The Chapter Before The First

An old man sat cross-legged in an empty cave. He suddenly spoke, as if he was talking to someone.

"Though this old one isn't very knowledgeable, the few fragments I have been able to piece together about the truth of our world, I shall share with you.

In essence, what is a cultivator? Is it someone strong? Someone who masters art? Someone beyond human bounds? Someone deity-like? Or maybe someone bound for greatness on a treacherous journey? Though close, a cultivator is those who seek the higher plane. The world above ours so to say.

In what we call earth there are restrictions to what the human body is capable of, placed there by those who envy our innate ability to grow exponentially with no borders. Eons ago, humans stood toe to toe with the gods, demonic beasts, and all creatures of myth. Yet, when we were at our greatest, the pillar of humanity tumbled. One by one, the powerful and influential individuals who guided and protected our way of living soon vanished. Some records speak of a powerful existence completely new to earth, landing and causing havoc everywhere. It took every powerful cultivator in all realms, gods, demonic beasts, humans, and mythical creatures to subdue it.

With the powerful gone, the world entered an age of endless war. each fighting for superiority, the fragile balance between the realms broken. As there is not much about this time period, I have chosen to name it the Era of Discord. It was then, during that period of chaos and death, that the light came to reveal the origins of the aberrant freak of a creature. Humans, with their unquenchable thirst for knowledge and understanding of the world and all its secrets, sent out a powerful signal to reach even the furthest tips of space. The creature in turn responded and came upon the earth.

Furious and scared, all the realms agreed to a mutual pact, to seal each realm off from the other and, unbeknownst to the humans, to seal the power of humans. Having no precedent on the matter, the ritual to seal off the human's ability to cultivate was incomplete.

At first, there was only a drastic decrease in cultivators but slowly, the techniques and teachings were lost to history. Fading from the books as our age of prosperity, I have named it the Forgotten Era. Now, there are very few interactions between the realms in our modern-day era. Sure, records show that there were some cases in the past. Joan of Arc, Oda Nobunaga, Jack the Ripper, Cleopatra, Julius Caeser, and others, in which humans and the other realms interacted but, there wasn't much. One noteworthy individual though was Albert Einstein. On the brink of touching the signal used to call the abnormal creature, the other realms interfered and gave him an untimely death.

In the modern day, the way of cultivation has become lost, only the most ordinary techniques surviving. Yet, the seal on humans remains incomplete. There are some who are able to surpass our common understanding of human ability and barely scrape into the domain of cultivation but, it is not impossible! Take the elders on the forums as an example, though hidden and sometimes lurkers, each has a profound essence of cultivation.

Now, I shall return to lurking. You may think this is fiction, merely a book being read. You may choose to ignore or heed my words, it makes no difference in the flow of our world. Eventually, the signal shall be touched once again, the creatures shall return, and we shall once again experience our Era of Discord, the only thing that matters is, will you be prepared?"

The old man chuckled, lifting his hand that was trailed by yellow light.

"Now then, let's see about this world you seek, reader..."