As leaders and role models, both Ketis and her husband led busy lives.
It was difficult for them to spend enough personal ti with each other, especially when the Red Tide Collective lood over everyone's heads.
Nonetheless, neither wife nor husband refused to sacrifice their family ti.
They were not always able to return to the grand stateroom and enjoy a family dinner together, but they tried to be present often enough to keep their children fulfilled.
It was only after Ketis returned ho that she led down her guard. Her tough persona faded away as a matronly vibe took its place.
As a collection of bots began to deliver nurous dishes on the dining table, everyone began to take their seats and partake in their als.
As the Larkinsons filled their stomachs, they began to chat about what they had done for the day.
One topic imdiately stood out to the children.
"Everyone in school is talking about cultivation." Kirian Larkinson spoke while chewing on a piece of garlic bread. "Their moms and dads have started to grow noticeably stronger or smarter after they began to practice. We all want to cultivate as well, but the stupid Repository doesn't give us access to them. Why do we have to wait until we are 12 years old before we begin to cultivate?"
Ketis smiled in a good-natured manner. "Systematic cultivation is dangerous. Even the free thods that are deliberately designed to be easy to learn and master can lead you in the wrong direction if you make mistakes or worse, think you are better and try to make careless changes. Children as young as you and your sister are too imaginative and not calm enough to stick to instructions. It is irresponsible to let you cultivate when you are so young"
Her son couldn't accept this answer. "Eh, but when I talked to Andraste, she bragged to that she had already been practicing a rudintary cultivation thod before the Red Collective was founded! Her father developed a thod just for herself! She told that children who obtained companion spirits don't have to wait until they are 12 before they can begin to cultivate. They can start early!"
As the children of one of the most prominent couples of the Larkinson Clan, it went without saying that both Kirian and Mayra already received their companion spirits. It was trivial for Ketis and Joshua to secure a pair of companion spirit fruits for their lovely son and daughter.
That ant that Kirian made a valid demand. The 12 year age limit set by the Red Collective had little aning for children who developed their spiritualities in advance with the help of their companion spirits.
Every companion spirit was inherently intangible and made out of E energy. That ant that even the weakest of them possessed an inherent talent in E energy manipulation and absorption.
In other words, if a child obtained a companion spirit, they essentially possessed enough spirituality of an ordinary adult, if not more!
Venerable Joshua laughed when he heard how impatient his son had beco.
"What did I tell you about trying to grow up too quickly? You are not even 10 years old yet. Slow down. Wait until you are older before deciding what you want to beco. If you commit to a cultivation thod too early, you will lock yourself to specific jobs. It will be too late for you to change your mind."
"I already know what I want to beco!" Kirian stubbornly pushed back at his father. "I want to beco a ch pilot just like you, dad! If my genetic aptitude isn't good, then I want to beco a swordmaster like mom, but also beco a Carmine ch pilot at the sa ti!"
One of the greatest gifts that Ves had given to a huge amount of children living in the Red Ocean was that he single-handidly broke the nightmare that was looming over their heads for years.
Each of them dreaded the day they turned 10 years old and went thorugh the infamous genetic aptitude test.
Once the examiners put a strangely-shaped helt onto their heads, little boys and girls would soon learn whether they were a part of the lucky 3.5 percent or the deeply unfortunate 96.5 percent of the population.
Even if they were still young, every child was clearly aware that it was much likelier for them to fall into the latter category!
That was why children were so afraid of it, to the point where they actually wished they would never grow older than 9 years old just so that they could maintain their blissful ignorance for a longer period of ti!
This was why children around the age of 10 or younger cheered the loudest when Ves finally announced his historic Yellow Jacket models!
The existence of Carmine chs and the revolutionary Carmine System permanently liberated all of these young and sensitive children from the fear of discovering that ch piloting was forever beyond their reach!
Ketis and Joshua exchanged glances with each other.
Many of these children were not quite aware that becoming a Carmine ch pilot would be tough because human society could never allow all children to pursue this career
option.
The genetic aptitude tyranny may have been cruel to the people who grew up under its reign, but it also played an important moderating function.
The developnt of genetic aptitude was not entirely random, but it was so uncontrollable that it may very well be the case. Neither rich or poor could influence the developnt of a child's genetic aptitude in any aningful way.
This ant that there was a sense of fairness in the ch community. The rich and powerful could not monopolize the ch piloting profession. The poor had a chance to beco heroes on the battlefield as long as their genetic aptitude was high enough.
All of that threatened to change once Carmine chs beca available. The limiting factor that prevented people from becoming ch pilots was not genetic aptitude, but other factors such as background and capital.
