《Legendary Continent》
I Will Be Missing Missing You
In the middle of the Mythical Beast Continent, there was a sudden burst of azure light, raining down from the heavens that could be seen across the world. Some took it as a positive omen from heaven, that they were going to experience a time of great blessings. Others, believed this to be the sign of a great calamity coming to them. There was, of course, those that saw the light and thought it pretty.
Still, a very small minority, feeling what had seemingly descended from the heavens with that azure light trembled and quaked in fear. For they sensed a being so far beyond their power, so far beyond any level of power they ever imagined, that they knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, if this being so wished, they could annihilate the entire world! Then¡
¡°For those of you upon the Human Continent who can sense me, I am speaking directly into all of your minds!¡± This voice was one that seemed to come from an ancient, primordial being, and yet, at the same time, sounded akin to a woman in the prime of her youth, melodious and beautiful, and yet exuded a sense of dread all at the same time. ¡°I am a being so far beyond your insignificant mortal understanding, that if I so desired, it would not take me but a thought to erase your whole continent from existence!¡±
As they heard this, they feared that this being was a harbinger of doom, sent from the heavens to punish them for all their misdeeds in life, as well as those of their ancestors! For none among them could truly behave as a saint to reach the level of strength that they had achieved! ¡°However, doing so would destroy the reason why I came here! In 5 years, the strongest amongst you are to send one of your descendants to retrieve a boy I am leaving in this location from the edge of this continent, adopt him, and raise him as your own, on the pain of death,¡± she commanded. ¡°To ensure you keep your word, I am placing a cursed seal upon you all to prevent you from leaving for this forest until the 5 years has passed, as well as to prevent you from speaking of its existence. If you do not follow my orders precisely, all of you, as well as all of your descendants will have your blood flow reverse, and burst out the pores of your body!¡±
At these words, all of them felt a blinding flash of agony, while an imprint of a large, black dragon was seared into their backs. ¡°Remember my words, or else!¡± She threatened, as she receded from the presence of their minds.
The strongest amongst them thought to herself, ¡°Why, if she is so powerful, does she have to leave a child in this world? Could she not raise it to be more powerful on her own?¡± Her name was Lilith, and, in time, she would become a mother-like figure to the child left behind in that world. She had been training for about a hundred years, and was considered an unprecedented genius to reach her level at that age, when the others at a similar level to her, required 150 years to reach their present stage, and yet even the strongest amongst them was lower than her by a level. And yet, she still maintained a youthful appearance of a woman in her twenties, with raven black hair, and her skin appeared much like that of a babes. She had sharp eyes, with golden colored irises.
All the other martial cultivators had similar thoughts, but knew, since she sought the strongest amongst them, the future affairs of the child had naught to do with them. Nonetheless, all of them, as if by common agreement, decided to leave their training sites to watch the events unfold in 5 years.
Meanwhile, in the forest¡
A woman that could only be described as a woman whose beauty would destroy continents, a true world class beauty, was looking down upon a bundle of white cloth in her hands. She was rounded where she should be rounded, and smooth where she should be smooth, not an ounce of excessive fat to be found anywhere. She had golden hair extending down her back, with streaks of crimson running through it. Her eyes were slightly sharpish, and had silver colored irises, but if one looked closely, they would see within that silver, flecks of white and gold, similar to a miniature universe within her eyes. ¡°I am sorry child, I am not strong enough to protect you, and so I must leave you here. Please, forgive your mother and father. We made too many enemies in our time,¡± as she said this she began weep.
She looked up from the baby swaddled in the cloth, and spread her sense around the forest. She was able to sense all the beings within the forest, from the tiniest ant, to the most ancient of dragons. She teleported herself to the strongest being within that forest, a variant Azure Lightning Dragon, and she had already reach such a high level in her cultivation that she was able to assume a human form, and had intelligence many folds greater than even the most learned of the human beings.
She found the ancient dragon hidden away inside a massive cavern, behind close-door cultivation. Upon the woman entering, the dragon snapped back to awareness, and opened her eyes to look upon this seemingly human being, whose cultivation was so far beyond the dragoness¡¯s that she could sense nothing from her, even as she stood before her. Under normal circumstances, the dragon would have attacked the woman, forcing them both into a battle to the death, however, the dragoness had a premonition that if she so much as moved from her current position before being allowed to, she would die before she knew what had occurred.
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¡°That was wise, dragoness, to decide not to attempt a fight with me. I would have outright killed you in order to prevent you from waking this child. What is your name?¡± asked the female intruder.
¡°Hah, I am arrogant but not foolish. I know when I have met a being so far beyond my comprehension, that there is no point to even resisting. I was named Valeria,¡± said the dragoness, as she began transforming into her human form. ¡°This form is more convenient for speaking to you. What is it you seek of me?¡±
Valeria¡¯s human form had the appearance of a woman in her early thirties, with a perfect hourglass figure, and beauty that if shown in the human world, would be enough for an empire to fight over. And yet, she still felt that her beauty was inferior to this mysterious being before her.
