It was June 1st. Shuang Dao, at 13 years old finally knew that the time has come. To die or to change his destiny. It was time for him to turn the Blue Sea into Mulberry Fields.

...

Shuang Dao lifted his eye lashes as scorching light slowly creeped into his room.

His eyes were green like emeralds and he had brown-blond hair which were very unique as it would look different colour in different environments. Sometimes they would look red, sometimes black and other times brown and blond. Handsome face for a youngster his age as it had very manly feel to it, but at the same time jade-like.

Shuang Dao had rather handsome appearance. If one took off his shabby and full of patches clothing, cleaning him full from all the filth, he would definitely look like he is from some prestigious Sect, Clan or Association.

He had very good physique, although a bit skinny, but just good enough for his 1,70m height.

He was actually really tall for his age considering his nutrition.

Shuang Dao didn’t look like a kid with no background and someone without proper home.

He picked himself up from the bunch of straws he was sleeping on; went to the side and from within straws he took out half broken wooden sword. He looked at it for a moment, ‘It should last for today’ he thought and headed out.

He lived in a rather rural area, at edge of the town. It was a place called slums by the other people, but for Shuang Dao it was his home.

Besides him there were 4 other kids and a lot of homeless people. It was a place for people with unfortunate destiny or heavily disabled, of which didn’t live for long.

Right next to Shuang Dao’s rundown shack there were similar to his, four other shabby shacks. This is where the other 4 kids lived.

Standing next to one of the shacks Shuang Dao lightly hit the shack with his wooden sword.

“Yun wake up.” Shuang Dao spoke neither loudly nor silently as he looked through the small window. This was where Yun Ji lived, he was one of the four kids who lived in the slums with him. Yun Ji Just like Shuang Dao, he was thirteen years old this year and had rather similar physique to Shuang Dao but Yun Ji was a bit shorter then Shuang Dao.

Yun Ji was a noble, one could only truly call him a noble. He had black eyes which reflected the soul of the one who was looking them and long dark hair, like that of a true Daoist.

Because Shuang Dao was early morning bird he would almost always be the one who woke everyone up. Likewise Yun Ji was the heaviest sleeper of the four kids, and so Shuang Dao would always try to wake him up first. Alas, like always, it would take couple of attempts.

Shuang Dao picked up his wooden sword and got his hand through the window; rotating his sword to be held like plank Shuang Dao swung his sword few times over Yun Ji’s butt. Up and down, one could already feel heavy wind from it, with evil smile Shuang Dao finally using some strength he slapped Yun Ji on the buttocks.

*slap* A very frightening deep painful sound could be heard.

“Ahhh!” Yun Ji shot like a bullet from the hill of straws and started jumping up and down while holding his buttocks.

“Ai, Ai, Ai! It hurts!” Yun Ji shouted as you could see tears in his eyes.

Shuang Dao burst laughing as he looked at Yun Ji.

Shuang Dao was about swing his sword at Yun Ji buttocks again, when Yun Ji shouted, “I am awake Boss, I am awake!”

“Okay, okay get up fast. We will start morning training.” Shuang Dao spoke.

“Okay, give me a minute.” Yun Ji said with tears in his eyes.

I’ll never get bored of doing this. Ku ku ku.

Shuang Dao nodded with evil smile on his face, Shuang Dao saw other three kids getting out of their houses and amongst the three kids 2 were girls.

Seeing this Shuang Dao had smile on his face, “Ohh! Everyone is awake, that’s good!”

“Ai, Ai! How can we sleep when we hear Yun scream like a baby?” Jiang Li spoke. He was the youngest amongst the five kids as he was only 11 and he will be 12 in few weeks. He had bushy eyebrows and black hair which went just past his ears, because his hair was cut completely in line it looked like helmet.

“Oi, who’s the baby here!?” Yun Ji spoke while in the house, he sounded really miserable.

The two girls burst laughing.

“Yun Ji, if you weren’t such a heavy sleeper, then you wouldn’t get hit to your buttocks every day.” The girl who had long blond hair, green phoenix eyes, long eye-lashes and clear as Ice and clean as jade face, spoke. One could see that she will definitely be a beauty when she grows up. This beauty’s name was Hua Ba, 12 years old, she was the taller one of the two girls.

“Hua Ba, how is this Yun Ji’s fault? It’s Shuang Dao that hit him.” Lin Hao said pouting as she looked at Shuang Dao indicating with her eyes, ‘You should stop hitting Yun Ji’.

Lin Hao was the shorter one of the two girls she had short black hair and was quite petite. Her eyes were like limpid autumn water as it was white like first winters snow. But they were not lifeless instead brilliant and shiny like diamonds such pupils were probably even more rare then rarest diamonds and it was easier to find phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Lin Hao was 12 years old just like Hua Ba and was second youngest to Jiang Li.

All of the five kids came from the same background. They were kids that managed to escape their burning orphanage, as well as great enemy who burnt it.

Unfortunately they knew not who the enemy was, as they lived in the orphanage since they were very little. They almost knew no one outside the orphanage so how could they know who was their enemy.

