3 The tragic life of the unlucky
Li Changs father was the first to come back to his senses "WHAT did you just say"?
"It must have been the pill I concocted, that caused my cultivation to be capped". Li Chang sobbed and answered automatically.
"You mean to tell me that you ruined your own cultivation! Ruined your cultivation and destroyed our family's future just to play around at pill making", his father roared! "I have just requested to have your tutor arrested because he must have poisoned you. Now I find out that it was you yourself that caused all this!"
Li Chang was shocked but his father just continued shouting. "Do you know how much face you have lost for our family? All the connections we had you make and all the connections we have made for you! All the strings I pulled to secure your application to the capital's School of Alchemy; And everything I did to make sure you would be accepted on the first try! Do you even realize any of this? All the plans we had for your future and the future of the family are gone now?"
Li Changs father was becoming more and more irate. "Do you know how much money all this has cost? We are not merchants who can throw away money on a tutor and pills and connections like this! Everything is ruined now! We have even begun arranging a suitable marriage with a first rate family for you! How will you get married and have kids now? Who would even let their daughter marry you. Do you even realize how much face and prestige you have cost our family? Where will any of us be able to show our face in the capital now, with a waste of a son who ruined his own cultivation like some idiot!" His father screamed.
Immediately upon hearing all of this said aloud Li Changs mother fainted and hit the floor hard.
Li Changs father rushed to his wifes side; and casting one more horrible look toward Li Chang carried his wife out of the room while calling for a doctor.
Li Chang was completely frozen by now. He sat on his bed and didnt move at all after hearing this information. He was petrified and sat there as though he was a statue.
Li Chang had no idea how long he was in a daze. His mind was still processing everything that had happened this night.
There was so much he didn't know about his parents plans for him. And so much he hadent realized about the plans for his family's future. He was heart broken and for the first time in his life he began to dislike himself.
His family's plans, his own plans, all of it, gone.
The hope of his family, a great business man, the greatest alchemist of all time, what a joke it all seemed now. He was truly beginign to hate himself.
He regreted ever discovering that he had a special talent. He regreted making out it alive from that stupid mountain when he was younger. He wanted to have never lived.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" A horrible and terrifing scream split the air and pulled Li chang back to reality. "I have no son. I HAVE NO SON!" Li Chang could tell that it was his fathers voice, but he had never heard his voice sound like this before. it sounded broken and full of rage.
Li Chang heard powerful and furrious steps quickly marching towards his room. His father came into view and rushed straight towards him, roughly yanking Li Chang out of his bed.
"Ah. Father..." Li chang called out automatically when he was jerked to his feet. But his voice wsas quickly silenced by a powerful blow landing on the side of his face.
"I have no son." His father growled while holding Li Chang so close that he could feel his fathers breath on his face. Whith that his father forcefully pulled him out of his room and towards the front door.
Li Chang was violently thrown from his house and the door was tightly shut behind him.
He sat on the steps in front of his house the whole night without complaint.
Li Chang truly believed that he deserved his fathers rage for what he had done. He honestly didn't have any need to play around and make his own pills anymore. He had only done it for fun, on a whim, and now it just seemed foolish. Especially him testing a new pill himself, he knew better. He never could have imagined something like this would happen to him.
As the sun rose the next morning, Li Chang just sat there shivering. He had been thrown out of the house so quickly that he was still wearing only the thin clothes the doctors had put on him while he was passed out.
He still had no complaints. He knew he had messed up.
He sat there silently contemplating all he had done and how he could try to make up for this mistake. Li Chang had yet to come up with any answers but he new that he had to make it right. Somehow.
Suddenly, he heard the latches on the front door slide off and the door open. He saw his fathers figure stand in the doorway.
"Father, is mother alright" Li Chang quickly stood up an solemnly asked the most important question he had from his night spent thinking about what had happened.
His father steps froze as he was coming down the stairs of the house. He glared towards Li Chang and snorted. Humph "This family has no son. I have no son." His father coldly replied then continued walking forward.
After a moment his father halted his steps once again and not even bothering to look at Li Chang he said, "My wife miscarried last night. You killed your brother."
These words hung in the air and took the breath from Li Changs lungs. Then turning his head to the guards that were standing by the door his father added; "beat this un filial thing and remove it from my stairs. If it ever returns to this house you don't have to worry about being polite". And with that, the two guards nodded in agreement and his father left. The guards immediately moved and began to harshly beat Li Chang untill he fell unconscious.
