Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

"Get out!" A gravelly voice sounded followed by a heavy thump of flesh meeting solid ground. A soft cry of pain also followed, but there were grumbles as if the person attempted to stifle his voice.

A rather old lady, about upper middle-aged and quite heavy-set, walked out of a building’s entrance. The entrance could barely fit the woman in width. This was a liquor shop and bar, selling cheap and allowing ease of purchase, and the lady was its manager.

The one thrown out forcefully was a young man no older than twelve. He was covered in scratches and dirt. This was Damian.

"I have no need for pathetic boys here. Take your pity show and hike it! Ptui!" The lady spat at Damian. Quite literally. Her words were aggressive and drew in the crowd’s eyes. Some of the men in distance had their eyes flicker with a sorrowful light, and although they seemed to express the desire to say a few words, no one stepped up.

Damian had a wad of spit on his left cheek, but his eyes didn’t seem to contain a hint of anger or hatred. He simply stood up, calmly wiped off the spit, and deeply bowed. "Thank you for listening, I apologize if I was an inconvenience. Have a nice day, Barmaster Grenda." His words were the epitome of respect, and his actions were exceptional.

The calm response left Barmaster Grenda reeling in shock. Not only her, quite a few who were watching were also in shock. If they had suffered such a violent response filled with disgust and violence, could they remain so calm? Could anyone?

Damian, however, did. After bidding farewell, he calmly left and his eyes seemed to be contemplating other matters. The matters on his mind was finding a job, which was becoming more difficult by the minute. With the family head’s wife blacklisting him from gardening jobs, he could only attempt to work in the occupation of manual labor.

However, he was too young, he had no backing, and most importantly, he wasn’t female. Despite females often avoiding jobs of manual labor, if they wished for it, it would be an easy task to obtain in this society. And although males often worked in manual labor, there was too much competition for a young boy to win during the hiring process.

He didn’t have the resources to cultivate in the Bodily Path, or even a high qi cultivation base - being only at the initial-Qi Cyclone. While the first realm of the Essence Path, the realm of Qi Foundation, was easy to enter and progress in without resources, unless you had resources, a good environment, good cultivation method, or decent talent, progressing through the Qi Cyclone Realm was too difficult.

Yan Zaizen was sixteen and still in the realm, so one could see the difficulties.

After an entire day, Damian had asked essentially all of the employers he possibly could in Sun Cross City. Some were kind, they would simply reject him with an excuse. Others would directly assault or insult him and his intelligence or competence. Just like Barmaster Grenda, they would kick him out decisively.

He returned home to his father who was still pale and coughing often. Taking care of his father was his top priority, and to do that, he needed an income stream for medicine and food.

"Urgh...cough...Da-Damian..." Damian’s father weakly called. Damian quietly scurried over, his hand grabbing his father’s. His hand was quite cold and it caused Yan Zaizen to frown slightly. "Yes?"

"Is...cough...cough...is everything okay?"

"Mhm. Just worked a little later today, just a little late. No worries." Damian smiled, but this smile wasn’t false and filled with a genuineness that was hard to come by in this world. It was untainted by hardship and reality.

It was only after a while that he placated his father’s worries and laid in bed. His eyes that had the glimmer of youth still burned with an ardent light. "I need to buy more food tomorrow...with the medicine costs added...we have enough for three days, five if I cut back my portions. During that time, I’ll find a job!" With his mind focused on his goal, he slept peacefully.

Five days later.

Sitting at the entrance to this shoddy hut he called home, Damian felt his heart plummet in the depths of a frosty world. He had run out of savings, had exhausted every option but not a single person was willing to hire him in the entire city, even when he threw away his pride and resorted to begging on his knees. They simply laughed, kicked, and spat at him.

It was disheartening.

"How can I take care of father? Become a hunter?" As he contemplated the options left, he felt a stifling feeling as if the world around him was shrinking and on the verge of collapse.

A hunter was as it explained but a tad bit more complex. They were more so scavengers than hunters. In this realm, divine beasts didn’t inhabit the world, only humans and standard beasts. These beasts would be hunted often, but the world mostly breeds creatures in-house and slaughters them for food, there was essentially no need to hunt, but still a need to pay.

Hunting involved trying to obtain heavenly materials or earthly herbs. The heavenly materials in this realm are often called Objects of Law, as they are infused with true law and sometimes, specific conceptual laws. If found, they are used to craft armaments, talismans, formations, or even array flags. The uses were nearly endless and practiced widely.

