《Beyond the Stars》 Chapter 01: One for Ten Chapter 01 Li Wei was defined from those around him as a very out going person. Never the center of attention but always the first one to have a good laugh. If you asked him one quality he had, he would answer that he is easily satisfied from what he has. You might think that is a pretty good way to describe someone but a quality for you might be a flaw to others. Those that disliked him would say Li Wei lacks a drive. He is like a leaf that has fallen from a tree. Never will he move by himself. For the past 10 minutes Li Wei had been staring at the class¡¯ ceiling lost in his thoughts. There is a lot a of important moments in a man''s life. Most people talk about being 18 as the most life changing experience but Li Wei felt like his 25 years of age might prove that theory wrong. Everyone he knew was beginning to move on. Moreover, it was this last year as a university student after that he would have to find a job. Being a leaf wasn¡¯t going to cut it anymore. His train of thought was suddenly stopped by his phone. His best friend Lucas was calling him. He was lucky the phone was on silence. Being at the back of the class he decided to answer anyway ¡°Bro !! It¡¯s been a while. I¡¯m right in front of your class! I¡¯m waiting for you! Li Wei had no time to answer his friend. There was a huge explosion, he was blasted against the walls and he passed out. When he woke up was hurting as if he had been binge drinking for a whole week. It took him a whole 5 minutes to regain a clear vision. The first thing he noticed is that he had been moved outside.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. At least two thousand students were all lying on the ground surrounded by 50 men with assault rifles. Some were dead, some were injured and others were lucky and survives with out a scratch A square faced man walked closer to them, climbed on a bench and shouted " Every ten minutes I will take ten of you. You will kneel over there, and I will execute you. The only way to prevent that is for someone to willingly come and get killed in their place. Now that I''ve said that" heturned around to look at his men "Grab ten and make them kneel in front of me" Li Wei watched with eyes wide open as if it wasn¡¯t real just a nightmare. He had heard about this kind of nonsensical terrorism before. However he never thought it woul happen to him. The soldiers grabbed 10 students and positioned behind each of them waiting for their superior''s command. The square faced man stared for a minute while the students that were about to die pleaded and cried. He grinned and said, "shoot". There were ten consecutive gun shots, then utter silence. He didn¡¯t even wait a minute and said, "take ten more". It took a few seconds to grab 10 more people. Li Wei was staring at the ground unable to look. However, he heard a voice he recognized right away. His friend Lucas was there trying to get away from the soldier grabbing him. He wanted to save him. His brain was working twice as fast to no end. His face contorted as he was looking down on the ground. He stood up and looked at his friend in the same motion, ready to take their place but instead of his own voice he heard the square faced man yell: ¡°shoot !!!!¡±. A bloody hole appeared instead of his best friend''s face. Shocked he fell to his knees as their chief ironically smiled and said, " be faster next time" and asked his men to pick ten students once again. This time Li Wei didn''t even look at the new victims. He knew it made no sense. He had been unable to save his friend because he was afraid of death. He would repent by saving 10 stangers. He stood up and with a face distorted in rage he shouted. "kill me in their place!". The square faced man laughed looked back at his men and said, "See I told you we would have one of those stupide ones this time!". A soldier then grabbed and forced him to kneel. The last thing he heard was the gun safety, a loud noise and everything turned to oblivion. Chapter 02: Number 32 Chapter 02 Li Wei woke up in a room with no door and no windows. The walls and the ceiling were white, but the ground was dark and smooth. ¡°Number 32 Li Wei!¡± A thunderous voice echoed in the room. ¡°Great deeds in death. Reincarnation in one of the superior worlds granted. The ground transformed into a sticky liquid and he began to sink. Li Wei struggled to keep his head out of the liquid fearing he wouldn¡¯t be able to breathe anymore. But quickly he couldn¡¯t hold on and was swallowed by the darkness. However, he found himself in another room this time blue with a red door. There sat a black-robed man with a long gray beard and round glasses. He was sitting behind a huge brownish executive desk. The room made Li Wei uncomfortable. The colors didn¡¯t match with each other¡¯s at all and that bothered Li Wei¡¯s presence wasn¡¯t even noticed by the man that kept working. Which made Li Wei even more uncomfortable because he didn¡¯t know if he should talk or not ¡°What am I doing here?