Disappointing Result

Di Lang's result really created a huge uproar within the youths and the elders. Having a Gold Grade talent means everything. Di Lang was set to be the next clan leader, unless there's another Gold Grade competitor..

Moments passed by, the crowd finally started fo hushed down. The academy elder coughed as he composed himself. "Last but not the least, Mu Di Lan."

In that moment, Di Lan's surroundings went quiet. Countless numbers of eyes were on him.

This is really exciting, Di Lan thought to himself with a laugh. Under the gazes of the masses, he slowly approached the field of dreams.

He could see that the space were distorted like in the middle of an intense heat. As he stepped in, his vision was also starts to be distorted. The lights produced by the sea of flower were pure Spirit essencd with the characteristics of the moon which is beguiling, that's why any mortal who enters this field would really starts to hallucinate. And the more that the pure Spirit essence enters the body, the more one would fall into their own hallucination and would eternally lost and die from the over absorption of the pure Spirit essence.

One of the oldest tale talked about the Spirit essence. In the records, when the world was just formed it was a land of savage paradise. Among the wild beasts that walked the earth, the first woman appeared. She was known as Shen, eating raw vegetables and fruits, living a difficult life.

Shen did not have a body as strong as mountain rock, nor did he have the sharp teeth and claws of a wild beast. Together with her soft temperament, how could she fight with the savage beasts? His source of food was unstable and he had to hide all day. He was at the bottom of nature's food chain, and could barely survive.

At this moment, there were three Spirits that came up to him and said, "As long as you use your life to provide us, we will help you through this difficulty." Shen had nowhere to go, so he could only agree to these three Spirits.

She first gave her youth away to the blue Spirit. That Spirit then granted her knowledge.

With Shen's knowledge to everything, life began to change. She started to learn ways of having stable source of food and was able to protect himself. She's able to escape from the savage beasts by using her knowledge against these. But she still keeps on suffering and finally realized that knowledge was not everything. It needed the power to enact. Not to mention when facing the entire group of savages, his strength alone was too small.

Shen reflected over this lesson bitterly and decided to give her prime middle years to the red Spirit. And thus, the second Spirit gave him power.

With power, Shen was able to maximize the capabilities of her knowledge. She began to learn more things and found out that many times when she uses power, it was still effective than using knowledge. By relying on knowledge and power, she was able to conquer all the goals that she formerly could not.

But good things do not last and Shen was old, and would only grow older and older. This is because she gave away her youth and middle years to keep the knowledge and power Spirit. When a living being is old, bodily functions starts deteriorate — brain and muscles can not cope up with the knowledge and power.

"Woman, what else can you give us? You don't have anything else left to provide to us," the power and knowledge Spirit said as they realized this. Thus, the two left her.

Without knowledge and power, Shen was once surrounded with danger. She was old and could not run, her teeth had fallen out and could not even chew wild fruits and plants.

As she fell weakly onto the dry and cold ground surrounded by Dangers, her heart was filled with desperation. It was at this time the yellow Spirit said to him, "Human, remember me. I can help you bring back to your past life."

Shen tearfully replied, "Spirit, I don't have anything else left. See, the knowledge and power Spirit have abandoned me. I only have my old age left! While it is not as worth my youth and middle age, but if I give you my old age, my life would immediately end. Even though I am surrounded by danger right now, at least, I will not die immediately. I wish to live a little longer, even if just a second more. So you should leave, I have nothing else to provide to you."

But the Spirit said, "Among the three I have the smallest needs. Human, if you just give me your memories, it will be enough."

"Then I will give you my memories," Shen said. "But Spirit, what can you give me in return? In this situation, even if the power and knowledge Spirit returned to my side, it would change nothing."

When compared to the power, this Spirit looked frail and was just a tiny ball of light. When compared to the wisdom, this one was only able to give out a dim yellow light, not beautiful in any way.

