"He hasn't stepped out? He must be too embarrassed to leave." A group of kids laughed mockingly while looking at the house Yuan Long called home, their voices carrying across the quiet street with cruel amusement. It has been 4 days since the whole thing with the dragon happened in the sky above the village, and by now, everyone in the village has calmed down considerably from their initial terror.
With the parents no longer fearful of divine retribution or calamity befalling them, the children were allowed to run around freely again through the streets, and of course, Yuan Long became their primary target for mockery and bullying.
As for why they targeted him specifically out of all the children in the village, Yuan Long's unusual name wasn't enough by itself to cause them to want to pick on him relentlessly; it was the fact that Yuan Long had always been arrogant in his behavior towards others, acting superior despite being a commoner.
Now, with him being trash without a martial spirit, they wanted to see if he would dare remain arrogant in the face of his apparent failure. So, after finding out that Yuan Long was in the backyard, acting like he was cultivating despite having no visible talent, they grinned widely at each other and made their way over there with malicious intent clear in their eyes, where they jumped over the wooden fence without permission or invitation.
This naturally awakened Yuan Long from his deep meditation, who turned to look at them with an annoyed look crossing his young face, irritation clear in his expression.
"What's with that look? You're nothing but trash. I awakened a 2-star martial spirit," The leader of the group said with a wide grin, walking up to Yuan Long with confident, swaggering steps, who sighed softly at the predictable situation unfolding before him.
He already knew exactly how the plot would go from here based on countless novels he'd read: he would hit them in self-defense, they would run crying to their parents with exaggerated stories, then he would kick their parents' butts when they came for revenge against him. But it just so happened that their parents had a family member in the sect, and instantly, that family member would want revenge for the humiliation dealt to their relatives.
"Do you have a family member in a sect?" Yuan Long asked directly, wanting to know if his guess was right about how this situation would unfold.
"Haha, my elder sister is an outer sect disciple of the Unbreakable Iron Sect." The leader boasted proudly. Yuan Long sighed heavily, hearing this confirmation. It was a girl, so she might have a connection to some female or male disciples in the sect who would support her, a shit situation that could escalate quickly.
"Haha, look at him, he is scared!" They burst into loud laughter at Yuan Long's reaction, misinterpreting his sigh. Yuan Long looked at them with a blank look for some time, his expression completely neutral and unbothered, clearly having zero interest in whatever was about to snowball into a larger conflict that would waste his cultivation time.
So, he snapped his finger casually, creating a powerful shock wave which caused the group of kids to instantly freeze in place, scared shitless by what just happened and the display of power.
"Cute, you awakened a 2-star, I awakened a 5-star martial spirit, we're not the same. Leave my sight before your sister comes to avenge her crippled brother." Yuan Long said calmly, his tone cold and threatening, horrifying the kids who quickly ran off without looking back, stumbling over each other.
Scaring them off thoroughly with that simple display, and telling them his talent was superior, should just destroy the whole mess that was about to come up before it even started. And indeed, the kids didn't dare to say a word to anyone of what happened that day.
Ignoring them, Yuan Long called forth his status window.
[Name: Yuan long
Age: 10 years old
Race: Human
Bloodlines: [The Warp Sovereign Bloodline (Locked)], [Primordial Dragon Bloodline]
Martial Spirit: [An Egg]
Cultivation arts: [The Warp Sovereign Cultivation Art],
Body, Qi, and Soul Cultivation Realm: none (Combat Power: Level 7 Martial Martial)
Combat Power: Level 2 Martial Master
Abilities: Endless Potential, Omni System, 10,000x, Auto Cultivate
Items: Martial God Space]
Auto Cultivate was an ability he got from the system as a reward for cultivating for a whole day without stopping or taking any breaks whatsoever, maintaining perfect focus throughout.
Although it only operated at 10% the speed if he were to do it manually with full focus and effort, it was incredibly helpful for passive progression that continued even while he slept or did other tasks, plus it increased his cultivation speed by 25% whenever he cultivated manually as a permanent bonus that stacked with all his other advantages.
By the way, he managed to cultivate his body, Qi, and soul from stage 12 all the way to stage 18 in just these four days of dedicated effort.
He was able to accomplish this feat thanks to mainly 2 things working in perfect tandem: he was a genius with incredible talent beyond normal comprehension, and the Omni system helped him optimize every single aspect of his cultivation, since even he, with all his advantages and abilities, couldn't do this purely through his own efforts alone without assistance.
Levels 13 to 15 were pretty simple in concept once he figured out the correct path forward through meditation. After going through an overall refinement of his entire being that touched every aspect of body, Qi, and soul, he felt like each one of these cultivation paths should have its own distinct energy source to draw from.
This realization is how he formed the Qi Sea in his dantian, the energy center in his lower abdomen, which held his Qi for the energy cultivation path. His body managed to tap into and generate his physical energy for the body cultivation path, alone with his soul gained access to spiritual Qi for the soul cultivation path.
