1 Hencewood

Li Zhang, just a youth living in a small town called Hencewood. He lived quite a normal life, he lived with his parents and was well-off. His parents were traders in the town, and well known throughout the middle class.

Li Zhang wasn't much help to the family, because all he ever did was sit inside of his room and read. He read tons of books, every day he would go to the town's library and get new books to read.

His parents didn't mind at first, but once he grew older they got a bit worried. They worried that their son wouldn't amount to anything. Li Zhang's dad always told his son that he was good for nothing.

Even though Li Zhang was quite smart, he wasn't able to do much in the trading business. In school, Li Zhang was at the top of his class in the normal subjects, but in physical classes, he was at the bottom.

Hencewood was known for having great cultivators that practiced in swordsmanship. The reason was, in school at a young age each of the students would learn swordsmanship. They also went through classes to learn how to cultivate early.

Li Zhang wasn't very good at cultivating or physical trials that the school put the student's through. This caused him to be picked on by the other students.

Each and everyday Li Zhang would come home with cuts and bruises. Each time he came home he would always have a smile on his face with a couple of new books in his hands.

His mother felt bad for her son, but Li Zhang showed no emotion about it. He just went inside his room and read. Li Zhang didn't mind being picked on or even beat up. The only thing Li Zhang cared about was reading.

Though, One day that all changed for Li Zhang. The school was called off because of the Hencewood tournament, the tournament happened every year where the best students in the town would go fight in front of sect leaders.

All of the top students of the school were hoping to be picked to join a sect. There were three main sect leaders that attended. The Overwhelming Wind, DarkStar, and the most powerful Windwood sect.

These three sects would come yearly and watch the fighting competition. And at the end of the fight, the three sects would choose students to join their sect.

When someone was chosen to join one of these sects it changed the person's life. If they were able to join one of the sects it would bring riches to their family and themselves.

Windwood Sect was the sect everyone wanted to get into, though the sect leader barely picked students to join.

Li Zhang wasn't planning on attending any of the fights because he would much rather read than fight. Meaning when the fighting competition started he was at home reading in his room.

His parents were out on business because of an attack outside of the town. Several hours went by and there was a sudden knock at the door. Li Zhang didn't want to get up and answer the door hoping the people outside would think no one was home.

Li Zhang waited a couple of minutes but the people outside still kept knocking on the door. Li Zhang decided that the people weren't going to leave until he opened the door.

Li Zhang left his room and approached the door. When he opened the door, two guards in shiny iron armor stared at him.

"Are you sure this is the place?" One of the guards asked the other.

"Yup, this is where they are listed on the papers."

Li Zhang stared at the guards with confusion. A man with dark brown hair and blue eyes looked at Li Zhang with a serious face.

"I'm sorry to tell you kid, but… Both of your parents were killed this morning."

Li Zhang stood emotionless, The guard turned confused when Li Zhang had no reaction to what he said.

"Kid? Did you hear m-"

"Yup, is that all?"

The second guard reached out and grabbed a hold of Li Zhang's shirt.

"Kid! Do you really not care that they died? Your family!"

Li Zhang looked down at the man's fist than back up at the man.

"Why do I care?"

The guard punched Li Zhang square in the face.

"Hey! Stop!"

The guard released Li Zhang, warm blood flowed from Li Zhang's nose. The blood eventually reached Li Zhang mouth. Li Zhang stuck out his tongue to taste the blood.

A cool emotionless smile appeared on his face. His face changed from emotionless to a deadly stare at the two guards. Li Zhang reached inside and pulled out a small dagger.

The dagger wasn't too big, only around 8 inches. Both of the guards stepped back at the sight of the weapon.

"Woah, Put that down!"

The guard that originally punched him pulled out his longsword and stood in a defensive stance. The other guard didn't pull his weapon and started to talk to Li Zhang.

"Kid, I know your parents just died, but do you really want to attack us?"

Li Zhang didn't even listen to what the man said, he just stared at the other guard. The first guard moved closer to Li Zhang, reaching out to try and grab the dagger.

The guard was wearing a full suit of armor which included metal gloves. Li Zhang noticed the man reaching for his dagger. With a quick movement his slashed the dagger towards the guard.

The dagger slashed into the man's neck. Causing the man to hastily grab his neck. Fresh blood poured down his neck. The second guard pointed his sword at Li Zhang, while he looked down at his friend.

Li Zhang this moment of opportunity and took it. He dashed forward and stuck the knife into the man's eye. The man dropped his sword and dropped to one knee.

Not having another weapon, Li Zhang reached down and grabbed the other guards longsword. It was quite heavy, but Li Zhang was able to wield it.

Having his movements slowed by the weight of the sword, Li Zhang wasn't able to stab at the other guard. Li Zhang thought there was only one way to kill the guard.

With all of his strength, he brought the sword up above his shoulders. He looked down at the guard one last time. The guard looked up with his other eye and screamed.

"Don-"

Before the guard could say anything else, Li Zhang brought the sword down. The longsword got halfway stuck in the man's head. Killing him instantly, Li Zhang let out a small sigh.

Now, his face was covered in both of guards blood. Li Zhang walked over to the guard he just killed. He bent down and received the dagger from the man's eye.

Bring it up to his face, he took a small lick on the man's blood. A cold tingling feeling went through his body. The blood tasted a bit tangy and bitter.

"Too Bad."

Li Zhang put his dagger back in his house and dropped the two bodies to the back of his house. He went over and got his dad's ax and a couple logs of firewood.

His family had a small fire pit in the back to cook animals. Li Zhang was planning to just throw them in, but they were too big to fit. Meaning, Li Zhang had to cut them up in pieces.

This delighted Li Zhang, he went over to the guy that he first killed. He took one swing with his ax and cut off the man's head. Right after the man's head Li Zhang continued to cut the man into pieces.

Once he was finished with the first man he cut up the other. Now that the two guards were in pieces, Li Zhang started the fire. Slowly throwing the man's pieces in the fire.

In the front yard, he heard multiple people talking. Hearing the people talk, Li Zhang was about to go to the front. Though, he remembered that he was covered in blood. He went a shed and got multiple buckets of water. Splashing it on his face and clothing. Once it looked like most of the blood was gone, he walked to the front yard.

Two of his neighbors were looking at the blood pools on the ground. Li Zhang put on his emotionless face and walked up to them.

A woman in her mid-thirties saw Li Zhang and half smiled.

"Li Zhang, what is with this blood? It looks like someone died here."

"Ah, Miss. I killed a pig this morning."

"A Pig? Why did you do it in your front yard?"

"Well..."

Li Zhang didn't really have a good idea what to say, so he just said the first thing that came to mind.

"As you may not know, My parents were killed this morning."

"Oh, God."

"In one of the books I read, it says that to honor your families death, you kill an animal in front of their house."

The women looked at the man she was with. They both thought that Li Zhang was insane before, always staying inside. But once they heard this they were for sure now that he was.

"Oh.. Alright."

The two didn't want to stay and chat with an insane youth and quickly walked away after saying their goodbyes.

Li Zhang smiled at the two and walked back to his backyard. By now, the flesh was started to burn. Li Zhang moved a chair over to the firepit and looked into it as the bodies start to melt away.