Kaos Immortal

Year 30, Zhou Calendar.

On this day, six little babies were born altogether, and all other children born on this day would be stillborn and die as soon as they came out the womb. However, on a small farmhouse in a backwater village, a seventh child was born. He had crimson red hair and red eyes to match, his beauty in that moment was unbridled. However, this day would come to be seen as a bad omen each year because except the seven of them, the whole of the great Zhou Empire recorded countless stillbirths all over the Empire. Every baby born within midnight till midnight of the next day would die.

 ....

Year 37, Zhou Calendar.

At an insignificant village by a little river in the Great Zhou Empire, the whole village are gathered to see off a man and his son. His wife waves at them with tears in her eyes. She turns to the little boy.

"Neif, listen to your father throughout, and do not put pressure on yourself. Whether or not you get into the academy is not a problem, however, try your best, okay." She said as she teared up.

"Un" he nodded. "Father, let's go." he said.

"Yes, let's." The old man said, taking the boy's hand in his.

They set off under the gaze of all the villagers along a narrow path that led to the bigger towns.

The Great Zhou Academy was the most prestigious academy in all of the Great Zhou Empire, even the plebs had heard of it. Every five years they would conduct exams to find the best talents for cultivation and magics around the whole empire and those that were up to par would be admitted into the academy, poor or not.

The ones with a little bit of talent who did not meet the standard would be carefully selected to get into a lesser academy where their talents would not go to waste, hence everyone wanted to be part of this examination, and everyone wanted their kids to be part of the examination as well.

Neif was currently seven years old and had a knack for magic arts. Since he was born, he had a knack for being better than others. He had learned to walk just a few months after his birth and could talk when he was barely a year old. After that, he had been very friendly and helpful in the village, going around assisting adults in small tasks and he became the role model every parent compared their children to, so everyone was sad to see him go.

There were daemons around the human provinces were scarce, but there were countless ferocious beasts so anyone without a little bit of power would be rendered useless in the face of them. However, in these seven years that Neif had been in the village, there was another reason they didn't want to see him go, and this was also the reason why a poor plebeian mortal like his father with no means to defend himself whatsoever would decide to take him on this dangerous journey though forests.

It was because Neif was already very skilled in magic. By the age of three, he had unintentionally cast his first spell. The villagers were attacked by some vile ox beasts and could hardly defend themselves, and in the moment of danger, Neif had cast a fire spell that drove all the beasts away due to fear. After that, he became the hero of the little village. Whenever there were beasts attacking, he would chase them away, and sometimes also venture a little bit into the forests to hunt beasts for meat along with other experienced hunters.

Over the past four years, Neif had grown much stronger. If he were to show his full power in front of the villagers, they would probably think him a monster, but he had never needed to do that, so they only knew that he was powerful but not to what extent. This was why his parents had suggested he go to the academy. He was hesitant about leaving his parents in the village alone, but they sternly refused any effort he made to make sure he stayed hence he could only give up and go to the academy.

It took about a month to traverse the forests and jungles and see the first town since their little village. It was at least five times bigger as their small village.

They made their way into the town and began to ask for directions. They found that they would have to travel about another month on horseback to get to the next big town, where the academy would conduct one of their examinations. This town was the closest they would get to Neif's little village. But the father-son pair had run out of supplies, and they barely had enough to get them a horse to rent. There was no way they could even think of getting a room in an inn, it was too expensive.

They found a quiet little place and used the moon as their bedcover and the earth as their bed, with a rock as the pillow. This would make the easier to rob, but what did they have anyway.

It was barely dawn when Neif felt someone call out to him. "Neif, come on, it's time to go." He stood up and rubbed off the dirt and dew on his clothes before following his father to the stables to take the horse they rented. All in all, their journey was quite smooth with no major occurrences, and a month later, they arrived at a much bigger city with high, fortified walls where there was a long queue outside.

Finally, they had made it to Thousand Crane city where the examination would take place. "Father, Mother, this filial son will not disappoint you. I will definitely get into the academy." Neif said to himself.

They advanced slowly and it finally got to their turn to enter the city. "Five copper taels for an adult, and three for a child" the guard at the gate said. Apparently, they had not thought of the possibility of the tally being collected at the gate.