Chapter 1 - Leaving Home
'How have i gotten myself here? What did I do to deserve this? WHY????’
In that very moment he could see everything and it all made sense.
He was born Zhou Ryu, second son of Zhou Hai and Youlan, younger brother to Zhou Wu by two years and older brother to Zhou Zishan by a year. He was born in this little family. The Zhou family, but this little Zhou family was actually one of the many branches of the Zhou clan, one of the Great Four Clans, the 12th branch to be exact. This was his boon and his curse.
The Zhou family were settled in the northern part of the Xia continent, in Rock City and where his father was Lord Prefect. Rock City was situated atop a plateau with a view over the Dark Forest, a place infested with low level magical beasts and very thick vegetation. As such even if the Dark Forest was an easy hunting spot for any decent cultivator it was prohibiting for regular humans, making it the last city before the Frozen Mountains and the Ice Waste beyond, and those were the danger areas the cultivator wanted to keep an eye on. That was the true value of Rock City. Not the trading centre over the pelts and meat from low levelled magical beasts, but as a watchtower, making sure to sound the alarm in case anything that shouldn’t left the Frozen Mountains.
Supposedly Ryu was born with great talent and luck, and by the age of 7 he managed to get to the 1st level of the beginner realm of martial arts. This was a great feat, almost miraculous, of an unparalleled genius and he was basked in gifts and the respect and admiration of everyone for it. Everyone except his mother. For as long as he could remember, his mother always treated him either coldly or ignored him altogether, which up until then was never as apparent. Frustrated with the way she treated him, Ryu insisted in trying his best in cultivating, reading every manual that he had, every martial art, consuming every medicine, hoping that she would notice him, but it had the opposite effect. The more Ryu tried the less she seemed to like him and the more apparent it was that there was something wrong with him, for some reason Ryu didn’t seem to breakthrough or make any progress at all.
As time went on the respect and admiration he had gained lessened, then it turned into indifference and then into scorn and by the age of 9 servants and village people even started to bully Ryu. Of course, the main instigators were still his own brothers. Zhou Wu was apparently a late bloomer, of sorts, whose rise coincided with Ryu’s downfall, he was mean and enjoyed it and had a superiority complex. Wu would take every chance he could get to bully Ryu and make clear to all that he was the eldest son, he was the talented one. Thankfully, not long after his rise, Wu was sent to the Zhou clan main villa, to live with his grandfather, where he would train to become the next head of the 12th branch. Missing her eldest son, Youlan put all her attention on Zishan, who, even though not as talented as Wu and despite being a year younger than Ryu, was already at 3rd level of beginner realm. Zhou Zishan grew up to be a spoiled little brat, who though he could do anything to anyone without repercussions, which seriously twisted his personality.
Eventually Ryu stopped trying so hard and then stopped trying cultivating altogether. He realized that the cultivating techniques, martial arts and cultivating resources he had access to were all low level, gifts or otherwise. He realized that if he wanted to breakthrough he would need something else, something more powerful, and he would only get it if he broke through and showed promise, which was impossible. Unemcumbered by that he sought other things in life, and he did what he wanted, what he liked. So he read. He read and read everything there was on cultivating legends, mythological magical beasts, great cultivators wars and even about outsiders. Now he saw how he was torturing himself, how the dream of immortality and great power never left him, how he was searching for the impossible.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
And this brings us to this fateful day. Ryu was now 10.
Due to family reasons Ryu usually steered clear of anyone and everyone, so he spent most of his days reading in the library and when that wasn’t possible wondering just outside the city, observing the animals and the birds, the flowers and the trees, rocks and well... nature. And this day was no different, except when he was approaching the cliff to the west of the city Ryu ran in on his brother, Zishan. He was accompanied by a servant boy and girl and their mother, who stayed a bit behind.
“My, my, what a coincidence to run into you elder brother.” said Zishan with a sarcastic tone, which provoked giggles from the servant girl. “What are you doing here wandering by yourself?”
“Just going for a walk.”
“Hahahaha, how good it is to be a genius. He can even spend his days doing nothing.”
As soon as the servants heard this they burst out laughing.
“Zishan, you know full well that I am no genius. I was just a bit lucky when I was young. You and Wu are the true geniuses.”
“How dare you speak to young master Zishan like that? And how dare you presume to know what young master knows?” barked the servant girl, and the servant boy seemed about to jump at Ryu, but with a wave of his hand Zishan stopped them. Then he looked at Ryu seriously and said with a grin
“Brother, I am starting to get sick of you, always scurrying about with your little books or staring at nothing, I think that you are an eyesore to our great Zhou family. From this day forward you are to be my servant. No, better yet, you are to be her servant, because you don’t deserve to serve me. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!”
“What? What are you talking about? You can’t be serious. I am, still, your elder brother and a member of the Zhou family. I will never serve you, much less her, so quit talking drivel.”
“Ho!? You won’t? Now let’s see about that.”
As soon as he uttered those words he jumped at Ryu, kicked him to the ground and started wailing at him with his 3rd level beginner realm cultivation power. He went on and on and on, broke Ryu’s teeth, his ribs and his left arm and then picked him up and asked:
“Will you serve?”
“Mother, please help! Please!”
Zishan heard Ryu and turned around to see the reaction of their mother, but all there was to see was a shine in her eyes and a big wicked smile plastered on her face.
“HAHAHAHA. No one will help you. Will you serve?”
‘How have i gotten myself here? What did I do to deserve this? WHY THIS?????’
And in that very moment Ryu could see everything and it all made sense. In a flash of either insight or madness or maybe even both Ryu’s thoughts were clear.
‘I haven’t done anything to deserve this. I shouldn’t have to plead for my mother’s love. My brothers shouldn’t treat me this way. There was nothing that I did wrong. They were in the wrong. But, unfortunately, there is nothing that I can do now, I could only serve or die. If that is the case then I would rather die than serve this family, and I will go down swinging, I will bring Zishan with me. This way he will pay for what he did and Zhou Youlan will lose her most precious son.’
He knew what to do. Ryu grabbed Zishan with all his might and performed the forbidden technique: Last Cry. He shouldn’t have had access to a forbidden technique like that, a technique that consisted in exploding his dantian and suiciding, but Ryu suspected his family had little knowledge of what was actually in the home library. As he started all of his ki rushed to his dantian, followed by all of the ki nearby and he felt his body strengthening beyond belief. Zishan frowned and tried to free himself, but to no avail. After his dantian came out of his mouth as ball of incredible radiant white light and started hovering just above their heads. As soon as Zishan and Youlan saw this their faces grew ugly, and the servants ran away. Zishan tried frantically to escape but he just couldn’t because even thought he had superior cultivation Ryu under the effects of the forbidden technique was incredibly physically strong.
“RELEASE ME!!NOW!!!!”
“You will die with me today.”
Youlan seeing that her beloved son was in danger jumped in to try and separate Ryu from Zishan, but as she did this she pushed Ryu away and ended up throwing Ryu over the cliff. Ryu didn’t see what happened next but as he was free falling he saw the sky light up and heard the most beautiful sound he ever heard a huge “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM” and then the world turned dark.