Breathing slowly with his eyes wide open, Hartley laid on his improvised bed made of straw and beast pelts, with both hands behind his head he stared at the ceiling of his crudely built cabin, lost in deep contemplation.
Laying statue-still and bare-chested in the silence of the shabby cabin, thin beams of unwanted sunlight invaded through countless holes in the rickety structure.
The tilting cabin was built in the shadows of a giant tree, located on a flat piece of rocky land at the foot of a mountain.
The bright spots of invading sunlight danced over his body as the giant tree outside, with its oval shaped leaves, moved to the whims of the wind, casting a moving shadow over the cabin.
He couldn't help but think of the years he had survived the vibrant horrors of the mountain, with this small hole-riddled wooden cabin as his only shelter.
Scratches and bruises decorated his thin muscular upper body, and his muscles felt tired and sore more often than not.
His fight for survival had been hard in the danger-filled region, where life and death could literally be decided within seconds.
Two years ago, a great disaster that almost took his life had turned into a fortuitous encounter that had changed him.
As an orphan from the Lou clan who had often been shunned by his peers, Hartley was banished to live in the shabby wooden cabin on the outskirts of the mountain from a young age.
Often entering the mountain filled with nightmarish fierce beasts capable of devouring and tearing grown men to pieces.
Hartley had honed his survival skills by necessity, and truly came to understand the law of the fittest.
This was a place where death seemed more likely than his next meal.
Hartley's clan of birth, the Lou Clan, was one of many influential clans in the Waltham province.
They had cultivated a long line of strong warriors, building a reputation as one of the flag bearers for the region.
Unfortunately Hartley had no memory of his mother or father, he was treated like the dirt of the clan, if he didn't have the surname Lou, maybe they would have banished him to the wilderness a long time ago.
Luckily or unluckily, he was allowed to live in the outskirts of the dangerous beast-filled mountain. Many even expected him to be dead by now.
He had taught himself to be self sufficient, avoiding the unnecessary confrontations with the conceited young lords. He would only venture into the populated town when absolutely compelled by his needs.
The mountain became Hartley's oasis, the more he adapted to it, the more comfortable he got with the cut throat nature of its environment.
This place had sculpted him like a block of granite, carving out a will of iron within him, fostering his determination that never slackened or wavered. Reinforcing his conviction to gain more strength and control his own destiny.
Visitors were rare but Hartley didn't mind.
As long as the other immature clan children didn't come to bother him with petty adolescent drama, which was the norm for youths his age.
Hatley's approach to his childhood was different.
He had opted to keep low-key and had forsaken the social relationships youths his age yearned for, instead rigidly sticking to his routine of training, eating and fighting.
As life went by as usual for everyone else.
A black hair youth, dressed in crude clothes made from the raw untreated pelts of hunted beasts, lived a life of daily hardships and battles in the mountain.
Almost seeming to be forgotten by the world at large.
***
Recently Hartley had broken through to the 9th layer of houtian realm. Every realm in the cultivation system had nine layers of sub realms, after which one would be promoted to a higher realm, gaining more strength.
The houtian realm was the first realm in the cultivation system for any aspiring cultivator.
Also known as the preparatory realm, it was the first rung on the long ladder climbing towards immortality. This realm was an important precursor to becoming an elemental cultivator.
The houtian realm pushed the limits of the body to surpass its physical peak, building the foundations for future achievements, when the body would be transformed to a vessel capable of storing elemental energy.
Unknown to him, under the constant life and death pressure of his environment, he had inadvertently pushed his body to the extreme limits of the houtian realm.
His speed and endurance was tremendous, he could keep up with even the yellow striped wind leopard, a notoriously vicious and rare fierce beast unmatched in speed around the outer edges of the mountain.
Maybe he was even a bit faster.
He had hunted deep in the mountains on many occasions and by now killing yellow striped wind leopards was an easy task.
Most aspiring cultivators at his age could barely even catch up to one, much less think about killing one of these wily animals.
