Prologue
Year 562 of the New Era, 5th day of Quearthe
The sky was a musky grey, the land barren. A small scorpion scurried across the ground. There was not a single bird in the sky. There was a small oasis close by, and a giant mine. To the right of the mine, a single building was in sight. In the distance, a man and woman, carrying a small bundle of cloth slowly approached the building.
“Are you sure this is the best thing we can do, my wife?” the man asked, looking to the side to see the face of his beloved.
The woman was thin, pale, and had exceptionally dark hair, but the strangest thing in her appearance was her eyes, which were a bright, pale blue hue. The woman slowly walked up to the doorstep of the building and gently set down the bundle of cloth in front of the building, and then turned around, and walked away from the building and the bundle of cloth.
“Jorlath, if we take this child with us, it will die in the first 3 years. The child was not born with the ability to practice the spiritual arts, its meridians were crippled. We cannot take a cripple with us,” The woman stated clearly. “I want to take our child with us, but where we are going, unless he can pass the Mortal stages of the spiritual arts, and become an immortal, we will be unable to care for him and take him with us.”
Jorlath thought about what his wife was saying, and decided that she was probably right, but he still had a few questions pestering his thoughts.
“ Xarlethe, couldn’t you just heal his wounds?” Jorlath questioned his wife. “You are a Deity, after all.”
“Jorlath, you know as well as I do that the Deities are not allowed to mess around with humans as we want.” Xarlethe criticized Jorlath harshly. “If I could heal him, do you think I would leave little Raize here in the middle of nowhere?”
Jorlath lowered his head in shame. He now understood, and felt ashamed that he had not realized it earlier.
“Lets leave then, Xarlethe. We can’t let your enemies find out about our child.” Jorlath started to slowly walk away from the building. Xarlethe followed him at a short distance away.
As they left, the doors to the building were opened, and out stepped an old woman, dressed in an ugly green dress. As she walked outside, she saw the small bundle of cloth on the ground. She slowly started to unwrap the cloth and found a small baby inside the cloth with a single note with it.
The note said “His name is Raize, and he is 1 month old.”
4 years later. Year 566 of the New Era. The 24th day of Xarlethe
A little boy in a deep dark hole, with no light whatsoever, and a pickaxe that weighs twice as much as him. The little boy was slowly attacking the rocks in front of him with a pickaxe, chipping the rock and putting it in a sack on the little boys back.
The little boy had started the job 2 years before, because the lady in charge of his orphanage needed to replace a boy who was killed in a tunnel collapse. The little boy was unlucky, because he was a cripple who could not channel spiritual energy, so no one wanted to be around him, and the headmistress of the orphanage loved to torment him. Plus, the government didn’t care about him at all because he was a cripple, so the headmistress could get away with whatever she wanted to do to him, even murdering him.
So, because of his very unlucky birth defect, he was forced to become a miner until he died, turned 13, or got adopted. But who would want a child soaked in sweat and soot?
The little boy continued to strike the stones for a couple more hours, before he heard a girl call his name.
“Raize, the headmistress wants you, and she is really angry."
Raize started climbing out of his mining tunnel. When he got out, he stood up and looked at the girl in front of him.
"Thank you for telling me, Eliza. And thank you for being nice." Raize thanked her meaningfully, bowed to her to show his thankfulness, and then ran off to see what the headmistress wanted him for.
Chapter One: The Orphanage
Raize ran through the desert to get to the orphanage. The desert was quite barren, with no seeable life around. The only thing that was above the sand was a building. The building looked awful, like it was about to tear down. On the walls, the paint was peeling and the wood was all rotten. It definitely was not going to survive for much longer.
Stolen story; please report.
As Raize ran to the front door of the orphanage, he slowed down when he saw something shiny in the sand to the north. He slowly walked up to the shiny thing and picked it up. He looked closely, inspecting every side before coming to a conclusion on what it was.
“Its a copper coin!” He was so excited. He had never had money of his own. All the money he knew about was because of the headmistress receiving money to take care of the orphanage. He quickly hid the coin in his pocket afraid that someone would see him with it and would tell the headmistress.
“If the headmistress finds out i have this copper coin, she will take it from me, and then I will get a lot more chores because of hiding this coin from her.” the little boy had thought very hard about what to do. He had had to grow up fast because he was hated and abused by everyone in the orphanage, but he was most abused by the headmistress. She despised him so much that whenever she was angry, he was the one she took it out on, even if it was a different child’s fault. Because of that, all the children thought they could get away with doing anything, which led to the predicament he was going to have to deal with today.
