Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the world was at the peak of its era in the pursuit of power and knowledge. People ascended to the heavens and returned, walking amongst mortals. Great Buddhists, Evil Demons, Heavenly Celestials, Unfathomable Sages, Riders of Grand Majestic Beasts, Beloved Beings of Nature. Countless kinds of beings rose and fell. Countless kinds of method to ascend were known but a sudden change in the world changed that.

Pandemonium spread throughout the world and countless grand races and even grander sects and organizations fell. The huge surge had come to an end as each race went to one place or another to hide, higher beings ran to the higher realms to hide from the destruction of the lower realm. Countless deaths in all races happened and many are said to have been pushed to extinction.

Today, the world has regressed to what can be called a mediocre shadow of what was once a massive power that ruled the world. The races have each slowly crawled out of their holes and slowly spread their numbers once more, rediscovering what was once lost. New sects were born, clans spread, nations rise and war once more appeared.

Still the catastrophe had not only drastically changed the world but the energy of nature. Where once all kinds of power filled the air all over the massive planet no longer did this power appear. Instead the grand energies seemed as if something had snuffed a huge amount of it, now the areas were each energy appeared each possessed different kinds of energy. One region could simply have Qi, another could have Qi where each area within a region had specific element to it, there was mana which permeated the air in other regions, Spiritual force in others, infernal energy in another and so each massive region slowly claimed their own resource and their growth slowly diverted only towards these energies.

Only there was one type of being that could survive and grow in each and every kind. The most mysterious which were all called Riders. Beings who were one with their mounts born for each other and cultivated together.

DING! DONG!

“Oh? Seems class is over children, I hope you will all study and train properly because there is a test in two weeks.” A beautiful woman with long deep blue hair and sapphire eyes with a curvy body said.

She is one of the teachers of the Deo City Martial Schools.

In this city which numbers around 5 million, the Deo City Martial School is a 2nd rate school but it is first among its rating and it is the best school for small clans.

On this continent it is rare to find any other race besides humans and demons. The reason being that this continent has only three types of energy. Mana, an infinite universal energy that is like a dense gas and is easiest to feel, Qi, a hollowed energy which contains immense force and once compacted and made dense will be even fiercer than mana if used with Martial techniques. Finally there is Infernal energy, this is a chaotic cruel energy which few can safely absorb. It would be wrong to say that humans and demons are enemy but it is also wrong to say that it's a peaceful coexistence. The main problem lies with humans that train demon arts and lose their minds becoming massive killing machines. Demons have an innate affinity for Infernal energy which lets them properly filter the evil cruelness in the energy and make it into a killing intent which they use as a weapon but they aren’t innately cruel themselves.

Still the rise of devil sects make the relationship strained since human demon practitioners are very cruel in their methods since Infernal energy isn’t very abundant.

The children cheerfully cheer as they agree with the teacher. Most of the children were 9 or 10 years old and were learning history. School was mandatory for everyone, the school aided the clans and the four major sects of the city by teaching the basics of reading, writing, history and so on to the children. Beyond the basics was the family's responsibility.

As the children began to leave, one smaller than most, child in the back was packing his things. He strangely had a weak presence and his face seemed bruised. He moved slowly because of pain in his body.

This was Bo Ning, he was from a small family clan that existed in Deo City. More specifically he was the 3rd young master son of the clan patriarch. The clan is only 3rd rate and very weak. It has 3 branches of the family which is connected to the still living founder and grandfather of Bo Ning. Ning has two uncles, he has 2 older brothers and 1 younger sister while his uncles each had their own children.

Even though he is one of the young masters his ranking is very low.

“Oi trash fart!” Someone shouted as they arrogantly walked over and kicked his bag.

“What do you want?” He asked and went to get his bag.

“Oi trash! Are you giving I, your father, lip!” The cocky leader shouted. “Maybe we should help your family and beat you up further. Trash hated by his family is useless to the world.”

