1 Zheng Yi

A cool breeze swept down the empty road as a worn down car traversed the dirty path up a large mountain. Although worn and old, one could tell the car was of a luxurious model and make. Its large structure and the visible truth that it was indeed levitating off of the ground held true to the fact that it was a hover car.

Just barely visible inside of its rear window sat a young looking man, at most 30 in his appearance, with an expressive square jaw, large, muscular frame, heroic looks and a large expressive forelock of white hair. Most ordinary evildoers would be scared witless in fighting a man such as Zheng Yi, but...

... Sadly this wasn't at all the case for our protagonist. Throughout this world, one out of every four people would be born with a power known as a quanli. These powers ranged anywhere from telekinesis, and shooting lasers out of one's hands, to flying and running faster than the speed of sound. Of course, people weren't just born outright with massively destructive capabilities, they had to cultivate them all the way from childhood into adulthood. Each quanli corresponded with a certain set of - or single - elemental essence of the world, which the quanli cultivators used... well... to "cultivate".

And as you might have also guessed, some people, be it from a grudge with some other person, being, or society itself, even simple greed, may use their powers for destructive means against others. They are known as villains. Though most have harmless quanli, there are quite a few who have notable power.

Yet villains are not the only threat organized society faces in this massive world, there are also dangerous and sometimes massive beasts that wander from the great forests, vast oceans, open voids and endless depths of the world. These beasts and monsters are frightening existences to behold, trampling on human cities; built with centuries of advanced technology with relative ease. Using human blood to satiate their cultivations instead of other beasts.

With all of these issues stacked up against humanity, one may wonder what could possibly keep civilization afloat? The answer would be those who oppose monsters and Villains together, and with indomitable hope, face the vast threats from beyond; Heroes.

Under the Guild of Heroes, an impossible to count the quantity of cultivators of all quanli types band together to face the problems presented by the world's foes, schools are set up by the Guild across the world to train aspiring heroes...

one of such schools... Zheng Yi is headed towards this instant.

.....

Zheng Yi could never have seen this coming. Just one year ago he had left his family estate, or rather... was kicked out...

Because he was born without a quanli...

His family had given him a chance for "redemption" - in traversing the vast distance to the neighboring Gu Empire to, well... kill people and commit heinous deeds; as was the repertoire of villains these days, yet the idea never held a good stance in Zheng Yi's mind.

Heck, His name could literally be interpreted as 'justice', not 'controversy' as he would have expected his villainous family to schemingly name him... When he asked his father, it was said that his mother had given him the name as a half a joke before disappearing afterward, he couldn't get any further information other than that, especially under those disdainful and pitying eyes.

But back to the main point, Zheng Yi was indeed kicked from the residence, and thus wandered the long road to the Gu Empire for a little way over a month. Thanks to his profoundly heroic looks he was not bothered by many, possible thugs seemed to fear the probability he had the power to back up his appearance! And for that, at least, he was thankful.

Yet one day, on a stretch of woodland (not even a fraction of the journey complete), whilst tagging along with a caravan transport, Zheng Yi was napping peacefully in his seat, when abrupt screams were heard from the front of the caravan, and a few shadows flitted out from the woods, blocking the tracks. They didn't look human.

Monsters!!!

"Help! Guards! Where are the caravan guards?" He could hear people at the front screaming. They began to panic, causing more and more tension to rise in the atmosphere, Zheng Yi himself began looking around to see if he could spot something to help out.

He saw a group of grey armored men sneaking off behind them, running away...

'The fuck?! Where are you going?!'

Zheng Yi was not the only one to catch on to the guards strange action, and soon people began to yell for the guards' attention while the monster shadows in front slowly advanced.

"Hey! You bastards! You're supposed to be guards! Where are you going?! Aren't you being a little too cowardly?!"

One of the grey armored men turned around and shouted angrily at the passengers who were still huddled together for protection.

"You idiots! Do you not have eyes? Those are green-armed mummies! 3-Star, C-Rank Monsters! They must have escaped from a nearby ruin or something!!!"

His eyes turned bloodshot, "We're only public transportation guards! We can't handle monsters!! Heroes are supposed to do that! This trip is just all of your bad luck! ", The guard quickly continued to turn around and continued running.

"You all better scatter and run too!"

The passengers were stunned into silence by the guard's shamelessness.

'At least come help save the women and children!' Many of them fumed in their hearts, including Zheng Yi.

The lurking shadows in the front couldn't seem to wait either and slowly revealed themselves. The crowd's face paled when they saw the freakishly wrapped and deformed beings oddly in the semblance of a hunched over human, yet wrapped in ghastly white linen, but their arms were another story.

The white bandage gave way to rotting green flesh, which seemed to pulsate with veins and warts, making quite a few of the audience belch out vomit. The figures were terrifying to behold. Their yellow eyes shone from behind slits in the wrapping darting left and right wildly, before setting on the crowd.

'So these are monsters...' Zheng Yi's mind blanked for a moment in fear.

The passengers also subconsciously backed away, faces drained of all color, some children began to cry alongside their adult compatriots. This only served to make the mummies stubble along quicker from their distance of a few dozen meters, they rapidly approached.

"Everyone!" A voice from amidst the crowd jolted them from their daze. They turned to see a young man, in a strange costume. A weird plastic white draped over his entire body, and a yellow mask designed to look like flames.

...

'Who is this perverted weirdo and how did he sneak into our midst?!' The crowd again subconsciously stepped backward, regardless of the monsters.

Zheng Yi saw a mother try and cover her child's eyes. The 'perverted weirdo' noticed this and almost stumbled. He shouted loudly.

"My name is Flame Fist! I'm a C-Rank hero! Everyone please evacuate while I handle the situation!"

"A Hero?!" Both the crowd and Zheng Yi were shocked by his words, scanning the costumed man up and down.

'There was a hero here this whole time?'