The genius of the clan.

On the stage, the old men started to chant in a special rhythm, drowning the entire gathering of youths into a weird mood. Damien felt it himself, and he wasn't really sure how he would describe the feeling, but he knew for a fact that whatever those elders were doing was something beyond him. The black and imposing stele started to vibrate softly to the rhythm of the old elders, and as their rhythm grew faster and faster, the patterns all over the black stele started glowing.

Arrays of different colours started to engulf the 20 youths standing on the stage, and after an entire minute had passed, the lights finally receded back into the black stele. As the youths became visible once more, a peculiar aura descended onto the stage, as numerous white lights started emitting from behind the youths' backs. Only 8 of the 20 youths had awakened a martial spirit this time, and the rest of them had not awakened yet.

As Damien checked out the martial spirits, he could see all sorts of weapons, tools and even animals. These martial spirits all had a different number of white rays lighting up behind them. These rays of lights indicated how good their martial spirits were, or well, in this case it indicated just how mediocre they were. The one with the most rays was a youth with 5 white rays behind his back, whilst the others ranged from 2 to 4.

As he thought about it, information started popping up in Damien's head again, and he quickly learnt how martial spirits were graded. Martial spirits were divided into 5 different colours, with each colour having 10 tiers, with 10 being the highest. White was naturally the weakest talent one could have, and someone with a tier-2 white talent would barely amount to anything at all, as it was almost the lowest of talent possible to have. With that said, it was still better than nothing.

As Damien racked his brains, he was beginning to get a little frustrated, what the hell was the meaning of this? No matter how much he thought, he couldn't remember what the other 4 colours were! Did that mean that the original Damien simply didn't know what the other 4 colours were? As he delved a little deeper into his memories, he realised that the clan had never told the collateral members what the other colours were, for quite a simple reason, they would never awaken a martial spirit with a different colour.

Since he never left the clan himself, the old Damien had still not found out what the other 4 colours were, even though they were supposed to be common knowledge at this point. Damien sighed to himself, it seemed like he would have to find that out himself soon. As he stood and pondered, more and more people were called onto the stage, and that weird rhythm seemed to rip him right out of his deep thoughts once more.

This time, the highest talent someone awakened was actually tier-7 white talent, which was quite decent within the clan, and it was definitely enough to be considered talented. Damien was still not really impressed, even if he didn't know what his own martial spirit would be, or even if he would awaken one at all. But he knew that if he did awaken one, he wanted it to be above all else's, as he knew exactly what would happen if he only awakened one that was close to the top, but not the best. He would be trampled on. He would be taken care of before he could become a threat. That was usually what happened to talented collateral members that clashed head to head with core family members, there was simply nothing they could do about their different status.

If you wanted to be safe, then you needed to be either mediocre enough to not get targeted, or talented enough to become protected by the clan even if you were a collateral member. As he thought about the sinister things that happened in this clan sometimes, Damien set his own resolve. To leave once he was strong enough to do so. As he was still thinking, Damien could hear the old man yelling names again, but there was one particular name that he yelled differently.

"Vincent Gale!"

As this name was called out, the sea of youths instantly split in the middle, as a particular youth came walking forward with a relaxed stride. This youth seemed way more dignified and arrogant compared to the rest of the youths here. Damien himself quickly realised why the name sounded so familiar to him, and he moved out of the way too. This was the clan leader's second son! The first son had awakened a tier-10 white martial spirit, and his talent was above almost all other clan members. Now that the second son was here, Damien wondered what kind of talent he would have!

Would he also awaken a tier-10 white martial spirit? Or would he awaken something else? Damien watched as Vincent was engulfed in the various amounts of radiant light. A minute passed as usual, before the radiant light flew back into the black stele again. A stifling pressure emitted from the youths on the stage, and amidst all of the radiant white light, a domineering yellow light appeared. Though it was only a single ray, it still outshone all the other white rays combined, and nothing could compare to it.

Vincent himself even seemed surprised when he saw the yellow ray behind him, and a domineering purple axe that floated gently, releasing its oppressive might. He tried his hardest to look unfazed, but anyone could feel his excitement from a mile away. From this day on, he was going to be the genius of the clan! From this day on, he was going to be the genius of the entire city! No one had awakened a yellow martial spirit in this backwater town for years, and he didn't expect any of the other clans to do so this year either. He was special after all.

Naturally all the elders were really excited, as their clan would finally be able to stand above the other clans of the city. Everyone naturally praised such a genius, they wouldn't lose anything from doing so after all. The crowd gradually calmed down, but all the youths in the ancestral hall hoped that they would be the next person to awaken a yellow martial spirit, they also wanted their status to elevate to that of a genius, and no one wanted to be left behind.

Damien was naturally excited too, but he kept his expectations low, as he knew what awaited him if he expected to become some earth-shattering genius, he would only be left disappointed. Fortunately for him, in the next batch of clan members to awaken, he could hear his own name be announced! This excitement of his quickly made him nervous, and he was a little scared. What if he didn't awaken? What if he didn't have any talent for martial arts? Would he just live his life normally then?

There was no way he would be satisfied with something like that! But sometimes in life, you can't always get what you want.