Bab 3: Talent Reveal
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/NMmtDbwHVQ
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(Jing's POV)
(Location: Glory City > Next Day)
"Little bro, you ready yet?" An amused voice shouted from outside my room. I was currently getting dressed for the banquet at the City Lord's mansion, and I was taking extra care to look extra well; having a Legend rank like you was certainly beneficial after all.
"Give me a minute, I'll be right there," I replied before fixing up my hair. I was wearing some extra fancy clothes, and truth be told they were a bit extra for my tastes, but hey my mom picked them out for me and I couldn't tell her no unless I wanted to get my ass beat that is.
[Jing's Image > Here]
"Sorry for the wait, Linjian," I apologized as I stepped out of my room where my older cousin, was waiting for me. He looked quite nice himself, as he was wearing an extravagant-looking robe.
"It's fine, but your parents are waiting for us," Linjian replied as we started heading towards the exit of the estate which by the way is thrice the size of a football field so just getting there took like 5 minutes, quite the workout to be completely honest.
"Sorry for the wait, Mom," I said as we arrived where my mom and dad were waiting.
She seemed to ignore that and instead began inspecting my cousin and I's outfits with a gleam in her eye.
We both tried to back up in fear but couldn't manage to get free from her grasp.
"You both look presentable enough," she complimented - I think - as she finally let us free from her hold.
"You all ready to head out?" Zhenlong asked as Linjian and I nodded as a carriage that was being pulled by a bird of sorts came into view.
"A bird's pulling our carriage?" I questioned incredulously as I eyed the bird adorned in gold armor skeptically.
"Haha, there's nothing in this world money can't buy," my father responded cryptically as he stepped into the carriage, and gestured for us to do the same.
I wondered why we were going to have a bird pull our carriage, but I suppose our family had to flex its grandeur.
"You all seated and ready?" Zhenlong asked as my cousin and I nodded. "Good, I'd recommend sitting and holding onto the carriage tightly."
Before I could ask any questions on why, the bird suddenly and abruptly flapped its wings powerfully as it, and the carriage began to levitate off the ground.
"What- what's happening?" I asked in slight fear, as my cousin threw his hands around me and began screaming in terror, as my father threw his head back and laughed.
"This my sons, is the power of money!" Zhenlong roared in laughter.
However, it was cut short as my mother hit him lightly and chastised him, "Don't give them any wrong ideas… we don't want them to turn out like the Sacred Family," she sneered with disgust.
I turned to Linjian and he met my stare at the same time. "Did they just publicly badmouth one of the three great families?" I asked as he nodded dumbly.
(Scene Change)
In a few minutes after our departure, we had already arrived in front of the City Lord's mansion.
The city, in truth, was quite a bit bigger than I had originally thought, as the length of it must easily been 2.5 miles long to my estimate. The City Lord's mansion was also decently big, but still far smaller than our estate, which was practically the size of a palace. Money really did work wonders.
Though the City Lord's mansion was smaller than our estate, it still exuded an aura of elegance. Beside the entrance were two guards in pure silver armor who were shooting my dad respectful, and awe-filled glances.
As we stepped into the mansion I was greeted by a hallway that was decorated with colorful tapestries that paid homage to past City Lords along with the founders of Glory City.
But surprisingly it wasn't any of these tapestries that drew my attention, rather it was the middle-aged man standing a couple feet in front of us who did so. Even whilst he was just standing there and not doing anything special, he still exuded a powerful presence; so much so that I couldn't help but eye him slightly warily.
"I'm glad you made it safely, Zhen," the man greeted my father cordially as Zhenlong stepped forth and gave him a hug.
"Thanks for the invite, it's been some time since I was last at your place, Zong," Zhenlong spoke, before turning his gaze toward Linjian and me. "These two here are my children," he pointed as we both gave a bow.
The City Lord, whose name was Zong, eyed us as he smiled slightly. "Your father praises you both a lot so I'm glad I am finally able to meet you two."
"It's our honor, Lord Zong," I replied as he frowned and told us to call him 'Uncle'.
