Disclaimer!
Besides my original characters, the other characters do not belong to me (I'll name them when they appear). I am not making any money off this story, and am merely writing Fan Fiction.
I hope you enjoy Soul Land: Generation Talent Journey :)
In the Dou Luo Continent, the majority of the land was split into two parts: Star Luo Empire and Heaven Duo Empire. Between the two of them, there were several duchies, barons and dukes who had their kingdoms within one of the two empires. However, near the edge of the Dou Luo Continent, there was a small village that was situated on the line between the two empires. This village wasn't incredibly big, and it was quite far from any other city. It didn't have several occupants, only 8 people, all gathered together and living with one another as they had been for a few years now, and were finally leaving. Although they had made several visits to big cities and such before, this was the first time they would be departing from the village.
Among them, the eldest was a man who had the appearance of someone in his late forties, his dark brown hair was arranged in a small ponytail tied with an old ribbon that laid on top of the rest of his hair that fell on his back. He had a very ordinary appearance, however always carried himself full-heartedly, also giving off a dignified feeling. This man, Cao Li Yang, was whom the others referred to as Teacher Cao. A couple of years ago, he had been travelling around the Dou Luo Continent and stumbled upon a couple of children. He had already decided to rest in this village he grew up in, and thus brought several of them to live there as well. Why he didn't bring all he met was something only he knew.
"Are you all ready to go?" Cao Li Yang asked, crouching down until he was eye-level with most of the children. The youngest of them, a 6-year-old girl was the first to nod. Her silver hair which was tied into two slim pigtails at the side of her head bounced as she clasped her hands together, her deep blue eyes revealing excitement. She wasn't the only one, the others in the group had all been waiting for this moment for a long time, and all gave similar reactions. Although, they all came from different places they had all heard of the intrigue and adventure of being spirit masters.
When the eldest of them had turned 6, Cao Li Yang performed a spirit awakening for him, doing the same when others turned of age. Although after a while, they found out that they seemed to have reached a bottleneck of sorts and were unable to progress further, Cao Li Yang had only told them to continue cultivating and that their questions would all be answered when they all had their spirits awakened. To them, Cao Li Yang had always been the highest authority, not just a teacher, but more like a parent. Whatever he said was law, so they all waited patiently for that day which the youngest of them, the silver-haired girl named Lan Jing Hua, got her spirit awakened.
Seeing this reaction, Cao Li Yang smiled and gestured for them to follow him as they exited the village. The first one to speak up was the normally taciturn Dan Guo, a tall young girl with salmon coloured eyes and short straight pale blue hair. "Teacher," She said. "I thought we had to get a spirit ring to advance our cultivation,"
"Waiting some time before getting a spirit ring will not negatively affect one's cultivation," Cao Li Yang said. "Once you do absorb one all your previous efforts at cultivation will show results in your spirit power,"
"Then Teacher, what's a spirit ring?" This time it was a 7-year-old boy asking. He had short golden hair that was parted down the middle as well as pale blue eyes.
"A spirit ring is a spiritual core that is left behind after a spirit beast's death. Only the person who killed the spirit beast is allowed to absorb the core. After the absorption process, it becomes a spirit ring. Spirit rings are categorized by the age of the spirit beast it belonged to. 10-year spirit beasts give white rings, 100-year spirit beasts give yellow rings, 1,000-year spirit beasts give purple rings, 10,000-year spirit beasts give black rings, 100,000-year spirit beasts give red rings. The older the spirit beast, the stronger the effects."
"Oh!" The golden-haired boy said. "Then I'll absorb a 100,000-year ring!"
"Bai Shu," A young girl with black almond-shaped eyes skipped next to him. Her wavy light brown hair was bundled into a loose ponytail lying at the back of her back. At one side of her hair, there was a dark brown, and white strand each that extended to the tips. This was Gu Yan Ling, the second eldest of the 7 children. "Didn't Dan Guo, Ning Tian Cheng, and I already tell you about this stuff?" The young boy named Bai Shu folded his arms and turned to the side as he walked. "Hmph, you always trick me. Who knew if what you said was right,"
"Bai Shu," A mature boy of 8 walked further ahead to meet with them as well. He had wavy beige hair that bounced with every movement he did. His eyes were a winter grey that gave off an idea of a smile always on his face. This was one of the people Gu Yan Ling had named earlier, Ning Tian Cheng. "Dan Guo and I had also said the same thing, do you think we would lie to you?"
