"Hey kid wake up" said a voice in my head that sounded like a tired old man. I struggle to wake up, but I'm cold and wet and feel my legs are in water. As I push my forearms into the soft sand to lift my head up to peer around the dark cave. There are some strange crystals imbedded randomly in the walls and cealing giving off a dim glow. There also seem to be some luminescent mushrooms and patches of moss helping to light this underground cave. I pull my legs out of the cold stream with effort, I'm cold and sore and struggle with my thoughts. I don't know where I am and wonder how I came to this underground cave.
"Who are you senior?' I asked and wonder if it was my imagination since I don't see anyone around.
"Do you see the mushroom patch to your right? come here" replied the tired voice, again the voice in my head. Interesting I thought, telepathy I inquire? "yes" came the voice. Great I thought as I glance over to the right and saw a large patch of mushroom that provide the largest light source in the cave. I'm too tried to stand so I crawl my way over, the closer I get the warmer it becomes. By the time I reached the patch, my skin feels like sunbathing under the summer sun. The central mushrooms look a little scary because there are glowing red blood vessels can be seen on the stems and cap. But what catches my attention was a skull half buried in the middle of those mushrooms.
"Your in luck kid, I sense we came from Earth so I'll help you with the last of my strength. I don't have much time so listen to me. First dig out that dagger, you should be able to see the hilt near my feet" came the voice much weaker than before. I glance over and saw the hilt and with a quick pull, a beautiful dagger came out of the dirt. The foot long blade was pristine with engraved patterns all along it's length on both sides and extremely thin. It looks light weight but in reality weighs about thirty pounds, in my weaken condition it's difficult to lift.
The senior's weakening voice whispers "now uncover my chest armor and use the dagger to cut a finger and place that finger on the armor. Don't stop until you recieve my legacy. Hurry my soul is about in enter the reincarnation cycle."
I mumble "legacy?"
"Yes my cultivation legacy, I can help you learn the first part while I'm still conscious, but if I enter the reincarnation cycle you won't be able to gain my legacy" his faint reply pushes me into action and with a quick swipe of my finger and press on his armor my mind falls into a deep abyss. When I wake up, I realize I am wearing that armor of his, it's like a body suit, it's comfortable and warm under my now dried clothes.
His last memory sudden awakens in me "good luck kid, I gift you my treasures and hope someday we can meet again." I quickly send a prayer "Good luck senior, I hope you succeed in your reincarnation." I dug around a bit and uncover his void ring and long sword. From seniors memories, this void ring is like a self contained subspace for holding non living materials. The long sword is a match to the dagger with the same elegant patterns scrolling along it's length. I know it weighs about two hundred pounds, but the sword has accepted me as it's master and in my hands it weighs next to nothing. I picked up the dagger and it's now light as a feather.
Like a child I play with the ring on my right hand, with just a thought I make the sword and dagger enter and leave the ring continuously. I also pull out items in the ring to examine. After that I sat for who knows how long in that dark timeless cave as I search my memories of his legacy called Etherial Foundation Technique to make it my own.
I stay in that cave for years, the first reason was to avoid my step brothers who tried to kill me by pushing me into a sink hole. The second was to learn my master's legacy and his various hobbies he acquired. At first I was skeptical about the whole thing, but the more I understood the more I wanted to cultivate it. I was running low on sustence pills and various cultivation resources after so many years of training. So I put on a dark jacket and pants I found in my master's ring and began following the slight constant breeze out.
It didn't take long to find a vent to the ground above, with a thought I feel my divine sense fill the vent and widen it enough for me to pass though in a blink of an eye. As I flew up a memory intrudes into my conscious. I died on earth and reincarnated into a minor clan, my mother was a new favorite wife of an elder who died while traveling to visit her parents when I was old enough to start cultivating. With out my mother, my step brothers decide to get rid of me since resources were limited. At first I was vengeful, but after a few year training, that thought just slide into oblivion. Let them eek out a meager life as country bumpkins in their little world.
The reason I no longer hold a grudge? Well the legacy of my master taught me about the vast cultivation multiverse. I was the frog in the well staring at the moon wondering if this is what life had to offer. But now my eyes are wide open, within my master's memories where countless worlds that he never had the chance to explore. My adventurous spirit peaked as my desire to explore these worlds fills me with anticipation.
I have to admit flying is fun and spent a few hours enjoying the feeling and practice flying skills. Hovering in different poses, climbling up and down and doing it backwards too, diving at different angles while never loosing sight of a particular leaf. Sliding around trees trucks without moving your body and never stop facing the tree, then start moving though the branches at high speed but never exceeding an arms length away from the trunk. That was my favorite one to practice, but didn't realize it would turn my flying style like an insect that darts all over the place. As well as all the standard stuff that I could think of for an aerial battle. My master's basic combat moves were all about always facing your opponent, all moves ended up facing the opponent in order set up for a counter attack. So I practice circling trees hacking off limbs with my sword. Being gawked at by farmers and travelers didnt bother me, the only thing on my mind was having fun flying.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
My altitude was just under the first cloud I explored when my divine sense warned me of a danger from above. I instantly went into a dive to give me some time. As I glance over my shoulder I see a grey feather stage six birdbeast following me. There is a patch of scales protecting it's chest and had a long beak to stab prey with and it's much faster than me. I turn around to face it and just as it about to come into melee range I use a vertical circle strike to get above the beast. It tried to dodge but was unable to change it's dive momentum other than to veer off to the side a little. As I arch over the birdbeast, I aim for the closest wing and heard a sudden screech of pain, then I watch the one wing birdbeast fall to it death.
