awakening ceremony

'I've never understood this silent tradition.' Wang Wei thought as he and a group of youngsters in the hundreds waited right outside the oasis.

The academy elder, an elderly man standing with the help of a staff, looked at the line on the ground. A shadow had passed it.

Tap!

Tap!

The academy elder hit the ground with his staff gathering the attention of the silent crowd.

He turned around and walked into the oasis quickly disappearing among the tall reeds.

The group followed silently, arriving in the middle of the oasis, and without further delay, the awakening ceremony began.

Scribble

Scribble

The academy elder wrote down the results on a piece of paper while he whispered the results to the awakened youngsters after checking their apertures.

'22 steps C grade.'

'10 steps D grade.'

'D grade d grade d grade just why is this clan so untalented? Is this even natural?'

Wang Wei observed the youngsters walking on the spirit spring; the group was 472.

452 had already undergone awakening from those. There were 30 d grade talent, 10 c grade talent, and the rest were mortals.

Sniff

Some mortal youngsters collapsed on their knees, holding their tears, while some who cried or revealed too many emotions were immediately noted down by the academy elder, and the muscular guards quickly removed them while the awakening ceremony continued.

'Oh, it's finally my turn.'

The academy elder looked at Wang Wei signaling to come forward.

Wang Wei obeyed and quickly stepped on the spirit spring, unlike the regular translucent water of the oasis. Countless Hope Gu dwelled on the waters underneath Wang Wei, glowing lightly as they began entering his aperture with each step he took.

'10… 20… 21… 22…' Wang Wei counted his steps. It was harder the more he kept going on. When he reached the 20th step, he felt as if he had fallen on quicksand with iron weights crushing him down. The more steps, the heavier he felt.

Step

'Just…'

Step

'What…'

Step

'affects…'

Step

'aptitude?'

Wang Wei inwardly asked. He knew it was something independent of the soul, experiences, and Human Qi.

'Fang Yuan had 500 years of experience translating into enough human Qi to undergo immortal ascension and he still had a c grade aperture.'

Step

'I have the experiences of hundreds of humans, thousands of animals, and countless insects and a foundation of a thousand man soul but I'm faring no better.'

Wang Wei thought as he accidentally stepped on a fish, killing him, absorbing his soul, and experiencing his whole life in an instant from getting out of the egg swimming away from his Cannibal mother. Eating, breathing, swimming, seeing, mating, and dying.

Wang Wei even had ghost memories of his missing fish body. Wang Wei didn't doubt he would have great success if he cultivated Transformation Path which he planned to.

Step

Wang Wei suddenly halted. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn't take another step as if he was glued to the ground.

'Human Path is obviously involved in awakening the aperture but what else… Wait… how could I overlook Heaven Path?' Wang Wei realized during the struggle to take another step.

'Hope Gu is a wild Gu filled with heaven's will. It lives on a spirit spring, a resource point overflowing with heaven's will and it is entering my body. Human path opposes heaven path. It can't read human minds, it can influence them but humans are more resistant than beasts. Is cultivation a way heaven's will strengthens its influence on gu masters?'

Splash

Wang Wei's thoughts were cut short. In the middle of taking a step, his body gave up, and without anything to support himself, he fell submerged in the water.

Splash

Wang Wei quickly rose.

'How stupid of me. I'm only a half otherworldly demon; heaven's will can still influence me.'

Wang Wei walked back to the academy elder who checked his aperture and wrote down on his book before whispering.

"29 steps 59 percent primeval sea peak of c grade. Congratulations, that old man is going to be happy."

The academy elder talked more than he should. He sounded excited but his serene face remained.

"Go back to the others."

Wang Wei nodded and walked back to the crowd where eyes quickly shifted to him with envy and awe.

'Now will you show me a surprise? Why did heaven's will give me thoughts to kill you.' Wang Wei looked at his cousins who still had defiance in their eyes mixed with doubt and desperation.

'D grade B Grade A Grade…'

Wang Wei kept looking at the remaining youngsters walking on the spirit spring.

Wang Wei thought he might have overreacted and the scheme against him was somewhere else but he quickly dropped that thought as his mind worked at full capacity when one of his cousins took the step he failed to take.

'B Grade talent the lowest in that category but still B Grade.' Wang Wei looked at his cousin Wang Cheng.

He was tall and slender; his face had a mole in his left upper lip and delicate features coupled with his unruly long black hair covering half of his burned face, He was indistinguishable from a woman.

The excitement in his uncovered eye couldn't be hidden along with the malicious intent passing through his mind when he crossed gazes with Wang Wei.

'From the three it had to be the smartest, most paranoid, and petty of the bunch.' Wang Wei inwardly lamented as he made plans to kill him as soon as possible he even considered piercing his brain when he came in front of him with a mocking smirk.

'Not right now not with foreign eyes. Feng Wang Hao will protect me if I kill Wang Cheng within the family territory. If I do it here there'll be pressure for my execution. Especially from the clan leader and those who oppose my great grandfather.'

Wang Wei sighed while remembering the treasure Feng Wang Hao promised him.

'Blade Aptitude Gu. A consumable blade path gu with the ability to increase Gu master's aptitude by 20 percent. It also carves blade path dao marks, giving a slight boost when blade path gu are used.'

'He had low expectations but now he will probably give it to Wang Cheng. He isn't as 'talented' as me, but he has a B-grade aperture, and he is not an unteachable idiot.'

Wang Wei knew many of Feng Wang Hao's secrets including his obsession; he wanted his descendants to surpass him and improve his legacy.

