One night, moonlight fell as usual on Green Sea Town. Someone placed a bamboo basket in front of the gates of a clan and left without a word. A pretty baby girl was sleeping inside the basket.
The baby was adopted by the clan master. She had two adoptive brothers, one of whom was also adopted. Initially, the man who adopted her faced countless criticisms from the clan members; he had adopted more children than he actually gave birth to. That was completely going against the clan’s purpose to bring glory to the clan’s bloodline.
She was only five. She had a look of innocence to her and her face was as smooth and white as jade. Everyone adored her and doted on her endlessly. Moreover, the girl was immensely talented and smart. She excelled academically in the clan’s private school; she could memorise entire books in a matter of months, as if she had an eidetic memory.
She was loved by everyone. She might only be an adopted daughter, but soon she got everything her way as people poured their love and affection at her. It was impressive that she was able to win everyone’s adoration as an adopted daughter of the clan. She had always felt a strange sort of attraction between her and her adopted brother. Perhaps because of their similar fates, they felt more lonely compared to everyone else. She had a very good relationship with her brother. They were always together, taking care of each other.
She turned eight on her birthday. Twelve coloured blotches appeared on her face with no warning at all; milky-white, purple, black, dark blue, green and many more. She finally felt what it was like to fall from heaven to hell. The blotches that had appeared suddenly on her face drew the ire and mocking of everyone around her. The town might be prosperous, but its citizens were far from civil. Several hooligans who had no sense of decency spread rumours, claiming that her disfiguration was a curse from the gods, that she would bring ill luck to the town.
Not only did the disciples of the clan stop talking to her, but even the servants that looked after her started to stare at her differently. The great elder and the clan master still loved her, so they hired famous doctors from all over to examine her condition, but none of them could figure out the cause. However, despite her father and the great elder’s kindness, she became very quiet from that year forward. She stopped trusting anyone.
She would go alone to the market if she had something to buy. She stopped asking for her servants to help her dress and she stopped talking with her brother. She distanced herself from the world. To avoid unnecessary attention and stares, she would put on big black robes, no matter how hot the weather was. She would go alone to the market to buy things she liked. The clan master and great elder tried to encourage her to be less withdrawn, but it was no use. Most eight-year-old children were still growing up safely in the shelter of their parent’s arms, but this girl, who was once the princess of the clan, loved and adored by everyone, had to bear all this pressure and pain by herself.
Losing in itself wasn’t scary; the scary part was losing everything when you once had everything.
One evening, as the sun set, the girl hurried to the market to buy some snacks before night fell. She wanted to look at the stars on the mountain at night while nibbling on her snacks.
She didn’t expect to run into a middle-aged man in a linen cloak, armed with a sabre. It wasn’t dark yet, but the man was already drunk as a skunk. He swayed from foot to foot on the road, unable to even walk in a straight line. He bumped into her and caused her hood to fall over, revealing her face. The man started grumbling, “Hey, ugly! Don’t come out here scaring people if you’re ugly. Are you fucking trying to scare me to death?”
She was only eight that year. Even a woman would have turned pale at having run into such a crass man, let alone an eight-year-old girl. However, she simply stood up quietly and said, “Hey, drunk! Don’t crawl out of your hole if you’re this drunk. Are you trying to kill someone by running into them, you idiot?”
The air froze. The middle-aged man didn’t expect the girl to return his insult with his own words.
“You…little bitch! So young and already so rude. Who knows what you will become when you grow up?”
The middle-aged man grew angrier and angrier as he spoke. The alcohol brought out his rage and caused him to lose all rationality. He drew his sabre and pointed it at the little girl, shouting furiously, “Let me teach you a lesson in place of your parents, you little bitch!”
He wasn’t even aware that he was pointing a sword at a child. He was far too drunk for that. He swung the sword downwards at the girl’s face, fully intending to hurt her. She did not dodge the strike. In fact, she seemed to welcome it, as if it would bring her liberation. She was even afraid that a single strike wouldn’t do the job; she turned her head left, exposing her neck as she closed her eyes and waited for the peace of sweet death.
