Tumbling through thousands of Immortal Realms, barreling through hundreds of Spirit Realms and finally crash landing in an unknown Mortal Realm. The great impact plowed into Astral's life force, sealing all 72 mana meridians. His body felt numb, and painfully prickly, as if every limb had fallen asleep. His head was heavily congested, causing a pounding headache. His heart raced, slapping his chest back and forth. Finally, after hours that felt like years, Astral began to find consciousness.
A sharp Spring breeze brushed across Astral's body, leaving it shivering as each hair stood up. This shock opened his eyes. He found a blue sky above, and heard the wind traveling through valleys around him. Astral sat upward and got a hold of himself.
What? What am I wearing??
The itchy pattern of burlap woven garments crawled across his skin. His body was ruined, bruised and filthy. He felt his oily face and grimy hair with heavy hands. He felt like a starving farm peasant! Astral looked around and saw that he was atop a small hill at the base of towering coastal mountains. The valleys were flourishing with life, green vegetation, fruits and small animals all living together. He could feel the fresh mana on his skin, vitamin-rich, and even a sweet taste. This was a great spot that the Heavenly Lord sent him. Looking down past the hill, Astral could see a small village surrounded by farm land. He could only assume that was where his new life would begin. Astral struggled to raise himself off the ground. When he stood, he found his limbs thin, and legs shaky
Reincarnated as a dirty farm peasant, how lousy. And now I'm crippled too? There are so many tradeoffs here!
Astral limped his way down the hills, it was midday, he figured he'd collapse before reaching the bottom of the hill. He squinted his eyes at both suns overhead.
Two suns ?!
Astral was curious as to why he wasn't melting in the light of two suns. As he pondered this, he noticed that one sun was much brighter and had more color, while the weaker sun was darker and monotone. The suns' rays caused the sky to shimmer with mauve, and the floating clouds created a dreamy appearance. This world's nature was vastly beautiful. He could barely wait to begin cultivating.
Hm, cultivating...
That is his true purpose.
Astral's body gained more feeling with each step. The grass was fluffy under his feet, but his legs felt they'd give at any moment. Realization caught Astral as he felt a jagged object in his pocket. He plunged his hand in the fabric and retrieved a tiny bundle of spirit tree roots, held together by shining thread. The thread hummed with power and shimmered with gold dust.
Wow, this must be the hair of a Qilin's mane! This could fetch a great price. How lucky!
Astral recalled the creature from his studies under Archmage Snoop. Qilin were elusive dragon horses of the Spirit Realms, legendary in appearance, and bringers of good fortune. Simply encountering a Qilin was sign that you were bound for great success, and that the Spirit Realm would open its energy to you. These creatures can only be tamed and ridden by cultivators of immortal-level power.
Astral thanked the Heavenly Lord as he unwound the bundle. He stashed the string back in his pocket, and placed a wad of tree roots in the back of his mouth to chew. As he moved his jaw, mana crackled and zapped his tongue. He let out a yelp and covered his mouth with his hand. Astral cannot remember the last time he was hurt by this small amount of mana. In fact, everything was painful! He concluded that his body was significantly younger and weaker than his previous form. He would have to cultivate carefully as to not overload his system. This was a massive setback, two decades of cultivation, his life's work, was lost. Astral, weak and gasping for air, began to loath his position. He was once again a complete novice to the art of spellcraft.
Astral knelt down as he continued on the spirit tree root. He could feel the primal energy seeping into his chest as he swallowed bits of the root through vigorous chewing. His body began attuning itself to the energy of the Mortal Realm. He began to sweat, and experienced a sensation shooting through his meridians. This tingle was a sign that his mortal body was beginning to connect to the mana around him. After minutes of fuzzy feelings, his body's pain was mostly lifted. His first mana meridian cap has been greatly loosened, but not enough to fully pop the cork. With the first meridian at least loosened, he could begin to absorb very tiny amounts of mana. This would help heal his body over time, although at a incredibly slow rate.
Damn. I don't even have enough strength to power through this first bottleneck. I'm going to need to find a calm place to sit and meditate to progress.
This realm was unknown to Astral, but he was confident in its abundant mana and that it would lead him to a great start on his cultivation journey. He felt his body was a bit more limber, he tested his connection with mana, and attempted to make a simple somatic component. Astral formed his right hand fingers into a basic hand-sign. This somatic component was to cast the most basic of Wizard spells: Prestidigitation. It isn't a powerful spell whatsoever, but just enough to give him access to simple qualities of arcane life. He instructed the spell to call forth a harmless flickering of sparks. After a couple of deep breaths, he began casting.
The mana around him was powerful, raw, and pure. This was very different to the mana found in Wizards' Towers. Archmages create their own pockets of synthetic mana, and allow understudies to make use of them for education. Synthetic mana was very easy to shape, but this primal mana was too powerful for him to even poke at. He failed his connection to the mana, and the spell produced nothing.
Holy shit. I can't even spark mana to Prestidigitate.
Astral realized what this meant for him: He was completely vulnerable and had nothing to protect himself. In a world unknown to him, this brought great fear. If the mountains and valleys had so much mana, he couldn't even begin to comprehend how powerful the wildlife was. Much less that, but how powerful were the villagers down the path? Sure a simple farm town isn't expected to have a resident wizard, but if the mana is this strong he wouldn't be surprised if all of the villagers were capable of spellcasting!