Chapter 1- Birth

A woman laid on a pile of straw organized in a rectangle form with a cotton sheet on top. Her countenance was pale like what a dying person would look like.

Sweat was continuously pouring from her temple as if she was working hard under the sun at midday. However, the most eye-catching was the big bulging stomach of the woman.

"Relax child, this is going to be painful but everything will be alright. Just breathe nicely, and pant… breathe and pant." An old woman in rough and ragged clothing standing beside the bed, holding one of the woman's hands while reassuring her nicely.

"Uuughhh, aaarggh… aaaahhh!!" The woman groaned and wailed in pain as she continued the process of delivering her baby. The process lasted for a while until the head of a human baby came out with their eyes closed.

"Good… very good, child. Now, the hard part is gone, from here on it is going to be a breeze." The midwife spoke with a smile plastered on her face as she reassured the woman.

They stopped for a minute until another contraction appeared for the midwife to tell the woman to keep pushing the baby outside. Fortunately, the delivery did not last for long. The baby came out with no mishaps, as the midwife received the baby.

The baby suddenly cried in the midwife's hands as she examined the baby closely, to make sure the baby was alright.

"Congratulations, it is a healthy and cute boy!" The midwife said with a smile after she finished her examination.

"Let… me, see… my baby." The woman spoke with ragged breathing, looking very tired after just finishing the labor. The midwife promptly handed her the baby cautiously as the woman was quick to embrace her baby in her arms.

The woman looked at her baby lovingly as she coaxed her baby until he stopped crying. The woman's gaze on her baby became dazed as her mouth mumbled. She was lost in thoughts for a while, and when she had recovered, she focused her gaze on her baby's face and whispered.

"Liu Guanyi… his name will be Liu Guanyi."

. . . . . . .

Spring, summer, fall, and winter… the weather kept ever-changing as the river of time ceaselessly continued flowing downwards, irrelevant to anything that had happened and would happen in its waters.

In the field, a child, no more than 7 years old, could be seen moving his body in a particular form. The sun was stationed around 30 degrees from the east, or in layman's terms, early morning. The best time for people to start working.

The flowing sweat could be seen on his naked upper body as he practiced many Martial forms. From punching, kicking, changing stance, and moving forward and backward while keeping the stance up. He performed those moves properly and in a beautifully organized way, like an experienced person in the Martial Way.

He stood there alone, continuing to practice his moves, again and again, only stopping to drink water from time to time until the sun rose a few degrees as many children started to fill up the field. Most of the children were older than him, only a few children or so were around his age.

Noises and hubbub were all around as they loitered and chatted among themselves. However, uncaring of them, the shirtless child kept doing his thing until a tall man with a muscular body and rough features, could be seen walking to the field from afar.

His strides were wide and in no time, he arrived and shouted. "Shut up! Do you think you can become warriors talking all day, kids!? Line up quickly or just get out from here!"

The kids were instantly shaken up and stopped their mouths as they hurriedly moved to line up in front of the instructor.

"Now, run around this field ten times before three sticks incense of time ends!" The instructor shouted.

The children, already scared from the previous rebuke, without delay heeded the order from the instructor. They tried their best to run as the time was ticking quickly. In an incense of time, most of the kids barely made three runs around the field.

In two incense of time, most of them barely got to the fifth run, and in three incense of time, most of them failed to even reach the seventh run and only a handful of children made it. Surprisingly the shirtless kid made it even though a lot of the older children failed.

"Those who have failed just go back home now! Everyone who made it can stay to continue the training!"

The instructor ruthlessly said his part to the kids' dejection and continued to train those who qualified. He began it with body training, endurance training, and Martial forms. The training went on until the sun almost reached the middle of the sky as the now exhausted children began to disperse one by one.

Soon, only a single kid remained there. He sat there resting under the hot sun, though tired, his black eyes still had a strong gaze.