¡± Li Wei wondered "Your being reincarnated" the man was finally looking at him with a smile or a smirk on his face. ¡°The world you have been living in was a lesser world. The world you are going to be reincarnated in is a Greater world." ¡°A Greater world is called as such because it has a bigger universe about twice the expansion the one in your world had. Therefore, it has proportionally a bigger population.¡± Li Wei was at lost for words and just stared at the man with his mouth slightly opened The man smirked once again and kept talkingUnlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°But the benefit of a greater world does not stoop that low. A Greater world is a gate to immortality.¡± The man stopped talking grabbed a long pipe and began smoking for a few seconds where the old ma seemed lost in the pleasure. Then he looked at Li Wei again ¡°Any questions?¡± he asked. ¡°Huum a few. Does everyone in the Greater worlds become immortal? If not, what do you have to do to become one? Why should I become one? What do you mean by a gate? Why do I get to go there? Who are you? Are you god or a god? By reincarnation do you mean I will¡­ ¡°Stop.¡± The man almost choked on his pipe from the flow of questions that did not seem to stop ¡° I will answer the question I am able to answer because I allowed you to ask but I don¡¯t won¡¯t to spend that much time on this so we will stop right after I¡¯ve finished.¡± " First only those with good enough karma through their lives can get to the greater worlds. Did you think this is the first time you''ve come here? Most people do good once or twice in the string of reincarnation. You¡¯ve already been here 31 times. And have done some good in every one of them. You might not know that but good has a very different definition from the morals you humans created. To us Good is staying true to one¡¯s path but being capable of knowing when the path has to be changed. Truth is in every single one of your reincarnations you¡¯ve led a very carefree life and stayed true to that but at the end of the last one you showed a very different side of you.¡± The dark robed man snapped his fingers and a huge picture appeared. It was Li Wei¡¯s face distorted by rage. ¡°I liked that and wondered what would have happened if you had power. Which leads to answering another one of your questions. Immortality is power. To become an immortal, you must become one of the few strongest in that world while staying true to your path. Yours has to be redefined and since I like what I saw I decided to bet on you.¡± ¡°Bet on me? For what reason? What does that incur exactly?¡± "Every Millennium each overlord which I am can choose a pawn in the grand scheme of things. That chosen one can recall their past life at the age of fifteen. Do you want to be one?" " I prefer not remembering anything than be a pawn." Li Wei interjected He smiled, "Indeed. I believed that would be your answer. That¡¯s why I chose you anyway." "What?¡± "Now go" The room and the old man disappeared, and Li Wei found himself in space unable to even lift a finger. He was finally sucked toward what looked like a huge planet. Chapter 03: The Li clan Chapter 03: The Hao continent is divided among four states: Jiangu, Yunnan, Hebei and the State of Zhuan. The Li family is a big clan from Zhuan situated near the border of Yunnan state. The man that brought the name of the family to be mentioned in the same breath as the emperor of Zhuan is Li Hong. Li Hong was a Martial art genius. At the age of seventeen he engaged in the army and 4 years later he played a major part in repelling the armies of Yunnan. Therefore, he was elevated to the rank of general and after 5 years protecting the Zhuan state from the greedy eyes of Yunnan he was offered the hand of the emperor¡¯s sister which consolidated his status to right hand of the emperor. Li Hong had two sons from this marriage: Li Huang and Li Heng. Li Huang was born a genius and very quickly became the favored son of Li Hong. He was believed to one day become the head of the Li Family. On the contrary, his brother Li Heng was a cripple and couldn¡¯t practice martial arts. However even though he was laughed at when compared to his brother, it stopped very quickly when Li Heng revealed himself to be a strategic genius. Both brothers then teamed up and became the biggest