The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Isaac stood in front of the official and felt their hand on his stomach. Just like Johan, he closed his eyes and focused on the Qi rushing towards the area just above his belly button.

He could feel the awakening Anima changing the structure of his intestines in a surprisingly painless way, hollowing out a space in his stomach and drawing Qi into it. The Qi was so dense that he could feel its every move despite never having trained to sense Qi before.

Slowly, the Qi started to solidify. Isaac didn't know how long the process had taken up until now, but it was longer than he would've liked. At first, there was just a small dish shaped bit of Qi. That continued to grow, becoming more like a bowl with high sides. Finally, the sides continued to extend, meeting at the top to form a perfect sphere.

However, Qi did not stop flowing towards Isaac. It continued to strengthen the walls of his Qi Core, stopping it from collapsing in on itself.

Eventually, Isaac opened his eyes and looked at the official with slight anticipation. The official looked back apathetically.

"58 seconds. 3rd class talent."

Isaac was only slightly disappointed. His pale blue eyes dimmed briefly before the flame of determination burnt in them anew, perhaps even more fiercely now. As the elder had said, cultivation was a difficult journey and he could not expect everything to pan out nicely for him. It wasn't like he could control his innate talent, so why get worked up about it?

Isaac walked away from the instructor and left the hall via the back of the stage. He walked out behind the hall and joined the crowd of others who had awakened. It seemed like the disciples had begun to form cliques, separating into groups based on talent. There was little mingling between the groups other than some disciples kissing up to those with higher talent.

Despite being a 3rd class talent, Isaac walked straight to the group of 2nd class talents. Even if his talent was worse, he absolutely didn't feel inferior to them. Some of the group were about to stop him and ask what his talent was, but Johan answered for him. Some of the others also recognised him as the rumoured swordsmanship prodigy and they vouched for him as well.

Since natural intelligence and cultivation talent showed some correlation, and the fact that he was walking over to the 2nd class talents, they simply assumed Isaac was also a 2nd class talent.

They all waited behind the hall and talked for a bit until everybody had been awakened. About 5 minutes later, the officials also left the ceremonial hall and joined the crowd. The one who looked like the leader shouted,

"Follow us."

The disciples willingly obeyed, but they were shocked at the direction they were heading. They were already near the Silver Palace – a place reserved for Rank 4 Elders and a select few of special status – and now they were going even nearer. In fact, they only stopped upon reaching the wall to the palace's courtyard and gardens. For most of them, this was the closest they'd ever get to entering the Silver Palace.

What they saw next was even more stunning. Beneath the title written in bold '18124 T.C.', names and numbers were inscribed on the courtyard wall.

T.C. stood for Terran Calendar. The planet they lived on was known as Terra and it had a unified calendar and language which were known all over the world. Of course, the language had to be updated every 50 years to account for new dialects appearing in different corners of the world.

However, what drew the disciples' attentions were the names. Some of them even recognised the names of their friends or acquaintances.

"Every 2 years, the names and trial scores of those who pass our trials and enter the sect are recorded on this wall. It is a great honour for your names to be inscribed on the wall of our venerable elders' residence.

"Of course, the names are listed in order of total trial score. There are further benefits to scoring well other than just being named first. According to your score, you will gain a certain amount of temporary points – temp points, if you will. I will explain the use of these at our next destination. For now, you may find your name. Please try to remember your score for later on."

Isaac's unparalleled confidence brought him right to the start of the list. Similar to his expectations, his name was right there in 4th place. He also recognised Erik's name in 1st and Johan's in 13th. Next to Isaac's name was a number – which he practically ignored since he didn't know how it was calculated – and the letter 'S'.

Looking down the list, the top 6 names all had 'S' next to their score, and the names below that all had 'A'. Halfway down the next panel of names, they had a 'B' instead.

Isaac thought for a moment. If their group of trialees had 3 of the top 15 rankers but only 6 people from their trial survived, how bad were the other trials? Isaac didn't know it, but barely 1 in 10 trials had anyone pass at all. The only reason the sect could find 2,500 disciples was because they ran trials at multiple venues non-stop for 1 and a half years straight. And where did they find so many children? At least Isaac knew the answer to that: it was the farm.

