B Grade

Natural talent for opening and filling an aperture is graded on a four-step scale from A down to D. B grade sits just below A grade on that scale. Clan talk already treats a B grade result as worth heavy care: the youth is often raised toward a future clan elder seat. ^{ch. 4}

How the grade is measured

On Qing Mao Mountain, the Awakening Ceremony measures talent by how far a fifteen-year-old walks into the moon orchid flower sea while Hope Gu enter the body. Fang Yuan states the bands used there: below ten steps means no cultivation talent, ten to twenty is D grade, twenty to thirty C grade, thirty to forty B grade, and forty to fifty A grade. ^{ch. 5}

Gu Yue Mo Bei walks thirty-six steps and is named a B grade talent on the spot. The academy elder checks his aperture and records a primeval sea measuring six by six, fit for vigorous training. Fake results can also wear the B grade label: Gu Yue Chi Chen later walks the same thirty-six steps in public while, in Fang Yuan’s memory, his true grade is only C grade under his grandfather’s help. ^{ch. 4}

What B grade governs

The grade governs how much of the aperture the primeval sea fills, and therefore how much essence the Gu Master holds and how fast that essence recovers. ^{ch. 7 ch. 10} The academy elder states that a B grade talent’s primeval sea takes up six to seven layers of the aperture, and that this talent can cultivate to rank three, even as far as rank four. ^{ch. 7} Clan expectation talk earlier says a B grade youth must be cared for, often becoming a future clan elder, and with six to seven years of training will become a rank three Gu Master. ^{ch. 4}

Branch elders treat that height as decisive in academy rivalry. Gu Yue Mo Chen’s side argues that Mo Bei’s B grade, with family support, should eventually step over a C grade peer such as Fang Yuan. ^{ch. 31} Advancement-pace talk later places a C grade youth at about twice a B grade, and four times an A grade, when rising to middle stage on talent alone. ^{ch. 50} Primeval stones can still close part of the gap: with enough stones, a B grade can outpace an A grade in a vital Gu refinement contest. ^{ch. 8 ch. 10}

Talent grades sit beside the aperture mechanics on aperture and primeval essence. The ceremony that produces the grade is on Awakening Ceremony. The full ladder is on Aptitude.