1 - Su Tao

It was morning in a small house. On a small bed lay a small boy. This boy was about fourteen years old and looked extremely young and weak even among fourteen year-olds.

As the birds started chirping signifying the start of the morning, the young boy opened his eyes. He had deep blue eyes which seemed to contain an ocean, but at the same time contained an indescribable sadness and defeat.

With a sad sigh, he slowly got out of his bed and went over to his clothes which had been lied out by his mother.

They were not poor or mistreated, but those above them in strength always bullied them and forced them into depression and defeat.

There seemed to be no way out of it, so they eventually just got used to the oppression and dealt with it, hoping that some miracle would happen in the future and pull them out of this bad situation.

His mother loved him dearly, and she was the only family that he had.

At one point he had had a father, but the father had left him when he was only two years old. As such, he did not remember anything about him and did not care that much.

What affected him deeply was the death of his older sister. He truly loved his sister and she had cared for him more than even his mother. Ever since he was a kid, his sister had been there for him even in the toughest situations.

Sadly, two months ago, she had been killed by the young master of the city after she refused to be his concubine. His sister was extremely beautiful and was chased after by many, but they were all rejected by her as she was content simply taking care of her mother and brother.

When the young master had tried to get her, she had tried to escape from him and ended up being caught. Because of her actions, the young master raped her several times and then chained her up in a dungeon until she died of starvation.

The young master had done this to several people other than the boy's sister, and it was well known that if you refused or ran away, then you would be found, caught, raped, and starved to death in a dungeon.

In the worst cases, the discarded women were sometimes even thrown to the criminals in the dungeon, who would rape them to death and continue to defile the body even after it was dead.

To the young master, beautiful young women were nothing more than sex toys and objects that were replaceable and had no value. Everyone in the city despised the young master, but because his father was the strongest person in the city, no one could speak out against it, and those who did have the courage to speak out against it were all brutally murdered.

After his sister's death, the last ray of sunshine in his life was extinguished, leaving him depressed and sad. But no matter how sad he was, he had to get up every day, and he had to continue on the life that he was given.

His sister had taught him that. Never give up, and eventually something good will happen. He had not given up yet, but nothing good had happened, and he was starting to wonder if nothing would ever change, if nothing would ever get better.

What then? Would he grow old being bullied by those around him? Would he live his whole life alone and never find anything better? Would he be killed by those who he wished to rise above?

He could not help his uncertainty, but he knew that for now, he would push on. For now he would not give up. For now he chose to believe his sister's favorite words. He chose to believe the words which had been said to him every time that life got rough. For now... But not forever.

He knew that he could go on like this for a while, but without the support pillar that his sister was, he did not know how long he could go on. But for now, he just put this thought aside and got dressed.

He was a young boy at the age of fourteen, and he was extremely thin because of his lack of activity after his sister died.

He had been depressed and sad to the point that it affected him physically, further deteriorating his body. On top of already being extremely small for his age, he would now have a malnourished body and was extremely thin.

However, he could be said to be handsome if he was not so thin.

He had beautiful blue eyes and jet black hair cut short. The robes which he put on were a silvery blue in color, and although they were not of high quality, they were not of low quality either. On the front of them was a small patch with a small silver sparrow silhouette on it. Below the sparrow was a single bronze star representing his rank.

A single bronze star was the lowest rank above commoners, and it was not at all powerful in the city.

The city was called the city of silver sparrow, famous for its silver sparrow guard, which were all extremely powerful with three silver stars each. They were the city's last line of defense and had always been the trump card of the city of silver sparrow. The silver sparrow guard was made up of five members and all of them had strength only below the city master, who was the strongest person in the city.

The city master was the only one in the city to be ranked at one gold star. In total, there were three bronze stars, three silver stars, and three gold stars. Those at the three star gold ranked warrior level were known to be invincible and they were not someone that anyone could kill.

Each star represented a rank of the martial arts path. It was widely known that there were nine ranks of the martial arts path, and each rank would have a dramatic difference in strength.

There was an even bigger difference between every three levels, which would change the way one was referred to.

The first three ranks were referred to as bronze rank warriors, and the majority of the population was in this range.

The fourth to sixth ranks were called silver rank warriors, and they were made up by only a few. Only one in ten could reach the silver rank.

As for those at the seventh to ninth ranks, they were called the gold rank warriors, and they stood at the top of this world. Any one gold rank warrior had the strength to topple a city on his own and would be able to roam around freely without any worries.

