by Tinalynge
Chapter 0 - Prologue
“You scum, why don’t you just f*cking die already?!” A cold voice sounded throughout the empty field as a young child dressed in fine clothes kicked a figure lying on the ground. His eyes were gleaming with pleasure as he let his kicks rain down on the boy on the ground who had coiled up, doing his best to protect his face and stomach with his arms.
The overbearing child could not be more than eight years old as his features were still quite effeminate and his voice had no rust of age. His eyes were light brown and a smile adorned his face, making his childish features even more striking; a shocking contrast to the show of brutality he was showing.
Behind the well-dressed boy was a group of children, all of them around the same age. All of these children were giggling and laughing, pointing at the person who was currently being kicked and beaten up as though they found this display of cruelty entertaining.
Blood sprayed from the mouth of the boy lying on the ground as another kick managed to break through the flimsy guard he had made with his arms. A cracking noise sounded loud and clear as a rib broke, resulting in even more blood spraying from his mouth and his already pale skin turned ashen. As the cracking sounds were heard throughout the field, the young boy dressed in fine clothes finally seemed to be satisfied with the beating he had given to the pitiful creature.
“Don’t you ever show your face to me again, or I will beat you to death. It is your fault that Father keeps telling me to improve!” With dark eyes filled with hate and anger, the young boy spat on the wounded child before he turned around and beckoned to his entourage to follow him as his laughter rang through the air.
As the young boy and his entourage disappeared into the distance, the other child was still lying on the ground cowering in fear. Tears and mucus kept flowing down his face, his eyes were closed and his ashen face was visibly in pain. This crying, however, did not last long. As soon as the final person vanished into the distance, the wounded boy instantly stopped weeping and his tears vanished with a wipe of his dirty clothes.
His black eyes were filled with anger and hate as he managed to slowly stand up. His lips twisted in an ugly expression as all the remaining blood in his face was drained away; the pain in his ribcage was simply too much for a boy his age. Grinding his teeth, he slowly made his way back home.
This time they have really gone too far, he thought as he grimaced. Every step he took caused a sharp pain to run through his entire body; but in spite of his heavy injuries, his eyes were not clouded by pain, but instead, with anger.
The wounded boy slowly walked in the same direction as the previous group had before, albeit his speed was far inferior to that of the laughing youngsters.
….
“Little Min!” A gentle and melodious voice rang out as Xu Min walked through the front door into a shabby cabin that he and his sister owned. The exhausted expression on Xu Min’s face instantly changed into a small smile as he heard the worried voice, and he gathered some of the last bits of his energy to make himself stand straight.
“Don’t worry big sis.” With the remainder of his energy, Xu Min moved towards the bed where he slowly laid down because his entire body was tired from walking such a distance with his injuries. His entire body was burning in pain as blood flowed in a steady stream into his mouth, forcing him to swallow it repeatedly, because he did not wish to spit it out and worry his sister even further.
“Was it the young master who injured you again?” His older sister asked with a frown on her beautiful face. Slowly making her way towards the boy, she sat down next to him and gently removed his dirty clothes because she noticed that he was unable to move on his own. Her heart was trembling - the closer she got to her little brother, the more blood-stained his clothes appeared to be, making her previously beautiful bright eyes darken with anger. When she saw a small trail of dried blood in the corner of his mouth, her heart almost stopped.
When she finally managed to remove all the clothes, she let out a low hiss as she saw how blood was gathering on the side of his body where the rib was broken. Her hands instantly withdrew because she knew just how painful it had to have been for this young boy to endure her constant touch while she tugged his clothes off.
“A broken rib?” She asked, her face dark with anger. Without waiting for an answer, Xu Wu instantly ran out the shack and went outside into the dark night, her face filled with determination.
Seeing how his sister had ran out into the night, Xu Min wished that he could stop her. He had a good idea where she was going, but he was incapable of doing anything to stop her. He was left behind in the cabin, cursing his inability to act.
It took around an hour before Xu Wu returned to the cabin. She was gasping for air and her hair was disheveled from running far and fast while her eyes were wide open and alert. She was clutching a herb which Xu Min instantly recognized as the Thousand Jade Flower. This flower with healing abilities was an item grown by the Zhong family, the family which Xu Min and Xu Wu worked for.
To get her hands on one of these plants, it was obvious that Xu Wu had stolen it from the fields, since just one Thousand Jade Flower was worth more money than servant children like them would ever see in their lifetimes.
Stealing a medicinal herb from the fields was punishable by death, so Xu Min’s heart started to beat frantically, fearing that at any moment, a guard would come through the door and grab Xu Wu, bring her to the family’s main residence, and prosecute her as a thief.
