Xero had been born and with that, the cultivation balance would be overturned.
In this world, there hadn't been anyone born with golden spoons in their mouth, however Xero was one of them. His birth was a… catastrophe, to say the least.
In a plainly decorated family apartment, Mr and Ms Xero rocked a baby carriage, with loving smiles on their faces.
"I can't believe, in a blink of an eye, our sweetie has grown so much!"
"That's right. It's also our Xero's birthday today…"
"Did you prepare any gifts, honey?"
"Of course, I did!"
Saying that, the middle-aged man surprised the woman beside him, drawing out the long and thick golden treasure that hung on his waist.
This tough and long golden treasure was quite dazzling to the eye. The woman blinked two times, her mouth gaped slightly in awe.
"What is this?!"
"A flying sword!" Father Xero looked so proud as he boasted, "It cost me a full half-year of my income to specially get this sword for our beloved Xero! Until now, not a single member of the Metra Family managed to reach the Golden Core stage… Darling, this represents my faith and hope for our Xero!"
In this world… where cultivation and modern science were perfectly combined, the diploma had completely made way for the realm system, and had become the new criterion for determining one's status or degree of education. The pitiful Xero couple had never graduated from the Body Refinement Stage, and had remained stagnant at this preliminary stage.
This Chanel flying sword, which was classified at Core Formation level, was worth cities.
Father Xero had gritted his teeth and bought it at the risk of fastening his belt tightly in the coming days.
However, sucking on a pacifier in the baby carriage, Xero only gave the sword a hasty look before giving it the cold shoulder.
This was the first time he had ever seen such an ugly flying sword.
What dumbfounded him the most, was that this man actually kept such an unsightly sword near his pillow and kept on claiming it was warding off evil spirits.
What a pile of horse shit! Hadn't the Four Olds been abolished two thousand years ago? This was the scientific age of cultivation, where the hell had this shitty remnant come from?!
With a speechless look on his face, Xero stretched out a hand less than a quarter of Mr Xero and snapped that unsightly sword in half.
That year, he was only a year old.
…
After Xero had broken the flying sword at the age of one with his bare hands, the Xero couple directly complained at the Bureau of Quality Supervision about being sold a shoddy product by an unscrupulous businessman. There's no way a mere infant could destroy a Core Formation flying sword with just his hand!
At that time, Xero's parents had erroneously assumed that they had bought a fake product.
It was when Xero was four, and the couple witnessed their son flying around the room skillfully on a small children's wooden sword, that they realised, they hadn't bought a fake Chanel sword.
Instead, they had clearly given birth to a fake son!
As muggles that had stagnated at the Body Refinement Stage for years, no matter how much they rended their brains, they were puzzled on how they even managed to birth Xero.
Was it because of a genetic mutation?
Perhaps, a… mix in DNA?
Or had some critical steps been skipped in Xero's creation?
But all these, weren't important.
More than anything else, Xero's parents believed he was God's Gift to the Xero family! The Anointed One! The Chosen One!
Because Xero's parents pretty much had singular strands of butt hair for brains, he managed to lead a peaceful life from zero to five years of age, which was when he was the weakest.
Otherwise, Xero thought that under normal circumstances, he would've been sent into a human research lab institute as a test subject a long time ago.
Maybe he could still appear on that popular television show "Planet Earth."
Xero had realised that his realm advanced with his age, but this wasn't accompanied by the great waves he had imagined, nor any exaggerated anomalies on heaven nor on earth.
On average, he achieved a new realm every year, and he himself didn't know why this was the case, really.
So that his aura wouldn't be exposed, Xero drew a talisman based on something he had found in an ancient text, and stuck it to his right arm. Thankfully so… He would be able to lead a peaceful life for many years.
…
Xero was sixteen years old this year.
His high school life came faster than he had imagined. To disguise himself as an ordinary person, Xero wasn't looking to enter key city high schools, and instead chose to study in a normal public high school — No. 70 High School in Heiyu District, Shizunami city.
Xero came to school with a plain collared white shirt and black jeans, accompanied by white shoes.
He looked around. Apart from the carved sculptures at the school's front gate, their features no longer distinguishable, as well as a handful of trees in the surrounding area, the school was even more ordinary than he had imagined.
If this had been an out-and-out key city high school, all the trees in the school grounds would be those that could gather spirit energy. Also, there would've been an enormous spirit gathering array under the school, so that students would be attentive and refreshed in their studies all the time.
However, such a spirit gathering would be utterly useless to Xero. Because of his much higher realm, not only wouldn't be able to its spirit energy, it would be also very easy for him to destroy the magnetic field of the array.
Xero adamantly didn't want to be the reason for jeopardising other people's prospects, which was why he chose such a relatively ordinary high school in the first place. Although it seems to have a fairy crude environment, overall, he found it very satisfactory. This place, at least, would be very good in hiding his true prowess.
Today was a meet-and-greet for new students at No. 70 High School, and also for them to under go a placement test.
Before new students officially get into the school, they have to undergo a placement test, to determine which class one will be. Based on the results, they would be streamed into different classes: ordinary, normal, elite, remedial, and advanced.. Which was the best one. Xero stood in front of a liquid crystal screen, and following the directions on it, looked for the class where he would be doing his interview.
Given his style, there was no way he was entering such an extracurricular class advanced, that would obviously increase his risk of exposure. However, entering the remedial class would be a little… degrading.
Taking everything into consideration, he thought it would be best if he got into elite or normal.
"Excuse me, do you know the way to Grade One, Class Three?"
Suddenly, there was a sweet voice behind Xero. He froze for a second. Although, he had sensed her aura from the moment she walked through the gate, he had obviously never expected that she would actually take the initiative to talk to him.
With just a cursory glance out of the corner of his eye, Xero could tell that she was pretty good-looking.
"Are you also here to enrol today?"
Not getting a response from Xero, the unfamiliar girl kept on asking questions as if they knew each other. She was elegant, with long hair and fair skin, she wore a tight-fitting T Shirt, and casual shoes.
Xero had to just use little of his spirit energy to determine her strength — she had everything fitting for an elite student, and definitely wouldn't be his classmate.
But as chance would have it, Xero's interview would be conducted in the same room she had mentioned earlier, Grade One Class Three. Without saying a word, Xero pointed at a classroom nearby, which was Grade One Class Three.
Right after that, he casually strolled away, his hands in his pockets.