2 Chapter 2 - Time skip

After the flash of bright light from his departure from God Alex began to start his new life, not being able to see, feel, or hear anything, total darkness. Without the use any of his senses, nor the capabilities to move Alex thought about the multitude of places where he could be, it took while before he realised that he was reincarnated while still in the womb. Alex was shocked as he didn't expect that God would reincarnate him at the literal beginning of his new life, thinking that he could't do anything but wait to be born Alex tried to make use of his time and start to do what every MC in the novels he used to read used to do...cultivate.

Learning from the novels that he read, although they were fictional they all have some common points that are worthy of at least trying, Alex started to clear his mind and concentrate on trying to sense any energy whether it be inside his body or outside of it.

The next few moments went by with Alex trying to clear his mind, as this was happening, a mysterious energy washed over Alex, a cooling sensation that helped him clear his mind. Alex, thinking that it was just his mother taking some magical medicine, went back to cultivating.

As time passed Alex fell into a deep meditation, a state of clear bliss and tranquillity, something that is considered sacred by many people as such occurrences rarely happen, as it's not something you that can be consciously achieved, it can only happen through sheer luck.

While meditating Alex felt a small amount of intertwined warmth and coldness inside of his body, both being separate yet still intertwined: the warmth filled with vibrancy, and life, seeming to originate from his heart and felt all throughout the body; the other spiritual, cold yet filled with serenity, originating from outside of his body. Though in smaller amounts than the warmth the coldness easily matches it's counterpart. Both energies interacting with eachother, both slowly increasing as time went on.

"Hmm!? I wonder what these are? I am in a world of cultivation, so perhaps they're a type of Qi? they don't seem to be harming me. Let's leave them for now."

After examining the small pieces of Qi(?) inside his heart Alex started to focus his senses outward to try and find the origin of the mysterious serene energy.

A couple of minutes pass before a small wisp of energy could be felt coming from outside of his body, entering through his stomach, travelling throughout his body in small wisps and staying in his heart, strengthening his body yet somehow making his mind clearer and clearer. Not knowing what this is or what it's doing, just knowing that whatever it's doing is beneficial, Alex decided to try get a feel for the mysterious pattern that the energy seems to be moving in.

After spending a few minutes figuring out and memorising the pattern that the energy travelled in his body Alex decided to try and take conscious control over the energy to speed up the process.

"I guess this counts as cultivating, although I've got no idea how talented I am. Well for now let's try and speed up the cycling process of this strange...Qi? and start cultivating, it's not like I'm doing anything else. The only things impeding my cultivation are these blocked points in my body that are stopping me from making great progress, guess i'll have to find a way to clear them. 361 points, hmmm! they'll take some time to clear, good thing I have time in abundance."

Now practising this new technique the energy spread throughout his body, and his mothers, started gathering in his heart, cycling through each and every part of his body. The impurities in his body being cleansed with each cycle and the points in his body becoming opened with each cycle.

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Meanwhile on the outside his parents were more than baffled at the prospect of their unborn child cultivating, even though his mother cultivated while pregnant, no-one expected this result.

"I didn't think this was possible, should something like this even be possible? I mean he's cultivating my technique and even cultivating some of my Qi. This won't be harmful to him will it?" a woman with auburn hair asked her surrounding family, worry marring her face.

"It'll be fine, although such an occurrence is rare it has still happened in the past, cultivating won't harm him in any way, those unborn babies who cultivated while still in the womb will be born with great health and be filled with vitality." an older woman told the worried mother to be, reassuring her that there will be no complication with the child.

"Just continue cultivating as you normally do and everything will turn out find." the older woman said with a mild smile on her face. Everyone else giving her a reassuring smile.

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The next couple months swiftly passed by and thanks to his hard work all the past blocked points in his body became cleared allowing for the contained qi(?) to travel unimpeded in his body, purifying even further that when it started, transforming from two intertwined warm and cold energies to one single entity with a temperature that is just right. His body now fully formed.

'I've been in here for months now and should be born any day now.' Alex thought to himself, excited at the prospect of what this new world and his family can show him.

The next few days went by at what felt like and unimaginably slow pace, just as his anticipation got the best of him, the anticipated day had finally arrived. His birth having no complication except a few seconds of uncomfortable seconds of cold air washing over his body. Opening his eyes and seeing that he's finally out of his prison he shouted out.

"I'M FREE." but sadly, or expectedly, all that exited his mouth was an unintelligible scream as his body didn't have fully developed vocal cords. After being wrapped in a warm blanket his mother took him into her arms, not at all looking as tired as predicted, tears running down her silver eyes.

Seeing his mother for the first time, all Alex could think of was how beautiful she was: long auburn hair, silver eyes, fair skin and a loving aura. Right now her face was holding a warm smile, a smile that only a loving mother could show.

"Aaah! my son is so cute, he definitely takes after me." Alex's mother exclaimed, pride filling her voice.

"And where do you think you get your looks from? you can't take all the credit daughter." the older mother told her daughter, a small adorning her face.

"Hey! he's my son too so I also be contributed to his good looks." a tall young man exclaimed, looking only a a few years older than the youngest mother, somewhere near the ages of 25-27. Having shoulder length black hair and green eyes.

"Hey he's my grandson as well, so I also contributed to his looks." another older woman stated as a matter of factly, being similar ages to the other older woman in the room.