Next were levels 16 to 18, and he focused entirely on cultivating those three energies to higher levels of density, purity, and quality.
For example, the stronger physical energy became, the stronger his body would naturally become as a direct result of that energy cultivation. This had a far greater effect on his overall power than cultivating his physique, since the stronger his physical energy, the stronger his body would naturally become to adapt.
But to make absolutely sure this path was correct and wouldn't cause problems, he had the system analyze and find out if this approach would lead to any long-term drawbacks or hidden problems down the line, and luckily, after thorough analysis, there were no such drawbacks discovered.
Lastly, levels 19 to 21… this was the simplest concept but most complex in actual execution. He simply focused on fusing the cultivation paths together into a unified whole instead of keeping them separate. This fusion wasn't a simple 1 plus 1 plus one equals 3 in terms of power output, but more like it equals 100 or even higher, for the three paths came together, strengthening each other dramatically and synergistically to birth something perfect.
So yes, while still not a cultivator yet in the traditional sense with an official cultivation level, Yuan Long was as strong as a level 8 Martial Warrior thanks to his cultivation foundation alone… but if one were to look inside his dantian with spiritual sense, ignoring how vast and durable the thing was compared to normal dantians of his supposed level, or how it was incredibly rich in energy density that far surpassed what should be possible, this place where one single drop of energy rivaled the total power held in the whole dantian of a level 6 Martial Warrior.
If one ignored all of those impressive factors and achievements, they would find marks floating in the energy, almost like those from Dragon Mark War God, only these ones were warp marks instead of dragon marks. The original dragon mark from that novel added 11,000 pounds to one's strength; these marks were not limited to such a small and fixed number that couldn't grow.
This one single mark increased Yuan Long's strength by 250 tons of raw power, and the value of every new dragon mark he forms increases by 100%, meaning the next Mark would increase his strength by 500 tons on top of the existing 250 tons, and so on in an exponentially growing pattern.
Of course, forming these warp marks took a tremendously long time and required vast amounts of concentrated energy to successfully create, which is exactly why Yuan Long had been here in his backyard cultivating nonstop for 4 whole days without any breaks.
After all, just 1 single mark alone would allow him to pick up 2 massive blue whales with complete ease. So every time he punches in combat, picture 2 massive whales positioned directly behind his fist adding their immense combined weight to the devastating impact… on top of all the raw power from his cultivation foundation.
Of course, as he gains more and more marks through continued dedicated effort, the power they offer would increase similarly to how the Dragon Mark system worked.
For example, 2 warp marks working together would not simply equal 750 tons through basic addition, as the two marks would work together in perfect synergy, bringing forth far greater might and power through their interaction.
So yes, he could already skip not 1 realm in combat, not 2 realms, but 3 whole realms against opponents, all before he even began true cultivation, where his strength would of course explode to unimaginable heights. Let's not forget he could enter anime worlds through the system's abilities, and yes, he could use the Dragon Mark War God cultivation art to absorb and collect as many powerful bloodlines as he could from those anime worlds.
His ultimate goal was reaching outerversal power; he would need all of the help and every advantage to reach outerversal. So, it was finally time to take his first real step in cultivation and open the doorway to a vast sea of benefits and abilities from all of the cultivation arts that had fused with Warp Sovereign, on top of his cultivation art's already overpowered capability.
[Host, I believe you can make 3 more breakthroughs beyond the current level, which would focus specifically on the strengthening, refinement, and tempering of the fusion between body, qi, and soul. In fact, I believe you could have 3 levels each for these stages, ensuring that your foundation, even before you become a Martial Apprentice, is completely unrivaled across all realms. I believe it's entirely possible to have your Warp mark power and Cultivation power rival each other in total strength or at least be very near each other in capability.]
Just as he was about to start his cultivation and breakthrough, he paused suddenly at the system words that appeared. His eyes brightened considerably at that suggestion, and wasting no time at all, he began to work closely with the system to do just that. So, from 21 total levels, it shot up dramatically to 33 levels, which he began cultivating immediately right after.
But this time, he made absolutely certain there couldn't be any more levels beyond this. After all, he realized it was entirely possible to have 1,000s of levels if he kept subdividing. So, those 33 carefully designed levels embodied all possible growth within the mortal realm, bringing forth such tremendous power beyond normal limits… his body alone held the raw power of 250 tons. That's not even adding his soul's power, his Qi reserves, and the Warp Mark's contribution.
Yeah, he was hoping to push beyond 250 tons in physical strength, but the mortal body simply couldn't hold such overwhelming power without destroying itself. What he did was special in the sense that he had done the impossible; not even the mythic beasts, heaven's beloved creations born with natural advantages, could have such great power before beginning cultivation.