~Divine Sky Sect~
The Divine Sky Sect is one of the strongest sects on the Dark Continent. With thousands of disciples, and some of the strongest elders.
Thanks to their might and prowers, the sect is situated in one of the most unique places on the Dark Continent. Right above their sect is one of the few holes in the outermost layer of the everlasting clouds that extends around the entire globe.
The outermost layer of clouds floats above the dense, almost liquid atmosphere below it, even though the clouds are extremely heavy, it is held up there by some laws.
The denseness of the atmosphere, the lack of sunlight and the abundance of ki has created a unique, alien, but incredibly beautiful ecosystem.
All fauna here has evolved to live fully on ki, and the nutrients from the air and soil. with uncountable kinds of shapes of leaves and trunks. Some even move around and kill their own food.
Most of the animals here either float on air, like a fish floats on water, or fly around extremely fast, faster than any bird in the outer layer ever would go.
The abundance of ki makes it so that every animal, even the weakest ones are able to cultivate to the core formation with ease, with many of them surpassing that.
Some of the few species that don’t fly or float are the humanoids, Some are beastmen, others just different variations of humans, and of course, humans. They overrule the ground, making towns, cities, kingdoms, sects, exploring and cultivating the ki.
And here, below the hole in the sky, is the Divine Sky Sect.
The richness of ki in the valley, and the beautiful image of the sky made here the perfect place for an extremely powerful master, thousands of years ago, to perfect their Stargazing Technique, one of the most powerful body refining techniques this continent has ever seen. Becoming the ruler of a generation, and creating the Divine Sky Sect.
Today is a normal day in the sect. The disciples are attending lessons, training their bodies, and working. When one of them, tired after an intense knife training session, looks up to see the sky, to calm his mind.
But after some seconds of looking, he spots a black dot becoming bigger, at first he thought it was a bird or something similar, but as the seconds pass the dot starts to become bigger, and the shape easier to perceive.
“Instructor, what is that?” The disciple asks.
“Where?” Says the instructor as he looks up.
Thanks to him being at the perfect body stage, his eyes are dozens of times better than his disciples. He immediately recognises that the dot is a half human half beast creature falling from the hole in the sky.
Immediately disappearing from the training grounds and reappearing at the elders hall, he says. “Elders, I am sorry for interrupting, but a humanoid creature is falling from the Hole, should I save them?”
As the hall falls silent, one of the eldest men, with black robes, bald head, and long beard, raises his head up, and as if looking through the ceiling says. “It's a durkan. An extremely rare species to find here in the Dark Continent, but not so rare in the outer continent. They have powerful bodies and usually work with crafting. Those who want to save him raise a hand.”
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The moment he finishes speaking, him and twenty five of the forty elders raise their hands.
Seeing the voting results, the instructor walks out the door and jumps at a speed that the untrained eye could mistake for teleportation. After a minute of ascending, he steps on the back of this huge, still screaming, durkan.
“Hi friend, do you need help?” He says with a smile, after forming a mental link with the durkan.
“Yes, yes, please!” Says the durkan.
With some quick hand movements, and mobilizing the ki inside his meridians, the instructor creates a giant manta ray, making it dive under the durkan feet, and fly down in a circle.
Immediately after getting to the ground, the durkan sits down and hugs the ground, taking his time to take his breath and thank the universe for being alive.
~Ragurr’s point of view~
After jumping down the hole, I brace myself for an impact, holding my body tight and circulating my ki. But even after one minute of free fall, there's nothing.
Opening my eyes I see that the hole is a tunnel through the ground. Looking up I see the sky, and looking down is just darkness.
After falling for five minutes I finally got out of the cloud tunnel.
My eyes, now used to the dark, are able to pick up some lights on the sides of a huge mountain, directly below me.
Noticing how high I am, panic takes control, and I scream my lungs out. Even if I was ten times more durable, I would still be smashed into smitters by falling from this height.
Suddenly a man appears on my back.
He is surprisingly human looking. The closest to the humans in my previous planet that I've ever seen in this one.
After immediately saying eyes to his proposal of saving me, a giant manta ray appears below my feet, and slows down our descent.
“Oh god, I'm saved!” I say, almost crying, as I try my best to hug the ground.
“Hehehe, that's not something you see everyday.” As the man laughed out loud, I got up and gave him a closer look.
He is almost two meters tall, black man, with black as night eyes and hair, using a white robe and with a sword in his waist.
“Thanks for saving me, friend. I am Ragurr, I'll be forever grateful for your help.” I say, as I extend my hand to shake his.
“The man looks at the size of my hand, and how awkward it is for me to speak to someone so much smaller than I am, and as his hand moves to shake mine, his body starts to grow to the same height as mine.
“It's always good to help someone.” He says, while shaking my hand.
He must have noticed my surprised look, as he effortlessly grows to my size, so he chuckles again and says. “Have you never seen a body-tempering pacticer in person?”
“No, I did not. What's this technique?” I ask with curiosity in my eyes.
“Really? Are the outermost layer of clouds really that desolate? I've heard of stories, but ive never met someone from there.” The man says.
“Well, I've not been to that many places, but I've never heard anything about body tempering, and the ki here is way denser than there.” I answer.
“So are the stories right? Is it true that there is a desolate, lawless place?” He asks.
“No, it's normal. With cities, countries, jungles, animals, hundreds of different species. It's just that the ki is extremely rare.” I explained.
“Herbos, stop talking and bring the visitor to see the elders, they have some questions for him.” Says a man, stopping our conversation and looking at us with furred brows.
“Oh, right, let's go, Ragurr, this shouldn't take much time.” Says Herbos.
Ascending the mountain, we pass dozens of training grounds, with hundreds of people training. The majority of them are humans, with the occasional beastmen.
The elden hall is a big building with a white marble dome as the ceiling, and no walls to either side, the sides have rings of seats making a kind of 360 degrees stadium, where the elders sit.
Entering the building, I am placed in the middle of the ring of curious elders.
“Estate your name and reason for what happened to you.” Says an elderly man, with a bald head and giant beard.
‘I am Ragurr, a blacksmith and array master. I was on a mission to kill some giant spiders, when they cornered me. As I was fleeing I saw a giant hole in the ground, and I jumped down.” I answer.
“How can someone from the desolate outermost layer of clouds call himself an array master? Even I don't deserve this title.” Asks another elder on the side, in red robes and irate face.
“Ok, I'm still learning, but I've already created dozens of arrays. I might not be a master, but I am pretty good at it. Only the lack of knowledge of runes is holding me down.” I answer, holding my head high, exuding pride.
“High elder, give me the right to test his abilities, i want to know if he is truly what he says he is, or is just boasting about things he doesn't know.” The elder in red asks.
Seeing the nod from the high elder, he swings his hand, throwing ten pieces of metal with runes engraved, and says. “These are ten intermediate runes, create an array out of it. You have one hour.”