¡°Valeria, I wish you to raise this child for a period of 5 years. After 5 years, humans will come to retrieve him from the edge of your forest, and bring him into their society. During the time he is with you, I wish you to raise him personally, and bring him to such a level that he will have naught to fear from the average human being. Do you accept this?¡± queried the woman.
Valeria paused, and thought. For her, 5 years was not even a period of time worth mentioning for her. However, she was being requested to raise a (presumably) human being, a baby at that, beings notorious for their arrogance, as well as their weakness in their earliest stages of life. She had experience raising young before, she¡¯d even birthed some herself, all of whom went on to become leaders of their own clans. Even after all of this was considered, she feared to outright reject the woman, a being who would not even have to try exceedingly hard to erase her from existence.
The woman sighed, sensing her hesitation, and said, ¡°Valeria, I swear upon the Heavens, if you raise this child as your own, and the dragons truly accept him as their family, I will place a barrier upon your lands, such that for the period of time of 5 years, I will prevent any humans from entering, as well as for an eternity thereafter, none stronger than you are now may enter if you do not wish it. Do you agree now?¡±
Valeria thought upon it, and after considering that it was, in fact, highly beneficial for her, she replied, ¡°Alright, I agree to take this child and raise him as my own, this I swear unto the Heavens.¡±
Upon her completing the vow, a beam of light came down from above, entering the two of them. Neither were shocked upon this, since this was just proof that the Heavens had witnessed their agreements, and would obliterate them if they reneged upon their word. The woman took one last look at the child in her hands, and from within the folds of her robe, produced a necklace, tucking it into the babes cloth, and then handed him over to the dragoness.
¡°This necklace is his heritage from myself, as well as his father. Be sure he keeps it with him at all times. It is his ticket to finding us upon him reaching your current level of strength. He need not concern himself with the present occurrences in our home realm, nor why I had to leave him until such a time. As you already know, for each successive realm, the time flows a hundred fold slower than it¡¯s previous, lower realm. We came from a realm two levels beyond this one. He need not know more than that!¡±
After finishing her words, the azure aurora from before appeared again, and after disappearing she vanished.
The dragoness looked upon the babe swaddled in her arms, and said to herself, ¡°Little one, oh little one, your background would appear to be anything but simple! What shall I call you?¡±
She thought to herself for a moment, and decided, ¡°I will call you Long Tian.¡±
The baby woke up at this time, and looking at her, began bawling. The dragoness did not get any sleep that night for the first time in decades.
Author: Hello all! As per the usual, if you see any grammatical mistakes or issues with consistency or clarity, please point them out to me, and I will do my best to quickly rectify them. If you have any questions on my phrasing, a lot of my phrasing was influenced by the reading of Chinese stories, and thus uses some similar expressions. If you need me to explain it, just ask, and I will at least try haha.
Facts of the Universe
The world that Long Tian starts in is called Chuansho zhong de dalu. It is 100,000 kilometers in circumference, and is made up of 4 continents and many islands.
The island that Long Tian starts on is known as the Mythical Beast Continent, and is the continent upon which a vast majority of mythical beasts reside, though it is only the strongest amongst them that reside here. It is largely forested, with mountains, lakes and rivers within. In the center of the continent, reside the ruling clans of it, who are now in a cooperative relationship after the occurrence of the Draconic Tragedy. This continent is the largest, with 30,000 kilometers of space being taken up. Despises the Human continent as a whole, is in a non-aggressive relationship with the Demonic Continent, and the Angelic Continent. They take the longest time to cultivate, but are by far the strongest within their given level, largely due to their innate divine abilities that the strongest have. Have the longest natural life spans of around 1,000 years.
The next continent is the Demonic Continent, where the Demons, Demonic Beasts, and Devil Cultivators reside. It is a region largely dominated by desert, and is about 15,000 kilometers in area. Cares little for warring with the Mythical Beast Continent or the Human Continent, however, is in an extremely hostile relationship with the Angelic Continent. A very warlike continent as a whole. Average cultivation speed, and average strength. Life span of around 500 years naturally.
Then, there is the Angelic Continent, where the Angelic Beings, Sacred Beasts, and Immortal Cultivators reside. It is largely plains, and, like the Demon Continent, is about 15,000 kilometers in area. Cares little for warring with the Mythical Beast Continent or the Human Continent, and are mostly peaceful. However, is in an extremely hostile relationship with the Demonic Continent. Average cultivation speed, slightly above average strength. Life span of around 500 years naturally.
Finally, there is the Human Continent. They are by far the most numerous, and have the second largest continent size, at 20,000 kilometers in area. In fact, so numerous, they had overpopulation issues. At least, until the occurrences of the Draconic Tragedy. After, not so much. The least well-liked and respected of all of the continents and races. Fastest cultivation speed, but lowest strength within their tier. Shortest life span, around 100 years naturally.