Having been tempered like molten steel through countless battles, sharpening his sheer determination to get stronger, and doing what it took to survive against the many species of beasts roaming the outskirts.
Hartley had eventually trained himself to be calm and collected in his struggles, not panicking even in the worst life threatening situations.
Taking advantage of the mysterious opportunity that was presented to him on a darkening summer's evening...
Two years ago...(flashback)
Wounded by a vicious Bear twice his size, a black haired youth staggered through the inner regions of the mountain, with desperation evident in his eyes and adrenaline pumping through his veins.
The youth left a trail of blood and broken shrubbery as he crashed through the unfamiliar section of the mountain with a speed that defied his serious injuries.
Gripping his bloody chest and constantly peeking over his shoulder in fright, the slim youth heard the chilling roars of the huge fierce beast as it bulldozed anything standing between it and its wounded prey.
With thumping steps that left deep imprints in the floor, it stampeded forward clumsily, smashing through trees and uprooting the thick shrubbery, it rumbled forward like a natural disaster cutting a path through the darkening forest.
Injured, bloody and losing ground to the fierce beast, in desperation the youth summoned all his remaining strength and hurled himself over a cliff.
His body crashed against the bare stone and pain strummed through him like electricity as he went flying down the unfamiliar part of the mountain, it was a last bid to escape the killing blow of the infuriated animal and preserve his life a little longer.
Landing face-first with a splash in a small pool at the bottom of a precipice, the frustrated growls of the animal echoed out above.
It lasted for what seems like hours before retreating, the youth stared at the blackness surrounding him with a sense of impending doom.
Not only was he injured, the fall had knocked him silly, most likely leaving him concussed.
Hartley laid motionlessly in the darkness with ragged shallow breaths, moans escaped his lips as pain seared through his chest which had been slashed open.
Blood was pouring freely from the wound, staining the crude pelts tied to his body as clothing in a shade of red..
It felt like death had surrounded him and was reaching out its spindly hands to pull him into its bosom, Hartley had given up all hope of survival.
Suddenly there was a bright blue light flickering and blinking like a fire fly in his peripheral vision.
Somehow he found the strength and began wading through the water on elbows and knees towards the light.
Bleeding, cold and cramped with pain, it took almost an hour for him to reach it.
At first he thought it was a possible escape route from the cave, it might lead to somewhere he could get some unlikely help.
It was a long shot but hope and adrenaline kept him ploughing forward.
Finally reaching the source of the light, it almost broke his mind to find out that the bright light wasn't an exit.
It was just a small blue stone emitting a strong hazy blue light which seemed to glow even brighter in his presence.
Disappointed, he let out a final scream of anguish as all his hopes disappeared instantly.
Finally drained physically and emotionally, he collapse next to the strange stone embracing his death unwillingly.
In what he had thought were his final moments, his weakness, thirst and hunger seem to mercilessly assault him, gnawing at his consciousness that was fading into darkness.
His unfocused eyes radiated with deep despair and regret....
Suddenly the light started to float, brightening the cave with a soft blue hue like a full moon..
His eyes refocused, opening wide with fear as the strange light made a beeline towards him and circled around his sprawled body twice.
Then with a whooshing sound and leaving wavy undulating ripples in the air, it shot straight towards his chest.....
Hartley thought it to be some kind of parasite or predator that had waited in the dark for an unsuspecting prey.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Preparing himself for a painful demise, thinking how unlucky he must be, to have escaped death by the black bear only to be food for some weird parasite.
As he was prepared for the pain, surprisingly the opposite happened, instead of the excruciating pain he was expecting, he felt warmth and comfort as if he was back in his cabin, laid in his straw bed and wrapped with fluffy beast pelts.
His hunger and thirst that had been torturing him receded and he felt a sliver of strength returning to his limbs.
...
Unknown to him he had been laying motionlessly in the cave for 2 months.
Eyes that were transformed to the color of sapphire fluttered open as a light breeze caressed his face, a feeling of strength had returned to his tall thin frame as he was greeted by a throbbing pang of hunger in his stomach.
