Chapter 5: Understanding Oneself

Alone in a house was a boy, his parents weren’t home. He sat in the center of the room with a thin rusty book beside him and a beast on his lap.

The boy is Ignis who has a frowning expression on his face. Ignis sat alone in the tranquil house with Solace on his lap, who happened to be sleeping comfortably. Even though Ignis is only at the age of 6, he is still part of the Crimson clan, a force that is strong enough to be in control of the Twin Fire and Ice city.

From birth he has been raised to be a calm and mature by his clan even though sometime he act his age. While he is alone in his room, he wasn’t sad because his parents aren’t around, he is depressed because he felt that he has wronged his grandfather.

Even though he is dejected, he doesn’t regret in doing what he did because like all cultivators, he desires to become strong. Because in this world being strong means that they control world as they like and have anything they desire and not following the orders of others.

In order to be strong, he would need to take his first step into cultivation. Which for him is by cultivating the mysterious yet dangerous cultivation method which only one of his ancestor has succeeded. It could be said that while Aurelius is saddened by Ignis’s choice, it could be even be said that it was his teaching that let Ignis to have enough courage to choose and cultivate such a method.

He calmed his heart and steadied his breathing, then he placed the sleeping Solace from his lap to his side and began to read the ancient cultivation method. After spending an hour or so on reading, he then put the book down.

“Just like the description said before, I need to absorb the Fire and Darkness Qi form the air and into my right hand. However first up I must be able to sense the Qi.” Ignis sighed.

The Qi mentioned is simply the World Qi that exist everywhere in the world, Cultivator can only absorb the Qi into their Dantian once they enter the Absorption Realm. Before that, they can only draw in the Qi in the air into their body to train and strengthen the body.

Every mortal dream to be a cultivator who can defy the heaven however there are requirements that must be met first before they can even take a step into the cultivation world. One of this requirement is to be able to sense the World Qi and its mystery. Despite Ignis having a Fire and Darkness affinity this doesn’t mean that he can sense the Qi. Instead, this just mean that he is more sensitive to Darkness and Fire Qi.

As every experienced cultivator know, this small requirement is a test for young cultivators to know of their talents. An average cultivator would take month before they can start to sense the Qi and a talented cultivator would take weeks while born geniuses would take a few days.

Once his heart has settled, Ignis started to concentrate and use his body to try to feel the energy around him. Upon doing so, he started to feel fierce heat surrounding him, he also felt a hint of a calm, an intimidating and a rigorous energy.

The fierce energy that he first felt was the fire Qi that was in abundance due to the environment, following that fierce energy was the tranquil energy was the water Qi. The intimidating energy was the earth Qi and the rigorous energy was the wind Qi. These 4 Qi are the most basic of the World Qi and are in the largest amount. They are also known as the foundation Qi.

Despite of only having Fire and Darkness Qi, Ignis could sense the other foundation Qi because they made up the planet and was everywhere which meant that it is all around, making them a lot easier to be sensed.

His inability to sense the Darkness Qi is mainly due to it being non-existent in this current time, the Darkness Qi would only emerge once the sun has set and the moon rise. Even then, Darkness is one of the Supreme elements making it extremely hard and strenuous to the body and soul to cultivate.

To be able to sense the Qi in a short period proved that he is a talented and worthy of inheriting the cultivation method that once belong to the strongest cultivator of his clan. Even geniuses would take days to be able to sense the world Qi but for Ignis, he only took a few moments.

This could be contributed to his rare elemental affinity and that he inherited the genes of his powerful parents however what can’t be denied is his talent that he was born with. This talent that he was blessed with could make all the different and has placed Ignis on a higher starting ground than other cultivators.

His talent would bring him fortune but will also make him experience more tragedies and set back due to his cultivation path would be full of boulders and enemies that envy and fear his talent.

In the cruel world of cultivator, if a cultivator can’t convince or persuade a talented cultivator to join them. Then, they would destroy the bud before it blooms so that they won’t be a threat to them.

Even of one of the strongest powerhouse has carried out such actions, the Demonic Lord of the Abyss, Everlyn. It is embedded in his nature to remove any small obstacle that may poses a threat to him in the future, no matter how small it might be. Due to this he was able to grow and his vicious nature lead him to the Dao of Annihilation and made him to walk on the road of the Demons.

Ignis let out a smile after being able to sense the Qi and let out a breath of relief.

“Phew, so this what it feels like to sense Qi” Ignis then closed his eyes once again.

