When Ray heard that his cultivation would take twice as long as before, he was appalled, he wanted to be angry but didn’t know who to be angry at since his parents were simply doing what they knew to be the best for his future. However, they screwed him. After some thought, Ray directed his outrage towards Lang while spitting obscenities at Lang in his mind. Unfortunately, his child-like body wasn’t able to withstand the stress caused by his anguish and he collapsed unconscious.

As someone with a one year old body, Ray was put in quite a bind this time. Seeing this, his parents and sister were dumbfounded and just stood-up, staring in silence, unable to understand the brief flash of pure rage on Ray’s face before he fainted. On the other hand, his grandfather rushed over to pick him up before speeding towards the estate’s doctor, leaving the other three behind without a word. Ray had been so angered that he nearly had a stroke and, after being healed by the wood-element doctor, he remained unconscious for a few more days. His grandpa stayed near his bed until he awoke.

At first light Ray’s eyes opened. Seeing that, his grandpa quietly brought Ray back to his room before leaving, choosing not to question the face of rage shown prior. After a good sleep, Ray wasn’t enraged anymore, choosing not to cry over spilt milk, however he was a bit depressed. He didn’t particularly have the passion to act like a friendly child anymore and needed some time to think. So, his life continued but with a different hue, a more gray, depressing one. His grandpa, parents, and sister, Mya, decided not to bring up the rage that appeared on his face because they did cause his future cultivation to be ruined beyond Core Foundation… Oddly enough, none of them considered the fact that it’s odd for a one year old to understand what they were saying or express such a strong emotion.

When his grandpa left after bringing him to his room, Ray went to the library with some pure energy stones from his presents. Ray needed some time to think, clear his mind, and absorbing pure energy causes a warm, calming feeling. Unfortunately he felt half of the absorbed pure energy go straight to the Parasitic Core causing a dejected feeling. However, he had to get over it and move forward. Maybe he’ll find a way to separate their soul connection in the future. However, for now he just needs to cultivate and age. Although he has forever to cultivate, no one wants to truly be alone so it’s best to reach those high levels as soon as possible. Besides, he can’t realistically do anything until he ages and so begins the first ‘secluded cultivation’ of his long, long life. Well as secluded as a baby can be, he simply walks to the library each day and stays there to cultivate as the maids bring food before going back to sleep in his room at night. Oddly enough, Mya joined him cultivating. Maybe she was lonely before since all of her siblings had skyhigh cultivation compared to her so they were always off without her exploring Northern Rei.

This schedule continued for about four years. Mya reached Low Body foundation about a month after Ray did. For the first few months Mya just quietly cultivated and let Ray continue to be silent and depressed, however, three months in she stopped his cultivation to lecture him on the importance of physical activity for children. From then on the two of them would cultivate for most of the day while spending about two hours each day exploring the royal estate for some physical activity. As much as Ray wished to avoid getting close to his family, after spending so long with his Mya he can’t deny that they would chat and began thinking of her as a close sister.

Twenty months after seclusion started Ray was about two years and eight months old while Mya was about thirteen. Ray was cultivating when he once again felt that unbearable itch run throughout his entire body, he also thought he felt the Parasitic Core shivering too. It was only a day later when Ray and the Core both broke through to the Mid Body Foundation Realm. However, he was once again reminded of the Parasitic Core’s drawback as Mya reached Mid Body Foundation eleven months into cultivation yet he took twenty months and started cultivating a bit earlier than her. Sighing, he got up to find a hot maid to give him a bath. Although he’s mentally about twenty three his young body still needs help bathing so he doesn’t slip and drown. If anyone’s going to bathe him, it sure as hell won’t be his biological family as he felt uncomfortable with them seeing him nude, so, he’d rather have it be a hot maid. Someone who wouldn’t make him feel odd for ogling since they aren’t related, obviously he wouldn’t do anything other than looking since he’s about three and his business experience says it’s not proper to get freaky with an employee anyways.

Seeing him walk off Mya said, “Aw, why won’t you let mom or I bathe you? You're just a kid.”

Glaring back Ray muttered, “Pretty maids,” before walking away.

However, he heard someone mutter, “How is a three year old so weird…” Ray ignored it and kept walking. He really needed a bath as that black sludge from the breakthrough is nasty...

Ray and Mya’s daily cultivation and exercise grind continued for two years and four more months before Ray finally reached Late Body Foundation the morning of his birthday while Mya breakthrough nineteen months prior.... Mya was now fifteen and Ray had obviously just turned five, perfect timing considering he was running low on pure energy stones but would likely get some as a present again.

__________

A maid came to get Ray from the library for a bath and dressing before the party. After the bath was done, Ray’s face flushed to his ears as he saw the clothes laid out for him to wear. ‘Sigh. No matter how long I’m in this world I refuse to believe I’ll ever get used to dressing like a fantasy prince cosplayer… I’m so glad they have comfortable loose pants and shirts I can wear in our estate instead of this shit. Unfortunately I have to wear this to parties.’ Thought Ray as he put the clothes on.

Ray walked into the room for his party and was a bit shocked. Most of his siblings, his parents, and grandpa were all there. However, there were a few other old people that gave off a palpable pressure sitting at the head of the large dining table. Ray was truly surprised because this meant that they held more authority in the family than the king, his father, or the previous king, his grandfather. ‘Who are they?’ Thought Ray as he tried sizing them up before being smacked on the back of his head.

