Skyward Over God

In a world called "Edan" also known as the Halo World, the entire populace is filled with constant struggle for power and mystical resources; the goal of this strife; to become an Immortal through the art of Martial and Magical Cultivation. On this planet there exist more than a billion Spiritual Cultivators to the world they are known as Spiritualist.

There are many different kinds of martial cultivators; those that follow the just and upright path, and those who follow the way of the corrupt, and evil, and so on and so forth. In this world of "Cultivation" only those with true strength and talent have the right to speak their minds and spread their views, the weak are left to their own devices, unnoticed and uncared for.

On Edan, a single supermassive continent stretches the world in the shape of a ring; separating the oceans into two large bodies of saltwater. These two megalithic bodies of water are known as the Mother and Father Oceans, and they each contain over a hundred trillion islands of various sizes. Magnitudes of land ranging from as small as 10 square mile islands, to millions of square mile continents, exist on this planet, that are filled with the unknown wonders and mystical beings.

On one such a large continental sized island, was a young boy named Fei Lei, a young 4-year-old child, he has lightly tanned skin, long hazel-brown, braided hair that fell just below his knees, and because he was born with a rare mutation called heterochromia, the color of his eyes are a mix of crystal blue and sunset orange.

His body was around the same height and build as any other starving child, but around his wrist were two bracelet-like birthmarks that could easily be mistaken for as tattoos, that formed the shape of a cog with a single black and white Magatama in the center of them on the nerve of his wist.

The boy was being stared down by important Mages from a prestigious magical academy, the child was wearing a rag-ish grey outfit showing his poor standard. His name was Fei Lei, the orphaned son of a farmer and a woman who lost her memories at a young age, when he was 3 his parents were killed by a group of nefarious bandits, unable to pay for his home, he was kicked out of the worn down house by their Farm Lord; the man who owned the land.

With no one to care for his wellbeing, he was forced to live on the street, until one day as he was on the verge of starving to death on a crowded street, a strange man wearing blue robes appeared and stood over him before informing Fei Lei that he had the talent to become a mage and that he had an oversized Mana Pool.

He was taken in by that man and eventually led to the nearest spell tower, now he was here inside a cylindrically shaped room with blue artistically designed pillars surrounding the walls, above him was the balcony where the Mages were peering down at him.

He stood in front of a large magical glyph that would activate a calling towards their first Spell Sigil, every person whether it be a poor person or the king of this land himself, if they had a talent for magic, they would all come here to a Spell Tower like this one, in able learn there first spell and become a Adept; a beginner Spell Caster, "Step into magic circle!" One of the Mages from the tower shouted out.

The boy did with hope in his eyes, as he stepped into the ring a great and powerful cyan colored energy surged into the sky, "I see what you meant Damos. This boy does have exceptional Mana. He should form quite a powerful Core Sigil." One of the Mages commanded him.

As the boy underwent a massive life-changing event, he saw millions of Sigils appear before him, as if he were flowing through the massive expansiveness of space. He reached out his hand towards the sigil that seemed right for him, he couldn't explain what was happening, but he knew that this was meant to be.

As the room quieted down and the light faded a Grey Glyph stood in front of him in an almost gaseous form, it quickly shot into his body and imprinted itself on a massive magical core formed into existed in a separate plane directly inside his heart.

The Mages above began to laugh in a mocking tone, "To think he would gain the Human Transfiguration Spell, those that receive this sigil, are doomed to remain Adapts forever, there's no way to empower the Sigil so he can never solidify it and gain his second and will only be capable of learning non-elemental level 0 spells. What a waste of his enormous mana."

"HAHAHAHA! Damos you struck out, wasting 300 middle-grade Magic Beast Cores to perform a Sigil Calling Spell, I suppose he can shapeshift his facial features into a pretty boy image, and maybe make your money back by selling his ass to those Nobles." Another of the mages said kicking his feet against the chair he was sitting on.

Fei Lei's voice paled, he would have rather starved to death, he opened his mouth wide and was about to chomp down on his own tongue, when all of the sudden he felt his jaw lock up as he felt something grab the back of his neck.

"You little shit, do you know how much you cost me? I was hoping for a reward for finding a talent." The man burned with anger as Fei Lei struggled against an invisible hand, "Easy Damos, I know you struck out, he's just a kid, so chill with the wind magic will ya? You're not the only mage this is happened to, everyone has to take a chance to find a new talent, it's like playing the lottery." One of the Mages said placing his hand on Damos's shoulder.

"Yeah, he's no good to you dead, fix him up and get some of your money back by selling him." Another Mage said with laughter in his voice.

Damos took a breath and created a cloud and stood on it, Fei Lei's body was pulled over to him and then everything went black.