After they escaped, they managed to get into a caravan for the money they found in the orphanage and came to this desolate town in a very hard to reach place. It was place of which very few people knew of, as its geographical location was just terrible; amongst multiple mountain ranges, amongst many lakes. Somewhere in the middle between south of the continent and the centre of the continent.

These five been through a lot, but because they were exceptionally intelligent, they were able to survive.

“Yun Ji, Jiang Li, Lin Hao, Hua Ba. Today is the day.” Shuang Dao spoke as he seriously looked at everyone in front of them.

All of them stood in front of Shuang Dao as they put serious expression as well. They clearly knew what that meant.

“Today we will start, today we will change our fate, today we will not hesitate anymore!” Shuang Dao spoke encouragingly.

All of them nodded their heads, acknowledging. They looked serious and composed, their eyes closed pretending to think hard. But then suddenly burst into laughing.

“That sounded so lame, honestly!” Huo Ba laughed so hard she started rolling on the ground.

Everyone couldn’t help but laugh, except Shuang Dao who looked embarrassed, but finally started laughing as well.

“Let’s start our todays training.” Shuang Dao spoke as he coughed few times and got serious.

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After five minutes of laughing they started training their bodies in various ways, but never letting their wooden sword out of their hands.

If one wants to wield a sword, then the sword must became part of one’s body.

Since Shuang Dao was very little he had exceptional intelligence that surpassed his pears, but not only that; it was extreme passion for swords and fighting that he had. Something that made even those around him exclaim in admiration and start to like swords and fighting to the core. They knew not how to wield other weapons, nor did they know any martial arts.

*thud* *thud* *thud* Shuang Dao and Yun Ji clashed against each other with their wooden swords. Time and time again as the sound of wood crashing in to each other became stronger and stronger, until sharp sound could be heard.

*Snap* Yun Ji wooden word snapped leaving only half of it, at the same time Shuang Dao’s half broken wooden sword was now in such a bad shape that from the tip of the sword to the handle it split in half.

*Phew* Shuang Dao exhaled, “Good match, bro.”

“Indeed, brother Shuang.” Yun Ji said with a smile on his face.

“It seems that your strength, agility, endurance and control stats are not far from mine, you’ve been working hard, so that’s good.” Shuang Dao pointed out.

“Yes brother Shuang after this battle I just noticed that my four main stats actually improved by one. Now I have 16 strength 20 agility 23 endurance and total of 47 control.” He grinned widely.

“Indeed brother Yun, now merely your control stat is only 10 behind mine.” Shuang Dao said happily he was really happy for his brother, but although he said, “only 10” he knew that 10 stats in control is a huge difference because it was the hardest stat to train. This is because control stat represented overall control over ones’ body. Strength however represented muscle strength and partly speed. Agility for flexibility mainly speed and resistance to forces. Endurance ones’ natural defence and how long one can fight for as to not be short of breath. All of the stats represented a lot of things and not just the obvious one as it was really complicated. One has to maintain certain ratio between the stats as they complement each other, if one focuses too much on one thing then they won’t be able to achieve greatest result.

Shuang Dao focused on his mind inside the void suddenly appeared his statistics.

Strength: 16

Agility: 20

Endurance: 23

Control: 57

Wisdom: 20

Intelligence: 30

Besides the 4 main stats, there is also Wisdom, it helps to retrieve information from the brain faster and increases minds capacity. Intelligence goes a bit together with control, but mainly Wisdom as they complement each other, but this time it’s the overall control over ones brain tasks, such as multitasking and reaction speed and keeping calm during battle. Intelligence goes hand in hand with Wisdom, but scholars would rely more on Wisdom, warriors on intelligence, while Pneuma Daoist’s based Sects and Associations must really balance both of them. Also Beast masters would heavily rely on intelligence to intimidate the beasts.

...

Seeing everyone practice so hard Shuang Dao couldn’t help but be delighted. He walked back to his house, took off all the straws from the place where he slept and one could then see bunch of wooden boards placed on a 2 meter long, 50 centimetre wide hole. Shuang Dao took of the boards and inside the 50 centimetres deep hole there was a chest almost same size as the hole. Shuang Dao opened the chest and took 5 shabby metal swords that were inside of it.

Going back to his team mates Shuang Dao gave all of them a sword and one for himself.

Five people, five swords. Although the swords just like them looked very shabby and poor, but when the five of them stood next to each other, they looked mighty and inseparable.

Shuang Dao glanced at everyone and all of them nodded in a row.

It was time to head out.

Sun was high up, shining, dropping the shadows of the five.

Carrying the metal sword they headed out to the main street where all the business was happening. They could see people glancing at them strangely, but the five of them didn’t care.

Before they did a lot of odd jobs just to be able to buy something to eat, just enough to survive, so they can spend the rest of the time practicing their sword mastery. They had no background, no family and no friends besides each other. They had stronger bond than anyone else. They were five lone wolves.

