2 The First

In the Far West, near the Dragon Coast, the first of the Fate's Own appeared. D'Gedda Bohpurra opened his eyes for the first time in many years. He was seated cross-legged in front of a mirror, which reflected the figure of an unfamiliar boy. The youth was dressed in elegant robes of white silk. He wore a two-colored sash of bright blue and dull brown about his waist. The two colors divided the sash into halves and easily drew the eye.

The youth himself was less eye-catching. He had plain brown hair that fell down his shoulders, brown eyes, and a slightly ugly face. In terms of appearance he was rather unremarkable. Despite his lackluster appearance, D'Gedda smiled.

'She was right! Despite being sent to the Extermination Hell which is supposed to permanently destroy all things, I was actually able to reincarnate! Speaking of which . . .'

With a thought, a series of words in the first written language D'Gedda had ever learned appeared.

[You, D'Gedda Bohpurra, have been selected as the first of the Fate's Own. Cultivate Qi and gather strength, for when the hundredth appears, the Fate's Own must become one. To aid you, Fate has given you one gift: The System of Fate. Use it well. ]

D'Gedda scratched his chin in thoughtful silence as he contemplated the message. 'Just what is this Fate? Is it connected to the Heaven of Destiny? Clearly I'll need to learn more about the current age. More importantly, let's see what this System of Fate can do.'

With a thought another series of words materialized in D'Gedda's vision.

[D'gedda Bohpurra's Status Screen]

[Title: Heavens' Foe]

[Cultivation Realm: Meridian Opening]

[Cultivation Rank: Novice]

[Cultivation Art: Seven Powers First Volume]

[Qi: Seven Powers Qi]

[Breath: Mortal Breath]

[Legacies: Nan Suzu's, Seven Powers Sect]

[Armaments: None]

[Souls: None]

[Summoning Order: First]

D'Gedda pondered the status screen. 'Meridian Opening huh? I guess I'm stuck with this Seven Powers Qi unless I swap bodies. Still, I've never heard of this type of Qi, it might be worth keeping. I can get by with Mortal Breath if I have to, especially if this is some kind of rare and powerful Qi. It shares the name of the sect so it's probably at least decent. What I'm really curious about are these Armaments. They're listed between Legacies and Souls, so I'm guessing they're a major part of cultivation in this age. Some kind of unique treasure maybe? Anyway, I'm sure I can use this body to learn about the world later. For now let's check out my Qi and abode.'

D'Gedda entered into a meditative trance and sunk his focus inwards, towards his Dantian, after several failed attempts. Within his Dantian he found a cloud of gaseous Qi, which rhythmically shifted between various colors. After watching the Qi shift for a time D'Gedda found that the colors were red, white, brown, purple, blue, gray, and green.

From his Dantian, D'Gedda turned his focus to his Meridians. He could see that aside from the basic meridians that had to be open for the Qi Acceptance realm, his body had only opened thirteen meridians so far. His new body was clearly in the very early stages of Meridian Opening.

'Well, although my cultivation realm is rather low, it's better than having a higher realm without enough meridians. Besides, if this body won't do I can just possess a new one after I form a soul. Now then, let's check this place out.'

Looking around the room he was in for the first time, D'Gedda found himself in a plain, stone room. Although a bit small, it seemed fixed together well enough. A small bed and one wooden dresser were positioned in the small space, with a closed door positioned directly in front of what little empty space was available. D'Gedda was sitting cross-legged atop the bed, facing a mirror positioned atop the dresser. Looking at the mirror closely, D'Gedda began to suspect it was unordinary.

The mirror's frame was silver, with unfamiliar runic characters carved into it. As for the glass itself, it was of a quality D'Gedda had never seen in his past life. Out of curiosity, D'Gedda extended a thread of Qi to the mirror. The moment his Qi connected to the mirror, it was sucked in. A moment later, countless blue lines and thirteen red lines appeared on D'Gedda's body within the mirror's reflection.

D'Gedda exclaimed in surprise before smiling. Clearly this treasure could reveal one's meridians! How he wished he'd had such a thing when he was opening his meridians in the past. Truly, this mirror was going to aid him greatly!