threat to Yunnan¡¯s dream of conquering Zhuan state. A few years later when both sons approached their 25 years of age the Xia family which was the second-biggest clan in Zhuan state offered their only daughter¡¯s hand to Li Huang.Stolen novel; please report. This marriage would bring the Li family to new heights and consolidate the power and stability of Zhuan. Hence, it shocked the whole state when Li Huang refused to marry Xia Yi to propose to a commoner that would become his wife Li Yu. Xia Yi, on the other hand, married Li Heng and seemed now in a better position to become the next head of the family. Li Wei was the first born of Li Huang and Li Yu and it became clear to everyone he had no talent whatsoever. A martial artist uses ki to transform and train his body. He had very little ki and was the worst in that regard compared to the 10 kids his age in the family. His comprehension level on the other hand was one of the best. That¡¯s why his father believed he might become a strategic genius like his uncle. However, after receiving lessons for a year, the teacher told Li Huang he was average at best. This lack of talent became even clearer when compared to Li Heng and Xia Yi¡¯s son, Li Yang who seemed to be one of the best at everything he touched. Li Yang was no cripple like his father and was one of the youngest in Zhuan nation to reach the High Mortal stage. He also had strategic talent second only to his father¡¯s For 15 years Li Wei carried on his shoulders the weight of responsibilities. He felt like his lack of talent was shaming his whole family and the pressure became heavier as time passed. His parents loved him, and the rest of the family wouldn¡¯t dare bully him but the talking behind his back soon became unbearable. That¡¯s why on his 15th birthday, Li Wei decided to kill himself. He took a knife, walked into the forest and was ready to plunge the knife into his own hear. He believed this way of dying would prove he did not die because he had a weak mind but because he would rather die a warrior¡¯s death than live a commoner¡¯s life. However, pain suddenly sprung into his head, it was as if needles were moving inside his brain. He soon couldn¡¯t bear it and fainted. Chapter 04: The departure Chapter 04: Both souls had merged. The new Li Wei had new memories, but he also had a new personality. Before the reincarnation Li Wei had a carefree personality but was also able to ignore the pressure given to him by his peers and his loved ones. It¡¯s not because he didn¡¯t care that the pressure didn¡¯t get to him. It¡¯s because he believed his path was the right one. That¡¯s why the new Li Wei kept the belief in his own path. However, his path was not the same anymore. It had been changed by the way his life ended but also by the life he lived in this world. He knew he needed to get strong and if it was not enough to protect his loved ones, he would become a demon. His clan¡¯s body tempering technique was called Phoenix rebirth. Its principle was to temper the body and the ki the technique generated by heat. While cultivating the body generated so much heat that it would slowly transform the body and compress the ki making it purer. The problem was that when Li Wei cultivated he would not generate enough ki to protect his body and compress the ki at the same time. Hence, he was very slow. This problem would not change with another cultivation technique. The only solution Li Wei could think of was to become a mage. A mage used ki too but not in the same way. While the martial artist used his body as a medium, the mage uses the world as the medium. Li Wei did not think the cultivation techniques the mage¡¯s used would change anything since their cultivation also generated ki and he generated less than the average. No, what made Li Wei believe that path might change something for him was the magic beasts. There exist countless magic beasts in this world but only 3 men in Zhuan made a contract with one.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The magic beasts had amazing benefits to the body like changing the amount of ki one cultivated, its nature or its quality and even added unique skills. However, you cannot force a contract with a magic beast. Even if you captured one it would rather die than submit. If a magic beast passed a contract, they would lose their body and their soul would live forever with in the person, they made a contract with. If that person died, they would also die. It was very rare for a magic beast to make that choice. The previous Li Wei thought it was a disgrace to become a mage but the new one knew it did not matter what people thought. The only thing that mattered was strength and ability. It¡¯s not that martial artists and mages don¡¯t get along, but both believed their path was the right one. It would be a blow to the liver if a kid from the biggest martial clan in Zhuan went to a Mage sect. That¡¯s why his parents should have been against it. However, his mother kept a smile on her face and his father said, ¡°You seem to be more relaxed, we were worried. If you want to go, you will go and no one in the clan will stop. I will go talk to father.