Volume 1-Chapter 1- Ruins

In a giant wasteland spanning thousands of kilometers lay hundreds of thousands of corpses of varying species. There was no more life visible, except for a giant humanoid monster standing 100 meters tall and his opponents, seven exhausted warriors.

The seven warriors had only ragged clothes stained with blood and small pieces of armor that remained. They held chipped weapons, that were once treasure but now nearly reduced to mere scrap after the years of endless carnage that took place.

The giants voice boomed as he spoke. "You should just give up, the seven of you are too weak to defeat me."

"Ha… we can't give up, not with… our universe on the line." Said one while gasping for air.

All seven looked at each other and one of them who appeared to be the strongest said, "You six know what we have to do."

"SHIT! You are going to blow all of us up." The giant swore while bracing for impact.

All seven of them started to swell while they spoke their final words.

A burly man with a spear and a shield said sadly, "I guess this is how it ends."

They all sadly smiled before one who seemed the strongest spoke. "It was good knowing you, maybe fate will let us meet again in our next lives."

A bright light flashed, and a giant explosion took place vaporizing 10 worlds before a mysterious force intervened. At the site of the explosion lay a terribly wounded giant who was now very weak but still holding on. He quickly punched air with his remaining strength, shattering the space before he stepped through the cracks and disappeared.

Seven golden orbs of differing size with countless cracks came out from whatever remained of the experts and rose up to one spot before an invisible existence sent them away to different corners of the universe.

In one of countless planets in that universe there was a cave in a forest that led to a dilapidated tunnel. In this dilapidated tunnel walked two children, a four-year-old boy with black hair that looked like part of the darkness and glowing bright green eyes along with a girl his age with pink hair and blue eyes that seemed to contain an ocean within.

"Watch out! There's another trap formation ahead." The girl, Orphelia cautioned the boy Maxwell.

They both launched themselves forward and were outrunning all the arrows before one caught Maxwell in the leg and caused him to stumble and fall headfirst on the ground.

"Ouch!" Maxwell groaned in pain before rummaging around in a small pouch that he had.

'Oh no. I'm out of pills.'

"Orphelia do you have any rank 2 low grade rejuvenating pills?"

"No, it's all over, that is going to hurt for a while then."

"Hold on to my shoulder, I can support you." She added.

"It's alright I can walk."

After further insisting from Orphelia Maxwell agreed. After bandaging his wound Maxwell took support from Orphelia and they trudged along while doing their best to avoid the traps.

They did not get hurt much more and soon found a chamber at the end of the tunnel.

"Finally, we are out of that godforsaken tunnel."

"Orphie, look there's a throne with a skeleton." He said while pointing at a dusty golden throne, on which sat a skeleton with a full set of armor along with a ring that looked ethereal.

'These both are very talented, stage 3 of Qi condensation at such a young age.'

"You both are rather lucky to have stumbled upon my tomb. You are talented enough to get my inheritance" The voice echoed around the domed chamber

Both the children were startled as they were busy looking around the chamber.

The voice continued to speak, "Walk onto the formation on the platform and take my Spirit rank Low Grade spatial ring and armor."

Orphelia cautiously walked towards the throne and took the treasures.

'What! She has the 73rd ranking constitution and it can evolve to the 4th best constitution'

"Girl! Take out the plum from the spatial ring."

Orpelia poured out all the pills, herbs, techniques, spirit stones and items in the ring on the platform before searching through it all. She threw a vial of pills towards Maxwell who caught it and opened the vial. A strong pleasant smell spread out surprising him.

'It seems to be a healing pill above grade 3'

He quickly swallowed it and felt his wounds heal fully. The voice then instructed

"That plum is the grade 7 herb- Sword Dao Plum, it will awaken your Plum Blossom Sword Body and it aids in comprehension of sword intent."

"Pity I couldn't use it since I already reached the peak of my sword embryo. Your sword intent comprehension should reach the peak stage of sword essence after you awaken it."

'Woah, Orphelia has a good sword constitution. I won't be getting anything remotely as good.'

"Boy! Go test your affinities on the Elemental Pearls."

'Huh, me?'

Maxwell walked up to a basalt table with seven large pearls that were tinged slightly with different colors. He then placed his hands on each pearl sent qi into them one by one. Slowly all the pearls were filled with the colors red, green, purple, white, brown, black and finally blue.

"WOAH! I have all the affinities?"

'He's the most talented person I've ever seen, If I was alive I would have taken him as my disciple without hesitation.'

"Good! Good! You have all affinities, you will be undefeated with enough resources. You can inherit my spatial techniques and use them."

Orphelia heard this and looked towards Maxwell like he was another treasure with her deep blue eyes glowing in happiness from her harvest.

"My Elemental Pearls are not large enough to test the level of your affinities. You should still keep your affinities a secret from everyone including your family."

