Peace is over

"You see how I'm carving the wood here? Try to do it like this time, okay?" Liu Jin finishes making small decorative carvings on the chair's wood so his brother has a correct idea of what to do.

"Hmm... you're being too rough. Your hands need more delicacy and patience... remember, we have time to finish this, there's no need to rush." While Liu Jin is beside his brother, he constantly gives tips and corrects the mistakes his brother makes.

"It's not my fault that my hands and arms are so tired. I can't carve the chair properly like this." Liu Gi complains aloud with his murmurs, but he doesn't stop the process of carving the chair as that would lead him to be reprimanded by Liu Jin.

"You're privileged to feel this pain because it means the work is making you stronger... besides, the work of a farmer like most of the village is several times harder and less rewarding." Liu Jin speaks with a serious expression.

"But brother, this is not necessary because in the future, I will awaken as a Gu Master capable of moving mountains and parting seas with my will!" The boy speaks excitedly, but after receiving a moderately strong slap and an unimpressed expression from Liu Jin, he starts carving the chair again while grumbling angrily.

"Ah... children really have little sense of reality... these Gu Masters are the small minority that forms the ruling class of this world, and they go to great lengths to prevent mortals like us from comparing ourselves to them." He thinks calmly because in the village where he and his family live, it's governed by one of these proud Gu Masters, which makes this village relatively prestigious compared to the vast majority of villages in the vicinity, which are composed of only mortals.

But despite Liu Jin being a person of relative prestige and reputation in the village, he never had much contact with the village leader, with the little he knows being general knowledge of the village, such as the leader being a Rank 1 middle-stage Gu Master, which he always announces to everyone with great pride, which Liu Jin imagines to be a good result given the leader's pride in announcing it.

Well, and it's not like Liu Jin has a way to compare this since the only other Gu Master he's seen in his life is the leader of a caravan that passes through the village at regular intervals, and as Liu Jin is a skilled carpenter, they ended up interacting a few times for trade, and in those times he discovered that the merchant has a cultivation of Rank 1 Peak stage, but the merchant didn't go into further details about how cultivation works.

"Gi'er, I understand that you're a child, and most of the village children dream the same... but the position of a Gu Master is something that neither you nor I will probably achieve in life" Of course, he knows that this would break Liu Gi's enthusiasm, but as a rational adult, he knows that these Gu Masters who rule as sovereigns by force would never allow peasants to obtain that same power.

"You can wait and see, brother. I will find out how to become a Gu Master and become as strong as those immortals in the stories." The boy's enthusiasm is only met with a disinterested look from Liu Jin, who tells him to continue his work.

"Immortals... these people really have Daoist and Oriental beliefs rooted..." Liu Jin thinks because this was one of the characteristics he noticed to be most predominant in people's imagery, is that if someone cultivated enough, at some point, that person could attain immortality.

This is such a prevalent belief that it even manifests itself in the belief that the ten main gods, who everyone believes were once mortal humans at some point in their lives before beginning cultivation.

"Well, how do you want to become an immortal if you don't even know how to carve wood proper-"

*knock* *knock* *knock* Before Liu Jin could finish his sentence, he hears someone banging on the door of his house with force as if they were desperate for the door to be answered quickly.

"Gi'er, stay here... if someone tries to break in, use the carpentry knife like you use to kill rabbits." Liu Jin grabs a good quality axe he bought from the village blacksmith and goes to answer the door, prepared to attack at any moment.

But he is greeted by the sight of Mr. Li, the milk seller, who is standing at his doorstep with a desperate expression, breathing heavily as if he had run much more than the middle-aged, somewhat chubby man could handle, and with his clothes dirty from the earth, probably because he fell on the way.

"Mr. Li, what happened with—" Liu Jin already knows the man, who was a friend of his father's for a long time, so he doesn't suspect him, lowering his guard and starting to speak , but he is immediately interrupted by Mr. Li, who starts speaking desperately.

"Liu Jin! Thank Heavens you're here! The village is being attacked by over a dozen raiders! And worse, they're led by a Gu Master!" Liu Jin took only a moment to react to the man's words, which he didn't question if they were true or not as Mr. Li wouldn't make such serious jokes, especially with something like this.

"Gi'er, I'll need to go with Mr. Li! I need you to go to my room and get a bag with all the family's savings that are in my closet!" Liu Jin quickly returns to the workshop to warn his brother of what's happening. "...did you hear what Mr. Li said... you'll have to go to the Xei River where Mom is washing clothes and run with her to Yuniu village... if I don't arrive there in a week, you'll be the man of the house since I'll be probably dead."