"The ceremony has come to an end. You are dismissed and don't forget to present yourselves to the academy tomorrow morning."

With the last awakening, the awakening ceremony came to an end with 1 A Grade and 4 B Grades being the center of attention.

The academy elder dismissed everyone.

Once the youngsters stepped out of the desert they loudly began talking and letting out their emotions. Some had smiles and looked forward to attending the academy, while the majority had sad faces and barely talked; some even lowered their heads in shame as they walked home.

"Congratulations Wang Cheng, you beat me fair and square." Wang Wei spoke with a resigned tone revealing nervousness. "Let's not dwell on our past childish competition. We are family and family needs to be united against outsiders. After all, we all know which of the two of us will come out on top."

Wang Cheng simply nodded while he hurried his steps home.

The ones that remained blocking while relishing the apparent surrender of Wang Wei were the other cousins.

"The heavens have finally punished you, Wang Wei. How did it feel when your arrogant face fell on the mud?!"

"You are no better than us monkey y…"

Wang Wei didn't bother responding to the D-grade talents. He shoved the thin, smaller youngsters aside as he followed after Wang Cheng, who was almost running, desperate to disappear into the crowd. Wang Cheng pushed away the group of girls throwing themselves at him, trying to win his favor.

"Smartass." Wang Wei knew what Wang Cheng was trying to do. Claim Blade Aptitude Gu before him.

'Feng Wang Hao keeps his promises but I doubt he will keep this one. With the Gu, I'll be at the top of B Grade 79 percent aptitude, essentially a fake A Grade talent while he will be a genuine A Grade talent 80 percent aptitude the lowest in his category but still a legitimate A Grade talent.'

Wang Wei knew it was just a difference of 1 percent, an incomplete step, but it was the minuscule wall that separated the breakthrough to rank 5 without any external help.

'Feng Wang Hao knows it better than anyone. He is a fake A Grade talent and he is stuck at rank 4 without being able to advance with his own strength.'

Wang Wei looked at the bustling crowd; it was tightly packed with mortals and sellers selling their wares and preparing when the caravan arrived. He had no hope of getting to Wang Cheng, much less killing him, and even less without attracting attention.

'Why must I kill him? I just have to reach home before him. Just why am I being so stupid?' Wang Wei quickly realized as he stared at the buildings next to him extending for a long distance in the direction he wanted to go.

Without wasting time Wang Wei gripped his fingers on the sack of primeval stones.

He ran to an alleyway, building up speed before jumping on a wall, turning around midair, and doing the same to the opposite wall, quickly propulsing himself to the roof of a building and began running, jumping from building to building.

"Shit…" Eventually, the chain of buildings stopped. Wang Wei looked below. It was quite high, 10 stories after he compared where he was to the building on the other side of the street.

A space with sandy stone roads waited for him below and a few mortals passed by.

"If I jump from here, I might break my legs at best and, at worst, die. Climbing down will take a bit of time…" Wang Wei opened his sack and threw 10 primeval stones down, memorizing the places within reach as he began climbing down.

…

"Look Mommy, a primeval stone!" A small girl of about 7 years old with cute round watery eyes excitedly held a smooth stone the shape of an egg with both hands, showing it to a middle-aged woman with a small waist, ample meat in the front and back, and a beautiful face without a single wrinkle.

"Where did you find this?" The woman immediately took the primeval stone and eagerly asked with a wide smile unable to conceal her greed.

"I found it on the ground!" The small girl took another primeval stone from her dress, which was immediately snatched while she pointed at the mortal men gathering closely together, carefully looking for more primeval stones while they fought like starving dogs would with meat once one was found.

The woman immediately went searching, leaving her daughter behind who quickly followed after her.

"What is th- ack!"

Crack!!

The small girl stood still, amazed at what she was witnessing, without blinking.

A muscular man fell on top of a thin elderly man, using him like a trampoline. The latter was crushed like a spring, propelling the former into the air, further softening his landing by falling on top of other people, twisting his body midair like a cat, to land on top of another person.

It was an amazing sight for the inexperienced small girl, but the man calculated wrongly with the last landing. He was thrust forward, landing on her mother.

Crack!

The man rolled into a ball, throwing the woman into the ground, his arms sinking into the woman's flat belly, crushing her organs and breaking a few of her ribs while he kept rolling in the ground, stopping just in front of the small girl with amazement in her eyes.

'I think I just killed… yeah I killed Ruo Bu's concubine.' Wang Wei experienced a wave of information entering his mind along with the pleasant feeling of increasing his soul foundation.

"Sweety, your mommy is going to sleep forever, and nothing will wake her up." Wang Wei spoke in a sweet tone that gradually turned majestic as he ignored his broken arm and slowly got up.

"But don't worry, a beautiful woman with half her burned face covered with hair has a cure. When she passes by, hug her with all your strength. Don't let go no matter what, or she won't give you the cure, and your mother will never wake up."

The small girl nodded and went to check on her mother's corpse which was still twitching. She thought it was a nightmare when she saw her mother piss and shit herself.

'She will buy me a few moments. Sorry little one, your sacrifice won't be in vain. I'll remember you.' Wang Wei immediately ran once he caught his breath.

He didn't bother to look back at the small girl trying to wake up her mother without success.

'Innocent kids are really easy to manipulate. A shame they die too soon.' Wang Wei thought already considering the small girl dead while he planned to use more of his money to delay Wang Cheng.

...

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