The instant Roland Weiss's name echoed through the cavern, the lakefront fell into a graveyard hush.
Countless eyes turned toward him, curiosity, envy, and sharp hunger all tangled together in the stares that tracked his every step.
Now it gets interesting, Roland thought as he walked toward the water under the crowd's scrutiny.
He didn't hesitate. He jumped in, and immediately felt the pressure settle onto him like a layer of stone.
At the same time, as that invisible wall formed in front of him, tiny lights began gathering around his body.
They swarmed over him like fireflies, then streamed straight toward his chest.
Even with the legend… I still don't truly understand how these Hope Myrks work, Roland thought as he felt them sink into him, all of them drawn toward his heart.
When the Hope Myrks fused into a massive sphere of light around his heart, the lake's pressure weakened.
Roland swam down fast.
With every meter, more Hope Myrks appeared beside him and poured into his chest, joining the growing sphere. The light within him brightened, intensified...
...But on the shore, the academy elder's brows drew together.
There are fewer Hope Myrks than there should be, he thought, watching Roland pass ten meters and keep going.
Up on the balcony, many of the elders had the same thought.
That's not an A-grade sign, the clan leader thought, frowning.
Roland kept pushing through the pressure, swimming deeper as he recalled the thresholds.
Below ten meters meant no cultivation talent.
Ten to twenty meters: D-grade.
Twenty to thirty: C-grade.
Thirty to forty: B-grade.
Forty to fifty: A-grade.
While he was running the numbers in his head, he had already passed twenty-two meters.
Twenty-three.
Twenty-four.
Twenty-five… twenty-six… twenty-seven…
Twenty-eight.
He counted silently, then, as he tried to push beyond twenty-eight...
A sudden boom rattled through him.
The sphere of light around his heart hit its limit and detonated.
The explosion happened entirely inside his body. No one outside could see it.
Only Roland felt the shock.
Every hair on his body stood on end. A violent shiver tore through him. His mind flooded with sensation, until it felt like it was spinning out.
His body went soft, weightless, as if he'd fallen into clouds.
For a moment, despite being deep underwater, it felt like he was drenched in sweat.
The whole process felt terrifyingly long for Roland.
In truth, it lasted less than a minute.
And the strange softness vanished as quickly as it had come.
Roland forced his focus inward.
Near his navel, between his kidneys, an oval Essence Core had formed.
The Awakening Ceremony had succeeded.
Roland Weiss had stepped onto the path of Myrks cultivation.
This… is my key to immortality, he thought, a smile tugging at his lips as he felt the lake begin to expel him.
He didn't resist.
In the next instant he shot upward like a bolt of light and crashed down onto the rocky floor, landing squarely on his backside.
Just like my previous life, he thought, his smile calm, indifferent to the grade.
Inside him, the newly formed Essence Core felt mysterious, abnormal.
It was egg-shaped, its surface wrapped in a thin white membrane. That membrane had been created by the Hope Myrks' light, by that inner detonation when he could no longer go deeper.
The membrane supported the core, preventing it from collapsing. Inside it, naturally gathered Ancient Essence pooled.
It was smooth like still water, shimmering a milky white. Yet at the same time it felt dense and heavy.
Only First-Rank Myrks Masters could form that milky Ancient Essence.
The level of Ancient Essence in Roland's core didn't even reach halfway. It filled only forty-six percent of the available space.
That was the greatest limitation of C-grade talent.
Every drop within Roland's Essence Core was pure Ancient Essence, the accumulation of his life potential over the past fifteen years.
This Ancient Essence was what Myrks Masters used to wield Myrks.
Meaning that from this moment onward, Roland Weiss had officially entered cultivation.
He was now a First-Stage Myrks Master.
"Couldn't you go deeper?!" the academy elder shouted, parchment in hand, staring at Roland as if he couldn't believe what he'd just seen.
Roland didn't answer.
He simply turned and walked toward the crowd, replying with his actions.
Even the teenagers began reacting as the cavern filled with noisy whispers.
"Roland Weiss only reached twenty-eight steps?!"
"So he's just C-grade?"
"No way… only C for a genius like him?"
The crowd erupted. The boy everyone had called the greatest genius of their generation had just awakened a painfully average talent.
"Big brother…" Paul Weiss lifted his head, watching in dread as Roland walked back.
It didn't feel real.
Paul had always believed Roland would be A-grade.
But it wasn't just Paul. Many in the clan had thought the same.
"Damn it... Seriously? Only C?!" The Valen Clan Leader clenched and unclenched his fists as reality slapped him across the face and shattered his hopes for the clan's future.
The elders on the balcony wore tangled expressions.
Some frowned. Some leaned together, murmuring. Some sighed in regret.
"Could the results be wrong?"
"How? This method is accurate beyond question. And with everyone watching, cheating should've been impossible."
"Then how do you explain his past achievements? That intelligence he showed so young?"
One elder scratched his bald head, eyes heavy with disappointment as he watched Roland.
"Youths with higher Ancient Essence in their cores often show traits beyond ordinary people, intelligence, perception, memory, agility, strength, creativity. But those traits don't always mean the innate talent itself is high."
