Chapter 1: My Way

The fourteen-year-old beauty, Amelia Lin walked down Stoneblood City’s main street with an indifferent face. Although still developing, she had perfect proportions, skin of white jade, and amber eyes that seemed to pierce the soul with long, strawberry blonde hair. Although she showed no emotion, she felt like she was dying on the inside. Behind her, was Dylan Li, the City Lord’s son and her fiancé. The City Lord had sent them to tour the city, as well as to associate with each other. Knowing all her life that she had been engaged, Amelia had been able to come to terms with it. After all, it’s not like she would be any worse off since Dylan was Stoneblood’s next City Lord. However, after meeting the arrogant playboy, her very blood screamed for her to flick her silk like, long black hair at them, run back to Eagle Villa, and beg her father to reconsider.

“… And this is the Martial Academy,” Dylan introduced as they walked by a large set of open double doors. “It’s nothing like the martial school your father runs, but it helps raise the plebeians to be somewhat useful for the city.”

Inwardly, Amelia groaned in disgust at how Dylan treated his own citizens. He may become the City Lord one day, but it wouldn’t be for very long. Give him a decade, and Dylan might just run the city so far into the ground that no one knows it was there in the first place. By now, the torture walk was almost over, but as Amelia started to pick up the pace so as to finish as fast as possible, a heavy ‘thwack’ caught her attention.

As the beauty scanned the school courtyard, she found a boy, the same age as her, training with a practice dummy in the far corner. After seeing the strength in the young man’s punches, Amelia guessed that he was only at the Body Tempering Realm. In a combo, the mysterious boy landed a gentle chop on the dummy’s right shoulder, spun into a high kick at the left shoulder, and followed with an elbow into the rib cage on both sides.

Seeing his fiancé watch the boy, Dylan’s face turned ugly. Intent on giving the kid a good beating, he walked towards the training student as a malicious intent surged in his eyes. Silently, Amelia followed him with a brow furrowed in thought. For some reason, that thread of attacks bothered her.

“Hey! You over there! What are you doing? It’s a weekend, so there aren’t any instructors and no one is allowed to be here without supervision.” Dylan lectured angrily as he finished walking towards the young man.

But without even bothering to turn around, the boy replied, “I got permission with the Headmaster.”

Dylan’s face turned dark. The kid in front of him wasn’t giving any face whatsoever, which bothered the young master. Gritting his teeth, Dylan grasped the boy’s shoulder and twisted him around. However, seeing the student’s face, his face lit up with an arrogant smile.

“Bwahaha! So it’s just the idiot with no talent, Daniel!” Dylan laughed. “Never mind, use the dummy all you want, it’s not going to do you any good anyway.”

Hearing his comment, Daniel turned back around and stood there, waiting for something to happen. Dylan’s face turned red. He hadn’t expected Daniel to actually listen to him. The boy was supposed to give him a hateful but helpless look and run off with his tail in between his legs.

“Hey!” he said with thick killing intent, “F*ck off.”

Daniel glanced back at the young master. After he saw Dylan’s face, filled with murderous intentions, he sighed, rolled his eyes, and walked toward the entrance. As he walked past, Daniel spotted Amelia, who had been hidden behind Dylan’s slightly chubby figure.

“Who are you?” he asked.

Naturally, Amelia knew that the boy didn’t mean it rudely, but before she could answer, Dylan started fuming again.

“She’s my fiancé, ingrate! So show more respect!”

Realization flooded Daniel’s eyes, before quickly being replaced by pity. Mouthing ‘I’m sorry,’ Daniel walked toward the exit, and then disappeared into the streets. Watching him go, Amelia smiled sadly. Why couldn’t she be engaged to him? Even though Daniel was lacking in talent, at least his personality didn’t make you want to kill yourself. Suddenly, Amelia shuddered as she realized: she would take anyone over Dylan. Did that mean that she was desperate? But Amelia had only met him today.

Shaking her head, Amelia cried a little inside. She really wanted Daniel to come back, as that was the only conversation in which she hadn’t been completely disgusted by something all day. Even when talking to her future father-in-law, all they discussed was how her relationship with Dylan would go, which still makes her shudder.

Beside her, Dylan coughed, “It’s late, so we should probably be heading ba-“

Suddenly, a crisp crack resounded behind them. Turning around, Amelia and Dylan found that the wooden practice dummy severely cracked, almost to the point of falling apart! Dylan’s jaw when slack, while Amelia’s eyes widened.

“Hehe. It looks like this dummy is just too old. Sheesh, to even be broken by a fourth layer Body Tempering cultivator,” Dylan laughed.

