4 The Awakening Ceremony part 1

In front of the main hall of the Li clan's leader's courtyard, a young boy could be seen standing still with a dumbfounded expression.

This young boy was obviously Li Jing. He was currently gazing intensely at the blue screen in front of his eyes.

'A system! It's really a system. Thank god or whoever you are!' He thought excitedly.

He didn't care to know who was this Almighty God or if it was because of him that he transmigrated into this world. The only thing in his mind right now was:

'Oh my god, I can't believe I received a system, just like those protagonists in the web novels I read!'

After a short moment of euphoria, he pulled himself together.

'So, System, what can you do?' He thought.

[The system will be fully unlocked and explained after Host's Awakening Ceremony.]

Li Jing was a little disappointed, but the Awakening Ceremony will start soon so he will not have to wait for too long.

"Jing'er, what's wrong?" Asked Li Bai, seeing that his son hadn't move for a moment.

Li Jing shook his head.

"Nothing father. I'm coming." He said, joining his family.

They all walked slowly to the central court as if nothing was in a hurry.

'Can't you all walk faster, I want to unlock my system!' Thought Li Jing angrily.

Of course, he would never dare to say that, he just swallowed his anger and followed his family members.

Once they arrived, Li Jing noticed that they were already a lot of people gathered. At least half of the members of his clan were here. The central court was a really huge place and could welcome the whole clan if needed.

As they walked to the middle of the central court everyone greeted them and started talking.

"Greetings patriarch."

"Greetings clan leader."

"Look, it's Young Master Jing. I wonder if he will be as talented as Zhiwang."

"Of course he will, he is the young master of our clan!"

"Young Master Jing is very smart and trains hard with the clan leader since he was a child, he will obviously be very talented."

Li Jing started to get nervous. He was not used to being the center of attention.

As they arrived in the middle of the court, they were joined by a group of elders accompanied by five young.

This year, in addition to Li Jing, five youngs of the clan participated in the Awakening Ceremony. Three boys and two girls.

Li Jing didn't recognize any of them, so they were probably from minor families of the clan.

The group bowed and greeted them. Li Bai replied with a nod and started his speech.

"As you all know, this year's Awakening Ceremony is very special. The future of the Sky Jade Kingdom and our clan is in the hands of the younger generation. Each one of you, as a member of the Li clan, must show the example and work hard!

Alright, let's start the ceremony. Bring the Spiritual Orb!" He said.

Li Bai's voice was powerful and as he spoke, everyone could feel his strong dominating aura.

Two people then brought a large transparent orb the size of an adult head.

The Spiritual Orb was a very important item. In fact, for people who had a talent for cultivation, the dantian naturally opened at the age of seventeen, allowing them to start cultivating by absorbing the spiritual energy from heaven and earth. But thanks to the Spiritual Orb, the dantian could be forcefully open at the age of fourteen!

The Spiritual Orb was placed in front of the clan leader and he started to call the people who will participate in the ceremony.

"Li Wei, Li Die, Li Lian, Li Xiaolan, Li Yueliang, and Li Jing."

As Li Bai called their name, the youngs formed a line in front of the Spiritual Orb. Li Jing joined them in the last position.

Everyone was excited to discover who will have the highest talent.

Even though most of the time the talent of someone was inherited from their parents, there were also other unknown factors that could influence it. This meant that it was not because the parents were talented that the children would necessarily be talented, and vice versa.

Li Bai then started to explain how the Spiritual Orb worked.

"Each of you will place your hand on the orb. After that, a powerful energy will open your dantian, and, depending on the color of the orb, we will know your talent." He said.

The clan leader also explained that the talent of a person was divided into five grades, from the lowest to the highest: E-grade, D-grade, C-grade, B-grade, and A-grade.

In this world, only one person out of ten thousand had the talent to cultivate. Among them, the large majority had a D-grade talent. Therefore, those with an E-grade talent were considered as trash, those with a C-grade talent were considered as talented, and those with a B-grade talent were considered as geniuses of their generation. As for A-grade talent, it was considered a myth since no one in the whole Sky Jade Kingdom had this grade of talent for more than one thousand years.

There were many legends about cultivators with an A-grade talent that had reached the famous Nascent Soul realm, and everyone knew that there was nothing higher than this grade.

But it was not true. In the whole Mortal Martial Continent, only a handful of people, including Li Jing and Teng Fen, knew that there were actually three grades above the A-grade. The Supreme-grade, the Celestial-grade, and the Divine-grade.

There was a huge gap between the A-grade talent and the Supreme grade talent, and each one of these three grades of talent had a special effect. For example, someone with a Celestial-grade talent had his dantian absorbing passively the Qi from heaven and earth, allowing him to auto-cultivate.

The innate talent of a person was like a filter. A cultivator could gather the Qi from heaven and earth by following a Cultivation method, the Qi gathered was then absorbed inside the cultivator's body. However, the amount of Qi that could be absorbed at once inside the body was limited by the cultivator's talent. In other words, the higher the talent of a person was, the faster they could cultivate, and the easier they could breakthrough a bottleneck.

Li Jing really wanted to have a Divine-grade talent. He hoped that with the help of his system he would be able to obtain it.

Once the clan leader finished his speech, the first young boy of the line, Li Wei, walked to the Spiritual Orb and touched it. A few seconds later, the orb started to glow and its color changed from transparent to yellow.

"D-grade talent." Announced Li Bai.

No one commented, D-grade talent was common in the clan.

Li Wei joined his parents in the crowd, he seemed satisfied.

The clan leader then called the next person, Li Die. The young girl walked to the orb and touched it. However this time, nothing happened.

Li Bai shook his head.

"No talent..." He announced.

The three following youngs were tested with either D-grade talent or E-grade talent. But no one expected something from them so no one commented. They were all impatiently waiting for their young master turn.

And now, it was finally Li Jing's turn to be tested. His heart was beating fast as he walked to the orb.

He remembered the different colors that the orb could possibly take: red for E-grade talent; yellow for D-grade talent; green for C-grade talent; blue for B-grade talent; and purple for A-grade talent.

Everyone watched in silence as Li Jing walked to the orb.

Everyone held their breath as Li Jing touched the orb with his hand.

As he touched the Spiritual Orb, Li Jing felt a warm sensation just below his navel. His dantian was now open.

Then, the color of the orb changed…

Blue. The Spiritual Orb now emitted a blue color.