Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy - Chapter 2946: Generations
Chapter 2946: Generations
Pearl sat atop a wide bed in the room that was now entirely his. After officially becoming a White Tiger, he had been given one of the many rooms available to him within the palace to permanently move into.
The room was just as grand as his grandfather’s, with mirror-like polished white marble covering the ground and alabaster walls complimented by golden designs etched onto every available surface.
It was more of a house in itself, with other rooms for him to use as he pleased.
Two palace guards now stood before the golden doors to the room, forever there to protect his privacy or assist him in anything he might need.
Pearl remained lost in thought on his bed for some time, thinking about the upcoming trial he would have to go through. He didn’t imagine the need to worry too much about the regular trial itself, but given his grandfather’s concern, he worried about the unexpected.
There was a knock on the door, and he heard one of the guards announce his grandfather’s arrival.
Bai Jingshen walked through the doors a moment later and looked around the place. “Do you like it?” he asked. “This was the closest place I could find to my own.”
“I am very happy with this place, grandfather,” Pearl said.
Bai Jingshen smiled. “The patriarch certainly isn’t holding back. This is not the sort of room a 5th-generation White Tiger is supposed to get, but then again…”
Pearl raised an eyebrow. “I’m a 5th-generation White Tiger?” he asked.
Bai Jingshen nodded. “You officially became one today.”
“Um…” Pearl hesitated. “I remember hearing you call yourself a 4th-generation White Tiger, grandpa. How am I a 5th-generation then? Shouldn’t I be… 7th generation?”
“No,” Bai Jingshen quickly explained. “The generations don’t have anything to do with how far apart in generations you are from your ancestor. It is more a means to understand the quality of your bloodline and the strength you may one day possess.”
Pearl grew even more confused. “And I’m a 5th-generation?” he asked. “I thought my bloodline was one of the strongest.”
Bai Jingshen laughed out loud. “I never said it was a good system. Or maybe it is, and we two are just the exceptions.”
“How does it work? The generations, I mean,” Pearl asked.
“The generations are a way to figure out how far down in the family tree you are from the patriarch, with only White Tigers being the valid descendants for the tree.
“The patriarch starts off as the first generation. He and his siblings belong to that. His children and nieces and nephews are the second generation. The ones after that are the 3rd generation, which is what my mother is.”
“Throughout these three generations, the White Tiger’s bloodline has been slowly diluted to become weaker and weaker. It is still very strong, mind you, but compared to the strength it gave during the time of the progenitor, it is a mere shadow.”
“The patriarch himself is two generations away from the progenitor, so even there the bloodline had diluted enough. After two more generations, it reached a stage where the children born would be more likely not to be a White Tiger than to be one.”
“As such, around this generation is when the White Tigers gave up considering only their children as the next generation. When I was born, the nomenclature of what a generation was had changed from being a direct descendant to being a direct White Tiger descendant.”
“As such, despite my mother having eight different children, only three of them counted as 4th-generation White Tigers. At the same time, if my siblings who failed to be born as a White Tiger or evolve into one were to then have a child that was a White Tiger, that child would still be a 4th-generation White Tiger, because they are the direct White Tiger descendant of my mother.”
“Does it make sense?” Bai Jingshen asked.
Pearl took a moment to nod his head as the words began making sense to him. “But then, shouldn’t I be a 6th-generation White Tiger? Not 5th?” he asked. “My mother was a White Tiger too.”
Bai Jingshen shook his head. “She was not,” he said. “She held the blood essence, but she needed to go through an evolution to become a White Tiger, just like you did. In the end, she never had the chance. Even if she had done it, only the ’official’ White Tigers count within a family tree, so she would’ve still been skipped, making you a 5th-generation White Tiger.”
“I see,” Pearl said with a slow nod. “So only those who went through the testing and had a Soul Flame prepared are counted.”
“Yes,” Bai Jingshen said. “Of course, you don’t need to think too much about it because, in the end, it doesn’t matter what generation someone is, only what cultivation base they have.”
“Just because you have a stronger bloodline doesn’t make you a better cultivator in the end. There are 4th-generation White Tigers that were born no more than a few centuries ago, who have only just managed to reach the Immortal realm. Would you call them stronger than me?”
Pearl smiled a little. “Cultivation base matters the most in the end.”
Bai Jingshen nodded. “Your bloodline strength is still a way to measure your talent and potential, but that is where it ends. Given the exceptions you and I are, you might as well forget about it.”
“I will keep that in mind, grandpa,” Pearl said. “But I do have one more question. Can one be a White Tiger by birth even if their parents are not one? Can it skip a generation?”
Bai Jingshen paused and slowly nodded. “In very, very few edge cases, it is possible. The chances of that are improved drastically, however, when the non-White Tiger descendant marries one of those palace guards that have a White Tiger Creation.”
“I see,” Pearl said, but then another question emerged for him. “Do those guards ever become an official White Tiger?”