Although he said so, it was more like he was trying to convince himself as well. After all, the dummies all had special inscriptions that made them nearly indestructible to the Body Tempering Realm, even to some weaker Yin Integration Realm cultivators. Amelia, however, suddenly realized why Daniel’s attacks were so weird, and her eyes widened with astonishment. Turning her head again, she looked at the entrance, as if expecting Daniel to come back.

“What was his name?” Amelia asked.

“What?” Dylan returned, surprised.

“What was that guy’s name?” Amelia repeated as she rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Dylan’s face darkened yet again. The first thing that came out of his fiancé’s mouth that was directed toward him, was a question about another boy.

Nonetheless, Dylan answered, “Daniel Noblesse.”

After he left the school, Daniel made his way back to his home. The Noblesse Clan was one of the four largest powers in the second-level Stoneblood City. The other three were: the City Lord, the Ever Flowing Gold Association, and the Bloody Valley Gang. In the city, the unspoken alliances were between the City Lord and the Bloody Valley Gang, and the Noblesse Clan and the Ever Flowing Gold Association.

The City Lord wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty in order to keep his power, and so enlisted the help of the Blood Valley Gang from time to time. Meanwhile, the Noblesse Clan was a struggling powerhouse that had recently been pushed out of the first-class city of Bluefire. Although struggling, the Clan still had vast resources and power, which made the City Lord feel threatened. Meanwhile, the president of the Everflowing Diamond Association was long standing friends with the Noblesse Clan Head, and so the relationship between the Association and Clan was very close.

As Daniel walked through the front gates of the Clan Grounds, a few of the guards started to scoff at him.

“Look, our beloved young master is here. Long live the Young Master! May you survive to an age long past that of a usual fourth layer Body Tempering Cultivator!” one said.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Daniel couldn’t be bothered to correct the guards. After all, according to the world, his cultivation speed really was slow. Unlike Daniel, others in his generation were in the advanced layers of the Body Tempering Realm, while some were even at the Yin Integration Realm already.

Enduring numerous insults, Daniel finally made it to his room. After he closed and locked the door, a smile crept up his face. Walking to a certain corner of the room, Daniel hefted a pole shaped piece of wood and stared at it with anticipation.

“With this, I should be ready to break through to the fifth layer of Body Tempering.” He muttered to himself with gleaming eyes.

In the Body Tempering Realm, the first four layers dealt with blood, bone, muscle, and organ refining. At the end of each stage, a cultivator will be able to flood those respective parts of the body with Qi, which makes the tempering permanent. Although Daniel had long since reached the stage where he was able to flood his organs with Qi, he continued to temper himself. It was the same with the previous layers, which was the reason Daniel was so far behind everyone else. For him, breaking through a layer wasn’t enough. It had to be perfect.

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This was also the reason why Daniel didn’t use martial art skills to help with his tempering like regular cultivators. Martial skills caused deficiencies in the body when using them to train, and were very structured, which made fighting much harder. What if your opponent already knows what skill you use? Or what if you are off balance? No, using martial skills caused a lack of control, and made perfection of the body almost impossible since they focused on key areas for usage.

With the club, Daniel hit himself in the shoulders and ribs, just like how he hit the practice dummy. The concept behind the combo was to pass the force of the individual attacks through the body at certain angles. This way, the forces would meet in the core of the body, and clash violently with nearly fifteen times the power. Normally, fourth layer Body Tempering cultivators would have their chest split open like the training dummy. Daniel, however, had complete control over his muscles, and once he felt that his organs were unable to withstand the building pressure, he would release some of it with minute movements of his physique. After repeating this several times, Daniel smiled as he no longer needed to release any pressure from the attacks.

“Those idiots can laugh all they want for now,” Daniel said with a chuckle, “but soon, my cultivation will catch up to theirs, and my way will win.”

Chapter 2: Succession

As he took a deep breath, Daniel sat cross-legged on his bed and closed his eyes as he leaned against the wall. Flooding his organs with Qi was a natural process. It took a little willpower stop, but it didn’t take any effort whatsoever to begin the process. The Qi rushed through his heart and lungs, before heading through his stomach and blood vessels. After each artery, organ, or vein was flooded, a cool and refreshing feeling was left behind. Faintly, Daniel’s lips curled up in a relaxed smile as he enjoyed his breakthrough.

Daniel squinted his eyes at the morning sunlight shining on his face through the window. Dragging himself out of bed, he stretched his shoulders as he yawned. Although he didn’t feel much stronger, Daniel knew that after completing the tempering of the whole body one’s strength would take an impressive leap.

As he walked into the courtyard, he turned to a five foot metal pole that was about five inches in diameter and threw a relaxed punch. An echoing boom resounded, but when a person looked at the pole, there wasn’t the slightest dent.