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These four continents are in a square formation, with the remaining 20,000 kilometers of land being dominated by oceans and islands. The largest island has a residency of Azure Dragons, who created an academy for all 4 continents to send their young to, and has become a famed place of learning, where no outside conflicts are allowed to be brought in. Supported by all 4 continents, and widely acknowledged to be the best and strongest school of all, even amongst the other 4 continents. Rumored that the creator is related to the Azure Dragon matriarch.
Cultivation Levels:
There are varying levels of cultivation, 10 levels make up a tier, with 10 tiers that are currently known.
They are, in order: Elementary, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, Heavenly Master, Heavenly Grandmaster, Heavenly Sage, Heavenly Lord, and Heavenly Duke.
The strongest being currently known is a Level 5 Heavenly Lord, the Matriarch of the Azure Dragon Clan. All continents have at least one Heavenly Lord, although most are stuck around the 3rd level of the Heavenly Lord. The human continent is believed to have the most Heavenly Lords, but are still the weakest. This is due to their short inherent lifespan. One cannot achieve immortality, never dying unless killed, until the Heavenly Duke stage. However, the farther one progresses, the longer one can live.
It is widely acknowledged that there is a realm beyond their current one, where time flows 100 times slower, and it has been theorized that the same would be true if one were to move to a realm above that one. This is supposedly the mandate of Heaven, so that those at a lower cultivation have the ability to reach those at a higher level. As to whether or not this is the case, no one has been able to confirm, as after ascending, no one has returned.
Author Note: This will be updated as the story progresses, and will include a list of characters.
Chapter 1: History
For the entirety of the first week of raising the child, Valeria was miserable. She didn¡¯t ever recall raising one of her hatchlings, or even those of another dragons, to be such an arduous undertaking. For amongst dragons, it was a common occurrence for the whole brood to participate in the raising of the young. However, after she became matriarch she was no longer required to participate in the raising of young, and only occasionally dallied in it, choosing to mainly focus on her cultivation. She herself had spawned 3 dragons in her many years of existence, all 3 of which are still alive, and powerful members of their race. Only one of the three left to create their own colony, but still visits occasionally. She began to reminisce as she cared for Long Tian.
She had risen to the level of matriarch of the draconic brood many years ago, equivalent to 300 years for the humans. This happened after her mate, the former patriarch, had passed on for his eternal rest, an event that was caused by humans, who in their infinite arrogance and cruelty, thought themselves to be living gods. So, they chose to march upon draconic territory, leading to a massive war between the two groups.
Historically, dragons have been the guardians of whatever territory they had chosen to take up. Thus, when the strongest of the humans had invaded into their forest and began massacring the races residing within, the dragons had to step forth to put a stop to their machinations. However, Valeria was not able to fly to battle with the other dragons at the time, since she was in charge of watching over the brood of younglings at the time.
Upon entering battle, the humans took the youngest and weakest of the dragons down first, while all of their strongest fighters entangled the patriarch. Upon capturing the young, one of which included the firstborn of the patriarch and his mate, they forced the patriarch to surrender himself, on the condition that they release the other younger dragons. They desired only the older, more mature dragons, for a dragon can produce an astonishing quantity of extremely valuable material. This includes their skin, claws, fangs, scales, and even their brain. Their skin and scales can be used to make high grade defensive equipment, the fangs and claws can be used to create weapons, and the brain is supposed to serve as a means of improving their cultivation. Everything in a dragon¡¯s body can be used for something.
The patriarch ultimately capitulated to their desires, and the humans kept their word to release their captives. However, before doing that, they made the young watch as the patriarch was dissembled from the tail to the head for parts, saving his heart and brain for last, keeping him alive for as long as possible. Only after forcing the younger dragons to watch that torture did they release them.
Their intention behind those actions was to force the older dragons out of hiding, so that they could harvest higher quality materials from the dragons. The humans received their wish of getting older and more powerful dragons to come out of hiding. Albeit, it was in a manner far from expected.
Within the draconic society, the leader is decided not by gender, nor by age, but simply, by strength. However, age does normally correlate with strength, since as a dragon got older, their strength would subsequently get higher, as well as their intelligence. And in the case of this brood of dragons, there was a little known fact. The patriarch was not the strongest dragon within their community. His mate, Valeria was. She just had no desire to lead the dragon clan at that time. All that she desired was to raise her and her mates young, and cultivate in peace. Even though in the draconic society, the number of mates that one could have was largely dictated by strength, due to having such a powerful and devoted initial mate, the patriarch had no desire to seek another mate, and thus turned all seekers away.
Upon the return of the young, and hearing what had occurred, the other dragons were furious! They wished to destroy the humans responsible for such atrocities! However, they needed to quickly find a new patriarch or matriarch to lead them in this act of vengeance! Dragons would be little more than a disorganized mob without proper leadership. Many stepped forward in an attempt to take over the position, but none could establish dominance, and so they began to fight to determine who should lead them.
