Beneath a Fire Cloud in the Endless Desert of Death

Elder Flareburn felt the weight of the presence of the beast before them- It certainly was a being above their level. While the majority of his family members were Pale Star Core Cultivators (with some being Bright Star Core Cultivators) the being before them was a 9th Stage Bright Star Core Beast! A large behemoth that was strong enough to kill every single member of his family in the blink of an eye. They all stayed still as they watched the monstrous beast walk away- It was this giant tortoise monster.

What they didn't know but what I'll share with you is the following: This giant monster was the last of its species, a being so enormous that it could wander the world without the fear of being killed, for it had a special ability no one has been able to copy until now (although it was the inspiration for many techniques). The Timeless Black Continental Shell Tortoise was a beast capable of bringing itself back from the dead! Many have tried to copy this ability, but they were never able to copy it because of the type of Qi that this monster uses. Although it had been born a long, long time ago and had been cultivating even before its birth, only after it reached the Pale Star Core realm was it able to access a special type of Qi that has always been associated with this monster's species: Time Qi.

Time Qi is one of the hardest types of Qi to cultivate in a lesser realm- But sadly for this monster, it needed a great amount of Time Qi for it to be able to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, and for it to truly become great it would have to ascend to a higher realm upon reaching the Brilliant Soul realm. It would take this beast - ironically enough - a long, long time.

If only it knew… If only it knew it would one day be hunted down.

But that's a story for another time. Let us focus back on the Fire Qi Cultivators known as the Flareburns. As the enormous Timeless Black Continental Shell Tortoise (It's a mouthful, so let's refer to it simply as the “Time Turtle”) moved gently, it was surprising to see such a beast have such grace… Each step it took was so gentle that it didn't even create a dust cloud when it stepped down in the sands of the endless desert! “...wow.” It was a different feeling watching an unstoppable and immortal being, it was both humbling and inspiring. “Let us continue, the Fire Cloud is still moving.” Elder Flareburn snapped them all out of their thoughts and awe, and together they moved after their cloud-

Chasing a cloud through an endless sky was a fruitless endeavor they had to follow, or else they'd lose their reliable source of Fire Qi, and thus they would lose their hope to, one day, maybe create a place, a place they can call home and stay still for more than a day! Seriously, it's ridiculous how much they have to follow this fucking orange-red cloud- It's tiring and every single member of the Flareburn family wants to stop, but they can't.

So they follow the cloud.

That's why the phrase “Chasing a cloud” and “Acting like a Flareburn” in this world means “To follow a path with no end” and “to foolishly place oneself in a difficult situation without an easy way out” respectively.

Atop the Highest Mountain of the Raohna Region.

“...” Silently, the Patriarch of the Ice Rose family watched the youths of his house. They were all born and appraised by him personally, he had to know when one of them slacked in their cultivation, because then he could use them as an example for the others by punishing the weakest of them. “I am… disappointed.” He didn't expect, however, that his own son was the one to be the weakest of the youngsters. The way he appraised them was through three trials:

The first trial was simple. He first looked over at their Cultivation. As he was in the Nascent Soul realm he could look down on every other Cultivator and see their Cultivation Realm and every single flaw they had, so he would look at the Cultivation Realm of youngsters of his family and determine which one of them had the most flaws and was the weakest of them all. He checked them all, and amongst them he found his own son to be the weakest- He was still at the Qi Gathering Realm, 7th Stage, while the strongest of the youngsters, her name was Yohna Rong, was at the Foundation Formation Realm, 3rd Stage.

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The second trial was a simple Aura Release test, where he would release his aura and apply pressure on the soul and cultivation of the youngsters, the Patriarch would, of course, adjust the pressure of his Aura Release to be at only a single realm above them all. This tested their willpower and the strength of their soul, two things that were essential for reaching higher realms of cultivation. He checked them all, and amongst them he discovered that amongst them his son was the weakest- He wasn't able to resist the pressure of a Foundation Formation cultivator, lasting only a single second before he passed out, with the strongest of the youngsters- it was, once again, Yohna Rong -lasting three minutes under the pressure of a Core Formation Cultivator before she started coughing blood. Surprisingly, she did not pass out.