Raize walked into the orphanage and looked around, trying to find out where the headmistress was. Inside the building was almost the same as the outside, except that the wood was not as rotten, but the paint was peeling even more here. All around the floor was random vermin traps, so they all had to watch where they were walking. If they stepped on one, it could break their tiny little foot, and the headmistress would be so stressed that she would give everyone even more chores. The children had found this out the hard way, when Eliza had gotten her foot broken. She had a limp ever since then.
When Raize found out that the headmistress was in her study with all of the other children, Raize got extremely worried. The headmistress only called in all the children when something big was going to or had already happened.
Raize knocked gently on the door. “Come in, Raize,” an awful, scratchy voice called out. Raize gently opened the door, walked in, and closed the door behind him. He knew that if he left the door open, the headmistress would get angry at him.
In the headmistress's room, there were 9 children, the headmistress, and Raize. The children were all lined up by age. Claire, the oldest, is 12 years old, and is an Fārèn Level 5 Cultivator. Next in the line was Ethain. He is 11, and is an Fārèn Level 3 Cultivator. After Ethain was the troubled triplets. The three troublemakers Rin, Weir, and Yaul. All three are 9 years old, and they are also Fārèn Level 3. After them is Elaine. Elaine is a kindhearted girl, who cares about everyone. She is 6 years old, and was not a cultivator, though she did have the talent for it. After Elaine is John, Stephanie, and Reathe. All three are 5 years old, and Fārèn Level 2. Eliza, the headmistress’s favorite, was not here. Eliza is 8 years old, but she had the farthest cultivation level at Fārèn Level 8 Cultivator.
With Cultivators, all stages were separated by 12 levels. First was the Fārèn stage, where their powers showed up, after they practiced and got used to the power, they would become a Zēng Cultivator, where they would create a “power heart”. The power heart was the center of all their power, and if destroyed, would cripple them, and make it so that they couldn’t cultivate any more. After the Zēng stage was the Dàzìrán stage. The Dàzìrán cultivators would explode their power heart, and create a Dantian, which would store their power and make them a true cultivator.
Cultivators had a longer lifespan than normal humans. Fārèn stage cultivators could live from 100-150 years, while Zēng stage cultivators could live for over 200 years! Dàzìrán stage cultivators had the great gift of being able to live for over 500 years!
When Raize had heard about cultivators, he had been extremely excited and asked the headmistress if he could become a cultivator. That was the day his dreams got crushed. The headmistress had laughed in his face and told him that he had crippled meridians, and would be lucky to live past the age of 80. Raize had been extremely saddened and had ran away for a few hours.He returned after that because the desert was too big for a small child to run through, and the nearest town was 20 miles away. That was the day that Raize was sent to the mine.
Raize gently walked up to the line and went to his spot at the very end. Raize was the youngest at the orphanage, at the age of 4. Raize was crippled at birth, so he had no ability to practice the spiritual arts.
When Raize got to his spot, the headmistress started to explain why everyone was there. “A big event is happening in 3 days, and many of you know what it is. Adoption day. The day when we will be visiting the village and they will be able to choose a child out of you few children.”
All the children were getting hyped up. Adoption day! The day that they could get their freedom from this awful orphanage. On adoption day, the price for a kid lowered by half, and most parents could afford to get a child, so on adoption day, the adults would go through the kids and pick the best child and auction who would get them.
While all the children were getting excited, the headmistress continued talking. “You all need to get ready for this, and you all better be on your best behavior. Dismissed. Go pack up and get ready, we leave tomorrow afternoon.”
All the children started to leave, but suddenly the headmistress called out once again. “Raize, I need to speak with you for a second. Stay here.”
Raize froze. He knew that something was wrong. The headmistress only called on him when she was angry or had more chores for him to do.
“ Raize, in order to come with us, I need you to finish your 14 hours in the tunnel. If you cannot finish them, you will have to stay here and add an extra 73 hours onto your time.” The headmistress explained to Raize.
“Yes, Headmistress, I understand. I will do as much work as possible to be able to come.” Raize told the headmistress.
Raize really wanted to go, so he didn’t mind finishing his 14 hours of mining. In fact, he even planned on sleeping in the mine so that he would be able to get all the hours done. When the headmistress dismissed him, Raize ran back to the mine, and when he got there, he saw Eliza was still standing next to his mining hole.
“Raize, the headmistress wanted me to tell you that you have to return to the orphanage by 23:20, and that you can only continue mining at 6:10. That is all.” Elize stated what was meant to be said, and then left.
Raize stared in shock. “Right now is about 10:00, so I have about 13 hours today, and then i will have about 6 hours tomorrow, and that is including time to eat, pack, and get changed. I will have to hurry up.”
Raize could tell that the headmistress did not want Raize to be able to go to adoption day, but he was still going to try to go.