Myriad Stars: Wu Ji Chronicles I. A Cultivation LitRPG Universe Read online

  Wu Ji Chronicles I

  Copyright © 2020 M.Q. Kajack

  All rights reserved.

  Part I

  A New Star

  PROLOGUE

  A woman ran through the forest, panickedly trying to escape her pursuers. Despite being strong for her age, it was very clear that her cultivation was quickly regressing.

  Her two pursuers had almost caught up when the three noticed something falling from the sky. The object crashed into the mountain next to them. Just like that, half of the mountain disappeared, as if it’d never been there. Instead, the part of the mountain that remained simply led up to an unforgivable cliff.

  The three of them looked at each other as countless thoughts ran through their heads. Still, the woman was the fastest. She ran towards the mysterious object, hoping that whatever it was could help her.

  “I have to hurry. This woman’s body can’t last much longer.” The lady muttered as she reached the edge of the cliff.

  Without hesitation, she jumped.

  As she fell, her cultivation fell from that of a Martial King to a Martial Master. Unable to control her descent, she summoned a sword and stabbed it into the cliff, slowing her descent.

  Lucky, the drop wasn’t too deep, but she was still rather apprehensive as she approached the bottom. What the hell could crush half a mountain just by falling on it?

  The lady ran forward as quickly as her ailing body allowed, even as her cultivation continued to fall. She clenched her teeth. At this rate, she’d lose all of her cultivation, and the ascending cultivation ceremony she was attempting would also be lost. as much as her body allowed, dropping yet another realm. She clenched her teeth. If it kept going like this her whole cultivation would be gone and the ascending cultivation ceremony she had prepared would be lost, as well.

  The only reason she’d possessed this lady’s body was to progress her cultivation. It should have been the last step before her ascension, but these pigs had wanted her body, and she’d unfortunately exposed her secret.

  Just as she was about to rest, she tripped over something. Rolling along the ground, she crashed against a tree. For a cultivator to trip and fall, it was clear just how tired she was.

  She was a strong woman, though, so she quickly stood up again. Her clothes were a mess and a little bit of exposed flesh could be seen.

  “A corpse?” She’d felt that the object she’d tripped over was organic.

  “Don’t touch me.” A voice floated over from the corpse, or rather, body. The man was clearly not dead yet.

  Yet, it was too late. The woman’s curiosity had gotten the better of her, and she’d already made contact with the man’s skin. She could feel that her entire self was dissipating. The man was absorbing everything. Her cultivation, her strength… even her flesh.

  The man’s corpse-like body was visibly restoring itself, but it was also visibly decaying. continued to decay. It was highly unusual, it looked as if the man’s body was at war with itself. She’s never seen anything like that.

  She cursed as she endured the pain. With her current state, there wasn’t much else she could do.

  Her real body was far away, and there were another five parts of her soul that were possessing other women’s bodies. At this moment, though, all of them sat down, cross-legged. What she found, though, she didn’t dare to believe.

  “Impossible!” All the possessed women shouted in unison.

  At first, one of the possessed ladies puked blood and fainted, while the soul fragment that had been possessing it returned to the main body. From the main body, it then transferred to the body in contact with the man’s body.

  It wasn't long before all the soul fragments were transferred into the lady’s body, then into the man’s. Even the woman’s main soul was forced into the first lady’s body.

  “Damn it.” If even her main soul was absorbed by the man, she’d truly lose everything. But she still had a chance to recover.

  In her eyes, the man before her had a similar cultivation method to hers. It was clear that everything the man was absorbing was being sent elsewhere. In other words, the man before her was just an avatar.

  “You will pay for this.” The lady threatened as she struggled to hold on to her main soul.

  The man whose eyes were still closed, slowly spoke. “I thought I had died. It’s thanks to you that I’m still alive. I will make it up to you, don’t worry. For now, please endure it.”

  Despite the woman’s threats, it was clear to her that the man was far stronger than her. Otherwise, his absorption powers wouldn’t be so strong that she couldn't resist it.

  The woman’s two pursuers finally arrived on the scene, but before they could even blink they exploded into pieces, and their strength was absorbed by the man.

  The woman’s eyes glinted. “Don’t think we’re even just because of something like this!” The lady bit the man’s arm in complaint.

  The man didn’t respond. His body was still continuously decaying, while the lady’s main soul was dissipating. The woman could even feel the cultivation of her main body decreasing.

  After a great period of time, the man’s wounds began to heal. Properly, this time. His body had finally stopped decaying, and his wounds were disappearing. Unfortunately, the lady’s cultivation had dropped to the point of being at the Mortal Realm. Sure, she still had a connection to the other ladies’ bodies, but her foundation had been more or less destroyed, so there was no point in continuing the ceremony, even if she still could.

  The man looked at the woman with mixed feelings. Without her, he would have died… but he also understood that he’d interrupted the other party’s ritual. And with how much energy he’d absorbed, he also understood that he had taken just about everything the other party had.

  Those two looked into each other’s eyes.

  “I-ah-” The man who’d been about to speak suddenly felt the woman’s lips pressed against his.

