Lorne had trained for nearly ten thousand years. He only lived thirty-two years in his first life. In this life, he had lived for ten thousand years. The years had an effect on him. He remembered when he first arrived in his new world. His new parents laughed at what a big boy he thought he was for being thirty-two years old as an adult.In some ways, he finally understood what his parents meant. On the other hand, he was a little unique since he was already an adult coming here. He noticed the dragons he met who grew up over such long periods of times acted childish for thousands of years.
They didn"t mature for a long time. The opposite was true for his friends from the forest who took only a year to go from childhood to adulthood. Within their first few months of life, they were as mature as an adult he knew from his past life.
The last ten thousand years were difficult. At first, he took long naps. He would be awake for fifty years and then sleep from anywhere from one hundred to three hundred years.
His parents tried to comfort him and make things seem like they weren"t so bad. They really gave him a low-ball number for those naps. He didn"t get rid of his nap times until he was six thousand years old.
Even now, he still slept a lot,although it had finally decreased. For every week he was awake, he would sleep for two weeks. Master River encouraged him by telling him he would be ending those days soon.
Lorne knew by the Dragon Empire time standards he had only been here for about a month. In his view, he had trained for thousands of years! At first, he was reluctant to spend all of his time training. His Master informed him the Fiends would soon destroy the Dragon Empire and he was the only one who could stop them. To do that he needed to finish his training.
Ever since he learned of the growing calamity outside he put all of his focus on training. He only had another three months to get ready. That was three months in the Dragon Empire, but for Lorne it was about thirty-six thousand years.
Master River didn"t focus on training him in fighting. According to Master River, all fields were interrelated. Pill forging could help with spirit control and increase spirit senses. It also complimented the disciplineof medicine.Forging gave one a knowledge of geology, strengthened the body, and sharpened the mind. Formations also developed the mind, improved control and helped one"s synchronization with nature.
Master River introduced some disciplines he wasn"t aware of before, including mentalist training and spirit cultivation. Then he was taught fields in which his father and uncle were experts. He was taught how to create and use spirit seals, the nature of souls and more. He also learned the art of body construction. He was still a novice compared to his uncle, but at least he now had some understanding of what his uncle considered in his work.
He also learned the truth about Zimwarn superpowers. They weren"t powers. These were actually cultivation, vision, battle, and other techniques inscribed in a specialized array on the genetic codes of the Zimwarn people. He could add powers to his genes thus ensuring his children possessed those abilities too. Truly shocking!
Lorne was also taught various techniques. He learned a technique called karmic vision for seeing the lines of Karma connecting living beings to one another. His master told him the technique had a lot of uses but didn"t specify for now what they were.
Master River also trained Lorne in fighting techniques and taught him various arts such as sword, knife, shield, and so forth. Lorne developed a very well-rounded education in weapon techniques. His foundation was probably more solid than the majority of masters.
Mastery of intent was considered a prerequisite for having a solid weapon foundation, according to Master River. This was shocking as most beings considered having intent with a weapon a dream which most could never achieve. Lorne, however, had trained until he acquired intent with all weapons.
Master River"s philosophy was to establish a solid foundation in as many areas of expertise as possible. This created a larger context of understanding, with improvement in one area effecting improvement in all areas.
From Lorne"s perspective, it really worked. He found he might have an insight in pill forging, but then it somehow made blacksmith forging easier. His cultivation realms were increasing. Oddly enough, Master River was having Lorne train in his silver horn dragon mode. At first, Lorne was puzzled by this. His teacher eventually explained Lorne"s disguise technique morphed into a new technique when Lorne played around with his energy flow.
It used to be that the disguise technique changed Lorne"s physical appearance and his aura. Now, it could also set up distinct bodies. Master River said Lorne accidentally created a technique for forging different battle forms.
The basic silver horn form was a different battle form from his Five-Claw form. Master River theorized Lorne might be able to create additional battle forms in the future. The interesting thing was the stronger he made his lower battle forms, the stronger his other forms became.That meant it was best to focus on powering up his silver horn form before powering up his Five-Clawed form. Powering up the silver horn form created a wider potential base for his Five-Clawed form.
Today, Lorne felt he was on the verge of a breakthrough, but he couldn"t figure out how to take the final step. This breakthrough had been lurking right around the corner for several months for Lorne. Stifled, he decided to take a break from cultivating. Just as he was thinking about what to do, he suddenly heard mighty laughter. It sounded like his brother Big Bear!
"HAHAHAHAA! At last, I have finished it, my ultimate Sword! I shall call it the Earth Splitter!" Big Bear roared.
