Aether was a bit surprised upon hearing the teacher's words. Luckily, he had a fast mind and quickly understood what the teacher meant with his words.
Since the teacher was the one who judged body cultivation talent, he had clearly already ruled Aether out. Naturally, Aether wasn't going to go against the decision because quite frankly, him not having body cultivation talent is an understatement. It was even worse than trash.
Aether smiled wryly and thanked the teacher before saying, "I'll take the Energy Cultivation talent test first".
After informing the teacher, he moved to the correct altar and waited for the teacher to tell him the instructions.
"Place both hands on top of the altar. When you do that, it'll start injecting neutral energy through one hand and extract it through the other. This way the neutral energy will pass through your body, energy veins and energy center. We will be able to see how well your body can handle energy as well as the quality of your energy center and veins. The process is rather uncomfortable—but it doesn't take long to complete so you have nothing to worry about."
Aether already knew how this was going to turn out, but he still wanted to see his results for the energy cultivation test result. While he has mostly decided on a way to fix his talent, maybe it would give him some small insights that could be of help.
'Well, here goes nothing.' Aether couldn't help but comment to himself in his thoughts.
He placed both hands on the altar. It reacted almost instantly and started to send the neutral energy into his right hand.
Aether then felt it running through his body, almost as if it was scanning him from the inside out.
'Strange. The teacher said this would be uncomfortable, but it's the best I've ever felt. I wonder if it'll expose my double energy centers or not?' He thought with a relaxed smile on his face without actually caring too much whether his double energy centers got exposed or not.
While Aether was enjoying the neutral energy coursing through his body, both Antaura and the teacher had dumbfounded looks on their faces.
But who could blame them. Even though the teacher had said the process would be uncomfortable, it would be more accurate to say painful. Having energy that doesn't belong to you course through your body is very painful, and in most cases, harmful. The only reason they could use the altar this way at all is because the energy it uses is neutral energy, meaning the energy has no elemental alignment.
"This shouldn't be possible. From the way he is acting, he seems to be enjoying the neutral energy running through his body. Not only should it be painful, it should be impossible looking at the state of his energy center and veins."
Somewhere along the process, the altar had started to project the inside of Aether's body. More accurately, it was showing the state of his energy center and veins.
"Yeah, his energy veins are completely withered. But his energy center is even more bizarre. Its position isn't stable and keeps flickering up and down. Well, its cracked state doesn't change, so maybe there is a little problem with the altar." Antaura gave her opinion to the teacher.
Naturally this was because of the double energy centers. Every time the neutral energy flowed through one of his energy centers, the altar switched its projection to that one. It couldn't register two simultaneously—it was never designed to handle something so rare.
The teacher furrowed his brows at Antaura's words. The altar had never made a mistake with anything yet. Of course, it would be foolish to believe that it was flawless, but coupled with the fact that the neutral energy was running through Aether's body way too smoothly made the teacher doubt it was that simple.
Around thirty seconds after Aether had placed both hands on the altar, the neutral energy started to fade and the last wisp of it reentered the altar through his left hand.
With the neutral energy fading, so did the comfortable feeling in Aether's body. But he wasn't too disappointed with this. No, he was ecstatic. This whole process had opened doors to him he hadn't even thought were possible. Not only would it be easier to repair his energy cultivation talent, it would allow so much more options later down his cultivation road.
Not even Old Herb had realized it when he saved him—his body had a perfect energy compatibility. This meant that unowned energy could pass through his body freely, without causing harm, his body was compatible with every element you could imagine. Aether was capable of choosing whatever element he wants for his energy when he starts cultivating.
This naturally meant he wasn't going to choose something mediocre like water or fire, but those were concerns for later. First, he needed to actually recover his Energy Cultivation talent.
While Aether stood there with a smile on his face after the test concluded, the teacher kept frowning. Actually, he was frowning even more now. He could clearly see the smile plastered all over Aether's face. The problem with this is that he couldn't understand why Aether was smiling.
All intents and purposes aside, Aether had failed the test. And horribly at that. You can't cultivate with withered energy veins and a cracked energy center. Even worse, it would also drag down the other three cultivations. That coupled with the fact that Aether also had a body completely impossible to body cultivate with and you had someone who would never be able to advance even to the second major cultivation realm.
Aether didn't seem like someone with a dysfunctional brain to him, so he couldn't understand why Aether was so pleased at the moment. He wanted to say something, but ultimately he kept his mouth shut and let the boy be. There is no reason to chastise a young kid who had clearly suffered quite a bit in his life already.