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However, Valeria was in a different situation entirely. She truly cherished her mate, and her grief knew no bounds! After a while of listening to the dragons bickering in the background, she felt something inside of her snap. She roared, ¡°SILENCE!!!!¡±
Upon hearing her roar, the younger dragons directly lost consciousness, and fell upon the floor. For all the dragons that managed to maintain consciousness, they found themselves prostrated upon the ground, bowing to the sheer strength that Valeria was radiating. It was of such depth that they realized that her strength had always been far beyond that her mate, and that had she so desired, she could have stepped forth to claim the matriarchal position. However, what they did not know, is that the reason behind such a large disparity of strength between two dragons of similar age was that she was born a variant dragon, the Lightning Azure Dragon, and currently the only one in existence. Lightning Azure Dragons are far faster and hit many folds harder than the normal Azure Dragon, a being already called the peak of all dragons, due to their extreme strength, speed, and tyrannical defense, the defense being their most well-known traits. But for Valeria, she had their defense and attack and speed that far exceeded them.
¡°I, AND I ALONE SHALL SEEK RETRIBUTION FOR MY MATE! THEIR BLOOD SHALL BE HIS FUNERAL WINE, THEIR BONES SHALL MAKE HIS COFFIN, AND THEIR TEARS SHALL SERVE AS HIS FINAL BATH!¡± At this point Valeria¡¯s eyes had turned crimson red from rage, and she all but hissed these words in her dragon form.
¡°These humans shall learn their place! They will know TRUE fear after tonight!¡± And with that, Valeria flew out of the cave at her top speed, leaving naught more than a vacuum of air to fill the gap left behind by her body in her parting.
That night, 60 high-level human cultivators died, 700 cities vanished, leaving naught but ash, 5 kingdoms were wiped off the map, 3 islands sank completely beneath the ocean, never to rise again, and 2 new islands rose out of the ocean from the sheer amount of magma created.
It was later came to be titled the ¡°Draconic Tragedy¡±. After the event had ended, the dragons all withdrew to their mountainous forest, and proceeded to form relations with all of the other legendary beings living there of high intelligence.
This included the Vermillion Phoenixes, Black Land Tortoises, and even their legendary rival, the White Tigers. However, the one that they ended with forming the closest relationship to was undoubtedly the 3 Footed Golden Sun Crow, simply called the Sanzuwu. This clan was closest to the Azure Dragons in strength.
As for the new Matriarch, after forming these relations, she retired back to her clan, to watch over and manage their affairs, to be sure to ever prevent another such incident. Her oldest child, the one who watched the Patriarch die, decided to strike out on his own, believing his mother had come to hate him, due to being the cause of death for her mate. Valeria at the time, was too numbed by grief to even question his actions, and so he left, leaving with 200 other Azure Dragons, some of them elders, to set up a new brood elsewhere.
The matriarch retired to her closed door training, and has never smiled again since that day.
In the human society, they began rebuilding, and the dragon¡¯s forest became a forbidden zone, and the nesting den of nightmares come to life, where not even the brave or the foolish dare lightly infringe upon.
Chapter 2: How to Live with Your Dragons
During the first night since Valeria has been left with Long Tian, since she was required to care for the child by herself, she had many new and novel experiences occur.
The next day after Long Tian was left with her, he began crying. She sat there, on the floor of her cave, looking at the baby in the bundle, wondering when it would cease its incessant mewling. After about an hour of it, she finally picked Tian up, and began to examine him, in an attempt to discover what ailed him.
¡°There are no visible wounds¡ he has yet to defecate or urinate¡ what could possibly be wrong with him,¡± she wondered aloud.
*GUURUUUU*
She heard his stomach growl. At that time, she realized the child had yet to be fed.
At first she attempted to feed Tian meat, but that failed upon her noticing that he had no teeth to speak of. Since she realized he could not chew the meat, nor fruits, nor vegetation, all of those options were eliminated.
She held Tian to her chest as she thought about what she should do. Then, Tian began to paw at her chest.
Unlike dragons, human babies are required to drink breastmilk from their mothers in order to assist them in their growth and maturation, by giving them necessary vitamins and minerals. Dragons, on the other hand, are born with a full set of teeth.
Upon realizing this, she cast a spell upon herself to allow her to produce breastmilk. After assisting Long Tian in drinking his fill she held him up in front of her, now unwrapped from his cloth.
¡°There seems to be something I am forgetting to do for you little one¡ What could it be though?¡± Valeria realized that she was missing something in this situation, something important, but for the life her, she could not discover what it was. Then, Long Tian¡¯s face began to swell and¡
*BLAAARRRRGHHHHHHHH*
Due to Valeria forgetting to burp Long Tian, the gas had built up inside him, and with his underdeveloped lungs, he had no way to force the air out, so instead, he released it in the form of vomit. And sadly for Valeria, she happened to be holding him up in front of her, so she got his present full in the face.
For dragons, they have fully developed respiratory and digestive systems upon hatching, so for Valeria, she had never had the experience of anything similar to that.
