Time stood still for a brief moment as a man stood alone on a battlefield against what was once hundreds of enemies, an army attempting to eradicate him. He wore intricate battle armor forged from an ethereal metal through the use of the ten elements Yin, Yang, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Metal, Lightning, Wood, and Ice. The armor was as resilient as the strongest plate mail, and as flexible as the lightest cloth. In the man's hand, a metal pole staff the exhibitied the same ethereal aura as the armor, however, the man used his ability to control all ten elements to reshape and reforge the pole staff into all kinds of different weapons for every situation as well as to match the weapon to the desired shape most compatible with the augmenting element.
Around the man stood the remnants of an army, maybe a few dozen men out of maybe ten thousand. They were hesitating. They thought that people like this man were suppose to fade into the background. To become farmers, or sometimes even vagrants. They weren't suppose to be able to wield unimaginable power. They feared him. The emperor feared him, and so an army was sent to dispatch this one man.
"What are you?" A soldier adorned in set of leather armor that was far more resilient than it should have been. That is if it wasn't crafted by cultivators, or with the use of materials rich in spirit essence.
"I'm the Forgotten," the lone warrior proclaimed. "The one who represents the oppressed colorless."
Murmers began to travel through the crowd of the remaining soldiers.
"Colorless? But aren't they suppose to be unable to attune to the elements?"
"The Colorless cultivation speeds are too slow for any reliable cultivation..."
Whispers radiated around the battlefield. However, then one who spoke to the lone warrior took action. He began to charge his weapon with his Violet lightning element. He was too slow. The warrior nullified the Violet soldier's ability with a well time Earth based attack.
---
In this world cultivators were evaluated at the age of sixteen for the Elemental Affinity. Everyone had a different affinity, and a different degree of alignment to that affinity. The ten elements corrisponded with a specific color; Yin -> White, Yang -> Black, Fire -> Red, Water -> Blue, Earth -> Yellow, Air -> Green, Metal -> Grey, Lightning -> Violet, Wood -> Brown, Ice -> Indigo. Different shades of these colors indicated the persons potential. With the extion of Yin, which was the reverse, the lighter the shade, the lower the person's potential. The darker the shade, the higher the person's potential.
However, every so often, a person would be born who possessed a Colorless Affinity. The cultivation of these people was so slow that no amount of cultivating would be enough to enter the first rank of the first realm of cultivation, and so they were discouraged from cultivating and instead were told to learn a basic trade or craft. Though, unbknownst to the so called experts, the cultivation speed of the one's that were Colorless wasn't slow because of the lack of an affinity, but was slow because they had an affinity to all of the elements. This was unknown to all who cultivated since no Colorless person would attempt to continue cultivating, believing as everyone else did. That was until a Colorless had awakened a leveling system that only they could see hear and interact with.
Since sixteen was the age at which one's elemental affinity would normally manifest itself, sixteen became the age of adulthood as well.