Chapter 2 - Rebirth

It is the last few weeks of the winter season. Every creature is waiting for this freezing winter to end and a warm summer to begin.

The Winter season was harsher and colder than previous years, but that didn't diminish the festivity of the market. You can see children running around to different stalls and couples taking a stroll, enjoying their time in this weather.

The market is quite lively today due to the winter festival.

With cobbled roads and strongly built buildings, a magnificent city stood tall, covered with fortified walls from all sides.

Such is Emerald City. One of the few remaining safe havens from the ferocious spirit beasts.

Although it's called a city, it is too large to be labelled as one, as it spans thousands of miles in area.

It got its name from the surrounding Emerald mountain range, which is laden with snow in the winter. But when the summer season begins, the molten snow and the greenery create a picturesque view, just like an emerald shining in the sunlight.

The Emerald Mountain Range is a natural guardian that protects humans from an everlasting feud with spirit beasts, sheltering humans from the beasts who have occupied most of the Forsaken Boundary.

Emerald City has always been fighting with the spirit beasts in order to survive and thus had to create gigantic walls around it to provide protection.

And due to its advantageous location, even though the walls get destroyed from time to time, the city has managed to survive for the last hundreds of years.

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On a cobbled roadside, Feng Qian's weak-looking body lay. He had passed out due to cold and exhaustion.

"Feng Qian. Feng Qian," a chubby looking kid was searching for him, yelling his name out loudly in the streets.

Even in this cold weather, the chubby kid was sweating profusely.

Making his way through the crowd, he tried to look for his friend everywhere. This morning, Feng Qian had told him that he was working part-time to earn some copper coins for the spirit crystals.

As the kid passed by an alley, he saw the pale-faced Feng Qian's body lying in the snow. He bent down and took the support of his knees, and panted heavily.

It has been tough for him to search for Feng Qian.

Mumbling to himself, the chubby kid tried to wake him up, and then he picked Feng Qian up on his back and tried to take him back to the institute's dormitory.

The scene was quite funny as the chubby kid himself had a hard time walking, but now he was trying to take someone else on his back.

Many onlookers saw the scene and tried to hold on to their laughter, while some came to help the kid in sending Feng Qian back to the dormitory.

It was quite a long journey, but the chubby kid finally made it to their room.

Placing his cold body on the wooden bed and tucking him under the quilt, the thirteen-year-old kid complained and grumbled, "I warned this guy not to overwork himself. If I hadn't found him, he might've died."

After a while, Feng Qian's body started to sweat, and Feng Qian squirmed and frowned as if he was in great pain.

Maybe it was the physical pain that he had gone through today in order to earn some money, or maybe it was something else entirely.

After the initial darkness, a brutal scene emerged in the unconscious mind of Feng Qian.

He saw his allies getting killed by the brutal invaders. Those people, who were the sole reason for his living, he watched them die one by one in order to protect the common people.

In the end, he was the only one standing from his sect. But then he was backstabbed by those scums.

The scene changed, and he saw the bluish bead that he had always kept beside himself. It was soaked in his blood, and just moments after his soul shattered, the bead had absorbed all of it and burst into tiny pieces and vanished.

A few moments later, Feng Qian woke up screaming, and the two copper coins rolled down the floor making a clinking noise.

AAARGHHHHH...

His screaming made the chubby guy startled and scared.

"I'm not dead. Hahaha. Heavens have Eyes. Hahahaha." Feng Qian maniacally laughed as his eyes turned red.

"I don't know about heavens, but it was 'these eyes' that saw you unconscious in the streets." The fat kid pointed at his eyes and complained, "And of course, you're not dead. I had to bring you all the way from the market to the dormitory on my back."

Coming back to his senses, Feng Qian stared intensely at the kid who had saved him. His eyes opened wide as if he had seen a ghost. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Guo Pang? You! You are alive? Hahaha, you're alive," Feng Qian yelled happily as he jumped out of bed and rushed to hug him.

"Hey, cut it out! I'm not into that stuff. I like beauties, not men," Guo Pang said, making a disgusted face and then asked angrily, "And what do you mean by you're alive? Do you want me to die?"