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Li Chang awoke, cold and bloody in an alley. He had never seen this place before but he instinctively new that he was now in the slums of the capital.
It was dark and gloomy, the air around him had a rancid smell of mold, decay and human waste. He sat there for a while not bothering about the smell or atmosphere of his new environment. He was just thinking to himself over and over again "I killed my brother".
After sitting for who knows how long, he acknowledged that he was now completely alone in life. He felt that he only had himself blame.
"This is what i deserve" he thought to himself and began moving forward to accept his new life.
And that's what it was, a new life. A life that was completely different from the one he had known.
He had to become accustomed to being hungry. When he couldnt find food for a few days he learned how to beg.
He also got used to having no shelter from the wind, the rain or the cold. He was kicked out of the eves of any buildings where he sought shelter from the elements. He learned to make do with the nothing that he owned.
And this is how he grew up.
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The years passed by, and he fully addapted to this dirty, starving, miserable life. The life that he had brought upon himself.
He learned to have no pride and beg passers by for money and food. He learned the truth about the nobels in the capital. That nothing was as nice or as beautiful as he had thought it was.
He learned how cruel the powerful people in this world could be. The worst were the wealthy and powerful young scions from major clans.
The young scions in the capital had no regard for the weak at all. They genuinely believed they were superior to everyone. And they were. They would trample on people and abuse them for fun whenever they were bored and no one did anything about it. That is being superior.
Everything was much worse for Li Chang. Many of these youths knew him and also knew what had happened to him. They were people he knew and even the girl his father and picked for him to marry found delight in his misfortune. Everyone of them made it worse for him.
He had become a legend. A joke that people spread about a new noble family and the stupid young son who ruined himself, killed his brother and became a homeless waste.
As the years went by, the joke that he had become was a curse but also a blessing.
He never went too long without. He could always find the young scions of the capital whenever he was desperate for food or clothes. However the price that he had to pay, was terrible.
Because of his past and them knowing him, they would make everything unbearably hard on him.
They would throw a single coin into piles of s**t on the side of the road and have him dig it out with his hands. They would offer him a single coin for them to use him as a sand bag and hit him. They would strip him in the street and have him beg for nothing more than a small bit of food. His life was made up of nearly constant abuse and humiliation in order to survive.
It was miserable, but when he was desperate he would play along with them and smile while doing it. He would smile while doing the most degrading things they could think of. He did this in order to give them a laugh so he could get his coin and they would leave sooner.
He spent his time in gutters and alleys merely trying to survive day after day.
He truly knew how low he was. He truly knew that he had no friends or family. No one to turn to for help at all.
He spent his time with the lowest of the low. He lived on the streets learned from the worst kind of people, picking up all their habits. He learned all of their smart but fowl mouth ways; everything he could do to survive he did. He learned what to do to get a little more food and get beat up less.
And this is how Li Chang passed the next 10 years of his life until, surprisingly, things became worse.
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One day Li Chang bumped into a well dressed man on the street and was caught trying to pick his pocket. The man called his guards over to beat Li Chang and search him for anything that he might have stolen.
His guards pulled out 2 old and worn, badly damaged pills from within Li Changs robes and showed them to the gentleman. The wealthy man was greatly taken aback and looked closely at the pills the young man had. He looked closely and had a peculiar expression on his face. The man immediately regained control of himself and hid the pills away.
Seeing this Li Chang was surprised and decided that, even though those pills were prescious to him (as a reminder of what he had done wrong and that his life wasnt always like this) he would try to use the pills to escape punishment. He also wanted to trick this man who had him beat and was now stealing his keepsakes.
Li Chang looked at the wealthy gentalman and said, "sir those pills are wonderful for solidifying your cultivation. In fact with those pills you or one of your family members cultivation, will be more solid than anyone else's in the whole capital." Li Chang laughed inwardly, at least the last part was true.
The man only stared at Li Chang and Li Chang started to become nervous.
He would normally never say anything to people like this for fear of what they might do to him. He didnt really know where he got the courage from today but he was already regreting it. After all he had experienced it more than once and already knew his place.
The man sneered at Li Chang. "Boy, do you think I cant tell what this pill will do, hmmm?" He then turned to his guards and said, "Bring him away with us and dont be polite".
This man was an alchemist!!! Li Changs whole body trembled.
Immedeitly the guards moved and dragged Li Chang into the mans carriage. Once the man, his guards, and Li Chang were all inside, the carriage becan to move.
Li Chang was terrified and pretended to pass out. The man didnt care at all and placed his hand upon Li Changs head. All at once Li Changs mind became jumbled he could feel his thoughts shift and Immediately his fear reached new heights.
