——PART 1: RAIDER ORIGIN——
It was a cold night in the East Canyons. The sound of the wind was overshadowed only by that of the torrential rain pouring down.
Nevertheless people were celebrating in the Barren Settlement. Tonight was a special night, it was the night the Clan Chief had chosen to announce his successor.
The Barren Settlement was called so because when humans first arrived here the land was absolutely barren. Nothing could grow here, and yet humans could survive.
The only reason for that was because every single one of those humans were cultivators. From their birth, these humans were born with cultivation and thus didn't require nourishment other than Natural Energies.
Even the babies who weren't able to cultivate for themselves were able to survive with the help of their parents.
The couple of hundred or so humans here, while united under the same clan, came from different families. The only thing they had in common, other than being able to cultivate from birth, was that they had all been driven away from their homes. This Barren Settlement had become a refuge for the unwanted talented cultivators of this world.
However, there was an exception. There was a boy in this settlement who was unable to cultivate from birth like the others. In fact, even now, as a 12 year old, he was still unable to cultivate.
The only reason he was able to survive in this barren land was because he was kept as a slave by the clansmen. Those powerful enough to travel to faraway lands would bring back enough food and water to keep him alive.
Being unable to cultivate, the boy was a pretty useless slave to the clansmen. The main reasons why they kept him there and alive were pity, cruelty and pride. They weren't proud of him, of course. They were proud of their lineage, of their ability to cultivate from birth.
They kept him as a reminder that they were unordinary. They kept him as a reminder that they were gifted.
On this night, Soho, the Clan Chief, had decided to announce his future successor. A magical and mystical fire was lit in the middle of the settlement. This fire could not be put out by any rain or wind, no matter how strong they poured or blew.
In this fire stood a young man. He appeared to be only around 18 years old but had a robust build. He had long hair floating around him due to the heat of the flames but he didn't look like someone being burned alive. Instead, he looked more like someone being anointed by the flames.
In fact, he was the chosen successor. His name was Alexander and he was the son of the current Clan Chief.
While all those who arrived in the Barren Settlement discarded their last names and became a part of the Clan, family ties always remained. It was also for this reason that the Original Settlers, as they came to be known, had issued a decree discouraging Clan Chiefs to choose their successors among their descendants.
This decree was passed in order to assure the continued harmony between the families and equilibrium within the Clan. Nobody knew why Clan Chief Soho decided to disregard this decree but no one dared to question him because he had recently broken through an unprecedented realm.
The Cultivation Realms in the Barren Settlement were named after bodies of water. At birth, cultivators entered the Dew Realm. For most, they would reach the Puddle Realm around 10 years of age and the Pond Realm by thirty. The Lake Realm was the demarcation point between the common and the powerful. Only a dozen or so clansmen had reached this realm.
Above the Lake Realm were the Stream Realm, the River Realm, the Sea Realm and the legendary Ocean Realm. These were the teachings left behind by the Original Settlers.
Currently, apart from the Clan Chief who had recently been the first since the Original Settlers to break past the River Realm to enter the Sea Realm, all the most powerful cultivators in the settlement were stuck in the Stream Realm. That was why no one dared to argue with him.
At this moment, while everyone was reluctantly celebrating, a group of six children were running and cheering in the barren land surrounding the settlement.
It had to be said that those kids were truly fast. While none of them appeared to be older than eight or nine years old, they could all easily outrun a non-cultivating adult.
Most impressive of all, one of them seemed to be floating on puddles of water while advancing.
A few dozen meters ahead of them, another child was running and panting. Unfortunately, this kid was much slower than the ones chasing him. In addition, he seemed to be putting in his full efforts to run at such a speed whereas the others were not even breaking a sweat. That panting child was Raider, the slave.
"Come on trash, run faster!", yelled out one of the chasing kids.
"Yeah! Make us work for it!", added another pursuer.
"This is no fun", complained yet another one. "He's way too slow for us, we should have three year olds running after him".
As the kids were shouting insults at the fleeing teen in front of them, they were surprised to discover that he had suddenly disappeared.
"Huh? Where did he go?", voiced out one of them.
In actuality, Raider hadn't disappeared. He had fallen. He had fallen into an abyss.
"Aaaaaaaaah", he screamed.
"Aaaaaah", he kept on screaming and screaming for an indefinite amount of time as he kept on falling and falling.
The abyss he had disappeared into seemed to be infinitely deep and was completely pitch black. So dark that he couldn't he see his own hands.
As Raider kept on falling, the kids above ground had gathered around the spot where they had last seen him. However, there was no hole.
"Where could he have gone?", asked one of them.
"Was this trash able to cultivate after all?", suggested one of them.
"Nonsense. Let's go back and tell my father.", said the one who had been floating on puddles. He seemed to be the leader of this group.
As the kids ran back to the settlement at their fastest speeds, much faster than they had chased Raider, the latter was still falling into this abyss.
'What the *** is going on?', he asked himself. 'Could it be that I died?'
His surroundings were pitch black and he had no way to tell up from down. If it wasn't for the wind resistance pushing up against him, he wouldn't even know he was falling.
---
A while later, the chasing children arrived at the settlement.
"Father! Father!", called out the leading boy, pushing through the crowds around the burning fire.
"Foolish child. Don't you know not to make a ruckus at such an important time?", Clan Chief Soho retorted. He seemed to be enraged by his younger son's interruption.
"Soho, Adam is an intelligent boy, he wouldn't disturb this occasion for no reason", voiced out the boy's mother, Serena, in his defence.
"Speak.", said Soho in a still angered yet slightly milder tone.
"Father, the slave is gone!", said Adam.
"Gone? What do you mean gone?", interrogated his father.
