The Bullies and the Victims(new arc)

"You are an absolute trash,"

"You're a shame to your family's name,"

"You don't deserve me, trash,"

"What are you doing here, trash?"

I grew up hearing all sorts of comments like this. It wasn't anything special. It was just the norm but while overusing the word lost its edge to me, it wasn't the same for everyone else.

They were blunt to the point of it being scary.

How was this even possible? It was an edgy thing until I was over 7 years old.

I heard new insults being tossed around every day, like 'I'm your Grandfather', 'Is that all you have?', 'I'll crush you like an ant, brat' but by the time I was 10, even that started to bore me.

I could hear it all day with the most malicious intent, yet it wouldn't affect me, at most, it would make me wince a little inside.

Now, things were different for the folks around. Every time they screamed, "TRASH", it was a mini victory for them, a cause of celebration, a reason behind their smugness.

Why was it like this? Why is everyone like this? It always makes me feel left out.

Although I still used those terms to feel a sense of belonging, every time I say it out loud, something dies inside of me.

The Azure Sun City I belong to is full of people like that. When I turned 16 years old, it was a time for a grand celebration. First, I was going to be considered an adult, and second, the immortals were coming down their mountains to hold a selection even for the mortals.

I was born in a quite well-off family, and although, I was a single child, I had a plethora of cousins.

I loved playing with them when I was younger, but it changed when I started to grow. There wasn't any dark underlying reason for it, our thoughts were just too different.

I didn't like to sit in the tea houses and talk about new 'flowers' in the brothels like some of my older cousins, nor did I like to wave my wooden sword around and pretend to be a cultivator killing them, shouting the same terms that I mentioned in the beginning out loud.

So most of the time, I was left alone. Things weren't the same for the rest of my cousins. One of them was paralyzed since young, one of them always bullied for no reason, and the rest of them taking turns to bully them.

Then there were my cousin sisters. All of them were extremely beautiful, but they were the creepiest people I had ever laid my eyes on.

One of them talked like a 5-year-old even when she was 15. One of them pretended to be cold and distant, even eating her food with her head held high, making some of it being stuck to the side every time she was done.

These two were odd, yes, but they never irked me much. At least, they minded their own business. The last one of them was the creepiest. She always seemed concerned about something from a young age, as if the weight of the world was upon her shoulders. Actively, she discouraged my other cousins to stop bullying the two victims yet never taking any concrete steps.

All that her 'pleading' led to was even more beating and insulting for the victims and yet she was loved by everyone. She could get anything she wanted with a cute smile.

Seriously, she was older than me by two years, and yet instead of taking any steps to improve anything, all she ever did was make a wronged expression to appear 'cute' and capture everyone's attention.

She was the one that irritated me the most as well,

"Gege, Why aren't you doing anything to stop them?" She once to me when I was passing by the group. None of them cared much about me but the victim that was being bullied glared at me with anger in his eyes, grouping me with his bullies.

"Gege, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? What do you want to become in the future?" She asked all sorts of questions whenever she found me alone.

I wanted to slap her away so bad, but I knew that if I did that, she would cry out loud enough to summon the palace guards from the imperial city far away. Then, she would indirectly complain to both her parents and my parents, although, she never did that for the two victims, which might've stopped the stupid thing once and for all. That's just how she was.

When the announcement was made that the 'immortals' were coming for recruitment, the atmosphere was festive. Everyone in the city, from the starving beggars, homeless, and poor vendors, to the city lord's palace and big merchant families like us, cheered up, making preparations and decorating the tea-houses, wine shops, inns, and plazas.

Poems were sung every day for the 'immortals', storytellers told the stories of famous immortals, the old inns and shops were being renovated every day, even though it might put a dent in their life savings.

They needed to appear prosperous, affluent, and show bright glowing smiles in front of the immortals. It was all about face.

My lifestyle didn't have much change though, after the banquet of my 16th birthday, I spent most of my time in my room, staring at the little shrubs growing in my backyard.

Things weren't quite the same for the rest of them though.

One day after the announcement was made, the paralyzed victim started walking and running. It caused quite a stir in the city. After all, this cousin of mine was the son of the City Lord.

Why was his son being bullied as well, and a disabled one nonetheless? Who knows, I'd like to know too but I don't talk to those idiots anymore.

I also heard the inside news that it happened because he was poisoned during his birth by some enemy of the City Lord, and somehow a mythical cultivator appeared in his dream to save him.

I almost choked on my tea back when I heard this. The sheer bullsh*t that came out of this guy's mouth was something else. Maybe, this was the reason he was bullied.

I massaged my temples and forgot about it, not wasting any more of limited brain power over this. I thought I would be able to spend the rest of my time here in silence but three days later, another news caused a stir in the city.

The dude that was bullied for no reason suddenly turned his situation around and broke the legs of not one, not two but ALL OF THEM.

And not even like some minor fractures, the dude literally took an old hammer and beat them until all the bones in their legs were broken.

How vicious! How dumb!!

He was quickly caught and faced penalty but the guy who couldn't even stand up to his bullies stood up to all the elders from our families and made a grand speech.

It was a tear-inducing speech, something along the lines of 'Why didn't you help me?', 'Why are you taking side now?', 'I'm such a victim and you're such a bully'.

Perhaps he was learning from that creepy cousin of mine, who stood far away from him to avoid repercussions while he wailed. When he was punished for his actions and had his legs broken too, only then did she appear to confront him.

Hearing all of this, I wondered how stupid and dislikable I was to be able to mix in with this group of dimwits.

Thankfully, nothing else happened when the 'immortals' arrived. Heh, it's funny how these low-level cultivators never once stopped the mortals from calling them 'immortals', even when they knew there wasn't much difference in our lifespans.

After all, most of them were Qi refining realm cultivators, and only at Foundation Establishment can one said to have entered the true gates of the grand cultivation world.

It was just common knowledge, but common sense is not spoken out loud because it doesn't give anyone benefits. Flattery could get them far in life though, and so everyone knowingly licked the boots of these 'immortals' to gain any benefits they could.

Thinking of this, I arrived at a huge square plaza where 5 people wearing stylish robes of different colors stood with their chins pointing upwards.

Perhaps they had a medical condition, any way, I was used to weird things happening around me by now.

I looked around, a crowd had gathered at the edge of the plaza, whispering who knows what in each other's ears. Perhaps, they were doing their jobs, providing exposition about the characters present on the stage to each other, over-hyping them.

Sigh, what a stupid world I live in.

I stood at the corner. I wasn't in a hurry. There was no way these dumbheads and attention who*es would stop their performance at a time like this.

A crystal ball was set up in the middle of the plaza. We were supposed to put our hands on it and it would show us our spirit root. That would determine how far would we be able to walk in our journey as cultivators.

The spirit roots were divided into four tiers and each tier had a further division along the lines of Low, Mid, and High.

The most common Mortal Spirit Root.

The slightly special Yellow Spirit Root.

The extraordinary Earth Spirit Root.

The one-in-a-million Heaven Spirit Root.

The first to go ahead was an unknown boy. He had a Low Mortal spirit root. He was rejected straight away.

The second one on the other hand... was the paralysis victim, who took a confident stride towards the center stage.

I don't know why that gave me an urge to laugh. Sigh, I'm weird.