The Falcon Strikes the Eagles Claw

When Xiao Yuzhe opened his eyes, he could barely see, and when he did, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. The place he woke up in, though, wasn't the street; it was a high-class house that was furnished with furniture that had very intricate designs and patterns, and the bed he woke up on was really soft, and even the blanket he was sleeping with looked very expensive and had super-detailed embroidery that was obviously done by hand with extremely high-end materials.

When he looked to his left, there was a young woman of about twenty-five who walked in with an ointment and new bandages; it wasn't until she had placed these on a table next to the bed that she had realized Xian Yuzhe was staring at her the whole time with a blank expression. Immediately she jumped up and ran away, closing the door behind her.

"Geez, I am not that ugly, am I?" Xiao Yuzhe said this with a slight chuckle and then stopped because it hurt his chest.

Just then the woman who had dressed his wounds came back into the room; this time she was being followed by another woman who was dressed in an obviously expensive gown that was made of red silk and had silver embroidery around it in the design of dragons. Her hair was adorned with ornaments of gold and pearls and had a necklace made of mutton fat jade with a silver dragon on one side and a golden one on the other holding the piece of jade in the center.

Xiao Yuzhe also noticed she had glass-like skin and had a noble countenance. It didn't take a genius to figure out she was a woman of importance. "Your Highness, here is the beggar you saved the other day. I noticed he had woken up when I went to apply the ointment prescribed by the physician and change his bandages just like you asked."

The woman then bowed to the one adorned with the ornaments and pointed her hand at Xiao Yuzhe.

"Thank you, Gao Li, you may go now." Said the woman who was obviously Gao Li's master. Xiao Yuzhe made a mental note of the servant's name, Gao Li, but he couldn't help but stare at the woman with the ornaments. Her voice was calm and sweet but also subtle and composed; he couldn't help but be enchanted by her. (After all, in his past life he was a relative loner with few friends and horrible social skills, but we will get back to that later.)

The woman sat on the bed and put her hand on Xiao Yuzhe's cheek and said. "From now on I own you, but don't worry, I take good care of what I own." Xiao Yuzhe was stunned by what she said; he couldn't truly grasp what was going on, as he still had no clue he had died and gone to another world. So he was left fairly clueless and dumbfounded, wondering where owning someone was still legal.

"Who are you? Where am I? What do you mean by you own me?" Xiao Yuzhe had asked.

The woman promptly answered. "I am the Third Princess of the Zhao Kingdom; my name is Zhao Mei. Where you are right now is in the guest house of my summer manor. As for that third question, we will get to that later."

Zhao Mei stood up after answering, then reached into her sleeve and pulled out a little white bottle. "Take these pills twice a day until you're fully recovered. I will be off to the capital for the next few weeks. Take the time to recover and gather your thoughts, and then we can speak of that third question you asked."

After she finished speaking, she placed the bottle next to the bed Xiao Yuzhe was in, then promptly walked out of the room before Xiao Yuzhe could ask another question. Xiao Yuzhe began thinking about where the Zhao Kingdom is; he'd never heard of it before, let alone anything about a princess. "Where in the world do they still have monarchies with kingdoms and princesses?" Xiao Yuzhe began thinking out loud.

After Xiao Yuzhe said this, his mind flooded with memories he never remembered having. In these memories he was a baby born to a prostitute who left him in the street so she could keep making money; he was left there until a middle-aged woman walking down the street saw him there alone and took him home against her husband's wishes. After 5 years, the family fell on hard times, and one day when they were in the market, the woman left him near a stand and just disappeared; naturally, to survive, he had become a thief and beggar who would drink wine just to keep away the cold at night, turning him into an alcoholic, until one day when he was twenty, he had no money and no wine, and he began freezing to death in the middle of the night, feeling the cold creep slowly to his heart, then passing out.

Strangely enough, when he passed out was exactly when Xiao Yuzhe remembered waking up in this strange, archaic place where the people dressed like they were in a dynasty and could punch people and send them flying 20 feet. Then at that moment, Xiao Yuzhe was hit with a sudden revelation.

"Did...did I die and become this guy that had such a tragic life?"

When Xiao Yuzhe tried to remember anything about his own past, he only came up with a blur, like there was a barrier preventing his memory. He quickly decided dwelling on it was useless, Xiao Yuzhe; even though he couldn't really remember who he was, he knew he always naturally could deal with stressful or surprising situations simply due to knowing his worry never changed a thing.

