4 Blossoming Talents

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Deep within a blossoming orchard, an elegant figure inspected the pink flowers falling around him. If one were to stumble upon this figure, they would stare in awe at this picturesque scene.

The petals of the falling blossoms reflected off his vibrant magenta coloured eyes, that seemed to hold galaxies within, while his soft facial features scrunched in fascination. A gentle aura of primordial laws escaped from his pores, causing the surrounding fauna to spring with a natural fervour and lean towards the curious young child; just asking to be touched by his beautiful hands.

At this moment a group of young children and beasts enclosed an area around him, battle-intent in their eyes. The creatures, young themselves, ranged from a beautiful white tiger, a burning Phoenix raising conflagrations around itself to a golden-haired monkey with a comically long red staff. Lastly, there were three human children within the group; two girls and a boy.

One thing they all had in common with the blonde-haired child was their age.

"Astrallis, we've found you!" Giggled an adorable girl with two pink ponytails and a matching pink robe, her quaint little toes sticking out beneath the hem of her gown.

The long golden-haired child turned towards the girl, happiness shining in his eyes with a rising battle intent.

"That you have, little Azalea," he flashed a smile that could overturn the most sacred of nunneries.

Azalea quickly went red in the face shooting an embarrassed look at her friends behind her, shuffling her feet, she shouted in indignation "I'm not little! I'm only a few days younger than you."

"We promised you Astrallis that we'd try to defeat you before the Awakening Ceremony. Today is our last chance," Said the small white tiger, Baihu.

Astrallis looked towards his friends, gradually moving his body into a fighting stance; right foot forward and arms bent in defence. With a devilish grin, his harmonious aura completely vanished making way for its imperial counterpart, "Let's fight brothers and sisters."

The white tiger and Azalea charged towards Astrallis, Qi forming around their bodies. Astrallis did not take the initiative seeing as the white tiger and Azalea charged first, he sent a punch out to meet theirs. Pink flowers soaring into the air from Azalea's movements, blending into her pink opaque Qi.

The attacks of three directly hit each other.

An amalgamation of white and pink Qi spread out into the air, slowly dissipating back into the environment.

Baihu and Azalea were forced several meters, while Astrallis stood firm.

"How is this possible? Astrallis, you are only at the peak of the Body Tempering Realm. While both Azalea and I have broken through to the Qi Gathering Realm. By using our Qi, we should be able to overpower you." Shouted Baihu incredulously.

Astrallis just smiled faintly in response.

What Astrallis didn't tell Baihu, was that his time during the Body Tempering Stage was different than his friends. During Astrallis' unorthodox birth, many arcane runes of the Primordial Way were imprinted within his Five Viscera and Six Bowels and because of these runes the difficulty of advancing a stage increased manifold for Astrallis. This caused not a small headache for Astrallis' parents as well as his Master the Pinnacle Elder. The Pinnacle Elder enthralled by Astrallis' natural talent scooped him up to be his disciple before his parents could even say a word, not that the parents would say anything about it. It's the dream of all disciples of the Ethereal Grotto Sect to be a disciple to the eminent Pinnacle Elder.

The Body Tempering Realm is made up of eleven stages, and further split into two-sub realms; the five Five Viscera Stage and the Six Bowel stage. Each stage tempers an organ within the body making it fit for cultivation and long-lasting health prosperity. Once one reaches the peak of the Body Tempering Realm, their body is immune to mortal disease and sicknesses. The organs of the body are tempered with natural treasures of nature, pills – created by alchemy - and martial arts.

The first five stages of Body Tempering Realm cultivate the Five Viscera which are the heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidney; this is known as the beginning stages of the Body Tempering Realm. By tempering these five organs, the Yin energy within the body is gently restricted, thus preventing it from disturbing and over-powering the Yang energy in the body.

The latter stages of the Body Tempering Realm are split into six phases, with each step cultivating an organ of the Six Bowels. The Six Bowel organs are the stomach, small intestine, large intestine, gallbladder, urinary bladder and lastly the pericardium which encloses the heart and the roots of the great vessels. The Six Bowels control the Yang energy in the body, and through this, the Six Bowels are able to mediate the overbearing Yang energy and create a connection to the Five Viscera. Once the final organ of the Six Bowels is tempered, a connection is invoked between the Five Viscera and Six Bowels forming a harmonious relationship between the docile Yin and overbearing Yang, thus allowing access to a cultivators Qi which marks the start of the Qi Gathering Realm.

Because of the arcane Primordial Runes amalgamating with the Five Viscera and Six Bowels, it created a pre-requisite in which Astrallis must complete before moving up a stage in Body Tempering.

The heavens are fair, as a consequence of Astrallis' unique body it is more difficult for him to move up in Realms in comparison to his friends, but when he does manage to advance in realm his increase in Qi and power will be unlike any other.

Astrallis must first comprehend the Primordial runes within each of his Five Viscera and Six Bowels to advance to a new stage within Body Tempering. So far, he has understood the entirety of the runes within his Five Viscera, and all of the Six Bowels except for the pericardium which connects to his meridians; thus, proving the most difficult to comprehend as it also involves his Astral Qi. Every stage in the Body Tempering Realm that is fully grasped by Astrallis invokes a reaction in the Primordial runes, the runes completely assimilate within his body, becoming one with him and strengthening his vitality, creating a hidden power that Astrallis can access to reinforce his body when fighting. Even now, Astrallis only has slight access to this power.

Once Astrallis manages to comprehend the runes within his pericardium, he will gain access to his Astral Qi and thus start his true journey of cultivation.

One must also understand that Astrallis' age is just shy of five-years-old, many cultivators do not even begin to comprehend the Primordial Way till many realms after the Body Tempering Stage. While Astrallis is already comprehending the Primordial Way during his Body Tempering Stage, just to advance and gain access to his Qi!

Astrallis and his friends also originate from the Ethereal Grotto Sect, one of the four Holy Lands of the Augustin World within the Astral Plane. They have access to numerous peak martial arts and arcane medicines produced by the Sect, allowing for them to garner the firmest of cultivation bases, all children of the Ethereal Grotto Sect receive a cognition-enhancing pill at birth which increases in cognitive ability of the children. The children of the Ethereal Grotto Sect have the cognitive ability of many adults of the mortal world, but one must also understand that they only have the cognitive ability of adults, not the maturity. They still hold the pure innocence of children.

"Maybe through this sparring session, I might be able to comprehend the final barrier in my pericardium and break through the eleventh stage of Body Tempering and burst straight into the Qi Gathering Realm." Inwardly thought Astrallis with anticipation.

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