"Hey kid you are quite talented and your performance shows that you have what it takes, do you want to learn the true Martial Path?" A sudden voice boomed, in front of him the instructor stood towering, blocking his vision looking down at him.

. . . . . . .

The Valley of Beasts, the infamous place untamed by the hands of men where there were a myriad number of grotesque, savage, and freakish beings of abomination that inhabited and thrived in the region, the Demonic beasts, the infamous beings that were feared due to their strength and ferocity against any living beings, even by warriors.

In the deep part of the valley that was covered in the darkness so thick that it rendered a man incapable of sight, a tall and muscular young man with long black hair stood with his great ax lifted.

Standing in front of him was a monstrous beast that could easily tower over even the tallest of men.

It had a massive, bulking body equal to that of an elephant with four furred black hooves. Its figure was similar to a crossbreed between a deer and ox with two pairs of different horns. Its mouth opened, showing rows of sharp teeth that appeared to be able to tear through even the toughest skin.

They stared at each other at a distance, seemingly respecting their opponent's strength just like when a predator met its rival predator.

The stare-down lasted for a while until the deer-ox monster became impatient and charged ahead at an astonishing velocity with its four long horns.

The man, light on his feet, easily read its movement and sidestepped to its flank and swung his ax on its exposed neck.

"Grrroaaa!!" It roared in pain as the ax cut through his flesh and buried itself deep within its neck.

Enraged, the beast started thrashing around to crush the human. The warrior knowing how dangerous it would be if any of those attacks managed to land on his body, wisely retreated back without retrieving his ax as it was buried too deep in its thick flesh.

He understood that even a moment of delay could prove to be fatal as it would expose him to the monster's threatening riposte.

Unsuccessful in landing any hit, the beast became more enraged as it charged once again, creating shockwaves on the ground.

The warrior with his weapon gone knew the futility for him to engage the beast, like an experienced hunter, exploited the weakness of the beast by circling around it.

Its massive body and four legs gave it enormous power and horizontal speed but not maneuverability and flexibility, unlike bipedal creatures.

It kept charging and charging while the warrior simply avoided it every time by going around the beast. Their back and forth lasted for a few rounds until the beast having no success thus far, began to tire and calm down its beastly instinct.

It realized that this hairless ape was much tougher to deal with than his appearance suggested.

However, with how much blood loss aggravated by its reckless attacks flowing from the neck wound, it was already weakened a lot. Even if it somehow succeeded in escaping, with such a wound, it would die from blood loss or be preyed upon by another predator in this perilous valley.

The beast being utterly outmaneuvered by the slippery hairless ape and ended up in such a sorry state, stoked its rage for the last time and decided to drag down the culprit once and for all!

It ran again toward the warrior, however, unlike its previous attacks when the beast was a distance away from him, all of its legs bulged and it jumped forward riding the momentum to smash him from above!

Booooooom!!

The warrior successfully dodged the fall but the beast managed to generate a shockwave that shook the surrounding area, making him lose his footing. The beast quickly recovered from the fall and using the opportunity, turned back to impale the warrior with its massive horns.

Unfortunately for the beast, the warrior proved his wisdom superior to his opponent. He did not try to recover his footing but instead, let himself fall to the ground as the ox-horn passed above him by a thin line.

Suddenly, the warrior, using his left hand, grabbed the horn and pulled himself up as his legs kicked up the ground. He propelled himself up, spinning 180 degrees, and then delivered a punch right through the beast's eye with his right arm backed by the momentum, making his punch unbelievably lethal.

Splat!

The warrior pulled his hand and jumped back as the beast fell to the ground lifelessly as blood poured out from its wounds and began to create a puddle on the ground.

"This should be enough for a few days." The man said as he looked at the beast's corpse and took his ax, then tied it on his back.

He looked ahead into the depths of the valley and started to walk into it while dragging the corpse without any difficulties and muttered.

"Not enough… this is not enough. I need a life and death battle to breakthrough!"