THE TALENTLESS GENIUS

A boy with no talent, an average look, and average in everything like some common village folk wandering around. That is who Luminus Vermillion is. No one would believe you if you told them the average-looking kid on the street is from the prestigious house Vermillion. No one expects anything great from him in his family. Even his own father who married 6 wives and has 8 children does not care whether he lives or dies Just because he is the only talentless person in the last 300 years of their family's history. He is mocked as the failure of the Vermillion family and the son of a maid. Although his mother is his father's official wife and the third wife at that, she was initially a maid who used to care for his father. Due to his low cultivation speed and low talent for learning spells, he is considered the 'failure' of the most prestigious family on the continent.There are five boys and three girls who are considered patriarch candidates from birth. And all of them are below the age of 12 but all of them are at the third stage of cultivation. With only one exemption; That's right, 'the failure of house Vermillion'. The only sheep in a lion's den. The other wives of the patriarch spread the news of Luminus being less talented throughout the city in an attempt to make sure the third wife lost her dignity as the third. And if possible, exiled from the family.Luminus is a very hardworking person. He puts so much work into his cultivation like no one else in the family. The House of Vermillion prides itself on having the most powerful and talented blood on the continent. Even the emperor hesitates in matters regarding people from house Vermillion.Luminus can be considered a vindictive person. He never forgets a grudge he has against someone. He wanted to prove to the whole family that his mother was not at fault for his low talent in cultivation. However, no matter how hard he cultivated, almost all of the foundation he built dissipated overnight. He felt like there was a wall on a steep slope that could never be jumped over because of the angle at which it was placed.He suspected it was some or at least all of the wives collaborating to mess with his cultivation. So he went into isolated training and did not sleep for 9 continuous days. thinking someone would come and mess with his cultivation at night. But nobody came yet his foundation still dissipated over and over again. No matter how many times he rebuilt it, it would always dissipate into thin air.When the news of him coming out of isolated training after a month and still a stage zero cultivator spread around the city of Rohan, some people suspected he was not a true child of the house of Vermillion while others simply mocked him for being a disgrace to the Vermillion household.Contrary to what rumors say about him in the town, Luminus is actually a genius. Except that he is only a different kind of genius. He has an unparalleled computational ability, unlike any other mage or sword mage in the family. He is so smart that he can even process what kind of ingredients a potion or an elixir was made out of just from the smell and visual alone.He also has a broad knowledge of various things from legends to skills to military tactics. Luminus could be considered the greatest 8-year-old on the continent. But the only thing holding him back was that he could never expand his realm of cultivation.When the patriarch heard about Luminus's inability to progress his cultivation, he fell into a little bit of thought before finally deciding to check if his deduction was right. He called for a family meeting but only some important members of the family were invited. the topic for discussion was unsurprisingly Luminus. He questioned if anyone knew the reason why Luminus was unable to progress during his cultivation.He questioned the wives who were present and the elders if they had anything to do with Luminus being unable to break through to the next stage in his cultivation. But as expected, they all denied any contribution to Luminus's current predicament. They rather blamed Sitara (Luminus's mother) for not teaching her son right. They also blamed her for bringing 'slave blood' into the prestigious magic family."Silence" as the word echoed throughout the hall, an intense pressure turned the hall dead silent. Everyone turned their head toward the center of the room. The silhouette of a man could be seen sitting on a chair that could only be called a throne. Several strong-looking people were either standing behind or sitting on a much less fancy chair beside him. The room full of elders fell dead silent for almost a full minute with some of them visibly struggling to hold back the pressure being exerted on them by the man on the throne.The silence was broken when a heavy voice that could only be described as a cold and sharp voice that sent shivers down your spine spoke. "How dare you" The crimson eyes of the man on the throne could be seen brighter than it was before he spoke. The elders could only see the figure of the man on the throne but not his face because of the shadow-like effect of the position the man was sitting in."Are you saying I allowed the blood of slaves into the family bloodline?". As the man spoke again, the amount of pressure on the wives seemed to increase making quite a number of them kneel down unable to maintain their breathing. There was only one woman who seemed to be able to stand although she was not showing it, her lungs were being squeezed out of every single drop of air.This woman was called 'The Ice Demon' Aelia. She was known to be a sage realm cultivator and an infamous ice mage who had a contract with an ice dragon. "I'm sorry patriarch we misspoke," she said in a respectful manner with a little bit of sweat visible on her face. The Patriarch looked at the woman bowing down before him from the corner of his eye in a nonchalant way before removing the pressure being exerted upon his wives and the elders in the room.Although they knew the patriarch didn't use his full power when he exerted pressure on them as a form of warning, they quickly changed their attitude during the meeting while simultaneously developing a sense of respect towards the first wife Aelia for her splendid endurance. The patriarch was one of only a few Legendary realm cultivators on the continent.There are several levels of cultivation in the world, it is known to be in a triangular form with the higher up you go on the pyramid, the fewer cultivators there are.The levels of cultivation are:1st stage to 9th stageAwakened RealmSage RealmHeroic RealmLegendary RealmMythical RealmTranscendent RealmAlthough the masses struggle to break through from the stages to the realms because of a lack of resources and proper etiquette, there are still people who can awaken to great powers either through a fortuitous encounter or delicate training. The most talented people often come from big and wealthy families that can afford a large amount of resources cultivation required. Although the patriarch was talented and had the resources for cultivation, he still put in a lot of work to reach where he is today. He was even at the peak of the Legendary realm waiting for just the right time to become a Mythical realm cultivator.