It was because of this absolute strength that no one dared to offend the city master or his son.

The city master was not evil or bad. On the contrary, he was extremely kind to people and reasonable and respectful even when he didn't need to be. He was generally liked in the city and people only feared him due to his strength that was enough to kill them with a flick of his fingers.

However, he let his son do as he pleased because he knew that there was nothing he could do to fix the twisted boy.

He was, after all, his son, so he did have to help him out when he offended someone, and when someone offended his son, he had to call out punishment, but that punishment usually ended up being changed by the son to something extremely cruel and severe because no one dared to stand against him.

By the time the city master usually found out about it, the cruel punishment was already carried out, and he would punish his son, but it did nothing to discourage his horrible actions. Such was the case with the son raping women and starving them to death like he had done with the boy's sister.

Other than the young master, the city master also had an older daughter who had a much better integrity and character than the son. She was generally liked and approved of by those in the city. She was next in line to be the city master, and everyone was thankful that the young master would not ever be the city master.

Being only at the first rank of the martial path and only the weakest of bronze rank warriors, he could do absolutely nothing to resist the young master of the city and could only obey him should he ask for something. However, he was of such a low position that the young master would not pick on him and only tried to get his sister since she was a rare and striking beauty.

As he walked out of his room, the boy heard his mother's voice.

"Su Tao, I made breakfast. Come eat."

The boy's name was Su Tao, and he went up to the table and ate.

As he did so, his mother had already gone to work for the day. Although they were of higher positions than commoners in the city, they still had to work at the bottom of the chain and were only ranked higher than slaves.

His mother had only reached the second rank of the martial path, also known as a two star bronze rank warrior. She was only slightly stronger than he was, meaning that he was more talented than she was, although be it not by a lot.

The average youths at his age had already reached the second rank of the martial arts path and had become two star bronze warriors, meaning that in comparison to the normal, he was a far shot from even having a normal talent level, let alone being a genius.

And being a normal talent, this gave all those above him in talent or strength reason to look down on him and make fun of him.

At many times, even those at the same rank would make fun of him and challenge him, only to have him lose miserably.

The first three ranks of the martial path were dedicated to strengthening the body. Because his body had deteriorated so much after his sister's death, he was now at the bottom of the bottom, and there was nothing that he could do about it but try to keep his head up. Only by keeping his head up would he be able to get any stronger and survive.

After he finished his meal, Su Tao got up.

He was a part of the Su family. They were one of the eight small families in the city of silver sparrow.

The city was made up of two big families and eight small families. However, even among those in the small families, he was one of the weakest there.

Being a disciple of the Su family, he was not required to have a job, and he got a monthly sum of money from the family. Once one exceeded the age of thirty, they would no longer be considered a disciple and would instead be a member of the family and would contribute by having jobs and do tasks within the family.

Being fourteen years old, Su Tao was considered a disciple even as weak and untalented as he may be. As such, he did not have to work a job and instead was allowed to train in peace. His mother worked a job but he had no idea what it was.

She provided the house for them both, and Su Tao lived off the money given to him by the family every month. They were not poor, but they were weak. As such, they only were able to afford an average lifestyle of having a house and food, but there was not much else that they had.

If one was strong enough, they did not even need to pay for a house or food, and they would live an extravagant lifestyle for free.

One such example was the city master.

Being the only one star gold rank in the city, he was able to live without any worries and no one would dare to make him pay for anything unless its value was enough to even make a gold rank pay.

Of course, since he was extremely reasonable, he would still pay the value of the items that he needed, but people like the young master would take full advantage of the fact that his father was strong and would force others to give him valuable resources for free and refused to give them any sort of pay.

However, since he was not actually as strong as his father, he usually ended up having to pay for items that were helpful to higher ranks like those at the second star of the silver rank. After all, one could not be too overbearing for things that belonged to those stronger than you.

The young master was now fifteen years old and he was a second star bronze ranked warrior, showing that he was not very talented at all. And compared to his sister, he was trash.

His older sister was sixteen years old, but she was already at the first star of the silver rank and nearing a breakthrough to the second star. She was the city's pride because even her father the city master was not as talented as she was.

Every breakthrough took ten times more effort and time than the last, and most that reached the third star bronze ranked warrior would stop there for the rest of their lives, and very few were able to break through to the silver ranked warrior level.

Not only had she broken through to the silver ranked warrior level, she had also reached it at the age of fifteen and a half.

