Reincarnation: A New World

Nora deliberated on which cultivation manuals to convert to mana. This task was by no means easy and would require both substantial time and focus in order to not limit or break the cultivation method. Thinking back to her previous life she remembered that throughout her lifetime she had gathered thousands of cultivation manuals but had only found nine Divine ranked manuals that she would truly call near-perfection.

Out of those nine, four were outer-cultivation manuals while the remaining five were inner-cultivation manuals. The easiest of the and least powerful of the outer-cultivation manuals, 'Demon King's Calamity Body' was fantastic as it avoided many tribulations but had one major downside, the immense darkness, and cruelty required for cultivation was immeasurable. During her time as the First Paragon, she had lost several friends to this technique after they were hunted down for slaughtering well over hundred-thousand innocents in order to shatter their golden core and pass the cultivation boundary into the Nascent Soul stage. Not knowing the powers of this world she decided to cast this one out of the selection process.

Undergoing a similar thought process she removed, 'Devil's Tempering Gluttony'. This left her with two possible options, "Heavenly Thunder Scripture' a rather boisterous name for a cultivation method focused on achieving pure divine strength and, 'Dragon Kings Incarnation' an undeniably hard method to study but by far the strongest. An ancient cultivation manual that empowers one with the attributes and power of the four dragon kings of the four seas.

In what seemed like hours Nora eventually decided on, 'Dragon Kings Incarnation'. Although it would require four times the cultivation compared to 'Heavenly Thunder Scripture' it would provide a far more general use, unlike the latter which depended almost completely on pure force.

With this decision, Nora quickly sunk into deep contemplation. She would spend the vast majority of her days contemplating on each and every minute part of the 'Dragon Kings Incarnation' manual and deconstruct the individual Qi-based fundamentals and with her new knowledge of Mana reconstruct the manual.

Her parents grew weary as the once vibrant Nora become far quieter and no longer followed her parents around. In the brief moments in which Nora was unsupervised, she would secretly record the newly constructed portions of the 'Dragon Kings Incarnation'

In complete concentration, years passed and as Nora reached completion of converting the cultivation manual she noticed her fifth birthday was approaching. Although she had neglected any serious study of the new worlds language she had still managed to learn it by overhearing her parents speak it on many occasions. It seemed like a very simplistic language, very similar to her old world's 'Common Tongue' a language that although simplistic in nature was spoken in nearly all corners of the world mostly due to its common use as the dominant trade tongue of her previous world.

On the day that Nora turned five, her parents although worried for her now recluse nature told her that in a months time she was going to be enrolled in a nobles-academy for Knights and Mages. Although she did not know what these so-called Knights and Mages were she was excited as when her parents told her they themselves were beyond visibly excited.

Nora's beginning on any of the other Paths of cultivation would have to be put on hold until she could learn more about the new world. With 'Dragon Kings Incarnation' she was confident that she could at least hold her own while she learned more.

Content with her progress she smiled. Until she realized that she had yet to speak to her parents in all the five years since she had been reborn. In complete befuddlement from her realization, she let out a *sigh* and facepalmed. Her thoughts screamed in her mind, 'How stupid can I be? Do my parents think I'm mute? Why haven't they even said anything about it?!?'

Regaining her composure she made her way to where she knew she could find her mom at this time of day, the family garden, a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e project of her mom which she tended for every day.

Nora slowly entered the garden and was immediately met by a warm smile from her mother. Lovingly her mom asked her, "How's it going sweety?" Without much thought, Nora kindly replied, "It's quite sunny today..." Nora's mom instantly froze. These were Nora's first words... Normally whenever Nora's mom asked that exact question all she could get from Nora was a slight smile or a thumbs up but suddenly she received a complete sentence.

Nora sensing that something was amiss, shortly noticed that her mom had seemingly turned to stone. For the second time, she let out a *sigh* and facepalmed, 'What's wrong with me! Can I not act normal!?!'

Admitting defeat, Nora walked back to her room and in order to feel somewhat sane decided to begin cultivating 'Dragon Kings Incarnation'. The first step in 'Dragon Kings Incarnation' was very similar to nearly all other cultivation manuals except for the method in which the once Qi, now Mana was circulated around the body. Nora cleared her room and sat in a lotus position.

Instead of forming a single route for the Mana to follow, 'Dragon Kings Incarnation' required oneself to create 4 separate overlapping paths. One for each of the represented Dragon Kings. One would also have to model the Mana that one would circulate in these paths with the exact visage of each of the Dragon Kings. In order for one to comprehend the visage of these Dragon Kings, one would have had to be able to mentally create the perfect dragon from having observed, studied, and slaughtered thousands-upon-thousands of dragons. Luckily when Nora was the First Paragon she had done this very act in order to study 'Dragon Kings Incarnation' but was distraught and had to abandon that train of thought when she learned that one had to restart their cultivation from scratch in order to study in this very distinct method, something she couldn't b.a.r.e risking.

The feat of modeling the mana alone required mastery in manipulation. One in which she was confident in ever since the system alert notified her of attaining 'Mana Mastery: 1'

Nora focused as she began to circulate the 4 dragons around a specified pattern within her body. The dragons moved slowly at first, tempering the body as they circulated in their four individual patterns. The four dragons increased their speed ever so slightly causing a hellish pain. One of the major reasons people avoided Outer-Cultivation methods, and especially the higher ranked methods was due to the way they tempered their bodies. Although higher ranks provided ever-increasing benefits they also provided a pain so hellish it could break the minds of cultivators. Low ranked methods such as Mortal or Earth ranked methods could vastly increase the body of a cultivator by slowly tearing muscles and breaking bones in specific methods to induce supernatural strength and endurance. Saint and Heaven ranked methods violently ripped, tore, and broke everything from tendons to bones. Then once broken forcefully healing them, allow oneself to completely temper oneself. Worst of all, Divine methods that tempered one's body through internal tempering and not evil methods such as, 'Demon King's Calamity Body' would completely destroy and reforge one's body. Nothing would be spared from the excruciating and hellish pain, not even the soul.

Nora had long accepted the pain and had grown used to it. It had become one of the few constants in her long life and had grown the almost cherish the pain.

Hours passed by at a crawling pace due to the extreme pain but eventually, once dawn broke the following morning, Nora was satisfied. She had managed to complete 10 full circulations within a minute and therefore reached the 1st level of what was once called Qi Circulation Realm. Now that the name Qi Circulation Realm no longer suited, Nora decided to rename it to Mana Circulation Realm.