[Soul Search]
Li Chang could tell what was happening and quickly stopped trying to fight it. The higher ones cultivation and the more one tried to fight it the more damage would be done. So Li Chang just laid there trying to endure the intense pain.
"well, well. Good, good!" Hahahahah the man laughed loudly.
"I have a use for you Li Chang." He said and then ignored Li Chang who was curled up on the floor drooling and shivering in fear.
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The next stage of his life bagan.
It was worse, much worse than before. He lived in a small dark stone cell. He had no freedom and was fed only the worst rice and dirty water everyday. His cell was never cleaned and no matter the wheather outside he was given no blankets or anything else to protect him from the draft. The man told him it was his punishment for trying to trick him.
Li Chang didn't know who this man was or where he had taken him. All he could do was accept it. Accept it because he was weak.
Only strength and wealth mattered and Li Chang had neither.
Every day he was made to use his ability to review pill recipes and look at ingredients. The man used this information to creat new cheaper pills becoming an even more wealthy and renowned alchemist. His pill business became the best in the entire empire.
As for Li Chang the young man who was responsible for everything; He was left alone and cold in the dark cell and beaten severely if a new recipe didnt work. Or anything else at all happened for that matter.
For the next 10 years of his life, every day this was the norm.
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To be honest Li Chang didn't know how long it was. He only guessed that he must have been about 20 when the man caught him. It was difficult to say. He had no friends to share a birthday with and no one who would even ask him how old he was.
This was his life as a nobody living on the streets. 10 years here, 10 years there, it seemed about right to him.
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These next years passed slowly for Li Chang and he began to waste away. He considered ending his life many times after some of the more severe beatings. However, he didnt kill himself, he endured. He endured as a sort of pennance for murdering his brother and all the pain that he had caused his family.
He was dead to his father but he still cared deeply for his mother who doted on him when he did well as a child. He didn't know where any of them were now all he knew was that he was here, enduring his life.
After all with how lowly he was what right did he have to avoid punishment.
One day the mans daughter came down to Li Changs cage, to vent her anger after failing to concoct a high grade pill. She brought 2 of her fathers apprentices with her this time. To help.
The cage door swung open and Li Chang could just barely make out 3 figures in the dark. It didn't matter he could tell who it was and he could guess why she came. This kind of scene wasn't actually that unusual.
Smiling Li Chang got up and said "What can I do for you young miss?" "You gross, ugly hippopotamus".
The last bit of that was only mumbled inaudibly to himself. Though truthfully it was a fair description of her. Maybe not physically but her violent and disgusting personality definitely warranted such a comment. Of course Li Chang knew his place and wouldn't say something like this out loud.
Insults and sarcasm were bad habits he picked up on the street. And with his lack of friends or anyone else to talk to down there for that matter. He had gotten used to talking to himself like this. It kept him going.
The 2 apprentices quickly rushed in, stripped Li Chang and hung him upside down from a hook in the ceiling. Li Chang smiled and cooperated as much as possible. He wasn't a masochist, it was just that he didn't want to make things worse for himself. After all, this kind of scene wasn't that unusual.
Once he was securely bound the 3 of them began to savagely and mercilessly beat him.
After a while(once they had tired themselves out) they cut him down from the ceiling and left him in his cell. Solidly locking the door of the cell as they left.
"Is that necessary" Li Chang mumbled to himself before embracing the familiar silence around him.
Li Chang merely laid there, feeling the pain radiating throughout his whole body.
He could only feel sorry for himself from time to time because there was nothing he could do about his situation. After all, he only had a cultivation level of peak 6th tier qi gathering realm.
Right now, he only regretted that he was so used to pain, he could no longer pass out from it.
He uncomfortably laid there, lonely and in the dark. He began to remember all about his life and his past. He wished that there was any way that he could start over. He rarely had thoughts like this but today he truly wished that he could some how start over.
Start over again and happily live with his family. Even if he never achieved anything too great in his life, he just wanted a chance. A chance to fulfill his and his family's dreams. A chance to see his mother and sisters again. A chance to have a brother.
Li Chang felt the room tilt and shift then with the sound of rushing air he felt a jolt through his whole body.
"What now", He thought to himself and slowly opened his eyes.
The bright light terribly hurt his eyes.
"Wait, light? What light?" Li Chang was completely shocked and didn't know what to think.
With his eyes squinted and he looked around the room taking in an unimaginable sight.
"Well, this is new" He thought to himself.
