1 Regaining Memories

A 15-year-old, blond haired fellow was in a duel with his classmate on a normal warm spring day.

The moment the blond haired boy was about to be struck square in the face, his speed suddenly accelerated. He dove under the other party's fist and uncoiled a fist of his own straight into his stomach. The other party went flying and spurted a mouthful of blood.

"Haha, I won, hand over the ten copper we betted on!" A dirty, blonde haired boy wearing tattered clothes exclaimed. The other boy was lying on the ground panting, and sweat covered his even more tattered clothes.

"No fair! You were concealing your speed passive technique the whole match, and when you used it, the tempo of the battle changed instantly!" The defeated boy countered angrily, hoping to keep his ten copper he worked hard for.

"You never mentioned we couldn't, you know we can always ask Xi Laoshi if we need to, but you were the one that started the match and as we both know fighting on academy grounds is against the rules." The blond boy replied with a cunning grin. The boy snickered but handed over the ten copper, and left.

Zhao Lung was a cunning young man especially for his young age of fifteen, he had no talents and could be considered below-average, but he worked hard every day to strengthen himself, and advance further in cultivation.

Zhao Lung hurried back home with a grin on his face, considering he won ten copper. There are four types of coins, copper, silver, gold, and jade, each one worth a hundred of the previous. Although ten copper might not sound very wealthy, in the one-star village "Sky Feather Village" which was very poor, it could feed his family for a whole week.

He opened the creaking door and walked into the cramped house, which was his home.

"Zhao Lung! Where have you been after school, you know I worry about you!" Worry filled his mother's eyes. Zhao Lung explained the situation to his mom and handed over eight of the ten copper, intending to keep some for his stash.

"I know we aren't wealthy, but you don't need to put yourself in danger just to get money. You know your life is invaluable and no amount of money can bring it back!" his mother's eyes brimmed with tears as this had not been the first time for this situation to arise. As always Zhao Lung promised her mother he would never do it again and she told him that lunch was ready. After eating, he walked to the familiar field that he had been coming to for many years. He chose a spot and started cultivating.

Cultivation was split up into different realms, and the first one being the Consolidation realm. The Consolidation realm aimed to build up a strong body and foundation to build off of in the future. Each realm was also split into different stages, beginning, middle, advanced, and pinnacle.

Zhao Lung was a Consolidation realm cultivator who reached the middle stage not long ago. He also possessed a speed battle technique of the consolidation realm, which he bought on a sale.

Battle techniques corresponded to the cultivation realms and had different stages of comprehension which were labeled as, beginner, novice, apprentice, and master. Reaching the level of master meant that he could unleash the potential of the technique to the maximum, and merge it smoothly into his other moves.

Zhao Lung took out a book labeled "Feather Steps" and started comprehending it. The technique he learned allowed the user to feel as light as a feather and increased speed. His battle technique was extremely common in "Sky Leaf Village", and that was part of the reason he could afford it. He had only comprehended it to the novice level, approaching apprentice.

After nearly five hours of comprehending and practicing, the sun was about to set. Zhao Lung was drenched in sweat, but he felt happy as he had finally managed to reach apprentice level in "Feather Steps" and his speed nearly increased a single fold.

"Feather Steps" was one of the easiest and most fundamental Consolidation level techniques, but it had taken him almost two months of constant effort just to reach the novice level. "Feather Steps" was a technique which focused on increasing the fundamentals, and was labeled as a passive ability. Passive abilities do not have to be performed, they mainly focused on increasing a certain aspect for all of his moves, for example, the technique he learned increased his speed making him three times as fast as before.

Since it was getting dark, without wasting any time he packed the book away into his small bag and left.

_______________

Next day after the academy lessons

Zhao Lung walked to the cultivation field, feeling excitement, and dread. In a month's time, there was going to be a mid-year tournament to decide the positions for the outer, inner, and head disciples.

These different disciple standings corresponded directly to how much resources and guidance one would get, outer disciple getting the least resources and guidance, while head disciple got the most. Additionally, head disciples had a much better standing in society and were much more likely to be recruited by clans.

Zhao Lung felt depressed, for he, a lowly outer disciple was never going to make it into the top 80 for the inner disciple, and the top 30 for head disciples. In his academy, there are at least 250 students, and if he were to rank himself, he would probably place around 150th.

With a sigh, Zhao Lung stopped wallowing in self-pity and started comprehending "Feather Steps". He spent some time adjusting himself to the apprentice-level "Feather Steps", as he recently broke through. His movements were swift and precise, passing through the air with wooshes.

After some time Zhao Lung packed up his book and headed home.

He was nearing his home when he felt a sharp throbbing pain in his head. his knees buckled and with a yelp, he fell down to the floor unconscious.

Suddenly, as though a seed growing, Zhao Lung's vision gradually turned white until he could open his eyes. He saw an elderly male standing in a white room, dressed completely in white. Everything about him looked normal except for his aura, which was as strong as the earth and as deep as the ocean.

"Greetings transcender, I am the 10th elder of the Royal God Clan, and I am in charge of transcenders from the tier 0 world, Earth." The elder looked down at a golden scroll.

"Ah, I see... You are a tier 5 businessman. That's quite an uncommon occupation among transcenders... Regardless, since you are a tier 5 businessman I will grant you two choices. You can choose the "Godly Illusion Speech", which can make any words that you speak sound true to another's ear, however, this technique is very dangerous and the success rate is not one-hundred percent. As for the other choice, it's the "Godly Thought Twist" it can manipulate another's thoughts to an extent. At a powerful enough level it can even force your worst enemy to become your best friend." The elder calmly looked toward Zhao Lung.

Xhao Lung felt overwhelmed. Transcenders? How is that possible? Aren't those the rarest types of people, that have unique abilities? How could a weak person like me from one of the poorest one-star villages, be one of these legendary figures?

What is a tier 5 businessman? Perhaps some unknown cultivation realm. Anyway, I can't afford to miss such an opportunity.

Zhao Lung considered the options, on one hand, the "Godly Illusion Speech" is the more powerful, but more unsafe one, while the "Godly Thought Twist" is the more safe one. Zhao Lung wasn't stupid, he considered the long term benefits, even though the "Godly Illusion Speech" sounded better, in the long run, the "Godly Thought Twist" had more potential.

"10th Elder, this junior chooses the "Godly Thought Twist" ." Zhao Lung respectfully bowed.

"Haha, good choice, I've seen many people like you die from picking the other one. Anyway, I still have more things to attend to so we will be parting ways. Your memories will be brought back when you wake up. Farewell, I hope to see you in the Supreme God Realm, that is if you make it." Suddenly the white floor trembled and Zhao Lung's vision turned black.

Zhao Lung's senses came back and he felt the cold grass under him. Before he could do anything, a large surge of information entered his mind.

'Arghhh!!" Zhao Lung's mind shook as he felt his thoughts slipping away. The stream of information was so large, as though a huge river meeting a trickle, all of his other thoughts were being pushed away.

Zhao Lung's vision blurred and he fell unconscious yet again.