Smiling brightly, Gong Fu Yong muttered, "Rank one skill: Infestation."
Laughing insidiously, Gong Fu Yong thought: "Ahh... At least so I wish. If I could truly use that skill life would become nine thousand times easier."
Peering out into the distance, a hint of worry entered Gong Fu Yong's eyes. In this life, he could hardly protect himself. A powerless mortal yet now whilst merely a child, Gong Fu Yong had already become the mother of four newborn cubs.
Clenching his fist tight, with fiery determination in his eyes, Gong Fu Yong, said, "Don't worry little ones, although this one is weak, strength will one day run through my veins, and through yours as well."
"But until then, support each other. We may be weak, but to forsake one of our own is worse than death. With every moment, struggle, wreath, push forward, only then will you grow, evolving into something incredible."
Sitting down cross-legged, Gong Fu Yong entered a meditative state. This body of his, it was thin and sickly. It held no trace of power, nor prestige.
To gain strength, cultivation. The act of demons to traverse through the realms achieving sentience, to one day become immortal.
The laws clear, in this world anything could cultivate, be it a rock, or a dragon.
Cultivation, Gong Fu Yong knew of it, but truly he knew not. A monk of the past to cultivate was embedded into his very soul, but a pebble of the current and in a world new, only time would tell.
Entering this world, Gong Fu Yong always had four paths, in his first he appeared as a rock following the path of creation, in his second life he appeared as a stone entering the path of destruction, and in his third, he followed the path of temperance, and now in his fourth life the path of infestation.
Living only for joy, Gong Fu Yong experienced travesty all throughout the world. He had his heartbroken, his soul torn, and even his life forsaken.
His eyes shut, Gong Fu Yong began to hum: "Om, Om, Om, Om, Om..." Spreading out his sense, he enters a state of emptiness. All states of life are revealed, and Gong Fu Yong enters enlightenment.
Listless, Gong Fu Yong mumbles, path by path: "Embrace the world, Qi flows infinitely, absorb it. Temper the inner heart, create a connection between the boundaries, destroy the gateway... Finally, reinstate the veins."
A heart of Dao, the opening in the gateway, veins of corruption, and the connections of the boundaries all these were necessary on the path to immortality. He had achieved it, but this was only the first stage. He was still at the bottom of the world, susceptible to nature and space.
However, this was it. The beginning of everything, the entrance to a world foreign, the world of cultivation.
Peering deep inside his body, specs of light flowed in, and before long they left. However, once his Dao heart formed, the specs of light grew grand, and in larger quantities. Absorbed, and devoured by the heart, lightly reinforced Gong Fu Yong's skin and bones, transforming his sickly body into that of a young woodcutter.
Lightly tempered, yet misshapen. It wasn't much, but to such an improvement Gong Fu Yong smiled faintly.
"The joy of life, to temper from nothing. Human to immortal, pebble to God. Is this the heartlessness of existence? God, how merciful, and how merciless. Truly a being with ten thousand faces."
Awakened from temperance, Gong Fu Yong lightly brushed off his robe before standing. One day had passed just like that.
Laying before him in a pile, four mountain lion cubs shivering from the cold.
The first realm to becoming a cultivator. Having reached the initial stage of the body strengthening realm, Gong Fu Yong's world changed.
Weak, but nowhere near as before, Gong Fu Yong was reborn, yet his worry never left him. Being a young mother of four Gong Fu Yong was always thinking: "What am I going to feed them, how do you raise a child, am I doing this right, and am I the best mother to these children?"
Questioning his very self, Gong Fu Yong pushed on, from nothing he was born, looking to the heavens Gong Fu Yong swore, "Fuck! Who cares if I'm lacking, I'll raise them. One day after I'm long gone these four rascals will be the immortal protectors of this world."
Among Gong Fu Yong's possessions, he had a small blade, three silver, and 19 bronze. This wealth, he knew not if it was a lot or nothing. This answer, however, didn't matter. To feed the tiger cubs, and watch them grow up to their peak, the answer didn't change, Gong Fu Yong undoubtedly had to raise them from nothing. From cub to dragon.
"Blade without hilt, interesting. Useless, but interesting nonetheless."
Removing his blue and white robe, Gong Fu Yong draped it over the cubs, before exiting the cave. Lion cubs were defenseless from birth, to regulate their body temperature, Gong Fu Yong could only do this, sacrificing his own warmth to leave the cave in search of future meals.
