Dustin Manor was located on the largest open field of land available in Dustin city. By itself, it occupied roughly one twentieth of the land Dustin city was built on. Considering Dustin city was home to over twenty-five thousand people, one could imagine the size of the place. For it to take up such a large piece of land, it had to be located partially away from the rest of the town, and as such, it was the closest building to the forest that was found to the east of Dustin city. This forest was called Towering Forest, due to the size of the trees found inside. Each tree would eventually grow to be well over fifty meters high, and was two metres wide. Because of this, they were frequently used as the main source of building material for houses and furniture for the common people.
Towering Forest was massive in size. It was roughly thirty times larger than Dustin city. Inside it, plants and herbs useful to even 3rd tier practitioners could be found, although this was very rare. Such plants had to be over 50 years old after all, naturally collecting World Qi in very small portions over the long years in order to reach a stage that was impossible to so without it.
Apart from finding useful plants and herbs rich in World Qi, one would also find many ferocious beasts within Towering Forest. Due to its size, a large variety of species called this forest home. At this time one such type of ferocious beast, an adolescent sized 2nd tier herb-tracker pig, was slowly roasting above a fire found in a campsite located roughly 5 kilometres into the forest. This campsite was one set up by none other than Keiran Shuba, now fourteen years old, who was currently staying within Towering Forest by himself in order to train. After fourteen years of growth, Keiran now stood at just over 160cm tall, which was above average for his age within Dustin city. With long, black hair which reached past his shoulders, and deep, blue eyes, along with a face that clearly took after his fathers, Keiran could be said to be highly handsome. Since he was young, it was obvious he would be a looker, and when he smiled, his charms really shone for all to see. They drew in the eyes of all that lay witness to such happenings, and all the town knew that the Young Master of Dustin was blessed with great looks. As he grew up, he became the secret crush of the girls and the envy of the boys throughout Dustin city. None could complain too much though, after all he was the son of the now late stage 5th tier practitioner, and lord of Dustin city, Sir Gerrard, the strongest man in Dustin. As his son, naturally Keiran would be above the average.
However, Keiran would rarely smile, and instead would usually carry a heavy frown upon his face. In fact, for the last four years, he had probably only truly smiled a dozen or so times. Ever since he was ten, the age where one could finally begin training as a practitioner, Keiran had lost his reason to be happy. The hell is wrong with me, how could I possibly be unfit to be a Martial Practitioner! Both mother and father are strong, as their son, why is my body weak. Aah, no matter how long it takes, I swear I will strengthen my body to be able to handle World Qi!
Keiran glanced across at the Herb-tracker pig which was roasting away. The herb-tracker pig was named as such due to the ease in which it could find plants and herbs that were richer in World Qi. This was due to the fact that although it was classed as a 2nd tier level ferocious beast, it only had the strength of a regular farm pig. Finding and eating herbs rich in World Qi was a method for it to evolve and gain formidable defensive capabilities through the absorbed World Qi, helping it survive against attackers. The more plants and herbs containing World Qi it ate, the higher its defence would be. “Heh, although it is considered a 2nd tier ferocious beast, it really was weak. Even I, who cannot infuse World Qi into my body, can easily kill it. Aah, although it could not hurt me, even one barely half the size of an adult had a very tough body equal to that of a beginner 2nd tier practitioner. Luckily I could over-awe it with soul-intimidation and kill it in the end, as my sword could not even cut into its hide. It seems I should be able to eat the meat from this thing for a week or so, thankfully its meat is tasty due to its life of eating rare herbs.”While waiting for the pig to slowly cook, Keiran couldn’t help but think back to when he was ten years old. That was the year that his hopes and dreams had both began, and also ended all in one go.
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Dustin Manor courtyard, roughly four years ago
Keiran and his father Gerrard were sat on two stone slabs found in the training section of the courtyard. The two were lightly covered in sweat, as they had just completed their respective morning exercises. Although he had just spent an hour training, Keiran was full of energy at this time. At long last, today Father will finally let me step on the path of Cultivation! Keiran thought to himself while restlessly waiting for his father to begin speaking. Across from him, Gerrard was sat with his eyes closed, silently meditating.
After around five minutes, Gerrard opened his eyes. Seeing his son sitting patiently in front of him and knowing that he was doing his best to remain calm, Gerrard silently nodded to himself. Although he is sure to be ready to explode with questions, he is sitting still and meditating, waiting for me to speak. Good, good, if he can do this much then he shouldn't have trouble following along as I teach him.
He was right. In his mind, Keiran has a thousand questions flying around, however he knew he must patiently wait for his father to begin, rather than speaking out on order to show his father how serious he would take these lessons in cultivation from his father himself. This old fogey! He knows today is a day I have waited my childhood for, hurry and speak. I want to become a strong cultivator like you one day. No, I will be stronger!
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Another quarter of an hour passed as the two sat in silence. Finally, Keiran heard his father’s voice cut through the silence. As such, he opened his eyes and began to listen with all his attention.
