Shen Mu took a deep breath in a bid to exorcise the torture he had endured the past few days. He didn't start out wanting to be the leader of some gang. When he was young, just like every other impressionable young kid, he wanted to be a virtuous cultivator and sail the skies of the world. He was well on his way to doing exactly that.
He wasn't born into a well-off family. He was from an indistinct village, born to a father who was a hunter and a mother who was a blacksmith. He lost his father when he was young. He died in an accident during one of his expeditions.
As for his mother, she wasn't originally from the village and had only stayed on account of his father. When he died, she wanted to leave and asked Shen Mu who was twelve at the time to leave with her. Shen Mu afraid to leave all he knew behind, decided to remain in the village.