The clan leader's voice came low.
"The higher the hopes… the greater the disappointment."
Every elder heard him and in silence, they nodded.
***
Soaked through with icy lake water, Roland felt the cold seep down to the bone.
Yet his face stayed emotionless as he walked away. He saw the academy elder's grim look clearly, and he felt the weight of more than a hundred stares thrown his way.
In those eyes were shock, disbelief, sneers, some even took open pleasure in what had just happened.
The scene pulled Roland straight back into his previous life.
Back then, it had felt like the sky collapsed.
When he'd been thrown from the lake, he'd stumbled, lost balance, fallen onto the stone floor again and again, dazed, hollow.
Not a single person had moved to help him.
Those disappointed, cold faces had felt like blades stabbing into his chest. His mind had been chaos. Pain had filled him until he could barely breathe. Like a bird with shattered wings and plucked feathers, condemned to never fly again.
But now, when the same scene repeated...
Roland's heart was calm, like the smooth surface of the lake behind him.
If they were disappointed, let them be disappointed.
What did their disappointment have to do with me?
The only thing that mattered was that I had stepped onto the cultivation path again.
As long as there's hope in my heart, there's nothing that can make me turn away from the road I walk.
Three hundred years had taught him something simple: people felt most fulfilled when they devoted themselves completely to pursuing their dreams.
There was no need to beg others not to be disappointed.
No need to bend himself into a shape they would like.
The most important thing in life was to walk his own path, even if it meant letting others be unhappy with him for as long as they pleased.
The academy elder took several deep breaths, forcing himself to accept what had happened. Then he shouted:
"Next... Paul Weiss!"
However, the elder heard no answer.
"PAUL WEISS!" he barked again, irritated, his voice echoing through the cavern.
"Huh? Yes, I'm here, I'm here!" Paul shook himself out of shock and hurried toward the lake.
Unfortunately, his rushed steps turned clumsy. He tripped over his own foot and went down hard, slamming his face into the stone with a groan.
The entire cavern burst into loud laughter.
"The Weiss brothers are really the biggest disappointment this year," the Valen Clan Leader snorted, irritation flaring as he watched Paul flail.
This is… humiliating, Paul thought, trying to get up.
But the cavern's dampness made the stone slick. He slipped again and again, falling back down, unable to find purchase.
He fought desperately not to look even more foolish. His heart pounded harder with every failed attempt as the laughter behind him grew louder.
Just as he was about to fall yet again, a strong tug yanked him upward.
He caught his balance, then looked up and saw Roland's face.
Roland had him by the collar.
"Big brother…" Paul opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"Haha! An older brother who turned out talentless, and a younger brother who's an unbelievable klutz, House Weiss is really something," one boy laughed from the crowd.
The laughter only swelled.
The academy elder didn't intervene. He just watched, brows deeply furrowed, staring at the two brothers as disappointment filled his eyes.
Paul stood frozen, lost, not knowing what to do...
Until he heard Roland speak.
"Jump in. Your road to the future is waiting at the bottom of that lake."
Paul's mouth fell open.
Roland had his back to the crowd and the elders, so they couldn't see clearly.
But Paul felt it.
A terrifying calm radiated off Roland, sinking into the air like cold steel.
When Roland spoke, his lips lifted slightly, revealing a deep, thoughtful smile, one that didn't belong in this moment.
Big brother only has C-grade talent… so how can he be this calm? Paul thought, doubt swelling in his chest.
Roland didn't say anything else. He simply patted Paul on the back, turned, and walked away.
Paul, still dazed, headed toward the lake.
He stepped in, almost mechanically, and began swimming down.
I never imagined big brother could stay that calm… If it were me…
Paul didn't realize it, but he was acting out a miracle in front of the entire cavern.
By the time he snapped out of his thoughts, he was already near the bottom, at a depth no one had reached before.
Paul only felt the invisible wall stop him at forty-five steps.
Before he could react, the lake expelled him. In a blink, he was thrown out, screaming as he crashed face-first onto the stone.
"Oh my God! A-grade talent!!!" the academy elder yelled at the top of his lungs, wildly excited as he wrote a huge "A" beside Paul Weiss's name.
"He really awakened A-grade?!"
"After more than four years, our Valen Clan finally has another genius with extraordinary talent!"
On the balcony, the elders shouted too, losing their composure in the same instant.
"Well then," Ethan Weber declared immediately, voice vibrating with excitement, "the Weiss bloodline comes from our Weber line. So we, the Weber family, will adopt Paul Weiss."
"How is that possible?" Oliver Lopez snapped back at once, glaring at him. "You old fox, Ethan Weber, your morals and your strength have both rotted with age. Give the boy to me, Oliver Lopez. I'll raise him properly!"
"Stop arguing," the clan leader cut in, staring them down. "No one is more qualified to raise this child than I am."
Then his voice sharpened into a threat.
"If anyone has objections, step forward against me, Gabriel Valen."
As he spoke, his Fourth-Stage Myrks Master aura rolled outward, pressing down on the elders as he stared them into silence.