Somewhere very remote from civilization, a somewhat small human-shaped silhouette could be caught dashing across the woods.

The forest was dense, and in the horizon, it spread over each end of a circular mountainous terrain.

The snow had invaded the entirety of the uneven grounds, despite no trace of some falling. It was wondrous how it could overtake the entire region.

All of a sudden, the shadow of a young girl burst past several trees. The first rays of sunshine seemed to make their appearance along this girl's scale.

The course was littered with snow, but the many pitfalls and holes made it harsher to climb the slopes.

Yet, in this hostile environment, a teenage girl measuring less than five feet seemed to take flight as she avoided trees, animals and other perils.

Not only was the track treacherous, but the temperature was freezing. The breathes the girl let out were noticeable from the distance. From their sheer amount, she appeared to gasp for air.

Still, the lass didn't slow down; her pace only grew quicker as time went by as if she was running for her life.

Sure enough, after she managed not to crash into a big rock by leaping, a form scurried from a nearby block of trees, hissing extremely loudly.

It was a gigantic boar measuring no less than two meters. Its most noticeable features were its bright red eyes and protruding veins on its hooves. Each of these hooves was half as big as the lass.

The beast showed distinctive signs of anger. It shifted its head, then the rest of its body in a quick motion, as it caught the girl in its sight.

Taking a look behind her, the girl gasped before picking up the pace. Her speed seemed to double at that moment.

She flung several trees behind in a single motion. No longer did she bother running around those anymore but rather, over their branches. The inhuman feat was achieved in such simple ways, that one would wonder where her small body was finding such strength, speed, and agility.

Nevertheless, her light steps and jumps were mesmerizingly skillful. They were executed with clear-cut accuracy even under such an ordeal. 

The girl's name was Zi Yurou.

She was a local from Zi Village, a clan of hunters living in this hostile area. Today she had woken up especially early to hunt for meat.

The village she came from was generally self-sufficient and the adults hunted for their own families' meat.

The mountain was cloistered and business was kept outside. The closest other village was not within a four hundred li radius, and the closest city was even farther.

Red meat was the primary source of food for people living here; especially because the weather remained the same all year long, growing crops was a distant dream.

The only herbs that grew in these parts were either ordinary grass or spirit medicine.

Spirit medicine or spirit grass was particularly precious to the villagers. It helped heal injury and was very rich in magical energy. A small spirit grass growing on the mountains could feed a home of 5 for weeks.

The reason for this was simple:

In this world, there were two types of humans:

Mortals and Cultivators.

People who didn't cultivate magical power were called mortals. Their lifespan generally didn't go over a hundred years old.

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Everyone possessed what was called life energy inside their bodies, however, not everyone was able to gather and harness it for their own use.

This was the essence of cultivation; plundering the resources under the heavens and cultivate magical energy to the apex, which was immortality.

Now, when mortals ate spirit medicine or spirit grass for example, they not only ate food rich in nutrients, but they also ate food rich in life energy.

Why not magical energy?

Because there was one essential difference between life energy and magical energy. Magical energy was life energy converted into Magic, or more precisely lifespan conversion. This transformation of lifespan into Magic was the essence of cultivation.

People who wanted to start cultivation worried about the decrease in their lifespan. But the subject was far more profound and complex than someone would think.

The subject had been studied for a long time inside sects and magical institutions. Eminent cultivators had been debating whether using Magic would decrease overall lifespan. When refining energy, one absorbs it inside their body either to cultivate and reinforce it or to train, enhance and transform their magical path.

The former was called body refining or body cultivation. The latter was called Magical cultivation. As the body got refined, the overall life expectancy increased.

Not only did people get stronger, but they also increased their lifespan and overall resistance to illness and diseases. Organs got enhanced and provided a superior quantity of energy daily. This so-called life energy was not simply ingested and transformed for tempering, but it also allowed the body to produce more of it independently.

This was why body cultivators didn't die unless they overdrew their "blood qi", just as any regular mortal wouldn't die except if their production of blood was cut short.

In essence, a body cultivator was only a mortal with more energy and more lifespan. A body cultivator didn't use magical energy but only transformed it into fleshy power in order to become superhuman.

A magical cultivator was entirely different. Magical cultivators absorbed life energy or magical energy the same way as body cultivators, but they didn't transform it for the same purposes. It was possible to be both a body and magical cultivator, but the latter generally preferred not to do so, since it was generally considered a waste of time and resources.

First of all, anyone could be considered as a body cultivator. In order to become Magical cultivators, people went through body refinement. It was only at the end of this phase that people either chose to become mages or body refiners. When body refiners break to the next realm, they had the chance to form something known as a "macrocosm seed" or "world nucleus". Only once this small nucleus was formed could people become magical cultivators and possess their own "martial spirit".

The magical cultivator then would cultivate with the help of this martial spirit who would transform life energy into magical energy for him. As the magical cultivator's cultivation progressed, so did his spirit and their combined overall lifespan. If the magical cultivator overdrew energy, only the spirit would get weakened and eventually die. The lifespan lost in this case would only be the one added by the martial spirit.

In summary, martial spirits made life safer for magical cultivators, especially when one knew that the former's death was only temporary as long as the seed inside the cultivator was not crippled.

A legend said, that at the apex of cultivation, this nucleus became its own planet and even its own universe. In this universe, innumerable martial spirits would reign over small worlds and be summoned at any whim and call.

However, no one had ever been able to confirm this story since time immemorial. Countless cultivators dreaming of immortality have tried to capture and enslave other people martial spirits but never succeeded.

"Why does it only ever go this way?" Zi Yurou was cursing as she fled desperately.

Today she went hunting like usual. The game she chased only consisted of rabbits and other small critters. She was just done setting up traps when she caught sight of a red piece of grass under a tree. She praised her own luck when she realized that it was actually a fifteen years old spirit grass. With this, her family of four would be able to make ends meet for more than six months without hunting.

What she failed to realize was that not far from the tree, a cave was dug in pure mountain bedrock.

As soon as she plucked the grass out, two pair of eyes opened in the dark from behind her.

"I seem to recall, Brother telling a similar story to aunt Qian last year." The girl lamented.

"Aagh...." Her distraction caused her to miss a step on a tree and fall.

As the chase was coming to a close, The boar who was only a slim distance away roared in madness and victory. It destroyed the last obstacle in its way and prepared to impale the fragile and impetuous creature that stole its precious treasure.

Zi Yurou closed her eyes, resigned to her fate.

The next moment, a pitiful cry resounded across the woods as something heavy seemed to drop on the ground.

When she opened her eyes again, a black-haired young boy's back was standing tall in front of her. Near him, lied the corpse of the enormous creature which previously threatened to put her existence to an end.

"You okay sis?" The young boy looked at her then asked.