2 A different person

Flowing Wind was a small border town in the Crouching Tiger Kingdom.

The sky was clear and the birds singed, as the people of the town got ready for a busy day. The town was quite poor, but all its people were easy going, and they always welcomed new guests, to the point that there were often people moving there for the friendly atmosphere.

In one medium sized house near the town center, a young girl, Mao Mao, explained what she had found in the forest to her greatly worried parents.

"Mama, I saw this man, and he fell from the sky, and he was covered in light, and he destroyed a tree, and... here he is" As she recalled what she had seen, she hastily stepped outside the door.

There lay an injury ridden body, which Mao Mao, with no gentleness, grabbed by the foot and carried through the door step, which was a few inches above the ground.

Her parents, horrified at the half dead young man in front of them, quickly stopped her, before lightly reprimanding, "Mao Mao, what were you thinking? This man is about to die, you should have called us before dragging him over here... look at the poor man, he's almost dead yet you were so rough when bringing him back to the village"

Although she said that, the mother of Mao Mao also understood that it had been hard for the six year old girl to drag the heavy young man.

After sharing a look of contemplation, the two parents picked up the young man by his limbs, and with little effort, hoisted him into a bed.

_____

As Jian Long opened his eyes, he was met with the face of a curious young girl, who immediately jumped in fright as he woke up.

"How dare you scare me? I will show you the wrath of Mao Mao!" she yelled with an angry look on her face, as though it was his fault for waking up.

Jian Long ignored her, as he scanned his surroundings, before attempting to remember what had happened for him to be here. He was in a very simply decorated room, yet he did not recognize it, and the young girl was clearly mortal.

As he looked down at himself, he suddenly felt an extreme pain course through his body, as though his every bone had been broken, and he realized he was gravely injured.

At the same time, all the painful memories of the last night came back to him: the betrayal, the attempted assassination and his close escape.

He was Jian Long, the crown prince of the Heavenly Dragon Empire, and tomorrow was set to be his coronation, when he would become one of the most powerful figures in the continent.

From his current state, it was clear that things had not gone according to plan, and due to someone betraying him, the Death Sword assassin organization had found out his location, leading to the attempt on his life.

'Who could it have been, who knew that information?' as Jian Long tried to understand who had betrayed him, Mao Mao began growing angry, feeling ignored.

"Sir, you may be an immortal, but i shall not be ignored!" she yelled, before starting to punch his arms with a crazed look on her plump baby face.

Jian Long looked at the young girl in amusement, before asking, "Young miss, where are we exactly?"

"Flowing Wind town, duh!" she replied, looking at him as if he was dumb, while at the same time feeling proud by the way he had addressed her.

"In which kingdom are we in?"

"Crouching Tiger Kingdom, duh!" She stated in the same manner, though now she was seriously worried for his intelligence.

'Crouching Tiger Kingdom... mmm... oh, I think I recall a small kingdom in the south of the continent with a similar name!'

After discovering his location, Jian Long was visibly shocked, as during his escape he had unknowingly traveled thousands of miles south.

Thinking back to his injuries, Jian Long said to Mao Mao with a proud expression, "young miss, look at the awesome way I will heal my wounds"

And with that he tried to circulate heavenly energy through his meridians, yet there was no reaction whatsoever, as if his body had no connection to energy, and he had never been a cultivator.

'My injuries are way worse than I thought... my cultivation is completely gone!"

"Nice healing, sir, you are so awesome" mischievously said Mao Mao, only adding to the pain that Jian Long was feeling at this moment, as he spit out a mouthful of blood.

'If I have no cultivation, that means I can't go back or I will be killed! I will have to rebuild my strength, while remaining in hiding... but to do that I need to change my identity. From the way I look to the cultivation method I use, I need to change everything about me. No one can discover who I really am before I am ready to fight for the throne!"

With a glint in his eyes, Jian Long looked at Mao Mao, who was fearfully retreating after seeing his expression, and he offered, "Young miss, do you want to change my haircut?"

Mao Mao, who was now near the door, raced back to the bed, as she asked with an exited look "really? can I change your hair completely?"

______

Jian Long walked out of the room, with his long black hair having been unevenly cut into a haircut that could only be described as bed head.

As he went into the main room, he saw Mao Mao's parents busily preparing dinner, and he politely greeted them, "Thank you for your hospitality, seniors, but I should probably leave now, since I need to heal my injuries and settle some issues, before returning home"

The young couple respectfully replied, "we understand, young master, so we will let you go, and we do hope that you will get better soon"

They spoke to him carefully, as they were worried that he would get revenge on them if they didn't. One never knew with immortals, and they didn't want to take the risk.

Jian Long also noticed this, but he did not mind, "then I will take my leave" he replied, before heading out of the house, eager to get his revenge.

As he walked through the town, he began thinking of how to change his identity. Most importantly, he could not cultivate using the method he had previously known, and he could not use swords, so he now needed to consider his options.

In the Endless Sword continent, cultivation was divided into many realms, each further divided into nine stages. The first realm was qi gathering, and it marked the beginning of cultivation, as well as the difference between a mortal and an immortal.

Although the stages of cultivation were the same for everyone, there were many paths one could take to fight with heavenly energy.

The most popular fighting path in the continent was weapon cultivation, which entailed using weapons and heavenly energy to release martial techniques.

The second would be elemental cultivation, which made use of heavenly energy of specific elements to release magic techniques.

Lastly, there was summoning, which was rarely used, since it made the user too weak personally, and the moment his beasts were killed the fight would basically end.

As the crown prince of Heavenly Dragon Empire, Jian Long had used weapon cultivation, specifically using swords, meaning most of his knowledge was about this path, yet now he was forced to choose between elemental or summon cultivation. This also meant all the skills he had learned were useless, and he had to start anew.

As he thought of the pros and cons of each path, he recalled a shameless old man who had given him a treasure once, as gratitude for saving his disciple. The treasure was a technique that allowed summon cultivators to fuse with their beasts, inheriting their power and skills while the technique was active.

This technique was essentially useless to the other two paths, which was why the stingy old man had been fine with giving it away, yet for a summoner it erased the flaw of the user being too weak, making the summoner path a viable choice.

As he recalled that technique, Jian Long smiled, since he now knew what path he would take... he would become a summoner!

To become a summoner, one would first have to find a spirit beast to make a contract with, which either meant going into the wild and risking your life, or joining a martial sect, which would usually have many spirit beasts.

After talking to the local people of Flowing Wind, Jian Long discovered that there was one such sect of immortals a few hundred miles away: Flaming Saber Sect.

Although this sect specialized in saber cultivating, they still owned many spirit beasts, so it was the best option for Jian Long, who did not want to be too high profile.

Having decided his path, Jian Long thought, 'I am now ready for my new life... oh wait, I need a new name... Li Zhu will do!'

That day marked the beginning of a new era for cultivation, as the King Of Summons was born!