Kai ran along the river, in a direction against its current. He didn't know which way to run to find the town, but he knew that the current had brought him here and if he kept going long enough, he could even make it back to the village where he grew up.
He decided that he would start by finding the bandits that had slaughtered his village and killed his siblings. It was the last thing keeping him from going out into the outside world. Kai had to get revenge, only then would he give himself the right to pursue the path of a martial arts master.
In his heart still sat that demon that was eating him from the inside out. Any sorrow and confusion, any anger and revenge must be resolved, lest they become a stone in the road that you stumble over on the path of cultivation.
Old Man Mo told him that at higher levels of cultivation, when breaking through, your state of mind was very important, then even a small thing, a little doubt in yourself and your determination could cost you your life.
Kai often thought of the Law of Luck and Life and Death, and reasoned about the inevitability of certain events and the fact that everyone would eventually die. But the ruthless murder of his relatives was before he had even begun to realize these strange concepts he had picked up from the orb.
These events have managed to leave a scar on his soul, he must take revenge with his own hands and kill this demon in his heart. So that he can finally be sure that his kin can rest in peace!
"First I need to find some town, there I can find out which village was mowed down two years ago." - Kai thought to himself.
Even as he ran, he tried to practice constantly. All his movements were silent and perfect, he was constantly absorbing energy. Kai could feel the Invisible Kings in his body growing stronger, and he along with them.
Because of his constant exercise and trained body, he didn't look 11 years old now, he could safely be given 14, especially since his aura wasn't childish at all. He looked quite mysterious, and if you looked into his eyes, you could get lost there. Indifferent to everything and at the same time, as if looking into the very essence. His snow-white hair had grown below his shoulders in the meantime, but now it was gathered in a careless bun at the back of his head.
The azure shrewd eyes, snow-white hair, and inky-black robes contrasted with each other very well. One could call it, 'frightening beauty'.
In fact, in this world, 14 year olds were no longer considered children, some girls were already married off or made concubines. And boys from poor families could be sold to mercenaries and fight in wars or work as slaves in the mines.
Master Mo had warned him that it was a cruel world where everyone valued their power and lineage very much. Wars that broke out over different cultivation techniques were commonplace. For example, between sects with conflicting attributes like fire and water.
In such a world, being a commoner did not distinguish you from cattle, who could be killed, raped, or made a slave and receive no punishment from anyone who was stronger. However, that was essentially what happened to his village and family....
Earlier when he was only 7 years old he had gotten completely used to the abomination and gomorrah of this world, and had experienced the inequality and injustice of this world more than once on his own body. It was after countless problems, beatings, life and death situations, and being treated like garbage by others. He realized that the most important thing in this world is strength, only the strong are respected, and only the strong can become truly free. But alas, he couldn't even dream of it then. He could only steal food, ignoring the threat to his life, and take it to the shelter.
In fact, the hellish training with his Master in the mountains for the past three years, the incredible torture of the Kings and the constant self-preservation, had been the happiest part of his life. This old man had truly become family to him.
But now, in the outside world, he had to be prepared to be seen as mere homeless trash. However, that didn't bother him one bit!
After a day of running through the forest, Kai suddenly stopped and quickly jumped up into a tree lurking in the foliage.
He heard some noise not far away and began to creep up quietly. When he got closer, he saw two big guys with big muscles and greasy hair approaching a girl laughing.
The girl was about 17 years old and pretty enough, she had a slender body and slightly reddish hair. It was obvious that she had been washing in the river before, as her sleeves were rolled up and there was a wooden basin of wet clothes on the bank.
- Lily, baby, why are you running away from us? We just want to talk. - Approaching her spoke one of the men.
- Lot, don't come near me, my dad has already given you everything he owed for a month, get away from us! - Screamed the girl.
- Guerin, you heard what her father said, didn't you? He's ten coppers short, and we can take his daughter in exchange for them, can't we? - Laughing Lot said to the other man.