“Well, at the very least, you have great resilience and commitment. When I was your age and my old man, your grandfather Galan, began to teach me, I could barely hold on for ten minutes before becoming fidgety, and then would bug him relentlessly until he began to teach me. This is good, if you can show such restraint while listening, and follow my advice in full, you will grow strong much quicker than I did at your age. Now, before I teach you anything at all, tell me what you already know about Martial Practitioners and Cultivation.” Gerrard was confident he wouldn’t need to go too in depth in this area himself, as his son spent most of his life within the library. He was really a little bookworm.
Keiran’s eyes lit up; he didn’t even need to think on the topic before he began to answer. “Yes father. In all of the known world, the cultivation method for humans beginning to walk the path of a Martial Practitioner is the same, and everyone is able to train in this method to some extent. This method is the ‘100 steps of the mortal’ also known as the ‘100 steps before immortality’. Before the age of ten, my age, one must not cultivate at all, or they will damage their still growing body, and therefore their foundation. At the age of ten, humans can begin learning to absorb the natural energy found throughout the world. This ‘World Qi’ strengthens all who are able to absorb it successfully, whether they be a human, animal, plant, or any other type of life forms.”
“This ‘100 steps’ is actually separated into five 20-step rankings, This is further generalised into five ‘Tiers’ each containing 20 steps. Although the ‘hundred steps’ sounds complicated, it is actually just a unit of measurement for one’s physical strength. Each ‘step’ is an extra 5 kilograms of power within a person, tested usually through picking up carefully weighted stone blocks.”
“ every 20 steps, one will encounter a barrier. And will need to go through specific training to pass it, but they also come with benefits to the body. Tier 2 achieves increased bone strength. Tier 3 adapts the muscles and tendons to better be suited for a cultivator’s increased strength over a mortal body. Tier 4 replaces our blood. Wounds heal faster, and our heart becomes much stronger. Here, cultivators can rely on their stronger heart to pump the blood within their body much more aggressively, and a person’s fighting capability evolves greatly.”
“5th tiers such as you, dad, are known as ‘calamities’ in the mortal world. All of your senses evolved to a higher level. You can detect peoples’ intentions by observing them, predict ominous events nearby, and are unable to be ambushed within a certain radius. Once you reach the threshold for being a Martial General, your physical strength is 500kg greater than the strongest non-cultivator, meaning there is little problem in destroying towns if you were to fight against someone at your level seriously.”
“Once one has trained to the pinnacle step, they may attempt to advance themselves into the Martial General rank. Although this is very hard, and in all of Dustin city, and maybe not in any city but the Capitol, can a Martial General be easily found. But, dad, It seems you will reach this rank in a few years’ time, ha-ha”.
Keiran had grown up within Dustin Manor, and had access to teachers from a very young age. As such, his intelligence was much higher than a commoners of a similar age. He had learned to read basic sentences at four years old, and by the age of eight, was already able to understand many of the books held within the manors huge library of books. Many of these were about the history of Darkwin continent and Dustin city. These books contained information on the traditions, beliefs, dangerous locations, resources, information on Ferocious Beasts, and even information on cultivation, as well as a handful of other things. Keiran had read through a huge variety of books from within the library within the last two years, all for having a head start for when he could finally travel the continent himself. He had begun all of this at an early age in order to allow himself to walk further of the path of cultivation in the future. He had even sacrificed the chance at making many friends within the town in order to spend his time studying. Indeed, most of his life really was spent within the library of Dustin Manor, he had rarely ever followed his parents or Sara into the town.
Gerrard listened patiently as his son spoke. He noticed that Keirans' eyes shone when he spoke of cultivation. It was obvious that the boy had spent a great deal of time researching, all in order for today, and the future. Evidently, no guidance would be needed in regards to basic knowledge of cultivation. Instead, he would only need to teach his son the practical side, and give him pointers. Once Keiran finished speaking, Gerrard smiled. He was very happy with how much his son knew, it would make things easier in the future.
“Excellent. Obviously living all day in the library, you weren’t wasting your time. There was nothing wrong with what you said at all. For now, we won’t talk in depth of Martial General, and the levels above it, the ‘Martial Lord’, ‘Martial King’ and even the legendary ‘Immortal’ levels, as I doubt that let alone an ‘Immortal’ Cultivator, Duskwin Continent would be home to even a ‘Martial Lord’ level character. In fact, Immortal Lords seem to only exist in those old stories, and who knows if such a level even truly exists today. After all, that is said to be the level where one breaks the shackles of a mortals’ body, completely rebuilding it with World Qi, and ascends to become a new life-form. Such a thing seems much too far out of reach. ”
A look of longing could be seen within Keirans eyes at the moment the words ‘Immortal Lord’ were spoken. ‘Immortal Lord’, It is said that people of this level could fly through the sky and traverse the depths of the oceans as easily as walking on the land. Each one of them were equal to an entire continents worth of people in strength. That is power, that is a true cultivator, no longer a Martial Practitioner, and the only level where one could say they were no longer bound to the mortal level and be truly immortal!
Gerrard, having seen the longing in his sons’ eyes, slightly chuckled to himself. He knew that back then when his father Galan had spoken of Immortal level cultivators that he too had such an expression on his face. “Next up, tell me, why is it that all humans are able to train in the ‘100 steps’ to some degree of success, yet very few are able to take the next step, and reach the level of Martial General?”