She cultivated like a madman. From day to night. She forgot about the whole world. She worked like there was no tomorrow.

  Only pain and sweat kept her company.

  Just pain and sweat.

  A week had passed.

  How could she accomplish this with inferior talent? Since even now she had a problem with a this new 1 in 10 000 rare talent. The world really is unfair. But not for her. She has a system.

  The chains finally broke. Energy began to flow rapidly. From head to toe. She felt a surge of energy in her body.

  Qi Refinement – Stage 3

  May’s eyes opened slowly. She smiled cheerfully.

  “I’ve made it.”

  On this occasion, her parents held a party for her. A rare genius has been born.

  Local cultivators also appeared. The local elite.

  They showered her with gifts - pills, medical herbs and other things.

  Most of the things were useless, and she could get them at a low price from the system, but she remained respectful to all the people.

  Everyone wanted to make a good impression on her. After all, she had a chance to get into Cloud Academy.... And by extension, to the Inner Court. The benefits would then be endless.

  And even if she didn't get in, she's still a genius, so it's still worth making a good impression.

  However, she knew that she was only a genius to these villagers. In truth, she wasn't that amazing.

  Suddenly she heard a scream and a loud sound.

  Someone was fighting.

  It wasn't just her; the others quickly went to see what was going on. When they came outside they saw two boys about her age. They looked conflicted. She knew them. They were from a family of cultivators like her.

  She used her Qi sensing. It was already strong enough to tell more or less the level of another person - it was already E-rank. They were both in the second stage of Middle Qi Refinement.

  They were also considered talented, but certainly not like her.

  What a stupid thing to do. To fight in front of so many people. However, this will be the first real fight I will see.

  She was quite excited.

  One of the boys attacked. He raised his fist and punched the other in the face. The one didn't give up and reciprocated the blow.

  This fight... It sucks! What a joke.

  It was like a fight between children in kindergarten.... Well they were children, but she was still disappointed. Although they were cultivators apparently they never really fought.

  They fought by punching each other in the face and pulling each other's hair. A dirty and unpleasant fight. It was a shame to watch that.

  But no one interrupted.

  This fight sucks.... However, something is finally happening! This world is so boring!

  Most people had a similar opinion. There wasn't much going on on a daily basis, so while it was a little out of character, their fight was like watching a circus....

  However, I wonder why they started fighting?

  Finally, after a few minutes, one of them began to cry. He was just a child, after all. He has failed absolutely.

  One of them won. He stood up and headed toward her. She was surprised. She didn't like where this was going.

  "Lady! I won the battle for you! Your beauty is like a sculpture made of jade in the middle of the moonlight! Please! Accept my engagement!" Said the victor, stammering with stress.

  She cringed so hard.

  "Yeah... No."

  What the hell is this!

  It was somewhat cute, but there was no way she was going to accept the love declaration of some brat! She was a grown woman afterall.

  Tears appeared in the boy's eyes. He ran away.

  What the hell is going on?

  People who were watching everything started laughing. May stood in the middle of the courtyard, completely speechless. She was a little afraid of the reactions of others, but it looked like everything was okay? Well they were just kids after all so no one took it seriously.

  She was relieved that no one felt offended as in some cultivation novels.

  Well, I'll probably never meet him again anyway? I don't even know his name.

  The party has returned to the expected state. The event was not so boring, as guests talked practically exclusively about cultivation. This is an amazing advantage of socializing in higher spheres.

  She learned many things about cultivation and more.

  She learned that the clan leader was at the Nascent Soul stage!

  The clan itself had 8 high elders at the golden core level.

  Unfortunately, the clan leader has rushed too much with cultivation and there is no chance for further progress. However, he had no choice because if he had not decided to move from Golden Core to Nascent Soul the clan would have collapsed hundreds of years ago.

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  She queried other event participants about cultivation - her father didn't want to tell her anything because he didn't want it to affect her.

  To her, however, it was irrelevant. She simply wanted to know more.

  "Want to know what the stages of cultivation are? How do you not know that... Oh, it makes sense, since you are only seven years old.... I shouldn't... But fine since you're asking that."

  In the end, she somehow managed to convince people.

  Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core and Nascent Soul. These were the stages that existed in the sect.

  There were tens of thousands of people at the Qi Refinement stage, thousands at the Foundation Establishment stage, just eight at the Golden Core stage and one person at the Nascent Soul stage.

  Apparently there were others, but almost no one had heard of them. This wasn't too surprising considering that everyone present was at the Qi Refinement stage.

  There were only a couple (including her father) at the 9th stage of Qi Refinement. And even they were not considered very powerful in the sect.

  There are certainly other stages. That's what my intuition tells me. And also the sterotypes of this type of story.

  She learned that her sect had a problem.

  All the surrounding sects had more than one person in the Nascent Soul stage.

  Island Mountain Sect only had one. And a very old one at that. Consequently, the sect was committed to seeking talent. If they failed, with the death of the leader, the sect would sooner or later be destroyed....