She couldn’t take the muttering and gossiping, couldn’t bear the cold disdain and rolling eyes or endure the veiled insults of everyone around her. She had become the least welcome person in the town, someone seen as an evil omen, whose life itself was a curse. Hardly anyone could keep standing under such immense pressure.
Not even a grizzled veteran could endure such pressure, let alone a young girl.
That was why she wanted death.
Clang!
Just as she was wondering why the blade still hadn’t arrived, she heard a noise and opened her eyes. A tiny figure, not much bigger than herself, stood in front of her with a shortsword in hand. He had blocked the slash.
Eleven words gently drifted by the girl’s ears. The tone was cold and chilling, but the words warmed her heart, “No one can humiliate you, unless it’s over my dead body.”
“Brother…”
The girl’s eyes welled up with tears. A string in her heart had been pulled. So there was still someone in this world who would treat her like before.
The middle-aged man looked at the young boy curiously. The young boy returned with a cold stare that sent chills running down his spine and woke him from his drunken rage. The man took two steps backward and asked uneasily, “Kid, who are you?”
The boy smirked proudly as he gazed at the man, “You think someone like you is qualified to call me ‘kid’?”
“Fuck off! I’m qualified enough to be your granddaddy if I wanted to!”
The man had been humiliated by the young boy twice now. He refused to hold back any longer. He channelled aether into his feet and sprung forward, swinging both arms as he brought the sabre down on the boy, “Die! I’m a goddamn fourth-level Martial Disciple! I won’t be insulted by a brat!”
The boy simply stepped aside and evaded the attack. He moved quickly as he did so, the shortsword stabbing into the man’s wrist.
“Ahhh…”
A pained yowl, accompanied by the sound of the falling sabre. The man wailed as he knelt on the ground.
“A fourth level has nothing to brag about. That’s just barely enough to be a gatekeeper at our clan. I’m already sixth level and I just turned nine.”
The boy simply left the man with those words as he pulled his shortsword out and flicked the blood off the blood. He turned and pulled the young girl’s hand as they left. A golden medallion hung on each of their waists: “Fan” and “Lan”. They gleamed brilliantly under the lanterns.
From that moment on, the boy knew the truth of this world, where martial strength reigned supreme and where lives were cheap as dirt— power was everything. Absolute strength was the only thing that would allow you to protect others. Without power, everything else was in vain.
This was the reason the boy wanted to become stronger.
He simply wanted to live a simple life.628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9aEWcrIodL
Memories flashed in Wun Fan’s mind, further steeling his resolve to become stronger. He was willing to pay any price to become strong, let alone a single hand.
He had seen plenty of martial artists in his previous life who were born with disabilities. However, those disabilities did not stop them from training and mastering some of the most powerful martial arts. The loss of his hand wasn’t even worth mentioning. Wun Fan made up his mind. Resentment flashed across his heart. He would not let his right hand drag him down any longer.
He drew his dagger decisively and prepared to amputate his hand and cut away the biggest obstacle in his martial journey!
Just as the blade was about to touch his wrist, a sharp, stinging pain shot from the Point of Joining Valleys in his right hand. Wun Fan immediately stopped. An overwhelming aura erupted from his hand and a wave of pure aether surged forward along with the pain. The aether turned into a massive flow of information that erupted in Wun Fan’s mind, stunning and dizzying him.
Wun Fan’s vision blurred and his consciousness was fading. A message flashed through his mind:
A world on every pebble and every sand; nine heavens and ten earths hides the band.
A debt of aether to pay the price; heaven’s weapons and tools to carry by your side.
Before he could understand what the words meant, Wun Fan finally fainted from the pain. Only that overwhelming aura continued to shroud him, circling his body. It vanished entirely when Wun Fan went into a deep slumber, leaving no traces of its presence behind.
628Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy4L80ysmel
