Next morning, as the sun rose from the east, its glaring yellow light covered the world in a yellow net that enveloped everything.
In a quiet room, Ming Sheng lay asleep. From the window, a warm yellow light landed on Ming Sheng's face. Feeling the unusually hot light, Ming Sheng turned toward another direction of the bed. However, the light followed. Still feeling the warm yellow light on his body, Ming Sheng moved again, but this time he fell off the bed, hurting himself.
Feeling the pain, Ming Sheng opened his eyes. Still sleepy, he stood up and closed the window. Finally blocking out the glaring yellow light of the sun, he turned and walked out of the room.
Walking out of the room, Ming Sheng met his mother cooking breakfast in the kitchen. She was called Lan Yue. A middle-aged woman dressed in a plain blue dress, she had deep black hair and eyes just like Ming Sheng. Her long black hair was tied back, and on top of her blue dress she wore an apron.
As she was cooking, Lan Yue heard something and turned to look. Seeing it was her son, Ming Sheng, she smiled and said, "Good morning, Ming Sheng. How was your sleep?"
"It was alright, Mother. However, the sun ruined it," Ming Sheng said, remembering how he fell off the bed.
"Fine, go take a bath and come eat breakfast. I am almost done!" Lan Yue said, turning her focus back to cooking.
Half an hour later, after Ming Sheng was done bathing, he changed his clothes and was now seated in a chair. Next to him were his mother, Lan Yue, and his father, Ming Tao. They all sat around a small wooden table, eating their simple meal.
After they were done, Lan Yue went outside to wash the dishes while Ming Tao went out to hunt. He was a hunter of the village, tasked with finding food.
The Dong Hai Village had a five-level hierarchy in it. At the top was Dong Hai, of course; he was the strongest in Dong Hai Village.
Next were the village elders; these were just below Dong Hai in terms of strength and status. Next up were the elite and wealthy, people who were directly related by blood to the village elders or even Dong Hai himself.
Below that were the workers and hunters, people who were not really that important but were still needed. Ming Tao was here.
The lowest fifth tier was ordinary villagers; Ming Sheng, Lan Yue, and the rest were in this position.
As Lan Yue was busy washing dishes and Ming Tao went out to hunt, Ming Sheng, on the other hand, was learning.
…
In a cave illuminated by torches of fire, several figures sat on the floor; one of them was Ming Sheng. In total, around forty-five people sat on the floor, their gazes and attention directed at a figure who sat on a rock looking down at all of them—Master Lu Ping.
Master Lu Ping was a village elder in charge of teaching the youths of Dong Hai Village. He had lived a long life, teaching even the generation of Ming Tao. It had to be said, aside from a few people in the village, Master Lu Ping could be said to be the most respected.
Looking at the many youths in the cave, Master Lu Ping said, "It's been a week since I taught all of you to break through to the Martial Practitioner realm. How is it going? If you have managed to break through to the Martial Practitioner realm this week, raise your hand."
The cave went silent. The next moment, a hand was lifted in the air. Looking at the owner of the hand, Master Lu Ping smiled, "Dong Jie, as you were the first one to be able to break through to the Martial Practitioner realm, I will give you a reward!" After saying that, Lu Ping took a box from within his clothes and used spiritual energy to pass it toward him.
Under the gazes of all the students in the cave, Dong Jie, grinning from ear to ear, opened the small box, and a brilliant green light radiated out, lighting up the cave even more than the several torches and making all the other students gasp in shock.
"That is a Bone Forging Flesh Pill. It will help you improve your cultivation and strengthen your base," Lu Ping said. Looking at the astonished faces of the other youths, he added, "Let this be a lesson for all of you. Work hard and you will be rewarded!"
One of the youths, Ming Sheng, sighed. If only he was talented like Dong Jie, but alas, he had no luck.
In the martial world, talent was divided into four ranks: A, B, C, and D. Ming Sheng had the lowest D-grade talent, while Dong Jie had an amazing B-grade talent. Aside from talent, the type of spiritual root also mattered.
Talent was graded by the level of purity of one's spiritual root. A D-grade talent meant your spiritual root was one to twenty-five percent pure; a C-grade meant it was twenty-six to fifty percent pure; a B-grade meant one had a fifty-one to seventy-five percent pure spiritual root; and an A-grade talent meant a seventy-six to ninety-nine percent pure spiritual root. As for a one hundred percent pure spiritual root, that was an incredibly rare phenomenon.
A one hundred percent pure spiritual root of any type meant one was born with fragments of the great Dao within them.
There were mainly five types of spiritual roots, namely earth-type, water-type, wind-type, fire-type, and thunder-type spiritual roots. However, they were not limited to these five. Rare spiritual roots like wood-type, yang-type, and poison-type spiritual roots did exist in the world.
For example, if a person were to have a thunder-type spiritual root with one hundred percent purity, it meant they contained some great Dao fragment of the thunder type. Meaning when they grew up and reached a certain level of strength, they would be able to manipulate the Dao of thunder of the world.
Throughout the world, people with a hundred percent pure spiritual root were called "Extreme Dao Talent."
After giving Dong Jie the Bone Forging Flesh Pill and reminding the others to work hard, Lu Ping ended the lesson, sending everyone out of the cave.
…
On a familiar boulder, Ming Sheng sat still. His eyes were closed, and he sat cross-legged. The wind blew strongly, making his hair flutter and his clothes wrap tightly around his body.