The cool morning breeze swept through the vast plains as the clouds floated by in the sky. The relaxing babbling of water moving downstream could be heard as everybody in the village woke up.

The village was built beside a river and even had a view of the beautiful mountain range, Hundred Mirage Mountains.

At the outskirts of the village was a shabbily built shack. It was made entirely out of wood and straw. One could even see dirt was used to stick some parts of it together. The shack also laid on the other side of the river opposite the rest of the village with a line of stones somewhat connecting the two.

From the shack, thunderous snores echoed out coming from a young man sleeping on a bed of grass. One might even catch the whole shack subtly shake under his powerful snores. Suddenly, the sounds stopped and silence invaded the shack. If any of the villagers were here, they'd let out sighs of relief as their nightmare had finished.

With a soft creak, the door opened and revealed the young man who lived in the shack. His eyes were still droopy and hair disheveled. Oddly enough, one could still sense that he was brimming with energy to begin the day with. He grabbed his fishing rod from beside the door and walked to a large rock protruding out of the river.

This young man was Wu Ming. An orphan who was left behind in the village without a name. Nobody knew anything about him and nobody wanted to take care of him. Strangest of all, even he did not know anything about himself. As such, the head of the village had given him the name 'no name' and left him a house isolated on the other side of the river. To survive, he accompanied multiple villagers to the outer regions of the mountain range to hunt. After all, he was still just a child.

"Wu Ming!" Someone called. "Did you get a good sleep? When are you going to catch some fish?"

Wu Ming looked up towards the village. Squatting there beside the water was an acquaintance of his. It was a boy who had taken recent interest in his fishing routine, Wang Qi.

Wu Ming responded with a slow nod before turning back to his fishing rod. He had placed some bait on the hook that he had collected himself. But instead of trying to catch the fish, he let them bite away at his bait. He just sat there and looked at them peacefully.

"Uhh, Uncle. The fish are eating your bait... Aren't you going to catch them?"

The water off the river was very clear to the point that one could see the fishes in them very clearly. As such, fishing was relatively easy here unless one was an utter fool.

The boy looked up from the fish to see Wu Ming sitting down with a dazed expression. He snickered and amusedly muttered, "Wow, he's sleeping again."

Afterwards, he jumped up and ran off back into the village. Little did he know that Wu Ming was not asleep. He was just fully immersed in this peaceful feeling.

"Ahhh, this is nice," he thought. "More fishes are swimming downstream, is winter coming?"

A few hours later, his bait had run out and the sun was past its peak. During this period of time, he could hear the occasional passerby laughing at him, joking about how he had not caught any fish for himself yet. But he was used to it and paid it no heed to it.

He walked upstream towards the forest at the outer regions of the Hundred Mirage Mountains. Anybody who saw him would forever find it strange that he was walking to such a danger with nothing but a fishing rod. Contrary to their beliefs, Wu Ming clearly believed the forest to be a place of leisure.

Upon arriving at the forest, he whistled a special tune he played every now and then. He moved himself through bushes and trees while ensuring he was still safe.

A few minutes later and he witnessed a scene of a small hog laying down helplessly in a pit. A spike had pierced through its body, rooting it to its place. As it breathed heavily, Wu Ming just casually mentions, "This is your fault. I didn't do anything, you just fell into this pit on your own..."

Wu Ming picked up a nearby wooden stake and stabbed the hog right in the head, instantly killing it. He picked it up and carried it by his shoulder.

This area of the forest was on the other side of the river as well. Thus, Wu Ming was free to place as many traps as he wanted without endangering others.

As the day began to turn dark, Wu Ming finally left the forest with a total of 3 dead animals tugged on his back. Although Wu Ming was poor, he was already near self-sustaining. Honestly, he wasn't sure why he was the only one on this side of the river...

When he reached his shack, his droopy eyes finally opened up entirely in shock. His sharp features revealed themselves as he saw a towering flame from the village!

"What's going on? Did Wang Qi light the entire village on fire this time?"

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Yet, in this moment of emergency, Wu Ming did little to no effort to help the village out. He just sat down outside his shack and looked on as the fire burned everything down.

He extended his arms outward and stretched. The glow of the fire reflected deeply in his opened eyes as he took a deep breath. "Ahhh, the relaxing warmth of a fire in the middle of the night. What a rare pleasure. Eh?"

In the dark of the night, it was hard to notice but there were figures hopping his way on the stone path. Behind them was a huge cloud of purple gas and the occasional shout of urgency.

"Don't let them escape!"

"He's got all the treasures. Get him!"

Wu Ming swiftly got up from his comfortable rock and went back to his shack to gather his belongings. There was clearly conflict afoot and he did not want any part in it!

"Wu Ming, help us! We raised you so help us. I'll even give you 2 gold coins for it!!" A voice exclaimed out. It came from the leading dark figure who was revealed as the village head's son as he came closer, Jun Yi. Behind him was a group of men that carried bags of gold and another that wielded spears.

