Star Spirit Continent is a vast continent with space as twice as earth. The Thunder Lion mansion where the clan members of Thunder lion clan live is located in the west of the Red Lotus Empire.
Half of the continent is covered by the Vast sea. The extreme north consists of the arctic ice fields.
The Star beast forest wildlands spans throughout the east side of the continent.
There are three Empires on the continent:
Myriad Beast Empire.
Storm Wind Empire.
Red Lotus Empire.
The Red Lotus Empire is located on the west side of the three Empires with Storm Wind Empire to the north, Myriad Beast Empire to the east. The Red Lotus Empire is surrounded by the Vast Sea on the west and the south.
The Red Lotus Empire is ruled by the nobles whose head is the Emperor who belongs to the Red Lotus Royal family. The nobles are ranked from Baron to the Duke before the Emperor. Each noble is granted fief to a territory along with gold coins.
Max's father Leonhardt is crowned the Duke named Duke Miller. He was promoted to the Duke not by the virtue of merit but due to his strength. He was a Rank 7 Star Knight when the Emperor conferred him with the title because he was expected to reach Rank 8 Star Knight which is very rare powerhouse just before the legendary Rank 9 Star Knight.
He is one of the three dukes of the empire.
The Star Beast forest is the home to the wild animals along with Star Beasts who can also practise Star Power.
Star Beasts with low intelligence practise by devouring flesh and blood of the other Star Beast and also by consuming the medicinal material in the forest while Star beasts of higher intelligence cultivate in the same way as humans.
The azure blue sky was covered with fluffy white clouds that moved lazily along with the wind.
Max walked towards the Star Skills pavilion under the gentle breeze slowly dressed in plain clothes.
As the most treasured exercises are kept in the pavilion, Its security is second only to the treasury of the clan. The pavilion will be open only up to six months after awakening, on every other day it is a forbidden area that even the direct clan descendants were prohibited from entering. While walking towards the four storey pagoda Max could not feel any star power in the guards. He knew, it was not that they had no star power but their star power level is way above him. He reckoned that they are at least Rank 6 Star Knights.
"Senior!"
He saw an old man sitting on a chair at the entrance of the pavilion. He stretched out his hand lazily. Max knew what he meant. He gave his token given by Leonhardt to the old man who took a glance at the token and threw it back at him and relaxed again stretching his arms in a comfortable position against the reclining chair.
Max caught the token as he walked inside the pavilion when the old man looked at him and shook his head and let out sigh, not knowing what it meant.
Max climbed up to the first floor when four rows of shelves with scrolls inside came to his sight. Every single cultivation technique that the clan has gathered since the establishment were are kept here. Each scroll emits an aura by which one can distinguish the grade of cultivation technique present in it. As he browsed the scrolls one by one he saw that no scroll had a cultivation technique with dark attributes. Finally in the last shelf of the last row he saw two scrolls emitting dark light.
He walked towards the scrolls and picked them up at the same time as he read the name of the scrolls
"Low-Tier Purple grade technique: Black Thunder Art."
"Mid-Tier Purple grade technique: Nine-fold Dark Shadow technique."
He chose the second scroll without hesitation as cultivating a single attribute to extreme benefits more than cultivating an exercise with dual attribute that does not match oneself. He did not choose to read the description as he had no other choice of dark cultivation technique.
He put the scroll inside his black ruby inlaid ring. It was a relic left by his mother. It is a storage ring which contains space inside it. Those type of storage space equipment are very rare and expensive in the whole continent.
He then proceeded to the second floor to select a Star Skill scroll. Since the Desolate Lion Art was not suitable for him, he was allowed to take one cultivation technique along with two Star Skill techniques.
Star Skill techniques as the name suggests upon practising releases the fighting skill with Star Power. He entered the hall which was three times more bigger than the first floor with 10 rows of shelves with scrolls.
He wandered around the hall while occasionally picking the scrolls, shaking the head and putting them back. While he came to the seventh row a scroll that did not emit any color caught his attention. He trotted to that shelf and picked up that scroll and read the description
"High-Tier Purple grade Star Skill: Titan body art."
"It is an attribute less passive Star Skill. It only absorbs Star power while cultivating but not during release of the Star Skill as it is a passive skill. All the star power is circulated through the meridians and organs of the body as it strengthens the physical strength of the body.
The Star skill is divided into seven stages from 1 to 7. If one cultivates this Star Skill to the extreme his flesh and blood, physical strength will equal to that of a Rank 7 Star Beast.
To cultivate this technique one should absorb star power and circulate it throughout the body to strengthen the body and also temper his body.
Consuming Medicinal herbs increases the ease and improves the chance to cultivate this Star Skill to a higher level."
Max sat there as the pavilion was empty since he was the first and only one to cultivate to Star Knight level. He opened the scroll and started meditating as his mental power flowed towards the scroll. The scroll brightened up and a delicate pattern flashed on it as his Star Rune instantly projected from his eyebrows in front of him as the delicate pattern flew towards the rune and integrated into it. The Star rune sank back into his eyebrows.
As the rune now contained a star skill, he activated it along with circulating star power throughout the body. The rune flashed with light as all the star power he circulating in his meridians was absorbed by his bones and muscles. He sensed his strength increase a little which can be said to be negligible. But he felt that if he keeps cultivating this Star Skill, sooner or later his physical strength will increase exponentially.
He stood up and placed the scroll back into the shelf as he has already learned it. He came to the next shelf and picked up all the scrolls in order and put them back.
'Thunder Dragon Claw.'
'Thunder Lion Fury.'
'Lightning Axe Double Chop.'
'Fire Sword Slash.'
'Water shield.'