  Her fierce eyes paused his speech, and the lady began to undress herself. After finishing, she tore apart his clothes, as well.

  “You will return everything!” The lady laughed as she rode him.

  If it worked one way, perhaps it’d work in another. She remembered that the body she’d possessed had a strange Myriad Stars blessing. She’d never come across it, but based on its name, she expected it to work as described. It was an Amplifying blessing.

  With the blessing, the lady began using a sinister cultivation method. Through having sexual intercourse with the other party, it could rob the other party’s energy for the user’s own cultivation. Coupled with the Amplifying blessing, she was able to absorb energies at an incredible speed.

  The man just laughed and enjoyed the woman who’d decided to throw herself at him.

  In a faraway place, his real body had just endured a great battle, so intense that it would’ve scared the lady riding his avatar to death. His real body laughed, then reached to the side, creating a massive black hole that engulfed the half-destroyed planet he was standing on. “Fine. These spoils of war are yours.”

  He laughed as his avatar was engulfed in a new round of battles.

  “Greedy woman.”

  The real body of the man teleported to another planet, this one teeming with countless living beings.. With a wave of his hand the beings were teleported to another planet, as another black hole engulfed the planet.

  “Alright, this should be enough.”

  His avatar was ravaged by the woman for seven days and nights before the woman was finally satisfied and
stopped. Not only had her cultivation progressed, but her foundation itself had strengthened to the point that she wanted to endlessly continue cultivating with the man, but she’d taken what she should. She’d even completed her ascension, and was just one step away from becoming a God.

  “I guess I’ve fulfilled my commitment to you.” The man said.

  The lady snorted in return, but then suddenly remembered everything she’d done. She’d been in a certain state of mind, and exiting it, she suddenly blushed. She was thousands of years old, but she’d never been with a man.

  The man scratched his head. “Your first time?”

  The lady nodded.

  “This is quite troublesome.” She suddenly said.

  “Indeed it is. You’re pregnant. It’s my fault. My bloodline.” The man replied without caring much.

  “I can’t stay and possess this woman forever.” The lady had thrown away her shyness, and since everything had ended rather appropriately, she didn’t blame the other party. After all, it was her own fault to begin with.

  “That’s not the only problem. I can’t leave this place anymore. Something’s changed.” The man said with a frown.

  “I can feel my connection slowly dissipating — what’s going on?” The lady could feel that her connection to this borrowed body was weakening. “I — take care of my child!” She shouted as her connection was severed.

  The man frowned, then checked the lady lying on the ground and sighed.

  “Too troublesome. I never expected that I, Wu Tian would have a son. I’m sorry lady, but I will have to freeze you for a few hundred years, or my child will end up eating you. Once you wake up, I’ll make it up to you.”

  Hundreds of years later a man, a woman, and a little child walked toward a city.

  Wu Tian saw the woman smiling at him, and smiled back.

  “Dummy, what is done is done. Besides, it might be her child, but it’s also mine. One day, perhaps we can all be a great family. And maybe, you can be sincere with me and tell me what happened.” She laughed and looked toward the man’s child, who was running towards the city ahead of them.

  “Wu Ji, don’t run or you’ll get lost!” The lady shouted with a beautiful smile

  Wu Ji was sixteen years old this year.

  He’d been called all sorts of things in his life. Trash, useless, a waste of life, worthless… Wu Ji was fairly sure he’d been called every conceivably negative thing under the sun.

  Despite that, he could only recognize that he, perhaps, deserved some of the derogatory namecalling. He was quite literally a useless individual. He was too stupid and lazy to study, lacked the ability to cultivate, and was even too weak to work in the fields... His only redeeming quality was that he was a fairly handsome young man. He wasn’t uniquely handsome, but was more than good-looking enough to attract some young women. Sadly, when these women learned of who he was, without fail, they would run for the hills. Wu Ji couldn’t and didn’t blame them, though. Whose fault was it that he was born this way, anyways? Not theirs.

  When Wu Ji was in his mother’s womb, his father had probably constantly dreamed of what his son could be. Yet, never in his dreams could his father have imagined that Wu Ji would grow into what he was right now… a useless and worthless man.

  The Wu Family was small. Wu Ji’s dad had been a soldier, but unfortunately died in a war five years ago. Before dying, though, Wu Ji’s father had arranged an opportunity for Wu Ji in the military. Unfortunately, when Wu Ji had moved to claim this position, he’d been denied - after all, why would the army take in a man who was so weak he couldn’t even lift a sword?

  Even if he’d been accepted into the military, Wu Ji couldn’t cultivate, so at most, he’d be used as cannon fodder. And for such a weak man, Wu Ji was rather fearful of death. No, instead of looking for a way to earn his keep, he looked for other reasons to continue living.

  Wu Ji’s head was full of dreams, perverted dreams. He always dreamed about being the most powerful and handsome man in the world, surrounded by countless beauties… but this was only a dream.

