Book 1 - What Is A Genius - Chapter 1 - He Family's Sixth Son

At the beginning of the cosmos, Yin and Yang, the two mutually correspondent vital energies, gave birth to the boundless heavens, land and all the matter.
Yin and Yang shuttle about in the cosmic space and congeals into all kinds of laws. It is said that all the matter will return back to Yin and Yang.
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The night was deep. Suddenly, countless stars emerged in the sky, shining brightly and twinkling relentlessly.
Under an incomplete night moon, a youngster was performing the horse stance on a hillside. The youngster’s eyes were tranquil and his vision was focussed at his front.
Maintaining this kind of posture is extremely taxing, however, this youngster’s face was completely relaxed, as if he was leisurely sitting on a chair instead of crouching in a martial stance.
Suddenly, an extremely faint rustling sound entered the ears of the youngster.
This sound wasn’t the sound of wind rustling through dead leaves, instead, it seemed as if a man or an animal was approaching towards the youngster in extremely gentle steps.
The mountain top had an endless stretch of tall and huge trees. Some trees had grown up to an extent that to completely encircle one such tree, many people would be required; it was a genuinely ancient forest. However, even though the forest was ancient, not many beasts would come down the mountain and cause harm during this time of scorching summer.
The youngster, while still maintaining the horse stance, faintly inclined his ear to listen. After a short while, his face displayed a faint carefree smile.
“Yitao, come out.”
Along with the youngster’s light shout, another youngster hopped out from behind a large tree. The latter was a bit smaller compared to the former.
“Sixth elder brother, your hearing ability is too good. You’ve discovered me again.”
Both of these youngsters were the third generation children in the He Family Estate down the mountains.
The relatively bigger one, who was still in his training stance, was ranked sixth among the third generation, named He Yiming. While the smaller one was ranked ninth and was named He Yitao.
Although their age were only about eleven-twelve, they’d already begun to receive the elite education formulated for all the young disciples of the family.
They both were birthed by the family’s first wife and had pretty good talent. Although their talent did not enable them to excel among their peers, it wasn’t inferior to that of many others either. (Tl: This line doesn’t imply that they are blood-brothers. It implies that they are direct descendants, born of familiy’s principal wives.)
After coming out from behind the tree, He Yitao suddenly lowered his body, applied strength through his feet, and dashed towards He Yiming like a lightning bolt. Both of his hands were on his chest; taking advantage of his charge’s force, he struck at the latter during the last second before the collision.
Although his age was only eleven years, the strength in his strike and the velocity of his charge couldn’t be belittled.
However, He Yiming, while faced against this strike, faintly smiled nevertheless. He seemed to have casually stretched out his hands, before he lightly pressed them against that fist brimming with strength.
“Ah….”
He Yitao’s miserable shriek echoed. His body uncontrollably did a semicircular arc in the mid-air and whirled two times before rigidly crashing onto the ground.
For an instant, mud splattered in all the directions, while the primary culprit of all this, He Yitao, was flexing his wrist as he moaned in pain.
He Yiming faintly shook his head. As he looked at some of the mud that had been splashed upon him, he couldn’t help but become further depressed.
“Ninth brother, why have you come to me with this move. I was thinking about changing these clothes tomorrow, now I’ve to wash them again.”
“Hey hey…sixth brother, I merely wanted to try again.” He Yitao flexed his wrist again. Although his strength was not low and he had attained a certain realm in the Internal Energy, his body, after all, couldn’t be compared to an adult’s. Although this strict fall was not likely to inflict injuries on him, he wouldn’t be able to avoid some short-term pain.
“Humph…You still haven’t attained the fifth layer of the Internal Energy; what are you trying again for?” He Yiming resentfully said.
He Yitao’s big eyes brightly shined, and he hastily asked: “Sixth brother, have you sensed when are you going to breakthrough?”
He Yiming’s expression turned extremely gloomy; at this moment, he didn’t resemble a twelve-year-old child in the slightest.
He Yitao patted his head once and immediately grabbed his sixth brother’s hand and said:
“Sixth brother, my bad, I shouldn’t have asked.”
He Yiming laughed and shook his head:
“It’s ok. This has nothing to do with you, it’s because of me myself.”
From the age of five, the children in He family began to cultivate the family’s Scriptures Of Internal Techniques. All the scriptures, regardless of their attributes, were divided into ten layers.
From the perspective of an ordinary individual, as long as one was not foolish up to an extent of being a complete retard and possessed even a little bit of talent, attaining the third layer within five years was not a problem at all.
Though, these above-mentioned three layers did nothing more than supplementing the health and increasing the longevity.
As for advancing after these three layers, that will depend on one’s talent, comprehension, and opportunities.
He Yiming, at an age of five, began studying Primordial Energy, which was one of the Internal Energy techniques that primarily focussed on metal. In the beginning, his cultivation speed was extremely fast. Just in a year’s time, by the age of six, he’d already achieved the third layer.
