1 New Mulberry City

The vicious night enveloped the sky, further placing a shadow on New Mulberry City. An indistinguishable merchant city in the once majestic Xia Empire. At its peak, the Xia Empire controlled millions of lives, but now it was a former shadow of its glory.

In this little city lived hundreds of thousands of citizens, some good and some evil. In a dark alley within an abandoned area of the city, lay an injured beggar's body. He looked as if he was middle-aged when in reality he was barely older than a boy. Malnutrition had ravaged his body, leaving him as more of a skeletal figure than a child.

The boy's name was Lin Xun and although he had every right to hate the world, to blame his misfortune on the world's cruelty, he didn't. Born as an orphan with his only possession being a cracked gourd, the only paternal care Lin Xun had ever experienced was from an aged gravedigger who died just as quickly as he has been exposed to Lin Xun. Leaving him alone yet again.

'Hmm… This looks like a pretty great day.'

The morning sunshine glistened on Lin Xun's body, giving him a form of love and nourishment he had never received from any conscious being.

As Lin Xun commenced his morning stroll, hoping to get a piece of stale bread from a food bank to clench his relentless hunger, he came upon a troubling scene. In a stained and reeking corner, 3 older boys were beating another child to his last breath.

Lin Xun, being the empathetic soul he was, approached the crowd. "Friends, why don't you just leave him alone, if you don't he might just leave this world."

The leader of the crowd turned to Lin Xun. An expression of disgust surged onto his face and he spat on to Lin Xun's direction, ignoring him once more. As Lin Xun got a better view of the beaten boy he was shocked to the brim, the boy was Shang Yuan.

An infamous figure in the city, Shang Yuan was the only surviving member of the once influential Shang Clan. Of course, the key term to note here is "once", as the Shang Clan has been annihilated by a legendary immortal.

New Mulberry City couldn't be considered of any note in the entire Xia Empire, just another city inside another region, but it had stolen the whole empire's attention when a legendary figure of myth had appeared in it. An immortal, a being that before only ignorant children and illusioned elders believed in, an existence shrouded purely in mystery. One may think that these mythical beings would not distract themselves with matters dealing with mere mortals, but the Shang Clan gained it. Something that they would come to regret to their graves.

Rumours had it that the Shang Clan had defrauded the people of New Mulberry City, establishing their fortune through treacherous means and keeping the public calm through their control over the city paper. The young lady of the Chen Clan, one of the many clans that were defrauded, caught the attention of the immortal through her incredible virtue and convinced her, the immortal, to annihilate the Shang Clan.

Being exposed was the beginning of the end for the Shang Clan since the immortal decided to slaughter the whole clan. The only survivor was the young Shang Yuan, who as the genius of the family was sent to the capital to train, and flourished there gloriously like a young dragon, a son of the heavens. His once glorious future shattered, Shang Yuan was forced to return to New Mulberry city once more, but as a figure of controversy rather than prosperity.

Although Lin Xun wanted to help the child being battered, even his kind heart filtered due to the reputation of the Shang Clan. Even to him, the lowest of the low in the city had become aware of the Shang Clan's reputation and had the city's hatred embedded in him.

"Boys…", Lin Xun said in a shaky tone. "Just let him go now, any more would be overboard."

The hooligans again ignored Lin Xun, kicking Shang Yuan once more in the stomach, so gruesomely that it even caused some of the younger boys to flinch. Shang Yuan coughed blood, his eyes filled to the brim with hatred so deep that it would make the gods quench in fear. Even the hooligans hesitated for a moment, but they returned to beating Shan Yuan within a moments notice.

In his seemingly last moments of life, Shang Yuan reached inside his black Chinese robe, taking out a small black bead. In mere seconds, the world around Lin Xun seemed to bend, till an explosion occurred so great that the ground under it seemed to melt itself.

....

Thousands of miles from the fractured city, a tower so large that it pierced the sky lay. It was seemingly built from pure jade, blinding all those that stare at it from afar through the blinding light of the sun bending off of it.

At the peak floor in the jade tower sat a middle-aged man, he was dressed in a pure white robe without a speck of dust on it. The middle-aged man was an immortal of legend, a being that shook the mortal world to its core, but it should be mentioned that he isn't the one that butchered the Shang Clan.

Sitting next to the immortal was an attractive figure in a pink blouse, the lady's clothes barely covered her body, giving her the sort of image of a vixen. She made sure that her every slight movement emphasized the curves on her body.

"Dear lord immortal, have you considered what I told you about my clan", the curvaceous figure said in a seductive tone. The immortal distracted by her beauty simply nodded. "So will you consider showing your public support, helping my clan be under your majestic influence?"

The immortal smiled, motioning her to come closer to him. The lady walked over, making sure to keep the immortal's eye on her, but she suddenly paused. An expression of shock appeared on her face, she made no sound. After a few moments, her head slid down her body. Sliced clean off, without it even being apparent the immortal had moved an inch.

The immortal's expression didn't even change. 'So it took the pathetic mortal 3 years to mention her true objective, her patience still does impress me though.'

The immortal sighed, making another motion with his hand. Turning the remains of the body into dust.

'Sigh, it's so tiresome to watch over this empire. Mortals are exhaustively boring."

As the immortal mused in boredom, the doors to his floor were opened with great force. A worried attendant walked out, it was an old man in a blue inform. He washe sword attendant under the immortal, meaning he was an immortal being himself.

"Deacon, deacon!!!", the attendant paused for a moment to catch his breath. "We have a major issue!"

"What is it?" The deacon interest was slightly piqued.

"A city of mortals has been completely destroyed."

"Has age turned your mind to shit, why would I give any regard to mortal matters!"

An expression of fear covered the attendants face, the deacon's immortal aura covered his body, causing the ground under him to break bellow his convulsing body. "No lord, but..."

"But nothing!" The immortal realized his sudden surge of unbecoming anger and his frown quickly changed to a blank expression. His pride as an immortal had been wounded ever since he had been tasked with watching over a mortal empire and he was simply taking it out on his subordinate.

"Tell me, why should I not wipe away your soul for disgracing my honour?" There was no longer any change to his expression, he was speaking as if he was simply speaking matter-of-factly. "Do men shed tears over the grim fates of ants?"

"No lord, but it seems like some immortal has broken one of the immortal commandments, harming mortals with no ill reasons."

The deacons aura was lifted from the attendant, allowing for the deacon to finally take a breath of air. But that's the opposite of what the deacon felt, since for the first time in many years an emotion that he felt extinct to him emerged. Fear.