On a rainy night, in a large town named Xi'an. The sounds of a screaming woman echo throughout the cold and lonely barn as she proceeds in the labor process.
The woman's name is Wei Ning and she is a lowly maid servant to a powerful lord with in the town of Xi'an. She had fallen in love with the lord and ended up becoming his down low mistress, until she got pregnant. Finding out the woman was pregnant, the lord threw Wei into the streets and scorned the woman for "being a useless whore".
Unwilling to give up on her baby, the poor and broken Wei Ning decided to give birth to the bastard child of the lord. In between each grunt and heave of the woman's breath, pictures of a happy life with her son flashes through the woman's mind as the baby comes closer and closer to being born into the real world.
With a big push and a final scream of Wei, the baby is finally brought into it's new life. Quickly gathering herself, Wei bends forward and picks up her baby and wraps it up in her only cloth. Staring at her slightly bloodied baby, Wei smiles as the baby is completely appealing to the eyes already at such a young age and has shining platinum hair.
One thing that startles Wei Ning though is that instead of crying, the child remains silent and seems to be asleep, unlike what people had told Wei Ning what would actually happen. Not wanting to doubt the health of her only child at the moment, Wei simply brings the baby close to her body as their current conditions aren't the best as it is cold enough to kill an infant if not surrounded by their mother's warmth.
Wei Ning's loving eyes stare at her son intensely as the infant slowly breaths in out and she makes sure not to miss a second of this moment as she is sure her son will do great things when he grows up. At least this is what Wei Ning tells herself to console the miserable life she is currently living.
*After an hour*
Warmth...
Wait no, this is more than warmth... It's a fuzzy feeling I've never felt before... It's actually very soothing...
With a flutter of the eyes, the baby opens his eyes to see his mother for the first time. The woman is asleep soundly with a satisfied smile spread across her face. The baby blinks a few times and then the memories come flooding back.
"WHHHAAAAATTTTTT?!" the baby yells with a roar. The whole town shakes as the roar that came from the baby is not something that any human could ever produce. The city then turns on high alert as they believe a monster has infiltrated their city limits.
The mother of the creature that made the sound is startled awake from the roar coming from within her arms and she looks around like she has seen a ghost.
"A-A-A monster?!" Wei Ning yells in surprised and then looks at the awakened baby in her arms.
"You poor thing, that roar must've startled you awake, I'm so sorry baby Zao." Wei says to Zao Ning, who is staring back at her in anger. Wei thinks Zao is angry due to being awoken, but it for something completely different.
HOW CAN THIS HAVE HAPPENED? ME? THE STRONGEST DRAGON IN THE GOLDEN CONTINENT, ZARAGNATHOR! KILLED BY MY OWN KIND AND EATEN BY MY OWN FAMILY, WHAT A DISGRACE!
Zao Ning howls to himself in his mind as he goes over the memories flowing through his mind. Formerly known as Zaragnathor, the Emperor of the Dragon Kingdom in the Golden Continent, Zao Ning sees from a third person perspective that his kind has staged a coupe.
Zaragnathor was poisoned by a poison from the Never Realm and there was no way a Dragon in the Fiend Realm could survive something like that. Dying on the spot as the poison hit his intestines, the poison was cured and then Zaragnathor's children ate their father's corpse to gain the powers from the deceased dragon.
Looking around, Zaragnathor can tell that he seems to have been reincarnated as a human, and the lowest level of cultivation for one too! A mortal!
This is even more disgraceful than being eaten by my family! Why a human?! Anything but a human! Curse the gods! Thank you Meng Po for letting me keep my memories though. Also, seems my name is now Zao Ning, what a weak and stupid name!
The dragon uses its infant brain to process the memories from its former and 'better' life to see if it can remember anything useful now while it moans and groans about having such a terrible name.
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"Baby, we must leave this area, there is a terrible monster coming for us! Don't worry though, mommy will protect you!" Wei Ning says with an urgency as she takes her baby and nakedly runs out of the barn due to wrapping the baby in her only piece of cloth.
... Is this woman crazy? I don't sense any monsters and why doesn't she cover herself up-.
You know what, nevermind, it's a mortal human so what should I expect.
As Wei Ning bares the embarrassment of running through the slums naked while guards run around looking for a beast that doesn't exist, Zao Ning sifts through his memories until he finds something.
Here it is! The Lightning Destruction Emperor Cultivating technique! I can use this to quickly get back to my former level of power! Ah, it's been so long since I did the first stage, let's see how rusty I am.