The pole was made of Hestium, the third strongest attributeless metal known to mankind. The ore was rare, and thus incredibly expensive. The only reason he had such a large piece was because he had found several large pieces of ore when training through the third layer, muscle refinement, in the Hestian Mountains. The mountain range’s name came because it was where Hestium was first found, and also had the largest lode recorded. Even today, people are hunting through the mountains for the metal.

After taking one last stretch, Daniel’s eyes turned serious as he planted his feet firmly. After another resounding echo, Daniel examined the pole. Finally, a small dent appeared on the metal. Daniel smiled to himself, then left the courtyard to meet with his father.

As Daniel walked into his father’s office, he immediately noticed the heavy frown adorning the man’s face. While most would ask about his problem, Daniel knew his father well enough to understand that the man named Manuel Noblesse did not like to be disturbed in such times. As such, Daniel made his way to a chair and quietly waited for the Successor to the Head of the Noblesse Clan to finish his thoughts.

Finally, Manuel Noblesse sighed and sat back on his chair heavily. After a few more breaths, he turned to his son with a loving smile. This man, who shouldered a multitude of the Clan’s responsibilities, always had time for his son.

“Daniel, for what reason did you come to see this old bag of bones?” he asked.

Daniel chuckled and replied, “Why do I need to have a reason to visit my father?”

Still, the smile did not leave Manuel’s face. If there was one person in the world who could set his heart completely at ease, it was his son.

“I broke through the fourth layer last night,” Daniel said.

“Really? That’s great!” Manuel responded.

Manuel had an incredibly disciplined character that was plainly depicted in his child rearing. But, as far as cultivation was concerned, Manuel had never offered one word of displeasure. He himself had seen Daniel often come home with sweat sodden clothes and completely collapse on his bed without dinner. How could any parent scold their child for laziness when they saw that? Instead, Manuel only felt slightly pained, since it seemed that Daniel had no talent for cultivation. However, whenever he tried to discuss different careers with his son, Daniel had smiled and said that he was completely devoted to the martial path.

Slowly, however, the smile on Manuel’s face dimmed as he thought of something. Seeing his father’s reaction, Daniel’s brow furrowed. What could possibly be so problematic that even news of his breakthrough would be unable to completely cheer up Manuel? Seeing his son’s confused and worried expression, the Clan Head sighed.

“Jonathan issued a challenge for the successor’s seat,” he said.

“But you’re still a layer above him in cultivation, Dad.” Daniel responded.

Manuel was at the fourth layer of the Embryo Realm, which is after the Yin and Yang Integration Realms. After the integration of Yin and Yang, a person’s Qi would come together to form the Taiji Spirit Gate, from which a person’s Spirit Guardian would come from. The Guardian was dependent on the cultivator’s personality, experiences, and the attributes of their Yin and Yang.

Manuel’s Yin and Yang were ‘sharp’ and ‘stable.’ From this, his Spirit Gate had given him the Halberd Guardian. Meanwhile, his brother was in the third layer of the Embryo Realm with a Yin and Yang of ‘dark’ and ‘light,’ and had a Black Panther Guardian. With these two examples, it is plain to see that a person’s Guardian could either have attributes of both the Yin and Yang, or only one of them. This is where personality and experiences come into play.

In the Embryo Realm, there are only five layers, and each one is doubly as hard to breakthrough than the Yin and Yang Integration and Body Tempering Realms. This also means that it is much harder for Jonathan to beat Daniel’s father.

“Yes, but his cultivation has been at the peak of the third layer for a while, and he claims that after another session of closed door cultivation, he will finally break through. Although it would still be challenging for him to beat me, he raised the question of heritage,” Manuel explained.

Although he didn’t say it, Daniel understood what the Grand Elder was saying.

“‘Since we are relatively equal in power, the one with the son most suited to succeed the Clan Head should have the position,’ huh?” Garth scoffed with an ugly face.

“… Yeah.”

A thoughtful look appeared on Daniel’s face. Jonathan had just hosted a banquet for the family celebrating his son, Gabriel’s, breakthrough into the Yin Integration Realm several months ago. Would Daniel be able to catch up soon enough? Even after clearing his meridians in the fifth layer and clearing his dantian in the sixth, accumulating Qi for the next three stages should be much harder for Daniel because of how solidly he had built his foundation.

After thinking through the gamble, Daniel told his father, “I will challenge Gabriel, Dad.”

“What?” Manuel asked, surprised.

“I will challenge Gabriel,” he repeated. “Try to get me half a year, but even if you get me two months to prepare I might be able to make it. Trust me, Dad.”

Manuel had hints of doubt still on his face, but he knew that his son was someone who would never say such things unless he was confident.

“I’ll see what I can do.”