7 years went by in a fly. In the morning sun, a young boy with raven-black hair and dark blue eyes made his way through a mountain range. If you looked closely you might think that he looked a little frail, as if the wind could pick him up to a place far away. This boy was Damian.

Sighing, he murmured, “Ahh, why am I so thin.. why can I eat two portions that would feed the fatty for a day and still stay skinny? Dieties, what have I done to deserve this?” Maddened, he kicked at a pebble on the side. What Damian did not notice that it was a pebble in disguise. In reality it was a 1-meter thick rock with just the tip above the ground. With tears in his eyes Damian cursed the heavens while clutching unto his foot, was this his punishment for complaining to the gods?

The real reason Damian was in distress was because of the innate talent ceremony which would be held in the late afternoon. The village chiefs of Snow Mountain would assemble all the children that turned 5 and test their innate abilities. It was the first time these children would see their innate ability. Some had weapons, and some had elements as their innate talent. Some rare talents even had battle beasts or plants as their inborn ability. Everyone usually had an innate ability, some had two, but it was very rare that someone had no innate ability at all. And Damian knew that he was one of those rare failures. He knew because on this very day he had sneaked into his uncle’s room to test his before everyone else. But that goddamn stone did not show anything at all! Stupid stone!!

As Damian thought that he had the urge to kick at something again, but he held himself back as he noticed that this pebble might be another rock in disguise! So he carefully touched it with his hands, and as he noticed that it was just a pebble he kicked it with all his might!

What Damian did not think of was the power of momentum, and as he demolished the pebble he lost his balance and fell with his face first into the dirt.

“Shit!!! What a shitty day!!!”, was Damians response as he got up and wiped away his tears. “Sh**” was the first and only curse word he knew of, and he picked it up from the older village kids. His mother Elena would always be very angry with him when he cursed, so he did it only when she was not nearby.

What Damian did not know but would soon come to realize was that his mother arrived a moment ago and was standing a dozen pebbles away. “Damian!!!” Turning around in a spectacular fashion and seeing who it was made Damian nearly faint. It was her of all people! Hearing me curse again, and that twice in a sentence, oh man how unlucky can I get? Was the pebble not enough punishment? He had enough of this unlucky strike that had been going on. With his knees on the ground and his gaze towards the sky he made an oath, “Dieties, I will never vent my frustration on pebbles again, rocks have feelings too I understand. So please, please please please, will you make me pass the examination and bless me with a good innate talent?”

Elena watched all of this with a speechless face. Her son was indeed a strange boy, always getting into trouble. It was not like he intentionally created trouble, it was as if trouble came to him.

Thinking of the night of his birth she smiled, it seemed like everything was fine with her boy. Besides his unnaturally thin body he was as healthy as anybody. What this strange smoke meant was still a mystery, a famous physician who visited Snow Mountain a couple days after his birth had never heard of such a thing…

“Damian, I know you are worried, but you know that even if you do not so well we will still love you all the same. Even if you have a low innate talent, what I don’t believe, you can still become a strong fighter or cultivator like your father, you just have to put in more effort than everybody else! Your father had a low innate talent as well and look where he is now.” With that Elena rubbed through his hair. Surprisingly she found several pebbles..

Damian sighed, his mother was truly a good person. His father was a debauchery who had multiple wives, but she never spoke badly of him. His name was Aidan Yang and he had left to an unknown place before he was born. He was in the Nascent Realm when he had met his mother, and someone in the Nascent Realm was akin to a noble in the Kingdom of Draka. The king of the Imperial Family himself was in the Nascent Realm, but a fight between two cultivators in the Nascent Realm, who had formed and strengthened their soul, could end in countless deaths, thus it was usually common curtesy to avoid fights in the Nascent Realm. Another reason why it was an unwritten law to avoid infighting in the Nascent Realm was the neighboring Kingdom, the Kingdom of Pan. The kingdoms of Light Continent were not necessarily enemies, but they were certainly not friends.

There were less than two handful who had successfully entered the Nascent Realm in Draka Kingdom, and any of those strong fellows had their name known throughout the kingdom. The king was the strongest among them, so he did not worry that his rulership would be disturbed anytime soon.

“Mom, will father come visit anytime soon? Nevermind, I don’t want to know! Dunwood has helped me and took care of me so I don’t need him!” With that he ran back towards their hut, thinking of his debauchery father and the afternoon which would haunt him for a long, long time.