Zao Ning closes his eyes as his mother continues to find somewhere to hide and Zao Ning searches for his cultivation veins. The first part of cultivating is actually discovering where in your body can actually cultivated.
If I remember correctly, humans mainly cultivate around here.... Aha! Found it!
Being a dragon who had endless amounts of books due to his immense greed, Zao Ning actually has amassed a large amount of knowledge about humans which seems to be coming in handy at the moment. Locating his main cultivation vein, Zao Ning has hit a major flaw in his plan of cultivation.
How do I open it?
A good question that stumps the young infant which causes the young Zao to contemplate the answer for a fair amount of time. While focusing on finding the answer with the concentration of a well trained monk, Wei Ning finally finds a place to hide herself away from the eyes of the public and the potential dangers of the make believe monster invading the city.
The place Wei Ning had managed to find is a small shack that is worn down and looks like it is abandoned to the woman. Nodding her head in acceptance as she is fine with these conditions, the woman looks at the baby within her arms.
The baby's face is completely tranquil due to Zao having washed away the angry expression from before and going into his body mentally to try to start cultivation. Seeing her baby look so adorable and peaceful, Wei's heart skips a beat and a wide smile spreads across her face once again.
Just looking at her son calms down the woman for some reason, and even though she can't explain it doesn't mean she will question it. Feeling accomplished for completing the miracle of child birth, Wei can feel fatigue wash over her body and her emerald eyes become hard to keep open.
Finally succumbing to the creeping feeling of sleepiness, Wei Ning falls asleep.
After an hour straight of searching for a way to open his cultivation veins, Zao starts to become slightly angry.
WHY THE FUCK IS MY BODY SO USELESS?
Ok... maybe a little bit more than slightly angry.
WITH A BODY SO WORTHLESS I MIGHT AS WELL DIE!
Definitely more like furious then angry. Being a dragon, Zao is extremely prideful and is nearly devastated at the fact that he is mortal at the moment with no cultivation to speak of. With no cultivation, Zao will have no power, and with no power, Zao will forever stay on the bottom. A legendary dragon would never accept this fate realistically speaking.
No matter what technique of The Lightning Destruction Emperor Technique I use, I cannot open my veins! I managed to cultivate this as a dragon while I was still in the womb, yet look at me now! Humans truly cannot taste true power apparently. It's like they can only use Mortal tier cultivation... techniques...
Towards the end of the sentence, Zao began to speak very slowly as he finally understood.
I am an idiot...
A human's body is ranked the lowest possible and they have to start their way from the bottom usually if they wished to be able to ascend through the realms, and having a mortal mother, Zao can tell his potential isn't very high.
With having low initial potential, Zao needs to start from the lowest tier techniques if he wishes to rise in body strength, mentalforce, and spiritual power. There is no physically possible way that Zao could cultivate in a dragon's first cultivating technique and he would have to think of a low tiered one if Zao wishes to raise in cultivation.
Ugh! Why would I ever know such a low tiered cultivating technique! I am not as lowly as humans so I would never need one to begin with. I remember hearing from a human about his first cultivating technique and he even let me read it and it was horrendous! I laughed so hard I caused 3 cities to collapse! Wait.
Thinking about the time he killed thousands due to his pride, Zao realized that the old heroes technique might just be low enough for Zao to cultivate in.
Now... What was it called? Thunder something... Aha! Sizzling Worm Technique!
Wait, no! This can't be right! This name sucks! Who is dumb enough to cultivate something with the name Sizzling Worm Technique!
Zao is fuming in rage but soon his desperation overcomes this rage due the fact that the feeling of weakness is more painful than the losing of one's pride.
Sighing audibly and defeatedly, Zao begins to try to cultivate Sizzling Worm Technique. Immediately his veins open up and take in their first amounts of Elemental Ki. Feeling the power of Ki once again rush through his veins, Zao does a cute baby giggle and smiles brightly.
Thin strips of lightning Ki begin to build up in Zao's veins according to the technique shown to him by the hero and soon, the small strips form into small worms that wriggle around in Zao's veins.
Staring at the little worms of sizzling Ki, Zao understands on why this technique is called Sizzling Worm. Now realizing it will take some time to once again be near the top of the realms and be able to regain his pride, Zao's eyes turn sharp and a surprising amount of patience surfaces within Zao's soul.
I might want to rush this forward but no matter what I must have a solid foundation. Even if it takes Realm Cycles, I will regain my power... All I can do now is wait.