shortly after shine settled into village life and begin making himself useful peoples fear faded and all that was left was curiosity and desire. at first they tried to be subtle, having their kids play "fight"(show off) around him and making off handed comments about how their son might be a genius because he could recite poetry at the age of 6 or some other nonsense. But soon enough they just started coming up and asking if he could exam their child's cultivation potential or if he wanted to impart words of wisdom on their genius toddler. Now for their credit if a cultivator shows up in a random village in the sticks for seemingly no reason he's either evil or looking for a discipline or some hidden talent and while shine very much seemed evil having a skull for a face and being 10ft tall he clearly wasn't since they were all still alive. Unfortunately for them he wasn't really a cultivator and had no idea how to determine someone's talent for cultivation in fact he wasn't even sure he understood what cultivation was.
From what he gathered from questioning muun and the various series he'd downloaded for research. He more or less figured out that qi was likely some form of radiation that biological lifeforms could absorb into organs called mediterians that didn't exist in his home universe but were either gifted to humans once they came here or humans on earth born with them end up transported to this world where they can use them. This explanation also conveniently explained why spirit beast saw his core as a meal despite it likely being toxic to them. And even if this understanding of cultivation was correct it still didnt help him as theres no way to give himself the organs needed to harness qi.
His research into the other power systems of this world hadn't seen much success either. The power of names and significance seemed to work fine but hard to measure it didn't help that he didn't have anything else to name either.
his research into martial arts was progressing steadily dispite being a sub group of the previous power system its results were a lot more predicatable and its effects more messured.
The most unobtainable however was dao. According to all the books and even miss muun all dao required was understanding, you don't need qi, you don't need a cultivation base all you need is a inherent infallible understanding and the universe or the gods or heaven or whatever these heathens worshiped would grant you power. Obviously this was wrong though, shine had more understanding on 99% of topics then anyone in this world did but did he get the dao of nuclear physics or the dao of thermal energy the he entered this universe? no which can only mean that either A no one in either world knows what their talking about, B. everthing I know about everything is wrong, or C the most likely answer only living beings can receive dao. Unfortunately all 3 wer- actually wait there may be a way to kill to birds with one stone here.
shine stands up surprising the old man who had been telling him about how his son might have a special body with a talent for my "skull headed" cultivation style.
shine speaks and a resonate hum radiates throughout the village coming from seemingly nowhere but is still heard by everyone at the same level of volume.
"alright citizens after determine all of you to be a relatively equal talent in my eyes , i've decide to hold trial in exactly 2 hours to see who will become my discipline. There is no age limit or requirement of any kind the test will be held 5 miles from the village, food and water will be provided for you"
After completing his announcement he leaves the village making sure to mark the trail to the area of plains he's chosen with a 10 foot wide road of burnt grass.
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The turn out was pretty good around 1/3rd of the village showed up mostly children who didn't need to work along with a toddler trying to eat some of the burnt grass accompanied by his mother.Some of the guards and even miss muun showed up as well in total there are 25 people.
To start off I have each of them pick a word: heat,circle,light,body,fall. 12 of the children choose body,4 choose heat, and 1 girl chooses circle. The toddlers mother picks fall and while i'd like to give the toddler a choice as well I don't think it even understands whats happening yet so I have him go with his mother. All 5 of the guards choose light It seems like they have some sort of game plan going on but ultimately it wont matter this either works or it doesn't teamwork wont help. Miss moon of course picks body which was expected.
"alright each of you group up in accordance with the word you've chosen, you can leave and go back to the village at any point from now know that by doing so you are considered forfeit, if you ever stop studying or paying attention you are also considered forfeit. If at any point you need something to be repeated you are allowed to request it and if you have any question you can ask them at any time including now."
One of the larger boys raises his hand and starts talking "I thought we were being tested for our cultivation potential why are we studying?"
I answer to everyone "your not being tested for any cultivation potential and as far as I can tell none of you have an-" The toddler lets out a loud snort "-y your being tested to see if you can become my disciplines and for that I need to test your understanding of what I'm going to tell you.
This answer seems to satisfy him as there are no more questions and I began speaking at multiple frequencies at once essentially talking to all 25 people individually.
Heat
I tell explain to them what atoms are and how hot and cold don't actually exist theres only movement and less movement.I explain how atoms them being close together or far apar- and 1 of them left another stopped paying attention and is sent home damnit its only been an hour at least wait until the 2nd fall asleep. The last 2 are still holding on strong though so I continue and continue and continue. By the time I stop the heat group is no more as all of them have either left or stopped paying attention and been sent home
Circle
I explain to the girl what pi its a number that goes on endlessly without repeating and can be found all over the natural world "why is it important though?" huh? she's actually paying asking a question. "well child its important because it lets you measure circles and circles are the key to understanding repetition" she nods satisfied and I continue. Every now and then she stops and ask me a question about how something relates to and earlier explanation or why do polar coordinates matter? or how does longitude exist when the world is flat(a fair question this one). She last the entire time earning a dinner at the end of it
Light
I pity these guys, explaining what light is to people who don't even understand that their perception of the world is wrong is honestly the hardest task, they stick to it longer then the kids though making sure to keep each other instreasted by asking questions any time one looks like theyll soon zone out and making sure to take advange of my willingness to repeat myself. But still one by one they leave until only as single guard is left instreasted
body
all of these guys fall asleep or leave before I even get to cells, unfortunately miss muun is one of the first knocked out. this was to be expected they all probably assumed this would be some physical test not an actual test.
Fall
shortly before I wrap it up for the first day after all but 4 people are left the toddler achieves the dao of gravity.