They stepped through the heavy wooden doors and entered a space that felt less like a place of learning and more like a tactical briefing room for an impending war. The atmosphere inside the cavernous lecture hall was suffocatingly dense, saturated with the heavy, metallic scent of ozone and the silent pressure of thirty-four distinct spiritual auras pressing against one another. Thirty-four students sat in rigid, disciplined rows, each clad in the identical, pristine uniforms that marked them as the elite of the tenth order, their eyes fixed forward with an intensity that bordered on fanaticism. At the front of the hall stood the instructor, a man of approximately forty-eight years who exuded an aura of suppressed violence that made the air around him ripple with tension. He was draped in severe, midnight-black robes that seemed to absorb the ambient light, and a heavy, rough cloth was wrapped tightly around his head to conceal his hair completely, adding to his mysterious and forbidding silhouette. The most terrifying aspect of his visage was a jagged, obsidian-coloured scar that tore across the left side of his face, a permanent reminder of a cursed wound that had refused to heal. He paused his lecture mid-sentence and slowly turned his gaze toward the intruders, his eyes narrowing until they were mere slits of cold, judgement-filled darkness. "Enter," he commanded, his voice a low, vibrating growl that scraped against their nerves like a blade dragged across stone. "Do not be late again."
"Today, we shall dissect the skeletal remains of our history and the fundamental hierarchy of this broken universe," the instructor announced, his voice devoid of warmth as he turned his back to the class to face the massive blackboard. The piece of chalk in his hand moved with the precision of a dagger, carving stark white lines into the dark slate that seemed to scream in the silence of the room. He wrote the words '600 Million Years Ago: The End of the Great Era of Divine Kings' with a heavy hand, the dust drifting through the air like the ashes of a dead civilisation. "Listen closely, for this is the blood-soaked foundation of your existence," he began, his single visible eye scanning the room with a piercing intensity that demanded absolute submission. "Six hundred million years ago, the cultivation standards of this world were radically different, a golden age of sorcery where twenty-two distinct paths to divinity existed, fuelled by seven primordial forms of energy that have long since vanished from our reach." He paused, letting the weight of the lost glory settle upon them before his voice dropped to a grim whisper. "However, no light exists without a shadow. From the abyss emerged the Light Eaters, abominations that sought to consume the very concept of existence." The room grew colder as he spoke, the students leaning forward as if entranced by a horror story. "To prevent the annihilation of all things, the Divine Kings and ancient Deities sacrificed their physical forms, using their own immortal bodies to weave a seal that locked the Light Eaters into the deepest recesses of the eternal darkness." He struck the board with his fist, emphasising the catastrophe. "This victory came at a terrible price. The World Center Artefact, the heart of our reality, was shattered in the conflict, causing eighty per cent of the known universe to disintegrate into nothingness. For six hundred million years, the laws of physics have been broken, and no soul has ever again reached the apex of power held by those ancient kings." Seeing that no one dared to interrupt the heavy silence with a question, he continued his lecture, shifting the topic to the present reality. "Since you lack the wit to ask, we shall proceed to the structure of our cage. There are currently three Realms and eighteen planets that survived the cataclysm: the Jianmo Realm, home to the beasts and creatures; the Jido Realm, where humanity resides; and the Di Qi Realm, a place accessible only to those who transcend the limits of this world. These eighteen planets are divided evenly, six to each realm, yet we exist in a precarious position." He pointed the chalk at a specific diagram on the board. "Our world is the only one in the Jido Realm that possesses an open, unstable tether to the Dragon Planet within the Jianmo Realm, a gateway to the domain of monsters."