Sitting up dazed and taking stock, temporarily having no idea where he was, memories of a vicious encounter came flooding back.
Hartley's hand nervously clutched at his chest as he looked down to checked his wounds, to his absolute shock, his life threatening injuries were all healed leaving three lines across his tanned skin.
He also noticed that he could see almost perfectly in the dimly lit cave, the beast pelts he was wearing were ripped to shreds and hanging from his body but he was not cold at all.. he actually felt comfortable.
He got up and looked around, his every movement greeted with gentle splashing sounds.
He had been lying soaked in a cave lined with ankle deep water, he could hear the occasional sound of water dripping slowly from the ceiling in the quiet circular shaped cave.
The stony face of the cave walls were covered with countless algae-like green moss, herbs were growing out of the many cracks scattered throughout the cave, immediately he recognized the abundant herb.
It was a short vine-like herb with a red stem growing out of long narrow green leaves, every crack in the cave-wall seemed have hundreds growing out.
These were called lion candy and he had seen them in the market on one of his infrequent trips into town, these were very expensive and were used to recover energy and strengthen the body of low-level cultivators.
Harley couldn't even dream of getting his hands on these herbs in normal circumstances, usually only the young lords of the clan could afford these for their training as these were rumored to be very hard to find.
Creating splashing sounds with every step, which seemed to echo in the empty cave, he moved over and picked 2 of the herbs, removed the red sapling and put it in his mouth.
instantly his body was like a desert that had its first drop of nutrients in years, his hunger was abated and he started to feel energized.
After consuming three more a feeling of strength radiated from his body and his bones began to make popcorn-popping sounds.
Remembering the incident with the blue light when he had first entered the cave, he removed the raggedy animal fur he was wearing, leaving his upper body bare as he began inspecting his chest.
Next to his healed scars, there was a small tattoo looking like a blue star over his heart that he hadn't noticed before, it was strange but he didn't feel like examining it in detail right now.
Bare chested with a splash accompanying every step, he headed for the exit.
Fifteen minutes later he was back at the place he had landed, the dark green colored water here was just a little bit deeper than in the cave and vaguely reflected the sharp ragged rocks of the cliff up above.
Looking up through the gap of u shaped cliff face, he could see the blue sky which had a smattering of fluffy clouds drifting to the left.
There was a 500 meter jagged cliff-face forming a semi circular dead end. The formidable cliff seemed impossible to climb, at least very difficult for one without any tools or experience.
Hartley tried to climb the cliff bare handed anyway, after a few futile attempts he had to give up on the idea.
His fingers were rubbed raw and could barely find any purchase to grip the slimy rocks, met with this failure he then returned to the cave in frustration.
For the next 3 days he tried everything he could think of.
Both conventional and unconventional ways of getting out were useless, he tried to make a rope with grass but it was very weak, and he lacked the quantity needed for a five hundred meter ascent up the slippery rocks.
Stuck! He was stuck with the damp dark cave as his only shelter.
Out of any viable options, he ate lion candy herbs daily and trained some basic fist techniques he invented in back mountains of the Lou clan.
Each time he swung his right hand in a simple straight line without any embellishment, the air in the cave scattered with a whoosh.
Experiencing rapid improvement, he went into a routine of training and eating lion candy.
After a week he felt a strange sensation, his body was strengthened immensely, he thought this strange feeling was just his strength multiplying by leaps and bounds but it was not just brute strength.
It was a feeling of being able to sense and control everything within a fifteen meter radius.
He could some how feel even the tiniest ripples in the ankle deep water. He was beginning to feel a tingling sensation in his chest where the blue light had entered.
Captured and awed by this feeling he finished practicing his fist technique and sat down cross legged in the water then concentrated.
There was something at the edge of his consciousness but he just could not connect to it.
After sitting still in constant concentration for fifteen minutes, Finally he latched on to some inspiration and connected.
A bang went off in his head when he was finally enlightened.
