Igor Kozlov
It is supposed to be another normal day at the training field. For some reason, his master seems to be beside himself today. If it is any other day, his master will always have something to nitpick on while he trained. Sensing something might be amiss, Igor asked, "Master, is something wrong?"
His master, Conrad Baltazar is an enigma and exist in the form of a soul. He first came into his life a year ago after Igor found a gemstone encased necklace while playing in a forest near his village. Although Conrad has been keeping his background a secret, the cultivation art he has been teaching him is way superior to what the family possess, a grade eight art. Just like there are ten grades to cultivation talent, cultivation arts are also split into ten grades as well. Grade nine being the worst while heaven grade is the best. The grade of a cultivation art limits how far a cultivator can progress in their cultivation realm. As a matter of fact, it was far superior to the cultivation art the mother he has never met had left for him, a grade six cultivation art. He half suspected his master is from the immortal realm and should be the disciple of one of those grand and majestic immortal sects.
"I am not quite sure Igor. It's just that I suddenly sense that your fate seems to have been supercharged. You will be encountering a great fortune soon." Conrad cautiously answered.
A great fortune? His biggest fortune to date is meeting his current master. Beyond that, his life is just slightly better than a lot of others in the kingdom or maybe slightly less than ordinary than others. The Kozlov family is the only cultivation family in the village making them the most powerful and also the wealthiest household in the village. With three cultivators in the first major realm and two among them at the peak stage, the Kozlov family can even be considered one of the most powerful family in the surrounding villages. If his father is included, their family will definitely be the undisputed overlord. However, his father who is at the second major realm has his inner core damaged leaving him out of the equation. His father will not participate in any battle unless it is a matter of lifer or death.
Before Igor's father injury, he was the hope of the family to elevate their standing when he got accepted into a sect led by a forth major realm cultivator. The family's hope came crashing down seven years ago when his father suddenly returned to the village with a damaged inner core and a toddler in his arm. Even until today, his father has been anything but forthcoming whenever the topic of his mother was brought up. If Lin Feng ever heard Igor's history, he will definitely be rendered speechless. Igor experience is the typical background story of those popular Xianxia novels' protagonist back on earth.
"Don't…" Before Igor can even complete what he is about to say, their mansion's alarm has started blaring. This is a warning that a group of unidentified outsiders are rapidly approaching their village and it is a call to arm. In a world with deviant sect and evil cultivators, one couldn't be too careful.
Igor immediately rushed towards the main hall where children and non-combatants are supposed to gather. Seeing his father taking charge and issuing instructions the moment he enters the main hall, he waited by his side and started asking questions the moment his father has everything temporarily sorted out. "What's going on father? Is it one of the dukes' armies? They have been leaving us alone so far. Did something happen?"
"I'm not sure son. Your…" His father stopped mid sentence as his expression turns pale. Without even giving him an answer, his father has rushed out of the main hall.
"Your father must have sensed the presence of more than twenty second major realm cultivators. Seems like the outsiders are deliberating showing their might to supress any thought of resistance. I just took the chance to scan the surrounding. Things aren't looking good if the outsiders are hostile. The village has been surrounded by even more second major realm cultivators. It will be impossible for anyone to escape. Not only that, I sense a barrier covering the entire village. We won't even be able to send out a distress signal and wait for help." Conrad explains. "You might as well go to the village entrance as well. I don't have all the answers yet but your fate changing might have something to do with this."
*****
When Igor approaches the entrance of the village, he can see almost all the village adult males standing in a defensive position ready for battle. It can be seen from their body language everyone is afraid. Then again, there are facing a bunch of mighty cultivators. Most of them are just mortals and given a chance, they would have gotten on their knees pleading for mercy.
"You can rest easy for now. Those cultivators are not from a deviant sect. Their karmic ties are too normal for them to be evil cultivators. We still need to be wary of them though. Each of them are wearing something special that helps to conceal their appearance, voice, aura or any other elements that can help to identify them. It seems a bit suspicious that they are being so secretive." His master tries to provide some answer sensing Igor's growing unease. Before Igor can proceed further to the front of the crowd, he heard his grand uncle making a loud announcement, "Everyone, the village is going to surrender. The noble cultivators have promised not to harm anyone as long as we don't resist. Lay down your weapons on the ground."
The announcement just made Igor's unease worse. What is actually going on? He squeezed his way to the front to see his grand uncle in negotiation with an outsider. His father is standing next to him listening on the whole conversation. The sight of his father immediately reassured his unease and curiosity quickly took over. All those outsiders looks mysterious being drape in a black cloak and behind them seems to be a number of metal wagons blocking the village entrance. However, the magic beasts towing the wagons isn't anywhere within sight.
"Master, do you recognize those metal wagons? I don't see any magic beasts. Are all those metal wagons magically enchanted vehicles?" Igor immediately asks his master with his inner thought.
After taking some time to analyze one of the metal wagon's design, Conrad is quite stumped himself. This is the first time he has ever seen such vehicles in large numbers. If his guess is right, these vehicles are all propelled directly using spirit energy. However, such vehicles are rare even in the immortal realm. It can be considered a luxury toy for a prodigal cultivator below the third major realm to move around on the ground and operates by burning spirit stones. If the vehicle moves by burning money, how can the user not be labelled as being prodigal flaunting their family's wealth? However, here lies the weirdness of the situation. Why would a prodigal son from a wealthy family deign to descend to the lower realm in the first place? Moreover, there seems to be not only one of them. Sure, there is a leader at the front taking charge but the rest of the cultivators doesn't seem to be his servants. They seem more like colleagues or companions instead.
Before Igor master can properly answer him, two of the outsiders suddenly approaches him alarming everyone present. Igor's father seems to have detected the two outsiders' interest in his son and rushed over and tried shielding him from them. The situation has suddenly gotten tense again when the two cultivators stopped a few feet in front of Igor scrutinizing him.
"Hey Dan, you insists on us taking this trip with you. Are we here for this kid? What's so special about him anyway?"
"I'm not exactly sure. The necklace master gives me is sensing something familiar from this kid. Let's just bring him back first. The master probably can give us an explanation."
"Don't say anything Igor. Just stay quiet for now." His master immediately warned.
"Fine. Let's quickly wrap up everything here. We need to join the next team going out to hit a town. Joshua is going to give us a whole load of grief if you drag us on another sudden unexplained trip again."
"This should be it. I'm not sure why but we are definitely here for this kid. The necklace has gone dormant the moment we found this kid."