He began to remember what Zhao Mei had said to him, and after pondering for a while, he realized that since in this life he was a beggar, being a servant to a princess was definitely an upgrade that could have unforeseen benefits and opportunities for improvement. It would certainly be a better quality of life. So he decided to roll with the punches and take any chance he could for, well, anything.

Over the next few days he stayed in bed and took his medicine twice a day as the princess had instructed him to, and anytime the servant Gao Li came to change his bandages or bring him food, he inquired about the world. From this he learned everyone had a type of magic energy and that everybody was born with a different type of energy that sort of determined their paths in life if they sought to master this inherent power. Also, this energy could be improved, causing people to be at different levels depending on persistence, wealth, skill, or just inherent talent. These different levels each had nine intermediate levels, these levels being: Mortal, Foundation, Core, Nascent, and Immortal. No one has ever seen someone at the Immortal stage, but apparently there were levels that went even higher. Those who reached nascent were considered legendary and could overtake entire nations with their power, but all who had reached nascent stuck to isolated training and cultivation. Hearing this, Xiao Yuzhe naturally felt an attraction to it.

After about two weeks, Xiao Yuzhe was able to walk and started to take a stroll around the manor. The manor itself had about five buildings overall, excluding the servants quarters located just outside the manor. These five buildings were surrounded by a stone wall that had some for design and for the front gate. There were two buildings in the East, and they were the guest houses, the south one being the one Xiao Yuzhe was staying in. There were also two more buildings located on the west side; these were both libraries, one for weapon skills and the other for cultivation techniques. At the North there was a gate that led to the main road, which took you to one of the surrounding towns; at the South was the main building where the Princess would stay whenever she was away from the capital.

In the center of all of it was a courtyard that had four sections: one section that had a pond with koi and a bridge going over top so one could see them swimming around, another section that was a small garden with some pear trees and pomegranate trees, another section that had a platform raised about half a foot off the ground with a Xiangqi table, and the last part was a training yard with halberds, spears, swords, and bows. The last one naturally caught Xian Yuzhe's attention.

Xiao Yuzhe had asked a few of the servants if they knew when Princess Zhao Mei was coming back so he could talk with her, but the servants said they hadn't gotten any word of exactly when she would be returning but that they just knew it would be sometime within the next few weeks. Apparently she had gone to the capital after being called by her mother, the Imperial Consort.

A few days later, after he had healed some more, Guo Li told him that the princess had left some skill manuals in the library for him for when he was healed; Xiao Yuzhe excitedly ran over, looking like a little kid who was told he could have some candy. When he made it to the library, the servant who took care of the skill books explained that when choosing a skill, one needs to take into account that they should only master one specific weapon, upon which they can choose skills that build off of each other.

The princess left Xiao Yuzhe three specific manuals to choose from: the first was a sword skill, the second was a bow skill, and the third was a halberd skill. Xiao Yuzhe thought for a moment and then came to a conclusion. The sword skill would most likely be effective in close range but leave you weak at long range, while the bow would have the opposite problem of being effective at long range but weak at close range, and the halberd would give someone the best of both worlds with close range and reach. So Xiao Yuzhe took the decision of going with the halberd skill.

When he chose it, the servant told him that each skill book would have about five skills on average to master and that it would be best to learn each one at a time. After he left the skill library, Xiao Yuzhe looked at the name of the skill book; it was called 'Foundations of a Warlord.' The name was pretty serious and gave Xiao Yuzhe a burst of motivation, so he opened the skill book to the first skill and saw that it was called 'Falcon Strikes the Eagles Claw.'

The move instructed one to swing the halberd with one hand in a twirling motion above the head to build momentum for the strike as well as disorienting the enemy, then to slightly turn the halberd to strike your enemies ankles, leaving them out of the battle but not dead. Xiao Yuzhe started practicing the skill as much as he could every day, and due to the exciting nature of the practice, he soon found himself three weeks into training, going six hours a day. All of his wounds were fully healed, and he was just barely beginning to breach the smallest amount of true understanding of the skill.

After he was done training about halfway through the third week, he noticed that all the servants were in a rush. When he asked one of them what was going on, they told him that they had gotten word the princess was returning and was only about a day away from making it back to the manor. Xiao Yuzhe, being a fairly carefree individual, had no real worries as the servants were already getting everything prepared, so he went back to training, ate, and then slept through the night.

