When I was reading the translations of Xianxia novels like Coiling Dragon, Douluo Dalu, Stellar Transformations, and others, I felt inspired to write something similar. My fanfic will probably be based mostly off of IET's Xianxia universe. However, it will incorporate elements from other novels, as well as my own elements. Like the aforementioned novels, my fanfic will be starting from the beginning of my protagonist's life, so it might start slowly, but I will do my best to keep it interesting. I am open to suggestions on how to improve my writing and develop my story, so please don't hold back. I'm not sure how long my chapters will be, but if you think they should be longer or shorter, please tell me.
I hope you enjoy it.
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Chapter 1: Demon Child
A blood-red river flowed swiftly towards a waterfall that dumped endless pieces of human bodies into a giant lake.
The stench of decaying bodies and blood filled the air.
Upstream, there was a large plain. Above the plain hung a red mist of blood. On the plain lay countless dead bodies. In the center of the battlefield, there stood a single living human. His face and clothes were covered in blood, akin to a God of Battle.
He removed a sword from the chest of one of the fallen warriors, and placed it a sheath at his side. Despite having been taken directly out of the heart of a human, the sword had no blood on it's blade. It was half white and half black.
The blade's master looked into the sunset that had dyed the sky a multitude of colors: pink, purple, orange, and yellow. It was a breathtaking sight.
Suddenly, the man disappeared from the plain.
***
Decades passed. That day became known as Demon's Day, and on each anniversary of that day, the doors of homes in the Bai and Lu clans were closed, not to be opened again until the sunrise of the next day. Children born on the anniversary of Demon's Day were considered to have the worst luck, and were often abandoned by their parents.
Before that day no person could have thought what happened possible. A single man had slaughtered all of the 50,000 elite soldiers from both the Bai and Lu clans. The Lu clan was considered to be the most mortal powerful clan on the whole Peng continent and was the ruling clan of the Yanse empire. They were fighting the Bai clan, who had started a rebellion against their rule. It could be said that both clans had the strength to challenge the greatest experts on the continent, who were powerful enough that normal people thought of them as gods. However, a practitioner that had enough power to completely obliterate the clan had appeared. He was by far the most powerful person on the continent, but as soon as the battle ended he had disappeared, giving no indication of his identity.
***
In a distant corner in the far west area of the Peng Continent there was a small cottage. This part of the continent was inhabited by ferocious magical beasts, so humans rarely approached the area. Only the most powerful dared to go anywhere close to the area.
Within the cottage there were two people. One was a woman of peerless beauty, and the other was a small newborn. A shadow approached the cottage. The shadow landed in front of the door, and a man walked in to a cottage.
The man carried, in one hand, a large lion with many sword slashes, and in the other, a bloodless sword.
The woman looked towards him with hopeful eyes, but the man shook his head.
"I wasn't able to remove the curse. I only have a few days to live. Our son will have take his own path."
The woman's eyes began to tear, and if sensing his parents sadness, the child began to cry. The man picked up his child, rocking him back and forth in his arms. The family seemed peaceful. However, the peace was broken by a loud roar that seemed to shake the entire world. The man look to his wife and said,
"You cannot stay here any longer. It won't be safe. Go live in one of the mortal empires. Hide your power and your relationship to me, even from our son. If anyone found out that the Demon had a child, the Bai and Lu clans would not allow it to live."
"Don't call yourself that. You are not a Demon, you are my husband and my child father."
The couple left the cottage, the man still holding his child. A lion ten times bigger than the one the man had carried into the house appeared, stepping on and flattening the cottage in which they had been just seconds before. The two looked towards it calmly. The woman disappeared, reappearing in the same place less than a second later. Only now, she held the head of the lion in her hand. Blood poured down, but before it could reach the couple, they had disappeared.
***
In a small, unassuming villiage in the Yanse Empire, the same woman now lived with her small son. He had black hair and piercing green eyes. The strange made him seem to be looking into one's soul.
The ruling clan of the Yanse Empire was now the Huang clan, who had taken advantage of Demon's Day to seize power for themselves. However, the Yanse empire was no longer the largest or most powerful on the continent. The woman had named her son Zhi. He was now three years old, and had become the leader amongst his friend in the village. As soon as he had been able to walk, he had gathered all the children around his age, and had begun to cause endless troubles for the adults in the village. He had no idea who his father was. All he know about his father was that he had been a practitioner.
"Mom, I'm back." Zhi arrived in an alley, covered in dirt and scratches, but with a huge smile on his face.