He could actually somehow see the inside of his body and the space where the blue light was. It was a Star, Saphire blue in color. He knew only Xiantian experts could see their inner daintan in their bodies, he was so shocked..He calmed down and started to look around in amazement. Up til this point he had not been formally trained in any martial school, he was self taught with numerous battles with fierce beast so he could eat.
As he looked around there was a bright blue book under the star, he moved in consciousness closer to the book, on the cover were words that read.. Blue Star Gravity Sutra. He willed the book open and started to read. The first page stated only people talented and chosen by the blue star fragment could practice this sutra.. he inhaled a deep breath. Was he talented?
He read the first 20 pages and could not open anymore pages after that but he learned the basics gravity manipulation, star feet moving technique and star fist and the first part of cultivating blue star power.
The star fragment in his body was basically infinite and he had to draw the power from the blue star and make it is own until he could completely assimilate the star with his body..He found out that at this point he was in the houtian realm and could cultivate to the God realm with this cultivation technique..
He had no clue how scarce a cultivation technique that could bring one to the God realm was, many experts in the Waltham province would start a war over such technique.. but he wasn't stupid he knew this had to be kept a secret..
Two months went by in the blink of an eye and he had cultivated religiously and ate almost every single herb in the cave, he was now houtian level 5 and had mastered the star fist technique and movement skill up to the third of 5 levels.
With the basics of gravity manipulation, he could control the gravity in a 15 meters radius with him at the center.
He could change the gravity at will up to 10x gravity or could go to zero gravity. He stood up ate the last of the herbs in the cave and prepared to leave.
As he walked out the exit of the cave and faced the cliff-face that had seemed impossible to climb 2 months ago, he took a deep breath, Hartley was now a changed boy from the kid that fell down all that time ago, his eyes were now a beautiful saphire blue, his hair was messy, wrapped around his handsome features in a disheveled manner, his tall skinny frame now had an aura of power.
Hartley's body had been nourished by the Blue star fragment and he had been eating rare herbs for breakfast lunch and dinner..
He was morphed into an unbelievably powerful young man even more powerful than the young lords in Waltham province who had been training and nourished since young.
He looked at the cliff, bent his knees and exploded like a bullet 40 meters up the front face of the cliff,
the turbulent wind made his figure look distorted and blurry leaving water molecules splashing, spraying and spreading in all directions behind him.
His bare feet touched the jagged cliff, he willed gravity to zero and pushed off in the opposite direction leaving cracks on the cliff-face and sending pebbles falling to create broad ripples across the surface of the water below. Gaining leverage he shot himself another 100 meters upwards and towards the other side of the semi-circular cliff-face, as soon as his feet touched, he pushed off with all his strength in the opposite direction again, this time sending a massive shower of pebbles, rocks and dust downward towards the dark green waters.
Hartley shot straight towards the opening at the top with a whoosh, squinting his eyes in the wind as he shot out of the opening with a beautiful ark and squinted even more when he entered the glaring golden sunshine that he had not seen in months.
He landed in a crouch with one palm directly on the ground and stayed in that pose for a few seconds before his eyes acclimatized to the bright sunlight.
Inhaling a deep breath before standing up and looking around, gravity around him went back to normal and he made his way out of the mountains back to his cabin.....
....The Present...
For these two years Hartley had had great progress in his practice, he was now wearing the furs of the yellow striped wind leopard, since he had broken through to the ninth realm of the houtian, he was heading back deep into the mountain to hunt and would be delighted if he would run into that black bear again. Even though Hartley had not been enrolled in any martial school he had learned a lot from the blue Star book and had been cultivating blue star power religiously. He was at the Houtian 9th realm at the age of sixteen some martial artist spent their lives at this level without moving into the Xiantian realm...
Hartely moved through the mountains swiftly and quietly making swift progress, in 3 days he had left the outer part of the mountain was approaching the inner parts, he started to be a little more cautious moving forward.
If anyone were to see him now they would think he was just some kid with a death wish who didn't know the difference between diamonds and horse shit..
He had no armor and his only weapon was a hunting knife. Dressed in self made leopard fur clothes tied to his body with dried grass, he made his way deeper into the mountain, the terrain got more bumpy and steep but he moved like water flowing over a stone.