The next day he knew the princess would show up but decided the servants had it all handled and the princess would instruct him on what work he had to do when she returned, so he just went straight to training, ignoring all the commotion and choosing to solely focus on improving 'Falcon Strike the Eagles Claw.' While he was training, some of the nearby servants scoffed at him as they were both jealous that he was able to stay in the guest house and just eat food and train all day, as well as thinking he was just trying to be a show-off for when the princess arrived. In reality Xiao Yuzhe had no care for anything that didn't have to do with him, he was a fairly selfish person but did it in a way that didn't make him an actual problem for others it just made him annoying to be around when you tried to get his attention or divert him from a conversation or action.

While he was still training, the Third Princess had arrived back from the Capitol when she walked through the gate and was greeted by all the servants who stood in line on both sides of the gate, bowing to the princess as she walked by. All the servants noticed Xiao Yuzhe didn't show up and that he decided to ignore everyone and keep training; this made them aggravated, but in the presence of the princess and him being her guest, they could only bite their tongues and give each other glances. The Third Princess started looking around for where Xiao Yuzhe was at; all the servants gave a glance to the head servant, Guo Li. Guo Li stepped forward and said,

"Your Highness, if you're looking for that beggar you saved, he's over in the courtyard training with the skill book you gave him."

The servants all flared with rage in their eyes after hearing he was just a beggar and getting such treatment from the Princess of all people.

"How long has he been training? And when did he recover?" Zhao Mei had asked Guo Li.

Guo Li had answered promptly, "Your Highness, he was able to walk about three and a half weeks ago, and he's been training since. I think he fully recovered about a couple of weeks into his training."

Zhao Mei smiled after hearing this, "Good, bring me to him too."

Xiao Yuzhe was so focused on his training he didn't notice that anyone had been approaching. When Zhao Mei saw him, she called out to him, and he didn't answer. After she had called out about another two or three times, she grabbed a wooden switch that was hidden on one of the weapon racks. Xiao Yuzhe still hadn't noticed her until she had whacked him on his thigh, giving him a charley horse, which made him squeal like a girl.

After which he placed his halberd on his shoulder and kowtowed to the princess several times with some of the most sincere apologies the surrounding servants had ever seen. Most of the servants thought it served him right and had to cover their mouths to control their laughter.

Zhao Mei then told him to get cleaned up, and Guo Li will later guide him to the main house of the manor for a small feast and to answer the promised question from which he would get a thorough explanation. Xiao Yuzhe thanked her profusely, then set down the halberd onto the weapons rack and ran to the guest house to get ready.

As soon as he was done, Guo Li had arrived with a brand new set of clothes; these were really high-quality robes the same color as the princess with obvious differences. When Xiao Yuzhe asked Guo Li about it, she said the princess would explain later and wanted to give him something nice that he could also fight in. The response gave Xiao Yuzhe even more wonder for what the princess had planned.

Guo Li showed Xiao Yuzhe to the main hall where the princess was seated. When Xiao Yuzhe entered the hall, he bowed to the princess, and she bowed back respectfully and pointed to a seat near hers. Then servants came out with meat, vegetables, and wine. After both parties had eaten their fill of food and had a few cups of wine, Xiao Yuzhe praised the princess for her generosity with a toast.

After the food, the princess began to speak, "Before I left, I said I would tell you why I brought you here. As a member of the royal family, I must keep my promises. I brought you here even though you're a beggar for one sole purpose: I need a personal bodyguard due to trouble with the current state of the kingdom. Now my sister and I all made a bet to see who could find the most capable personal guard. My sisters naturally started looking for the most capable and talented warriors across the kingdom. I had a different philosophy, I thought to myself. In order to have the perfect guard, I would have to raise him myself. Now, obviously, I'm not going to raise a warrior from a child, but what I can do is find someone with no opportunities and almost no progress. That is why you're here."

"So you brought me here in order to win a bet and have a bodyguard?" Xiao Yuzhe said.

"Exactly, that's exactly why you're here. Naturally, you will be given all resources within my reach, the best weapons, the best skill and cultivation manuals, as well as the best teachers. The only catch is if I lose the bet, I take your life to pay off all the materials you made me waste on you." The princess said this sternly, and when she said this, her entire aura changed, and she stared Xiao Yuzhe down with a sense of prejudice.

Xiao Yuzhe's skin turned cold....

WRITERS NOTE:

I Will do my best to release a new chapter everyday, and I will try to keep it at a consistent length.