5:03 AM. 12th February, 1245. Serafin Calendar.
As he came to his senses, he noticed that a little girl about five years old was sleeping by his side. She was clutching his left hand with her right hand and sucking on her left thumb.
Amelia usually wakes up a few hours after her brother. A few months ago, she woke up earlier and came dancing into his room. As she opened the door, she saw her brother quivering and jolting up suddenly. Even though Castiel consoled her many times that everything is alright, she was so scared by this experience that now she always wakes up in the middle of the night and goes to sleep by her brother like clockwork.
He freshened up a little and started his daily exercise - Fundamentals of Man. Same as every other average human teenager. This is the exercise that researchers fine-tuned for a millennium for the average human body. Some peak families or sects might have better basic exercise methods for different physiques but Fundamentals of Man is the best exercise for the average person and it’s totally free of cost.
[Author’s note: I will now explain the power system of my world because there will be very few explanations of this throughout the novel.
Cultivation levels are qi gathering>bone forging>golden core>nascent soul>nirvana>ascendant
A person can get his/her talent and elemental affinity graded at their local cultivator office(run by the government) after the age of 5 for ten silver.
Millenia of civilization evolution has developed an extremely accurate method of grading talent for cultivation. Talents are graded 1 through 5. The vast majority of people are graded between 1 and 3. They can safely reach pinnacle bone forging or if luck and resources permit, they can also break through the golden core. It's just a matter of time.
Someone graded 4 can be considered a genius and can safely reach the golden core and with some luck, can also form their nascent soul. But they can never reach pinnacle nascent soul, at least as far as public knowledge is concerned. Someone graded 5 can be considered peak genius and they are capable of reaching pinnacle nascent soul if they have a proper cultivation method and resources. Cultivation levels after the nascent soul are solely dependent on individual comprehension.
There are people with divine physiques which can naturally become ascendant but they are born once in a blue moon even after Badlands Paradox started.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Elemental affinity is graded 1 through 10. The higher the affinity a person has in a particular element, the easier it will be for them to train exercises and skills in that element. If the elemental affinity of a person exceeds 10, they can become a mage.
Mages are also cultivators but they can harness the power of elements much easier than others. But to do this, they need to go through a life-threatening process of engraving spell models in their consciousness. Any spell they engrave can be instantly deployed in a battle whereas other cultivators need to channel mana to deploy skills. Mages are thought to have the highest capability of mass destruction.
The advantage mages have over others diminish exponentially as both go through nirvana repeatedly, both becoming equal after the 7th nirvana.]
Castiel could have started cultivating mana three years ago but he was still exercising in the fundamentals of man which only improves the mortal body to a limit. He knows no matter how powerful he becomes as a mortal, he still can’t hold a candle to even a mid qi gathering cultivator. So you might be thinking if vengeance is his only purpose, why is he delaying it’s timeline?
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The past.
Castiel, Amelia, and Alina lived in a corner of the Zechariah mansion away from everyone else in the family. Arthur had never been in Castiel’s family’s life as long as he can remember. It's not like there was any animosity between them, it's just that Arthur just didn't care about them. Castiel cannot even remember if he or even Alina had ever talked to his father. All he remembers is the patriarch coming to visit them once every few months.
To be honest, it is kind of weird that the patriarch is coming to visit their little alienated family but wherever Castiel remembers his mother’s sky splitting sword swing, it does make sense.
His mother’s death had been absolutely devastating for Castiel. There were absolutely no condolences or help from the family. He thought at least his father would show up now but no, they were alone. Just like last year. Even the patriarch stopped visiting them. Yes you read that right, Castiel’s memory of life only starts a few months before Amelia’s birth. He has tried to ask his mother about his life experience a few times but to no avail. Whenever he asks the question, his mother’s face experience drops down like a rock, like an absolute ruin has befallen them. The only answer he could ever get was that he doesn’t remember for a good reason. He didn’t want to see his mother sad, so he had to drop the subject after asking a few times.
Taking care of one year old Amelia had fallen on his shoulders alone. Since there was no help from the family even though he was not expecting them to begin with, he had to drop out of school to take care of her. His mother had enough savings for a mortal family to live centuries. He fumbled through his way being a parent to Amelia. He fed her, changed her diapers, learned to cook for himself, put her to sleep, and became fully self-sustained.