His mother smiled at him, and said,
"I wish you would play more carefully Zhi. Next time, can't you try to avoid getting hurt."
She had told him this many times, but Zhi never changed.
His mother was looked down upon by the other villagers because, despite her great beauty, she was very poor, and the two lived in an alley in the village as beggars.
He continued to be a troublemaker, and he was often dragged home to his mother by the adult in the village, telling her to control her son. As punishment, his mother made him do harsh body training exercises. Each time, she would say how disappointed she was by him, but when the adults left, she would add,
"Now you must train your body so that next time, you don't get caught."
Once he became 5 years old, he was eligible to receive formal training from the village chief. Once he started receiving this training, his mischief making stopped entirely, as he started training all day. The way he saw it was that his mother was weak and poor, and that he needed to grow strong to support her when he grew older. Although he was only five, he was wise beyond his years. He was already thinking about his future. A strong practitioner could make as much money as a powerful merchant. He had been told that he was talented by the village chief, and his goal was to join one of the top practitioner schools on the continent. The only problem was that he didn't have enough money to go to the recruitment exam for practitioner schools in the main capital of the Yanse Empire. The village was nearly 50 kilometers away, so he would need to take a carriage. However carriages cost money, the exam cost money, and, most importantly, the top schools cost great amounts of money. Therefore, Zhi trained hard everyday so that he could get a scholarship when he was eight, old enough to take the tests. He quickly surpassed the other children his age, and could match people twice his age in combat practice. Three years passed in this manner.
When he woke up on his eighth birthday, he was greeted by his mother. The two had a celebration, and when they were done, Zhi's mother gave him a gift.
"Zhi, i know your desire is to go into the capital and take the exams for the practitioner schools. I have been able save enough money for you trip to the capital, but I cannot pay neither your exam fee, nor your tuition. You will have to figure out some way to get those for yourself. I am sorry I am so poor."
Zhi realized the hardship his mother had to have put herself through to save the money for his travel.
"Thank you, mother. You do not have to be sorry for anything."
She handed him a sword.
"This is all I can give you for your self-protection. It is a memento from your father. Please keep it with you at all times. I will stay here and await your return."
Zhi could see tears in his mother's eyes. He knew his mother had loved his father very much. He took the sword from her hands, and hugged her. Wordlessly, she hugged him back, kissing him on the forehead. Then, Zhi left to get a carriage.
As Zhi was leaving the village, the chief came up to the carriage to speak with him.
"You are going to take the exams?"
"Yes. My mother gave me money to get to the capital."
"Do you have money for the exam fee?"
"No. I plan on working in the city until the next exam to save money."
"Good luck. The capital is not a utopia. Remember to make sure you don't get taken advantage of."
"Thank you."
The chief waited until the carriage holding the young boy disappeared.
"It's really too bad his mother is so poor. He is truly extremely talented. If he goes to one of the great schools, I am sure his name could ring throughout the Peng continent. If his mother were a resident here, then this village would become famous and prosper."
Zhi's carriage rolled down the small road leading out of the village, and onto one of the main roads into the capital. As the carriage moved along, Zhi began to inspect the sword he had received from his mother. The sheath was plain. The hilt of the blade was pure black. Zhi felt the weight of the sheathed sword in his hands. The weight felt perfect for Zhi's strength.
'Unless father never reached a level above what I have reached when I am only eight, this blade has some kind of magic imbued in it to make it fit it's holder's strength,' though Zhi.
He slowly unsheathed the blade. The blade was half black and half white, and the blade seemed as though it could cut through anything. It looked devilish in the low light of the carriage. The tip came out of the sheath, and a glint of light reflected into Zhi's eyes. Suddenly, Zhi was overcome with a wave of bloodthirstiness. His mind blanked out, and his arm raised the blade without his consent. The blade was controlling him.
When Zhi awoke, he was still in the carriage, but the blade was not sticking through the front, into the area on which the driver sat. The carriage wasn't moving. Zhi quickly pulled the sword out of the wooden divide. There was no blood on the blade, which made Zhi relieved. However, the carriage was still not moving. Zhi called out to the driver.
"Excuse me, why have we stopped?"
There was no response. Zhi began to get shivers. Gripping the sword with all his strength, he stepped out of the carriage. It had veered off of the main path, rolling into a forest on one side of it. The driver was staring blankly ahead. The horses that had been tied tot he carriage were gone. Zhi walked up to the driver, and felt the man's neck for a pulse. He didn't have one. Zhi walked back up towards the main road with a blank look on his face. All he could think was that he had just killed someone. He became scared, not only of the blade in his hands, but also of himself. He began to hallucinate. The dead driver was coming back to life. He pointed an accusatory finger at Zhi.
