Cough! Cough! At the outskirts of a forest, a young boy, around the age of 11, laid on the ground, curled up, disheveled, and messy.
Towering over him was another boy around the same age. He delivered kicks at the one laying on the ground. Surrounding the two, a group of boys laughed and ridiculed the fallen boy.
"Yang Bin, you are merely a first rank body tempering cultivator. Did you really think you could beat me?" Yang Yu, the one standing over the injured boy, sneered. He was slightly chubby with short brown hair with brown eyes. In his hand was a clump of blue grass. "Trash of the Yang clan, aside from running and dodging, what else can you do? You should know your place!"
With that said, Yang Yu gave the lying boy a final kick, eliciting a groan from him. Seeing that the boy stopped fighting back, he hurled some more insults before leaving. Following his lead, the group of boys dispersed as well.
"Stolen. They stole it again." Yang Bin, the injured boy, pounded his fist on the ground. His eyes reddened, and his small body trembled in rage. "I will remember this. When I become stronger than all of you, I'll pay this back!" He swore quietly.
Although they were both part of the Yang clan, they were not on friendly terms. There were a lot of disputes and competition between those in the younger generation, especially when it came to matters of cultivation resources. The older generation doesn't mind these fights. In fact, they encourage it, as it would give motivation to cultivate and get stronger. Thus, they turn a blind eye to the fights as long as it doesn't cause any permanent injury or delay one's cultivation.
But like Yang Yu said, Yang Bin had really poor talent in cultivation. After a year of cultivation, he was still stuck at first rank body tempering. No matter how diligently he worked, there were minimal results. Meanwhile Yang Yu was already at the third rank despite starting after him, though this was mostly due to the fact that his father poured tons of resources into his cultivation.
Unlike the later stages, cultivation speed during the body tempering stage mostly relies on wealth. This is because the body tempering stage focuses on making the flesh stronger and building a foundation, so consuming more elixir and higher quality elixir would increase the cultivation speed. Since Yang Bin's family wasn't as wealthy, Yang Bin didn't receive as much resources, slowing down his cultivation even further.
Although the gap between ranks during this stage isn't very large, defeating an opponent two ranks above was still a difficult feat. If not for his exceptional reaction speed and agility, he wouldn't even be able to put up a fight and could only give in to his demands. Still, even with those qualities, Yang Bin could only dodge a few punches before ultimately falling.
Just an hour before this incident, Yang Bin discovered a clump of 10-year-old azure sky grass while training in the woods next to his home. Used correctly, this herb could help speed up cultivation for body tempering cultivators. Feeling elated, Yang Bin rushed home, but he was stopped by Yang Yu and his gang.
Since the two didn't have a good history, Yang Yu made it difficult for Yang Bin to leave. Yang Bin desperately tried to hide the herb, but in the end, it was still discovered.
Greedy for the herb, Yang Yu demanded Yang Bin to hand it over. Naturally, Yang Bin refused, so Yang Yu tried to take it away by force. Yang Bin did his best to run, but Yang Bin wasn't able to escape as Yang Yu's gang would cut off all his escape routes. In the end, he got beaten, and his catch was snatched away from him.
Lying on his side, Yang Bin waited for the pain to recede. After a few minutes he slowly crawled up and looked at himself.
Too weak. I'm simply too weak. Yang Bin grimaced. Apart from the dirty clothing, there were numerous cuts and bruises on his arms and legs. Fortunately, they weren't serious and could be healed with a day or two of rest. With a heavy heart, he got up. After training here many times, he had this place well memorized, and currently he was heading to a small stream.
Looking at his own reflection, Yang Bin winced. He was usually a relatively handsome boy with short black hair, large black eyes, and an oval-shaped face. Now he had a red bruise on his cheek and split lips. Not to mention, it was spotted with filth.
Yang Yu must have been really jealous of my face to maul it like this. Yang Bin thought. Scooping up a handful of the cool water into his hands, he carefully rubbed his face. The blood and dirt dripped from his hands and fell into the stream, giving the small stream a slight red and brown hue. After thoroughly rinsing the blood and dust off his face, he glanced down at his shirt which was in an equally poor condition.
Can't do anything about this. Yang Bin shook his head and decided to head home. However, just as he was standing up, he noticed a faint red light further down the stream. Yang Bin blinked a couple times and rubbed his eyes. After confirming that he wasn't seeing a hallucination, he decided to investigate the red light.
"I've been to this stream for two years, and I'm certain I've never seen this before." Yang Bin mumbled. Cautiously, he approached the red light. Walking a few steps, he realized the light was emitted from the middle of the stream. Kneeling down, he saw a pebble that was about the size of his thumb with red marks on it. The red marks were the cause of the light. He carefully picked it up from the stream and brought it to his face to study it.
As if activated by his touch, the red light from the pebble suddenly intensified. A red beam shot from the pebble towards Yang Bin before disappearing; then the pebble began to crumble. Yang Bin, who was hit by the red light, didn't get the chance to avoid it. He felt his eyelids become heavy and conscious slip away, passing out on the grass. By the time he opened his eyes again, he was in a different place.
"Where am I?" Yang Bin looked around. He was suddenly dragged into a dark empty place. The only light was coming from his body which had become completely white and somewhat transparent. As the silence prevailed, he began to feel chills.
"Hmm? What a weak and frail body." A powerful voice rang out. "Despite being so weak, you were able to find my token. It seems we have some affinity."
"Who are you?" Yang Bin looked around frantically, but couldn't find anyone.
"You can call me Lengnu." A golden spark appeared out of the nothingness.
Seeing the light, Yang Bin calmed down a little.
The golden spark continued. "You're really fortunate to have stumbled upon this. Contained in the token are three top tier techniques: a movement technique, a spirit technique, and a cultivation technique. The moment you activate my token, they have been imprinted into your spirit world which is this place. As long as you practice this diligently, you can easily reach the top."
Innocently believing every word, Yang Bin was touched. Stunned by his goodwill, Yang Bin didn't know how to express his thanks.
However, Lengnu wasn't done. "In return, I need you to break past the Heavenly Sovereign stage and help stop the calamity."
Puzzled, Yang Bin blinked at it in confusion. "Calamity? Heavenly Sovereign stage?"
As far as he knew, qi cultivation starts from the Body Tempering Stage, to Qi Condensing, Earthly Qi, and Heavenly Qi. Each stage has ten ranks, starting from initial to one through nine. Anything further was unknown to him, since the strongest person in the Yang Clan, the clan leader, was at that stage. But the so-called Heavenly Sovereign stage seems a lot further than just one or two stages past the Heavenly Qi stage.
"Forget it. You're too weak right now. Just focus on getting stronger." The golden spark replied, as it began to flicker and dim. "Imparting these techniques has consumed too much of my will; I won't be able to keep this up much longer. One final thing, don't reveal the final forms of the movement and spirit technique or else there will be trouble. If you ever need help, there are two other people who have this token. They can guide you."
Yang Bin nodded resolutely, as he stored this information in his mind. "I understand."
"This is my final gamble. The fate of this world rests on you. Farewell." Before Yang Bin had the chance to question what he meant, the spark disappeared.
A second later, Yang Bin was forcefully brought out of his spirit world.