As for earthly herbs, used for poisons, alchemy, and sometimes cultivation as they can often gather essence energy, even those of an attributed nature. Hunters hunt for these objects and the competition is fiercely aggressive and deadly. Without a profound cultivation base, it was no different than courting death.

This didn’t factor in the environments that herbs or heavenly materials were birthed. They weren’t always friendly and can have some dangerous natural formations surrounding them. If one was careless or weak, a single misstep can reap your life away faster than you can blink.

"The surrounding areas are too dangerous...but...do I have a choice?" Cultivating has never been a priority for him. Not only was his talent average, but his resources, methods, and arts were practically non-existent. Even if he cultivated, he’d be all tower and no foundation. "Well, its this or robbery, but I clearly don’t have the strength for the latter."

The next day, he readied himself and told his father that he was going to be gone for most of the day in an especially long project, but he should be back by tomorrow morning. After stringing up some food from the neighbors, which was as difficult as asking a cat for their catnip, and setting aside clean water and a tad bit of crushed medicine that barely covered a day’s worth, he was set to depart.

"I’ll be back father!" With a smile and a chuckle, one filled with confidence and happiness, he left. His attitude and beliefs had never been tainted and neither has his resolve.

Several minutes passed before his father spoke, his eyes weak but tears flowed in an endless stream. How could he not notice his son’s bruises from the abuse of rejection or the attempt to hide away the food he was eating to prevent him from knowing it was lesser or the longer hours each day? As his father, how could he not notice?!?!

"..." The amount of sorrow he felt was heart-wrenching. Why did he have to be sick? Why did he have to fail as a father? If...if he was born a woman, could he have given Damian the life he deserved?! Alone and crying he laid, unable to work, unable to leave this shoddy hut, and filled with prayers for his son’s safety.

"I think he’ll do, maybe I need to change my plans a little." A soft voice echoed like a ghost within the hut.

-----

The Ridge had an ordinary name, but it was quite exceptional. For beginning hunters, it was the ideal location. Oftentimes with a little digging, one could find Objects of Law related to the Law of Stone. The Law of Stone was a Mortal Law that embodied the essence of a stone, dense and hard solid material. If lucky, these stones could contain traces of earth or metal laws!

The Law of Stone was an interesting law, and many often confuse it with the Law of Earth. However, before essence is refined into crystal, its often in a stone like form. Essence stones were typically in special locations or mines. Refining them was an exceptionally easy task that any cultivator could do, so its very unlikely to find an unrefined essence crystal.

The Law of Stone could be described as the law of solidness of a material, be it earth, metal, essence, or water. If not, how could heavenly materials of fire, water, and even wind exist in stone form?

There wasn’t much danger in this area, mostly because it has been mostly cleaned out. Whatever’s left is little leftovers and that was enough for hunters starting out in the beginning.

A small boy was at the edge of The Ridge, his eyes surveying the area. He wasn’t the only one and he wasn’t the only male. In truth, there were dozens of people around, mostly young ones like Damian and they were all males.

They seemed to have their own struggles as they searched relentlessly. Some didn’t bring shovels, like Damian, either because they can’t afford one or they didn’t think about it, so they had to use their hands or normal rocks with sharp edges.

There were a few that’d use their qi to dig, but with their foundation, it was a brief excavation before exhaustion. Without essence liquid to recover, they had to spend hours or even days to fully recover.

After several hours, Damian found nothing. His body was drenched in sweat and his hands were bloody, but he didn’t stop.

"Ahh!" A voice exclaimed nearby attracting everyone’s attention. A boy, no older than sixteen, had found an object and held it in his hand with excitement written on his face. "I found a-"

Boom!

Just as he was in the midst of his excitement, a bone-crunching sound caused everyone’s heart to tense. A rock had flown at rapid speeds and turned the boy’s head to mush. His brain matter and pieces of his cranium had splashed on Damian’s face. His left eye twitched in reflex.

A figure appeared beside the headless boy. It was a cute figure, a young woman no older than ten? Maybe eleven. She grabbed the stone from the boy’s corpse. For some reason, Damian felt bone snapping sounds as if the boy, even in death, refused to give up the rock.

The young, cute girl appraised the rock and frowned. "Damn! It’s just a normal rock. Idiot! Excited for nothing." She kicked the boy’s body in frustration and left with an adorable pout.

"..." For the next ten minutes, Damian was frozen. The others, however, returned to searching and placing the rocks, regardless of special or normal, into their bags. When its full, whether they find something or not, at least their lives wouldn’t be taken as they returned home.

"I need to find something for father." Snapping out of his daze, he continued searching with his bare hands.

He had to.

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