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Legendary Continent
Chapter 3: In Order to Understand Fortune, One Must Be Misfortunate First

Chapter 3: In Order to Understand Fortune, One Must Be Misfortunate First

To explain cultivation, the goal behind it is to attain a body free of all impurities, an immortal body with true perfection.

Cultivation is when you meditate to absorb the qi found in the environment. An individual’s body will have differing

levels of affinity for qi, and that will affect how fast they can absorb qi, as well as how well they can adapt and

assimilate said qi. It is like looking at a person as a cup. If the cup has a narrow opening, but is a tall container that

elongates the closer to the base it gets, they will be able to hold a lot of water, but can only accept it slowly. If another

cup has a massive opening, but is very short, and gets smaller the closer to the bottom, it can accept a lot of water

quickly, but will overflow just as fast.

Also, qi can be used to manipulate elements. Each person can have elemental affinities. However, they can also have no

affinities at all. A cultivator with affinities will always be stronger than one without, since they will be able to fight in

more varied ways, and will have the extra power that comes with adding elements to their attacks.

There are multiple elements. The most basic ones are those of water, fire, earth, and wind. Then there are the tier two

elements, which are those of poison, lightning/thunder, ice, light, dark, and magma. Finally, there are the advance tier

elements, or as some call them, God-tier elements. They are space, time, life and death. The higher the tier the more

powerful the element. However, the ability to use and master the elements also becomes harder. A person can have

multiple affinities, but will generally not have affinities that are one another’s antithesis, such as light and dark, or water

and fire.

For every one thousand people, 500 will have no element at all, and are generally resigned to being average cultivators,

who will always be weaker than those on the same level as them that have elements. 350 people will have the basic

elements, and they will generally be those that end up as soldiers in major armies. 149.9 people will have tier two

elements, and will often end up in major positions, like heads of major sects, and major members of the government.

One in every ten thousand will end up with a God-tier element. They are the people that end up as kings of nations, and

as the ancestors of ancient sects.

The only exceptions to this rule are those with special bloodlines. Those that have bloodlines of high level beings, such

as phoenixes and dragons, will always have an element. However, they will use variant elements, which are always, at

the weakest, equivalent to tier two elements. The Azure Dragon Bloodline, for example, is equivalent to a God-Tier

element. Variants of these bloodlines can be stronger, or weaker, just like some humans can be stronger or weaker than

others.

Tian has now reach three years of age. Most of his days are spent playing with his uncle, Verethragna, and with his

sister, Freya. Even though he is still only 3 years old, and has yet to begin cultivating, he had already reach the

Elementary third level. Most children his age are still at the Elementary first realm. This is because until a human child

reaches five years of age, they should not begin cultivating. The reason for this is that, in the past, parents who had their

children attempt to begin cultivating before that had the qi they absorbed run rampant through their body, killing them.

Five years of age is when one first begins to be able to control the qi they absorb.

Thus, when playing with his uncle and sister, they mainly focus on training his physical body, without using qi

cultivation. The level of strength that an individual’s physical body is able to exhibit decides the base level of strength

they can exhibit with their cultivation. The body is like a foundation, and qi cultivation is like building a house. The better

the foundation, the better the house you will be able to build. All of Tian’s cultivation comes from his body’s natural

ability to absorb qi from the Heavens and the Earth. This is a very rare ability, one that comes along about once every 20

generations. Because of this, many in the clan spent time watching over him, curious as to how his development would

progress.

Currently, however, his uncle and sister are out handling affairs. His sister went off hunting, and his uncle went out to

converse with the Golden Sun Crow (Sanzuwu) Clan. And so, as per normal, they left him near Valeria’s cave, so that

there would be someone watching over him at all times. However, they did not realize that Valeria was in the middle of a

cultivation breakthrough at the time!

Tian could feel the slight fluctuations coming from Valeria’s cave, even with the qi containment seals placed all around

the cavern. Curious, as all children all, he waddled along to see what she was doing. As he peered around the corner of

the cavern, to see what she was up to, he saw her in the middle of the floor, meditating, with extremely violent qi

fluctuations flowing around her.

At the moment, Valeria was actually in a bit of a crisis.

“Dammit!” she thought. “I can’t pull the heavenly qi in fast enough to make my breakthrough! If this goes on for

much longer, I could fail to advance, and will have my cultivation regress slightly! I should have asked one of the elders

to assist me in drawing qi from the environment!”

To break through each level of cultivation, a certain level of qi must be absorbed. The qi absorbed is separated into two

main groupings. Heavenly Qi, and Earthly Qi. Heavenly Qi is the qi that all Heavenly Masters on up absorb Heavenly Qi for

breakthroughs, and Masters and below absorb Earthly Qi. Heavenly Qi is the far more potent version of Earthly Qi.

To speed up her qi gathering, Valeria began using her special breathing technique, Thunder Dragon Ascends the Heavens.

This was her original technique that she created, and of those in the clan, only she could use it due to her unique affinity

for Thunder and Lightning as a variant Azure Dragon. Normally, there wouldn’t be a problem with her course of actions.

However, Tian was watching her actions, and seeing the fluctuations around her, he decided to attempt to copy her.

Normally, there would be no issue, since this technique was made to absorb Heavenly Qi, and was made for someone

with a high purity of dragon blood in their veins, as well as having the thunder and lightning affinity. Thus, if someone

who did not meet these requirements attempted to use it, they would have nothing happen, besides noticing they could

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breathe slightly better.

