The Past

At the backwater region of Ningjing prefecture neighboring the Wuming prefecture , inside a lush forest there exist a small humble village, the village mainly survives by farming and hunting wild animals in the surrounding forest. The small village goes by the name Gu village.

Around two hundred inhabitants lived in the village, with such little population everyone that lived there knows each other. laughter of children playing together can be heard coming from the village. The houses are made from wood with thatched roofs, each house is about the same size, except for the village's chief house that's just a little bit bigger.

Currently at the small square of the village, a festival is taking place. The village had a tradition where, once a child reached 15 years of age the boys and girls would choose their partner to marry. After that the boys would go hunting in the forest, they are given a time limit from morning till the afternoon to bring back their hunted animal.

The rules are actually very simple, even if you brought back a small bird it would be acceptable and considered a hunted animal, but who would do that? they would just become a laughing stock. There is a saying where the fiercer the animal you brought back, the stronger your relationship with your partner would be and you would be together forever.

This saying appeared because the current village chief who is now 82 years old, was said to have hunted a huge bear at his ceremony. And because of that the village chief and his wife stayed married until her unfortunate death at 74. But since then, nobody else had done the same, that just shows how special the village chief is and how difficult it was to hunt a huge bear like that.

It's currently already in the afternoon, the boys had already returned form their hunt, and once again, nobody had managed to hunt a bear. The biggest animal hunted this time is a deer with majestic antlers, the rest mostly hunted boars, or smaller deers.

"as expected of the chief's descendant!"

"we wish you a long and happy marriage!!"

The villagers cheered for the newly weds, and it seemed the one who hunted the huge deer with the majestic antlers was the village chief's descendant.

As the villagers was cheering, the village chief climbed onto a small podium in the center of the square, the village chief delivered a small speech for the hunters and congratulated them for their successful hunts.

"here's to a life time of happiness!!"

He raised a glass of beer, and the rest of the villagers also did the same. tons of food and alcohol is prepared for this event so everyone can let loose to their hearts content.

At the corner of the square, away from the festive atmosphere, two children, a boy and a girl sat together on the ground. the both looked to be around 12 years old, the girl had a beautiful face, snow white skin and intellect shone in her eyes, she was still very young but it can be seen that once she grows older she would become an absolute beauty. on the other hand, the boy looked quite plain, there doesn't seem to be anything special about him.

"I will be sure to hunt a huge bear for you!" The boy said as he looked at the girl with passion in his eyes.

The girl giggled, she had a playful look on her face. " but I don't remember ever agreeing to marry you?" She continued "And I'm only going to marry a person that hunted at least 10 bears!"

The boy was speechless but immediately after he stood up with vigor. "I will hunt as many bears as you want!, I'll even hunt the entire population of bears in the forest!" the boy declared towards the girl.

The girl laughed after hearing that. "I'm sure you will" she said while smiling.

They both had been neighbors since childhood, both their parents had also been friends when they were young, so they were close. not too long ago the boy declared that he will marry her. and she laughed it off, and so that's how everything got to this point.

As they were happily talking, the boy had an idea. "I know!, I'm gonna make a vow!" he said loudly, The boy looked around and found a boy not to far away carving a piece of wood to make some kind of figure.

"hey you!, can I have a moment of your time?" he shouted at the boy that was carving wood, the boy approached the wood carving boy, for some reason even though they were in a small village he did not recognize the wood carving boy's face, but threw that thought to the back of his head.

"would you be willing to be our witness?" The boy said to the wood boy.

"um.. sure?" the wood carving boy said, feeling confused.

"Hey! don't bother him, what are you even talking about? it's embarrassing" The girl approached the boy and tried to stop him, her face bright red. but the boy didn't listen.

"No! I will let the whole world know that you are mine!" The boy Declared with a loud voice.

"Tch" a voice sounded.

"did you say something?" the boy asked the wood carving boy.

"nothing" replied the wood carving boy.

After that the boy vowed to the girl that he will hunt 100 bears and marry the girl. The girl smiled happily, but immediately after the next day, an expert from a top sect came to the village, a divination said that a peerless genius appeared at the village, the expert came to take the genius away. coincidentally the girl was the peerless genius. she was taken away while the boy shouted at the top of his lungs that he will find her in the future.

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"f*ck" remarked Li Pingjun, an unpleasant memory surfaced in his mind.

"serves you right a**holes, who the hell grabs an innocent bystander as a witness to your love" Li Pingjun said while grinding his teeth in anger. "good luck on your journey Bas*ard"

Li Pingjun prayed that the boy will have to go through uncountable suffering before finally meeting her again. he hoped that he will only be able to meet her for a short amount of time before she gets kidnapped again.

"ptui!" Li Pingjun spat at the ground angrily. after a bit of time and a lot of cursing he finally calmed down.

Now he truly started reminiscing about the past he wanted reminisce. Li Pingjun wasn't actually born in Gu village, a hunter found him in the forest near the village, supposedly his biological parents left him there to be found by the villagers. he lived with the village chief and his wife, the village chief was still at 72 years old at the time and his wife who was 68 at the time, was still alive to take care of him when he was a baby.

unfortunately when the village chief's wife died he was still an 6 years old kid, there was nothing Li Pingjun could do. He's just glad that she died a natural death because of her age.

when he was 12 the village chief brought him to a nearby town, that is where he found the breath exercise book. While he was walking through the street, he saw a pawn shop called pawn st*rs he asked the village chief if he could take a look because the items inside looked interesting.

While looking around he found a dusty book at the corner of the shop, the book is called basic spiritual breathing technique. And that is when he embarked on his cultivation journey, he bought the book with his savings of allowance money and studied the book religiously, the book explains a bit about the cultivation world and about spiritual energy. the book contains a technique to absorb spiritual energy through breathing.

He trained the breathing exercise regularly. Li Pingjun would've stopped training it thinking that the book is fake had it not for the fact that he got many times stronger than the other kids his age.

After two years of training, one day he felt like he had broken through a wall in his body, he suddenly became so much stronger, but the day after he caught a terrible cold for three days and three nights. that is the time he had awoken his ability.

some time later the village chief became sick. Li Pingjun travelled to other cities, met other fellow cultivators and learned about cultivation manuals, and managed to obtain one after a lot of effort. he did all this while searching for a way to make the village chief get better. But alas, the village chief was just too old, it was time for him to rest.

Li Pingjun did not feel a connection with the rest of the villagers so he decided to leave and embark on a journey, committing himself to cultivation.

"that lasted for two years" Li pingjun said to himself, feeling sad.

The cultivation world is a cruel place, without talent or backing you will not get far. 5 years ago he broke through to the first stage of water gathering, now he's still at the middle stages of the 2nd stage of water gathering. in his estimation, after another year he should get to the peak of 2nd stage of water gathering.

As Li Pingjun was thinking about his cultivation, the fish had finished cooking, he ate the fish with great relish, afterwards he put out he fire and went back inside the house. he sat cross legged on his bed, the tree of life manual emerged in his mind, the spiritual energy inside his body started moving according to the manual, strong life force started coursing throughout his body. He started his cultivation.

At the same time, further down the river.

A woman's blood curling scream reverberated throughout the forest.