Soul Test

To have no distractions while taking the pill, he decided to to swallow the medicine in the storage space. Although this was called a storage space, in reality, it was only the place where everyone puts the stuff they don't use anymore. So, in actual truth, this was just a place to rest junk at.

Leaving a small note in front of the door to make sure no one will interrupt his cultivation session, he locked the door from within. Chen Hai was not sure how long this will take, but he knew that it must be a while.

Before his teacher had left, Ms. Biyu made sure to remind him that it takes a while to digest everything the pill will give him, and that he should eat it as soon as he gets home. Because of this, he followed her words, and set up everything right away. Although he might miss some school days from this, everything doesn't matter as long as he can reach level ten, and become a Soul Condensator.

Cleaning open an area for him to stay at, he sat cross legged on the dirty wooden floor. Grabbing the case from his pocket, he opened up the box to reveal the Soul Gathering Pill.

The pill was round, and looked very smooth. It had a certain sheen to it that made it look more clean, while it was white in color, but it wasn't one shade of white, but multiples. It was layered and patterned to look like smoke or fog, and the color represented the first rank of Spirit Souls, a decade's worth of cultivation essence, years of concentrated power, all for one's taking.

Spirit Souls in this world were ranked into five different ranks. The level of power and rank depended upon the age of the Martial Beast. The more powerful the rank, the better abilities that will result from the Spirit Soul, while the older it was in that rank, the stronger it was to its peers.

The first rank was a white colored Spirit Soul. Ones that were white meant that the Martial Beast was ten to ninety-nine years old. Once almost any living thing that was not human reached ten years of age, they started to develop a consciousness. Albeit, very basic, the foundation of intelligence started to form.

This was what made a Martial Beast, a Martial Beast. Once they die they will leave behind one Spirit Soul which was the essence of their cultivation. Once someone merges with that Spirit Soul, an ability related to that Martial Beast will be manifested within the human.

Spirit Souls were a very important foundation to cultivators, without them, there will be no power. Spirit Souls sped up the rate one would suck in Soul Power. Spirit Souls were also what made Soul Cultivators so powerful! They gave them the abilities, the superpowers of things that were not normal, and fighting was a very important point of of Soul Cultivator!

A person needed power to defeat more powerful Martial Beasts in order to gain better Spirit Souls and a better future. One needed power to make a stronghold within the world, a place of safety for their loved ones. A cultivator needed power to defend them against all enemies, and to be able to live within this world. At the end of the day, power determined everything, and one's future and destiny.

The second rank of Spirit Souls were from Martial Beasts who aged 100 to 999 years old! This was when Martial Beasts can start to truly think as a human, their mental age was comparable to a child, and they were now smart enough to form basic strategies. From here on, Martial Beasts became a thing to fear. They were already stronger than humans, but now they started to also gain real intelligence! This was also the yellow Spirit Soul that the school had promised to give for those who are accepted into a good battle academy!

The third rank were from Martial Beasts who aged 1,000 to 9,999 years old! The Spirit Souls were bright orange in color, and scarily fearful abilities to face in a fight. Martial Beasts in this age could now understand human speech, and started to master the crux essence of strategies and tactics to employ. Their mental age compared to that of a human teenager, but with more violent tendencies.

The fourth rank was a bright red Spirit Soul, aging from 10,000 to 99,999 years of age! From here on out, the Martial Beast's intelligence matched to that of a human scholar. They were also able to form basic communication from this rank too, being able to somewhat converse with humans.

The last level, rank fifth was a super bright pink with shades of purple. This was from anywhere 100,000 years to 999,999 years old! That was already at least 1,000 times a human's lifespan! Anyone can already imagine the drastic difference Martial Beasts of this rank will have over the rest! This was not just anything a person can underestimate, in fact if anything, it was something you have to overestimate in order to live the tale!

From there on out, Martial Beasts can speak the human tongue, and deploy tactics that would seem impossible to perform. As a Martial Beast becomes older, they will also gradually become more and more violent over time, so this was a giant behemoth in the martial world of today! Their IQ's would have already passed how smart a human can ever be, their intelligence started to have the structure of divine beings!

And lastly! There was one more rank that was off the record, but was publicly recognized as a possibility. This was the legendary mythological rank six! This meant that their age will be in the millions!

Although there was no actual records of anyone ever having this rank's Spirit Soul, there was a reason why it was publicly known certified as a feasibility! This was because in every single fairy tale and folk tale that it was ever mentioned, it all had a common similarity, and this was that it was light blue, the color of lightning! It is even said to spark because of the overwhelming amount of cultivation essence and power!

While on Chen Hai's side he did not have a single Spirit Soul to this date! This pill right here would need to change this description, and create a new fate!

Throwing the pill inside his mouth, Chen Hai started to focus on not letting any of this medical powder go to waste. The pill quickly dissolved in his mouth, causing a cool liquid to start to flow down his throat, which started to spread towards every corner of his body.