Upon turning around Ray saw his dad who said, “Don’t be rude Jay! Those are some of our most important elders who are in the Elemental Transition Realm. They rarely come home so you should be honored they are here for your birthday, bow to show respect.”

Nodding, Ray bowed as he said, “Elders, this junior’s name is Jay Rei. I am honored for your presence at my fifth year birthday party.” Since he was five, Ray no longer needed to speak like a child and could just pass himself off as a genius child.

“Hmm..” Spoke one of the elders, “So you’re the talented child. You at least seem intelligent for your age. Let me give you some advice, junior. Although early cultivation can be good, at lower cultivation levels it’s important to take a break between levels. I recommend taking at least a month long break, same for Mya since you two cultivate together.”

Another elder tossed a ring to both Mya and Ray before saying, “These are spatial rings which are created by those at least at our level and skilled in the rare spatial element. Consider them both of your twenty year old presents as us three elder’s likely won’t be back here anytime soon. You have to send a strand of your energy into the ring to store or remove large amounts of items but you’ll have to be in the meridian opening realm before you can do so since all of your energy is stored in your body and unmoveable at the moment.”

As he was speaking the third elder pulled the king aside to speak. However, the king’s face fell as he listened and at the end he ran off towards his wife and Ray’s grandpa with an anxious face. After the three spoke, Ray’s mom loudly said, “Thank you all for coming here for Jay’s fifth year party! Something came up so we need to end the party a bit early, sorry Jay. Everyone, go ahead and place your gifts on the table in front of Ray and one of the maids will help him bring them to his room.” Then, looking at the maids, she said, “Two of you go and tell my eldest and second eldest sons to meet their elders, grandpa, father, and I in the library in ten minutes.”

Ray’s presents were pretty standard, however, four of them were actually useful. First, the cultivation ring from one of the elders was useful in the future. Second, his grandpa gave him enough pure element stones to reach the Peak of Body Foundation. Third, one of the other two elders gave him a set of ten energy fused throwing knives where once he reaches the meridian opening realm he can use his energy to control and infuse the knives. However, the gift from the third elder was by far the most precious…

The third elder handed a book and purple jade to Ray before saying, “Alright young man. Your parents tell me you are extraordinarily smart for your age. This is a special cultivation method I discovered a long time ago yet none of us Rei family members in the chaotic sea had the guts to cultivate it as it has substantial risks. If you choose to use it, I recommend not waiting longer than Early Core Foundation to form the additional eight meridians as beginning with Core Foundation it follows a unique cultivation path. The light purple jade is a memory jade which is used by holding it on your forehead and sending your energy into it. It has the cultivation methods for Core Foundation and beyond.”

After getting his presents, Ray went back to his room since the library was being used for a secret meeting. However, he was a bit concerned as the Rei family began making strange movements. First, maids were running around looking for the Rei family members with high cultivation talent and thus a strong future in cultivation. After a while of that, most of the servants began slowly leaving the royal estate in normal citizen clothing. Only a small amount of servants were left but nobody said anything to Ray so he figured it was fine and went to bed.

The next afternoon Ray was surprised that Mya didn’t come get him to cultivate as he had waited in his room since morning but she still wasn’t here. However, he started walking to the cultivation library on his own thinking that she would meet him there or something. Little did he know the surprise waiting for him at the library…

Once he entered the library he was in shock as all of the important and educational books were gone from the shelves. ‘What’s going on here?’ wondered Ray as he went into the cultivation room. ‘What?! Where are all of the pure energy stones, martial arts manuals, and cultivation techniques?’ At this point Ray began to panic as only hastily written copies of the cultivation books up til Core Foundation were left with a note and small, red rock next to them. Everything else was gone.

The note said, “Jay, I’m so sorry to leave like this but a crisis is coming. The three elders came back to tell us that the Rei family in the Chaotic Sea met destruction and its enemies will be coming to destroy us, the last branch of the Rei family to wipe out our family at it’s roots. I know most of this won’t make sense to you and you might hate us for this but you’re very intelligent for your age so I’m sure you’ll make the right choice. The elders told your grandfather, father, and I that all descendants were to be teleported last night to a new continent to continue the family under a different name. This is a one-way teleportation formation that was our families last resort for survival since millions of years ago. Unfortunately using it requires the elder’s strength and they were only willing to take those with potential and since we gave you the Parasitic Core, your potential is limited due to it absorbing half your energy. I’m so sorry, I never would have done that if I knew this would happen…” From this part of the note on, Ray could see tear stains. “The elders tested everyone’s potential and gave those with limited potential enough money to hide and if they are lucky they won’t be found but didn’t allow them to come with us. Your sister Mya apparently has extremely high potential which excited the elders as she could be the key to us rising again in another continent far away, however, you and her were always close so she refused to leave without you. After a long time arguing with her, the elder’s decided to leave an extremely rare item called a portal stone for you, to convince her to leave rather than just leaving you money and running. This stone is set to teleport to a beast filled continent in a unique area closer to the chaotic sea that has a port leading to an island nearby with a massive cultivation city. I’m so sorry we had to leave you and the others, it breaks my heart and Mya’s heart but the elders are very old and care more about the families future than individuals so this is the best we could get them to do for you… Please use the stone within the next 24 hours and take these books but burn this note first so our enemies can’t find you. Your name is no longer Jay Rei, I truly love you but pick a new name so no one finds you.

Live well,

Mom & Mya”