Chapter 1: John Fenix

In the vast and endless expanse of space, only the distant shimmering stars could be seen, shining intensely throughout the cold and lifeless void.

However, within the endless void appeared a streak of immense power, tearing the very fabric of space itself wherever it passed. After an untold amount of years barreling through the infinite dark of space, the streak descended on a lonely planet at the edge of the universe.

At that moment, the dark of night gave way to day as the streak plummeted into the planet, upheaving the nearby land and rendering it asunder. After the dust settled, only ruin and devastation could be seen for tens of thousands of miles in each direction.

From all over the continent and beyond, thousands of experts descended upon the ravaged land, looking for whatever caused the immense destruction. However, the search ended up fruitless. From that day on, a legend was born about a heavenly meteor of apocalyptic power descending upon the land, destroying all in its path.

Endless eons passed, and legends turned to myth.

The Skycleave forest, at the foothills of the Skycleave mountain range, was a forest expanse that spanned for thousands of miles in each direction. Sitting at the base of Skycleave Mountain range, the vast unexplored woodland held secrets only known to experts. Within the forest, beasts are able to cultivate their bodies and become aligned with their surrounding elements, thus a large variety of magical beasts could be found there. Due to the danger associated with magical beasts, most humans avoid the forest out of fear.

Deafening howls echoed through the forest as a pack of wolves could be seen running, chasing someone. The midday sun shone through the forest canopy, revealing a young boy that had wounds all over his body. He was breathing heavily as he ran from the wolves. His long black hair, tied behind his head, bounced behind him, while his piercing black eyes focused on the obstacles ahead. His physique was much more refined than expected of one his age, and he had no problem evading the wolves. He reached a clearing in the forest, a single Pagoda tree stood above a small body of water, its leaves bright green. It stood thirty yards high with a trunk ten yards wide.

As the boy paused for a moment to take in the poetic scene, a wolf charged from a bush to his left. The boy turned and in an instant his greatsword slashed overhead down on the wolf. The beast didn't try to dodge the blow and was struck in the shoulder, the sword broke the hide of the wolf and the blade slammed into the shoulder joint. The impact set the wolf off balance due to the weight of the greatsword. The wolf continued his attack, attempting to claw the boy's arm holding the sword, but was too slow to notice the kick that followed the sword slash.

The wolf went flying into the nearby tree only feet away, at which point the boy kicked off the ground and dashed to the wolf, plunging his sword deep into the wolf's neck, killing it.

He pulled the sword out of the wolf's neck, blood spilling out and completely covered the wolf's underbelly. He quickly turned around, his long hair whipping behind him. The other wolves spared no time and in an instant, another wolf lunged at the boy. The boy raised his greatsword in an attempt to block the attack. He successfully parried the massive paw but was sent flying backwards thirty feet into a boulder.

"Gah!" the boy shouted in pain as his ribs nearly broke from the force of crashing into the rock. The boy wiped the blood from his lips, and slowly picked himself up.

Above him seven wolves stood, growling and snarling before simultaneously attacking the boy.

Suddenly, the ground was slightly upheaved as another boy crashed down in front of him. The force from his attack caused a small shockwave that knocked all of the wolves back. After slowly getting up, the wolves growled at the newcomer, but decided against attacking the new threat and fled the scene.

"John, you really need to think of another way to train. This training method is going to get you killed. Those wolves were equivalent to early body refining cultivators, while you are just a normal human."

The new boy walked over to the boy on the ground, and helped him get up.

"It's because I'm a normal human that I need to use these extreme methods to get stronger. Everyday I watch you and the rest of the clan grow stronger, while I just stagnate. Anyways, thanks for cleaning up this mess Ryan." retorted John.

John Fenix was the son of the Fenix clan leader's third son Barden, and was fourteen years old. Due to circumstances that no one understood, John was unable to cultivate. His clan had hired countless medical doctors to find out what was wrong with him, but none could identify any issues with his body. Ever since then, John tried all sorts of crazy things, even battling with powerful beasts, to try to activate his martial potential, but nothing had worked.

"Haha don't mention it. These beasts aren't anything worth fussing over." replied Ryan. Ryan had short brown hair, an average face and a slender build, with a cultivation level at the early Mist Creation realm. He was the son of a powerful Fenix clan Elder, and had been John's friend since they were toddlers as they were the same age.

John smiled but didn't reply. He looked back at the slightly upheaved ground from Ryan's attack, his gaze lingering for a while before walking off with Ryan.

They walked out of the forest and down a massive road before eventually arriving in front of a massive gate, with twenty yard tall walls stretching for several miles in each direction. As they approached the gate, the two guards stationed were about to stop the two newcomers, but noticed who they were.

"Welcome home young masters, was your forest expedition successful?" asked one of the guards.

"Very" replied John.

Ryan could only give a wry smile at the guard, but didn't say anything. The two of them walked past the gate and into clan grounds. The clan they stepped into was the Fenix clan, one of the most prominent powers in the area. The clan had nearly ten thousand members and controlled an area of several hundred miles in each direction. The clan grounds sprawled along the northern side of the Skycleave Mountains, with grand buildings, majestic waterfalls and towering mountain peaks visible in the distance.

"Where do you want to go next?" asked Ryan.

"Let's go to the Beast Trade Hall and sell these pelts. Although we get an allowance every month, extra money never hurts" replied John.

