1 Visions of another place

An infant lay on the cleaning table, just born, and opened her eyes, blurrily seeing her two loving parents looking over her. As she slowly closed her blurry eyes, another pair of eyes opened in a far-distant place, these eyes were of a man standing upon the stars, facing a great beast and it's master. As he reached out to strike, the universe seemed to split apart, but the great beast ignored this like it was nothing. As his eyes closed to blink, the infant opened hers again, squirming around next to her brother on the table, cooing for her parents, her eyes closed again.

Again this great expert opened his eyes, no time having passed between their blinks, and launched forward at the beast, hoping to defeat it for some unknown purpose, but the beast was massive, and with a single swipe of it's great paw the expert was knocked flying, seeing his own blood and tissue streaming out into space. As he realized that this wound nearly reached the core of his being, he knew he would never be able to defeat these two. He closed his eyes one more time to prepare for his last gamble, and the infant opened hers once again. She was being picked up this time, brought to the bed where her mother lay, panting, smiling, right next to her table. She was placed in her mother's arms for the first and last time, as she felt the breath slowly leaving her body. The infant blinked again, and the expert opened his eyes. Runes charged out of his body, forming great chains in space, entwining around him, and he began a Buddhist chant with his hands together, the chains of runes forming something similar to a train of beads passing through his palms and entwining around his entire being. As he felt his life's end swiftly approaching, he completed his chant and felt a release. Then, he looked down on his own body and his consciousness slowly faded away as the great beast and it's master raged and tore apart great swaths of space in their fury. The infant once again opened her eyes and watched her smiling mother looking at her with love as her final breath left her body, and at the same time a great light and spiritual pressure surrounded them both, blinding everyone else in the room and causing the infants to cry loudly.

As the light faded the father quickly took up his daughter from his wife's corpse and wrapped the two infants tightly. Leaving the room, he informed the physicians that she had finally passed and headed for his own home near the outskirts of town, pondering what the mysterious light was and how he would care for two infants on his meager earnings. The only bright side he could think of is that his two cubs would only need to drink milk for a very short time before they could start eating meat, as his race was a bestial one and they were born with milk-teeth. As he slowly walked through town, everyone that saw him was silent, their ears and tails all down and not moving, all knowing that this would be difficult for him and all realizing that he was going to have to do it alone. Only the two infants didn't seem to know what had happened, but of the two, the small girl in his hands had a peculiar glint in her eyes that was slowly fading away.

-------------------5 Years Later-------------------

A young figure sat under a tree, meditating, as another snuck up from behind, ready to pounce. The closer the second got the more he could see the figure under the tree. Just a meter tall, the young figure under the tree had an elongated muzzle and very light tan fur all over. The ears on top of her head were pointed and her tail was fluffy. They were both members of the Bestial races, and they were birth-mates. 5 years ago their mother died giving birth to them on this small island. As the sneaking one crept ever closer, he froze as he saw a small twitch from his sister's ears, and when she didn't move he decided it was time to pounce. But as he flew through the air his sister merely leaned back and let him fly over her. As he tumbled along the ground on the other side of her he cursed loudly, "Yunlong why can't you be normal?! All the other children wrestle and play, but you just sit here and meditate like some old fart!"

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand Fenglong. I'm trying to begin my cultivation so I can be stronger. Now quit calling me that boyish name and let me focus."

To this, her brother just shook his head and walked away with a sigh. 5 years old and you want to be a cultivator? On this small island there's nobody to help you learn or grow. There's not even any inheritances or techniques. "What a waste of time, just come learn to fish or cook like the rest of the young girls."

Suddenly, Fenglong was tackled from behind and pinned to the ground. "I don't want to hear that from you again," she growled, "I will grow strong enough to take revenge on those fire eaters for Mom. If you don't want to grow strong enough to leave this tiny place, that's fine, but don't get in my way." After finishing this, Yun pushed her brother's face back into the dirt and pine and walked away, tail swishing agitatedly behind her, to go find her Father and ask more questions. She needed more information to figure out how to connect with the Heavenly Qi and begin to unlock her meridians. As she previously learned from her father, their family were once a strong family of cultivators, each of them born with the ability to sense Heavenly Qi, bringing them directly to the first rank of the Lynhär body forging system, Qi Forging, and opening the path to true cultivation. With this first step already taken care of, their family could directly challenge the Meridian Opening realm and try to create a path for Heavenly Qi to flow through their body and nourish them. He told her that after she turned 5 she would be able to learn, but since her birthday a few weeks ago she hadn't been able to figure out how to break through the blocks in the first meridians in her body.

"Papa?" She asked, "How can I use the Heavenly Qi to push through my first meridians? I can sense that there is a path into my body for the Qi, but I cant seem to bring it in more than a small space before it becomes stopped." She looked up at her father's scarred and distinguished face hopefully, expectantly, knowing he'd long ago stepped out of the Body Forging realms and into the Houtian realms when they were back on the Cradle, before her birth.

"Little Cloud," he answered, "I can only give you so much help. The injuries I sustained when we were forced to flee the outpost have gravely damaged my Neidan. I can barely manipulate Heavenly Qi anymore. If I still could I would help you directly open your first meridians so that you would feel how it works. At most I can try and get a medicinal pill that could help you. Meridian pills were never very expensive before, but on this remote island it's hard to get anything related to cultivation. Give me another month and maybe I'll be able to get you past this first hurdle." As he said this, his face looked weary and tired. When they had fled from the mainland he had been heavily wounded and relied on his last medicinal pills to heal both of them and stay alive. The damage to his Neidan was too extensive to repair without an alchemist backing, and the poison his wife had been inflicted with, while not vicious, had been enough to cause her to use the last of her life delivering their two children. He sighed with emotion and patted his daughter's head, "I am truly sorry you were born out here my dear little dragon, if we were back on the Cradle you would have long entered the Meridian Opening realm and begun trying to condense your Neidan. The resources here are so sparse that it's hard to do anything more than live. I will talk to the chief and see what news they have from the mainland, if any. It's been far too long since the last ship came through here."

After this, he stood and prepared dinner for the children, night would be falling soon and it was time to prepare for sleep. There were no true threats on this small island, thankfully the dreaded Volvaka had never settled within the caves under the volcano before the Cradle was sundered from the continent and this small piece of island was separated from the mainland. If they were present on this island too it would have long belonged solely to them.

Weeks later the next ship finally came into port and her father spoke with it's captain, getting the first bit of news that had come to the island in over a year. The outpost that he had been in charge of had finally been reclaimed, the small port rebuilt so that ships could finally begin to come down from the north and make the journey across the island chain to reach the continent and bring back treasures and materials. There was also an offer from the army to bring him and his children back to the Cradle from the island in recognition of his great service and loss, giving him a minor stipend and a small apartment in the central city of Myhrrwar. If he chose to, his children could then begin formal education and cultivation. But this would also be a long journey, by land it would be too dangerous, so they would have to travel by sea and it would take months to reach. The children would be nearly 6 years old by the time they arrived and settled in. He thanked the captain and told him he would discuss it with the family and give him an answer tonight so they could all prepare before morning.