When it was dark he stopped and set up camp. The handsome youth had run into numerous beast but dealt with them easily.
He made a fire, roasted some meat, ate and drunk from his canteen.
After putting out the fire, he climbed a huge tree sat crossed legged and started to cultivate.
The wind moaned and howled through the night, rustling leaves on swaying branches and the occasional roar of a fierce beast sounded out in the darkness throughout the region.
Deep in the night Hartley's sapphire eyes suddenly flicked open, he instantly jumped 5 meters high and 10 meters back, landing neatly on the site of his ousted camp fire.
The limbs of the tree shook violently and as a result loose leaves began swirling to the ground, there were suddenly 6 deep claw marks where Hartley was sitting just a moment before with splinters flying off the bark in all directions.
There was suddenly a waist high red wolf in the tree formerly occupied by Hartley.
He stared at the beast, it was the first time he was seeing this type of wolf, if he had not mastered basics of gravity manipulation he might have been caught off guard but now he could subconsciously sense every detail in a 15 meter radius..
The stealthy Red wolf growled angrily, it could not believe such a soft target had escaped its well laid trap. It had some intelligence and it knew the more formidable humans would be wearing shiny armor and carrying long swords.
Equipment it knew to be very dangerous when wielded by one of the large human experts. On the contrary, this light late night snack had escaped his well honed hunting skills, it was rather embarrassed.
Hartley tensed, he stared straight into the eyes of the red wolf, he was experienced enough to wait for the red wolf's next move. The wolf jumped down from the tree and slowly circled around....
Then BAM!
It catapulted forward as if it's legs were made from springs, leaving dust and dry leaves swirling behind it.
It leapt through the air and covered 5 meters in the blink of an eye, now only 5 meters away from Hartley, it could almost taste the appetizing flesh of the weak human stood before it.
Suddenly it was as if the beast was traveling through thick porridge, its speed reduced drastically, it was confused and growled out angrily and panicked.
A fist approached the side of its head in a blurry blue flash.
Hartley had sent 10x gravity, equal to a tonne of weight slamming down onto the Red wolf like a mountain dropping from the skies.
The creature lost so much momentum that it almost fell from the air, Hartely then pushed off with his right foot, dirt scattered on the floor sending pebbles flying everywhere leaving an imprint of his foot in the soft earth.
His muscles that had been training under the restriction of 10x gravity for 2 years, looked like iron cables wrapped around his slim body as he arrived at the side of the Red wolf, leaving an unstable after-image of himself standing at the spot he formerly occupied.
He threw a right handed star fist at the side of the Red wolf's head, it landed and at the moment of impact, he released his gravity field.
The Red wolf shrieked in pain and flew back in a blur like a bullet with the impact of the punch.
Growling out even louder as it smashed into a tree the width of a human thigh, leaves and thin branches scattered and swirled through the air from the sudden impact.
The beast was blasted through the tree creating a shower of wooden splinters accompanied by the loud sounds of broken bones, it rolled to a lifeless stop three meters after passing what was left of the tree.
Half of its face disintegrated into a bloody pulp with one eye missing, blood was running from its mouth and the bone in its back shattered into splinters, it didn't even look like a wolf anymore, it now resembled a fluffy red cotton ball.
Hartley walked over with steady careful steps, took out his hunting knife and stripped the fur, it was the first time he had seen a beast like this, the fur might be worth something.
After that he used his knife to dig around in the half shattered wolf's head and took out something that looked like a red crystal, this was a beast core, he placed it his pouch with the rest and quickly left the area.
After hunting in the mountains for days Hartely's backpack was filled with furs and his pouch had beast cores in all shapes sizes and color.
He was returning from the mountains, almost leaving the inner area when he heard a gigantic roar! he hurried to see what was happening.
Silently he approached the area of the disturbance and saw a black giant bear killing a huge wild boar with a powerful slap from it's front paw.
Hartley's eyes brightened, it was the Black bear from 2 years ago...