For the first few times in between bouts of unconsciousness, Gwydion awoke in desperation and felt that same cry that reverberated throughout his body that had happened after his death. Each time, he felt a sudden exhaustion after the cries ended, causing him to sink back into unconsciousness.

Gradually, he began to calm down when he awoke. As he did so, the crying seemed to have accompanied his desperation and died down when he calmed down as well. With regained composure, Gwydion decided to feel his surroundings with his mana sense as he could not open his eyes for some reason and was also unable to control his limbs well.

Deep in a meditative state, Gwydion was ecstatic to feel the abundant and pure mana that fluctuated throughout his surroundings. Then, he used this sense to observe his body and realized that it was that of a newborn. Pure and unadulterated. He was not surprised by how clean this body was. All infants were like empty bottles waiting to be filled by the rich mana that surrounded them, resulting in their different affinities at adulthood unless specifically trained to handle all elements.

However, despite having such a dense in the surroundings, Gwydion knew that his body could not handle anything beyond natural absorption of the surrounding mana. His body was too weak as a newborn. It was way too undeveloped. Therefore, he decided that the first thing that he needs to practice was getting used to his developing infantile senses and body to conquer developmental milestones, along with the ability to sense and control external mana.

***

A year had passed since Gwydion's discovery of his current plight. Gwydion steadily cleared his physical developmental milestones. It also turned out that mana sense and control was tied to his past self and he still retained his previous proficiency. He instinctively felt that his mana sense and control was tied to his soul.

At present, while Gwydion had a mature outlook on life, his communication skills were abysmal. Due to clashes with his previous language, he had a hard time grasping the nuances of this new language and could not learn it simply by listening. He truly had to learn it from scratch.

Gwydion had focused on language from 6 months old to a year old to reach his current language skill, which was the ability to say, at most, 3 to 4-word sentences that made sense. Over this course of time, he learned that his name was different from his original. He was called Braiten. His parents' names eluded him because with the sweet undertones that they had when they called each other, he was sure that they were pet names or alternative names such as honey or dear.

There was one time where he had called his mother in the exact way that his father had. Immediately, he found himself face to face with his father and his father made Braiten repeatedly call his mother, "mother" until half the day had gone by.

Braiten's parents were a loving couple. Perhaps too loving as they romped around the house and in front of a "sleeping" Braiten no matter the time of day and too often at that. Braiten was impressed by how active they were and the emotional connection that the too loving couple shared in their "alone" time.

Besides the lustful display that Braiten had been receiving, he noticed that unlike himself, his blue-haired parenrs never ate. He had been fed breast milk initially before transitioning to mashed but surprisingly delicious vegetation. However, his parents never put food in their mouths. On the other hand, his parents always fell into a meditative state after their nightly intimacies and a large concentration of mana surrounded them. Surprisingly enough, none of the mana entered their bodies and yet they looked like they were sufficiently nourished.

***

Another year flew by and Braiten was finally able to speak fluently. With the growth of language came teachings from his parents. The very first thing that they taught him was the meditative state that they had gone into every night and the existence of qi. It was what they called a cultivation method. A way to gather power to strengthen the body and use qi for martial arts. The name of this cultivation method was called <>.

Although <> was the most common cultivation method and anyone could learn of it, it held the most mysteries. One of them was that it was able to help elevate anyone through bottlenecks as long as one cultivates until the absolute peak of their current level of strength. Another mystery was that it was able to be practiced with any and all other righteous, Human cultivation methods. Therefore, it could be used as a tool to push pass bottlenecks while faster cultivation methods could be used as a base. Yet another mystery was that <> was purely a breathing method unlike other cultivation methods which utilized specific flows of qi. One did not need to be in a specific pose or run qi in a specific way through specific channels when practicing <>. The individual who wanted to practice this method merely needed to be in a meditative state when using the breathing method.

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However, <> was not without its flaws. It was the slowest cultivation method in existence. No matter how weak a cultivation method was, none were as slow as <>.

Braiten's parents told him to only and solely practice <> as there were many hidden benefits to purely practicing the method. When one reaches the first level of basic cultivation using <>, he or she will become extremely healthy and many impurities of the body would be expunged. The lifespan of the individual would also increase by 20 years. This was the equivalent of the result from practicing other cultivations and reaching the tenth level of basic cultivation.

The next three levels of basic cultivation gave even more benefits to the body and extended lifespan by 20 years for each level. Upon reaching the fourth level, one gains immunity to disease and sickness. At the fifth level, one's age starts to regress until they looked like they were in their early twenties on top of a large increase in strength and endurance. Another 20 years of lifespan is also added. At the sixth level of basic cultivation, one did not eat and merely needed to cultivate once each meal time to replace food. This again was on top of a lifespan extension and gains in physical capability. The seventh level of basic cultivation results in needing to cultivate for food only once a day instead of at every meal time. Of course, there were the usual physical improvements as well. Knowledge of further advancements was left to Braiten to learn as he advanced in cultivation. His parents had notified him that the cultivation method would engrave the benefits in his soul so he would know of them instinctively.

Braiten knew that his parents were beyond the seventh level of basic cultivation. They had mentioned that their ages were well beyond most cultivators even though they did not specify what the numerical values were. They had also mentioned that their cultivation reached a point where their lifespans reached until the end of time.

Other than the cultivation method, Braiten was taught many things and given huge, thick books written by his parents on each subject. Braiten's parents seemed to have caught onto Braiten's maturity and intelligence. He had never shown his true intelligence and they had never asked of it, but Braiten's behavior was too different from regular infants. However, they never questioned him and instead, showed greater love towards him.

From pharmacology to outdoor survival skills, Braiten was taught each subject meticulously. Braiten's parents believed in exposure and experience and often created many interesting hands-on exercises for him. Braiten also learned of his parents' names. His father was called Ingram and his mother was called Amellia. Their family name was Celestine, but they warned Braiten not to reveal their family name carelessly.

***

Years flew by and Braiten grew rapidly in knowledge and cultivation, shocking his parents. He displayed a maturity beyond his years that had only tempered even more with his parents' rigorous education.

On Braiten's eighteenth birthday, Ingram and Amellia hugged their child and said that they've thankfully been able to teach him everything that they needed to and more. They expressed that they loved him with all their heart. With that said and done, his parents vanished from where the stood.

From here onwards, Braiten's journey throughout this new world was finally about to begin.

===

Author's notes:

Just so you guys know, the benefit that <> gives per level is equivalent to having practiced ten levels with other cultivation methods within the same tier. Strength and endurance go hand in hand. Strength is the amount of power your body can output. Endurance is how long your body can last and how much strength your body is able to endure without breaking down. Endurance has no relation to defense!

And readers, please give feedback asap so i can correct anything if need be or change my style. Thanks for reading!

Edit (07/05/2016): Rewrote some portions so that it's clearer. I see why people were upset over my previous writing. There really were sudden "barebones" areas in the story that needed serious changes. It should flow better now.