At that time, everybody was extremely optimistic towards his future prospects. Because such a cultivation speed not only implied that he was talented and hardworking, more importantly, it implied that he’d selected a cultivation technique that was compatible with his body. It was the only possible way he could have advanced so quickly.
It should be known that the Scriptures Of Internal Techniques contained cultivation methods with all kinds of attributes. If one is able to choose a scripture that corresponds to the primary attribute of his body, then it is possible to naturally advance at an extremely fast rate. However, if one fails to do so, he may not be able to cultivate at all. He Yiming being able to select a technique that was compatible with his body on his first try, was a case of extreme luck.
For the next three years, he constantly advanced, and by the time he turned nine years old, he’d already attained the fifth layer of the Primordial Energy.
At this point, He Yiming encountered what everybody cultivator experiences at some point, that is a cultivation bottleneck. Moreover, he remained stuck at this juncture for full four years.
During these four years; two elder brothers, two elder sisters, and one younger brother in the family had caught up to him, attaining the fifth layer. Even his younger sister and younger brother had attained the fourth layer. However, he was completely stuck at this spot, no matter how diligently he tried, he couldn’t advance a single inch.
In the family, among the third generation, the eldest one had attained the seventh layer, second and third ones had attained the sixth layer, and the remaining few were all lingering at the fifth or the fourth layer.
However, attaining the fifth layer at an age of nine and then showing no signs of progress for an entire four years, Yiming was the only such case in the whole family.
Letting out a soft sigh, Yiming slowly straightened his body. Under the illumination of moonlight, his small and immature figure betrayed a trace of loneliness.
He Yitao stuck his tongue out. His breakthroughs had been pretty timely. During these years, he’d emerged as a new force among the younger siblings. He was even compared to his elder siblings, and everyone was extremely optimistic towards his future. He’d grown up in such an atmosphere that he’d no way to experience He Yiming’s distress.
He Yiming’s father and elders had discussed with him regarding his problem many times. They had told him in an extremely serious manner that if he couldn’t lower the obsession in his mind, he might not be able to cross over this bottleneck in his entire lifetime.
This was the biggest mystery of the Scriptures of Internal Techniques. After the third layer, every breakthrough required a stroke of luck. If one’s luck was good, he might be able to make the breakthrough naturally while cultivating, and might do so even without being aware of it. If luck was bad then one might not be able to advance a single inch in several ten years.
In cultivation, breakthrough naturally becomes increasingly difficult along with the advancement.
For example, in He family’s first and second generation, after attaining the seventh layer, everybody had spent more than ten years or even several tens of years to make even a little bit of progress.
He Yiming was aware of this reasoning. He also knew that having the fifth layer at an age of thirteen still made him excellent among his peers. His second brother and third brother, Yi Hai and Yi Xuan, had attained the fifth layer only after they turned seventeen. He also knew he had a long time ahead him to cultivate.
However, knowing is one thing, while applying is other.
For a child of his age, controlling mind’s obsession is actually very hard.
As He Yitao watched his sixth brother’s complexion turning increasingly ugly, his heart jumped like a little deer. Despite not being related by blood and being two years apart from each other, they’d been unusually close from a very small age. Whenever He Yiming’s upper brows began crease together, He Yitao would always feel his heart jumping out and skin shuddering. The latter forced out a smile and said:
“Sixth brother, I’ve something to take care of, I will return first. You should also come back soon.”
He Yiming nodded his head listlessly and waved his hand. He Yitao immediately left in a monkey like manner. Though, his chicken like voice faintly echoed in He Yiming’s ears.
“Sixth brother, if you truly haven’t sensed any signs of the breakthrough, why don’t you try choosing another kind of technique. Perhaps, it will be of use.”
He Yiming blankly stared. His original boulder like heart shook a little.
Not all the cultivators of the Internal Energy could be like He Yiming who was able find a cultivation technique compatible with his body in his first try.
Some had to switch techniques two times, some three times, and some even had to switch many times. This, of course, also had a lot to do with individual talent. If one’s talent is too lacking, then there is not much need to say about the results.
Although He Yiming did select a suitable technique at his first try, he’d been stuck on a single juncture for many years. Thus, changing cultivation technique was not necessarily a bad option.
He Yiming was aware of this reasoning, but he didn’t want to easily give up a cultivation technique in which he’d put so much effort, moreover, it was compatible with his body and had also allowed him to make such a quick progress.
He Yiming glanced towards the bottom of the mountains. He was about to go in that direction, but then he caught a glimpse of mud on his clothes. His eyebrows faintly turned in another direction. After thinking for a bit, he turned towards the latter direction and sped off.
At the other side of the mountain’s foot was a clear lake, which was also an amusement spot for He family’s third generation children.
After arriving at the lake, He Yiming quickly and familiarly stripped off his clothes and began to clean them. He was finished after a short while. Although his clothes were still wrinkled, they looked much better than before.
As he was about to leave, a radiance flickered inside the lake. He blankly stared for a bit. With his eyes opened wide, he looked at the lustrous radiance that had suddenly appeared inside the lake and was unwittingly being absorbed by his mind and spirit.