Battle Qi Origins

Chapter 6: Origins of Battle Qi

Ahead stood Dawnlight Academy's main teaching building, shaped like a great bird with its wings spread. The long wing buildings on either side resembled a pair of enormous wings embracing the small square. The main building had five floors and housed the offices of various departments. The two wings had four floors, containing eighty classrooms in all, capable of accommodating up to four thousand students at once.

To the left of the small square stood a cluster of white stone buildings. They had originally been a city defense outpost, but were now home to the academy's Enforcement Department and administration office. To the right lay a sparse grove, a treasured spot for morning exercisers and, when the twin moons rose high, a romantic haven where couples whispered their feelings to each other.

To find Headmaster Levens, Lorist had to pass through the main teaching building's lobby, circle around the grand training grounds and dining hall, then pass the apothecarists' private herb garden, the research building, and the library before reaching the academy administration office, which had been converted from an abandoned monastery. The headmaster's office was in the tall tower there.

As a comprehensive academy that had been founded one hundred and fifty-three years ago, Dawnlight Academy was not particularly strong in Battle Qi and swordsmanship instruction. The academies ranked above it generally had a Great Swordsman in residence.

Dawnlight Academy was most renowned for Accounting, Ruin Studies and archaeology, linguistics, pharmacy, and Magical Beast Lore. Its newer courses in Art of Painting and Music Composition were also widely celebrated.

To cultivate knowledgeable and refined talent, Dawnlight Academy had always required students to systematically study two specialties and learn to appreciate one art, in addition to mastering Battle Qi and swordsmanship, before they could graduate. As for when students met those requirements, the academy did not care. As long as they were willing to pay tuition, studying for ten or even eight years was no problem.

In addition, Dawnlight Academy offered dozens of other subjects, including architecture, Decorative Carving, Urban Administration, Business Management, Knight Training, Equestrian Instruction, Shipbuilding Technology, Forging Craftsmanship, Leather Tanning, and more. A class could be opened as long as students enrolled. There were even elegant Flower Appreciation Art and Gourmet Tasting classes specially established for noble children.

Although these subjects were not Dawnlight Academy's strengths, the professors teaching them were still highly capable. Even if the courses covered common and basic knowledge, students could not expect to graduate merely by learning basic facts and simple operations. Without putting in serious effort and study, they could not obtain certification in their specialty, making graduation difficult.

Lorist's two specialties were Accounting and Knight Training. They had been chosen by the steward of the family caravan that had sent him to Dawnlight Academy ten years ago, on the orders of his uncle. His uncle believed that learning Accounting would ensure that, even if Little Locke did not become the family heir in the future, he could still take over the family caravan through his mastery of accounting. That way, his uncle would have someone to carry on his legacy.

As for Knight Training, it was because the Norton Family were hereditary military nobles, and martial prowess was their tradition. Little Locke had also displayed extraordinary talent for martial arts from a young age. At only fourteen, he had already awakened his Battle Qi. If not for the grave mistake he had committed out of narrow-minded jealousy, his baron father would never have exiled him to Molent City to study.

Leaving home meant he could no longer receive the family's traditional knight training. At the time, Lorist's uncle had felt that Little Locke could not be deprived of such an education, so he had designated Knight Training as one of his specialties.

What Lorist's uncle had never expected was that less than a month after parting from Little Locke, his beloved nephew would clash with other students because of his arrogant attitude and contemptuous gaze. He was severely injured and lay on his bed at death's door, until a soul from another world took over his body.

Thus, Accounting, once regarded as an immensely difficult subject, had been completed with all required credits in just one year. To the current Lorist, accounting was merely a crude method of calculation, equivalent to fourth- or fifth-grade elementary school mathematics from his previous life. It was simple.

Knight Training, on the other hand, had made Lorist suffer bitterly. If this body had not possessed such a solid foundation, the three years of knight training would have been truly unbearable. He had begun by learning to be a knight's attendant. Each day, a great deal of time was consumed by trivial tasks serving knights, maintaining armor, and tending horses. On top of that, he had to complete his own physical conditioning and knight skill training. After enduring three difficult years, he had finally received his qualification certification.