¡± Li Huang left right away to go talk with Li Hong and when he came back he was smiling, ¡°Father will use his connections. However, you won¡¯t be able to enter the strongest one with your talent. However, you will enter the Arcane sect with no issue.¡± It was not surprising that the Arcane sect would allow Li Wei to come. The Arcane sect was situated two days from here and the Li family influence was too strong in the region. Nevertheless, he was not stupid he knew his father had to give up something for this to happen smoothly. ¡°Father, what did grandfather want for this to happen?¡± Li Huang had a surprised look on his face for a second then smiled, ¡°You really have matured Li Wei. I¡¯m happy. It¡¯s nothing, I just have to announce publicly that I will leave the race to become family head and will support my brother. My father fears conflict that would endanger the family¡¯s stability.¡± Li Wei felt love for this father of his and couldn¡¯t help hugging him. His mother approached while he was in his father¡¯s arms and stroked his short black hair. Two months later Li Wei would hug his mother and father once again and leave with a group of a soldier escorting him Right before he left, his mother gave him a space ring, stroked his hair once again and said, ¡°Whatever happens stay safe ¡° Li Yu and Li Huang held hand and watched their son leave till the dust of the horses couldn¡¯t be seen anymore. Chapter 05 : The Arcane Sect Chapter 05 The Arcane sect was situated at the bottom of a mountain andsurrounded by a huge forest. The only practicable road was coming from the nearest town. Li Wei finally arrived in front of two huge pillars on which, were sculpted stone animals. A wolf, a crow, a fox and a ferret a bear, an owl, a squirrel a swallow, a rat, a panther even a monkey and so on. It was mesmerizing. Li Wei walked pass the gate and entered the sect''s ground. A huge building or it would be preferable to say four buildings forming a square appeared in front of him. He found himself in front of a 4 meters high door with a smaller one right next to it. He entered and was welcomed by middle-aged man. He had a cloak on, black and gray hair pulled back giving him a dignified look. "Oh new student I presume. May I see your letter of authentication please?" Li Wei was lost for a slight moment then thought about the space ring his mother had given him. There was a lot of stuff in there he would need to sort that out later. He quickly found a piece of paper that he gave to the black clocked man " Very well go through that hallway and enter the third door to your right," said the man while pointing the left alley. ¡°Thank you, sir" Li Wei bowed and went in the direction he was told to go to. He walked to the third door, knocked and entered. It was a very nicely decorated room. Inside, was a lady in her 40s reading a book as well as a small pillar with a black stone upon it. The lady looked at him smiled put the book on the chair where she previously sat and asked him:If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "new student, aren''t you? What¡¯s your name?" "Yes I am. My name is Li Wei. Nice to meet you, " Li Wei said. "You''re early, most students will show up two months from now but that¡¯s nothing to worry about. You will have more time accommodating yourself to this place.¡± ¡°If I may ask, miss what am I doing here?¡± ¡°You are in the testing room. See that black stone here? Take it in your hand and it will tell you what¡¯s your best element affinity. Meaning, which type of magic you will be best at.