For Tian, however, the technique worked. Even if his positioning was off. Even if his rhythm of breathing was slightly

different. There was a sudden change in the amount of Heavenly Qi flowing through the air. And for Valeria, it was a good

thing.

“Where did all this qi come from? It can’t possibly be me…” thought Valeria. She decided to rush, and finish her

cultivation as soon as possible, a slightly dangerous prospect, since if one rushes too much or is interrupted while

cultivating, they could suffer backlash, and harm their body from the qi running out of control.

Meanwhile, Tian was attempting to absorb the Heavenly Qi he had summoned himself. The amount Valeria felt was

what he had drawn himself. It was a very good thing for Tian that Valeria was absorbing most of what he had

summoned, as, if not for that, his blood vessels would have ruptured from the sheer amount of qi he was absorbing. As it

was, blood was pouring from his Seven Orifices (eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouth) due to the qi running rampant in his

body. Tian wasn’t even able to scream from the amount of pain that he was in, and passed out after five seconds. When

he passed out, the qi that he had drawn faded away, and the meditation technique cancelled itself.

Meanwhile, Valeria had finished her breakthrough to the next realm! But when she aroused herself, and turned to thank

the Elder that had come and helped her with the qi summoning, she saw Tian lying in a pool of his blood on the ground.

Valeria, as intelligent as she was, quickly deduced the reason for the current state of things, and while she felt hate

towards herself for forgetting that she was supposed to watch Tian, she also felt fear, for she had truly come to love

Tian during the past years together, and thought of him as a son. She was afraid of his death! On top of that, if he did die,

the mother that left him here with her would be far from pleased, and may even decide to wipe out Valeria’s whole clan

when she came back!

Valeria knew that one of the requirements for Tian to copy the breathing technique from what he saw Valeria doing, was

to have a high level of purity of draconic bloodlines. This was important, because he needed a high level of dragon blood

purity for what she was going to do. In order for Dragons to preserve their strength, and the purity of their lines, the

dragons with cultivations above the Level 3 Heavenly Lord Stage can pass on a draconic inheritance. The inheritance

allows the receiver to reach the same level of strength as the one who gave the inheritance within a century. The speed

that the receiver reaches this level of strength at is dependent upon their talent. However, each dragon can only give

one Inheritance in their life! Therefore, most dragons save it for when they are closer to the end of their life, and have

reached the peak of their cultivation. Even then, they will generally only pass it on from master to student, or from

parent to offspring. This is because there are a few requirements to this process: They have to be from the same

bloodline. They must have a strength difference of at least three realms. Finally, their affinities must be compatible. If

any of these requirements are not met, the one receiving the inheritance could die. However, if it succeeds, the receiver’s

body is reborn anew, with their draconic bloodline awakened to its fullest power, or to the maximum level that the donor

could possibly achieve. Not only does this require risk on the part of the receiver, it also requires risk on the donor’s part.

If they fail to have their inheritance accepted by their inheritor, the backlash could cripple their cultivation, or kill them

entirely. Thus, this represents an affection on the level of closest family members, willing to sacrifice themselves.

Valeria had numerous other options to heal Tian, but none of them would be fast enough, and the Heavenly Qi he had

absorbed was literally tearing his body apart. Valeria acted quickly, and piercing her own chest, she brought out a small

orb that had grown within her upon her breakthrough to the 3rd level of the Heavenly Lord Realm. It was her draconic

essence, something that stored a portion of her cultivation. She then took this, and pierced Tian’s chest with it,

embedding it in the middle of it. The essence began to draw in the Heavenly Qi from Tian’s body, closing the wound over

in mere moments.

As Valeria watches, Tian’s body begins to adapt to the Inheritance. Originally, she had thought that it would take around

a day, but instead, it took merely an hour. However, during this hour, Valeria could only force Tian to remain unconscious,

as the sheer level of pain his body was experiencing would have driven any experienced cultivator insane, let alone a

three year old child. His body was being completely broken down and rebuilt by the Heavenly Qi that the Inheritance had

absorbed. His body had absorbed enough Heavenly Qi to bring his cultivation into the 5th level of the Master Realm,

which was part of the reason his body broke down so quickly, since the increase in strength was so rapid, his body could

not contain the new energies. However, the Inheritance was quickly rebuilding his body, using that same Heavenly Qi

that increased his cultivation in the first place. As a result, he fell back to the first level of the Elementary Realm,

however, upon his body being reformed, it was as strong as a body from the Advanced Realm.

On top of the change in strength, his appearance also changed as well. His hair that was originally black turned a deep

gold, and his eyes that were originally the same color as his hair became heterochromatic. He had one gold eye, the

same as his hair, and the other eye was an obsidian black. His height and musculature stayed the same, about average

for a three year old, however, his bone density was way beyond the average humanoid three year old.

Valeria was shocked at these changes, as she knew that the Inheritance would strengthen his body, but she did not

expect it to have this level of effect! Even worse, she had expected him to wake up immediately, but regardless of what

she tried, he would not stir!

Hi guys and gals (if gals read this)! Skoll here!  Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it! (At least it still is where I am) As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and feel free to leave me with feedback, corrections, thoughts, etc.! I do actually read what you say, and always enjoy reading (and occasionally correcting, myself or others) comments! See you next week!

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