- Yeah, yeah, that's right, it was. I think our boss won't mind if we use it a little. Hahaha.
- What are you talking about? I was there when my dad gave you the money, you got every dime you needed. My father would never say that about me. - Gritting her teeth in anger, the girl said.
- Who would believe you? - Lot frowned, "I've shown you signs of attention, but each time you've chosen to ignore them. So don't blame me for being rude!
- And yes, I've done quite well in the past month. So whatever's going to happen now has already been discussed with the boss. If you care about your diner and your father's life, then be a good girl. - Slowly getting angry, Lot said.
- W...w...you. What are you going to do? - The girl panicked. She thought about biting off her tongue and dying of blood loss, but realized that after that, her father would be killed too. Should she really dishonor herself today? She was desperate.
- Come to me, I will be gentle. Guerin, grab her. - He ordered the other boy.
- 'Brother, you will let me use her after you, won't you? - Gerin asked awkwardly.
- Sure, we have enough of her for two, she will be over the moon after having sex with such warriors.
Laughing Guerin walked up to the girl and started to reach out to her. At that moment in the tree, Kai was watching all of this. He was contemplating whether he should intervene. This was not a friendly world, it happened all the time, he was not a naive boy with a dream of saving the world. Every action has its price. But then he thought that the girl could take him to town and give him a place to sleep. Since he'd heard her father had a tavern of sorts. If he made it clean, no one would know anything about this incident. He also thought about questioning those scumbags.
- Tz. - Clicked his tongue at Kai.
Just as the guy's left hand was about to touch the girl named Lily, a guy appeared between them, it was as if he had popped out of the ground. At that moment, Kai lightning-fast plunged the dagger under the big guy's arm, going deep into the flesh and cutting the aorta of the heart in one motion. It was so clean that not even blood had time to escape. Guerin, on the other hand, stared at him stupidly, rolled his eyes and fell to his knees. At this moment, Kai no longer had a dagger in his hands. These guys were at a simple stage of body training, they were nothing to him. The girl on the other hand didn't understand what was happening at all, she felt like she was dreaming and seeing a nightmare right now!
Using the Shadow Mark Dance, Kai lightning fast appeared behind Lot hitting the back of his knee, forcing the man down. After all, Kai was several heads shorter than him and he needed to bring him down to his level. Once the man was down, Kai grabbed his hair and put the dagger right against his carotid artery. All of this happened in an instant!
- So Lot, I have a question for you, if you answer it, you'll live, and if not, you won't even know at what point you'll fly to hell. - Kai said calmly.
- My question is this. Who slaughtered the villages in the area about three years ago?
- Slaughtered villages? - Me...me...me. The man started stuttering.
- You have three seconds. - Kai gave out indifferently.
- You must be talking about tribute! Once a year, all the gangs in the county have to pay tribute to Lord Flick. I heard that three years ago it wasn't very thick, and one of the gangs decided to ruin several villages because they lacked tribute! - Lot said quickly.
At that moment something stank, when Kai looked down he realized that the guy had shit his pants out of fear. Kai looked at the girl and she was shivering like she was standing naked in the winter wind. He realized that he must have unknowingly released his killing intent, to mere mortals he now seemed like a demon from hell.
- Hmm, sorry, I'm not used to it yet. He said and retracted his aura. The guy and the girl immediately relaxed a bit.
- What was the name of that gang, where to find it, and how many gangs are there even in this region? - Kai asked calmly.
- W...w...there are ten gangs in our region. Although in reality we all report directly to Lord Flick, we only have conditional autonomy, but we have to collect tribute from all the commoners and servants on the street. The gang that did that massacre was probably the Phantom Halberd Gang.
- Hmm, the Phantom Halberd, you say. I guess you're right, those bastards definitely had halberds... Thanks for the information. - Kai said coldly.
- Sir, will I live now? You promised I would live, didn't you?" Lot asked shakily.
- Of course I promised! But I didn't say how long you would live. - Saying that, the blade quickly cut the artery and the boy fell to the ground.