Xiaoxia paced about nervously, what has happened to Xiuxiu? It has been 2 years since she left and not since has there been any news from her.
During her first year in school, he tried asking her family, but they didn’t even bother to answer. Her family has since moved out of town and neither Xiaoxia’s parents nor anyone in the village knew where they moved to.
Even after asking other children who attended the same school, most replied that they have not seen her since the first few weeks of her attendance.
Xiaoxia was very worried, he could not do anything to change the fact there was no news about Xiuxiu.
Worries aside, he soon forced himself to become calm and continue Ki cultivation. He had be instructed on his 5th year by his parents, and by that year, his Ki reservoir had already doubled.
Within his 7th year, Xiaoxia’s Ki reservoir has doubled again in size. It was four times what it was initially. He also learnt some blacksmith processes and started spending more time in the smithy.
Xiaoxia was born strong, but the strength did not grow in proportion with the years, rather his strength grew slowly. However amongst the young generation, he has the highest mental capacity and strength, only teens who are very near adulthood could manage these blacksmith processes, even then it took them quite some effort.
Adults themselves were put to task for some of the processes, although they could manage most easily. Therefore once again Xiaoxia was quite the main topic of discussion among town folks.
Also the time is drawing near to the Ki talent ceremony, it was the moment to measure his talent. Xiaoxia was worried what his level would be, as deep in his heart, he would not want to disappoint his parents.
He was also extremely competitive and from all the information he had gathered, he discovered that there are many other Ki geniuses among his peers.
Children from the main world as well as the larger cities and towns had already taken their Ki Talents and the results were already posted via spatial communications to the Town Chieftain, Chen Daquan.
Daquan had looked with some amazement at the results before posting it on the Town Hall notice board. It was really unparalleled for the Hu Yuan Empire, no one had ever seen such results before.
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TOWN HALL NOTICE:
Hu Yuan Empire Ki talent Results as of 3rd Moon,
Year 107,931 (107th Era)
Total communities tested: 57,159,288
Special Class: 2
Titled Class: 20,000+
Metal Class: 1+ million
Earth Class: 10+ million
Wood Class: 70+ million
No talent: 200+ million
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Hu Yuan Empire is considered among the top 100 empires in Yuan Zhong. Among them, many had at least 10 colonies in the thousands of solar systems orbiting the main world, the stronger ones even in the hundreds.
The Hu Yuan Empire’s population slightly exceeds a hundred trillion, however it wasn’t even comparable to the no.1 Empire who almost 5 times its size.
Usually having just 1 Special class in an empire for any given era was a blessing, but now there were 2, and it was within the same year.
Rather, to add to this unprecedented event, the combined figures for all Empires was not even 200 per era. If you calculated, there was only a 20% chance to have one each year in the world itself. With more than 10,000 Empires, the chance was less than 0.02% per Empire per year.
The number of those who attained titled class was also twice the normal amount. However not all was peachy, as in this year, the number of no talents was almost 3 folds. Normally wood and earth class talents made up the bulk of the Ki talent candidates.
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So with these figures, the pressure Xiaoxia faced was indescribable. Black Iron Anvil Village was among the last few communities that will be taking the test, as such even his peers were worried they will end up among the 200 over million children who had no talent.
Try as he may, Xiaoxia had difficulties sleeping that night, his young body broke out in cold sweat, as the day’s weariness slowly encroached he finally managed to enter into slumber.
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“Xia Er!” Daquan called out.
“Yes father!”
“Hurry we need to arrive at the village square now, and we are late!” he father shouted in alarm.
“My husband, give the boy a little room, he is already nervous as it is,” Wanmei gently told Daquan.
“Ah, I am even more nervous than him,” Daquan replied.
“Mum, Dad I am ready, let’s go!” Xiaoxia excitedly called out, no doubt feeling nervous, he could not let his parents worry.
“Haha, he is really our son,” Daquan remarked.
So the trio left the Chen clan residence and made their way to the Village square. Amongst the crowd there were many children who are taking their Ki Talent Ceremony at the same time.
They were the children who were born in the same year and needed to attend the annual ceremony before attending Black Iron Regional School in 3 months. However compared to Xiaoxia, the rest of the children were short and some way shorter.
Black Iron Anvil Village town consisted of Sha Mo Ren and Fan Ren. The Sha Mo Ren are a higher ranked race as compared to the Fan Ren, but in return the Fan Ren reproduced much faster. The Sha Mo Ren were the ruling race of Hu Yuan Empire.
Due to the characteristics of higher ranked races, children grew up at a much faster rate. Also with the rich Ki environment, even at the colonies which had a slightly less dense Ki concentration level as compared to the main world, all children could walk and talk by age 3, and everyone had the ability to comprehend complex instructions and cultivate Ki by age 5.
As a result, by the time they were 7, they easily had heights up to 5 feet. Compared to Fan Ren who were the majority in this world, their children only grew up to 4½ feet at most by age 7.
As for Xiaoxia, he was 5½ feet.
Sha Mo Ren starts puberty by around age 8-9, and children have been known to have exponential growth spurts till they reach age 12-13.
By this time the males will have reach over 6 feet, and the females over 5½ feet. Moreover when puberty ended, they will be lanky and thin, and over the years as their bones strengthens and muscles grow, they will put on more mass.
It is not uncommon for fully grown Sha Mo Ren males to be over 8 feet and their females to be over 7 feet as they fully mature. Only by the time they are in their early 20s will the full features of the Sha Mo Ren can be seen.
As with the traditions of the world, the Ki talent ceremony is always conducted by an examiner. Since Xiaoxia was the towns chieftain’s son, he was the first in line for the test.
Having the honor to do so was not what Xiaoxia wanted, as he preferred it to be less conspicuous and rather have his test taken in private.
“Xiaoxia, do not worry, as long as you work hard you can break Ki Duelist within 100 years, even if you have no talent!!” Daquan shouted in encouragement.
“Daquan that sounded more discouraging rather than encouraging,” Wanmei smiled sweetly at her husband, knowing well he was as nervous as their son.
However Xiaoxia did not even hear the cheers coming from his father, nor the surrounding encouragements from the crowd.
As he approached, he was instructed by the examiner to place his palm onto the measuring device.
The device suddenly flared.
“Bzzzz … bzzz … pssss…” and went totally dead.
“NO TALENT!!” proclaimed the examiner.
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