Due to his ignorance of the real world, Ignis had no idea that he had just accomplish a miracle. Once he closed his eyes, he started to try to sense the Qi however this time he began to familiarised himself with the Fire Qi and disregarded the other elements. After a few hours, he was able to fully familiarised himself with the energy.

As the sun was still up, all Ignis could do now is to attempt to control the Fire Qi and try to absorb the energy with his body. In order to control the Fire Qi, first a cultivator must familiarise themselves with the Qi which Ignis has already accomplished. Then by using their cultivation method to control the surrounding Qi into their body.

Due to the nature of the first stage of the Solar Eclipse cultivation method, the Fire Qi would be absorbed into the meridian that is located in the hand of the cultivator. However, since Ignis hasn’t even reach Apprentice stage let alone the Absorption Realm the Qi would simply be absorb into his body. After a few hours of trying to control the energy, Ignis frowned and opened his eyes.

“Hmm, sensing the Qi is one thing but actually controlling is completely another matter. Even though, I have familiarised myself with the Qi. I still have yet manage to move the energy at all let alone controlling it.” Ignis sighed and felt down.

“Maybe I should ask grandfather or uncle Reynold? No! I can’t, if I ask for help so early on that means I have no future being a cultivator.” Ignis resolved his will once again.

Relying on oneself to solve all problem and complications has been ingrained in Ignis’s bone through Aurelius teaching. This is how all Crimson’s cultivator are raised and this is how the Crimson clan became the overlord of the Fire County.

The nature of the Crimson’s cultivator made them resolute, unyielding and persistent on the path of cultivation is undeniable key to become strong as a cultivator.

It doesn’t mean a resolute cultivator would be an overlord but all overlords are resolute and unfaltering. Those that are weak-willed and spineless would never go far and would never be a powerful faction that can influence the gargantuan world of cultivators.

This is why all cultivator clan, sect and academy teaches their young to be adamant and unshakable. However, this also increased the conflict between cultivators this is because cultivators would be uncompromising and stubborn about their Dao and their own path of cultivation. Since every cultivator have their own path this causes conflict of belief and way of the cultivation.

Due to their uncompromising and unshakable nature once a conflict started it would end in a blood bath or else if ended in mere words then would make damage their Dao path and they would never be able to reach the apex of cultivation. Some people may become deranged and become a demon.

After a few more hours of contemplating on how to control the energy, Ignis finally felt the fatigue and decided to stop since he wasn’t making any progress. He and Solace, who was now awake, stepped out of his house on to his backyard where the stars in the sky.

It was now night time and the intense Ice Qi has surfaced, Ignis and Solace lay on the ground staring up on the starry night.

“Solace, I wonder how grandfather is feeling?” Ignis asked and faced Solace who was beside him. Solace then let out a low growl as if he understood what his master asked. Ignis smiled and let out a laugh.

“Since I can now sense Qi I wonder if I can sense the Ice Qi that made this city so popular for Ice Cultivators.”

Ignis then began to try to sense the Qi but after a moment he immediately sat up and abruptly open his eyes. His whole body was sweating, unlike the Fire Qi that was suited him due to his affinity, Ice Qi was the opposite and was incompatible for Ignis. Since it was his first time sensing the Qi he somehow accidentally controlled the energy and due to this Ignis body went into a shock. He was mentally and physically exhausted.

Ignis let out a few breaths as if he ran a marathon and was thoroughly exhausted this is because being mentally exhausted meant that he couldn’t think and his brain processing became very slow. After a while, he then calmed down and his energy was somewhat restored. While it was quite dangerous for Ignis, it was a blessing in disguised because he was enlightened on how to control and attract the Qi.

It could be said that Ignis was very lucky not only did he survived his careless mistake but also go a benefit from this disaster. Being able to sense and attract the Qi on the first day of cultivating can mean a lot to cultivators.

This is simply because while now at a young age he can start cultivating while for others they can only cultivate after a long time. This made Ignis take an early start in the young generation of cultivators. This small head start can mean one whole cultivation stage in the future and this could even mean that those that belong to the same generation as Ignis could only follow behind on his footstep.

However, this wouldn’t happen so easily, this is because Ignis is not the only genius in this world. While Ignis has, a head start due to his talent, others would also have an advantage due to their background and resources that are given to them. Not only that, while Ignis is tremendously talented, the world of cultivation has never lack talent, there may be people in the world that are talented as Ignis or even more talented.

After comprehending his enlightenment Ignis let out one long breath and wiped his sweats.

“Solace, let sleep here tonight.” Ignis, who was still exhausted, said to Solace who agreed with another small growl.

Authors Note: Chapters will be released on a daily base. If they aren't then it's probably due to my school life so I'm sorry about that.