Knowing that his sister went through such lengths for his sake, Xu Min could say nothing about how she had obtained the plant and accepted the congee that she had made for him, which was brewed using every part of the precious medicine.
For the successful and complete refinement of the herb, one needed to be specialized in refining medicinal materials, but neither Xu Wu nor Xu Min knew anything about that, for the two of them were mere servants. While Xu Wu dealt with laundry everyday, Xu Min was being trained to become a family guard.
Both children were sold to the Zhong family at a young age and neither of the children had ever received any pay from their owners. The only thing they could expect was a monthly ration of food and once a year, they would each get a set of clothes and shoes.
Since neither of them knew how to refine the medicinal properties within the Thousand Jade flower, Xu Min ended up eating it raw, mixed within the congee. Although not refined, it’s healing properties were not something to look down upon, and sure enough, as soon as Xu Min had eaten the flower, he felt that the pain within his chest subsided somewhat.
Astonished to see that the pain was being eased away, Xu Min managed to send a small smile to his sister. As with every other day in his life, he felt blessed. Even if he was being mistreated by the young master, none of it mattered so long as he had his sister to return home to. His sister was the only person upon this world that Xu Min loved.
As the pain had lessened to a large extent, Xu Min could no longer stay awake. After eating the food, his eyes slowly closed shut as the mentally and physically exhausted boy slipped into a deep sleep.
Seated across from the bed, Xu Wu’s eyes narrowed and her beautiful face twisted in anger and indignation. The two of them were sold to the Zhong family when Xu Min was an infant and Xu Wu raised him while working hard for this family. To see her little brother tortured to such an extent, only contempt and hate was left within her eyes.
Sighing deeply, Xu Wu slowly rose from the chair and put the flames within the fireplace out before she too laid down in bed, needing to sleep so that she could work hard the following day.
….
“The young master seems happy today,” One of the servants said as they stepped away from the table, having just served the Zhong main
branch their dinner.
Exactly as they had just said, the young master was indeed looking very happy and relieved, a feeling which seemed to be shared by a few other youngsters at the table. Had Xu Min been present, he would have been instantly able to point out these happy children to be the ones who had participated in his beating earlier that day.
Seeing that his son was in such a good mood, the Zhong family leader also smiled. He had only one son and his son was already a Student Warrior by the age of eight. Although he had to rely on medicinal plants and pills to reach this stage, it was still quite a feat, ranking the young master as one of the geniuses of the younger generation.
The Zhong family leader knew very well that when his son was happy, something unfortunate had happened to the servant boy Xu Min.
Xu Min was a rare talent. The boy had reached the ranks of a Student Warrior on his own, never relying on medicinal pills and herbs, unlike what his own son had done. Furthermore, Xu Min had broken through to the Student Warrior rank one day ahead of his “genius” son.
Seeing as Xu Min had broken through to the Student Warrior rank, the young master had instantly started to ask his father for stronger medicinal pills, which his father unconditionally provided for him.
The Zhong family head was, in many ways, grateful for having such a talented child like Xu Min within the young batch of children training to become warriors. He had repeatedly encouraged his own son to work harder so that he would not fall behind - not only in training, but also in tempering his personality.
The young master was the heir to the entire Zhong family. He needed to grow into a strong man who could look after the entire compound and control a wide array of servants and workers alongside his own family one day.
It was imperative that such a privileged person learned how to deal with hardships ever since he was young and the Zhong family leader was very pleased with the way his son was dealing with the issue. By simply trampling on the low ranked servants and outer branch members, he made them understand the differences which were between a main branch heir of the entire clan and anyone else within the Zhong family residence.
Sitting at the main seat within the hall, the Zhong family leader lifted up his arm and spoke with his voice, clear and filled with power, making his words resound throughout the room.
“Yesterday, my son became a Student Warrior!” He started, everyone within the hall nodding their heads enthusiastically. “Everyone, join me in raising our cups to our prosperous future. To have such a genius in the younger generation within our family is truly a blessing!”
Following those words, everyone within the room raised their glasses to the young master, who was filled with pride; his heart beating fast as everyone within the hall was looking at him with admiration in their faces. It was only when he thought about Xu Min for a moment that the feeling turned slightly sour as he knew that that servant boy was indeed more talented than him. However, he quickly forgot that sour feeling as one family member after another called out a cheer for the young boy.
Chapter 1 – Servant Boy
The gentle sound of singing birds could be heard through the rough, broken door as the first rays of sunshine shone through the cracks, waking up both brother and sister.
Although Xu Min ate the Thousand Jade Flower the night before, it was not enough to fully heal the serious wound on his side, and the bruise left behind by the wound was even more colourful this morning than it had been the night before.