  Wu Ji’s mother was quite charming. She constantly received offers to remarry, or even to be a concubine for some noble. But she rejected even the most generous offers, and her love for her late husband was something many admired. Luckily, most in the city treated her well, and respected her. Her son, though, was another matter, and there was nothing Wu Ji’s mother could do about it - after all, despite all her wishes, her son was truly useless.

  At the age of ten, most kids would go through the process of awakening, called the Myriad Stars Ceremony. This ceremony was done all over the world, perhaps even the universe. At the very least, it was the main ceremony by which humans learned to cultivate.

  The ceremony was quite simple. The children sat in meditation and tried to breathe the heaven and earth energy around them to connect to their Myriad Stars. The more stars one connected with, the more talent and benefits one had. No one knew what exactly the stars were, but it was said that in the universe there were many Myriad Stars and that any being born in the universe “belonged” to one of them. Connecting to one’s stars was the first step into cultivation and breaking the shackles of the mortals.

  An ancient teaching said that when people reached a certain level of cultivation, they would break the shackles of this realm and ascend to their Myriad Star. Of course, this was just something said in ancient times. For the folks in the city, these were just legends and tales to tell their children.

  When one connected to their Myriad Stars, they would receive the mark and blessing of the stars. The Star Mark was used to grade the children, as some stars and blessings were considered stronger than others. So, the rankings were given to the children to classify them based on their perceived talent and future expected strength. Usually, a 2-Star talent connected to two stars and received two blessings. By this logic, they couldn’t beat a 3-Star talent who connected to three stars and received three blessings. But there were also other factors to take into account, such as age, bloodline, cultivation level, and more. So, it was not entirely impossible for a 2-Star talent to beat a 3-Star talent - it was just difficult.

  This was especially so, since after you connected to your Stars during the Myriad Stars ceremony, it was almost impossible to change them, unless one of your Stars had a Star Path.

  Some Stars contained a Star Path, and it could allow the user to grow in talent and the blessing it gave the user could change as the cultivator grew and improved... But this was an extremely special case. Even if a cultivator connected to a Star with a Star Path, the cultivator may not be able to access it. More legends the priest of the ceremony liked to talk about.

  Wu Ji was a 0-Star talent, something that had never, ever, been recorded in the history of the Empire. There were some who lacked talent who became a 1-Star talent, but 0?? That’s how he became the laughingstock of the city. Even the Gods mocked Wu Ji.

  Actually, it wasn’t Wu Ji’s fault. When Wu Ji went through the ceremony all the Myriad Stars, all the billions of Stars, rejected him as if he was trash, a pest or something. He ended up in a corner, connected to a desolate Star that was barren and full of holes. It barely resembled a Star. The Star hadn’t rejected him like the others, but as it could barely be called a star, he’d been ranked a 0-Star talent.

  At that time Wu Ji thought that perhaps that Star had a Star Path that would give him a cool blessing or something but even six years after the ceremony, nothing special had happened to him. His old friends were already strong enough to kill Wu Ji by lifting their finger. They commanded the power of thunder, fire, and other incredible abilities.

  Essentially, Wu Ji was no different than a mortal, except for one small thing. His conscious soul could directly access that weird Star. This was something that was totally unheard of. But this was a small comfort at best. The star had nothing–only a small ball that he couldn’t reach. In the past years, despite everything that
had happened to him, all of the names he’d been called, seeing everyone surpass him and leave him in the dust, Wu Ji didn’t give up and meditated each night in order to reach the ball. Each night, he took a step closer to that ball.

  Wu Ji estimated that in a few more days he would finally be able to reach that ball. He hoped, really goddamn hoped that the ball would change his life. No, he believed it would. Otherwise, how could he have ignored for so many years those insults, how could he have faced his life without committing suicide? For him it was clear, something inside his mind that kept pushing him to reach that tiny ball.

  One week wasn’t long. He was patient.

  “Morning, Mom!” said Wu Ji excitedly and with a huge smile on his face. Today, this night! Everything would change. He would reach that tiny ball.

  “Morning, son, did something good happen? Oh! You’ve finally grown up. I have been waiting for this moment. Good! Your mother will support you. Today is Miss Lan’s husband fighting tournament. Your father will be proud of you. As a man you have to fight! So, what if you can’t cultivate? A son of mine will never hide!” Wu Ji’s mother was too caught up in her mood and failed to notice that her son’s face was becoming gloomier by the second.

  For God’s sake, Mom, you don’t want your child to be alive anymore, do you? What the hell are you thinking? If I had known Miss Lan’s husband fighting tournament was today, I wouldn’t have shown my face at all… Guess I will have to take a beating again.

  Wu Ji’s thoughts were not without reason - in the past he’d had to take some beatings from other guys because of his mother’s enthusiasm. He’d been labelled as trash so many times that when his mother ever saw that he was in a good mood, she always thought that Wu Ji was finally changing and striving to improve. Unfortunately for Wu Ji, Goddess Luck always liked to play with him. Each time he was in a good mood, there was always something great happening in the city so his mother always misunderstood him. But as a filial son, despite how useless he was, how could he deny his mother’s happiness. After all, she always took great care of him and she never forced him to work either. So, Wu Ji went along with his mother.