Shan Hong was 13 years old when his parent enrolled him in the War God academy out of pressure from higher-ups of the Shan family.
They knew that Shan Hong was not ready to face the world and he would be bullied with his lower cultivation base. He had very slow progress as he was not interested in cultivation.
He knew about the phenomenon that occurred during his birth and he had expectations piled upon him since then. He disliked those who sought to expect the best from others rather than focusing on themselves.
He wanted to be carefree and seek out his own path. He liked to paint and visualize. He would look at the stars every night and wonder at the marvelous sight in front of him. He would paint away using his imagination and feel truly free.
His hobby gave him the confidence to express himself to his crush by painting Ling Qing's portrait. It was a bright day in the Elements realm when he approached Lin Qing after she was done in the training grounds.
Shan Hong greeted Lin Qing, "It's a nice morning, isn't it?". Lin Qing was surprised to see Shan Hong greet her when he usually kept to himself.
She knew that he liked to be alone. She was interested to know more about him as he always seemed mysterious to her, but she knew his cultivation level was the weakest, only being at the third stage of Path Formation.
"It is a nice morning. Would you like to go to the breakfast hall as we talk?" She was lively as usual and Shan Hong was excited to see it going well. They both began walking as they talked.
They began to know more about each other. Shan Hong came to know that she was also from a mysterious family and was only an exchange student that came to the War God academy to find weapon techniques that suited her avatar.
Heaven's favorites like her were able to connect to a plane in the Path Formation realm. She had successfully formed a link to the third level of the spiritual plane on her first try. She had connected to an avatar of the eight-layer known as "Heavenly Trident".
The Heavenly Trident was a mighty weapon of the ocean. It provided its user a significant boost when paired with a water elemental-based bloodline. She possessed two bloodlines, one sealed and another active. It boosted her connection with water-based qis but for some reason, she didn't specify what the bloodline was to anyone.
Having learned this, Shang Hong was amazed as it was incredibly hard for one to connect with any of the three planes. Connecting to the physical plane was the easiest while connecting with the soul plane was almost impossible. But, this relatively easy task was still very difficult for normal people.
They eventually reached the breakfast hall and found a place to dine.