11 A Bit Of History

Gu Kaiming sat in front of a brightly smiling Gu Long who was internally laughing at his brother's flustered face. Gu Kaiming forced himself to calm down. His face once again serious he faced Gu Long once again.

"Xiao Long… uh, how should I say this? Okay, I will just do it. Our family is not a regular one. We have many secrets, of which I only know two. Most of our family know the first secret but the second one is not that well known."

Gu Kaiming wiped the dust off the box revealing the Family Insignia. He then slowly lifted the lid off the box revealing an old rolled-up parchment, an object wrapped in cloth and a book bound in golden scales. Gu Kaiming grabbed the parchment and opened it up. He quickly closed it and put it back inside the box.

"You can look at the parchment and the wrapped package later." He then grabbed the scale-bound book before he opened it up to the first page.

"Gu Long, you know a bit about the history of our Astral World, otherwise known as Xing Ti, right?"

"Nope."

"..." Gu Kaiming sighed.

"Fine, I will start at the beginning… Millions of years ago, the world was colorful and full of life. Leviathans, Monsters and Beasts roamed the earth. We humans were at the bottom of the food chain. The Ancients, as we call them, were faster, stronger, more agile, larger and more intelligent than us humans. Not only that, they could use Magic. We didn't know how to use magical qi, also known as mana, to perform Magic back then. Even now, our Magic is still inferior to the Magic of the Ancients. They were even stronger than we are now but what happened next changed the course of history."

_______________________________________

Wooden houses surrounded Alvin as he walked down the dirt road. He was in the Capital of the Human Region, Krator. Alvin's family was quite well off, as you could see by his simple and coarse jute[1] shirt, his degraded jute pants and his jute slippers. Alvin was 14 and his father was actually the only weaponsmith in the Region, so their daily income was 3 Aklin coins, which were actually petrified Beast feces gained by brave warriors who risked their lives to get them. The feces were thene molded into coins. Aklin coins were the highest currency in the Region followed by stone coins and wood coins. Arvin always felt exhilarated when he thought how well off his family was. He smirked at the envious gazes of the people around him, who at most had leaf pants and who at least had leaf underwears. These people were the richest among the humans while the poorer ones lived outside the Capital. Alvin continued on his way.

'BRRRRROOOOOOMMMMM'

The very earth and sky shook. Cracks in the earth appeared and spread as space was ripped open in various places.Trees were blown away and mountains were turned to dust. An overpowering energy washed over them like a shockwave from a collision.

'ROOOOAAAAAR'

'SCREEEEEEEE'

'AAAARRGGHH'

All over the world, the Ancients screeched and roared in fear. They scampered running into ruined cities or making their own underground cavern. They stayed there, quivering in fear as they decided to stay in hiding and go into hibernation…

Alvin lifted his head from the ground. The Capital was destroyed. The house as well as the only castle in the Region, had collapsed. Fires were everywhere as people ran amok. Bodies were littered all over the dirt roads. Alvin looked down to his stomach. A big piece of wood, from one of the nearby collapsed houses, had pierced his stomach. Blood flowed out like a river. No pain and no noise. Then it hit him. Piercing pain engulfed his body as the screams and pained shouts of the people around him reached his ears. Alvin forced himself to stand, clutching the piece of wood in his stomach. Grunting with pain he lifted one foot, straining every muscle in his body. Step by step, he reached his home. There hes saw it in ruins, flames dancing atop it. His father and mother were laying there on the floor, faces black with char. They were panting wildly. His little sister was also on the floor, unconscious.

"What...happened?"

Alvin's father lifted his head, turning it to him.

"When-" Alvin's broke into a coughing fit.

"When the quake happened your sister was in her bedroom. The house collapsed and caught on fire. Your father and I got out of the house quickly but your sister was still inside. We went back inside to get her, she had fallen unconscious by the smoke. We grabbed her and- AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Alvin's mother responded in his father's place but soon noticed something wrong.

Alvin fell to the ground, eyes closed, hand still clutching the piece of wood, a smile on his face.

