Chapter 3:
Soon he turned 8 years old. It was now time for him to start his cultivation journey. His mother was currently fussing over his appearance, as usual, making sure that his clothes were smooth and unwrinkled and he was cleaned till his skin became shiny and red with all the scrubbing and his mother was satisfied. Of course, he tried to escape from his mother's grasp over and over but failed.
"Mom! I'm clean enough already! Please let me take care of myself. I'm not a baby anymore!" He complains to her in a whiny voice. "I don't need you to help me bathe now. I'm going to find out my spiritual roots today and start my road to becoming a strong immortal cultivator in a few hours! Please let me go!" He tries to beg and reason with his mom, but she refuses to let him go.
"Now Ming'er, stay still and let me look at you." She turns him around so she can take a good look at him. "You're growing up into a fine young man now my precious baby, but I will never stop taking care of you even when you're an old man because you'll always be my baby boy Fei Yuming." and with those words he reluctantly lets his mother continue fussing over him.
Now it was time to go to the ceremony where he would find out his spirit root affinity and cultivation aptitude. Fei Yu Ming went to the center of the city and met up with Zhou Chenming and Ye Langxia and they walked up onto a stage together with a bunch of other children their age.
The person who was overseeing the ceremony was the city lord who was around the middle stages of the golden core realm.
"Hello young children, I'm here to oversee today's event and make sure no trouble breaks out during the testing time."
The crowd of children looked at him in awe all hoping they could one day be just like him. Of course, Fei Yuming and some others had other thoughts of traveling the world or joining some powerful sect and becoming rich sometime in the future.
"I'm pretty sure that all you young kids have been waiting for this moment to find out what grade and elemental affinities your spiritual roots are for a while now, so let's get started." All the children started moving around getting a little restless and impatient ready for the testing to start.
"You just have to put your hands on the crystal ball that will light up either with blue, red, white, brown, or silver depending on your elemental affinities. Blue light means water affinity, red light means fire affinity, white light means wind, green means wood, and silver is metal affinity," he said. "One by one, each child will go up to the crystal ball to test their spirit root's affinities and grade. Some people will have more than one affinity while others only have one. The grades of each person's roots also differed from each other." He informed them. "From grades 1-10, 1 meaning they should not waste their time trying to cultivate and should just go live their lives as before, and grade 10 which is rarely ever seen before in this era, but I heard rumors that someone had a grade 10 spirit root and reached void realm and ascended to the immortal realm a long time ago. Each grade is further split into low, medium, and high. I have a high grade 6 spirit root and I have reached the 4th layer golden core realm. Now it's time for everyone to take the test. Good luck to everyone."
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
All the kids walked up to test their elemental affinities and spirit root grade. About half the kids that went up had grade 1-2 spirit roots, left with sad and disappointed faces, especially those who had grade 1 spirit roots. The rest of the kids had grade 3 spirit roots, and a handful of kids had grade 4 spirit roots. Only three people had grade 5 spirit roots. Zhou Chenmeng and Ye Langxia were two of them and there was another boy too. Zhou Chenmeng had a medium grade 5 spirit root and Ye Langxia had a low grade 5 spirit root.
It was now time for Fei Yuming to test his spirit root on the crystal. He went up to the crystal and wondered what his affinities were. He also wondered what grade his root was. He asked Xiao Bai if he could tell what his root quality was but Xiao Bai said “Not yet,” so he would have to use the crystal to find out just like the rest of the kids.
Fei Yuming put his hand on the ball and waited for what seemed like hours to him but was just mere minutes before the ball started to glow. It lit up with red light first then followed by blue, white, green, and silver. He was super happy and excited. The light was also very bright. He was waiting for the city lord to say what his spirit root was when the crystal ball shattered and the light faded out.
The city lord looked at him with his mouth gaping open with a huge surprise. The light was very bright, brighter than when he took the test, and he had all the elements. The city lord was confused about that. He didn't know what to tell the kid. Normally the more elements one had, the poorer their roots would be, but this kid was an anomaly.
“It's hard to say what grade your spirit root is, but I'd have to estimate that it would be at least a high 6th-grade spirit root or maybe a grade 7 spirit root. As you saw tho, you have all the elements so your overall potential is probably going to be around a grade 3 or 4 since you've got to find the right cultivation manual and techniques that suit you."
Fei Yuming was disappointed when he heard the city lord say the last part. "Are there any techniques nearby that could help me with my cultivation?" he asked Xiao Bai.
"Sorry host, but there is nothing in this city. but I'm sure that if we go to a bigger city then we would certainly find a suitable cultivation technique for you."
He left the stage and walked over to his friends.
"It's okay Fei Yuming, I'm sure that you can still get to a higher realm if you work hard." Ye Langxia tried to comfort him.
"Yes Ye Langxia is right, Fei Yuming, we will be here to help if you get into any trouble." Zhou Chenmeng assured him.
Fei Yuming was touched by their thoughts. "It's okay guys, you don't have to worry about me. I'm going to travel around soon and gain some opportunities and I'll come back super strong and be the one protecting you guys!" He told them confidently, but they just shake their heads thinking that he wasn't thinking straight after learning what the city lord had said.
After the last few kids had finished up their testing, the city lord told them to go home and talk to their parents and find out the path they wanted to take. Fei Yuming headed home and told his parents what the city lord had said.
"That's okay son, we will go and find a good technique for you," His father says. "You don't have to worry about the cost of it Ming'er."
"Yes baby, your father is right. We all know how much you've been looking forward to cultivating ever since you could read and walk around." his mother says.
Fei Yuming started to get teary-eyed. He had never felt the warmth of a family in his last life because he was an orphan from birth. "Thank you, mom. Thank you, dad. You guys are the best parents any child could ask for." He says and then they all hug.
"What's going on here?" Fei Meixiu enters the room and sees them all hugging. "Why didn't you guys tell me that we were going to have a group hug together when big brother gets home?" She asks them, completely oblivious to the sentimental atmosphere in the room.
Everyone laughs. Their mother pulls Fei Meixiu into the group hug and they all give her a big bear hug and tickles her until she is laughing and gasping for breath.