But when Shen gave it his memory, this Spirit suddenly gave out endless light. In this light, the Dangers screamed in an indignant manner: "This is the Experience Spirit, damn it! It's very hard for us to approach now that it has taken action."

The Dangers kept trying to approach Shen, but as if there was an invisible wall, they were not able to do harm to her. Shen was amazed with what Experience Spirit can do. "How did you do that?"

"Silly, woman. It was you who was able to keep the Dangers at bay." The yellow Spirit which was the Experience only chuckled on Shen's amazement. "With memories, experience born. As experience grow, Enlightenment Spirit will be born."

"I still don't get it." Shen adorably pouted.

The experience replied once more. "With your memories of using Knowledge and Power, you were able to be enlightened on how they use their abilities."

Clarity began to sparkle on Shen's eyes. She stretched her hand and magically, purple specks of light began to gather around her palm. "So this is the source of the abilities of Knowledge and Power. This is Spirit Qi."

From that day onwards whenever she faced Danger, she would rely to experience.

++++++++

At this moment, the Spirit essence converged into a stream of light and had already entered Di Lan's body. Due to the outside pressure they quickly circulated in his body converging somewhere in the center of his brain.

Di Lan suddenly felt the pressure lessen. He began to walk forward, as far as he knew that is. But, on the crowd's point of view, he was roaming around the field of dreams. With every breathes he take, one after another the Spirit Qi would fly out from the sea of flowers and enter his body, joining the ball of light. The ball of light grew brighter and brighter, but the person in charge of the lake frowned.

Soon after, his mind went blank, his entire body becoming soft as if he fell into some clouds. His heart relaxed, submerged down to the lake.

This entire process felt long, but it actually happened in a short yet suspenseful time. The feeling went away as fast as it came.

Di Lan was blanked out as he sinked in the lake deeper. The last thing that he felt was that there was like an extra part that was been connected in his brain.

Was that the first step towards immortality? He can only find out as he begins to walk on his cultivation path.

The extra part inside the brain was mysterious and unusually tangible yet intangible at the same time. Although it was located inside Di Lan's brain, it doesn't share the same space of the brain. You could say that it was endlessly huge, yet at the same time infinitely small.

Some call it Dantian; some call it the Spiritual Root. However many know it as the Spiritual Core. The entire body is spherical and the surface of it is covered in flowing purple light, like a thin layer of light coating. It was the layer of light from the Experience Spirit that previously exploded.

This thin membrane of light supported the core so it would not collapse, and inside the core was naturally, the Spiritual Sea. The gaseous fog were showing a milky grey color. Only Rank one Spirit Masters can form this gaseous essence.

A great disturbance erupted from the crowd.

"Big brother…" Among them, Di Lang looked up, watching with shock as Di Lan was pulled out from the lake. She could not dare to believe it, her own brother was only a mortal grade?

She had always thought that her older brother would be a Gold Grade talent. No, not just her, even her aunt and uncle and so many people among the clan thought the same too.

But now, the result was unexpectedly the opposite!

"Damn, he was only a Mortal Grade!" The Mu clan head clenched both his fists, drawing a deep breath, disappointment in his voice.

The elders watching from the darkness had mixed reactions. Some were frowning, some lowering their head in discussion, some looking up with a sigh.

"Could the results be wrong?"

"How can that be? This method is accurate beyond reasoning, not to add that we were watching the entire time, even cheating is hard."

"But all his actions and intelligence previously, how do you explain those?"

"Yes, it's true that he spent a 123 breathes in the field of dream, but he did not simply crossed field but roamed within it."

"Youths with higher quality of primeval sea would indeed display characteristics that surpass the ordinary man. Such as intelligence, perception, memory, strength, agility and so on. On the other hand, these characteristics do not mean that the primeval talent is definitely high. Everything will still be determined by the results."

"Sigh, the bigger your hopes the bigger the disappointment. The Mu clan's generation now is no longer like the first generation."