The sensation was very refreshing, and it filled Chen Hai with an overwhelming sense of Soul Power. The expensive price that it was sold for was truly worth the price.

Time slithered passed as Chen Hai slowly cultivated and digested the medical essence of the cultivation pill.

. . .

Chen Hai spent time cultivating longer than he thought he will. He wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed, but he knew a couple days had already passed. It was the last week of school, so he sincerely hoped he did not skip the final deadline.

Standing up from his meditation, Chen Hai quickly smelt a disgusting scent of stink, making him almost wish to throw up from the sudden powerful smell.

He also then noticed that his body was drenched in impurities, making him look chark black from an outside perspective. All the impurities he gained over the years had been pushed out, this meant that Chen Hai had finally broke through the Spirit Gathering rank, and reached the Spirit Condensation rank! He was finally a true cultivator!

Seeing some light still shine through a nearby window, he knew that it was still day time, meaning that school was going on. Hurrying to the shower, he swiftly washed himself revealing the baby skin hidden beneath all the dirt.

The higher one goes in cultivation, the better skin one will have, meaning the more handsome and beautiful one will become. On bonus, it also gave people a decade's worth of life span for each rank they reached.

Seeing that there was still time left in the day, Chen Hai speedily gathered his things and ran for the school.

. . .

Meanwhile, at the school grounds groups of twelve year olds made their way towards an old man sitting at a desk. He was the inspector the head government had sent to inspect this city's worth of prospects in the students.

He was the one to determine whether one will have the qualifications to join a battle academy or not, and to give further tests to separate the better kids into different schools. If a student did really bad, they will be booted back to the normal kids, while the average ones will be sent to worse and less well known battle academies, meaning worse secondary schools.

A group of teachers were huddled at the side, waiting as a long line of children went one by one towards the man testing them for the amount of Soul Power which they had.

Biyu Cuifeng stood among the midst as she worriedly kept scanning the large room for Chen Hai. She hadn't seen him all week ever since she gave him that pill on Sunday. She knew that it took a while to digest everything properly, but she never expected it to take this long!

If Chen Hai missed today, than everything was all over! Students who missed today were not assigned a secondary school to go to, this meant that their education will forever end! One was forced to go today even if they were on their death's bed!

The government of this nation was strict, and they didn't offer any openings for people to create potential excuses and cheat for extra time! The original large crowd of little children had already started to thin.

She started to pace back and forth, while her eyes swam every corner of all the possible halls and entrances.

Seeing how stressed she was, Jie Meili tried to cheer her up. "Don't worry, there's still time! He can make it! If worse comes to worse we can just stall him!"

Hearing her friend, Cuifen quickly agreed to what she had said. "Yes, we'll start to stall him at the end if he still has not shown up. This day is too important for someone to have skipped!"

Seeing her say one thing, but her body's actions acting another, she walked towards Cuifen to hold her hand to give her support.

As the crowd of hundreds, thinned down to dozens, than tens, the pair finally breathed a sigh of relief as they saw Chen Hai rushing his way towards them.

Letting go of Meili's hands, Cuifen ran towards Chen Hai, pushing him towards the elder waiting at the table. Luckily there was still two more people before Chen Hai, so he was not considered late, and just in time to take the test.

They didn't have enough time to talk, so Biyu Cuifen stood near him as she waited for the results. She wasn't sure if he had leveled up or not, but she hoped he did as he had shown up at the last possible second.

Time seemed to quiet down as judgement awaited him.

"Hand..."

The pressure gingerly ticked down as a new world awaited him.

"Hand..."

And lastly it was his turn for the test. The old gravely voice of the elder asked him for his hand.

"Hand..."

Giving the respected elder his hand, the wrinkly pair of hands reached out towards his palm, and scanned him with a familiar sense of Soul Power.

"Level ten, pass."

Hearing the words, Biyu Cuifen bursted with more joy than Chen Hai had showed. While he had only gave a faint smile, she actually jumped with clenched fists. Her ears started to turn pink though, but she could not stop her joy. She was rooting for this little underdog of her's to create a miracle, and this good boy has done it!

Standing up, Chen Hai headed towards the group of students which waited for further tests, to separate them into the different tiers of battle academies. Giving a smile at his teacher, and a nod of thanks, he made his way towards the group.

"Wait...", but the elder asked him to stop going forward, "Let me check you again... Something felt off...", asking him to come back to him for another test.

Disturbed and uneasy about the new situation which developed, he doubtfully gave the elder his hand with a hint of nervousness. Ms. Biyu at the side also showed a hint of worry at the unexpected development which happened outside her expectations.

The cool feeling scanned through Chen Hai's body once more, but this time there was something more forceful and powerful about it, causing some sweat to appear on Chen Hai's forehead from the pain he began to experience.

Inspecting Chen Hai's situation, the elder's brows abruptly turned scrunched, and his eyes slimmed down to a sliver. He knew that his intuition was right from earlier; there was indeed a detail that he had missed in his first brief assessment...