When he woke up, he found that he was fully healed, and nourished as if he had eaten enough to recover his fat, he to his dismay discovered that he was put to work at a slave encampment. A metal chain was strapped to his foot and he was stuck in a small 4x4 cell with large metal bars on a single open-air window, the ground was made of some kind of stone, and a straw hay bed with a single cheap cloth blanket was in the corner.

Fei Lei looked around as he saw that a single bucket placed near the window, and the skeleton of a recently decayed rat was rotting in near the wall.

His first night was the worst Fei Lei was used to simple labor but nothing compared to the strenuous work of a slave, unable to keep up with the demands of his horrid owners they savagely beat him, lashes of whips and club strikes railed against his body, after a savage strike to his skull he fell down and slavers left him for dead in the dungeon.

During that semi-comma the boy had dreams of another world, where he was also orphaned as a child and grew up to become one of the smartest geniuses of the century, he was just eight years old when he made his way into college and graduated by the time he was 12. He didn't just dream, but experience this life in fragmented sections, until the following week had passed. The guards would occasionally come in to beat on the child for kicks then one day the beatings stopped, and Fei Lei woke of to the feeling of something cooling the ache from his wounded body.

He tried to move when a rugged older male's voice called out to him, "Don't move I have to cut open the wound around your eye to stop the swelling, or else you risk losing your sight." Fei Lei didn't care what the man did as long as the pain stopped he would have let the person gut him if meant putting an end to his suffering.

Fei Lei felt a small swipe across the massive welt on his face, then the hot flow of blood dripping down his cheeks. Fei Lei got a good look at the old man he had a brawny bulky type of body, his face was rugged and he had a small beard where the edges have already grayed, his eyes were old even older than his face.

Fei Lei couldn't figure out what it was but there was something about his deep brown eyes that kept the boy thinking "How old is this man really?"

"A few of your ribs are broken and are lying against your lungs, you're also running a high fever, just sleep, I'll do what I can to help." Even he had told Fei Lei to stay awake it wouldn't have made a difference, the child had already passed out.

The days passed as the unknown man tended to the child's battered body. Several days later when Fei Lei felt well enough to talk he asked the old man "Who are you? What's your name?"

"Tetra, a slave just like you. What's yours?" The man had long grey hair, and a stern body that was covered in bruises, he had been taking the beatings for the boy and shielded him with his body allowing him to recover.

"Fei Lei." The boy answered looking down the man who saved his life, "Why are you helping me?"

"Because I can, and It's the right thing to do! If an innocent child is in front of you and they're hurting, of course, helping them is just common sense."

Fei Lei began to cry, "Then this world doesn't have any common sense." Tetra looked at the boy with pity

"What will you do about it, scorn the world because you haven't had a good life."

"No!" Fei Lei cried out

"Then what will you do? With your strength, there's not much you can do?" The stranger replied.

"They couldn't even allow me the dignity to die! I need power! I want my revenge, I want my justice!"

"What will you do when you manage to gain that power?" The elder questioned him again.

Fei Lei looked at Tetra "I want the power to right the injustice I see before my eyes, to avenge the injustice done to me, and help those less fortunate so that they never experience the pain I've lived through. It can't stop there though, there has to be more I can do, like stopping them before they ever get started down the path of evil, creating a set of laws that curve those from the path they're already on. Make them part of the solution, not the problem."

Tetra was surprised to be such wise and brave words from someone so young, he stood up before saying, "Then I will teach you."

"Teach me?" Fei Lei questioned

"The arts of self-defense of course!" The man replied with a huge grin on his face, Fei Lei's face changed as couldn't believe the sight of this old man demonstrate his martial prowess, for many days he observed the countless styles of combat collected throughout the old man's life.

"What I practiced is something from a broken style, all records of these skills have been lost from the world but only a single technique remained, it's a breathing technique that gathers Ather in the air to improve the strength-growth of the body, for instance, if you were to use what I teach you, you could build muscles faster and increase your strength-output and your body's durability. It can even increase the rate in which the body heals."

Fei Lei had recovered to the point where he could sit in the lotus position, he was then drilled in the technique and taught the breathing technique called the Four Season Breaths, First was the Breath of Summer, it could increase the body's stamina limits and increase the person's bone density over time, but during this phase the body would slowly begin to boil, the longer one could withstand the pain, the greater his future limits would be.

The Breath of Spring healed his body and increased his regeneration abilities several folds, it also nurtured his vital energy overtime which would extend his own lifespan.

The Breath of Fall would help shed the impurities in one's body, improving their physiques foundation greatly, continued use of this breath would result in a greater muscles type that could far surpass what humans had, like increasing the purity of steel to make it stronger.

Lastly was the Breath of Winter allowed one to increase their focus and reach a state of absolute clarity, prolonged use of this ability would increase the brains processing ability and allow for more coherent thoughts.