  "Blue Dragon Sect reportedly just get the third person at the Nascent Soul stage. A young lady who is not even 400 years old."

  “That's still nothing, the Imperial Love Sect has as many as five of them...”

  “Dark times are coming.”

  "War. Just war. Not dark times. Speak normally."

  The situation is not good.

  “You are lucky young lady.”

  Because of this, the sect has begun to invest huge amounts of money in the younger generation.

  The sect has begun organizing auctions and plans to increase admissions in hopes of finding new talent.

  “Rumor has it that there are plans to admit people from outside the sect...”

  "Those filthy children of mages? Who didn't want to assimilate?"

  "Yes and more. Supposedly they are going to test ordinary villagers. What a joke."

  Angry glances fell on some of them. The master of this house was, after all, married to a mage. Such words were certainly not welcome here. May herself was angry. How dare they insult her mother like that, what a bunch of jerks.

  "Please forgive me, I meant THOSE mages who practice their dirty magic on children. We have nothing against decent magicians who have decided to behave like human beings."

  Mages were not particularly liked here.

  Or to be more precise, it was the cultivators who didn't like them. It didn't matter to ordinary people whether it was a cultivator or a mage who healed them.

  It doesn't really matter to me.

  Unlike others, she had nothing against mages. She honestly didn't see much distinction. Besides, her own mother was a mage, so it was hard for her to discriminate against this group, especially since they had lost their home.

  She continued talking for a long time. She felt a little tired and decided to go out on the balcony. Then she saw the same boy. He was walking toward her. Great.

  “Sorry for earlier. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

  He really looked like he regretted it. Well it must have been difficult for him too. First to get the courage, to stand up to fight, all to be rejected.

  "It's okay, everything is fine. I'm the one who's sorry for reacting so badly. She chose not to bother him any further because he was only a child.

  They stood like this in silence. It was a bit awkward. She decided to break the silence.

  "Forgive me, but I never asked... What's your name."

  The boy seemed shocked. His face seemed to say: you really don't know that?

  "Deng Zhifang. Don't forget. We'll meet again."

  “So well - Deng Zhifang, we'll see if fate allows us”.

  She sincerely doubted it. He wasn't as talented as she was, so this was probably their last meeting.

  For the first time, she took a good look at him. He looked different from everyone else. His hair had a strange purple glow. Although strange hair colors were natural in mages, he came from a family of cultivators, perhaps he had some mage blood? However, this did not explain his almost completely black eyes.

  Perhaps he possessed some unique physiques?

  Well it doesn't matter, I mean, even if, he still has no talent.

  It's hard to believe, but I guess I really am better than my father....

  The limit of her father, with his use of Qi Sensing, was only two meters.

  She has already exceeded that limit... It seemed absurd considering that she was only on stage 3 and he was on stage 9. Could it be a difference in talent?

  “Let's see the system.”

  With the breakthrough to the next stage, all of her statistics have increased.

  All basic techniques have also increased in rank. Originally, they all had a rank of F.

  "Your father should have 1:100 talent, just like your original." Said Minnie

  “So talent makes such a big difference?”

  "Of course, this also applies to techniques. What took him years to master, you did in a few months. You made yourself into quite a monster."

  She knew it had taken him years to master Qi Sensing to this level.

  "However, isn't my talent exaggerated? How can it be when he is so many stages above me?"

  "Techniques and cultivation levels are not correlated. Of course, if you are stronger the easier it is for you to do something.But for example, if two people learn the art of the sword it doesn't mean that the stronger person will be better at it. Greater strength may mean that you can hold a sword more easily, but it doesn't make you better at using the techniques. It's the same with cultivation."

  "Is there really no correlation involved? It seems a little unintuitive to me."

  "But it's a fact. Learning some techniques may require pure strength, but in this case talent is more important. There is a huge difference between 1:100 talent and 1: 10,000 talent. Your father is simply average."

  Well, she found it hard to believe that she had overtaken her own father so quickly. True, in terms of cultivation level she was still inferior, but in terms of at least basic techniques she was better.

  She activated her Qi Sensing. She closed her eyes. She was able to see every blade of grass. She was able to locate insects in the area. Everything had Qi energy. She was sure that it was better not only in terms of distance, but also in terms of quality.

  She then tried to use the other two techniques.

  She began to manipulate her Qi. She focused her attention on her fingers. At the same time, she used her Qi Sensing. She saw that a small stream of Qi came out of her fingers - it was more than she would have expected. Her Qi Control was at a good level. However, if she wanted to survive in this world, she had to be even better..

  Finally, Qi Suppression. She felt her energy and suddenly all her energy was hidden in her body, as if it did not exist. This technique she was least confident in.

  It's a useful technique for hiding, but I honestly don't like it.

  During Qi Suppression, she could not use other techniques, such as Qi Sensing or Qi Control. She was then quite vulnerable.

  I will use this technique only in the worst possible case, when I have no other choice.