After exchanging basic greetings we began making our way deeper inside the mansion. After walking forth a bit Mom turned around, "You kids should go play while we discuss some adult matters," she told Linjian and me as we nodded. "Little Ziyun is in the courtyard along with one of her friends so you guys can have some company," she continued.
(Scene Change)
As Linjian and I began making our way into the courtyard, I frowned in thought. With the new information I was given, I had finally found out which timeline I was reborn into.
[A/N: Linjian too much work to write– from now on I'll refer to him as Lin, lmfao.]
Ziyun as of right now was only five years old based on what Lin had told me, which means that Nie would get sent back in time in another eight years. That gives me ample time to prepare and truly immerse myself in all of his knowledge.
As we continued walking Lin turned to me and spoke in a serious manner. "We're going to go meet the City Lord's daughter, try to become friends with her, god knows you need one."
Before I could muster up a retort, we had already arrived and as I looked forward I saw two girls standing a bit in front of us. One had purple hair and the other ginger.
'So that's Ziyun and Ning'er? Do I even want to become friends with them?' I thought to myself as we made our way up to the duo.
Ever since I was able to talk, I had refrained from interacting too much with children, aside from Lin that is. I usually preferred to spend my time alone, unless I was sparring or talking about cultivation with someone. Just because I wasn't eligible to cultivate yet didn't mean I wasn't trying my best to prepare myself for my cultivation journey.
"Yeah, yeah I'll try my best," I replied as we continued walking forward I saw Lin shake his head in disappointment and mutter something under his breath.
It's not like I hadn't tried to make friends it's just that everyone outside of the Three Great Families tried to take advantage of my status, and people from the other noble families were, how to put this… dickheads for absolutely no reason.
[A/N: Cough… Sacred Family… Cough.]
"Just try your best," he sighed in resignation as I chuckled slightly at his reaction.
After his impromptu lecture, we made our way up to the two kids and introduced ourselves. Ziyun seemed engrossed in a game she was playing, but Ning'er noticed my presence and nudged Ziyun slightly to get her attention.
"Who are you? How did you get in?" Ziyun fired off a slew of questions in rapid succession, as she grabbed Ning'er hand and made to yell out for guards, however, before she could do so I quickly introduced myself.
"Wait! My name's Chen Jing, and this is Chen Linjian. Your dad told us to introduce ourselves to you," I placated, and let out a sigh of relief when she seemed to relax a bit. To be completely honest, this wasn't the reaction I was expecting; did her father not tell her about us coming?
Ziyun looked at me with wide eyes, clearly surprised by my sudden appearance and introduction. She let go of Ning'er's hand and did a short bow, as she apologized. "I'm sorry I wasn't told about any visitors, I'm sorry about my reaction," she continued apologizing profusely as Lin and I waved off her concerns. "Oh yeah, this is my friend, Ning'er."
"Nice to meet you two," Ning'er greeted, but she seemed uncomfortable at the mention of our names; I don't think the Divine Family has any contact with her family, so I'm not sure why.
"Sorry for interrupting you two, but the City Lord and our mother told us to come here since they were going to be talking about some adult matters," Lin laughed, as he quickly took control of the conversation.
'God bless his soul,' I thought to myself as I thanked my parents for adopting him as even I knew I was garbage at interacting with people, especially children.
"You two want to play with us?" Ziyun asked once the whole situation was cleared up. Before I got the chance to politely decline her offer, Lin had already responded, whilst simultaneously dragging me toward them, "Sure, what're you two playing?"
As I glared at him I retracted all of my previous statements about him. 'I'll get you back for this, Lin.'
(Scene Change > One Year Later)
"I can finally start cultivating! I've been waiting forever for this mom," I told my mom as she chuckled as we both entered the Divine's Family main hallway.
Our family tradition made it so that once the heir reached the age of six, they had to present their soul realm in front of the Patriarch and Elders of the clan to undergo evaluation. If one was deemed worthy enough then the Divine Family would spare no expense in the cultivation of the next successor of the clan.
However, if one did not perform adequately enough then their position would be evoked. Though I wasn't too worried about that as it had only happened once in the history of the clan, and that too because the man had a red soul realm.
