Chapter 6: Spiritual Root

After that event Lu Bu's already impressive show of strength had somehow become divine strength in the mouths of the common people. One run through the rumor mill and Lu Bu was now a child that could crush mountains and part oceans, the pride of the Lu clan. Of course with the history behind his name, in order not to shame him, many started to refer to him as the Young Wolf and seldom used his given name.

More important to the Lu family than his ever growing legend though, was that the Young Miss seemed to have been enlightened by the event. She soon was the model Young Miss fit to be a future clan leader, she was constantly studying and even requesting to begin her cultivation early.

In his tutoring with the Young Miss, Lu Bu learned that on this Ares continent they practiced the gathering and manipulation of spiritual essence. This process was called cultivation and was possible through two things.

The most important being the spiritual root. This so called spiritual root would ideally form naturally after ten years of being alive on the continent.

Most young masters and well off individuals on the Ares Continent forcibly awakened their spiritual root at the age of five and began their cultivation soon after. A common individual with some talent would naturally awaken their root at the age of ten, but would often not have a suitable cultivation method until years later. The least talented individuals would awaken their root in their twenties, if at all, and would likely never receive a suitable cultivation method.

Apart from it's awakening condition spiritual roots were also further divided in to their own classes. The classification was mortal, warrior, and holy roots which were further divided into low, middle, and high tier. Without a spiritual root it was impossible to cultivate and gather spiritual essence regardless of the martial arts cultivation method used.

Which made the use of martial arts the second most important aspect of cultivation on the Ares continent. The inhabitants used cultivation manuals that helped the inhabitants of the planet process the energy of heaven and earth, or spirit, and had it gather in their body. The mobilization of the spirit energy gathered in the body would then be facilitated by martial art manuals. By using spirit energy those on the Ares continent could then perform fantastic feats of strength. Some could achieve flight, manipulate the elements, and some of the strongest could really crush mountains and part oceans.

Martial arts were the life blood of this world. As it was commonly known on the Ares continent, warriors were physically no match for beasts. It was said the ancient humans, ancestors of all, created martial arts in an effort to change this situation. These ancient humans sacrificed much for the creation of martial arts in order to end the slaughter of countless humans at the hands of beasts in their time. Through countless sacrifices they eventually achieved success, ironically by imitating the beasts they hated so much.

The practice of martial arts continued from era to era and countless human descendants built upon its foundations. Through these efforts and subsequent years of experimentation the use of martial arts slowly managed to even the odds between human and beasts. The common ten to one loss of life ratio against beasts could even become one to one through the use of martial arts, and among the strongest, even zero.

So the importance of cultivation was heavily ingrained into the beings on the Ares continent. Before awakening the spiritual root all humans were considered common mortals. This group often only contained children or those whose spiritual root was damaged or simply never awoken.

After awakening the spiritual root and you began on the road of cultivation, you were considered a Mortal Fighter. The Mortal Fighter realm was most common among young adults and was divided into nine tiers similar to the subsequent higher realms. After Mortal Fighter followed Mortal Warrior which was the most common realm for the inhabitants of the Ares continent, if you could cultivate, this was the realm you'd reach at the bare minimum. Last but not least were Mortal Generals like clan leader Lu Da, this realm was the peak among mortals and was most common among the upper class.

Lu Bu had little concrete information of the ability the realms that followed the Mortal Realm had, but he knew they were called the Combat and Holy Realm respectively. He also learned that the first two stages of any realm were fighter and warrior which was a representation that the human cultivator had the strength to fight against the insidious beasts that were scattered through out the continent. Only the third stage in each realm had a unique title attached to it. These titles being General, King, and Emperor.

The constant pestering from the Young Miss to begin her cultivation was the new thing giving clan leader Lu Da anxiety. This was one of the few things he had no idea how to achieve for his daughter.

While the Lu clan was considered an upper class clan and he was their clan leader, he could do little in this respect. The Lu clan was a behemoth in the Holy Raiment Empire and they definitely had dominion over the Three Rose Kingdom they inhabited. Despite that the Lu clan leader Lu Da, was actually not considered well off enough to forcibly awaken a spiritual root for his daughter. This form of treatment was reserved only for those in the royal family line of the Lu clan.

The Lu clan was actually quite a peculiar clan on the Ares continent by having a distinction between three portions of their own bloodline.

The first portion, the Lu branch family, actually contained very little of the Lu family blood and was called the Crimson bloodline. It mostly contained the Lu Family servants. The main family would use a special brand similar to a crimson diamond and apply it to a new servants forehead when they would induct them into the branch family. The mystical thing about the brand was that after receiving it, these individuals would then give birth to children already bearing the brand as well. hence the Lu branch family was often called the Crimson bloodline due to the crimson birth marks. The mark itself indicated that the individual bearing it was born from the partnership of a main Lu family member and a servant, or a servant and another servant.

The main family had no brand on their foreheads but could also be distinguished by the peculiar trait they all had. On Earth it would be called a mutation but on the Ares continent it was called bloodline ability. The members of the main Lu bloodline could turn their eyes an icy blue by circulating their bloodline through the use of a unique martial art. It was known that if a Lu family members eyes turned blue they would become fearless and their strength would increase a tier above what it should be. This was called the Azure bloodline and was what allowed the Lu family to hold power.

Above the main family though was the royal family. While Lu Da was in fact the clan leader that led the Lu main family, he actually did have to answer to someone above him. This would be the Lu Royal family. This part of the family was the real reason they held dominion over the Three Rose Kingdom. With out it the Lu clan would just be a lackey to its king like the Sol clan. The descendants of the Royal Lu bloodline were actually related to the Emperor of the Holy Raiment Empire by marriage and they ended up gaining a variation to their bloodline ability. Apart from the benefits of the Azure bloodline they could also display the traits of the Holy Raiment Emperors bloodline by forming an azure crystalline armor around their bodies. So apart from being known as the royal bloodline, they were also known as the crystal bloodline of the Lu clan.

Lu Da was desperately searching for alternative ways to achieve what his daughter desired, but eventually with no other options left he decided to head for the capital of Three Rose Kingdom and seek a favor from the king.