¡°Ah. THAT was what I was forgetting. Satisfied little one? But now, I am getting the feeling I am forgetting something else¡¡±
As Valeria was contemplating this, she still held Long Tian up above her face, and¡
*FFFFSSSSSSSS*
¡°Well. Now we know that the equipment down there works,¡± sighed Valeria, having just received a golden shower from her newest charge. She quirked an eyebrow at the baby before her.
Long Tian however, just reached out, patted her face and giggled. And Valeria, for the first time in many years¡ had the start of a smirk on her face.
During this time, in the corner of the same cavern, Valeria missed the twinkle of several sets of eyes observing this scene. The eyes all began to look at one another, and realized, they all had the same idea: ¡°We should do whatever it takes to let her smile again.¡±
As Valeria brought Long Tian back down towards her, he began to close his eyes and fall asleep.
¡°Finally¡¡± Valeria sighed to herself. After he had fallen fully asleep, she set the child down upon the cave floor, planning to resume her cultivation. However Long Tian had other ideas.
He began crying upon being placed upon the ground. Valeria quickly picked him back up, wishing him to cease his crying. And he did. Valeria was curious about it, and proceeded to place him back down upon the floor. Only to have the previous process repeat.
After 2 more times of the exact same process, she realized that, for one thing, the child in her hand didn¡¯t have the tough skin of a dragon, nor their scales.
At this time, she recalled that, in most circumstances, humans had a second layer of skin, which they called ¡°Clothes¡± on, to keep them warm, or for style, or for whatever other foolish reasons they could think of.
Dragons on the other hand, had no such need for those items, since even in their human forms, their wings and scales assumed the forms of robes, so they still had defensive measures in place, even if they were covered in flesh and not scales.
Valeria did not have a way to make clothes for Long Tian, and so instead, she held the child in one hand as she returned to her dragon form.
She was a deep golden color, with gold irises, and white streaks went down the side of her body, similar to those of lightning bolts.
Upon returning to her dragon form, Valeria realized that she could have frightened the child with her sudden change, however, contrary to her expectations, Long Tian just looked at her, not a hint of unease in his eyes.
Valeria was quite astounded at this, as to her knowledge, any humans witnessing a dragon for the first time would panic, scream, run about wildly, and defecate themselves.
Little did she know, that Long Tian had seen much more than that, and things much more shocking than that in the time he was with his parents, even if it was only for the first two weeks of his existence.
By the time he had reached his 3rd week, he had been brought to Valeria.
In the end, Valeria laid upon her back, and set the child upon her stomach, wrapping him in her wings to give him sufficient warmth.
Valeria herself, thoroughly exhausted for the first time in centuries, had fallen asleep as well.
The next day, Valeria took the child out of her cultivation cave, and took him to be introduced to the draconic clan.
¡°WHAT! YOU WANT TO ADOPT ONE OF THOSE¡ THOSE¡ THOSE¡ ABOMINATION¡¯S RACE! HAVE YOU GONE MAD! DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT THEY DID THE PATRIARCH????!!!!¡± This was a common reaction amongst the elders of the Azure Dragons.
For the Azure Dragon clan, the clan itself comes before all else. If anyone bullies a clan member, the entirety of the clan will keep going for that bully until they get revenge.
After achieving vengeance upon the initial bullies, they proceed on to the powers behind said bullies, namely their family. And again, they keep attacking until they feel that sufficient vengeance has been visited upon them. For this reason, it is a widely acknowledged fact that if you can¡¯t handle the eldest of the dragons, don¡¯t even think about bullying their youngest.
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The death of the Patriarch wasn¡¯t just the death of the Patriarch to them, it was like a brother, a father, an uncle, and for the eldest of the clan, a son had died. They took the matter deeply personally.
Valeria spent the next half day arguing with them, until¡
¡°SILENCE! This discussion has gone on long enough! We will put it to a final vote! Those who are with me, stand to my side. Those against, with the elders!¡±
After a few minutes of shuffling around¡ everyone was standing by Valeria¡¯s side. Even the Elders had moved to stand next to her.
¡°Wha¡¡± began Valeria.
¡°Ah, you see, we already saw how you behaved with the child. If they are able to make you smile like that, for the first time in many years, then who are we to take that away from you,¡± explained the Elder that was most vocal against accepting the child.
Like that, two years had come and gone. During this time, Tian was truly accepted as a member of their family, and, since not often was a dragon born, he was doted upon like the baby of the family.
Funnily enough, the Elder that had previously been the most vocal, Verethragna, was the one who spoiled him the most. Although, it was a major headache for Valeria, since Verethragna thought a great way to spoil a child was to bring him all sorts of sharp and pointy weapons. At one point, he decided to give Tian a sword that a hero had previously used, that supposedly got stronger the purer one¡¯s heart was.
When he gave it to Tian, and Tian swung it, he was shocked to see it cut a hole in space, and create a micro-black hole. Valeria was extremely displeased that day, since she had to spend most of her energy fixing the tear created for the rest of the day.