They turned onto the main clan road, which was one hundred feet wide and several miles long. Many shops, restaurants and other various buildings could be seen lining both sides of the streets as far as the eye could see. Side roads could be seen every few hundred feet, branching off into the distance. The road was bustling with people as they went about their daily lives. As John and Ryan walked down the street, they were greeted by many people.

"Welcome back young masters. How was your trip into the forest?" asked a middle aged man.

"It was good. I got exactly what I wanted from it" replied John.

"If what you wanted was almost getting killed sure" scoffed Ryan.

"Is he still going out and fighting beasts in the forest? John, you're going to get yourself killed. The clan leader won't be happy at all if that happens" said a middle aged woman.

"Don't worry auntie May, I'm always careful when I go out into the woods" John said back with a smile. Ryan could only roll his eyes as the two continued on down the road. They eventually came before a three story building, with various beast pelts decorating the outside entrance of the building. Walking up the stairs and into the building, they were greeted by the lady in charge of the Beast Trade hall. She looked to be around 25 years old and was quite good looking, with long black hair and large hazel eyes.

"Oh, if it isn't the young masters. What have you brought for me this time?" asked the lady.

"One Earth Wolf pelt. What can we get for this Anne?" John asked as he took the beast out of his storage ring.

Storage rings were quite amazing creations. One only had to think about opening the space of the ring, and the user would find their mind inside the dimensional area. With another quick thought, the desired item would appear out in the real world. Only through skilled artificing and knowledge of the heavenly spatial Daos could one make a storage ring.

The storage ring sat on his left pointer finger, and allowed for easy travel without having to carry items everywhere. Storage rings were fairly rare in the mortal world, but the Fenix clan had the means to provide them to all their young masters. The storage ring John had was quite a low level one, with an interior space of around ten feet on each side.

"One Earth Wolf is worth fifty copper coins. Unfortunately you brought me a fairly low level one, so I can only offer this much" said Anne.

"Fifty copper coins works for me." John replied as he gave over the pelt and collected the copper coins. After trading in the pelt, John and Ryan left the trade hall and continued towards the main clan living grounds, which was situated higher into the mountainside. Turning around a building corner, John bumped into another boy, and fell down.

"Watch where you're going trash." sneered the boy before continuing on his path. The boy was Parker Fenix. He had short black hair, and a face that looked perpetually arrogant. He was fifteen years old and was John's older cousin. Parker's father Orenn was the first son of the clan leader, and Parker carried a haughty attitude due to his status and talent of a Late Mist Creation realm cultivator.

After helping John to stand up, Ryan turned to look at Parker and muttered, "Man, Parker is just becoming more and more of an asshole every time we run into him."

"Well, he is the strongest junior of our clan. I suppose that can go to your head eventually." replied John while looking at Parker before turning back to Ryan. "Anyways, I'm going to go home and wash up. I'll be going to the martial library tomorrow. You want to come to the library with me?" asked John.

"You know I have no interest in studying weapon theory. All I need to do is be stronger than the enemy" replied Ryan.

John looked at Ryan for a bit before smiling and saying "Alright, well if you change your mind, you know where to find me. Later."

John brushed the dust off his black robe before walking in the direction of his mansion, which he arrived at a few minutes later. The mansion was quite large, with a dozen rooms of various purposes, and a sprawling courtyard which housed both a large garden and a small private martial training area.

Walking past the gardens, he entered his mansion and was greeted by a delicious smell. He followed the smell to the kitchen, where he noticed a woman cooking his favorite meal. She looked to be in her thirties despite being older, a youthful benefit provided from cultivating. Her name was Rachel Fenix, and she had long black hair, dark brown eyes and a smile that would warm the hearts of any who saw it.

"I'm back mom" John called out. Rachel turned around with a smile on her face before jumping slightly in shock.

"You're wounded everywhere. Did you go out into the forest again? I told you that it's dangerous. There are beasts out there that even I would fear" His mother exclaimed while tending to his wounds.

"It's alright, they're just scrapes and bruises. They'll heal in a few days. Besides, you're making me my favorite Golden Ox stew, so how could I let a few cuts ruin my day" replied John. He walked over to the pot and took a ladle of stew, blowing on it to cool it before tasting it.

"Delicious as always. When's dad getting home so we can enjoy dinner?" John asked just as the front door opened again and a man walked in. He had short brown hair, with a full beard and a slight scar on the right side of his face. The man was Barden Fenix, the clan leader's third son, and also John's father. He was a powerful Core Formation expert, and one of the most prominent figures in the clan.

He sniffed the air before turning happily towards the kitchen.

"Welcome back dad." John said as Barden Fenix walked into the room. Barden looked at John's condition for a second before laughing happily. He walked to John and slapped him on the back saying,

"I see you've been out fighting beasts again huh? Well that's good, a man should be daring regardless of the circumstances. Did you manage to take one down at least?" asked Barden with a smile on his face.

"Yep, managed to kill one Earth Wolf today. Ryan took out the rest though. Anyways, now that we're all here, let's eat." John replied while slightly wincing in pain from his dad patting the wounds on his back.

The family sat down at the dinner table and discussed the day's events. Barden detailed some of the issues the clan was dealing with, including the ongoing skirmishes with the Crimson Valley Sect.

"They keep getting more daring, although they don't dare start a war outright yet. Guess it's to be expected, but at least it's nothing too serious right now" Barden stated while chowing down some of the Golden Ox stew.

After finishing his meal, John thanked his mother for the meal and went upstairs to wash up. He washed all his wounds clean, put on a fresh black robe, and went to bed after an exhausting day.