Unlike other students, who became probationary knights after completing training, Lorist could only become an apprentice knight. The reason was Battle Qi. At the Black Iron Tier, one could only be an apprentice knight; only upon advancing to Silver could one become a probationary knight.

It was all the fault of the high-tier Blazing Flame Battle Qi inherited by this body's original owner. After inheriting the memories, Lorist discovered that Norton Lorist, nicknamed Little Locke, had possessed a handwritten copy of Blazing Flame Battle Qi. However, its cultivation method only went as far as Black Iron Three-Star and contained no methods for Silver and Gold Rank cultivation. At the time, though, this body's Battle Qi had only just awakened at Bronze One-Star. It would take years to reach Black Iron Three-Star, so there had been no great urgency.

Battle Qi cultivation differed greatly from the qigong cultivation of his previous life. His family's inherited Golden Water Art had been forced upon him by his grandfather when he was seven or eight, laying the foundation early. Battle Qi cultivation, however, cultivated the bloodline. Battle Qi initiation and awakening generally began only at fifteen or sixteen. Those too young had underdeveloped bodies and weak blood vitality, making them unable to sense the Magical Beast Factors in their blood.

Legend had it that thousands of years ago, the world had been one of magic. Powerful mages ruled the world, calling Galintea the primary plane before flying into the stars in search of secondary plane worlds. During countless planar expeditions, the mages discovered an awkward problem. Accustomed to acting alone and living without restraint, they lacked reliable close-range protection and armed forces capable of suppressing the natives of secondary plane worlds. So the mages returned to Galintea and pondered how to solve the problem.

At first, the mages attempted to tame magical beasts. They soon realized that this was not a good choice, because magical beasts lacked the intelligence to understand the mages' intentions. Whenever magical beasts were sent to solve a problem, the final result was always bloodshed and devastation.

Then a genius mage drew inspiration from the berserk talent of the half-beasts. He injected the blood of powerful magical beasts into humans unable to cultivate magic, fused it with their blood, and activated it using magic arrays. Thus, Battle Qi was born.

The emergence of Battle Qi changed the human world. Once they mastered Battle Qi cultivation, humans without magical talent, once considered burdens, could independently confront savage magical beasts and defeat them without mage protection. This both eased the mages' responsibilities, giving them more time to study what interested them, and provided them with a reliable close-guard force.

After that, all kinds of magical beast blood were injected into human bodies, and Battle Qi of various attributes and characteristics appeared in the human world. At that time, both the activation and cultivation of Battle Qi took place within magic arrays. The mages established distinctions between the various Battle Qi power ranks. With their research and assistance, all sorts of magic arrays that accelerated Battle Qi cultivation allowed practitioners to advance by leaps and bounds. For a time, Sword Gods walked everywhere, and Sword Saints were a dime a dozen.

That had been humanity's most glorious and honored millennium. Resources and treasures from countless secondary plane worlds were continuously transported back to Galintea. In those days, elves played and sang for humans, halflings cooked delicacies for humans, dwarves built palaces for humans, the Dragon Race became humanity's mounts, Minotaurs farmed for humans, and half-beasts herded livestock for humans. Every other race bowed beneath humanity's feet.

All that beauty ended at that moment, which was both the beginning and the end. Some mages exploring secondary plane worlds within the void discovered an abandoned Divine Kingdom plane. Only then did they realize that the resources of countless secondary plane worlds combined could not compare to the abundance of a single abandoned Divine Kingdom plane. It contained higher-grade magical materials, the purest mineral resources, and even the secret of immortality spoken of in legend.

All mages turned their gaze toward the Divine Kingdom. They formed the most powerful Mage Corps, assembled a vast Sword God Legion, and invaded the realm of the gods.

