

"Ah, I have a birthmark on my left arm." Pulling up my sleeves, I revealed the round birthmark on my upper arm.

...

The whole grueling process took around 15 minutes before I was able to get my identification.