“@$%&$ @*($& @&# _^*$ !&%( *!^@#+!!!!”
Across the sky, a bright, unidentified flying object soared, occupied by a furiously shouting lifeform. Furiously moving around, seemingly calling for help, the lifeform was trying to maintain a stable flight with extraordinary maneuvering ability. Smoke-like gas flowed from the posterior of the spaceship as it tumbled towards the surface of the planet.
At the same time, the spaceship flickered in and out of existence, blinking constantly. However, to the people on the ground, it only seemed like a bright, shooting star flying across the night sky.
***
On the ground, Ling Chi sulked as he walked slowly underneath the dark starry sky. He was reminiscing on the terrible life that he had lived. His horrible past led him to lose his emotions of happiness, companionship, or love. The only thing he had were his negative emotions that he had long locked within his heart. The past he had would cause anybody else to feel grateful for the life they had.
In order to relieve some of his stress from everything he experiences, he had studied hard to distract himself. He put all his effort into improving everything he could, becoming incredibly smart. But to avoid any unnecessary attention from anyone, he pretended to be the most average and unapproachable person.
That was good for other people anyway, he didn’t know how to interact with other people. At the times when he has to talk with other people, he always uses the preset responses that he learned from studying psychology and observing how others had talked.
Ling Chi went along the usual path that he walked at night, calming himself and settling his heart. He went to the abandoned part of the town where he lived and climbed up the usual ladder that sat along the side of the tallest building.
He looked up at the beautiful night sky. The stars sparkled endlessly, surrounding Ling Chi. There was an especially bright star that shined the brightest at Ling Chi moving across the night sky.
“A shooting star? If only they really could grant wishes.”
He kept looking at the star as it faded off into the distance… or it should have. As he stared at the star, it gradually grew larger and larger, both growing in speed and size.
***
The lifeform in the UFO had given up all hope. As it sped towards the surface of the Earth, the lifeform had depleted its final breaths of vitality and started dying. In its last moments, it saw a boy, “%@#*&-how unlucky.”
***
Outsiders watched as a large meteor crashed into a tall building. It was noticed by people all around because it blasted out bright lights that overwhelmed all the lights in the surroundings. The meteor sent out a massive, hot and heavy blast wave. It decimated the surroundings for miles, leaving nothing behind. After that terrifying explosion, another catastrophic event happened. A dark center of mass suddenly appeared that sucked what’s left of the nearby matter at an extremely fast rate. It felt unstoppable, but for an unknown reason, it stopped expanding after a few seconds. In another instant, it disappeared without a trace.
***
A figure sat up in a dark forest, radiating a mysterious aura. It was very skinny and tall, having four limbs similar to a normal human being, except they were all very thin and long. The face was especially creepy. It had no mouth, ears, eyes, nose, or even hair.
The figure had no clothes on, but that wouldn’t matter because anyone looking on would be able to see that the figure was androgynous. Its skin was a very weird gray color that felt unnatural and could not be seen anywhere in nature.
The figure seemed confused and slightly frightened as it looked down at its hands and feet, which both had long, skinny, extrusions. Slumping back onto the ground, it looked as if it had passed out.
***
Ling Chi opened his eyes slowly and blinked them a few times as he stared at an unfamiliar ceiling. He let out a soft whisper, “Was that all a dream? Or is this a hospital?”
“Are you awake now?”
Startled by the sudden foreign sound, Ling Chi looked at the direction of the voice and saw a young girl clear as ice and clean as jade.
“Here, try drinking some of this.”
The girl held a bowl with a clear slightly viscous soup, holding a spoon to Ling Chi’s lips.
“Who are you? Where am I?”
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The girl smiled, “First take a drink of this.”
For a breath of time, Ling Chi contemplated whether he should drink the mysterious liquid, but she didn’t look like she was going to answer any of his questions if he didn’t, so Ling Chi had no choice but to slurp down the soup.
After the girl saw that Ling Chi had taken a drink of the soup, she started to answer his questions, “We found you lying unconscious in a deep part of the forest.”
Ling Chi thought out loud, “What forest?”
He had lived in the city where there were no forests nearby.
The girl seemed puzzled, “There is only one forest around here, the Earthen Blood Forest.”
Ling Chi thought, Earthen Blood Forest? I have never heard of anything like that. “What is the Earthen Blood Forest?”
Surprised, the girl couldn’t help but scold him, “You ventured so far into the Earthen Blood Forest without even knowing what it is?”
“What do you mean?”
“The Earthen Blood Forest is the most dangerous forest containing many beasts, ferocious beasts, and, in the deeper parts, even demonic beasts.”
Hearing this, Ling Chi was even more confused, “What are ferocious and demonic beasts?”
The girl sucked in a breath of cold air, “You don’t even know common knowledge like ferocious beasts?”
“Common knowledge?”
