Infinite Star - Chapter 1

‘Everything is set. Now I just need to concentrate and form a body.’

Inside a custom-built temple, a voice could be heard. This voice did not belong to a body, it was heard from a rock in the middle of the temple, on an altar. Inside the temple only darkness reigned, no light could be seen from anywhere. It seemed to be shut off the world.

‘All right, let’s start!’

Again, the voice from the rock shouted. Inside the temple, many runes started to glow, lightning the temple. This light was drawn like a vortex to the altar with the rock on it. It seemed like the rock consumed the light. Many wonderful materials, from a shining purple rock to a dark red glowing flower, appeared and levitated around the altar. These materials seemed soul robbing and not in any way ordinary. Every material was drawn one at the time towards the rock and began to glow and transform into a shining liquid. As time went by a shining body was formed.

‘Finally, only one step left. I need to concentrate; the slightest mistake could ruin everything I’ve worked for.’

The rock started to glow darker than the darkness itself. It began to fly towards the body. Millions of black strands came out of the rock and engulfed the body.

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Meanwhile, a young boy woke up from his deep slumber.

‘Where Where am I?’, after looking around a dark room he couldn’t figure out how he got here.

‘Wait I remember! We were kidnapped , but I thought we escaped.’

‘Right, where is Harry?’

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On the altar, the rock fused into the Body. The shining body started to cool down and became more lifelike. The eyes transformed and the whole body started to awaken.

“HARRY!!!”

A voice far away from the Altar could be slightly heard.

‘Wait Impossible, no one can enter my temple, it is sealed and shut off from the world.’

Letting his concentration loose, the body deformed and crumbled down.

‘NO! NO WAY! My body why? Wait I still have a chance, I can’t create a body now, but an object should work.’

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The young boy shouted another time for Harry, but to no avail.

‘Well The only way, I see, is towards the light. Wait Hold on, everything around me is dark and there is only light in front of me Please don’t tell me I am dead!’

Starting to panic and looking around the room, he once again shouted for Harry.

‘Ok, I need to calm down’ He slapped himself and forced a smile upon him.

Walking towards the light, the light dimmed with every second. After arriving there, the young boy found a book on an altar.

“COME!”, a voice surrounded the whole room.

“Who Who the hell is there? Harry? Please be a fucking prank, I’m starting to lose every chill here!”

“”, the voice seemed speechless, as he didn’t understand the young boy.

“TAKE THE BOOK!”, the voice once again surrounded the whole room.

“Yeah Yeah Sure. I love books, you know. Education is important and fun. A book a day keeps the doctor away.”, shaking with fear, the boy started to spout nonsense around him as he slowly walked up to the altar.

“”, again, the voice was speechless, he couldn’t quite figure out if the boy was just stupid or only afraid.

Walking up to the altar, the boy picked up the book. Right after that, a game-like message popped up.

“Binding with the Infinite Star”

“HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?”, the voice furiously shouted as the temple started to crumble down and destruct.

“Quest Completed!”, again, a message popped up, “Reward will be received!”

Standing there and seeing these messages the young boy was speechless. He couldn’t figure out the situation. As he read the last message, a light, coming from the ceiling, engulfed him.

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The young boy’s consciousness slowly awakened.

Waking up he looked around him and only saw trees after trees. ‘Where the hell am I now?’. After contemplating about what happened inside the temple, the young boy was confused.

‘Is this a dream? Was that before a dream? What the hell is going on here?’

Not knowing the answer, the young boy stood up, wanting to explore his whereabouts. As he stood up a small light appeared before him. The small light came out of his own head and levitated around him. It then slowly moved towards him. Touching the small light, it directly entered his body, sending a light through all his veins and then directly back to his head.

The next moment the young boy was kneeling and deep in pain. He experienced a feeling similar to millions of needles piercing his body. Losing nearly all feeling in his body and his limbs getting numb, the pain traveled to his head. His head felt like being torn apart, exploding every second. He tried his best not to fall unconscious, but he never experienced anything like that. The pain was immeasurable and overwhelming. Everything around him slowly turned dark. He was losing consciousness. Only a small point in his vision remained blurry.

‘I can’t can’t lose again!’

A crying voice flashed inside the young boy’s head. “Don’t die on me, Zayn! Don’t”

Hearing this voice Zayn regained his consciousness in a flash. Everything around him lost the blurriness. His vision became clear. He explosively stood up. ‘Where is he? Where?’