Liu Gi, who was suddenly put in so much responsibility, is starting to panic as his tears stream down his face, imagining his brother dying, but he can't do anything but say, "Okay, brother, I will!" To Liu Jin, who holds his shoulders before giving him a hug and sending him to run to his mother amid tears.

"Let's go, Mr. Li, we need to form an emergency defense with the men from the village!" Liu Jin quickly leaves his house and heads towards the sounds of screams and cuts that he wasn't hearing before because his carpentry was quite noisy and designed to isolate sound to the point where the only thing he could hear was Mr. Li's desperate knocks on the door, but not him arriving at the house.

"Liu Jin, we need to hurry, from what I saw, that Gu Master had the powers of the god of death... he must be fighting against the village leader." Mr. Li follows behind Liu Jin with an axe that was given to him by Liu Jin, who had another one as a spare.

Liu Jin's expression becomes even more severe because from what he heard in the stories, those Gu Masters who use the powers of the god of death are butchers who kill at will and without repercussion, and are strong in this aspect. "Gu Master or not, I don't know if he'll survive a ax blow to the hea—!"

But before he could finish his sentence, he hears the desperate cry of a woman asking for help, so without wasting time, along with Mr. Li, he follows the cry for help and finds a woman pinned to the ground by an unknown man who is on top of her.

"Arrrggghhh!!" Liu Jin shouts in anger as he quickly advances, reducing the distance between him and the two on the ground in less than a moment before striking with all his might with his axe on the back of the man, who is probably one of the raiders.

"Argh! Argh! Argh!" Liu Jin strikes several blows with his axe, leaving the back of the raider pure flesh stained with the scarlet red of his blood, with his spine completely destroyed, which would make anyone who saw him conclude that he is dead.

Liu Jin quickly removes the man, whom he imagines is dead, from on top of the woman who cries in despair, as her clothes are torn, especially the lower parts, and her blood stains her legs. Liu Jin, who saw the scene, is sure of what was happening.

"Mr. Li, take care of Mrs. Bai, I'll keep going to the rest of the raiders' location!" Liu Jin speaks as he runs with a heavy heart since he has known Mrs. Bai for many years as she is a friend of his mother's, so seeing her in this state was difficult for him, in addition to increasing his concern for his mother's safety even more.

"You piece of shit, I'll kill you and spit on your grave!" Liu Jin hears the distant shout and quickly follows it, seeing the back of a man he doesn't recognize who is shouting against Bi Nie, one of the lumberjacks from the village who is in front of the unknown man with an axe in his hand.

Bi Nie quickly sees Liu Jin's arrival, but the man in front of him doesn't, so following Liu Jin's hand signals, he begins to distract the man in front of him. "You fucking raider, I swear I'll castrate you like an animal, you piece os shit!"

"You're playing with your life, you peasant son of a—!!" But the raider is prevented from finishing his words when he feels an arm wrapping around and strangling his neck, but even before he could react, he is kicked forcefully in the legs, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground while being strangled.

The way the raider fell, his sword was under his body on the ground, so he couldn't react when Liu Jin, who strangled him, pressed him to the ground and yelled for Bi Nie to come and finish him off.

"Come here, you piece of shit, this is for killing Ke Lia, you bast—!! Argh!!!" Bi Nie, who had already prepared his axe to cut the raider's throat, suddenly starts screaming in pain as he falls to the ground writhing for a short time before passing out because of pain without even a new wound on his body.

Liu Jin, who saw this happen in front of him, quickly thinks of only one explanation: this is the power of a Gu Master, so he quickly stops strangling this man when he tries to get up and grab his axe to fight against the Gu Master.

But even though he made all the effort to grab his axe quickly, as soon as he laid his hands on his axe, he feels a suffocating pain that seemed as if something was cutting him, but not his physical body but his soul.

Liu Jin quickly looks around and sees a middle-aged man who has a fierce expression as well as a body stained with blood, so he imagines that he is the Gu Master who is attacking him, so with all the strength left in his body, he throws his axe spinning to hit the man but ends up missing due to his lack of strength as he falls face down on the ground.

Liu Jin's sight is darkening as well as his hearing is getting weak, with the last thing he sees and hears before completely passing out being the raider he was strangling kicking Bi Nie, who is unconscious, and saying something like, "I'll be the one to castrate you, you piece of shit!!"