Chapter 22: The Classification of Talent Grades! A Fifth Type of Trait Beyond Ordinary People!

This system was completely the opposite of the one in the 21st century, so when Xiao Xuan first learned about it, he had been rather speechless.

Although he did not know why it had been established this way, there was probably a reason for it.

At the very least, the idea that special-admissions junior-college students were the elite had already become deeply ingrained in people’s minds.

After being scolded, the two graduate students hurriedly trembled as they tapped on their Smartwatches.

…………

CRACK!!!!!!

Then, a massive fissure suddenly split open in the center of the railing in the middle of the martial arena!

BZZZZZZZZ!!!

Immediately afterward, one enormous domed machine after another slowly rose from the crack below!

In the end, a full hundred machines stood upon the ground. Each of those spherical machines had a radius of ten meters and a single entrance!

At the very center stood an even larger domed machine with a radius of fifty meters.

“Since all of you are standing here, you are naturally the geniuses of Nanhai Province!”

“In that case, I will not waste words.”

“There will be two rounds of testing. The first is a basic test, mainly to measure explosive power! Anyone whose explosive-power multiplier reaches the standard may enter the second round and will also earn the qualification to join Nanhai U”niversity!”

“There are two types of testing devices here.

“One is a C-Class testing device that can withstand the standard combat power of up to the Fifth Heaven of the Innate Realm. The other is a D-Class testing device that can withstand the Fifth Heaven of the Grandmaster Realm!”

“Choose according to your own strength!”

“As for the second round, it is only used to select this year’s top ten for the Hundred-Province Genius Tournament, so actual combat will be the standard then!

“The ten strongest will be chosen.

“Do not be afraid of getting injured. We have the most advanced medical pods here. As long as you do not die, we can save you!

“Now for the first round. Line up according to your numbers!

“Numbers one through one hundred, step forward!”

Professor Liu Feng did not waste any words. After briefly explaining the rules, he immediately gave his orders to the crowd.

One hundred students promptly stepped out and entered the C-Class testing devices one after another.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Then a series of impact sounds rang out.

Lines of information were displayed on the testing devices as well.

Xiao Xuan casually swept his gaze over one of them.

…………

Test Subject: Cai Xu

Trait: 【Strength Enhancement, Blue】

Vitality: 35.2

Realm: Third Layer of the Vitality Realm

Explosive Power: 451425 kg!

Explosive-Power Multiplier: 12.8

Speed: 77 m/s

Defense: 55400 kg

Overall Rating: Low Blue

…………

“Cai Xu’s explosive-power multiplier is almost thirteen. Why is his rating only Low Blue?”

After seeing that rating, Xiao Xuan immediately asked Su Qingwu beside him in curiosity.

A thirteenfold combat-power boost should at least have been Purple, should it not?

Even if not, it should still have counted as relatively strong among Blue grades.

Su Qingwu was momentarily stunned when she heard Xiao Xuan’s question, but then she understood.

Xiao Xuan came from an ordinary family as well.

Although his sister’s talent was terrifying, Mu Xiying’s studies were so demanding that she definitely had no time to teach Xiao Xuan.

And the advanced martial hall Xiao Xuan had attended was only a third-rate one.

Most of the students there were probably Martial Apprentices, so they simply had no access to this kind of knowledge. Besides, learning it too early could easily damage their confidence.

With that thought in mind, Su Qingwu began explaining.

“It works like this, Xiao Xuan.”

“The explosive-power multiplier is the ratio between the damage value a cultivator can unleash at full strength and their Vitality value.”

“The higher the ratio, the stronger that person’s combat talent or supernatural talent.”

“For example, Cai Xu has a Vitality value of 35.2, which means his standard strength should be 35,200 kilograms.”

“But he can unleash more than ten times that combat power. That comes from the bonuses of his Trait, cultivation arts, and martial techniques.”

“The problem is that Cai Xu’s combat power relies almost entirely on a single Strength Enhancement Trait. His own inherent combat amplification is not even twice over. At that level, he can only be considered fairly ordinary.”

“If someone has strong talent in cultivating cultivation arts and martial techniques, then even with only Blue Traits, they can still unleash thirty to forty times their combat power. In that case, their overall combat power would reach the standard of an ordinary Purple-Trait genius.”

“But that requires an enormous degree of insight into the cultivation arts they practice.”

“And at the second tier, the cultivation arts they practice are only second-tier arts.”

“If they want to achieve a sevenfold or eightfold increase in strength, they cannot do it even if they cultivate a second-tier art to Great Perfection”.

“Unless they cultivate a fourth-tier art and reach Mastery, or even Major Mastery and beyond!”

“But even if someone with only a Blue talent can unleash forty times their explosive power, their talent standard still would not be Purple.”

“It would only be High Blue, or perhaps merely Mid Blue.”

“And that brings us to the question of upper limits.”

Su Qingwu spoke slowly and patiently.

At this point, Xiao Xuan more or less understood how explosive power worked.

“Then how exactly are Low Blue, Mid Blue, and High Blue divided?”

Xiao Xuan had now become interested in the classification of talent grades.

“Talent grades are actually based on Trait grades!”

“You already know the lower Trait grades: White, Green, Blue, and so on.”

“But you should also have noticed that among people who awaken several Blue talents, some awaken ones that can stack with each other, while others awaken ones that cannot stack, or simply awaken only a single Trait.