At the moment, Wu Ming had just started packing his stuff but time was short. So, he just bolted out the door and was about to run towards the mountain range. However, his eyes spotted movement heading towards him even from the direction of the forest.

"My last hope is the forest," he grudgingly thought. His face twisted as his path was blocked.

His heart pounded as he experienced turmoils he never expected to ever happen. His hands were shaking and his face started dripping with cold sweat. But this only lasted a few moments before he was overwhelmed with a sense of crisis.

While lost in his trepidation, Jun Yi and his group had now moved past his shack without him realising it and now, the pillagers were right behind him. While the main group was chasing after the treasures, a few had noticed him and his shabby home and separated from the horde.

Wu Ming jumped to the side, successfully evading a blow to his head. Adrenaline quickly pumped through his veins and his mind worked at accelerated speeds. With a low growl, he lunged at his enemy.

Afterwards, his mind turned blank and when he came to, 5 men were dead on the ground. In his hand was a sword that wasn't his and on his shirt was blood that wasn't his either. His knees buckled in his shock and a stream of tears unknowingly trickled down his cheeks. Looking at the bodies around him only made him feel worse.

"Oh, what have I done..." Wu Ming whispered, his voice unsteady. He didn't want to partake in any of this bloodshed so why was he holding a sword in his hand?

Sounds of a haughty laughter entered his ears off in the distance. He instantly recognized that laughter as one that only came from Jun Yi. Wu Ming raised his chin to look towards the source of laughter. As expected, Jun Yi was there along with a few others. All of them were injured in one way or the other but what caught Wu Ming's eyes was a stranger accompanying Jun Yi.

The stranger had a head full of luscious hair and an overbearingness that could fill his allies with confidence and valor. His white and red robes were embroidered with designs of auspicious clouds and he even had a golden medallion hanging by his neck. Yet, all these dazzling features were invisible to Wu Ming. The moment he laid his eyes on this stranger, his heart shook and his emotions flared up inside him. The stranger was floating...

"An Immortal... I never expected to see one in my life..."

Ever since he had heard of Immortals roaming about the vast continents, Wu Ming was profoundly curious about how they worked. More precisely, how they achieved immortality. But that was merely a thought that he would ponder on occasionally and not something he was truly concerned about. If he gained immortality, he'd probably just continue sitting down to look at fish.

However, the Immortal that hovered by Jun Yi's side took notice of Wu Ming after his brief stare and took a glance back towards Wu Ming. But seeing that there were 5 dead men around him without so much of an injury, the Immortal couldn't help but nod in approval. However, that soon turned to a sense of bewilderment when he noticed how Wu Ming was kneeling down on bloody grass with a sword while crying silently.

"Interesting..." He mouthed as his curiosity towards this young man reaching its peak. A few moments later and without so much of a notice, the Immortal started moving higher.

The survivors of the battle looked on in wonder that soon changed to confusion when they witnessed a few of their own starting to levitate into the sky. There were 3 total, the only young ones who managed to live through this ordeal.

"As promised, I will be taking a son of the family that helped me once during my time of need. Additionally, I apologise but I'll be taking away 2 more somewhat exceptional kids with me."

Naturally, Jun Yi was the son of the family mentioned while the last two were unexpected to all still standing on the ground. They were Wu Ming and Wang Qi!

"Hey... Put me down, I don't want this!" Wu Ming wanted to scream out but to his surprise, nothing came out of his mouth. He couldn't even move as his entire body rested in the hands of the Immortal.

He looked towards Wang Qi, the boy was covered in blood and had numerous cuts on his body. But, to Wu Ming's shock, the boy was smiling!

Seeing that his struggles were pointless, his gaze shot towards his home. The water that had once been clear had turned red from blood as did the grass. But tears still welled up in his eyes as he burned the scene of his home for the last time. This instant felt as if it lasted a year to him before he was whisked away.

They unwillingly flew after the Immortal, following him into the deeper regions of the Hundred Mirage Mountains. As they flew, Wu Ming found himself looking at a vast number of mountains and the network of valleys that ran through them.

"What a beautiful sight," he thought. "Who named this the Hundred Mirage Mountains anyway? This is clearly more than just a hundred..."

He spent hours in the sky as he tried to examine every mountain he passed by, an effort that was only made easier when the sun started to rise. A feeling he never experienced before arose deep within him, leaving behind a small seed of desire.

"This is what it's like to be an Immortal!"

Suddenly, a huge mountain materialized in front of him. It was three times the size of the other mountains and had pierced the thick layer of clouds above them. The most shocking of all was good this mountain was clearly split into two!

Wu Ming was lost for words as rumbles filled his mind. He had never imagined a mountain that looked like this. The rising sun could be seen emmiting its gentle morning light from between the two sides. Betraying the holy image in his eyes, the mountain was revealed to have jagged spikes protruding out of the mountain!

Then, he heard a voice in his mind that amiably said, "Welcome to the Valiant Sky Sect."