The Divine Elements

Chapter 1 - A New Destiny

*thak*

*thak* *thak*

In the blazing sun's heat, an eight year old boy stood panting with bloody fists at his sides.

In front of him was a tree with blood-smeared bark. No matter how many times he punched or kicked, the anger and the grief he felt would not leave him. The boy suddenly turned his head towards his family's modest farm behind the tree and forlornly gazed at the three graves.

The villagers helped him with digging the two new graves, but they did not continue to help him further as they knew exactly who would come for the boy later. They did not wish to gamble with their lives for a mere orphan.

With pity in their eyes, the villagers left to the safety of their own homes and families.

The boy was truly alone now.

The child looked up towards the bright blue sky while squinting his eyes as the sun's flare bore through his eyelids. How could such a beautiful and yet a cruel world exist?

As he pondered these thoughts, the boy looked away from the sky.

With only a few weeks remaining till he reached his eighth birthday, the child knew that his element's awakening was drawing near. However, the moment where one's family and friends would normally rejoice and celebrate, it would only serve to bring further pain and anguish to him.

Especially if he awakened to the same element as his father, the element of lightning.

Lightning was said to be the weakest of all the elements, as a lightning elementalist could only paralyze an opponent.

It was too weak to actually land fatal blows, and against a stronger opponent, the paralyzing attack would hardly deter them for longer than a moment, and without the power to kill an opponent, who would ever be afraid of a lightning elementalist?

Although using an element was not the only method for killing one's opponent, against higher ranked cultivators who had bodies stronger than steel, normal weapons were completely useless. For this reason, in the continent, lightning cultivators were always looked down upon.

Throughout the records of history, there had never been a lightning cultivator who had ever managed to make a breakthrough after the Spiritual stage.

Breakthroughs required an immense amount of elemental essence, so cultivators would have to go to an environment where their element's essence was rich in quantity. A lightning elementalist, therefore, could only cultivate near thunderstorms, as a large cloud of thunder was the only time lightning would appear.

There are five elements that exist in the world: Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, and Lightning.

Other elementalists could cultivate without fear, as their elements were not violent in nature, like lightning. A fire element could be cultivated near hot places like a desert or in later stages, near a volcano. There was not a lot of risk involved, as a desert was a relatively safe environment, albeit there was a danger of thirst and scarcity of water, but if fully prepared, it was completely safe.

Even for the volcano, a dormant one could be chosen at the earlier stages of cultivation, rather than a fully active one. The fire elementals would still be able to absorb the purer fire essence without having to put his life at such a risk.