Raja Kint looks at the pill before him, deciding not to take it. Remembering his father’s words about the heaven-defying path and heavenly ruler path. He must somehow not rely on the heavens.
If he’s to tread such a path then he shouldn’t need to rely on pills for something so simple.
Closing his eyes he begins to sense the ki around him. Next, he attempts to form an abstract shape of ki above his right palm. As he’s focusing he feels the ki within his body moving to form a shape.
After a few moments, a speck of light grows to the size of a palm. Raja Kint feels his pores open as his body begins to intake ki passively. Raja Kint opens his eyes and looks at the palm-sized green ki in his hand, chuckling to himself.
“Even in the inner ki realm my control of ki was above average. It only makes sense that I have an easier time than others.”
He placed the rest of his materials back into the ring. Then, he focused on the ring his father gave him. Now that he’s at the outer ki realm he’s qualified to look at the scrolls.
Opening the ring he notices other scrolls on spear arts, arrays and ki techniques. Making him excited, although when he went to touch them he realized there was a seal on them. Dampening his spirits a bit before taking out the two scrolls.
He begins to read through the heaven-defying scroll; Heaven allows perfection only under itself, called heavenly perfection. No matter how high you climb you are always under heaven. It doesn’t mean that some don’t search for perfection beyond heaven. But those who tread this path are called heaven-defying cultivators. These cultivators are of supreme talent and prove themselves as epoch-suppressing geniuses. Taking the 5 planes by storm. How can the heavens allow such a being who pursues their own perfection outside of itself? As such to test heaven-defying cultivators, heaven strikes them with power far beyond normal tribulations.
How does one become a heaven-defying cultivator? You must forge a path that goes beyond the normal cultivation systems. The second method is to follow the path of a previous heaven-defier.
Raja Kint pondered on what he could possibly do to become stronger. With nothing coming to mind, he opens the other scroll.
Heavenly ruler path reads; a heavenly ruler is a cultivator who has gained the recognition of heaven. This is someone who is at the moment of breaking through cultivation steps. Are recognized by the heavenly dao as a supreme talent worth nurturing. To be recognized as such a talent you must meet one of four criteria: an extraordinary dao heart, dao comprehension, will, or soul for your step of cultivation. Heavenly dao will only recognize such people at the breakthrough between steps.
It’s possible for one cultivator to walk both the heavenly ruler and heaven-defying paths. This dual status is reserved for the most supreme of geniuses. It is said this class of genius is referred to as a Defiant Heavenly Ruler. And someone like this may not be born within the 5 planes for an entire epoch. This knowledge only exists because of an ancient cultivator who passed this on.
Raja Kint closed the scrolls and pondered for a while.
Not only do I need to carve my own path of cultivation. I must also have an extraordinary dao heart, dao comprehension, will or soul for my cultivation step. I think I should be capable of dao comprehension. Considering how few heavenly rulers there are across history. This won’t be easy in the slightest. Not to mention I don’t understand what exactly a dao heart, soul or will looks like.
“Jeez, everything is being made so difficult. If this is what it takes then so be it. I should practice my spear arts. They’re but a step away from limbo spear arts. Now that I’ve broken through it shouldn’t be difficult.”
Raja Kint takes out the spear from the coliseum and wryly smiles. I need to check the sect for better spears.
For his spear arts to reach the limbo realm he needs to focus on one of the five basic spear moves. Between thrust, parry, cut, sweep and block. Thrusting has always been his favorite. He wants all five of his moves to reach the next stage.
“To push all five I’ll focus on thrusting first. Getting to this point has required training of the spear. To reach limbo realm I need to focus on pushing the spear past mortal limits. Meaning I need to use my ki and spear perfectly with each other.”
He could only sigh at this. For an outer ki realm to use ki and spear in conjunction is difficult. They still have to divert attention to their control and usage of the little ki they have. Limbo realms don’t have such an issue because their bodies are full of ki and stronger than mortals could imagine. Meaning that their every move with the spear is also using ki.
Stolen story; please report.