"I-" Bai Shu quickened his pace, rushing ahead until he was right next to Cao Li Yang. "I only wanted to hear the words from Teacher Cao's mouth, besides, he's better experienced. So, Teacher Cao, how quickly can I get a spirit ring?"
"You're so eager," Cao Li Yang said, ruffling his hair slightly. "But there are some things you must remember, okay? Listen to teacher. For most people, the maximum age for the first spirit ring should be precisely 423 years."
"So I can't absorb a 100,000-year-old spirit ring for my first ring, okay." Bai Shu nodded his head then eagerly added. "Then I'll do it for the second!"
Gu Yan Ling smacked him lightly at the back of his head. "Have some logic! If the maximum for the first is 423 then how can it jump to 100,000 for the second? If you tried absorbing such a powerful ring you'd burst!"
"What Yan Ling says is correct," Cao Li Yang said. "But there is no shame in being aspiring. For spirit masters, the best spirit ring configuration possible is yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black. Of course, not many people have broken through all the bottlenecks of each 10 ranks, but they still may have optimal configurations early on. We'll be first visiting Mister Zhuang before we head out to get your spirit rings. Besides age, compatibility is also a very important quality of spirit rings. If a spirit beast and a spirit master are compatible then the spirit ring's effects will be much better as well. Certain spirits will reject the rings one tries to absorb because they aren't compatible at all,"
"Old man Zhuang?" Gu Yan Ling complained. "Ugh! He has such a horrible personality! All the time, it's only yelling and words you say we shouldn't hear. If we shouldn't hear them, then why does he always say them?"
"Don't call him Old man Zhuang," Cao Li Yang said. "Besides, he's already doing pretty good. Believe me, he could say a lot more curse words, in the past several of them were towards me." Zhuang Xi Yuan was "an old acquaintance" as he put it, of Cao Li Yang. In the past, during their visits to the other parts of the Dou Luo continent, they would always stop by the academy he ran.
"He's quite powerful though," Ning Tian Cheng said. "Eight spirit rings, that's a Spirit Dou Luo, not many can reach that high,"
"He doesn't even have an optimal spirit configuration," Gu Yan Ling retorted. "It's two of each colour except red. Last time, he called me a stupid twerp, I won't forget this or all the other things he's called me. He's also always yelling. Towards Teacher Cao, towards us, towards his students,"
"Teacher Cao," Ning Tian Cheng quickly said, changing the direction of the conversation. "Are there any cases when this limit can be surpassed?"
"A good question. For this, it can happen however it depends on the person's durability or spirit and such. This shouldn't be a problem for any of you. My spirit itself has a special ability which I can see most of the properties of other's spirits as long as their spirit power is lower than my own. I have already suspected early on that all of you have quite interesting spirits."
"Wow!" A young girl ran forward as well. She had deep amber phoenix eyes, her mahogany hair tied tightly in a braid. This was the 3rd eldest of the children, Zu Que. "Teacher Cao, how coincidental! By luck, all of us spirit masters with special spirits ended up together with such a great teacher!"
Cao Li Yang said, his voice wavering for once. "...This…"
"Teacher Cao, Teacher Cao!" Bai Shu exclaimed. "What's my spirit? I think mine is a tiger from the manifestation."
Saved once again by the switch of a topic, Cao Li Yang's tone regained its earlier confidence. "Spirits are split between Beasts spirits and Tool Spirits. Beast spirits aren't necessarily all animals, but several are. Tool spirits are usually objects or even plants. Different types of Beast spirits are further categorized, and this is the same case for Tool spirits. There are also some cases of something called variant spirits. Variant spirits might cause your ability to be better, worse, or might not affect your skills at all. Bai Shu, your spirit is as you said, a tiger which is a beast spirit. There are several different tiger spirits such as the Scorpion Tiger, or the Blaze Tiger, but yours is what could be considered a first-rate spirit: White Tiger."
"What about me?" Gu Yan Ling said, right after Teacher Cao had finished explaining for Bai Shu.
"And me Teacher!" Lan Jing Hua added.
Cao Li Yang smiled and continued. "Gu Yan Ling's spirit is a Thousand Li Horse, a very fast beast spirit. Lan Jing Hua's spirit is a tool spirit called the Heavenly Crystal Flower. Dan Guo's is a plant-based tool spirit called Prosperous Jade Ginseng. Qi Long's spirit is a type of Dragon called the Azure Dragon."