Well, he still needed to let Aether know the bad result.
"You failed the energy cultivation talent test."
He thought this would bring Aether down and maybe crush the boy's expectations, but all he got in response was a lighthearted, "I know".
The teacher couldn't help but be surprised by the response and started laughing.
"That's right kid, don't let something like this get you down. There is still the blood cultivation talent altar left."
He indicated to the second altar and Aether didn't hesitate to move towards it while an excited smile colored his lips.
'I'll show you something interesting, old man.' Aether couldn't help but think to himself.
Aether arrived at the altar and the teacher instantly told him how to activate it.
"Place a drop of blood on the altar. After it has absorbed the drop of blood, it will show us the special properties your blood has… if you have any."
Aether didn't hesitate to bite the tip of his right thumb and put a drop of blood on the altar.
After a slight delay, the altar absorbed the blood and flashed a crimson red to show it was analyzing the blood drop.
At this moment, Aether sank in his thoughts and memories.
During the years he had spent in Old Herb's library, he had used his soul to learn everything about himself he could. This was obviously still flawed. Since he couldn't cultivate, anything he could come up with or conclude would be nothing more than a theory.
This could be seen with the energy cultivation talent test he just completed. Because he'd never had energy run through his body, he couldn't learn all that much about it.
But it was completely different when it came to his blood. By now he had learned what blood essence was, and more importantly, what it does.
Blood essence is the condensed blood drops in a person's bloodstream that record everything about that person's blood. It is used as a blueprint when the body creates new blood. It can even be called the core of your bloodline.
But that is not all. A cultivator can use his blood essence as a source of power if deemed necessary, or even transplant it into other people to give some of its special properties to someone else. This naturally means that some existences steal the blood essence from others.
It is even possible to use blood essence from different beings in order to create a completely new one. This is precisely the method the Bloodline Forging Old Herb taught him uses. Well, Aether was going to change that a bit, but those were thoughts for later.
Aether had discovered something interesting about his blood essence when he used his soul to look at it. First of all, he had little. Not just little, but so little that it should be impossible for him to live.
Just half a drop!
This intrigued him, so he kept looking. Then he saw something ridiculous—something that made him fear even his own blood. But it also gave him unparalleled excitement. He saw the future of his cultivation road. It was at that moment he decide the direction he wanted to go. Others may think he took that decision too lightly, but Aether disagreed. When you see something like that, you just know it's the correct way to go.
Naturally, he wouldn't just blindly chase his vision. He needed enough knowledge to achieve it. He wasn't arrogant enough to believe he could already accomplish what he set out to do.
But now it was time for other people to see his blood talent, to start his journey to the top. Even with his crippled body and nonexistent energy cultivation talent, there was nothing to regret, nothing to fear. He was going to build it all from the ground up using his powerful soul and its blessing, as well as the ridiculous blood he has running through his veins.
When Aether concluded his thoughts, the crimson color faded from the altar. At first, nothing happened. But just as the teacher opened his mouth to declare Aether had failed, a powerful undulation was released from the altar.
Aether already knew what was coming, so he wasn't really surprised. But the teacher and Antaura both felt their blood stop circulating out of fear. It was almost as if it was bowing before the arrival of a king. It was unworthy of making sound nor movement in its presence.
Their faces paled and they almost dropped down to their knees. Luckily, they realized what was happening and could stop themselves before it was too late. The teacher relied on his cultivation, Antaura on her wind nature—but cold sweat still soaked their backs.
In all his years testing talent, the teacher had never seen a result like this—not even from the so-called prodigies of noble bloodlines.
But the surprises weren't over yet. Almost immediately after the undulation was released, two lights were released from the altar. One was light golden in color and gave one a benevolent, humble and warm feeling. The other was dark violet in color and gave one a cruel, arrogant and cold feeling.
They were complete opposites from each other, yet they appeared at the same time and didn't hinder the other in any way. Almost as if they were complementing the other.
The warm light made the cold feel colder, the cold light made the warm feel warmer.
Aether didn't know the name of his bloodline yet—but he knew what it did. This was not an ordinary bloodline.
But this wasn't the end of it, and Aether knew it. What was going to come now was the true terror hidden in his blood.
'Here it comes. The part even I don't understand.'
A second undulation of power was released, even more powerful than the last. The altar released something again, but this time it was invisible, whatever it was.
The teacher and Antaura had to use everything they had not to empty their bowels from fright right at that moment, because the feeling of fear they got from this new thing that was released was tens, if not hundreds of times, more intense.
All they felt was a tyranny and brutality shaking them to their very core.