Usually, you would push your techniques to their peak and naturally, the limbo realm would bring you to the next step. Raja Kint’s fast comprehension put him in a dilemma where his techniques were stronger than his actual cultivation stage.
Three weeks later Raja Kint is thrusting his spear forward. With the sound of wind behind every strike many outer ki experts would be frightened.
“HAHA! I’ve finally gotten the feeling. It’s similar to operating an array. Except in this case, the array is a spear that I’m constantly moving. In the future, I’ll get better with my control of ki and spear. For now, this is my victory. Next is to truly become a novice arrayist.”
Raja Kint spent the rest of the day relaxing. The next day he practiced his arrays.
After practicing arrays for a week Raja Kint beamed with a smile. “It seems intricate control of ki is necessary for achieving higher technique stages. I wonder if this is considered heaven-defying in some way. Probably not, many array geniuses can do this in the outer ki realm as well. But the first stage… I don’t know any.”
Raja Kint grinned at his own comprehension. He took the rest of the day to rest before leaving his house.
Having walked back and forth to Teacher Array’s house many times, he’s gotten an idea of the layout of the array side of the academy. Quickly he finds himself at the wall of missions.
With many other people present he stood in the back looking for a mission. He was thinking of doing something meant for mid outer ki realms. Finally, he finds a mission where he must find a herb in a dangerous territory.
Raja Kint grabs the scripture to read more in-depth.
The mission is to find the sky plant which has five blue leaves. The dangerous part is that it’s in demon bear territory. Although they shouldn’t have to go far into the territory. Because of how dangerous it is, four people are capable of going.
He accepts the mission and sees that he’s the last to accept.
“Let’s meet at the front of the academy tomorrow so we can get this done.” Says a boy’s voice in his mind.
Raja Kint was a little surprised and quickly agreed.
He went back to his house and ate some of the food Teacher Array gave him. While eating he couldn’t help but be a bit excited. He remembered what his father told him about the first step.
Inside Raja Kint’s room on Kint Clan Planet. He, his brother and his father are present.
“There are many arguments on where cultivation truly begins for us. Some argue inner ki realm is the start. Others argue limbo realm is the start. While some argue only once you’ve reached the second step have you truly started cultivation.”
Ruhai Kint responds, “How can there be three starting points? As long as you enter the inner ki realm you're cultivating every step.”
“I agree with you son. As you become stronger you’ll realize why this argument exists. There is also the fact that the first step is also called the mortal step. There are what we consider three mortal shackles within the first step.”
Raja Kint quickly says, “Inner ki, limbo and the moment of breaking through to the second step are the shackles.”
“Indeed, those are the shackles. As you break each shackle you’ll come to understand with firsthand experience why they are mortal shackles.”
Rubai Kint says, “We already have second-hand experience so we’ll know what to expect.”
“You’re right Ruhai in that you know what to expect. Expectation and reality can be different even when you know what to expect.”
Returning to the present.
Raja Kint has finished eating and has begun practicing his hand-to-hand. All of the techniques he remembers are the basics. His father always harped on how the basics are more important than anything.
Time passed and Raja Kint was on his way to the main entrance. Once there he finds two boys and a girl. A boy and girl both at the fifth outer ki realm. And the other boy at the sixth outer ki realm.
The fifth outer ki realm boy says, “My name is Yi Kint.”
The girl says, “Wu Yinu.”
“Wan Kint.”
“Raja Kint.”
“I’m surprised you accepted the mission, you understand that we may not be able to protect you… right?” says Wan Kint.
“Of course, I wanted something as I haven’t fought in a while.”
Wu Yinu says, “Aren’t you the #1 genius of the new students? You definitely are.”
“Don’t let the hype get to your head junior brother. You must know when it’s just not time,” says Yi Kint.
“Don’t worry senior brother I won’t put myself in any situations too dangerous.”
“Danger can be good at times. Now let’s head out everyone, it’ll be a day trip just to reach the demon bear territory,” says Wan Kint.
Everyone nods their heads and leaves together.