The third and last trial he used to test the youngsters was a simple battle trial, where they would fight against each other. There were 20 youngsters, each one of them were the sons and daughters of the Ice Rose Family and thus received the Rong surname, and they were all put to fight against each other- Sadly to say, his son, Jileng Rong, was the first one to lose. He brought shame to his name and humiliation to his face, and in the end he even accused his opponent- once again, it was the same girl, Yohna Rong -of cheating. As the Patriarch of the Ice Rose Family, he had to punish his son in front of every single member of the Ice Rose family. His wife begged him not to do it as he was their only and most precious son, but he ignored her pleas.

“Send him to the Yang Palace.” There was a small gasp from everyone there. The Yang Palace was where every single Yang Cultivator (read: trash) of the Ice Rose Family lived! “He shall become a Yang Cultivator.” He just sentenced his own son to death. He did not care about that, he cared about the respect he lost today and the humiliation he had to go through thanks to his good-for-nothing son. He didn't care that one day they'd have to send his own son to the monster that lives beneath the mountain, he does not care that his son was now cursed to live a life of never being able to step into the sun again, he did not care that his son would suffer the most amongst the Yang Cultivators for being his son and carrying the Ice Rose blood in his veins.

He did not care about his son anymore.

Little did they all know… Something would happen to that boy that would change him forever.

Beneath Harsh Sunlight, Sand As Far As The Eyes Can See.

“So you're telling me that this little thing-” Jhin De Zhi pointed at the small green bunny. It was a weird Qi creature that he had never even seen before, but he knew what it was. “-is going to guide us to a powerful Nature Spirit?” He started counting in his head- A single good quality cultivation resource could get him thousands of gold coins, imagine what an entire forest could get him!? “I can see greed in your eyes, Little golden boy.” Elder Rottenwoods clicked her tongue: “You better not even think about it! Nature Spirits are very possessive and protective of their forest, the older they are the more protective they are, so you better not even think about taking something without the spirit's explicit permission.” There goes his plan of stealing something from the forest… Well, he could still take something, he just had to make sure the spirit doesn't see him do that.

“Regardless, you really think this little thing can take us to a forest? A powerful and old nature spirit? In the middle of the Drought of Death?” He sounded skeptical- because he was. No plant life could survive in the Drought of Death, no matter what! He has seen and has talked to many cultivators, and they all buy grains and food, always complaining about how little food there is. Well, only weak Cultivators need food to survive, the majority of the Cultivation Families buy food because they need it to feed the weakest members of their family or the mortal servants that they have: “I don't think anything short of an Ancient Spirit or a God of Nature could live in such a cruel world to plant life.”

“Well, maybe we will meet a God of Nature, or maybe an Ancient Spirit that spent centuries asleep and woke up recently, who knows?” The old lady chuckled as her Nature Qi flowed out of her hands into the sphere of Nature Qi that surrounded the small green bunny in a cocoon: “I just know, deep in my soul, that something must've created this little Nature Spirit.” She sighed heavily, her shoulders relaxing and it was like a heavy weight was taken from her shoulders: “I finally see hope… No matter how dim hope is, no matter how dark despair is, hope shines still.”

Jhin De Zhi kept quiet. To him hope was nothing but an unnecessary prolonging of one's suffering. Hope gave you the idea that maybe the next time something good is going to happen, but when something bad happens, you keep hoping the next thing will surely be good right? Hope is useless in this world.

Abandon all hope, ye who live in this world.

“...is that a person?” Suddenly, both he and Elder Rottenwoods saw this dark shadow falling from the heavens. It looked like a person with wings, but it might also be a monster. He looked over at Elder Rottenwoods and asked her: “...Shall we take a look?” She was the one with more authority here, not only because she was the Elder of an entire cultivation family, but also because she was good friends with the Lady of the Golden Hand: “We shall.” With her approval, he took the lead and guided the carriages to follow. It took them two hours to reach their destination and once they arrived, they saw something unusual… A person, wearing only dark garbs. A man with long dark hair and pale white skin, he had various scars all over his body. “A Cultivator?” Jhin De Zhi was hesitant to approach, he had no idea why the Cultivator had fallen from the heavens (He could be a psychopathic killer that was struck out of heaven for all he knows!) and his curiosity was only about what had fallen, and now he knew.

“Let's leave before he wakes up, Elder Rottenwoods.”

Ah, it was too late. He had already woken up.