"We were playing outside the village and he suddenly disappeared.", explained the child.
"Disappeared? How did he disappear?", asked Soho.
"I don't know. We were playing tag and gave him a head start and all of a sudden he was gone. None of us saw what happened and there was nothing where we last saw him."
"This... Show me where it happened."
"Father, shouldn't we finish the ceremony first?", asked Alexander who was still standing in the flames.
"We can finish it later, let's go investigate first." refused Clan Chief Soho. After all, a greedy person was unable to tolerate losing any of their possessions, no matter how worthless they might be.
After saying these words, the Clan Chief waved his hands in a circular motion and the rain pouring down around him gathered into two huge pillars of water. These pillars coiled themselves up to form two platforms of water and swept up some of the adults standing around the fire as well as the kids that were chasing Raider and Alexander who had yet to step out of the flames.
As the water gathered into platforms, the people swept up by it found themselves standing on the bodies of water. On one were the kids, including Adam and Alexander, and the Clan Chief and on the other were the adults chosen by the Clan Chief to help them investigate.
Impressively, the fire in the middle of the village was not put out by the sweeping pillar of water.
Just like that, a dozen or so people flew into the air and, guided by Adam and the other kids, went towards the location of Raider's disappearance.
As all of this was happening, Raider was still falling and had no idea of what was going on in the settlement. He had calmed himself and stopped screaming as he waited to crash into the ground and surely die. His mindset at the moment could only be described as restless, bewildered and impatient.
Moments later, Soho, his two sons and the other clansmen arrived at the site of Raider's disappearance.
"This is where you last saw him?", asked the Clan Chief.
"Yes.", replied Adam while the other kids, who didn't dare to speak, nodded their heads submissively.
"And none of you saw anything?", questioned Soho, clearly puzzled.
"No.", replied Adam once again, as the other kids all shook their heads.
"Strange...", murmured Soho.
He jumped down from the water platform and landed firmly on the ground at the exact spot Raider disappeared from. He cast his gaze all around himself as he investigated.
"There are clear footsteps up to this point and judging by the size, they should definitely be that slave's... but they suddenly stop here.", he said to himself out loud. "These smaller ones should be the kids' when they came to have a look but there's truly nothing else…"
"What do you all think could've happened?", he asked the crowd who was still on the other platform.
At this moment, no one said anything. After all, when even their Clan Chief couldn't figure out what happened, how could they?
"Father, I just thought of something. May I speak?", called out Alexander out of the blue.
"Sure, what is it?", agreed his father.
"What if somebody took him away?", proposed Alexander.
"Why would anyone take that trash away?", voiced one of the adults standing on the other platform in an unpleasant tone. His name was Sander and he was one of the few Stream Realm cultivators of the Clan.
"Watch your tone when you speak to your future Clan Chief!", erupted Soho. Evidently he didn't like someone disagreeing with his son.
"My apologies Lord Clan Chief, my apologies Young Master Alexander."
It could be seen from that Sander's reaction that he was quite afraid of this father-son duo.
"Merely, this lowly one doesn't understand why someone would take away some trash unable to cultivate and who would do such a thing.", Sander continued in a meek voice.
"Fool, we've kept him as a slave for so long, we've fed him just to toy with him. If we've done that, couldn't someone else also wish to do that?", rebuked the Clan Chief.
"Lord Clan Chief, wouldn't that mean that a cultivator has come to this place, that they've found our Clan?", voiced another Stream Realm cultivator by the name of Gregor.
"...", At this moment, Clan Chief Soho's face fell. He seemed to be in deep contemplation.
After a short moment of reflexion, his expression grew uglier and a worried frown covered his face.
"We must go back to the settlement. Prepare for the worst.", he called out as he jumped back onto the water platform his sons stood on.
Soho motioned with his hands and the two platforms were on their way, this time much faster than when they had come to investigate.
Shortly after they had returned and with urgent expressions the adults quickly gathered their wives and children in order to hide them in an underground location.
This place was only accessible through a special passage concealed within the property of the Clan Chief and was prepared especially for situations like these.
That said, no-one in the current generation of clansmen had ever had the need to hide themselves like this. Thus, it was an unprecedented and astonishing experience for all of them.
Only the Clan Chief and a select few individuals that had reached the Stream Realm remained above ground in order to stand guard.
The fire in the middle of the village could not be extinguished so it had to be covered up. Impressively, even the lack of oxygen wouldn't snuff it out. From this is could be seen that this fire was truly mystical.
As the Clan went on high alert, Raider was still falling in that endless abyss. It had been roughly an hour since he had disappeared from his pursuers' sight.
In that time, he had managed to adjust his frame of mind and was now patiently waiting to die. To him, death was better than enslavement so he wasn't particularly sad about the matter. His only regret would be that he didn't know who his parents were or where they were. Although the clansmen had told him that they had picked him up by chance when he was an infant, he had no idea if his parents were aware of that fact or even if they were dead or alive.
As he was caught up in contemplation, he didn't notice that his surroundings had slowly started brightening up. It was only when he noticed a faint light coming from below him that he was woken from his thoughts.
'Finally this is the end.' he told himself. 'I finally get to die.'
He closed his eyes and awaited to crash into the ground, only hoping that it would be painless.
Through his closed eyes he could feel his surroundings becoming brighter and brighter. He could even feel a faint heat coming from the bottom of the abyss. As the light and heat intensified he prepared himself for everything to go dark as that would mean his death.
However, that moment never arrived.
Raider opened his eyes but soon closed them again due to the sudden brightness. Once his eyes adjusted and he was able to open them again, he was surprised to discover that he hadn't crashed into the ground like he hoped he would.
Instead, he was floating a few centimetres above it.