1 Kane Grishna

A tall sturdy youth stood at the entrance of a mine. He smiled bitterly to the sound of countless spontaneous clanking of pickaxes and mining tools.

"Who would've thought that I, the never before seen genius, would fall to such depths. It is indeed a short way up and a long way down." He mused.

Indeed his situation was quite unfathomable and unfortunate. He was after all the incredible young master Kane Grishna, the great protege.

At first he was just a little insignificant orphan from one of the branch families. But when he started cultivating at the age of five, his speed was shocking. Not only did he possessgreat cultivation speed, he was also a very calm and all knowing child.

His insight, comprehension, attitude and sage-like air, made him famous throughout the state. By the age of seven, the incredible kane had advanced to the fifth dimension of the Unshackling Potential realm. By age nine he had broken through the shackles of mortals and stepped into the Astral soul realm. By the age of ten he had mastered a Deathsycth weapon skill and perfected it. By the time he was fifteen years old, he had reached the ninth dimension of the Astral soul realm!

Numerous powers extended honey coated olive branches to him. He had been engaged to the beautiful young miss of the Mackelvy clan. Despite previously being a orphan of the a branch family, Kane's seat as the clan head was inevitable.

Sadly, his great rise came to an abrupt and unfortunate end. When he finally rushed to break into the Spirit Awakening realm, something unforeseen happened. It turned out that his spirit roots were unexpected destroyed, without spirit roots he'd be unable to communicate with, and form a bond between a spirit. That was all it took for the genius fall. After all without a spirit there was no further way to advance.

The opportunities and promises all faded away. The numerous powers and sects, that were trying to get close to him retracted their invitations. The many clans who wanted to marry off their daughters to him, stealthy retreated.

His place as the young master was also taken, after all, who would let a now insignificant branch member, with unchangeable cultivation sit in the head's seat?

What caused him the most pain was his dissolved engagement with little miss McKelvey. They were childhood friends and as the got older, they truly loved each other. The several dozen letters she had secretly sent him, despite his fall.

He had offended and outshined many spoiled youngsters of various clans in the state. Not to mention the young Masters and misses of the main family, especially the family head's eldest son who had lost his birth right to inherit the clan head seat to him.

These youths may jeer and become cold towards him as their cultivation surpasses his. They might even seek to harm or kill him.

So in order to let him live out his life peacefully and contently, the clan head gave him a hundred thousand gold orbs and ushered him out.

Three years had passed since then, he was now eighteen. He had moved back to the family's branch for a short while before leaving on his own. Even though he was treated with great respect and veneration there since he the great genius had brought them a few years of fame. He still had never given up on cultivating. After leaving the branch, he went searching for ancient artifacts or unique cultivation techniques.

Sadly he had never been fortunate with any of his expeditions. In fact he had lost quite a bit of gold orbs, he was even robbed and only survived through his ironic wit. He had been stumbling through village after village, town after town and city after city. Until he was lead to prefectural city named Cloud mist city. He was then lead to mining site where he signed up to work.

This mining job was very dangerous and hard even for him, a cultivator. It also paid little only a couple black copper orbs per week. You'd be lucky to get a single silver a month if you completed your daily quota everyday. But that was almost impossible as finding something within the damn mine was becoming harder and harder.

But how could he leave when he was lead to this place by his most trusted companion that had been with him for basically as long as he remembered?

This said companion was a little purple orb that was a little bit larger than a marble. This little orb was not just any normal piece of jewelry. It was a divine treasure! That's right the whole reason for his brilliance and cultivation speed, memory, comprehension and a achievements were all due to this purple orb!

Whenever he would cultivate or try to learn something, once he had the orb, he would have terrifying inhuman speed! It was as if the orb enhanced his mind and made him closer and more intuned with spirit energy. But there was a draw back to this orb.

For some reason when he was about to break through to the Spirit Awakening realm his spirit roots were broken by weird energy released from the orb!

Also it turned out that the energy had also blocked his insight towards people and the outside world! After all a real genius would know that all those who were friendly towards him when he was at his peak, were all just posers trying to cling to a big thigh, but when hard life struck and the fat thigh tinned from malnutrition they would seek greener pastures.

At first he had been resentful towards the orb and thus he had put it away. But when things got sticky he turned to it again. Who would have thought that it actually began subtly guiding him as if it was sentient!?

And now here he was following his trusty purple orb. But the question is just what is it leading him to....