Their goal? Mercenary Station. They will form a mercenary group consisting of five people which are themselves. Mercenary Station is the place where one can form a mercenary group, search for people to join them as well as find other mercenary groups. Alas if that was all then Mercenary Station would be useless, besides that, it is the place where people can take on Quests some of which are: Hunting ferocious beasts, guarding someone such as a caravan, hunting wanted people and much more.

The Mercenary Station was just like any pavilion but much larger as it had to fit a lot more people inside. There was an inn and even armory and weaponry shops. In the middle, there was a huge hall, it looked simple and not that special. It suited the area for being a Mercenary Station in the middle of nowhere. On the walls one could see bunch of notes. They were notes of people who were searching for a group or searching for people to join their mercenary group.

When the five entered the Mercenary Station, everyone was shocked. 5 dirty looking kids with shabby clothes which looked as if they were about to fall off came holding metal swords in their hands. They had never seen such a mercenary group in their entire life. It was shocking to them. Some even started laughing and mocking.

All five of them stood next to the counter and Shuang Dao spoke up to the lady who was there, “We would like to form a mercenary group.”

At first the woman was flabbergasted and then she wanted to say that it is not a place for them, but then without even letting her say that, Shuang Dao already spoke up, so now she was at loss of words.

“Hello?” Shuang Dao spoke as he grinned, because he saw that the woman was lost.

“Ah!? Oh, Okay so you want to form a mercenary group?” The woman looked at Shuang Dao clumsily.

“Yes.” Shuang Dao answered calmly.

Woman looked at Shuang Dao weirdly again, she couldn’t help but sigh. After all there were many youngsters who would escape from home and form a mercenary group then take on Quest but never come back, because they would die.

“Forming mercenary group would cost one silver, do you have it?” Woman looked at Shuang Dao curious, as she noticed that Shuang Dao was extremely poor.

Shuang Dao nodded as he took out one silver coin and gave it to the assistant.

“What would be your Mercenary group’s name?” The woman behind the counter spoke.

Shuang Dao looked at his teammates and all of them nodded.

“Solitary Demons!” Shuang Dao spoke firmly, as if nothing in the world that could change his decision.

The woman gasped when she heard such ferocious, such indomitable name with such fierceness in his words. Thinking about this name she couldn’t help but exclaim because she understood part of the deeper meaning. She will never forget these youngsters or this mercenary group name in her entire life.

All of the mercenaries there have had a tough life and now that they heard their mercenary group name, they looked much deeper at these youths. Combined with their mercenary group name and their looks, the mercenaries there have understood that the five must be orphans.

Afterwards they filled in some forms to get things clear.

“An emblem with your own symbol would cost 25 silver, do you want that one, or just the basic one?” Woman spoke as she now gazed at Shuang Dao.

Basic emblem means that they would gain an emblem which Shuang Dao could put on his clothes. It represented that he is a mercenary, as it had Mercenary Station sign on it. But one can also make a special one with their own sign but it would cost to make, as it would have to be hand crafted with precision of a master craftsman.

Shuang Dao knew that he will need to pay 25 silver, but he still hesitated a bit, after all 5 of them could live for a year for 25 silver. Being poor his whole life he liked having hefty sum in his pocket a lot. Keeping 25 silver were not easy and they had it since 3 years ago when they came here. It was left over money from when they found some money in the orphanage.

Gritting his teeth Shuang Dao stingily gave 25 silver and also the emblem drawing, which looked like starry sky, extremely unique.

Looking at it woman gasped as she knew how hard it would be to make this kind of emblem, putting smile of her face she couldn’t help but think of the face of the master craftsman when he sees this emblem. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Your emblem will be finished in five days, so currently we will give you the basic one. Is that it?” Woman looked at them curiously.

“That’s it.” Shuang Dao spoke and looked at his Solitary Demons.

“Let’s go then.” Lin Hao spoke as everyone started heading outside.

“Oi! Wait, show us to the Mercenary group contract first.” Lin Hao spoke because everyone forgot.

Hearing this Shuang Dao was embarrassed for forgetting such basic thing.

Mercenary Group: Solitary Demon

Members:

Position:

Shuang Dao  

Patriarch

Lin Hao

Dao Protector

Jiang Li

Dao Protector

Huo Ba

Dao Protector

Yun Ji

Dao Protector

“Eh? Why are you the patriarch and we are the Dao Protectors?” Huo Ba exclaimed as she saw this.

“What do you mean? Of course it’s because you all are just my slaves!” Shuang Dao spoke jokingly as he started laughing.

*Oi!* all of them shouted as they started hitting Shuang Dao.

“I am joking, I am joking! How about this. You all can be the cats and I’ll be the owner!” Shuang Dao laughed as he started running.

“Guys what we do now is as we discussed. We will go hunt wild beasts at the edge of the mountain. Without going deep within, because with our strength that’s all we can manage for now.” Shuang Dao spoke as he ran from them with a bit excitement.

Shuang Dao suddenly stopped as his heart beat increased. Wind blowing past his shoulder length hair. Shuang Dao turned behind and looked at his teammates. He gazed at them deeply as if no one else besides his friends existed in the world.

He shouted, “WHO ARE WE?”

“SOLITARY DEMONS!”