The farm was a place in the sect where they bred a very special species of animal: humans. Most female cultivators didn't want to have children as it would prevent them from accepting missions and earning resources. They would also have to undergo intense physical training after childbirth to return to an acceptable level of fitness. Therefore, many years ago the sect had reached a point where it couldn't find enough disciples. That led to the inception of the farm – a place solely tasked with producing babies who would grow up to join the sect. Babies from the farm didn't even know the names of their mother and father.

It might seem disgusting, but it was effective; nowadays most sect members came from the farm. Besides, the Full Moon Sect was a Blood Path sect. It did things like this to ensure its continued survival and success.

Since Isaac already knew about the farm – he had been born in it – he continued to observe the names. He wouldn't recognise any of them, he was simply committing them to memory so he knew who might be of importance in the future.

Several other disciples had similar ideas and crowded around the first panel of names. In the end, Isaac memorized several names but then had to force his way out of the crowd before he was crushed.

Rather than bothering to look at the lower ranked names, Isaac just waited. The officials had already said they would bring everyone elsewhere after this, so he stood there patiently until he heard the call,

"Gather up again. I will now take you to obtain your first Anima."

A wave of excitement passed through the crowd before they lined up in orderly fashion. Isaac just went with the flow and followed along near the middle of the group. This time they were heading away from the Silver Palace and back into the Rank 1 district.

On the way, Isaac noticed there were only 11 officials. He quickly asked around and discovered that a 1st class talent had been awakened and one official had left with them. The sect made a point of being impartial and not giving special treatment, even to the children of elders. The only exception to that was a 1st class talent. They were so rare and exceptional that they were given a peak Rank 3 instructor to help guide them through the early stages of cultivation – though they wouldn't be provided resources or anything else. The sect still wanted them to learn most things the hard way.

If you considered it rationally, the special treatment of 1st class talents was to be expected. While not being one of the continent's peak sects, the Full Moon Sect was highly ranked. In fact, it was a first-rate sect. If even a first-rate sect only had four Rank 5 cultivators, it was easy to see how powerful and uncommon such experts were. Only 1st class talents had the opportunity to reach Rank 5 with slim, slim, utterly minute chance to reach Rank 6 – the pinnacle of the cultivation world. As such, it was obvious how valuable 1st class talents were and how much the sect would treasure them. If anything, it was shocking how little support the sect gave them.

Isaac was surprised that a 1st class talent appeared in a group of merely 2,500 people. However, he didn't pay it too much attention as it wouldn't affect him until much later on.

Instead, he focused on the building they had stopped in front of. It was heavily guarded, with 6 guards of unknown rank standing outside and undoubtedly more inside. Isaac had been able to identify the ranks of the elder and the officials by the distinct badges they wore, but these guards were clad in unmarked armour. If he had to guess, Isaac would say that these guards were likely a mix of Ranks 1 and 2 since they were standing guard in the Rank 1 district.

Isaac could tell they weren't Rank 3 as they bowed respectfully upon seeing the officials. However, they still did their job properly and checked one of the officials' entry permit before stepping aside to let them in.

Isaac was stunned at the circular building's architecture when he entered. Around the edge of the room were several clear boxes containing shimmering Anima. In the middle of the room was a large, circular hole in the ground revealing 2 more floors underground. Concrete steps formed a spiral staircase leading down to these levels.

Isaac could also see containers filled with Anima on those levels and was trying to discern their types when he heard the official speak,

"I have already mentioned that you possess a certain amount of temp points based upon your trial score. These are meant to help you get a strong start to your cultivation journey: you can pay for certain resources with temp points instead of reward points, which are earned from jobs or missions. However, you will have to pay back all the temp points you use within 3 years.

"For those of you with lower talent, we do in fact have methods to raise it. However, it will cost you temp points. Furthermore, we cannot raise talent by more than 2 grades and the higher you wish to raise your talent, the more temp points it will cost. Finally, your foundation will forever be unstable, meaning you can also only raise your talent once in your lifetime. Trying to do so twice will cause your Qi Core to crumble."