After dinner.
Dongbo Xueying, his younger brother Qing Shi, and Uncle Zong and Tong San were gathered together. Dongbo Xueying took a watermelon-sized crystal ball from a bundle nearby. It was another thing their mother had left behind.
"Brother, what's this? It's so pretty." Qing Shi was a handsome, adorable boy. Dongbo Xueying looked more like their father, while his younger brother took after their mother. It was obvious Qing Shi would grow into a handsome young man. Dongbo Xueying, on the other hand, couldn't quite match his brother's looks.
"Come on, Shi Tou. Put your hand on it," Dongbo Xueying urged.
"Oh." Qing Shi obediently placed his little hand on it.
The moment his palm touched the crystal ball, the mental energy within his body naturally triggered a reaction inside it. A hazy red light immediately shone from the crystal ball, filling the entire room.
Dongbo Xueying and the others all beamed with delight.
"Brother, why is it glowing?" Qing Shi asked curiously.
"Great mage, come here and give me a kiss." Dongbo Xueying scooped up his little brother and happily kissed him.
Mages and knights were different.
Knights had to begin training from a young age. Changfeng Academy, for instance, set its maximum age for admission at just ten! Mages, however, were the opposite. They couldn't train when they were young. Those from well-off families usually began training at ten, while some didn't start until they were sixteen or seventeen, or even over twenty. Changfeng Academy accepted mages up to the age of thirty.
Anyone under thirty could enter the academy.
That was because magic demanded a great deal from the mind, and training in particular involved the soul. If someone started too young and made a mistake, they could even damage their soul and end up an idiot! Older people, on the other hand, had more experience and the benefit of years of cultivation. Some began training in their forties or fifties and still achieved great things, even stepping into the Transcendent realm.
*****
The days passed.
Before long, five years had gone by.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~" Snowflakes as large as goose feathers drifted down.
A young man in a thin black shirt stood by the railing, watching snowflakes fill the sky. His features were sharply defined, as if carved with a knife. Years of training had given him an imposing presence that made people's hearts tremble—the aura of a spear expert.
"Brother!"
A boy bundled up in thick clothes called out from a distance.
"Qing Shi." Dongbo Xueying smiled and leaped down from a height of more than six meters, landing in the open space below, where the snow lay thick. His younger brother was grown now, so Dongbo Xueying had changed how he addressed him, calling him by his name, Qing Shi, instead of the childhood nickname Shi Tou.
"Brother, let's go have some fun in Yi Water City! There are so many fun places there. I'm bored stiff at home. It's no fun at all," Dongbo Qingshi said excitedly.
"Ask Uncle Zong to take you," Dongbo Xueying said with a smile.
"You're always cooped up in Snow Eagle Territory. You barely go into the city once a year. Don't you get bored?" Dongbo Qingshi muttered.
Dongbo Xueying smiled but said nothing.
His younger brother barely remembered their parents anymore, and had completely forgotten the night they were taken away. He lived a carefree life.
"I'll practice my fist technique a little longer," Dongbo Xueying said. He took off his shirt, baring his upper body. You couldn't tell beneath his clothes, but without them, his powerful build was striking. Years of hard training had clearly made him incredibly strong.
As he spoke, Dongbo Xueying stepped through the snow and began practicing the Flame Three-Stage Method. It was a Battle Qi method, as well as a set of fist techniques.
Snowflakes landed on his skin. With every move, his perception of the Heaven and Earth around him grew clearer.
"Take your time, then. I'm off to have fun." Qing Shi ran away.
Dongbo Xueying continued practicing his fist technique beneath the falling snow. His movements seemed slow, but the power in his body flowed and passed from one part to another like water.
By the time he was thirteen, his spear techniques had already reached the stage of "man and spear as one."
But that wasn't enough. He still needed to unite the strength of his entire body, controlling every trace of power with absolute precision. Only then could he be considered a Spear Technique Master—and only then could he master the first stage of the Mystic Ice Spear Technique, Drifting Snow!
For the past two years, he had often practiced his fist techniques and reflected on his body, searching for that spark of insight in the stillness, hoping to unite his strength as one.
"Almost there."
Dongbo Xueying could already sense the threshold of uniting the strength of his entire body.
He had been practicing the spear since he was six. Now, in the winter of his fifteenth year, he had trained for nearly ten years! He had probably worked harder than most people did in twenty or thirty years of training.
"I don't need to worry about my spear techniques, but why haven't I produced Battle Qi yet?" Dongbo Xueying picked up a spear resting nearby and began casually practicing his techniques. The spear and Dongbo Xueying seemed to become one. The spear surged like a dragon, its force rolling onward; when it thrust forward, countless spear shadows filled the air. When it swept sideways, nothing could stop it.
By their initial estimate, he should have produced Battle Qi by the age of ten! By fifteen, he should have long since become an Earth-Rank Knight.
But what had actually happened?
He still hadn't produced Battle Qi or become a knight.
Dongbo Xueying, Zong Ling, and Tong San weren't disappointed. They were baffled!
The principle behind Battle Qi methods was to absorb the power of Heaven and Earth to nourish the body. Once the body reached its limit and could absorb no more, that power would form Battle Qi inside the body!
By the time Dongbo Xueying was ten, his physical strength had already surpassed the limits of an ordinary person. Over the following five years, his body had continued growing stronger, constantly absorbing the power of Heaven and Earth. That was why he still hadn't produced Battle Qi.
"What's the reason?"
"My body is now more than ten times stronger than an ordinary person's, and it's still absorbing the power of Heaven and Earth."
Dongbo Xueying was perplexed.
Even Zong Ling and the others, with all their experience and knowledge, couldn't understand what was happening.
"Bang!"
The spear suddenly struck the ground, hitting the stone paving beneath the snow. It rebounded and thrust forward in one fluid motion, letting out a terrifying shriek.
As Dongbo Xueying practiced his spear techniques, he suddenly felt an itch deep within his body, in the tiniest places.
"Hm?" Dongbo Xueying quickly lowered his spear. The insides of every bone itched, and every muscle itched. Even he found it unbearable. Then every part of his body began to grow scorching hot, as if it were being burned. His bones seemed to be melting. His skin turned bright red and grew tougher, while a layer of membrane began forming beneath it.
Faintly, a blood-red stream of energy rose from Dongbo Xueying's bare upper body, hazily taking the shape of a towering giant.
In a daze, Dongbo Xueying "saw" a towering giant, barefoot and clad in animal skins, throw back his head and roar across a desolate land.
Then the blood-red energy dispersed.
But the changes inside Dongbo Xueying's body grew even more intense.
"Ah!"
Dongbo Xueying could no longer hold back the pain. He fell to his knees, bracing himself with both hands against the ground. The scorching heat radiating from his body began melting the snow around him.
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