“As for stackable ones, they are generally divided into four major categories of Traits. The first category is the foundational type! For example, physical cultivators have Strength Enhancement and Body Enhancement!”

“Or soul cultivators have Soul Enhancement!

“These are foundational enhancement Traits that directly strengthen a Martial Artist’s soul and body!”

“I do not know much about the soul-cultivation side, so I will focus on martial cultivation.”

“The second category is the technique type!”

“Technique-type Traits are things like Blade Mastery and Sword Mastery.”

“For soul cultivators, they would be things like Soul Condensation.”

“These are all Traits that rely on extensive cultivation to make the power you unleash even stronger. They are also the only kind of Trait that can be improved in grade through your own cultivation.”

“The third category is the burst type. Burst-type Traits include things like Enraged, and others of that sort. However, there are also other Traits in this category!”

“That is, constitution-type Traits, bloodline-type Traits, and transformation-type Traits!”

“These all count as burst-type Traits as well!”

“All of these Traits can greatly strengthen your physical body.”

“However, many Traits of this type come with side effects. For example, with gigantification-type ones, once you grow larger, you cannot shrink back down.”

“For beast-transformation types, once you turn into a ferocious beast, you cannot change back.”

“Then there are Traits that rely on burning Essence-Blood or sacrificing the body to boost combat power. All of those come with severe side effects.”

“The fourth category is the elemental type. Elemental-type Traits are those that let you control the natural elements.”

“They can also enhance a Martial Artist’s combat power.”

“These four major categories are the four major types of Traits for Martial Artists, and all four can stack!”

“But Traits of the same kind cannot stack. For example, blade techniques and sword techniques naturally cannot stack!”

“Two bloodline Traits cannot stack, either.”

“Nor can two burst-type Traits stack!”

“For example, if a Blue-talent holder has only one of those categories, then their talent grade is Low Blue. If they have two, then it is Mid Blue. If they have three, then it is High Blue!”

“And if they gather all four, then that is the legendary Peak Talent!”

“However, just because they can stack does not mean they can stack perfectly at one hundred percent!”

“After all, a person’s body has limits to what it can endure!

“The more you stack, the weaker the stacking effect becomes, and the higher the chance that the body will collapse.”

“For example, someone with 10,000 kilograms of strength who possesses the lowest level of Purple Strength Enhancement can increase that strength tenfold.”

“That means they can unleash 100,000 kilograms of force!”

“If they then stack one of the other four types of Traits on top of it—for example, a weapon-type one—then it can rise to 1,000,000 kilograms, a hundredfold increase!”

“If they also have a third burst-type Trait, then in theory, they could raise their combat power another tenfold.”

“But in reality, their body cannot withstand that much enhancement.”

“Reaching four times stronger would already be the limit!”

“If they then had a fourth Trait, they might gain another twofold increase in combat power.”

“But by that point, the chance of bodily collapse would be extremely high. After a single battle, they would probably not be far from death.”

“Of course, even so, a low-grade but high-rank talent can still crush a high-grade but low-rank talent!”

“In theory, the combat power of a Mid Blue talent is far stronger than that of a Low Purple talent!”

“Not to mention High Blue and Peak Blue talents!”

Su Qingwu explained everything seriously.

When Xiao Xuan heard that, however, he became a little puzzled.

His Gigantification belonged to the constitution type.

But Essence-Blood Depletion was more like a burst-type Trait.

In theory, both of those should count as third-category burst-type Traits.

Since they could not stack, why could his stack together?

But very quickly, he realized the answer.

Strictly speaking, his Essence-Blood Depletion was not actually a Trait at all, but a special effect brought about by his cultivation art.

Only people with special talents could cultivate that kind of effect.

Namely, those with rapid-healing-type Traits.

And even those with rapid-healing-type Traits still could not withstand the terrifying backlash of that cultivation art.

The creator of the Bloodthirsty Demonic Art had been a genius with a Silver-grade recovery ability.

But even he had only been able to raise the cultivation art to the peak of the fourth tier.

And even if that level of cultivation art was cultivated to Great Perfection, its effects would only barely compare to a Green talent.

It was still far inferior to a Blue talent.

As for himself, after obtaining the absurd ability of the Scavenger recycling Trait, it was equivalent to having gained a fifth type of Trait!

In other words, he now counted as a Blue Ultimate Talent that surpassed even Peak Blue talents!

Moreover, because what his Bloodthirsty Demonic Art brought was an intrinsic enhancement of the physical body, the upper limit of what his body could endure had also risen significantly, allowing him to bring out even more of the power from his stacked Traits.

“With this kind of stacking, my combat power is actually dozens of times greater than that of a Peak Blue talent at the same level.

“Once I raise my Innate True Qi to Ten Revolutions, my strength should increase quite a bit more!

“I have heard that below the Martial Thearch Realm, no one has ever achieved Ten Revolutions of True Qi!”

At that thought, the corners of Xiao Xuan’s lips curled upward slightly.

“It is just that, although these high-rank and peak talents possess extremely powerful combat strength, the same is also true in reverse.”

“If a person’s strongest talent is only Blue, then their future realm is already locked.”

“After all, if they cannot cultivate to a higher level, then no matter how strong their explosive power is, they will still be wiped out instantly by stronger experts!”

Su Qingwu added that point at the end.

“True enough. If your realm is not high enough, then no matter how powerful your explosive force is, it is all meaningless!”