"You killed me. Demon."
Zhi screamed and began running, but he tripped over his feet. Suddenly, the forest became alive. The trees, the grass, the birds all looked towards the boy. They began chanting.
"Demon. Demon. Demon."
Zhi was scared out of his wits, and stumbling forward, ran towards the main road.
Zhi made it up to the edge of the main road barely holding onto his sanity, and, woken by the sudden noise, blinked. He began to think rationally.
He began to walk down the road towards the capital. He began to come to terms with what happened. He realized that the driver had just been one life among billions, that the man's death was, in fact, advantageous to him. He no longer had to pay the man for the transport fee. However, he was still about a day away from the capital by foot.
'No one has stopped, so it doesn't seem as if anyone noticed. I should probably not notify anyone about what happened. If I go to jail, who will support mother?'
Zhi walked on the side of the road until sunset, and when it became dark, he stopped to sleep. As the child of a beggar, he was used to having very little food, so although he felt hungry, he could still endure.
Two days later, Zhi finally arrived in the city, dirty and bloody. Although he had originally only been one day from the capital, he had met trouble. Magical beasts had seen the small boy, and though of him as an easy meal. Each time a beast attacked, Zhi would remove the sword from it's sheath. He would blank out, and when he awoke, the magical beast would be dead. However, what he thought was the strangest thing was that the blade never got any blood on it. Zhi had deliberately dripped blood on it, yet as soon as the blood got near the blade, the blood would disappear.
Despite having killed many magical beasts, Zhi had not eaten anything since leaving his village.
Once in the capital, Zhi went straight to the nearest street vendor and bought food. After gorging himself on shish kebabs, Zhi asked the vendor when the next practitioners exam was.
"You're just in time, there's one tomorrow. If you go up the road over there, you should see a sign for it. Good luck."
Zhi thanked the man, and set off in the direction he had been pointed in. He soon saw the sign the man had spoken of, and saw that he truly had been lucky, the applicants had to report themselves in just a few hours.
Zhi quickly ran to the application desk.
"I would like to apply for the test."
Seeing this boy covered in blood and dirt, the desk manager was surprised. Normally, the applicants were rich, and even for the poor applicants, their parent usually saved up a lot of money so that their children would be presentable on exam day.
"Are you sure you have enough money?"
Zhi handed all of the money his mother had given to him over to the desk manager. The desk manager looked at the money, took what was needed for the application, and handed the rest back to the boy.
"Fill out this sheet."
Zhi took the sheet from the man, but then stopped.
"Excuse me sir, I don't have anything to write with."
"Oh. Here, take my pen."
Zhi began filling out the form. It started by asking for his name and the names of his immediate family. Zhi didn't know his father's name, but he filled in his mother's name. His mother, like Zhi, had only one name. She was called Feng. The rest of the form asked asked for his home village, his age, and things like that. Once he turned in the form, the manager handed him a badge.
"This is proof of your application. Don't lose it, or you won't be able to take the exam tomorrow. Why don't you go to a tavern, have a good meal and a bath before the exam tomorrow? There is a tavern that is made especially for the exam applicants, and applicants get a 50% discount. It's mostly funded by the practitioner schools. It's called The Flying Eagle." Zhi smiled and thanked the manager. He walked back to the vendor, and bought some more food.
"Do you know where The Flying Eagle is?" asked Zhi.
The vendor pointed Zhi in the direction of the tavern, and Zhi once again thanked him for the directions.
Once he arrived at The Flying Eagle tavern, Zhi walked in, and showed the money to the clerk.
"Will this be enough for one night? I am taking the exam tomorrow."
"Sure, it's enough. Do you have the badge to prove your identity." Zhi flashed his badge, and the clerk gave him a room key.
"You can get supper tonight and breakfast tomorrow morning. I hope you enjoy your stay."
Zhi had already eaten, but he wasn't one to pass up food. He went to eat supper. However, once he reached the dining area, he began to feel extremely out of place. All the other children were with their parents and were wearing acceptable clothing. He was alone and in torn rags. When he walked in, all the eyes in the room swiveled towards him. He did his best to ignore them, but they all followed him with their eyes. He remembered that moment in the forest, and felt as though he was about to throw up. He suddenly raced out of the dining hall and into his room. He buried himself in the bed, and fell into a fitful sleep.