¡± Li Wei put his hand on the stone right away and after a few seconds. The stone turned to a dark green color with gray spots. "Oh, you have a double affinity which is Wood and space. Wood is your main affinity and space magic, you won¡¯t be able to learn about it here. It¡¯s very rare and sadly none of the teachers in the Arcane sect know it. Now that this is done take this key go to room 324 which is on the third floor. Settle there and meet your roommate who arrived 2 days ago. His name is Jing Yu." It took him almost half an hour to get to his room as he got lost but after numerous trials and errors he finally arrived at room 324 and entered. Li Wei never considered his new self-ugly on the contrary he was quite a good-looking guy, but that kid would be a lady killer later. He had semi long black hair, big green eyes and a white skin that made his eyes stand out even more. Li Wei made the brightest smile he could muster. He knew how important it was to make friends and had his previous life as a university student to help him make that happen. " Hey, my name is Li Wei and I''m your new roommate" "H¡­ Hi ma my name is Jing Yu" he answered in a timid voice while looking down on the floor "Wow that guy sure is shy" thought Li Wei Li Wei grabbed both Jing Yu¡¯s shoulders and in the process forced the shy boy to look at him in the eyes. " We are going to live together from now on so let''s be friends!" Chapter 06: Fiery attitude Chapter 06 They had two months before the beginning of class and Li Wei managed to convince Jing Yu to leave his books and visit the sect with him. They spent hours getting familiar with the school but as soon as they found the library Jing Yu went nuts. He forgot all about Li Wei and began reading everything he could find. Li Wei was not the same as when he was a university student, but books were still not his cup of tea. However, after waiting for a while he realized Jing Yu would not come out till the library closed and ended up searching for a book to read. It did not take him much time to find books about magic beasts. He grabbed one and was stunned because the book was almost useless. Most sentences began by ¡°it is believed¡± or even ¡°Some say¡±. The only information he got out of it was that magic beasts could give you great power, but some others could give you almost nothing. He finished quite fast and other subjects he could have read about he would probably learn in class. Jing Yu was still reading that¡¯s why Li Wei did not wait for him and went to sleep. The day after, they spoke to the lady from the first day whose name was Chen Fa and got new information. They would choose classes a week before the start of the new year. She gave them a list and description of every class while reminding them they had to choose 7 of them. ARCANE SECT 1st YEAR MAGIC CLASSES -Physical training: In order to be a great magician being fit is advised. A situation where you will be needed to flee will occur. A study has shown that a higher percentage of physically trained magician would stay alive. -Basic magic Training: You don''t need a study to know that a good foundation makes for a sturdy home. You will learn to use magic in the simplest ways. Like getting in touch with the elements, positioning, distance, spell tellingReading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Specialization: (It is mandatory to take a specialization that goes with the affinity the testing revealed. If you have a dual affinity take two of them) -Dark magic -Healing magic -Wood magic -Lightning magic -Water magic -Fire Magic -Earth magic -Wind magic. -Illusions: Very effective in group battles. -Shape shifting: Learn how to take any appearances. Very useful for infiltration. -Animalism: Learn about every beast in existence. -Potions: This is one of the foundations of magic. Even someone without any magic power can learn. -Constriction: It is a must have in teams -Runes: Learn how to make and use Runes. -Buffs: Learn support spells that will protect or increase your ally power -Magic detection: What is hidden will not stay hidden -Divination: You will see in the future -Practical class: Fighting class -Advanced magic training: The advanced class for basic magic training. "Wow, so many choices," thought Li We. They were both in their room. Jing Yu had stars in his eyes. After reading it a few times, they began making a list. After half an hour, they had made their choices. Li Wei would take Physical training, basic magic Training, Animalism, Wood magic, Shapeshifting, Magic detection and Practical class. While Jing Yu chose Dark magic, Advanced magic training, Magic detection, Potions, Runes, Practical class and Shapeshifting "You''re taking advanced magic training?" asked Li Wei "Ma my fa-family has a lot of magicians in it" answered Jing Yu. He didn''t seem to want to add anything about that subject. Instead, Li Wei heard him whisper in an interrogative way "wood?" Li Wei acted as if it was said loud and clear "Yeah wood, are you surprised?" "Well uuum I.. I thought you would specialize in fire since you have such a fiery attitude¡­" "Hahaha" Li Wei''s laugh echoed through the room, " you''re funnier than you seem. You shouldn''t be afraid to say stuff like this" "Umm that wasn''t a joke," Jing Yu said in a low voice again "Hahaha that¡¯s even funnier."