Ling Chi thought out loud for a second before contemplating in his head, the last thing that I remember is the bright light that rushed toward me. The only time that the term ferocious and demonic had been used was within Wuxia and Xianxia novels. I can only think of a few reasons why I would hear this used in real life.
He tested one of his theories by asking the girl, “Are you an immortal cultivator?”
For the briefest moment, the girl looked surprised before instantly calming her heart and clearing her expression, “Immortal cultivators are only in the most legendary of legendary stories. Here, we only have martial artists.”
“How’s our guest, Zhi Ruo?”
A new voice walked into the room that Ling Chi was lying in. A large hand opened the door into the room and a large burly man appeared. Noticing that Ling Chi was awake, he jokingly said, “You should be thankful to Zhi Ruo, I would’ve just left you in the woods.”
“Uncle!”
The burly man started laughing a hearty laugh, but after noticing that nobody else was laughing, he coughed a few times before excusing himself, “Well, what’s your name, little brother?”
“My name is Ling Chi.”
The man patted Ling Chi hard on the back, “Then Ling Chi, could you tell me why you were lying in the middle of the forest? Where are your parents? They should be taking care of you and making sure you don’t wander off and hurt yourself.”
Eh, thought Ling Chi, why is he talking to me like I’m a child?
He looked down and noticed that his hands were smaller than he remembered as well as his arms being a lot shorter. He asked the man, “Do you have a mirror?”
“A mirror?” The man exchanged a glance with the girl, “Are you of royalty or nobility? We’re but a tiny village, there are no mirrors here. Mirrors are too expensive for us to afford. The closest thing we have to a mirror is the reflection given off by water under the sunlight.”
“Ah, then could I have a bowl of water?”
“There’s no need to be shy about it, of course you can, but first you have to answer my questions.”
Ling Chi pondered for a moment, thinking of how he should answer the man’s questions. He wasn’t sure of what danger exposing the whole truth would bring him, so he thought out a suitable backstory to accompany his sudden appearance, “I don’t really remember, all I remember seeing is a bright flash before waking up here. I am neither royalty nor nobility, I can recall that much at least. At the moment, the only thing I can remember is my name.”
A flash of suspicion ran across both the man and the girl’s face before immediately disappearing. However, Ling Chi didn’t notice at all.
“Well, we can’t just let you stay where we found you. You can stay with us until your memories come back, eh?” The man magnanimously offered Ling Chi, “By the way, my name is Huangwei of the Wang family, but you can just call me uncle.”
Wang Huangwei then pointed at the girl, “This is Zhiruo of the Wang family. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Thank you, uncle, for your generous offer. I’ll be in your care.”
“Well, I best be going now, I’m a busy man you know. Xiao Zhiruo, could you inform our guest of common knowledge?”
“Of course, uncle. I was going to do that even if you didn’t ask me.”
***
Ling Chi was taking a walk outside, digesting all of the knowledge that he had just received. The village that he was in currently was located in the Floating Cloud Continent, a place where power ruled over all. Martial artists could do anything they wanted as long as they had the strength too.
Simplifying the information that Sister Zhiruo had told him, martial artists were divided into nine stages: Martial Disciple, Martial Graduate, Martial Warrior, Martial General, Martial King, Martial Emperor, Martial Saint, Martial Lord, and Martial God.
The gap between Martial Warrior and Martial General was the largest because before Martial General, martial artists couldn’t gather essence into their meridians. The stages before Martial General used the power from one’s own body to power the moves that they would execute.
The meridians were opened at Martial General, so before they hit Martial General, essence could only be used to permeate through the body and strengthen the bones, muscles, and tendons at the Martial Disciple, Martial Graduate, and Martial Warrior respectively.
The first three stages: Martial Disciple, Martial Graduate, and Martial Warrior are known as the Houtian Realm. The second three stages: Martial General, Martial King, and Martial Emperor are known as the Zaitian Realm. The final three stages: Martial Saint, Martial Lord, and Martial God are known as the Xiantian Realm. Each stage was divided into smaller Early, Middle, Late, and Perfection stages.
Since time immemorial, a Martial God hasn’t appeared, so the Martial Lords are the highest power that rule in the continent.
Beasts are animals who had managed to rely only on instinct to grow to a level of strength enough to battle a normal human. Ferocious beasts are beasts who surpassed that level of strength to battle a low-level cultivator but hasn’t begun to gather essence yet. The mightiest beasts were the Demonic beasts who have begun to gather essence. Their power could be on par with even the mighty Martial Lords.
In the world of the Floating Cloud continent, if one wasn’t a martial artist, they would be pushed around by those who were, but not everyone could be a martial artist. Talent played a big part of the martial path.
Without talent, it was impossible to even begin on the martial path. Before reaching a suitable stage, one would be past their prime and their strength wouldn’t be able to rise and further and actually begin to decline.