The mages went to war with the gods, and the conflict lasted a thousand years. Countless Divine Kingdoms vanished, while countless mages, Sword Gods, and Sword Saints stained the battlefield with blood. There were no victors in that brutal war, only two defeated sides that perished together. Just as the epic The Fall of the Gods sang: blood and fire dyed the heavens red, stars fell like meteors, humanity's greed brought about a cataclysm, and darkness ruled the entire world...

In truth, the real cataclysm was that the once-ubiquitous magic elements were gradually disappearing, and the powerful mages were losing the source of their strength. No one could explain or understand why. They only knew that the End of Magic Day was approaching.

After the mages lost their last trace of power, the Sword Gods and Sword Saints who had once been suppressed believed their era had arrived. They believed the Galintea that followed should be a world of Battle Qi, and for the sake of ambition, they began waging war against one another. Without the mages' restraints, they slaughtered, plundered, and destroyed without restraint. They hated the mages who had ruled over them, and every magnificent structure built during the age of Magic Civilization became an outlet for their rage. They demolished and burned, turning everything into ruins before they were satisfied.

They established their own kingdoms and territories, placing themselves high above all others and enjoying the reverence of the world. Yet they forgot that without the help of mages and magic arrays, they had never been qualified to possess any of it. Thus, when they grew old and neared death, they discovered that their descendants lacked the ability to inherit their foundations. Their descendants could not activate the hidden power in their bloodlines to cultivate Battle Qi. They were still ordinary humans.

When the last Sword Saint drew his final breath, the darkest millennium in Galintea's human history descended. Having lost their ultimate military power, humanity could not resist the savage magical beasts and could only become fresh meat in their jaws. They could do nothing but hide and struggle on in miserable survival.

Legend said that during that dark millennium, the human population was reduced by fully two-thirds.

While hunting, a human warrior encountered a savage magical beast. At the brink of life and death, he suddenly activated the hidden power in his bloodline and awakened Battle Qi. Relying on that newly awakened Battle Qi, he killed the magical beast. Most fortunately, his tribe still possessed a Battle Qi cultivation manual passed down by their ancestors.

Just as dawn would eventually arrive no matter how long the night, this warrior's awakening of Battle Qi was like a ray of light, bringing new hope to the humans of Galintea. The surviving humans united, gathered every Battle Qi cultivation manual they could find, and began researching methods of awakening Battle Qi.

Over the long years of life-and-death struggles against magical beasts, humanity slowly came to understand Battle Qi and began mastering its initiation and awakening. There were no longer any mages or magic arrays to help humans learn Battle Qi, and even most Battle Qi cultivation manuals left by their ancestors were unusable. Humanity could only learn through battle and draw lessons from failure. On the path of researching Battle Qi, they groped their way forward step by step, yet each step was exceptionally firm.

More than a thousand years passed, and humanity once again became the master of the Galintea Continent. Battle Qi was no longer mysterious, but common knowledge. Activate the hidden Magical Beast Factors in one's bloodline, awaken Battle Qi, cultivate and advance continuously, grow stronger, and seize victory. Savage magical beasts were no longer a threat to humanity. Instead, they became humanity's prey.

With no external threat, the once-united humans fractured again. For tribes, beliefs, and profit, they resumed their endless wars. The flames of war spread for hundreds of years, eventually forming the present state of the Galintea Continent.

Historical researchers believed that the arrival of the End of Magic Age signified that the once-great Magic Civilization had lost the foundation needed for revival. Magic elements had not vanished; they had been replaced by another kind of natural Vital Energy. This Vital Energy could resonate with the Magical Beast Factors inherited from their ancestors in human blood, thereby awakening Battle Qi.

The more Sword Gods and Sword Saints a family had produced among its ancestors, the easier it was for its descendants to awaken Battle Qi. This was because their ancestors had fused with the blood of powerful magical beasts. Even after thousands of years, those Magical Beast Factors hidden in their blood remained the key to making their descendants more likely than others to awaken Battle Qi.

Thus, many nobles began placing great importance on preserving their family bloodlines. Some even forced their own children to marry in order to ensure the purity of their blood.