by Tinalynge
Although Xu Min felt a bit guilty, his alertness never faltered. He kept looking at his surroundings, not daring to move even slightly. Because of his vigilance, he noticed yet another group of humans walking through the forest. This time they were led by Overseer Tian, which caused his already wounded heart to hurt even more.
Climbing down the tree silently, Xu Min went as close as he dared to without being noticed, so that he could hear what was being said.
“We are going to enter the forest again tonight,” Overseer Tian said with a cold and indifferent voice, “Perhaps I can lure him out if I pretend to be alone. When he appears, shoot him right away. We can’t afford to let him keep evading us.”
Hearing these words spoken from the one adult whom Xu Min viewed as almost a father, his eyes burned with unshed tears and his heart hardened as he climbed back to the perch that he was previously sitting on.
Xu Min stayed at the top of the tree for days without end, living on nothing but the bark of the tree and the moisture collected on the leaves. In the first few days, Xu Min would cry randomly, but as the hours went by with nothing but his own thoughts, the young boy slowly stopped crying and started thinking about everything that had happened again.
Xu Min was still just an eight year old boy, but while he was living at the top of the tree, his mentality changed. Deep within him, there was a fire fueled by anger, a fire which grew slightly brighter every day. However, no matter how strong this fire burned, it was always suppressed by the need to endure.
The season changed from the warm summer to the chilly autumn and finally, after several months passed by, it was possible for Xu Min to descend from the large tree, seeing that the forest was no longer filled with mercenaries, guards, or other men who wished to hunt down the young boy for the sake of money.
After descending, Xu Min instantly went towards a small stream where he washed himself and his clothes. The months had taken their toll on his body as he was now incredibly scrawny, with his ribs visible through the skin. His body was weaker than it had been ever before and all the muscles he worked hard to build up had lost most of their strength through the long wait and malnourishment.
His eyes, previously filled with childish happiness and naivety, became cold and distant; not even a speck of compassion for this world remained. Instead, they were filled with vigilance as he looked around.
Moving deeper and deeper into the forest, Xu Min quickly passed the furthest point that he had ever been to before. Instead of being filled with happiness and excitement from the new frontier, as he would have been just a few months ago, those childish feelings were nonexistent, long dead and replaced with seriousness and alertness as he observed his surroundings, constantly on guard for humans that could appear.
The further Xu Min went, the more careful he became. He didn’t dare to travel on roads made by humans, nor did he wish to follow too many animal trails. In the end, he chose the most difficult way to go through, believing that the path he chose would also be the hardest one to follow.
As Xu Min made his way towards the depths of the forest, he quickly found that although it was considered a safe forest by most, many demon beasts resided in it. However, when those demon beasts encountered the small boy, they quickly lost their interest, since skin and bone alone were not enough of a meal for them.
While he traversed through the forest, Xu Min finally dared to spend time on training once more, making his already slow trip become even more drawn out. He would spend hours each day breathing in and out, creating golden specks of light like Overseer Tian had taught him.
The breathing exercise was not the only training Xu Min did. He trained the stances he had learned during his time in the Zhong Family Compound once again. He remembered every muscle strengthening stance ever showed to him and he would spend hours on those every day.
One day passed another, the seasons came and went. Xu Min slowly made his way through the vast forest, moving at an incredibly slow pace as he focused on rebuilding his strength and cultivation base.
Chapter 5 – The World on the Other Side
One month passed after another as he made his way through the forest. Seasons came and seasons went and a year passed in the blink of an eye.
Xu Min spent his time practicing his cultivation according to the instructions he had been given by Overseer Tian and his body quickly regained the healthy state it had been in before.
The long time spent atop the tree waiting for mercenaries and guards to give up hunting him caused Xu Min to lose a lot of weight and his cultivation base dropped below the Student Warrior rank once more. Xu Min showed no signs of regret or despair though. Instead, he now had an iron will and determination that shone from his charcoal-black eyes as he viewed his current state as a new beginning.
Xu Min was all alone. His parents sold him at a young age and his sister was murdered right in front of his eyes. Although he had an amazing talent for cultivation, this young boy had not been capable of saving his only family. Thus, guilt and hate were the two emotions that now drove Xu Min.
The only thing within his mind, that was only suppressed by a small voice of reason that kept telling him to wait and endure, was revenge.
After having trained in the forest for three months, Xu Min had regained his Student Warrior rank and with that, the ability to kill young master Zhong. However, killing young master Zhong was not enough for the young boy. He clenched his teeth as he kept training harder and harder. His goal was to defeat Family Leader Zhong, a full-fledged Warrior.
In this world, strength was what mattered. Everyone was divided into ranks by how strong they were.
