บท 3: Chapter 3
Ash woke up at dawn. This was a bit earlier than he usually wakes up. "Yes! Now I have time to practice a bit before breakfast." He sat up in his bed and resumed his posture from the night before.
This time he was able to absorb some essence on the ninth breath instead of the tenth. By the time it was refined it about the size of two grains of sand and could make it a bit further around his body. When he got to the final breath, a bit more dark colored sweat came out. Before he could take a bath though he heard his mother calling him for breakfast
Both of his parents were already in the kitchen waiting for him to eat breakfast. When Ash walked over and sat down his father suddenly furrowed his brows. "What's that odd smell?" His mother replied saying, "I don't know dear, it seems to be coming from Ash." With a proud look on his face Ash looked to both of his parents. "HAHAHA! Your son is a genius! In just six hours last night I was able to draw in essence through my lungs and push some impurities from my body. I practiced this morning too. Unfortunately I didn't quite have time to bathe this morning hehe."
Looking over at their son in shock, his mother was the first to come out of her stupor. "Thank the heavens!" She said. "Our sons a genius dear! Do you believe it?! It took you a year and it took me 9 months! He will be able to go to any school he wants in Goan City!" His father had a warm smile on his face." He has only just started on the long road of cultivation but he's already made us proud with his talent alone. That's all we could ever ask for."
"Son. With your talent it wont be hard to enter whatever school you want. Even with only this month to practice you will still have a head start over others your age." "Yes father, I wont let you down." With that, they ate breakfast. Afterwards he returned to his room. Once again he swore in his heart that he would become a strong martial artist capable of providing for his family. "With my talent, I'll work hard to be the best!" He seemed to also develop a talent for talking out loud to himself…
Twenty-one days later, the day of the talent test arrived. By this point he could already gather a lot of essence with each breath. The essence he could gather was able to spread to every inch of his body before running out. Each time he circulated his essence into his body, large amounts of impurities were forced out. Not having any way of testing his strength, he didn't know how strong he was but he knew that he had become slightly stronger. His skin was a bit tougher, his bones a bit harder, his muscles more flexible. It was a slow and subtle change but noticeable.
He woke up at dawn again as usual since he started cultivating. He resumed is normal cross legged position and quickly adjusted his mind to cultivate. After a couple of hours he could hear his mom calling him for breakfast. He quickly took a bath and went down to meet his parents.
"Today is the big day!" his mom greeted him with these words. "Your father has already left to go and get an early place in line. In a couple of hours we will go and find him." She said. After a couple of hours of his mom reminiscing on memories of her talent test and how her parents weren't dissatisfied with her talent and so on, it was finally time to go.
The mayor's house was in the middle of the city on a huge plot of land. The house was built similar to Victorian style architecture on Earth. Most buildings in Chow were. Off to the side of the mayor's house was a smaller one room building. The door was open and inside could be seen a desk, a small crystal ball on a pedestal, and a woman in a dark grey robe that covered all her features
There looked to be around 300 children lined up in front of the small room and even more parents. After a few minutes of searching Ash spotted his father. "Look mother, he's over there." He pointed to a spot near the front of the line. "Oh, good. We wont have to wait all day! I'm so excited!" The mother and son pair quickly walked up to his father in line. "Arlin, dear! We made it!" Arlin was Ash's father's name while his mother's was Laellyn. "Finally! I've been waiting for forever his father once again had a warm smile on his face. Those were often these days. Ash came and joined the line while his father and mother stood off to the side with the other parents His spot was good, being only about 20 back.
At this point, the mayor made an appearance. "Thank you all for coming to the annual talent test. Will the child first in line please enter the room with our esteemed guest from Goad City, Miss Glaze." The first child in line didn't have any features that particularly stood out. He also looked really nervous. The child quickly walked into the room. Miss Glaze simply waved her hand and the door slammed shut.
Many of the surrounding children had eyes wide open in surprise while all the adults just reacted normally. A few minutes later, the first child to go in came back out. He didn't look very happy. "He must have poor talent." Ash thought. The other children who noticed the first one didn't look very happy were becoming worried about their own talent. A few children though, like Ash, were not worried at all. It seems they too might have already had the chance to cultivate and kind of knew about their talent.
The rest of the children in front of Ash had their turns. Out of all of them, only four came out with smiles plastered on their face Then it was Ash's turn. " Here goes nothing." He muttered. Then he took a deep breath and walked towards the now empty room.
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง