More Promise than You

After that minor revelation, Ling Yun started to think about what type of cultivation technique and weapon would suit his sister better, but he came out completely blank.

She was a smart girl. Easily smarter than most of the whole population on the alliance. He had discreetly had her run an official alliance IQ test as a game during the two years of his training, and the results were impressive.

Since people started visiting the sanctuaries and upgrading their genes, the general intellectual capacity and processing ability of humanity had risen a notch. When the average IQ back on his earth was around 95, in the alliance it was up to a staggering 130, which would be considered as genius level back on his earth. And we must keep in mind that's just the average.

Ling Rou got a result of 169, which was just one point short on being considered genius level, but still on the higher one percent of the population. Ling Yun had high hope for his sister. After all, even if a person's IQ couldn't be considered as a marker for how strong said person would become, it did affect comprehension, memory, response time, and adaptability. So, he just needed her to train seriously and she would become a strong woman in her own right.

The problem was, Ling Yun couldn't impart her his cultivation techniques.

Well, he could technically do it, but it wouldn't do her well. As smart as she was, there was just no way for even an almost genius level person to efficiently learn the three scriptures he was cultivating. Each of them was several tiers higher than all the existing techniques in the alliance, and even he, who had an IQ more than doubling hers was having trouble managing it.

And just one scripture wouldn't cover it, either, since they were all complementary. That was why he chose this route. It was somewhat like Han Sen's situation in canon. He started with jadeskin, which is classified in the system as a physical-oriented technique. He could better his physique and help him heal his body to a degree. The Dongxuan Sutra was an auxiliary skill more than anything. It let him copy offensive movements, sure, but was still classified as an energy type auxiliary. The Blood pulse Sutra was too auxiliary, since its main use was to boost a user's capabilities, heal internal injuries, and pass a portion of his strength to his offspring.

In his case, the Seamless Diamond Body Scripture was a purely physical technique, which would allow him to strengthen his body to ridiculously high levels, speed up his regenerative factor immensely, and even modify his body to serve his needs for short periods of time. Of course, he needed to start opening his gene locks for that to happen, and it was still somewhat down the line.

The Spirit Sense scripture heavily emphasized the spirit, though he preferred to call it mind, since all of the skills he knew could be attained were mental rather than spiritual. Still, he wouldn't know what this technique could do with open gene locks until he reached the third level of the preparational stage, foresight. But Accelerated Cognition and Heavenly Eye were already very useful, and foresight would make it even more ridiculous. He could only imagine what the gene locks could do.

And finally, the Thirteen Heavens Scripture was an energy type. With it, once mastered, he could manipulate energy to a very high degree. Even if it was energy used by an opponent to attack him, or even the energy inside his own body! It was absolutely heaven defying.

But Ling Yun knew that he would be above average, at best, while only practicing one of his three scriptures. The true value of his method laid in the simultaneous use of the three of them. He would have physical, mental, and energy-based techniques ready to deal with any inconvenience.

Thinking about that, he realized he needed more information in order to choose a good technique for his sister. He could get his mother a ridiculous one, too, but she was too old. And she still was in the first sanctuary. She could, technically, ascend to the second one anytime she wanted. Hell, Ling Yun could probably help her max out on her sacred-blood and super geno points, but it was her decision.

'Too many decisions. Why didn't I transmigrate into the body of a sociopathic orphan? No family and no feelings. And while we are at it, why not throw in a super cool bloodline and spirit roots? I already have the system, but a little more can't hurt, right? *Sigh* This is just troublesome. I love them both to bits, and wouldn't change them for anything, but life was easier when it was just me and Ban'er.'

"Hey Anne, is are there items in the system that can like, check a person's affinity towards a type of techniques or something?" He asked almost desperately. He remembered in some cultivation novels there were thing like that, so he asked.

"Yes, master. They are called "Testing Items". There is a whole selection of them on the system store." She dutifully answered.

"Really?" He opened the store and applied the respective filters. Lo and behold, of course Anne was right.

There were not a lot of different things the items tested, but there were a huge variety of them. One-use, two-use, all the way up to a hundred-use items. There were also different qualities, and even the eternal ones that could be used indefinitely. Hell, there were different options for different sizes. Ling Yun sighed.

He ended up selecting the eternal varieties for items that tested elemental affinity, physiques, energy efficiency, and natural combat tendencies. As useful as they were, their applications were rather limited, so he ended up spending only two million points. He placed the items in his inventory and spent some more time checking the store for cultivation techniques before his sister arrived home. To his surprise, his mom was with her.

"Mom? I thought you would be in the sanctuary." Ling Yun said while his sister ran and tackled him with a hug."

"Sigh, business has not been going well recently, Yun'er. A big gang started to form in the shelter and free agents like my are feeling the effects. I don't think I can stay independent much longer. I will have to join one of those gangs." She said gloomily.

Ling Yun's mother hated the idea of being in a gang since it was one of them that got his husband killed in the second sanctuary. They are mostly like that. A few people high in the hierarchy pay some newbies and weak people to be cannon fodder while they stand back and enjoy the privileges.

Seeing his mom's pained expression, he decided to risk it. He opened his comlink and made a transfer to his mother for two hundred thousand. She immediately received the notification and looked to her son, startled.

"Yun'er, where-"

"Don't worry, mom. I found a few mutant creatures fighting each other and when the battle moved, I picked up three carcasses. I sold one of them." He cheekily lied while avoiding her gaze. She would think he was embarrassed. "Since it was a common creature, I only got around half a million. I can send you the rest, if you want to, but…" He trailed off, hoping for her mother to interpret his silence.

"Oh, Yun'er. You don't have to do this. You can buy whatever you want. I will take care of everything, just do your thing. She said while trying to return the money. To her surprise, the transaction was blocked.

"I won't take it back, so use it. With that amount, we can live comfortably for two years with that. That is more than enough time for me to kill more mutant creatures and sell them. Maybe we could one day even leave this dump of a planet." He said offhandedly.

"Oh, I have such a good son." She smiled brightly and even shed some tears.

After dinner, just as Rou'er was about to get to bed, Ling Yun knocked on her door.

Their apartment was a two bedroom one, but there was a plaster wall dividing one of them so Yun and Rou could each have privacy.

He entered the room and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Big brother, what do you want?" She asked, but when he sat on her bed, she eyed him weirdly. "You are all grown-up. There's no way you want to sleep in my bed, right? Even I don't sleep in your or mom's bed." She said.

"Can it, you little devil." Ling Yun faked hurt, making her smile. "No, I need you to help me with something." He said and took out the four crystals he had bought earlier that day. "These things are something very, very special. A friend of mine from the sanctuary lent them to me. They are currently being developed by the military, so I can only have them for three days. They can help me find out things about you so you can become stronger. Do you want to try?" He asked seriously.

He could see the gears shifting in her sister's mind before she nodded.

"Good. Just hold each of them and wait to have a reaction. They are safe, already tested them myself. But don't tell mom, alright, Rou? She will be worried because I'm not supposed to have them." Once again, she nodded. "Great, let us start."

The process took less than thirty seconds for each item, and he was out of the room in five minutes.

"Anne, I don't know how to read these things. Can you tell me the results?" He asked desperately. A lot depended on the result of the test, and he needed the results quickly.

"The first test indicates she is very attuned to both the elements of fire and lightning, so she could excel in any technique that involves one or both of them. The second test shows that her body is currently at a three-star standard. The third one indicates her energy efficiency is at a seven-star standard. And finally, the results of the last one show her flexibility and quick thinking, establishing she would excel at a short-range blitz-style of combat." Anne explained leaving him utterly confused.

"Anne, what does all that star crap means?" He asked impatiently.

"A star is a unit of measurement. In this case, it evaluated Ling Rou's physique and energy efficiency. The lowest standard is of one star, while the highest is at nine. The average body standard of people her age is at one star, or even none. While the energy efficiency standard rests at three stars in average. The body standard can be increased while the energy efficiency is set excluding extremely rare situations." She explained quickly.

"So… my sister is even more of a genius than I originally thought?" He mumbled to himself.

"It appears to be the case, master. Her numbers show even more promise than you."

Ling Yun was left speechless.