Chapter 1 - Trouble in Wudao
Wudao, a small desolate town in the Reiqi continent that's filled mostly with farmers, peasants and those that wish to take advantage of you. Surrounding the town is a vast landscape of green plains and forests, where many cultivators are said to enter and never come out.
This world is called Pan Gu, the surface is mostly unexplored so they say, stretching millions upon millions of kilometres wide. In this kind of world, battles occur every day, clans can be annihilated in a second and replaced in another. Mystical treasures are said to be hidden all around the vast continents, but they are guarded by magical beasts which have the strength to flatten entire nations.
They say those that are born in Wudao town are forever destined to live life down on the floor, never having the chance to live a noble life like those at the huge city of Beilo.
A young boy, looking to be around 12 years old with a long black head of hair going down to his shoulders walks the sullen streets of Wudao, his face has a hint of loneliness yet emits a fierce amount of pride. A long scar goes along the left side of his face, going from the top of his eye down to his chin.
“OLD THING! Rudan beat me up again, but this time I hit him back, he even had blood coming out from his nose!” yelled the boy, his fist clenched with a small amount of blood dripping from it onto the dirty, flea ridden floor of the run down house.
An old man who looked to be around 70 years old with a small tuft of hair on his wrinkly head coughed and stumbled his way towards the hot headed boy, “Getting into fights again you little bastard, Moon?”. The old zombie raised his ageing fist, slamming it into the face of the boy named Moon.
“This is the 7th time this week you little bastard, you want me to throw you out back onto the streets where I found you? You'd be captured by those slavers and sold to some noble man who’d do vile and lude things to you all day and night!!”.
Moon cocked his head with a “Hmph” and stamped off to his room, slamming the door behind him. “If only I could cultivate like those mighty heroes from the stories of a thousand years ago.. Like that old hero Imram who could supposedly topple an entire mountain with a roar! Or like Tenzen, who could wipe out an entire city with a smash of his hammer!”, but this boy had only wishful thinking.
Living in a town like Wudao, there was never a chance for the villagers to even advance past the 5th Basic Qi stage, not unless they saved up their wealth for a thousand years to buy expensive spiritual medicine.. Most men would give in to become farmhands or simple craftsmen, living in the shadows of the nobles from the city of Beilo who could invest in the strongest martial techniques and medicine for their children.
Cultivation in this world followed a singular path, which would start from the Nursery Qi layer. Each layer had 10 stages and each stage was harder to advance in. Most cultivators would use spiritual medicine to speed up their progress, which was why the city of Beilo had so many astonishing geniuses who in the future would be the shining stars of this Reiqi continent.
After establishing the first 10 stages of the Nursery layer, then one will advance to the Descendant layer, then the Rebirth layer, Heaven layer, Half-Immortal layer and then the Immortal layer. Although an Immortal hasn't been seen in thousands of years, there are rumours that there are even more layers after that one; though they are only stories coming from old beggars mouths which their fathers told them as children.
“If I could reach even the 3rd stage of the Nursery layer, I'd be one of the strongest in Wudao town! Too bad the heavens were cruel when gifting me with this shabby talent, am I only destined to be a farmer for the rest of my days?!”.
Moon was like most of the children in the town, with poor talent and evidently no future hope of cultivating far in the future. The old man who picked him up, Gin, found him lying in a cradle shaped like a Moon which was made of solid gold and riddled with ancient enscriptions outside his house 12 years ago.
At first he was hesitant to take the child, but seeing as he was in such an intricate cradle that could be sold for thousands of gold, he assumed the child would be something special and could possibly have divine martial talent, which is why he adopted the boy and took care of him for all these years. Little did he know that after adopting the boy into his household and storing away the gold cradle, it would disappear after a single day, leaving the old man with little Moon.
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“Ah, the years go by and each year I grow poorer and that little bastard Moon still hasn't shown any signs of having any great martial talent.. The only thing he does is fight with the other children, such a waste of space! I should kill him in his sleep for leaching off me for all these damned years”.
Night time went by and Moon was fast asleep in his run down dirty room, dreaming of a future where he conquers the lands with his fists and scoops up a harem of princesses and beautiful maidens.
The old wretched thing Gin, slowly crept into his room holding an almost blunt knife that was covered in rust, “No longer am I letting this parasite run amok in my household, it’s time to send this little wasp back to the heavens”.
Gin held the knife high up in the air, holding it over Moons chest as he prepared to swing it down onto little Moon. Just as he was about to puncture the boys heart, Moon woke up from his sleep, seeing him holding the knife over him. “OLD THING GIN, WHAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS!”, Moon rolled over to the side just as the old man swung down and ripped apart a hole in the bed sheets.
“Little bastard, get back here at once!”. The old fool Gin struggled to pull the knife out of the bed, clearly his age wouldn’t allow him to be as fast as the swift youngster who’d already bolted out of the door to the front of the house.
Moon swiftly grabbed onto the old rusted door handle, twisting it with a ferocious creak as he dashed out the door with the speed of a Heavenly Sun Leopard.
The crack of dawn, birds whistled and the sound of farmers doing heavy labour filled the air. Moon found himself crouched down beside an old Boon tree. One can tell from the cracks and lines on the tree that its at least over 800 years old.
The young hothead could barely contain his anger, “That crazy old bastard, has he finally gone insane in his old age!? He actually tried to kill me and if I didn't wake up then I'd be dead already..”.
All of a sudden, a large group of boys could be seen walking from the town towards the Boon tree.. One could see that they were being led by a youth who looked to be around 13 years old, he had a bruised hawk shaped nose with a large mane of red hair. “Moon you little bastard.. I've finally found you! So you think you can get away with breaking my nose huh?”.
Moon sat up suddenly, the leaves that were built up on his legs flew off into the distance as he shouted toward the group of youths, “So you brought more of your little buddies this time huh, Rudan? So one broken nose wasn't enough for you?”.
Moon crossed his arms defiantly, even though he knew he had no chance of winning against such a huge group, his pride wouldn't let him back down. Looking at the huge group of imposing youths who were cracking their knuckles, ready to fight, Moon wished that he had better talent for cultivation. If he was at even the 2nd stage of the Nursery layer, he would have been able to flatten them.
To cultivate, it required one to be able to feel the spiritual Qi in the surroundings. The many continents of Pan Gu were filled with various types of Spiritual Qi, and your talent was dependent on how much Qi one could absorb. If Moon had more talent for cultivation, he would have been able to atleast cultivate to the 2nd stage already.
Spiritual medicines are another way to ascend the ranks effortlessly yet the costs are extraordinary, just a simple Elder Spirit Grass costs atleast 50 gold coins! This was enough to feed a family of 5 for a whole year, showing just how rare it was for them to be seen in the lower class societies.
There are also legends that say there are extremely divine types of Spiritual Medicines that can grant legendary cultivation speeds and even allow the user to advance several stages at once! Though these are also rarely ever seen, are can only be found in the hands of stupidly rich noble families with more money than God.
Just as Moon was deep in thought about how he would just love to trample on this group of bullies, suddenly a booming fist covered in a red glow appeared and landed on Moons cheek, sending him flying to the ground with a loud bang!