Just like with Lorne, Master River forced Big Bear to learn as many careers as Lorne. Big Bear wasn"t as gifted in general. It was much harder for him to progress in his professions. Being a Bear Man, he found it harder to progress in anything having to do with brains. However for some reason when it came to forging, Big Bear was like a fish in water. It was like he had encountered his immortal beloved. Big Bear would work on forging even in his spare time. Big Bear was truly a forging genius. He was much better than Lorne in this profession.
The last couple of thousand years, Big Bear was obsessing about creating a heaven-defying weapon for himself. He loved the Khanda sword ever since he first acquired one from Bear King"s inheritance. Mountain Splitter was his favorite weapon but during the battle against the Divine Kill Sect, Big Bear lost both his right arm and his mountain splitter to an enemy attack.
His arm was regrown, but he no longer had the Mountain Splitter. Big Bear, with the help of Kal, went to retrieve the remainder of the Bear King"s heritage. He acquired many more weapons including a new Khanda but while he trained with Lorne in the time disfasied universe, he wore out many weapons.
Big Bear acquired a good grasp of what the other weapons were lacking and the kind of weapon he needed to forge if he were to have a weapon that could last through his training. Finally today, he forged the weapon he needed, the Earth Splitter. The name was kind of boring and uncreative, but he was a Bear Man. He couldn"t help it.
"Excellent job." Master River said as he appeared near Big Bear.
Big Bear immediately turned towards his teacher and bowed deeply. It was difficult for Bear Men to hold many in respect. This was especially true for the heroic Big Bear, a hero of the Battle of the Forest against the Divine Kill Sect.
However, Master River completely earned his respect. His teacher showed Big Bear strength he never knew he was capable of, and taught him specialties like forging.
Moreover, he was allowed to teach other warriors in the forest all of the skills his teacher taught him. The Forest Fighters descendants would become the strongest force in the Dragon Empire one day!
Master River took the sword in his hand and examined it. "Not Bad, this sword is a level one Immortal Realm weapon. It only has fourteen flaws. You keep getting better and better. If you get good enough, I might introduce you to a friend of mine who is an Infinity Forge Master,"said Master River.
"What"s an Infinity Forge Master?" Big Bear asked.
"Uh, you"re too young to know that. Just know that he"s at the highest level of forging possible in the lower realms of the multi-verse," said Master River.
It still didn"t make much sense, but Big Bear understood this person was a powerful Forging Master. Big Bear"s eyes glowed with ambition.
"This is a good opportunity. Big Bear needs to try out his new sword and Little Lorne is stuck at a bottleneck. If the two of you spar together it would be beneficial to you both," said Master River.
It might seem odd Master River referred to Lorne by his original name, but after learning of his name he insisted on calling him this. This was especially the case having two students named Xiong, which was confusing even for him.
Lorne wasn"t shy about explaining his origins with his brother. It didn"t really bother him to share this information with his close family and friends. Especially when they heaped praise on him all the time. He felt the praise was unwarranted given his strange situation and the special abilities and training he received which others did not. Everyone appreciated his humility more than he knew.
Hearing their master suggest they spar together, they were both excited. Both Lorne and Big Bear loved to spar. They took to the idea immediately.
Over the next couple of thousand years, Lorne and Big Bear competed in the fields in which they were training. Sometimes senior students of theirs dropped by and judged the compet.i.tions.
Despite being a Bear Man, Big Bear did really well in all of the compet.i.tions. Typically, however, the only field he ever held a clear advantage was forging. He was way beyond Lorne"s capabilities.
Lorne consoled himself with beating Big Bear in everything else. The training was like paradise for the two. This was especially true for Lorne. He learned in his infant years he was extremely weak. Even when he thought he was strong he would learn he was weak. Training helped him grow far beyond the limitations he faced in the past. Still, he knew he continued to be weak. He just needed to work harder at it.
Lorne"s limitations were broken through time after time. He wasn"t weak anymore, but he knew he wasn"t strong either.Finally, after two thousand years of training with Big Bear, Lorne felt his breakthrough was coming. Informing his teacher, Lorne entered his teacher"s Hall of Breakthroughs. The Hall of Breakthroughs was designed to add to the success of breakthroughs and to lessen the punishment of failures. Ever since Master River created the Hall of Breakthroughs, he never lost a student due to failing a breakthrough.
Lorne felt his body trying to tense up. Instead, Lorne commanded his body to relax. His energy was trying to turn chaotic. A mist of calming fragrance was let in the room. His energies calmed down and his body relaxed even more.
Unfortunately, his body relaxed a little too much as he heard what sounded like a frog and then smelled a gaseous anomaly.
This distracted Lorne for a fraction of a moment as he refocused his efforts. A barrier thin as paper was felt in Lorne"s dantian. It had been there so long. Suddenly, he felt it rip and the energies in his body reached a new level.
Just as he was going to jump in excitement, Lorne felt something odd happening with his body.
"What"s with this breakthrough? What"s happening to my body?!" Lorne screamed.