《Babel - The Path to Ascension: The Golden Children》Chapter 30: The Value of a Child
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“Anything. What actually are they? Why did they come into existence? Is there anything better than a golden child? What am I missing to reach my next stage in cultivation? I want to know a lot of things, but those are the big ones at the moment.”
Luke looked at the young boy who kept him company for the first time in millennia and could not help but feel happy. This child was full of potential and inquisitive beyond common sense. Luke was was interested to see where the boy could go if given the right kind of guidance, even if he was an average golden child.
“You are pretty much the average golden child.” He began. He did not want to put down Laurence, but the boy deserved to know that he was not the best of the best, even if he was the best of the rest. “That is not a bad thing, as golden children make up the best males and females of the year that they are born in. The best golden children manifest their souls and become Saints at the age of six and the worst at the age of eight. Apparently before you turn six your body is not able to take the energy and so children with the potential for sainthood at that age are sealed until they are at least six, else they become crippled by their own power.
“Golden children are called as such because in what I believe was the third cycle, when the eight clans of way were first created, the clans still used gold as their metric for value. Children who could cultivate to Saint before the age of ten were considered ‘as valuable as a gold mine’. They were, and are, the only people who were definitely capable of reaching immortality, whether normal or Ascendant. It meant that they were valued as future powerhouses and potentially valuable resource gatherers for their clans.”
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“So golden children are valuable because of their growth speed and potential? That seems a bit mean to the children who are smart, but not good cultivators. It even seems a bit mean to the other children who are not quite as good as the golden children. Why do they get excluded?” Laurence was confused by this idea. To him, if you were a day faster, then you were just as good as the person who was a day slower than you. You might even be worse than the person behind you if you work less than your competitors.
“Essentially yes. The golden children are the best of the best. They might have odd idiosyncrasies but they are rigorously tested from the age of five, and then thrown to the dogs the day they become Saints. Often there will be hundreds of children competing to gain the title of ‘golden’. This is because the children will not be let out of the pocket dimension that the clan lives in if they are not golden children or at least peak saints by the age of twenty-five. Often their wanderlust drives them on to manifest quicker, though you seem to have manifested of your own volition quickly without need external stimulus. You're definitely the best of the average golden children, but still not as excellent as some who have been.”
Luke paused to check the food in the oven. It was cooking away happily, so he closed it and continued talking. “In answer to your next question, there is something more than a golden child. Once a cycle a child is born at Saint level. These children have to have their cultivation sealed, but it is usually unsealed around their seventh year. They are almost always golden children, but do not show any more potential until they reach Heaven rank. Once they reach Heaven rank, these rare children will become Immortals far quicker than anyone else, and if they are given one of the «Books of The World» they have not studied, then they could become Immortals within a year of reaching Heaven. They are all destined to become the next leaders of the clans they are born into and so are called ‘Little Rulers’.”
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“So I could be a Little Ruler?” Laurence said. The idea of being someone who was akin to a great hero of old, like the great leaders of the clans were, was enticing.
“You could be, but it is unlikely. For one thing, you would have been told from a young age that you were a little ruler. But for the second, if you were adopted and not told, then you likely would never actually be able to cultivate. The seal used, unless it has changed since I was last in contact with the clans, servers you from the energy of heaven and earth. It allows for the powerful energy that the child is born with to be absorbed into their bones and muscles without there being too much for them to handle. That is not to say that you won't do well. You're a peak Saint before you turned eight years old. You've done incredibly well for yourself, and all only grow more powerful as you get older.”
“Thanks, but it does not help me with my current problem.” Laurence sighed. Since meeting Damascus he had tried to make one of the Manifestations, but each attempt failed. At first it was because he could not trueform well enough, then it became because he had too small a mana reservoir. Now he just could not find one that felt right. The boy had looked through all the manifestations and tried to make them, but at the thirtieth he realised that none of them fit him.
“You said you were of the Absolution clan, correct?” Said Luke, snapping Laurence out of his irritable stupor.
“Yes, though I don't see how that will help.”
“Well if you are having trouble with Restoration, then it might just be easier for you to start with an animal corpse and try to use mana to return it to peak condition before trying it on anything living. That way you will be able to build up your multitasking to deal with the tumours.”
“What's Restoration?”
Luke looked blankly at Laurence before slowly coming to a realisation that Laurence was not the average Absolution clan member.
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