During that time, Tian was given to Valeria¡¯s daughter, and his new sister, Freya. During this time Freya became very close to him. While all the dragons enjoyed playing with him and spoiling him, most of his time was spent either sleeping on Valeria, or playing with his sister Freya, or the Elder that decided to become his self-titled uncle, Verethragna.
Tian was a very mature child for his age, and was able to speak the common tongue, the language used on the continent of the humans. And, while he couldn¡¯t speak it, he could understand the Dragon tongue so often used in the caves. He couldn¡¯t speak it however, because dragons have different vocal cords from humans. When they speak in the human tongue in dragon form, it is due to them using magic to create the vibrations that emulate the human speech patterns.
Valeria had explained to Tian before that his real mother had to leave him with her, since she had a lot of problems she didn¡¯t want him to get involved in. Valeria, of course, knew that Tian wouldn¡¯t understand that, but told him anyways once he was able to converse.
Because of this, Tian thought that he was someone no one wanted to be around. He believed that everyone only played with him because of Valeria. When he spoke out about this, Verethragna became furious. He took Tian to the side of one of the caves, lectured him for ten minutes, until Tian started crying.
After that, Verethragna took Tian out of the caves, and played with him in the forest for the rest of the day, giving him plenty of sharp toys to play with. Normally, they would be getting constantly attacked by the beings in the forest, but most of them upon sensing Verethragna¡¯s draconic aura that he was putting out, one which was shockingly at the Heavenly Duke second level!
In reality, he was not just an Elder of the clan, but was actually an ancestor of the Azure Dragon Clan! He was one of those figures that would normally be hidden in close-door cultivation, but in light of the death of the Patriarch, he decided to come out of cultivation to watch over the clan.
During the time he was playing with Tian, he was surprised to find out how strong Tian was. He had seen human children before, and knew this level of strength was not normal for one! Tian was already strong enough to lift 3-foot long swords that were made of meteoric iron, and weighed around 20kg like they were branches!
It was then that he realized that this child, was truly, not normal!
One day, Tian asked Valeria, ¡°Mom, was does Uncle Verethragna try so hard to play with me, and give me cool toys?¡±
¡°Tian, your Uncle is actually very sad inside. His nephew, who was the one that I married, had died many years ago. Because of that, he wants to make sure that he spends as much time as possible with you, and that you grow up happily. Make sure to play with him just as much as your sister Freya, okay?¡± answered Valeria.
Tian smiled at Valeria and said, ¡°Okay Mom, I will be sure to play with him a lot!¡±
He then ran off to go find his uncle to play with him. Valeria smiled at his departing figure. And so it went, until his 3rd year had come. Tian was playing hide-and-seek with Verethragna, and his mother was out handling clan business, preparing to introduce Tian to the other clans.
It was at this time that tragedy struck.
Hi all my readers, old or new! Sorry for taking such a long time to update! No, I am not dead, yes, I am still alive, yes, it was a combination of college and work that prevented me from writing. Luckily for me, college just got done for this semester! Now, since I have about a month''s worth of free time, when I am not reading or playing League of Legends, I will work on this story! To be honest, I am still building the storyboard myself, so I have no clue where the story will go! There will only be several more chapter of the MC living with the dragons, then it''s off to human society for some time! I hope you all will stay with me as I write this story, and as always, if you find an error, or think there is a way I can improve, feel free to tell me! POLITELY! Outside of that, I hope you had a great read! Skoll out!
For Claritys Sake (Not a chapter)
Okay so, just to be clear: since someone has claimed that "You took your character''s name from another person''s book!", you fellow, need to read more. Verethragna is the persian God of victory. He appears in Campione, and has 12 forms. Wiki it. Do NOT EVER claim I am copying someone else. I hate copying works. It''s this thing called PLAGIARISM!
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I am not mad at the person that left a review, I am mad at their lack of research into a topic before making uninformed claims.
Okay, next challenger? XD
Chapter 3: In Order to Understand Fortune, One Must Be Misfortunate First
To explain cultivation, the goal behind it is to attain a body free of all impurities, an immortal body with true perfection.
Cultivation is when you meditate to absorb the qi found in the environment. An individual¡¯s body will have differing
levels of affinity for qi, and that will affect how fast they can absorb qi, as well as how well they can adapt and
assimilate said qi. It is like looking at a person as a cup. If the cup has a narrow opening, but is a tall container that
elongates the closer to the base it gets, they will be able to hold a lot of water, but can only accept it slowly. If another
cup has a massive opening, but is very short, and gets smaller the closer to the bottom, it can accept a lot of water
quickly, but will overflow just as fast.
Also, qi can be used to manipulate elements. Each person can have elemental affinities. However, they can also have no
affinities at all. A cultivator with affinities will always be stronger than one without, since they will be able to fight in
more varied ways, and will have the extra power that comes with adding elements to their attacks.