Remembering the demonbeast may have cores, I follow the birdbeast down. I avoided the droplets of blood for practice as I dive. The birdbeast last breaths of life began sending sonic shockwaves at me in vengeful fury. I avoided the brunt of shockwaves allowing my Qi barrier take some of the heat. Not bad, the Qi barrier is not even weaken at all, so I test it on a full blown shockwave. The Qi barrier fluctuated a little, but that about it. I'm quite happy with the result, it would appear rank six demonbeasts will have great deal of trouble breaking though my Qi barrier.
As the birdbeast slams into the ground and bounces up from the rebound, my right foot hammers it's neck back into the ground and with a quick slash of my sword remove it's head. My divine sense seeps into it's body, but after a bit realize there is no core. With a sigh, I fly back up and look for more birdbeasts, but they are too far away to bother with. So I fly north toward a city I spotted from the clouds.
As I close on the city, I can see the massive beastwave walls and other flying cultivators. The walls are about a hundred meter tall and just as thick. I can see array circles on wall fortifying them to extreme levels. They practically glow in broad daylight. As I pass over the wall I see various seige engines, single and multi shot ballista and giant cauldrons along the battlements followed by rolls of catapults, after catapults another wall of battlements. The cascading battlements rise every twenty meters for a total of four extra battlements on top of the first wall. There are command towers and stairs leading down into the wall, no doubt leading to garrisons and storerooms.
This huge city was built on a large rocky hill that has three inner walls. Each wall was a hundred meters higher than the previous wall, so the inner wall was four hundred meters up on the giant hill. The palaces I see in the inner wall are all unique and stunning in appearance. The next layer was filled with large mansions, many have exotic gardens. These two inner regions are protected by a translucent dome barrier. The third layer is obviously filled with middle class citizens, their clean two story houses create uniform neighborhoods. The common area that I am currently flying over is a sloppy mishmash of buildings that defile common street logic. The streets meander all over the place, including many dead ends. The poor and homeless are at their usually play, but I ignore them and fly over the next wall into the merchant quarter.
The merchant quarter is a huge area filled with open tents to keep the sun from baking the merchants all day. Surrounding the tents are various size building selling higher quality goods. The bigger stores has guards protecting their expensive store fronts and most likely keeping undesirables away too. I stop by a largest store selling cultivation resources and stock up on the one I need most. Inside my master's ring made me kind of rich, so it didn't bother me paying for the somewhat expensive resource.
As I left the private room that I made my purchase, I notice a young man with a pair of goons watching his back brush past me as he entered the room I vacated. He gives me the usually upper class looking down on common trash glare. Then I notice the two cultivators that was waiting line behind me look somewhat scared. That idiot must have some background in this city to cut in front of the line, so I ask "Who was the guy who cut in line?" as I past them by.
My reply I heard was "young master Gibbons, a branch of the royal family."
Ahh I thought, no wonder he's so stuck up. As soon as I leave the shop I shoot up into the sky to look around some more. Quickly I appraise the surrounding herb shops and picked the one that seems to know the business. So I flew down and enter this extremely large building with plots of medical gardens on the roof growing rare spiritual herbs. The entire roof and building is shimmering of a powerful and extremely thick barrier to protect these extremely expensive herbs. As I fly down I see that the top three floors are nothing but windows and these rooms are filled with plots of medicinal earth each grown a crop of living spirtual herbs. This is followed by a couple of floors without any windows at all. Then two floors with normal windows before reaching the ground and enter the building.
The inside smells wonderful, rich earthly aromas filled with the spicy tang of flowers. I ignore the stairs to my right and head to the third corridor for private rooms. Most of these people around me are alchemists, their pupils or servants. The ones that stick out like me are cultivators who are not wearing alchemist set pieces who found some rare herbs to sell. As I stood waiting I appraise the aura of these cultivators and see them lacking. Their auras are shallow, almost transparent when I view their bodies. Then I look at an aura that catches my eye the most and see that it's from a alchemist.
This alchemist has a much stronger foundation, his aura is not as transparent as the cultivators. An Alchemist's cultivation will advance naturally over time I was told, so they would spend all their time study alchemy. As I watch the alchemist I realize he as strong as me and would make a good sparing partner. With so many private rooms, the wait isn't long before I'm a small room with a polite man. I hand him a small list of things I wanted before he can say any greetings. After reading the list he promptly opens the back door and hands the list away. "The items you requested should be here shortly. How would you like to pay for them?' asked the polite young man.
From my master's ring I willed out three of the cheapest swords to come out and appear on the table and replied "I believe these will do" then turn around to sit back down then ask "do you have something better" as I pick up the bottle of complimentary wine. "Yes! Yes of course" and draws out a bottle from his void pouch. "Please enjoy sir" and hands the bottle to me then left the room with those swords. Now I can enjoy a much better cultivation wine as I wait.
After finishing two glasses there was a knock on the table and the young man opened it and enters. He walks over and state "Sir! The items you requested" he presents the pouch with a bow and arms raised up. I take the pouch and bottle into my master's ring and leave. I immediately take to the air in the direction of the building that caught my eye earlier.