As I walked into the room with my mom, I was greeted by a large room that had a huge crystal in the middle of it with my father standing beside it with a rarely-seen stoic look. The Elders of the clan formed two lines on each side of the room as they looked at me with appraising eyes.
'Hopefully, I can get a green soul realm, the same as my parents,' I thought to myself as I knew in truth one's soul realm didn't actually matter; however, the members of the clan did not share the same sentiment as all of Glory City used it as a way to judge one's potential.
With a mixture of anticipation and determination, I strode forward and stopped only when I was an arm's length away from the crystal.
As I stood in the center of the room, all eyes were on me. The atmosphere was heavy with anticipation and excitement. My father, with a blank look on his face, gave me a nod, signaling that I could begin.
I placed my hand on the crystal, and slowly let it absorb some of my soul force. I learned how to use soul force two days ago quite easily due to Nie's memories, and experience. And Mom made sure to teach me as well before today. Apparently, it took four days for the average person to learn, whilst I had done so in less than 30 minutes.
As the crystal greedily sucked in my soul force, it let out a slight shudder, and as it did so, a myriad of colors began surfacing on the crystal as it began slowly passing each one.
The first to come and go was Red, the next Orange, followed by Yellow, then Green. However, as the color continued to brighten, the pace slowed down considerably compared to before.
After 20 more seconds, the crystal had changed from Green to Cyan, and I could hear some of the elders stifling a gasp as it did so.
Though even this wasn't the end as the Cyan color began gradually brightening more and more, and it was only after another 30 seconds did the process end, resulting in my soul realm being bright Cyan.
"He truly is a prodigy; the last time a Cyan surfaced in our clan was 200 years ago, and never in the history of our clan has it been such a bright Cyan: your child truly is the future of our clan," I heard one of the Elders congratulate my father with a bright smile etched on his face, as my father nodded.
The crystal continued to emit its radiant Cyan glow for a few more moments before it began morphing into something else entirely.
My curiosity had been piqued as I hadn't been expecting something like this, and based on the way everyone else in the room leaned closer it seemed like they hadn't either.
As the seconds passed the Cyan color began to die down, and instead, an ethereal Golden glow shone upon the entire room. The glow was mesmerizing, and I felt a strange sense of awe and power surging within me as it continued to take shape.
The Elders and my parents exchanged glances, their expressions a mix of astonishment and pride. This was beyond anything they had seen in generations. The transformation of the crystal was an unprecedented event, and it certainly wasn't something they had been expecting, even including the fact that I had already been labeled a genius.
My eyes widened in amazement as the shape became clearer– it was the image of a one Hundred-Handed Golden Buddha. In the palm of each of its hands, there were different symbols, and whilst I couldn't make out too many of them, the few I recognized were: wisdom, compassion, and enlightenment.
'Wait hold on a minute– is that Netero's 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva?'
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Hey guys, hopefully, you enjoyed this chapter and the talents Jing possesses. Wasn't actually planning on doing a Soul Form, but my editor recommended going with a Buddha cause it's not something that I've used before, and Netero's Buddha is too good not to use.
The chapter's over 2.7k words so I hope you are happy with that.
Also, Annihilation King is going to come back, this story is just something that I've had in the works and so I decided to just go ahead and post it until my editor and I have finished up enough chapters to officially return to that story.
As of right now, there are about 5 chapters in stock, once I reach 10 I'll try and start posting once again. Sorry for the immense delay, but exams were tough, and working is even harder lol.
Anyways, I'll end this chapter here, however, if you have any questions or concerns about this story or AK feel free to comment them here.
Also, quick question, should I just kill off Nie Lie? The MC already has all of his knowledge so there really isn't a point in keeping him around for too much longer; however, at the same time, I don't want to make my character your typical young master who kills without even the slightest reason so if I do end up going down this route I'll have to implement a conflict between the two. I've really been struggling with this, so I'd appreciate it if you guys let me know your thoughts on the matter.
Anyway, peace out, and thanks for reading, and have a good day/night. And drop them power stones, lol.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone