Mu

Book I

Part I

“The soul is a miraculous construct. Born from the most primal of instincts and rawest of emotions, it is a seed that is nurtured by the universe while it resides in a mortal body. At the first thought of self-realization, sparked by either internal or external stimuli, it sprouts into consciousness. It evolves as it journeys forward during its lifetime, forming intelligence and gathering wisdom. As it meets its mortal end, it completes a page of a book, forgotten by all but the universe itself. What it received in nourishment, it gives back in knowledge as it re-assimilates into the fabric of the universe to begin the cycle anew.”

—An excerpt from the Scrolls of the Arcana, Volume I.

Chapter 1: The young genius

The sun rose slowly, casting its dazzling rays of gold and yellow across the sky as it drives away the blue and violet palette of the dawn. Blades of grass glistened as beads of dew danced in a cold breeze, resembling a dazzling array of diamonds. Birds chirped playfully, ushering in the new day. As sunlight blankets the land, it revealed a boy sitting in a lotus position. Amidst this display of life and flutter of activity, he remained unmoved and serene. His chest moved up and down rhythmically, every breath seemingly synchronized with an unseen pulse of the world.

The boy had black wavy hair that came to his shoulders. It is a stark contrast to his white skin, the color of first layers of powdered snow of a winter morning, with a healthy pink glow underneath.

Feeling the warmth of the day, he slowly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of black irises, a black so dark that it threatened to devour everything around it. The boy blinked a few times, allowing his eyes to readjust to the now bright daylight. His irises faded grey. Knowing that townsfolk are starting their day, he pushed himself up and made his way back to the town of Wales.

“Good morning, young master,” greeted a tanned farmer. He smiled at the boy, revealing a set of red-stained teeth, owing to a lifelong habit of chewing scarlet fenu leaves. Fenu is a common plant that grew in this world. Sage green and nondescript, it littered the forests and plains. Scarlet fenu is a variant of fenu that occurs naturally, found growing with its common cousins. Green leaves with scarlet red veins, it releases a red juice that matched the colors of its veins when chewed. Despite its mild addictive properties, it has a mild numbing effect and is often chewed by commoners as a cheap, often free, pain-killing medication.

The boy smiled warmly back and walked towards the center of town, where the Steele Family’s estate is. The Steele Family was a family of nobles that ruled the mid-sized prefecture of Lapilla, which included the township of Wales and its surrounding lands and villages. Wales was an average-sized town in the kingdom of Iridis. It is home to twenty thousand people, good-hearted and hard-working folk, and governed by the patriarch of the Steele family and Aran’s grandfather, Gerand Steele.

A few more adults greeted him as he made his way through the familiar streets. The boy was well-liked by the townsfolk. He is out every morning, always polite and humble to the people of Wales. His curious eyes would scan the streets and sometimes he would stop by, striking a conversation with stall-owners setting up their stall for the day, asking about a random ware. Some older townsfolk sees Aran as their grandchild and would often tell him stories of their travels and of the recent war. Once in a while, they would see a glint of comprehension and sorrow in the wide-eyed child, but was rapidly replaced with the same curious stare. The adults would brush it off as their over-thinking and sent Aran off on his way as they finished their stories.

“Good morning, young master Aran,” greeted a young guard as the young boy got to the estate. The guard had long gotten used to this morning routine that began a little more than a year ago when Aran had snuck out of the estate. Though not heavily guarded, guards were posted at every entrance. This three-year old boy still snuck out, avoiding any detection.

“Greetings, Justin,” Aran nodded with a smile as he stepped into the compounds, acknowledging the brown-haired youth.

“Where did you go today?” asked Justin exasperatedly, “You’re going to get all us guards into trouble one of these days. And you’re going to be late for the ceremony!”

Any other guard would not be so daring as to ask where a young noble had been. But, Justin had interacted almost daily with Aran, and had realized that this young child was mature beyond his age. Where any young noble would be offended by this interaction, Aran had welcomed it, sought it even. Being the son of a hunter, Justin had hunted from a young age and Aran had often pestered Justin with questions about the animals and plants surrounding Wales. What shocked Justin was the fact that Aran was actually learning and internalizing the information, the same way a young hunter apprentice would at the age of six or seven. Justin too had enjoyed these conversations; they brought much needed company to an otherwise uneventful job. After a year, an unlikely friendship formed between master and guard.

“Just out looking for the mist leopard you told me about yesterday,” teased Aran in a mischievous grin. The dumbfounded Justin watched as Aran opened the doors and walked into the estate.

“I’ll stop telling you stories about my hunts!” Aran heard as the doors closed behind him. Chuckling to himself, he felt gratitude that he was born in a peaceful part of the world. A complicated look, unfitting a child his age, passed his face. This reminded him of his peaceful childhood in his past life.

It has been four years since Edan was reborn into this world, Parthenon. Through an unfortunate stroke of luck, or a cruel game played by fate, he was given his father’s name from his previous life. A burden known only to himself, Aran Steele carried this new name as a constant reminder his losing himself to the assassin and the inability to do anything for his previous family.

‘Things will be different this time around,’ he thought. He had worked hard these past four years.

***

It had taken him six months to learn the spoken language of the common tongue in Parthenon. Surprisingly, even though the words were different, the semantics of the language mirrors the language he had spoken. In the same amount of time, he familiarized himself with the new body and regained basic motor skills. By the time he was one-year of age, he had regained most of the dexterity of his former life and learned written language. The laws that bound physical movement, strangely but to his relief, was comparable, or at least felt similar, to that of his previous world.

Despite his attempts to hide his ability to read, a curious maid discovered his ability to read when she found him hunched over a book for hours, mouthing to himself terms and concepts unique to this world. A genius, he was hailed, and the family spent a good amount of resources to nurture him. Teachers were hired to teach him a variety of subjects. Resigned, Aran decided to stop hiding his prowess and instead to capitalize on it. He would reveal some cards and steer his ‘education’ with a gentle, invisible touch. His first machination; his own room.

Following that, his days were filled with lessons from morning till evening, with only free time to himself in the evenings after dinner. To the surprise of the adults, Aran did not once complain. Not to mention being able to even start learning, even if they could, any other genius child would feel repressed and would revolt against taking these many classes. Aran, having the wisdom of a previous life, happily accepted them and gobbled up all the knowledge they provided.

Like the laws of physics, mathematics stayed the same, just that it had progressed a little more in Parthenon. Aran, who had already been schooled in it as Edan, showed competency in the subject. His teacher, George Tallows, was shocked beyond belief. While rare, mathematical geniuses were not unheard of. After the initial shock, he had happily moved on to teach Aran more advanced topics, usually restricted to students who were at least thirteen years old in advanced academies.

While the appreciation of the arts were similar across his lives, but Aran had much to learn. He had been well-versed in etiquette and all forms of arts in his previous life. Being an assassin required infiltrations and fake identities. The identities were fake, but the knowledge wasn’t. To the best assassins, the identities were fleeting, not fake. And he stood out among the best.

Although there is little difference in the tools and techniques used to paint, music and dance had evolved differently in Parthenon. As such, he had paid more attention to the latter two subjects. The arts teacher, Mihail Spiro, quickly realized this and geared his lessons towards the young master’s interests.

History and geography are perhaps the subjects Aran was most interested in. Also amazed by the breadth and depth of the topics she had to teach Aran, the history teacher, Erika Phillis, rapidly burnt through her knowledge. What would take her four or five years to teach, Aran devoured in a year.

Aran learned that he was born in the country of Iridis, situated south of the continent of Ares. Ares, one of three known continents in Parthenon, was the smallest but most suitable for crop cultivation and abundant in natural resources. As such, it was the most densely populated of all three. Ares had five countries, Iridis to the south, Osiris to the west, Rhodeus to the north, Planaris to the east, and Hassius in the center. Iridis borders Hassius and Osiris with a strait through the south that separates it from the continent of Alaron. Being a populous continent with plenty of resources, the rulers of all five countries recognized it a folly to compete for land. They signed a treaty, the Treaty of Ares, that maintained peace in the continent.

During that time, Aran began cultivating qi in the evenings alone in his room using the Primordial God’s Foundation. When he first discovered the tome, he was skeptical about the effects it claimed. The technique allowed the cultivator to absorb the natural energy that exists in nature, qi; internalizing and converting it for the cultivator’s use. It will temper the body to make it harder than steel and give it the strength to destroy mountains with the user’s bare fist. It benefited the mind too. Cultivators of the technique will hone their mind, allowing them precise control of their thoughts and forming a mental tenacity that allowed them to easily dispel illusions.

Combined with descriptions about Gods, soul, and magical qi, it was something difficult to resolve within Aran. Intellectuals from his previous world has dispelled the notion of Gods, magic, and soul. Cause and effect ruled all common sense in the physical world, leaving behind little room for the debate of the metaphysical, and everyone was brought up with that knowledge. Still, the wondrous effects caused Aran, the assassin back then, to attempt it,’What’s the harm?’

Cultivating this technique was difficult. It was broken down into three stages; Forming, Condensation, and Evolution.

In the Forming stage, a cultivator tries to sense the qi in the world. This was the first bottleneck, as this feat itself required the cultivator’s mind to enter a state of calm nothingness and seek out the feeling of qi. It was akin to looking for an object in an enormous pitch black room; not knowing where it is, how it feels like, or even how big it is. As a result the number of people able to do this is astronomically small and in Aran’s previous world, non-existent.

After that, cultivators begin to absorb qi into their body. The qi circulates within the body and begin tempering the body. Flesh and muscle become as strong as metal. The energy is also stored in the muscles, allowing for explosive release, generating force and speed far surpassing that of a mortal body. As more and more qi is absorbed, the cultivator attempts to form a qi-realm in their soul, which manifests physically as three points in humans, called dantians.

The lower dantian collects the absorbed qi and refines it into purer qi. This pure qi is then transported by the veins in the body to the middle dantian located at the chest. During transportation, the body absorbs a small portion of this qi and further strengthens itself.

In the middle dantian, this pure qi is stored. This point also acts as the intermediary, a gate, between the physical collection of qi and the qi-realm in the soul and qi flow continuously between them. Once in a while, some incompletely refined qi may make it to this point. The middle dantian further refines this qi into pure qi, rid of any impurities. It harmonizes pure qi with the soul, converting it permanently into an energy truly belonging to the cultivator. This pure qi then travels to the upper dantian, located between the eyebrows, once again absorbed by the body during the process.

The upper dantian is where the soul and wisdom of the cultivator manifests their control over one’s qi. Qi is manipulated and, with enough experience, converted into usable forms of energy that allows the cultivator to perform feats beyond the physical boundaries of their normal body, although still bound by the laws of the world.

When this is formed, the cultivator would have completed the Forming stage of the Primordial God’s Foundation. Even mastering this stage would grant the cultivator powers that rivals Gods of certain worlds.

Perhaps it was due to him rejecting the idea deep in his mind due to his upbringing. Perhaps it was talent. But, in his previous life, Aran was only able to practice the technique to the point where he could absorb qi, but unable to form a qi-realm. Still the effects of this initial stage manifested itself in his physical abilities, allowing him to rise through the ranks of The Hand effortlessly.

After personally feeling the effects of cultivating in his previous life, causing the slaughter of Kan, and undergoing rebirth, Aran no longer had reservations. Furthermore, magic was present in Parthenon, although gifted only to some.

And so, he spent the second year of his life taking lessons in the day and cultivating in the evening. Since he had already been able to sense qi previously, he was able to step right past the qi-sensing stage and began rapidly absorbing it into his body.

***

“A genius!” remarked Mihail excitedly when the three teachers met at the end of the first year. They met regularly, to coordinate lessons and share notes. This, however, was a meeting to compile a report for the Steele family of their recommendations for Aran. He added, “The boy just turned two, but he never complains, learns quickly, and knows what he wants.” George nodded in agreement.

“Genius? He’s a bloody glutton! If it goes on like this, there will be nothing to teach him in another year of two,” remarked Erika. Despite her complaint, the usually calm young woman had a strange smile when she spoke and a hint of pride in her voice.

“Erika is right though. He is learning at a pace so fast, it is difficult for us to prepare lessons,” said the usually reserved George. The three sank back into their seats, deep in thought.

“Aran did mention that he was interested in learning combat during one of our lessons,” mentioned Mihail while he leaned forward with a mischievous look in his eyes. “We could suggest…”

“He’s much too young! What if he gets hurt?” interrupted Erika.

“I think we’ve established that think we can’t use common sense to measure him,” said Mihail. George looked at Erika and nodded. Mihail continued, “Think about it. We’ll suggest to Lord Steele that young master Aran is developing at a rapid pace, and it might benefit him to start learning combat earlier. We can say that he can do so in the afternoons and limit ourselves to an hour to two of lessons per person every day.”

The order came the next day; Aran, then two, was to start combat training with the older children of the estate.