Victor took a deep breath and open his eyes. The sun was shining overhead, and the sight of the endless ocean greeted him. The constant sea breeze swept over him, and Victor could smell the salty ocean air. It was a marvelous beautiful day.

Victor sighed in disappointment.

“Told you it won’t work.”

Reunion’s voice echoed in his head, and it was a soft feminine voice. Victor had to admit she was right. “Yes, you did. It was worth a try. At least now, we know we can’t get wind element here.”

“Told you so this place wasn’t high enough. You need to be on a mountain or skyscraper.”

Victor looked around. After a day of studying, Victor got bored and decided to explore the island. As he had been curious about the waterfall, that was his first stop. Climbing it was surprising easy as there were steps leading up to top. Once he reached it, Victor discovered the source of the water.

A gap.

The source of the waterfall wasn’t a mountain or a river, but a gap. Like most people on the planet, Victor knew about gaps. Nexus had been invaded several times by aliens and demons, and these invaders often used gaps to travel from their worlds to the world of Nexus. The people of Nexus even have different names for them. Gaps created via magic were called portals. If they were created by science, they were called wormholes. If they were naturally occurring, it was a gap.

On several occasions, these Invasion Gaps were several kilometers long. This one was only about twenty meters wide. Victor wasn’t too worried about such a small gap, but he could never understand people who go to extremes just to decorate their homes.

According to Reunion, the gap was man-made. The cultivator who had been the previous owner of the island had cast a spell to draw water from another part of the Nine Lands to form the waterfall. He had opened a gap in space and time, and water just poured through it. The water flowed about a hundred meters before falling off the cliff, forming the waterfall. Victor believed this cultivator was a special kind of idiot.

To him, home was just a place for you to sleep. Opening a gap just to beautify a home seems like madness. Victor walked to the edge of the waterfall and looked down. He may not like what the previous owner did, but he can’t complain about the view. The water below looks clear and beautiful. Reunion did not like the way her host was looking at the water.

“Wait, you don’t know how deep it is. Just walk down and-”

Victor jumped. He hit the water feet first and was delighted to discover that the water was deep. Victor took a moment to take in the clear water before swimming for the surface. Victor broke the surface with a savage joyful scream. He had survived! He had taken a wide chance and lived to tell the tale.

Victor missed this feeling.

Victor swam toward the homestead with Reunion scolding him in his head. A villain with too much experience with too many women, Victor tuned her out. Once he got out of the water, Victor turned around to face the water and began practicing. He did some stretching exercise, a little shadow boxing, before going into his cultivation techniques.

One of the books he had bought from Reunion told Victor that a cultivator could increase his power by infusing elements in his core. From what Victor read, some talented cultivators were born with elements in their body. These cultivators are specialists who are extremely talented in the element they were born with. However, most cultivator were not born with natural elements in their cores. For these cultivators, the method to gain element was to cultivate at a location with natural energy. The theory was simple.

Cultivators could absorb the natural elements to form a small elemental core. Cultivators who wished to gain the wind element need to cultivate at a location with a constant and heavy wind. Cultivators who wished to gain the water element need to cultivate at a location with a lot of water. This ‘elemental core’ was separate from the main core of cultivators, but you can use the cores together to produce elemental effects. The book warned that the method won’t give as much power as a naturally infused core, but the cultivator could form several elemental cores and used them in tandem. Instead of being a specialist in one element, a cultivator who used this method would have access to several elements.

That was what Victor was trying to do on top of the waterfall. There was a constant ocean breeze and Victor wanted to know if he could form a wind core there. Now, Victor was trying for a water core. After two hours, Victor gave up. He couldn’t feel the element at all. Either he was not talented with the water element, or this waterfall was too small. As Victor went into his cool-down, Reunion made her presence known again.

“You should try this at the beach. You would have a much better chance of forming the core near the ocean than this small waterfall.”

“Won’t know till you try. Let’s go to the next location.”

“Why don’t you get dressed first?”

Victor smiled. Currently, he only had a pair of boxers on and he didn’t really mind. He was the only person on the island after all, and shape-changers weren’t known to be shy. Reunion was different. She wanted Victor to be dressed. Victor went to the homestead and got dressed. He then went further into the island.

Following Reunion’s directions, Victor found a trail that led to the center of the island. Victor followed it to a small meadow. The meadow was almost like a garden, with a good mix of grass and meadow flowers gently rustling in the breeze. Victor was surprised by the beautiful meadow and could easily imagine butterflies lazily flitting around the lush grass and flowers. Victor stepped onto the meadow and felt an immediate connection. The meadow was like the bridge near the homestead. It was filled with qi.