A Brief History Lesson

Laying in his bed, Hong Zhao reflected on the day he had. Training with the trees was somewhat beneficial. Every tree that fell seemed to increase his strength slightly. For a fifth star student rank, he could tell his strength was above average. He doubted that hurricane kick was supposed to do as much damage as it did to Li Wuhan. If he continued to train in such a manner, could he even be considered on the same level as everyone else?

As far as Hong Zhao could see. Many people within Rantori Village led carefree lives. If he saw people cultivate, they were usually the children like him. Even though the adults were higher in cultivation, he could sense they weren't by much. Li Wuhan's words seemed to echo over and over in his mind. "You can't get past ninth star student rank, huh?" He reached his hand up and examined it. Though he was eight years old, the hand already had scars and calluses, largely due to the excessive forest training. There were times that his fists and feet splintered wood and caused some of it to stick within him. In the earlier times of his training, he would be as bloody as he was when he faced off against the second large shadow panther those years past.

Though the hand was scarred, it seemed to bring him comfort. Even in this world, he could still shape himself into something he once was. "There are only student ranked cultivators here and in the surrounding area. Does that even make it worthwhile to go to this academy?"

"That does seem to be troubling." A haughty voice sounded from the corner of his bedroom. "What are you planning to do about it?"

Surprised, Hong Zhao jumped out of bed upon hearing the familiar voice. "Lan!"

She scowled at him. "Keep your voice down!" She whispered with a hint of annoyance. "What would anyone say if they knew a fully grown woman was in the home of an eight year old child? They may think one of two things. Either I am your mother, which would have them send you on your way, or that I am some sort of pervert, which might get a mob sicked on me!"

Hong Zhao tried not to smile at the thought. He could just imagine Lan at the head of an army, though instead of leading it, she was running from it. Something about the image didn't seem right though. He couldn't truly imagine this woman running from anything. "Where have you been?" Casting aside his humor, he asked what had been on his mind since he finished his cultivation in the woods and noticed he was alone.

"I need to give you room to grow, Hong Zhao. If I hold your hand, I might get a puppet out of the deal, but I need your mind." She put a finger to her temple. "There's a few things you need to learn on your own. Things I cannot teach you. But that doesn't mean I'm not there."

"Can you see me at all times?" He thought back to the paper that was left in every door of his ring. "And how do you leave these notes in the ring you gave me?"

"Those are both good questions, but not really why I'm here." Lan seemed to go straight to business. "You need to get stronger soon." Hong Zhao could see a line of worry crease her forehead. "This kingdom is not going to be around for much longer, and if you are still in it, you won't be either."

"What are you talking about?" Worry filled Hong Zhao like a bucket of ice water being thrown at his back. He was all in the conversation now. He had made a home in Rantori Village. He would not sit idly by while something happened to it. He wouldn't even let something happen to Huang Yi were he still in the village.

"Surely you must know the reasoning for keeping the villagers at the ninth star student rank, right?"

Hong Zhao had been pondering such a thing for a while now. He had found Li Wuhan and Li Wei out in the forest two years ago. The bandits had said that they could sell them to slavery or as meat. "There is slavery in this world, isn't there." It wasn't really a question as much as a statement.

Lan nodded her head sadly. "This world used to be full of such wonder, yet lately it has fallen into conflict." She took out a map containing five continents and pointed to the top left. "Right now, you are on the Yuan Continent. This is made up entirely of student ranked cultivators." She moved her finger to the right, to the neighboring continent. "Obopin Continent consists of your slavers." She said in disgust. "They have student through warrior ranks which they use to capture those from Yuan. Some of them are even knight rank."

"Why would they capture us? What would be in it for them?" Hong Zhao could think of little that these cultivators would gain from having slaves. In a world where strength mattered... "Could they just be using them as slave labor, or is there something more I can't think of?"

"I was getting to that, of course." Lan looked agitated. "Keep your questions until the end please, there is still much to discuss." She then pointed to the next continent below Yuan. "You then have the Azeas Continent, which holds the slave masters, or those who distribute the slaves. These cultivators are ranked king through master ranks."

She then pointed to the next continent adjacent to Azeas. "This is Waetoa Continent, Where most of the slaves are sent into servitude. Many don't live past forty years of age within this continent. They don't allow the slaves to gain much in power. If they do, they might lose control of the population. Waetoa is by far the largest Continent. It houses mostly duke through emperor ranked cultivators, I haven't learned of any saints within the continent yet, but if they exist, they would be in Waetoa."

Hong Zhao took the brief silence to let most of what Lan had told him sink in. To think that this entire world consisted of slavers. No wonder she said she needed to see how someone like him would survive in this world. He would never allow such an operation to continue. How could he? "You said there were five continents, I suppose we aren't finished yet?" Hong Zhao raised an eyebrow. He just needed to get through this discussion, then he had many questions he was going to have answers to, one way or another. He was tired of this cloak and dagger crap.

"The last continent holds the strongest of the magical beasts." Lan pointed at the continent below the rest. "This is Krohias Continent."

"There is a continent just for magical beasts?" Hong Zhao looked at the continent in curiosity. He knew that magical beasts were on a completely different level than the shadow panther fierce beasts he had been slaying in the Jade Forest.

