Visiting a Friend, Incredible Talent

"Finally!" Cal shouted in relief and his foot touched the ground where there were no more stairs to be seen. He made it to the Core Disciple's area of residency. The sect splits its students or more commonly known as disciples into 3 groups. The first group is the Outer Disciples who are usually the bottom priority of the sect and will have to work for most of their resources. The second group is the Inner Disciples who are people with a great amount of talent or are Outer Disciples who got promoted due to meeting a specific strength requirement. The last group is the Core Disciples who are the best of the best and have the highest talent in the sect.

Core Disciples are usually just given resources so that they can just focus on their training without having to waste time doing missions to gather resources. Some even have taken an Elder as their personal teacher where they get taught the Elder's special Arts and gain better quality resources. Even the residences for the Core Disciples are luxurious since the sect basically gives them a house comparable in size to an average two-story house from Earth. It has a personal room, kitchen, storage room, a sizable living room, and a courtyard filled with training supplies.

Mind you that this is all for just one Core Disciple and this comes to no cost for them and there are a bit over 100 Core Disciples. Even then, there are many other facilities fitted around the area to offer a better experience for those 100 people. A regular person would cry out in envy if they heard of such treatment, but not Cal since his standing in the sect is far beyond a Core Disciple. He lazily made his way through the wide paths where no one could be seen.

'Seems like everyone's busy training or something.' Cal lazily navigated through the area like the back of his hand since he's been here before to visit his good friend Pang. Although Pang is known to be hardworking and never has free time, Cal still got along fine with the guy even though he's close to 16 years old.

'Hmmm, did Pang expect me here at this time?' Cal suddenly stopped in from of a house that has a stone brick foundation with nice light brown wood for the frame and chocolate brown wood framing the walls. The rectangular gray tiles (Author Note: I'm going to spell it gray and you can't stop me) filled the slanted roof and at the front of the house stood a muscular boy who was wearing a light blue robe with cloud patterns on it.

The boy closed the house's door and was about to leave when he saw the barely a meter tall Cal right behind him. "Oh heavens! Cal? You shouldn't sneak up on me like that!" Pang immediately stated in a gentle voice which is contradicted by his terrifyingly muscular body. His black hair is gathered into a bun with a white band holding it while his black eyes gave off a predatory vibe (not the child one) along with his squarish face and protruding chin.

He wasn't handsome by any means, but he wasn't ugly, just average yet his talent is anything but average. His hard work coupled with his insane talent got him to the very beginning of Soul Ascendence after 10 years of bitter cultivation. Although it may seem incredibly fast, cultivation will only get exponentially longer and tougher the further you go on. Despite that, Pang is ranked as one of the best Core Disciples only behind a couple of others in terms of strength.

"You seem ready to go somewhere and judging by the fact you weren't expecting me, I'm guessing you were gonna ditch me for something. Maybe a girl perhaps? Did you finally confess to Ling-Ling?" Cal started teasing the big oaf which made Pang's cheeks turn slightly redder.

"No of course not! I'm obviously going out for a mission." Pang composed himself very quickly before relaying his purpose of going out.

"I thought your teacher force-fed you resources like no tomorrow, why a mission all of the sudden?" Cal asked with a questioning gaze.

"It's not for any rewards, I'm just gonna be in charge of the Talent Inspection for this year since my sister finally turned 10 and she'll get nervous if I'm not around." Pang finally revealed his intentions.

"You seriously think she needs you? You really underestimate her." Cal sighed as he had once met Pang's sister when Pang's family came over to the sect to spend some time with their son whom they barely get to see. Pang's little sister Grace is the epitome of a strong and independent woman at the very young age of 8. She became this way due to the various training of her parents and having her brother as the person she looks up to.

"Since you want to hang out with me, why don't you come with me and see all the newcomers. It's still considered in the sect so your parents shouldn't complain about it." Pang offered which delighted Cal since he had nothing better to do other than let his boredom grow. Pang took out a small sword which was even smaller than a butter knife, but once Pang controlled his Qi and inserted it into the small sword, it grew quickly until it was longer than 3 people and as wide as an adult's height.

Pang dropped the not-so-small sword onto the ground and stepped on the blade while Cal did the same while standing a bit behind Pang. With that done, Pang erected a thin barrier around the sword and used his earthen yellow mist of Qi that shot from his hands to make it envelop the sword and slowly make it rise from the ground. The barrier was to keep the air from hitting Cal due to Pang thinking Cal was a normal person.