This cocky boy was from one of the higher level clans which are associated with a minor sect. In Deo City there were 4 Major Sects which controlled the city, and 20 minor sects which were established after them and were weaker by a grand margin.

Bo Ning picked up his things and simply turned to leave while the others sneered at him. The leading boy took a step forward and stuck his leg out to trip Ning but a boy who has been bullied would obviously be cautious if only a little and when he felt the leg he stopped and pulled the leg over the foot before walking out leaving the boy red faced because he was humiliated as his trick was seen through. “That trash! I’ll teach him to respect the strong!” the boy shouted and ran out in a different direction.

There were a few other classes before the end of the day and he left before reaching the simple carriage which would take him back home. It was the poorest, most rickety carriage the Bo Clan had and only Ning rode on it.

Besides the sects, clans had a specific district known as the noble district. All clans were regarded as nobles by commoners. This district was on the south side and was incredibly big. It could even be called a town of its own because there was a 1 hour gap between the commoner districts in the city where there was only wilderness and open fields.

As the carriage ran through jumping about it suddenly came to a stop.

“GET OUT TRASH!” A familiar voice called and Ning looked out only to see the boy who had previously bullied him and behind him was a taller boy which was the boy’s big brother.

“Oi, you want me to kill this brat? Isn’t he the fart trash?” the boy said.

“Even if I wanted to kill him I can’t his body is like a rock since he completed the body foundation 5 years ago and ever since has been only doing that since he can’t cultivate. Even if I wanted to I can’t hurt him enough for that.” The boy said.

“Right, I heard of that. Trash get out here.” The tall boy said.

Still there was no reaction and the coachman was just looking as if it had nothing to do with him. With a sigh he waved his hand and two friends walked over and opened the door and in an instant Ning was thrown out on his face with all his backs and things. Walking over the tall boy took out a gold coin and tossed it to the coachman and nodded and with a nod the man turned away. “Wait about an hour and then return saying the brat never showed up.”

“Yes sir.” The man said. He was just a commoner so why would he go against someone with power.

“Let’s go.” The boy said and the two friends grabbed the boy and dragged him away with the little brother grabbing the things left on the ground to dump as well. In the forest they walked a long time, Ning had never made a single sound, he had faced this a lot of times. Taken to hidden places and beaten, it has allowed him to have quite a strong body.

“Hey Brother, we shouldn’t go too far, that is the way to the Nine Falls Canyon. It’s breeding season!” The little brother said.

“Don’t worry, we will just go to a cliff and kick him off. Let the fall kill him or the magic beasts or maybe even a demon beast.

In this region, there are three types of monsters. Magic Beasts, Profound Beasts, and Demon beasts. Each correspond with the energy they most absorb. Demon beasts are also the rarest since Infernal energy is the least dense around this area while mana is first place with Qi as second.

“Still this kid is so quiet.” One of the boys said while dragging Ning.

“Yeah, he’s already suffered all this countless times. His own family beats him up. I heard only his grandfather and mother really care about him and the old man beats him up to refine his body to be even stronger than demon beast but if this idiot can’t even cultivate any of the energy then its useless.” the little brother said.

“If I come out of this…” Ning suddenly said, “If I come out of this, survive and am able to get stronger… you four better wash your necks.” He said.

“Huh! Ahahahah!” The four laughed. None of them cared or put it to heart.

They walked for about an hour before suddenly the trees vanished and they appeared at a sudden cliff overlooking a massive drop and below were clouds and visible far away were trees that were high enough to reach over the clouds.

“Well, any last words trash?!” The tall boy said.

“Yeah… I can’t wait until I can kill you all and sell all the women of your clan to a slave trader.” He said.

The face of all the boys turned to sneers and they began to beat him up. “Don’t know what's good for you! DIE!” The tall boy shouted as he kicked Ning in the stomach and then grab him by the leg and spin him around and throw him off the cliff. “Let's go back before our parents think something happened.”

They all quickly run off leaving Ning to fate.