"No-one asked you you old hag, he clearly looks more like my daughter than your son, in my opinion he's lucky that he only gained your sons black hair." Alex's grandmother from his mother said to the other older lady a grin on her face and a glint in her eye.

"What did you say you old, wrinkled prune? for a second there I thought you'd say something that mattered." the other older woman quipped back.

While the eldest mothers were arguing back and forth the husband walked over to his wife and newborn child.

"What do you think we should call him." the smiling husband asked his wife, not taking his eyes of his newborn son and blocking out all background sound.

"Aelfric, his name will be Aelfric." the mother said with a small smile on her face as she stared at her son. The husband smiled along with his wife.

"Aelfric, hahaha! what a great name!" the handsome young man said to his wife. Now taking a look at his wife he notices the slight amount of tire slowly overcoming her face, looking outside of the window he notices that the sun is about to go down.

"I think it's about you get some rest, give me Aelf so I can lay him in his bed." the woman, now feeling the exhaustion hit her hands over her son to his father. Putting little Aelf in his bed the husband kissed his wife and son's head and lead the two, still arguing woman, out the room so his wife may get some rest.

"Get some rest love you deserve it." the husband tells his wife before he starts to leave the room.

"Goodnight El."

"Goodnight Os"

Husband and wife wished each other before the tired mother went to sleep, Aelf following behind closing his eyes and falling asleep.

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The first year passed by in what felt like an instant, Aelf already learnt to walk and speak but only speaking a few words such as mum, dad, gramma, etc... Aelf felt more love in this singular year than he had in all the years of his past and he enjoyed every moment of it.

Discovering something new every few months, using most of the time to understand the language of this new world, in both its vocal and written form. Something that surprised him being that the place he was reborn into had the tribal system in place with a few key families to keep the village safe and prosperous.

Finding out that he is somehow related to the continents nobility, as his family kept on getting visits from people in fine clothing and jewellery different from the village folk, getting to call an important looking man "uncle" also came as a shock. Of course most visits from the seemingly wealthy were for either commissioning weapons to be made by his father or grandfather and buying medicines or cosmetics to be made by either of his grandmothers or mother.

The tribe he lives seems to follow a unique tradition, after a child reaches 4 years of age they will undergo a magical ceremony in which they could potentially awaken a special spirit that gives them unique abilities that normal cultivation wouldn't give, although such occurrences are rare. These special spirits can be anything: from weapons such as swords, axe's or hammer's; to animals such as snakes, goats and even mythical creatures such as dragons, they can even be so obscure as to be a glass ball, a shovel or even a blade of grass.

Of course even when he was trying to discover as much as he could, given the limit of his infant body, he didn't forget to learn some more about cultivation. It was only a few months after he was born that he learnt the importance of meditating, the capability to clear and train the mind, learning that it helps with qi(?) control, as well as, a cultivators sensitivity to the qi(?) in their body and their immediate surroundings.

Taking a few weeks to learn to control his thoughts, a couple more weeks to control his emotions then a couple of months to try and create something that is normally mentioned in past novels, a mind palace to store and protect his memories.

It wasn't until his 3rd birthday that he managed to gain a minor mastery, being able to create mental shields that completely covered the mind, although how strong they are is a mystery as they haven't had the chance to be tested.

In fact because he had begun to speak in full sentences and can do physical activities that should have normally been strenuous to the body, showing his talent and hard work to his parents with them praising him as a genius, they decided to begin his training earlier than predicted as he had shown himself to be somewhat reliable and focused in his previous studies.

Of course it wasn't just his parents who were enthusiastic about his excellent talent, his grandparents were just as thrilled, because of this they had all agreed to begin his martial arts training earlier than usual, teaching him proper breathing methods and stances designed to draw out the potential of the body without harming it, conditioning his body to be ready for future martial arts training.

His grandfather, taking over from his father, training him in martial arts, while also using this time to do some grandparent - grandchild bonding.

<<<1 year later>>>

"Huph! huph!..." in a houses courtyard the sound of a child's heavy breathing and a mans voice can be heard, as even though Aelf may be his grandson it doesn't mean he'll show any leniency when training his grandchild, spending the next few hours going over his training regiment before finally taking a rest.

"You're certainly improving at a steady pace little Aelf, 4 years old and already at the 6th stage of the Body Conditioning..." Aelf's grandfather spoke to him from the side while also doing his own martial arts training.

"but, if you want to survive in this world you'll need to be able to do much more than this minor warm up. You've got the time now all you need is the effort and I'm sure you'll be able to achieve many great things." Aelf's grandfather said to him while completing his own set of training, appearing much more intact even though his training was much harsher and many times more arduous.

"I'll...huph!...definetely...be...huph!...greater than...huph!...even the heroes...huph!...of old." Aelf managed to get through his heavy breathing before collapsing on the floor from exhaustion.

"Hahaha! I'm sure one day you will but for now you're just a brat who can barely complete a full set of martial training before collapsing." his grandfathers aged yet firm voice echoed in response to his declaration.

"Aelf! father! It's time to get washed up, the ceremony will start in an hour and I won't have either of you appearing as sweaty messes. This is an important event and I won't have either of you ruining it for others or for yourself."

Hearing his mother yell from inside of the house Aelf gets up off the floor and starts heading back inside, his grandfather spending a few seconds to pick up the training equipment before following his grandson.