“Harry! I’m alive! Harry?”

Trying to track the voice, Zayn realized, that he imagined the voice. All his remaining energy was then lost, and he fell on his back. Lying on his back he started to think. ‘What was that small light? Why did it hurt that much? Am I even on earth? Argh My head still hurts.’ Touching his head, the pain disappeared in a flash. Triggering a surge of information intruding his head. This surge lasted a whole minute, Zayn was filled with so many information, he couldn’t digest it.

‘The Infinite Star Arts? What is this?’ Organizing the surge of information, he learned that the surge of information is called the Infinite Star Arts. The ultimate cultivation technique. Even though he didn’t know what a cultivation technique was, he still sorted these information’s and tried to comprehend it. Lying on his back and not being able to move much, he didn’t have anything else to do. Having the surge of information intruding his head, he gained the knowledge of the Infinite Star Arts, but having the knowledge and having comprehended it are two different things.

‘Cultivating is the act of Growing and Learning. The most common form of cultivation is the qi cultivation. Qi is the most common resource in nearly every world. There are many realms in the qi cultivation, using qi to strengthen the body, to storing up qi, to having a qi body. The qi cultivation gives strength unimaginable to the ordinary folk. Those of the highest realms could destroy mountains with their thoughts. Using a cultivation technique is essential for the qi cultivation. It is a guide for the cultivator. Teaching him how to start, what to do and so on. Most of the time the cultivation technique can decide the combat prowess of a cultivator. Having a high-tier cultivation technique and having a low-tier cultivation technique, is like having the sharpest iron sword against a wooden stick. This is the Infinite Star Arts created by the Infinite Star himself. The ultimate qi cultivation technique’

‘To start qi cultivation, one first off has to sense qi in his surroundings’

Sorting the Infinite Star Arts, Zayn began to study it. Through it, he learned that he wasn’t on earth anymore. Earth didn’t have qi as a resource and in the current world qi was the most common resource. Of course, Zayn was shocked by this information, but the thrill of learning the ultimate cultivation technique distracted him. Zayn was always a learning addict. He used learning new things, as a distraction from the real world. Learning new things always felt great for him, feeling like a big accomplishment. Only later, through his best friend Harry, did he use this “addiction” in an effective way and actually made use of the things he learned. The Infinite Star Arts were also a good way to be distracted. The best part for Zayn, about the Infinite Star Arts, was the discovery of getting stronger while cultivating. He would get stronger by learning. This fact made Zayn extremely happy, as he immersed himself in the Infinite Star Arts.

After hours of studying, he could sense qi and even began absorbing qi to strengthen his body. His rate of progress, if known to the world, would shock not only everyone in this world, it would even shock those at the highest worlds. Normally an average cultivator would take months even years to comprehend and apply a normal cultivation technique. Extreme talents could cut the time to days or weeks to comprehend and apply the highest cultivation techniques. Still, it was unheard of anyone comprehending and applying cultivation techniques in hours. Even not including the fact, that Zayn was cultivating the Infinite Star Arts. The ultimate qi cultivation technique and the hardest of them all. This “genius” of him could be thanked for his intelligence and his affection for learning. Still, his intelligence did not mean that he was talented. Starting to cultivate and comprehending techniques depended on intelligence, but advancing through cultivation stages depended on the bodily talent.

As nighttime approached Zayn finally finished with his first session of cultivation. He was cultivating from daytime to nighttime, he himself did not notice that.

‘This world sure gets dark fast. Maybe a full day here isn’t 24 hours. Weird.’ What he did not know was that the span of a day was the same to earth. He just got lost in his cultivation.

Zayn randomly jumped up, punched the darkness and ran around. Anybody watching would label him as a special case. The reason, behind these random acts, was testing his body. ‘My body sure got lighter. It feels like a feather. This should be the 1-Star of the Body Refinement Realm. I’m wondering, how strong am I?’

As if he was summoning an opponent, a snow-white wolf appeared. Without any regard to Zayn, the snow-white wolf charged Zayn with his fangs open, drooling out of it, as though he was seeing a delicious meal. Zayn reacted in seconds and jumped to the side, dodging the attack.

“Quest added: Defeat the Snow Wolf!”

A game-like message appeared before him, similar to the messages inside the temple.