The sword flew up 500 meters (~1,600 feet) before flying straight at a speed faster than a bullet. This sword of Pang's is a Treasure crafted by a smith in the sect that allows for flight if enough Qi is used. 'It seems like he got a Peak-Normal grade, Flying Sword, while I didn't see him for the past few weeks.' Cal commented in his mind as he appreciated the sword and easily deduced its rank.

It took a few minutes to navigate the vast lands of the sect to get to the Talent Inspection Platform where children between the ages of 10 and 14 are tested for their Cultivation and Comprehension Talents. Pang was able to join the sect at 6-years-old due to being saved by an Elder and being accepted as a student by his current teacher. The sect also wanted Pang's sister to join, but Grace rejected because she wanted to stay with her parents and friends so the sect let her wait to take the test when she turned 10.

As Pang slowed his sword down and slowly descended, the eyes of the young children glowed and let out screams of amazement at seeing a flying sword. The duo landed at the top of the platform and got off of the sword which Pang then shrunk back to its previous small size.

"Welcome everyone, I'm honored to attend this year's Talent Inspection of our Purple Cloud Sea Sect. My name is Pang and I'll be the one overseeing everything today." Pang gave out a humble introduction to the excited and nervous children. His humbleness stemmed from his poor background before he became a Core Disciple and his parents will never allow Pang to grow arrogant as they always had a short lecture for Pang when they visited.

"Today, no matter if you're a peasant or the child of a noble, you are all the same as you all wish to join us and grow stronger through the path of cultivation. The heavens are fair and never discriminate for if you do not have the Talent to cultivate then your Talent must lie elsewhere for you to discover." Pang gave an encouraging speech to lessen the stress of those who might fail.

'What a smooth talker. Heh, trying to impress your sister? I know your intentions.' Cal smirked lightly as he knew Pang too well to not see through his facade.

"With that out of the way, let the Inspection commence. First up is…" Pang announced people to come forward one by one to come up the platform and lay both of their hands on a blue crystal sphere that was as large as an adult's head. As soon as the first person touched the sphere, two small orbs of red appeared.

"Middle-Normal grade Cultivation Talent, Pass" Pang announced and the person who was in front of the sphere shouted in excitement and quickly left the platform. Another person came forward when Pang called out their name. The person put their hand on the sphere and it glowed with 4 orbs of red.

"Peak-Normal grade Cultivation Talent, Pass" Pang announced without any change in expression. This process continued on until the 14th person came on stage and nervously touched the sphere where a small orb of orange light appeared.

"Oh my, Low-Grand grade Cultivation Talent, you can immediately become an Inner Disciple." Pang showed a slight smile in contentment as he sent that talented individual away. Cal was just observing and didn't bother Pang, he was entertained by the reactions of some while feeling bad for those who didn't pass. He could easily give someone a Talent that can affect the very world, but he didn't know these people and didn't want someone to misuse that Talent to do evil deeds. So he made the decision to not Imprint any Talent on those he didn't know well enough.

While he was deep in thought, Pang immediately called out in excitement. "Next up is Grace!" he had a wide smile on his face that he couldn't hide at all. Cal scoffed at his behavior and turned his head to look at Grace.

While on the platform, Grace saw her brother smiling at her, and to not embarrass him, she stood confidently while being incredibly nervous deep down. She stood in front of the sphere and took a deep breath before slowly putting her hands on the sphere. At first, a single orb of orange color appeared, this excited Pang as his sister is incredibly Talented just like his expectations. After another second, another orb of the same color appeared which shocked Pang, this was his result when his Talent got tested.

While Pang tried to get ahold of himself, another orb of orange light appeared which made everyone dumbfounded, except Cal of course. This Talent is above what Pang has since his Cultivation Talent is Middle-Grand rank and that's already impressive, but what Grace had here currently exceeded Pang by one minor rank. It may not seem like a lot, but in the Grand rank, a minor rank can increase cultivation speed by a whopping 5 times.

Sadly the number of orbs didn't increase after that, but even then everyone was still in a stupor, including Pang. So Cal took things into his own hands, "High-Grand rank Cultivation Talent, you are allowed to become a Core Disciple." Cal announced loudly, but it didn't sound serious at all because of his extremely childish voice.