---

Alvin opened his eyes. By some miracle he survived unscathed. He sat up and saw he was inside a temple dedicated to the Goddess of Healing, Irina. He rejoined his family and five years passed by. In those years spacequakes, as it was called, were a common occurrence. Some were horrible and some were light, but all of them had the same phenomenon of causing the sky and earth to shake as well as causing tears in space. Those years were called altogether the Scorch, because the spacequakes caused so much damage to the flora and fauna that large places were turned from forest to desert. In places where the flora and fauna were still intact, humans built strongholds. Even then, humans still faced onslaught from Minor Ancients- Beings who were the descendants of the Ancients, but who had forgotten most of the knowledge from their ancestors. Some guarded the resting places of the Ancients so they were also called Guardians.

---

November 3rd, 5th Year of the Scorch

Alvin sat on the porch of his home, looking at the setting sun. Far off in the distance Alvin could see the large, 50 meter high stone walls that encompassed the city called Drakaris, the new Capital. Outside the city walls there were many farms and small houses. Alvin's house was one of them. Around all the fields and homes, there was an even bigger wall wich circled the safe zone. The wall was 150 meters high with grand and sturdy gates made of metal. The wall was four to five kilometers long and it was built with giant bricks cut out from mountains and in total the wall was 10 meters thick with three layers of interlocked stone bricks. Every interval of 50 meters had tall watchtowers that pierced the cloudless sky. They were around 250 meters high.

'VOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG'

A horn sounded.

"Oh fucking hell!" Alvin complained. "Another spacequake, eh?"

"Seems like it." His sister walked out of the house and stood next to the seated Alvin.

She had black hair and ice blue eyes. She had a slender figure but with a perky and bouncy butt as well as large, perky breasts. She had a toned abdomen and toned legs, all in all, she was extremely beautiful.

"While I am glad for the Sensors, I still hate the spacequakes" Alvin said.

Sensors were people who were born with enhanced hearing, smell, sight and feeling. They could sense the slight shaking of the sky and earth because of an oncoming spacequake and alert the rest. But this time, the warning was too

late…

'BOOOOOOOMMMM'

The walls, which had withstanded all spacequakes since its creation, imploded. A wave of air passed over everyone.

"GET IN HERE CHILDREN!" Alvin's mother and father screamed.

Alvin and his sister ran towards their house.

'WOOOOOSH' Another wave of wind appeared.

"SHIT!" Cursed Alvin.

The wind hit Alvin and his sister and threw them further away from their home. Then, it started.

The earth and sky shook, space tears appeared and the houses collapsed the cattle were turned into blood mist. The crops and trees were pulverized and the city as well as its walls crumbled and people were left to the mercy of the spacequake. A tear neared the siblings. Alvin grabbed his sister and threw her out of harm's way. The space tear reached him and… suddenly, everything stopped. The shakes and the tears were gone.

"..." Alvin was shocked.

"BOOOOOOOOM'

A shattering power came from above, forcing everyone to kneel. An animalistic feeling engulfed Alvin and the rest as they looked to the sky.

'SHEEEEOOOOO'

A blinding white lighy fell from the sky, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH" People screamed to the sky, engulfed by their own animalistic instinct.

'SCREEEEEEEE'

'ROOOOAAAARRRR' Outside the broken down walls Minor Ancients and animals roared and screeched. Even the Ancients groaned in their sleep.

As the meteor slowly travelled further down the sky, the shattering power got stronger and stronger and so did the screams and roars. Then it finally hit the ground far away. For a second everything was silent.

'BOOOOM'

'WOOOOSH'

An explosion sounded followed by a blast of air. Then a gulf of light expanded from the center of impact. It passed over the entire world and the flora and fauna that had been erased in large places, returned. The ruins of the city were then covered in moss and plants as little critters appeared here and there. All beings felt broken memories, not theirs, enter their consciousness. It was then up to them to interpret it. They also felt an itch start in their lower abdomen as their dantians(Still unknown to them) started to form. They also started to feel a carnal desire toward the meteor and all of them started moving towards it.

---

In the following years a bloody war ensued. It was a war of carnage and advancement between the Minor Ancestors and the humans as well as the normal animals who started cultivating. In this war all creatures learned about qi and started creating cultivation techniques from the broken memories in their consciousness. Then what happened is what was explained in the prologue.

[1]Jute is the material used to make sandbags