Beings without a mother for warmth, it tore Gong Fu Yong's heart. But the reality was, he was the one that ruined them, Gong Fu Yong killed their mother.
Fate. Gong Fu Yong had devoured their mother and relayed the finishing blow. However, even without his presence, eventually, she'd die from blood loss. What he did could never be considered correct, however wrong? Gong Fu Yong wouldn't allow such a fate to entangle him.
Stepping out from the cavern's protection, Gong Fu Yong walked passed tens of rotting corpses, with a hint of disappointment: "Ahh... To let such precious treasures go to waste, it seems although I had awakened countless years ago, my head remains befuddled."
Entering the vast mountain range once more, Gong Fu Yong was in awe. Beyond the mountains, far, far away, sunbeams passed through all. Reflected through lakes, light traveled up the mountains, and through the dense mountain jungle.
Day time, however, Gong Fu Yong went out to hunt. Day, when animals and bugs alike venture out in search of fruitful shrubs and mountain treasures. When they were most active, scurrying through the bushes, rabbits, boars, and deer ran free.
Jumping high. Day, when all herbivores alike come to frolic in the sun, hidden away from the demonic beasts of the night.
Predators hunting during the day. There were few. Small birds, eagles, and falcons, each an apex predator of the mountains hunting from far above, even those hidden in the shrubs were not free from the dominance of the birds.
However, amongst these small herbivores, bugs, and predators alike. Two apexes, mountain bears, and a striking adolescent male in the nude.
Along his body, thin muscles reveal themselves. An odd site, thin yet muscular. Truly, such a thing was an oddity.
Running against the wind, his long-hair fluttered in the wind. With a smile on his face, Gong Fu Yong traversed the peak of a small mountain.
At the mountain's peak, Gong Fu Yong felt blessed, as the powerful mountain wind carried up the mountain and through him.
"King. This feeling I haven't felt it in a long time, standing above all like this a nobody. It seems I've truly been out of combat too long, my lust for battle is only now returning. The joyful life of a stagnant pebble, perhaps this isn't my path, however, this world undoubtedly will experience the prowess of this aloof pebble."
Grinning wide, but his smile falls. Peaking from below, Gong Fu Yong felt the presence of hundreds, if not thousands. A mere invader of a world unknown, whether it be beast, bug, or animal each watched closely from a distance.
An oddity of which they had never experienced, this adolescent boy before them. None moved, but from the shadows, they watched with intent: To learn just what was this boy? Where did he come from, and would he end up friend or foe?
Questions countless, but that is just how fate went. Gong Fu Yong could only tear his way into this world. Only then would he be a genuine man of the mountains.
At the mountain's peak, a dead tree remains the tallest. Smiling genuinely, Gong Fu Yong spoke with a lingering sadness in his tone, "Ahh, dear tree. To fall this low after rising to the peak. Heh, but don't worry, this pebble will avenge you."
Above all, yet small. Being merely three meters high, and three centimeters thick, but Gong Fu Yong was relieved. From this tree, the foundation of a sword. His options were limited in his possessions, all he had to protect himself was a blade, this tree it would become his hilt, and he'd become its savior.
Tugging at the tree, Gong Fu Yong snapped the tree into two pieces. Taking away a 28-centimeter piece, Gong Fu Yong grinned. However, to seal the blade, he had nothing as of now.
Peering over the dismembered tree, Gong Fu Yong bowed, "I'm sorry." An apology for what Gong Fu Yong did next was to dig up the tree's roots.
He had no experience in such fields, however, the roots of this tree although dried, and weak they could at least provide for a temporary, but that wasn't important, for what Gong Fu Yong was looking for was this, trees poison.
Leaving behind this tree, Gong Fu Yong enters the mountain once more a predator.
"In the hands of a genius, even a twig can become a weapon." Reminiscing of the past, Gong Fu Yong with a smile muttered, "If only you were still here. At least then I could just sit back and relax. It is too bad that in the past I had no interest in the crazed mastery of your sword sect."
A treasure trove, that was the forest. In each corner a hidden treasure. Fruits, hundreds of varieties of meats, and thousands of vegetables.
But to gain such food, of course, there was a price. As the humans say, "If you wish to eat, you must first work." The forest had a similar saying: "So you want to eat, huh? Then get up and eat! Who is stopping you? Devour everything and seize everything as yours. Live or perish." That was the forest.