There are multiple elements. The most basic ones are those of water, fire, earth, and wind. Then there are the tier two
elements, which are those of poison, lightning/thunder, ice, light, dark, and magma. Finally, there are the advance tier
elements, or as some call them, God-tier elements. They are space, time, life and death. The higher the tier the more
powerful the element. However, the ability to use and master the elements also becomes harder. A person can have
multiple affinities, but will generally not have affinities that are one another¡¯s antithesis, such as light and dark, or water
and fire.
For every one thousand people, 500 will have no element at all, and are generally resigned to being average cultivators,
who will always be weaker than those on the same level as them that have elements. 350 people will have the basic
elements, and they will generally be those that end up as soldiers in major armies. 149.9 people will have tier two
elements, and will often end up in major positions, like heads of major sects, and major members of the government.
One in every ten thousand will end up with a God-tier element. They are the people that end up as kings of nations, and
as the ancestors of ancient sects.
The only exceptions to this rule are those with special bloodlines. Those that have bloodlines of high level beings, such
as phoenixes and dragons, will always have an element. However, they will use variant elements, which are always, at
the weakest, equivalent to tier two elements. The Azure Dragon Bloodline, for example, is equivalent to a God-Tier
element. Variants of these bloodlines can be stronger, or weaker, just like some humans can be stronger or weaker than
others.
Tian has now reach three years of age. Most of his days are spent playing with his uncle, Verethragna, and with his
sister, Freya. Even though he is still only 3 years old, and has yet to begin cultivating, he had already reach the
Elementary third level. Most children his age are still at the Elementary first realm. This is because until a human child
reaches five years of age, they should not begin cultivating. The reason for this is that, in the past, parents who had their
children attempt to begin cultivating before that had the qi they absorbed run rampant through their body, killing them.
Five years of age is when one first begins to be able to control the qi they absorb.
Thus, when playing with his uncle and sister, they mainly focus on training his physical body, without using qi
cultivation. The level of strength that an individual¡¯s physical body is able to exhibit decides the base level of strength
they can exhibit with their cultivation. The body is like a foundation, and qi cultivation is like building a house. The better
the foundation, the better the house you will be able to build. All of Tian¡¯s cultivation comes from his body¡¯s natural
ability to absorb qi from the Heavens and the Earth. This is a very rare ability, one that comes along about once every 20
generations. Because of this, many in the clan spent time watching over him, curious as to how his development would
progress.
Currently, however, his uncle and sister are out handling affairs. His sister went off hunting, and his uncle went out to
converse with the Golden Sun Crow (Sanzuwu) Clan. And so, as per normal, they left him near Valeria¡¯s cave, so that
there would be someone watching over him at all times. However, they did not realize that Valeria was in the middle of a
cultivation breakthrough at the time!
Tian could feel the slight fluctuations coming from Valeria¡¯s cave, even with the qi containment seals placed all around
the cavern. Curious, as all children all, he waddled along to see what she was doing. As he peered around the corner of
the cavern, to see what she was up to, he saw her in the middle of the floor, meditating, with extremely violent qi
fluctuations flowing around her.
At the moment, Valeria was actually in a bit of a crisis.
¡°Dammit!¡± she thought. ¡°I can¡¯t pull the heavenly qi in fast enough to make my breakthrough! If this goes on for
much longer, I could fail to advance, and will have my cultivation regress slightly! I should have asked one of the elders
to assist me in drawing qi from the environment!¡±
To break through each level of cultivation, a certain level of qi must be absorbed. The qi absorbed is separated into two
main groupings. Heavenly Qi, and Earthly Qi. Heavenly Qi is the qi that all Heavenly Masters on up absorb Heavenly Qi for
breakthroughs, and Masters and below absorb Earthly Qi. Heavenly Qi is the far more potent version of Earthly Qi.
To speed up her qi gathering, Valeria began using her special breathing technique, Thunder Dragon Ascends the Heavens.
This was her original technique that she created, and of those in the clan, only she could use it due to her unique affinity
for Thunder and Lightning as a variant Azure Dragon. Normally, there wouldn¡¯t be a problem with her course of actions.
However, Tian was watching her actions, and seeing the fluctuations around her, he decided to attempt to copy her.
Normally, there would be no issue, since this technique was made to absorb Heavenly Qi, and was made for someone
with a high purity of dragon blood in their veins, as well as having the thunder and lightning affinity. Thus, if someone
who did not meet these requirements attempted to use it, they would have nothing happen, besides noticing they could
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
breathe slightly better.
For Tian, however, the technique worked. Even if his positioning was off. Even if his rhythm of breathing was slightly
different. There was a sudden change in the amount of Heavenly Qi flowing through the air. And for Valeria, it was a good
thing.
¡°Where did all this qi come from? It can¡¯t possibly be me¡¡± thought Valeria. She decided to rush, and finish her
cultivation as soon as possible, a slightly dangerous prospect, since if one rushes too much or is interrupted while
cultivating, they could suffer backlash, and harm their body from the qi running out of control.