'As long as nothing terrible happens he will become a one-man army.'

"That means I can practice all the professions?"

"Yes, I have a technique to make Mystic rank high grade spatial rings, it is perfect for you to earn spirit stones to advance your elements rank."

Orphelia was even more excited after hearing about the technique and quickly located it before reluctantly parting with it. Max consoled her by saying, "I will make you as many spatial rings as you want so don't feel bad."

"You better keep that promise." Orphelia said who was no longer sad at her loss.

While sighing the voice said, "It's time for me to go. Divide my belongings as you wish."

The two children cheerily said while rather ignorant of what the voice meant, "Bye Grandpa!"

'Grandpa huh, it's been a long while since I was last called that. Maybe I can meet them again in the afterlife.'

His soul slowly started dissipating while it looked at the two children bickering over the treasures with eyes filled with sadness and rage while he thought about his grandchildren that he used to love dearly before they were slaughtered by demonic cultivators.

"Orphelia, you can have the spatial ring, I can always make more." Maxwell proudly stated and the two finally split the treasures before they got teleported into the cave they came from.

"Max, come let's go to our spot."

"Yes, that's the perfect place for you to awaken your constitution."

The two children ran happily, ignorant of what was happening in the rest of the forest.

"Maxwell! Orphelia! Where are you?" various people called, equipped with some weapons for self-defense.

"Those two keep adventuring in the forest, why can't we ever find them?"

"They have been away for too long now, I hope nothing happened to them."

Two beautiful women discussed while panicking about the safety of their only children, Orphelia's mother had pink hair and black eyes that contrasted greatly and Maxwell's mother had black hair with brown eyes.

Deep in the forest, Maxwell and Orphelia were at a small pond surrounded by tall trees that had a lot of qi around it. The pond had many lotus buds that were far away from blooming.

"Orphie, you awaken your constitution first, I want to see what happens."

"Hmph, you act like this after taking so many treasures from me." She said still slightly angry at what had happened before.

She quickly sat cross-legged and brought out a plum that had a strong aura, before quickly eating it. She started to refine it, now defenseless to any attacks.

Maxwell stood vigilantly with a spear in his arms, ready to defend against any magical beasts.

'I hope no strong beast was attracted by the aura of the plum.'

Suddenly the sky darkened above Orphelia.

'Oh no, a heavenly tribulation. This is bad.'

"She's defenseless, I have to block the tribulation then."

Maxwell quickly put on a magic ranked armor and spread qi through his arms before getting ready for the impact of the tribulation.

Orphelia refined the plum with extreme concentration so she did not know what was going on but on the other hand everyone searching for them immediately rushed towards the center of the clouds.

The purple lightning struck, and pain spread through Maxwell's body. His armor got a dent at the point of the impact. Before Maxwell could recover and take a defensive stance again another bolt of lightning struck knocking him off his feet.

'Hopefully help arrives soon, the tribulation should have attracted everyone's attention.'

A third bolt struck and flung Maxwell into a tree, knocking him unconscious. The last thing Maxwell saw was a bright flash of light and pain unlike anything he felt struck him. The sky then cleared and Orphelia opened her eyes with newfound strength flowing through her body. Her happiness faded as she looked around and she quickly panicked. Maxwell was lying on ground next to a snapped tree with burns on his whole body and not a piece of his armor remaining on his chest. Blood flowed from his head and back and the ground was stained red.

'Quick, I have to heal him.'

Orphelia took out a vial of a rank 5 high grade elixir that was labeled as wood ginseng elixir and poured it in Maxwell's mouth and some on his wounds. Slowly all his wounds closed, and he seemed to be asleep.

Maxwell started dreaming about a scene he had never seen with people and buildings all new to him. He had no control over his body and could only watch. Maxwell watched with confusion at the many days that seemed to past before it finally ended, and he woke up.

'Huh I'm still at the pond?'

Orphelia started crying after seeing him wake up. "I'm sorry Max, you lost all your cultivation because of me and… hic… you got hurt so much."

Maxwell quickly consoled her, "I saved you by choice, anyways I'm fine now. I can easily cultivate back to Qi Condensation stage 3."

Orphelia embraced him, crying even harder now.

Soon their parents appeared and on seeing them asked with a hint of panic in their voices.

"What happened here?"

Maxwell explained while Orphelia ran away and hid her face in embarrassment.

"We found an experts inheritance and Orphelia awakened her constitution after consuming a herb, the awakening attracted a tribulation and I blocked it."

Both sets of parents fussed over the children and after seeing them fine they dragged the two back home after calling off the search for them.

As soon as Maxwell reached home his mother, Linda Windsor started to scold him for his actions.

"Maxwell Windsor! Do you know how much you worried us with your adventure?"

Maxwell could only listen as he knew he had been wrong. His father, Arthur Windsor tried to intervene, but he kept quite after a sharp gaze from his wife.