The lowest tier were those who did not possess any Qi. They did not even deserve a proper rank and were just commoners. As soon as a person had gathered enough essence from the heavens and the earth, he or she could start refining Qi. Those who reached the point of being able to refine Qi were called Student Warriors. Above that, one would become a proper Warrior, a master of the martial arts.
The Warrior rank was split into stars. Warriors of the first, second and third star were considered early stage Warriors. Warriors of the fourth, fifth and sixth star were considered mid stage warriors, and late stage Warriors were the Warriors of the seventh, eighth and ninth star. Family Leader Zhong was a late stage Warrior and his strength was many thousand times stronger than that of a Student Warrior. This fact caused Xu Min to clench his fists and work even harder to be able to defeat the Zhong Family Leader someday. Even if he had to wait for years, this was an enmity that would never be resolved until one of them was dead.
The step between a Student Warrior and a real Warrior was as great as the difference between the heavens and the earth. A difference that could only be covered after many years of hard work and cultivation. Hard work did not scare the young boy; instead, he welcomed it. He welcomed anything which would keep his mind busy; if not, he feared that he would go insane.
As Xu Min made his way through the forest, he trained three things. The first was his breathing exercises, that allowed him to absorb the essence of the heavens and the earth, which he then refined into Qi.
The second thing he improved was his physical strength. Every day he would train his body with various physical exercises that Overseer Tian had taught him. As the old man had said, “The body is a tool that we rely on to use our inner energy. The stronger the energy, the stronger the tool must be. If you release too much energy, your body cannot withstand it and you will end up breaking yourself.”
Although Xu Min still felt a tinge of pain in his heart every time he thought about Overseer Tian, he was perfectly well aware of how much information he was given. He had all the tools necessary for him to become a great cultivator, thanks to the amount of time that Overseer Tian had spent on teaching him.
The final thing which Xu Min trained within the forest was the Shattering Palm Stance. The Shattering Palm was a martial art skill, one of the few which Xu Min had ever seen. Its strength wa
s limitless. It completely depended on how proficient the cultivator was.
The Shattering Palm Stance was a technique that created a massive palm-shaped Qi strike, but since the students who had been taught the stance were not Student Warriors, much less real Warriors, none of them were capable of creating this palm strike from their inner energy. Instead, they were taught the stance itself, along with an explanation of the meridians and points in the body that the Qi needed to travel through to activate.
Having trained the stance for more than a year now, Xu Min finally managed to create a transparent palm the size of his head. Although this seemed like a relatively small palm, it felt like a great success for the young boy.
Approximately two years had gone by when Xu Min finally saw a clearing ahead of him. Great shock filled his face as he saw that the landscape no longer had trees as far as his eyes could see.
Instead, right in front of him was a large field of grass stretching as far as his eyes could see. By now, Xu Min was a Student Warrior with good strength and his body was filled with lean muscles. His shattering palm strike was now strong enough to be a threat to any Student Warrior.
Seeing the open plains in front of him, Xu Min’s eyes widened. Although he had gone through a lot and he had matured immensely, he was, after all, only a ten year old boy and seeing the plains in front of him was something he could have never imagined.
He came from a small valley that was hidden between large forests and tall mountains; every bit of soil was used for agriculture, which was a huge difference from what he now saw in front of him. It was a wilderness, but another kind of wilderness than the one he had been in so far.
Although Xu Min was deeply shocked, he only needed to take a deep breath once or twice before he started walking towards the plains, leaving the safety of the forest behind.
Xu Min brought nothing with him when he escaped from the Zhong family residence. Throughout the years, he had managed to hunt down several animals, especially because his skill using the Shattering Palm improved, and he had used their hides to create a small bag to fill with berries, dried meat and other necessities.
Some of the hides were tanned and made into leather and fur clothes for the young boy. The young boy’s time in the forest had taught him how to be self-sufficient.
Xu Min was now fully able to live on his own without having to rely on other people. There was one more item in his backpack aside from berries and other food. It was a smaller bag which was filled with all the medicinal herbs that Xu Min had found while traveling in the forest.
Some of the herbs he found were used to increase his cultivation rate, but most of them were packed away because Xu Min knew that he needed money. The easiest way to earn money would be to sell valuables, but the small boy had none of those. This was why he fought off the temptation to use all the healing flowers with beneficial effects on himself.
With determined steps, Xu Min set off towards the horizon, and it did not take long before he saw some large city walls in the distance. The walls alone were so tall that they hid everything behind them perfectly. Smaller villages were spread out near the wall itself. Agriculture appeared once more, causing Xu Min to feel slightly at home.