Aldo sensed the gaping voids in his recovered memory banks and decided to synchronise his ancient knowledge with this modern, broken era to identify the discrepancies. "Teacher, could you elaborate on the specific hierarchy of power levels and the stratification of strength?" The instructor nodded slowly, his scarred face twisting slightly as he tapped the chalk against the slate board with a rhythmic, heavy thud. "I was just about to address that vital piece of information, so listen well." He turned to the class, his single eye gleaming with a cold, academic light. "Beasts and creatures function differently from us, relying on inherent bloodline power to fuel their growth. I will dedicate a full lecture to their savage physiology at a later date, but for now, focus on humanity. Human cultivation is currently categorized by specific evolutionary stages known as 'steps'. Steps One and Two represent the absolute zenith achievable within the mana-starved environment of the Jido Realm. To simplify this for your minds, we do not split these steps but rather measure them through a scale of twelve orders. If you possess enough fortune and talent, you may eventually ascend to the higher dimension known as the Di Qi Realm. That realm contains Immortal Qi, a potent resource that simply does not exist in our world. This energy allows one to advance from Step Three up to the current limit of Step Seven. Step Seven is currently regarded as the supreme peak of all martial existence, the ceiling of our reality. However, in the ancient era, cultivators could reach the mythical Step Ten, a level of power that rivalled the stars themselves. The secrets to such power vanished when the Immortal Arts were lost to the devastation of the Great War." As the lesson continued, jagged shards of memory assaulted Aldo's mind, flickering like a dying lantern in a storm. "It is too blurry... I cannot see them clearly enough to make sense of the past." He whispered the words to himself while clutching his throbbing temples, the ancient techniques of the Divine King remaining just out of his mental reach. "...that is enough for today, students. Tomorrow we will begin practical combat training, so prepare your bodies." The class dispersed into the hallway, chattering loudly about the lesson, but Aldo moved with a singular, predatory purpose. He completely ignored the path to the dormitories that Ava had mentioned earlier, turning his steps instead toward the solitary silence of the cultivation grounds.
He arrived at the desolate silence of the cultivation grounds, a secluded expanse of ancient stone that seemed to hum with the residual memories of a thousand warriors. Without a moment of hesitation, he dropped into the lotus position, his posture perfect and rigid as he prepared to defy the limitations of his mortal flesh. "I must reinforce this fragile vessel immediately and shatter the eighteen seals binding my soul, or this body will crumble under the weight of my own existence," he resolved, closing his eyes to shut out the physical world and turning his gaze inward to the vast, chaotic universe of his spiritual core. His mind raced through the forbidden archives of his past life, discarding options with the cold precision of a war god. "There are several paths to physical ascension... Bloodline, Demonic Power, Elemental Power, and the Seven Missing Powers." He weighed the risks instantly. "Bloodline transmutation is potent, yet far too volatile; one mistake in genetic rewriting and this body will liquefy. Demonic power offers godlike strength, but the corrupting influence of cursed energy would scour my mind clean, reducing me to a drooling, mindless berserker. The Seven Missing Powers would be ideal, but they have been extinct in this realm for aeons, and hunting for their remnants would take centuries, which I simply do not have." A distant memory surfaced, sharp and clear—the voice of his father speaking of a legendary, forbidden physique. "The Twelve Element Invisible Body... It is the only logical path. If I fail, I will be forced to resort to the desperate measure of fusing Bloodline and Demonic powers to reconstruct my corpse, a gamble I would prefer to avoid." With his decision made, his eyes snapped open, glowing with an eerie light. His hands moved in a blur, his fingers weaving complex, esoteric mudras that defied the eye's ability to track. The atmosphere around him instantly grew heavy and distorted as he forcibly dragged the ambient mana into submission, creating a vortex of pure, swirling energy that roared like a captured storm.
Ava, driven by a mixture of concern and curiosity, finally tracked his location to the secluded training grounds, but the sight that greeted her froze the breath in her lungs. "What in the world is he attempting to do?" she gasped, her eyes widening as she witnessed the terrifying density of mana converging around his meditative form. She stepped forward, intending to pull him back from whatever madness he had initiated, but her hand collided with a solid, invisible wall of kinetic force that violently repelled her approach. While he sat motionless in the eye of the storm, luminous glyphs written in a language that predated the birth of humanity began to materialise in the air, orbiting him like electrons around a nucleus. His lips moved in a rapid, silent chant, weaving the spell structure with a precision that bordered on divine instinct. "The constitution of the elemental body is categorised into distinct tiers of potential," he analysed with cold detachment amidst the chaotic energy. "There exist the bodies of One, Five, Seven, and Nine Elements, each powerful in their own right yet ultimately limited by the laws of this era." However, his ambition soared far beyond mediocrity. "If I successfully forge the Twelve Elemental Body, I will not only surpass the limits of this realm but also gain the potential to awaken one of the Ancient Powers, just as my father and mother once did." As his resolve solidified, the very atmosphere began to scream in protest. The clear sky above instantly darkened as if a curtain had been drawn, and massive, unnatural storm clouds coalesced with terrifying speed, churning with the violent energy of a pending judgement. Arcs of catastrophic lightning danced within the blackened firmament, illuminating the terrified world below. "He" had officially begun his cultivation, and the heavens themselves were trembling in response.