Still, he couldn't keep his smile from turning into a frown. For some reason this body totally lacked any divine sense, which was already making things difficult for him. He could tell that it wasn't a result of some form of injury; rather this body just seemed to utterly lack divine sense. This was one mystery D'Gedda found himself worried by. He'd never even heard of a Qi Cultivator simply not having divine sense. Damaged divine sense, restricted divine sense, he'd seen that before; this was something else.

With a shrug and a sigh D'Gedda added it to the list of things to investigate and leaned towards the dresser. Opening the top drawer, he found two pairs of folded robes, a pair of sandals, and an extra sash. D'Gedda closed the top drawer and opened the next one.

Here he struck gold. Within the lower drawer lay a handful of books in an unfamiliar script and, more importantly, a rectangular stone tablet. D'Gedda extended a thread of Qi and touched the tablet. Then, a stream of information came flooding into his mind. Rather than focus on the new knowledge, D'Gedda waited for the stream to finish. Once it finally stopped he withdrew his Qi thread.

After returning to his meditative posture, D'Gedda began to pick through his new information. The first thing he found was the first volume of the Seven Powers Cultivation Art. Scanning it, he quickly grew impressed.

'The Seven Powers are as follows: heat, cold, earth, lightning, water, thunder, and wind. Using this Art with the Seven Powers Qi, it becomes possible to master each power. More importantly, this Art surpasses any other I've ever seen in terms of its techniques for opening extra Meridians. With this Art, I should be able to surpass my old self by a large margin!'

With a pleased look, D'Gedda shifted his attention to the other pieces of knowledge he'd absorbed. He found the rest to be various Spells using the powers of cold and earth. Reflecting on that, D'Gedda glanced again at the sash he wore. Perhaps brown represented earth and white cold? If that was the case, red ought to be heat, green should be wind, and thunder . . . gray? He wasn't entirely certain whether water was blue or purple but he assumed one color was for lightning, the other water.

D'Gedda found himself nodding in satisfaction. 'I can work with this. Yes, this time I'll grow to be far stronger than I was in my previous life. Thank you, junior apprentice sister, your Foretelling was true!'

With a surge of excitement, D'Gedda stood up and opened the door, then left the room he'd awoken in. He stepped out into a long hallway, one filled with several identical doorways, some closed and others open. The hallway's far wall was spotted with windows through which sunlight streamed, illuminating the many people within the hall. They were all dressed in the same uniform robes, though the sashes they wore differentiated the many youths D'Gedda saw. Most wore sashes of a single color, a minority wore sashes like his with two colors, and only a couple people wore three-colored sashes.

A tall, thin boy with short black hair and green eyes noticed D'Gedda and walked over. His sash also had two colors, red and green. As the boy approached D'Gedda noticed the twinkle in the young man's eyes and the way he seemed to be struggling not to smile. Was this a friend of the original body's?

Once he was side by side with D'Gedda, the boy whispered eagerly "So, did you use it? The mirror worked just like I said it would didn't it? I told you it was some kind of amazing treasure! What happened when you gazed at it? Did you go to the fabled Hall of Enlightenment or did you change your wish? C'mon, I'm begging here, don't hold out on me now!"

While D'Gedda's mind raced, contemplating what to say, he noticed the many conversations that had been taking place in the hall had faded away abruptly. Looking around, D'Gedda soon found why. Three middle-aged men in gray robes were walking down the hall, looking directly at D'Gedda and the youth beside him. Internally, D'Gedda was already certain this 'friend' of his had already landed him in some form of trouble.

Two of the gray-robed men split off and headed towards different doors, one of which led to the room D'Gedda had come from. The third man, a muscular figure with a scruffy beard and looming presence, said gruffly "Novice Kosh Ti, Novice Falcoun Remen, you two have some explaining to do. I can't wait to hear how you try to explain yourselves this time."

D'Gedda watched the man who had entered his room return holding the mirror with a sinking feeling. The only question on his mind now was exactly how much trouble he was in. To his right, the tall youth was tugging on his right ear lobe while staring at his toes in embarrassment. D'Gedda forcefully repressed the urge to sigh, as he was already in enough trouble.

"Follow me" the nameless man who had spoken before commanded, turning and striding away with his hands clasped behind his back. D'Gedda and the other youth obeyed wordlessly. 'Well, at least my new life won't lack excitement' D'Gedda thought.