"I won't let you go. It's been a long time. By the way, why are you still so small? You're just like a little kid." Feng Qian asked seriously, ignoring his other half question.

"Did you hit your head too hard when you fell? We just met this morning. And we are little kids." Guo Pang asked confusingly.

Feng Qian was confused. But then he looked at his own tiny hands and small height, making him surprised.

He searched for a mirror and looked at his reflection. He was shocked to see his 13-year-old self.

"Was it all a dream?" He questioned himself.

"No! it was all real. I'm sure of it." He remembered fighting those disgusting Invaders and his allies getting killed one by one.

He remembers getting backstabbed by the Rulers of the two Races.

"Have I somehow travelled back in time?" Feng Qian's heart skipped a beat by having an idea that seemed too ridiculous to be true. But everything that was in front of him appeared to be 'real'.

If it was 'true' that he had travelled back in time, then he could change many things, save his friends and family from the tragedy that's going to 'befall' in this Emerald City.

Most importantly, he could also see 'her' once again. And this time, Feng Qian could fulfill her wish of spending eternity together.

"Which year is it?" He grabbed Guo Pang's arms and asked him fervently.

"Ahh. That hurts. It's the year 974 of Sacred Era." Fatty Guo replied.

After taking a few deep breaths, Feng Qian remembered that he had gone to work for a few stalls to earn money and had managed to 'earn' two copper coins, but when he was coming back, he fell due to exhaustion.

In his past life, he was bedridden for a month due to the cold entering his body. But this time, Guo Pang managed to find him early. Maybe this was the butterfly effect.

"Hmm. That means we have just enrolled in the institute. I still have time for maneuvering a lot of things," Feng Qian mumbled to himself, "You bastards, wait for me. I'll come back to take my revenge."

Guo Pang scratched his head as he was confused by the weird behaviour of his best friend.

Time passed as night came. Feng Qian slipped out of the dormitory and walked into the empty garden. He found a nice spot under the moonlight and sat down cross-legged in the lotus position. He was trying to remove the remaining cold from his body.

He started practising the Ancient Qi breathing technique.

'Ancient Qi breathing technique' was a fundamental exercise that most 'warrior' or 'spiritists' had to practice in order to accumulate Qi for entering into the Qi Gathering stage.

In the world of Forsaken Boundary, the Ancient Sages have developed a way to rise above the mortal flesh, having the ability to flatten mountains and drain seas.

The first step towards the path of cultivating Qi is resonating with nature and absorbing the Qi in your body and then into the dantian through different breathing techniques.

Over the time, different experts have created their own versions of breathing exercises that are faster and easier to accumulate, but those techniques are treated as family treasures and are not spread to outsiders.

Ancient Qi breathing technique, on the other hand, is much slower and is hard to practice, but it is much more widespread and can be found in the street for a single copper coin.

Feng Qian, who was known as 'The Chaos Monarch' had read extensively about different cultivation techniques under the heavens to stand out above the two hegemonic races and eventually rising above them with his knowledge and poor talent.

But despite that, he still chose one of the most widespread and low-level techniques that many people despised.

What most people didn't know about the technique is that, it takes time because it purifies the natural qi to its utmost, and helps in creating a strong foundation for the future.

It also has hidden benefits of purifying your body using qi which many people didn't know about.

In his previous lifetime, Feng Qian had given up on this technique and had chosen another martial art manual that he had found in the ruins. But later on, after his rise in cultivation and knowledge, he found out about the hidden advantage of this technique.

There are two types of cultivation in general, body cultivation where you enhance your physical capabilities and Qi cultivation where you cultivate the natural Qi to become a warrior or Spiritist.

Body cultivation is hard to practice and requires a lot of resources which is hard to get in the present times due to various reasons, therefore Qi cultivation is more prevalent in the Emerald City.

Every person, whether a commoner or someone from a noble clan dreams of becoming a spiritist and having unfathomable power just like that of the City Lord.

This is why they try to get admission into the Lotus institute in the capital where Feng Qian is now.

After checking his present condition and circulating the breathing technique a few times, Feng Qian stood up and went back into the dorm.

He laid in bed, trying to sleep but was just too excited about the future.