Meanwhile, Tian was attempting to absorb the Heavenly Qi he had summoned himself. The amount Valeria felt was
what he had drawn himself. It was a very good thing for Tian that Valeria was absorbing most of what he had
summoned, as, if not for that, his blood vessels would have ruptured from the sheer amount of qi he was absorbing. As it
was, blood was pouring from his Seven Orifices (eyes, nostrils, ears, and mouth) due to the qi running rampant in his
body. Tian wasn¡¯t even able to scream from the amount of pain that he was in, and passed out after five seconds. When
he passed out, the qi that he had drawn faded away, and the meditation technique cancelled itself.
Meanwhile, Valeria had finished her breakthrough to the next realm! But when she aroused herself, and turned to thank
the Elder that had come and helped her with the qi summoning, she saw Tian lying in a pool of his blood on the ground.
Valeria, as intelligent as she was, quickly deduced the reason for the current state of things, and while she felt hate
towards herself for forgetting that she was supposed to watch Tian, she also felt fear, for she had truly come to love
Tian during the past years together, and thought of him as a son. She was afraid of his death! On top of that, if he did die,
the mother that left him here with her would be far from pleased, and may even decide to wipe out Valeria¡¯s whole clan
when she came back!
Valeria knew that one of the requirements for Tian to copy the breathing technique from what he saw Valeria doing, was
to have a high level of purity of draconic bloodlines. This was important, because he needed a high level of dragon blood
purity for what she was going to do. In order for Dragons to preserve their strength, and the purity of their lines, the
dragons with cultivations above the Level 3 Heavenly Lord Stage can pass on a draconic inheritance. The inheritance
allows the receiver to reach the same level of strength as the one who gave the inheritance within a century. The speed
that the receiver reaches this level of strength at is dependent upon their talent. However, each dragon can only give
one Inheritance in their life! Therefore, most dragons save it for when they are closer to the end of their life, and have
reached the peak of their cultivation. Even then, they will generally only pass it on from master to student, or from
parent to offspring. This is because there are a few requirements to this process: They have to be from the same
bloodline. They must have a strength difference of at least three realms. Finally, their affinities must be compatible. If
any of these requirements are not met, the one receiving the inheritance could die. However, if it succeeds, the receiver¡¯s
body is reborn anew, with their draconic bloodline awakened to its fullest power, or to the maximum level that the donor
could possibly achieve. Not only does this require risk on the part of the receiver, it also requires risk on the donor¡¯s part.
If they fail to have their inheritance accepted by their inheritor, the backlash could cripple their cultivation, or kill them
entirely. Thus, this represents an affection on the level of closest family members, willing to sacrifice themselves.
Valeria had numerous other options to heal Tian, but none of them would be fast enough, and the Heavenly Qi he had
absorbed was literally tearing his body apart. Valeria acted quickly, and piercing her own chest, she brought out a small
orb that had grown within her upon her breakthrough to the 3rd level of the Heavenly Lord Realm. It was her draconic
essence, something that stored a portion of her cultivation. She then took this, and pierced Tian¡¯s chest with it,
embedding it in the middle of it. The essence began to draw in the Heavenly Qi from Tian¡¯s body, closing the wound over
in mere moments.
As Valeria watches, Tian¡¯s body begins to adapt to the Inheritance. Originally, she had thought that it would take around
a day, but instead, it took merely an hour. However, during this hour, Valeria could only force Tian to remain unconscious,
as the sheer level of pain his body was experiencing would have driven any experienced cultivator insane, let alone a
three year old child. His body was being completely broken down and rebuilt by the Heavenly Qi that the Inheritance had
absorbed. His body had absorbed enough Heavenly Qi to bring his cultivation into the 5th level of the Master Realm,
which was part of the reason his body broke down so quickly, since the increase in strength was so rapid, his body could
not contain the new energies. However, the Inheritance was quickly rebuilding his body, using that same Heavenly Qi
that increased his cultivation in the first place. As a result, he fell back to the first level of the Elementary Realm,
however, upon his body being reformed, it was as strong as a body from the Advanced Realm.
On top of the change in strength, his appearance also changed as well. His hair that was originally black turned a deep
gold, and his eyes that were originally the same color as his hair became heterochromatic. He had one gold eye, the
same as his hair, and the other eye was an obsidian black. His height and musculature stayed the same, about average
for a three year old, however, his bone density was way beyond the average humanoid three year old.
Valeria was shocked at these changes, as she knew that the Inheritance would strengthen his body, but she did not
expect it to have this level of effect! Even worse, she had expected him to wake up immediately, but regardless of what
she tried, he would not stir!
Hi guys and gals (if gals read this)! Skoll here! Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it! (At least it still is where I am) As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and feel free to leave me with feedback, corrections, thoughts, etc.! I do actually read what you say, and always enjoy reading (and occasionally correcting, myself or others) comments! See you next week!