Xu Min’s plan was to enter a city and somehow find a place where he could train himself faster than he had done so far. He had learned to persist, as he knew that he was still far too weak. Because of this, he endured the hate that never fully let go of his heart. As he stared at the massive city many times bigger than Xu Min’s hometown, he assumed that there would be teachers of the same or better quality as Overseer Tian.
As he slowly inched closer and closer to the city, Xu Min quickly found that although the city was visible on the horizon, the trip to get there was many times longer than what he expected. The night quickly descended upon him, forcing him to set up camp. He would rather camp outside than go to an inn.
Although he had no money, he was certain that some innkeeper would trade a warm bed and a bowl of stew for one of his medicinal herbs; however, the stew and the bed were something which Xu Min could only dream about as he picked up some dried meat from his bag and started chewing upon it as he looked all around him with alert eyes.
The last two years, Xu Min had done everything he could to avoid humans. During this time, he had not spoken even once, out of fear of attracting someone to his location. His avoidance grew so severe that he even refused to follow animal trails, forcing himself to make his own path through the thickest parts of the forest by relying on his Shattering Palm.
It was fortunate that the forest was a rather safe area and not one of those forests that were overrun with demon beasts, but even so, Xu Min would rather run into a demon beast than a human; he feared that all humans within the forest were there for the sake of killing him.
A slight fear crept into his heart when he thought about entering the city. However, with a determined shake of his head, Xu Min ordered himself to get some rest as he would continue onward the following day. Even if the city was daunting and slightly scary, it was a necessary step towards defeating the Zhong Family Leader.
As he slept, the young boy once more relived the nightmare which happened years before where his sister died in his arms.
….
As the moon descended and the first rays of sunshine started to shine upon the grassy plains, Xu Min woke up. His cheeks were tear-stained and his heart was beating erratically. Dark eyebags were visible on his face and his fists were clenched so hard that blood was dripping from his palms.
Xu Min sat up, sighing deeply. Although he wished to reach the city early, he did not rush; instead, he entered meditation. As soon as his eyes closed, he descended into a trance-like state and small specks of golden light started surrounding him. Some of these specks were inhaled while others were exhaled.
Seated still in this position in the middle of the plains, Xu Min spent a couple of hours completely in a trance as he absorbed the essence of the heavens and the earth and refined it into Qi in his dantian.
After a couple of hours, Xu Min finally opened his eyes and the golden specks in the air slowly disintegrated, vanishing into nothingness as a satisfied smile appeared on Xu Min’s face.
Standing up, Xu Min started to train his body, going through the various muscle training exercises that Overseer Tian had taught him once again. After training his physique for a couple of hours, he finally took a specific stance, closed his eyes, and released the Qi from his dantian throughout his body and allowed it to rush through his meridians. A white colored palm appeared in front of him.
With a satisfied smile, Xu Min dismissed the hand before he raised his head, looking at the city in front of him, and slowly started making his way towards the city in the distance.
Chapter 6 – Honghe City
As he made his way towards the city, Xu Min once more confirmed his belief that the city was truly far away. He kept walking for the first half of the day, not taking even one break, but no matter how high the sun stood in the sky nor how scorching hot it felt for someone who had lived in the deep shadows of the forests for two years, he didn’t reach the city.
The fur vest he had been wearing quickly ended up within his bag, leaving his upper body bare. The young man continued towards the city with steadfast steps. As he got closer, he suddenly found himself on a dusty road with other people who were also walking towards the city.
At first his entire body was rigid; however, as he walked further, Xu Min came to realize that these people did not even notice him. The majority of them rushed towards the city much like he himself was doing.
The barren land also changed slightly as he got closer and closer. The dry ground transformed into fields. Rice was growing from some of them and corn from others. Medicinal herbs and grain could also be spotted sometimes. There were many plots of land specialized in growing produce; in these fields, humans worked to remove the weeds or water the plants.
Watching these people, Xu Min rushed fo
rward. His head stayed facing down to the ground while he was glancing to the sides and wondered what to do when he reached the city. He wanted to sell the many medicinal herbs that he had collected, but he would need to speak to do so, which was something that he had not done in two years. Just thinking about it caused the young boy to shudder slightly.
While he was wondering what to do, the young boy lifted his head and his eyes widened in surprise. Because he had gotten closer to the city, the horizon was no longer only land as far as the eye could see, which he was used to by now. Something blue spread out behind the city. It was something astonishing that Xu Min remembered his sister telling him about once.
“Listen closely little Min. Far away, even further than the ends of the forest, is a giant blue sea. It is similar to the lakes in the forest, but much bigger.” Xu Wu’s eyes glittered as she longingly thought about the sight she had seen many years earlier.
“How do you know this, sis?” Xu Min asked curiously, his eyes big and naïve, something that had not been seen in his eyes for years now.