Not only was there a bruise on his side, one had spread across his face as well, and one of his eyes was completely closed due to the swelling around it.
Although the bruises looked terrible, Xu Min did not feel a lot of pain, and the majority of his body was in a better condition than it had been in a long time. Seeing the degree to which the herb had helped him, Xu Min finally understood just how the Zhong family managed to maintain their position as the richest family in the city.
Spending no more time thinking about it, Xu Min went on with his daily chores. He went out to pick up some branches which he could use the following evening to keep the fire alive. After finishing the task, he went to the nearby stream where he washed himself. Upon grazing the bruises, Xu Min would grimace from the sharp pain.
Seeing that her brother was doing much better, Xu Wu smiled before she changed her clothes and rushed towards the main house. Unlike her brother, the majority of her work was to deal with the laundry and changing of the beddings at the main house every day. All her work had to be done during the morning and the early noon.
As he saw his sister head off, Xu Min felt immense gratitude towards her. She had raised him from infancy and even now, she treated him as though he was her own child rather than her brother. She was now a beautiful young woman whom many of the male servants were courting, yet Xu Wu showed no interest in anything besides looking after her baby brother.
This in turn, had caused many servants to either try to befriend the young man for the sake of winning Xu Wu’s heart, or to threaten him to become more independent so that they had a chance. Seeing that all these servants approached him with ulterior motives, Xu Min had a very hard time trusting anyone, because he never knew the reason behind why they kept approaching him.
This had, in turn, caused Xu Min to become a loner. During the earlier days when most of the servant boys who trained to become Warriors would play along with each other, Xu Min would rather be on his own and spend his time on cultivating more Qi - cultivating to become a Warrior.
After he finished his bath, Xu Min quickly dried himself and found his clothes before he sat down on the riverside, crossing his legs and placing his hands on his lap, before he slowly closed his eyes and started breathing steadily. At first, nothing seemed to be amiss. However, small ripples of energy started to emerge from the body of the young boy followed by a suction force dragging in what seemed to be air from the surroundings.
With each intake of breath, the ordinary air seemed to enter Xu Min’s body, and upon exiting, small specs of golden energy could be seen.
The boy seemed very relaxed as the minutes turned into hours, and it wasn’t until the sun stood high in the sky before he finally opened his eyes, with golden specks of energy visible in his black eyes. He exhaled deeply before slowly making his way to where his sister had gone hours before.
But unlike Xu Wu, Xu Min went towards the training grounds where all young men of the family, servants and nobility alike, were taught how to cultivate.
The training ground was a large area that was placed behind the Zhong family residence. The Zhong family residence was located at the outskirts of their small town, as it needed quite a lot of space for its many herb fields. In one of these fields, no herbs were planted; instead, it was used by men as a place to train.
“Oh little Min, it looks like the young master got the better of you last night,” The voice came from behind him, and as Xu Min turned around, he came face to face with a large and burly man whose face was scarred by fire, making him seem mean and unapproachable.
However, as soon as Xu Min saw the man, a large smile appeared on his face and the young boy jumped into the embrace of the burly looking man, hugging him affectionately as though he was a small child who had just seen his parent after a long time.
“Overseer Tian!” Xu Min said with excited voice as the man returned the hug. However, a worried expression could be seen on the older man’s face when he saw the swollen eye and discolored skin.
Releasing a humming sound, the elder managed to release himself from the hug before he gently patted the head of the young boy, sighing once again as he saw the dark bruises that were littered all about the young boy’s body.
Following side by side, the grown man and the small boy made their way towards the training grounds where a sea of young children was standing in small groups, chatting and playing while waiting for Overseer Tian to appear.
“Line up!” The Overseer’s voice boomed out and all the children
immediately took off their shirts before they lined up in front of him. “Today, we will be practising the Shattering Palm technique. First, you need to place your right foot in front of the other, like this,” The voice roared out as Overseer Tian started to describe and act out the stance that the children were to learn.
The Overseer’s eyes swept across the group of children, hesitating slightly on Xu Min as he saw the bruise on his chest. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to move on to alternately observe every child on the field.
After showing the proper stance, Overseer Tian started walking around, constantly correcting one student after another. His eyes were firm and filled with tenderness while dealing with some kids, but scornful when dealing with others.
Looking around, the eyes of Overseer Tian turned kind as soon as they landed on Xu Min. Although the boy’s body was filled with bruises, he worked harder than anyone. Sweat was gushing down his body because he was holding the exact pose that Overseer Tian had taught them earlier.
All the children were working hard, but many of them were on the verge of collapsing; their faces were twisted in pain from enduring in the same position for a long period of time and sweat trickled down in streams from their bodies.