"There used to only be four continents on this world." Lan said simply. "Yuan, Obopin, Azaes and Waetoa. Magical beasts were somewhat a rarity within this world. They evolved from the fierce beasts by gaining enough qi to become sentient."

Hong Zhao thought of how Shadow had eaten beast cores and seemed to be cultivating at times. Maybe he was already entering the stage of becoming sentient, or maybe he was already there?

"Though they had evolved, many of humankind hunted the magical beasts, attempting to get at the beast cores in order to make better quality medicinal pills or inscriptions. They were hunted almost to the point of extinction. An entirely new race of sentient life almost annihilated only for a few pills." Lan shook her head. "So an extreme expert with a ground and wood affinity raised one more continent in a remote location of the world and brought some of the magical beasts to live there. At first, this was just a shadow continent. Not many knew of its existence. Those who traveled to see it never came back. For a hundred years the extreme expert guarded the new continent to allow the magical beasts to mature."

"Out of the kindness of the expert, the land became filled with many magical beasts at the rank of emperor. Given time to grow, they had established a foothold on the power of this land and brought themselves out of the oppression the human cultivators had forced upon them. Unfortunately, that left them in a fierce state. They wished nothing more than to annihilate those who had hunted them for sport. This led to the dark ages of the world. All four continents banded together to suffocate Krohias, yet they had become too relaxed in their power. Even though they had been the peak of power within the world for so long, they only really had duke ranked experts."

"Krohias had five emperor ranked cultivators. Though the four continents only had duke ranked experts at the time, they still had many. Unfortunately, this was a war that had no end. The many dukes combined their power and matched the five emperors, and those under the extreme experts began to rise in power as well. Neither side could best the other, not in a thousand years." Lan looked almost defeated to Hong Zhao, as if somehow the weight of what she said rested on her shoulders.

"After a thousand years of fighting, a true piece of shit was born." Lan grimaced at the thought. "He was born into the one of the higher ranked families of the Yuan Continent, yet was somewhat a poor cultivator. After a hundred years, he was still only a knight ranked cultivator. For this, he was ridiculed by his peers. He couldn't find a wife to marry and lived a life of shame. I suppose he thought that such a life wasn't one for him, so he took off and made his way to Krohias Continent.

Since his cultivation was quite low, he easily surrendered to the magical beasts within Krohias. He was born into a higher ranked family, so he was privy to much information regarding ranks, as well as how well each border was patrolled. Soon, he commanded an army to each of the continents, sneaking through the cracks of his own kin's defenses. They slaughtered every man, woman and child save for a few that were allowed to repopulate. These few were from this man's own choosing. If they had treated him well in the past, they were allowed to live. If not, they were given as food for his army.

He saved his own home Continent of Yuan for last. He wiped out everyone who had mocked him. He also killed every cultivator above the student rank and destroyed all knowledge of how to continue down the path of cultivation. Only the students could pass down their knowledge throughout the years.

The traitor cultivator deemed the continent to be the slave continent, only good for livestock for his new army, or as slaves in his empire. His name is Li Xiao." She spat his name with contempt.

"Li Xiao?" Hong Zhao said the name for himself and thought of the siblings. "Li Wuhan and Li Wei's ancestor?"

Lan nodded her head. "He has been in power within the confines of Krohias Continent for the past several thousand years. He has reached the rank of saint with the help of the now five saint ranked beasts. Krohias is the newest continent in this world, yet it is also the highest power. This is the reason you must gain strength. You must help me and this world end the tyrannical rule of Li Xiao."

"So, why do you say that this village doesn't have much time?" Hong Zhao was now on full alert. He could only think of one thing that would make Lan track him down. He knew he was in danger.

"The next batch of slavers will arrive on the shores of Yuan Continent within the next ten years."

"Why ten years?"

"They routinely poach Yuan every three hundred years, when the eldest man in the continent dies. If he is still alive, many of the student ranked cultivators which are sent from Obopin. The kingdom of Obopin sends their young students to hunt in order to break through to the disciple rank. This is part of the purpose of the hunt. The disciples and warriors that are sent will only oversee and ensure their numbers stay up."

"So you are saying I only have so long to gain strength before this land is filled with poachers."

Lan nodded solemnly.

"And you say that only I have the chance to defeat this man, Li Xiao." He couldn't believe what he was hearing. The thought of him going against someone thousands of years his senior seemed to be crazy. He was starting to think that Lan must have been dropped on her head as a child.

"Don't be stupid." Lan seemed to be reading his mind. "I never said 'only' you can defeat him. I only said that you have the potential to."

Hong Zhao inwardly groaned. He wished she would just give him some straight answers. If he truly only had ten years to train, he wasn't going to get stronger off of riddles. "So how do I attain this strength?"

"Just follow your gut, and I'll help along the way." She smiled a special smile for him. He supposed she was beautiful with the moonlight shining on her black hair. He could see the lines of worry creasing her forehead, yet she still could smile like this.

Hong Zhao looked from Lan to the window. The moon was full this night and he could see clearly the many houses the village had. He now knew that he couldn't fail them. There were too many of them to lose. "How do I break through the rank of student?" He looked back to Lan, but she was gone. In her place, there was a stack of books, a pile of spirit fruit and jade cases full of qi grasping pills. He could tell that most of it was meant for him, yet wasn't this too much?"