It should be known that the average age of those first star silver ranked warriors was about thirty to forty years old.

Even the silver sparrow guard were all in their seventies to eighties while being super geniuses in the city.

When one broke through, they would have an increase in lifespan. Those who reached the silver rank were able to live for ten years longer, and those that reached the gold rank were able to live for one hundred years longer. The current city master had broken through to the gold rank thirty years ago and he was now one hundred three years old.

Going outside the house, Su Tao decided to train.

This would be the first time that he would train since his sister died.

He went to a nearby area that was available to all bronze ranked warriors. Once he went inside, he saw several others his age as well as some older people, but all of them were under the age of thirty and all of them were disciples of the Su family.

Seeing Su Tao walk in, none of them did anything, but they all shot disdainful glances at him.

Fighting was forbidden in the training area unless it was a formal challenge or a spar in the fighting arena of the training area. Those disciples had tried to challenge him before, but every time, they were completely rejected by him showing that he would never give them any chance to pick on him this way.

The training ground was specifically made for those disciples to train their bodies. Part of cultivation was absorbing qi, but the most important part for the bronze rank warriors was to strengthen their bodies.

In this way, they would have a solid foundation for the later ranks of the martial arts path.

Only when one reached the fourth rank of the martial arts path and became a silver rank warrior would they condense inner energy.

This energy was intangible and had the ability to make one's attacks many times stronger. Through this, one could also be able to give off an aura around their attacks which was of a certain element such as fire or ice.

Through this aura, the power of the attack would once again be increased.

When one reached the seventh rank of the martial path, one would condense inner breath, which was an intangible substance like inner energy, but it had the ability to jump out of the cultivator's body and imbue into their weapons as well as attack in the air up to a few feet away.

As Su Tao walked further into the training area, he directly went over to a weird pillar in the middle of the grounds.

There were many of these pillars and all of them were set up into rows. Only one person was at each pillar, and they were all punching it and kicking it as hard as they could. This was to build up muscle and make them stronger.

Once one was strong enough, they could use Qi to break through to the next rank.

Qi was the energy that existed in the heaven and earth, and it was used to cultivate with. Once one broke through to the next rank with the help of Qi, even if their muscles deteriorated to the level that Su Tao's had, then they would still be stronger than the average person one rank lower than them.

It was like no matter how weak one was as a one star bronze rank warrior, like Su Tao, they were still stronger than the average commoner even if the commoners had trained their bodies.

As Su Tao came up to the pillar, he wasted no time and punched it as hard as he possibly could. However, his muscles had deteriorated to the point that even his strongest hit was still not very strong.

So even though his form was nearly perfect, his hit was extremely weak and did not do anything at all to the pillar.

However, he did not give up and hit it again with his other arm. He hit it again and again and again so many times that his arms got extremely sore.

But every time his arms got sore, he imagined one thing; him punching the young master's face instead of this pillar. Punching the face of the one who killed his sister, the one he loved most in this life.

Very quickly six hours passed by. This was the first time since his sister died that Su Tao had trained, and he made sure to train harder than ever before. Only by doing this would he be able to get stronger and live up to his sister's expectations of him.

His entire body was utterly exhausted and he felt like he could pass out at any minute. But he pushed on and brought himself home. When he got home, he made himself some lunch and rested on his bed for an hour. When he got up again, he went back to the training area again and trained for another four hours.

When he was done, he was totally soaked in sweat and his entire body was aching. It felt as if his blood was on fire and his muscles were being torn.

But he pushed through it every step of the way. He knew that it would not be easy. He knew that it would be painful. But he still pushed through it, showing his determination to avenge his sister. He pushed on with the thought of killing the one who killed her.

He trained much more and much harder than any other disciple there. All those that watched him train thought that he had lost his mind, so they did not bother him.

When he got home, he was met by his mother sitting at the table with food. When she saw him walk in the door soaked in sweat, she was happy. She knew that he had finally started training again. "Come eat," She said as she smiled at him.

"And then go take a bath! You're all soaked in sweat!" she joked.

After eating, Su Tao took a bath like his mother had said to, then he went to bed.

As he fell into his bed, it felt better than it ever had before. It felt as if he was lying on a cloud of air that enveloped him with warm light. All his tension melted away like ice in a glass of water.

He fell asleep with one thought in his mind: 'No amount of pain will stop me. I won't give up. I will kill the young master or die trying.'

With this, he fell asleep, ending the day.