Of course, Ketis and Joshua were both powerful and wealthy enough to allow for both of their children to dedicate their lives to becoming Carmine ch pilots. They were not the ones who stood to lose in this new contest.
They were much more concerned for other parents and children. The Larkinson Clan had a need for talented and loyal ch pilots, but their demand was not high enough to accommodate every single child with a dream.
Sooner or later, the clan needed to formulate a policy that raised a lot of barriers to
prevent too many of its descendents from becoming Carmine ch pilots as opposed to
ch designers or starship personnel.
The amount of manpower required to fulfill those other responsibilities were much
greater!
It was impossible for any organization to sustain itself with ch pilots alone!
The combat power of a ch force was not decided by the amount and quality of ch pilots alone. The support structure around ch pilots was just as important. The clan needed to think carefully on which children were allowed to beco Carmine ch
pilots.
"Let us wait until you are 10 years old before we decide further whether piloting chs should be your future, Kirian." The mother said. "As for practicing a cultivation thod, I will see what I can arrange for you. As far as I know, there is another reason why children under the age of 12 cannot responsibly practice cultivation. Their comprehension is usually too poor to make great achievents. You can only practice the simplest thods, and only the first chapters at that. Don't expect to make much progress unless
you are a genius."
"Aw..."
Kirian was a designer baby and had been raised under good conditions. He was not stupid, yet there was still gap between himself and a genuine monster like Andraste
Larkinson.
Both children dedicated a lot of ti on practicing their swordsmanship, but Andraste's study load was much higher due to her superior capabilities.
While Ketis could afford to grant her son powerful augntations and help him enroll in
a first-class school, she was reluctant to subject Kirian to so much pressure when he was
still so young.
Besides, if her son wanted to beco a swordmaster or expert pilot so badly, developing his heart could make a much more positive difference than stuffing lots of theoretical knowledge in his head.
"The simpler auxiliary qi cultivation thods are sufficient for you." Ketis told her son. "Don't obsess too much over them. Just use them to increase your comprehension and speed up your studies. If you truly want to beco a strong warrior like your father and I, then you need to be more active rather than sitting around while engaging in ntal gymnastics several hours a day. There is an inherent contradiction between qi cultivation and willpower cultivation that cannot be reconciled. You can either choose to overco wall by chipping away at its weak points, or bashing it apart by relying on brute force. The forr approach is clever and efficient. The latter approach is powerful but much more difficult to attain. It is up to you to decide which one you prefer the
most."
"I don't want to outthink my problems! I want to outfight them!" Kirian decisively spoke! "Since dad has beco an expert pilot and you have beco a swordmaster, there is no reason for to be any worse. I will completely work to beco a swordmaster or expert pilot myself! Hey, I just thought of sothing. Since I have a companion spirit, is it possible to beco an expert pilot and swordmaster at the sa ti?!" Venerable Joshua made a noise of concern. "That sounds crazy. I don't know what will happen. As promising as it sounds, I don't think it will be easy to accommodate two different kinds of willpower in the sa body. You could either beco the most powerful warrior of red humanity, or you might literally split yourself apart if you can't reconcile two different but equally powerful wills. Don't ss around with things like this. Your mother is right. Cultivation becos most dangerous when clever little munchkins like you think you can ga the system."
"What if it works?! If I can really beco an expert pilot and swordmaster at the sa ti, then I can beco twice as strong as you at the sa rank!" Though Ketis liked to believe her son was clever and educated enough to know that his proposal had a high chance of producing a deadly accident, she still worried whether he
would try to pull it off anyway.
Fortunately, it was anything but easy to surpass the extraordinary threshold through willpower.
Trying to do it twice in a reasonable tifra was even less likely!
So far, Kirian was too young to possess the qualities that could trigger a breakthrough.
Ketis would rather have her son muddle around for a few decades before finally deciding on his future course as a soldier or anything else.
If he insisted on following the footsteps of his mother or father, then Ketis at least wanted him to develop only one form of extraordinary willpower.
He or his companion spirit that had not broken through in this manner could easily
increase his versatility and fault tolerance by practicing a complentary qi cultivation
thod.
This was the ideal cultivation plan that a worried mother had devised for her
rambunctious son.
However, Ketis was afraid that if she tried to impose it on him, Kirian would just rebel
and try to pull off an extre stunt out of her sight.
"Oh Kirian..."
Raising children was never easy.
Despite the fact that Kirian had turned into a growing source of concerns, Ketis never
ceased to love her son. It was precisely because she worried so much about him that she wanted to shower him with love.
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