Solitary Warrior

The world has never been a safe place, Ye Mo knew it firsthand.

When he was four, he strolled with his parents around a market in the streets of Azure Water City. 

Azure Water City was a big and powerful town of the Cloud Region where they resided. His father was a humble farmer while his mother was a housewife. While sightseeing for anything cheap to buy as they approached towards food vendors, the three of them encountered a man.

This one, upon noticing Ye Mo's mother, immediately approached them and expressed his intention to take her as a servant. When she refused and his father intervened, he mercilessly killed both of them.

This man was a cultivator.

After the gruesome deed was performed, the cultivator turned his attention to Ye Mo, frozen in place in disbelief, and to tie up loose ends, he damaged his meridians. Without them, one couldn't embark on the path of cultivation and Ye Mo, an ordinary child who already had less than 1% chance to ever make his first step, had his future cut off.

Ye Mo was left unconscious on the ground as the cultivator walked away, no one attempted to help the first nor stop the latter.

This scene was engraved in his mind. He would never forget the despair, the fury he felt.

Some may think it was compassion and leniency that drove the cultivator to spare him, others might argue that pure cruelty and sadism pushed him to cripple the boy as a life without any hope was worse than death.

In any case, barely feeling his limbs and without any strength to move at this time, Ye Mo would have died anyway if it wasn't for the timely assistance of a homeless old man that took pity of him.

His son died of sickness long ago, the old man stopped working and drowned his pain in alcohol every day losing both his wife and his house as a result of his actions. But seeing Ye Mo reminded him of his child so he helped him.

The old man shared the scraps of food he could get his hands on with Ye Mo, he showed him all the rudiments to survive on the streets of the city as someone who possess nothing, where to beg, how to steal, but most importantly where he should never set a foot.

There were many clans of cultivators in Azure Water City and several Martial Institutions. Going there as a simple mortal would be akin to a chicken seeking a pack of wolfs.

Two years difficultly passed and when Ye Mo was six years old, the old man drew his last breath. He and Ye Mo weren't living; but barely surviving. He was already quite old when the man picked him up and with the low food intake and the rough conditions in which they lived, it was already quite good he held out until then, but with his death Ye Mo was alone once again and needed to fend for himself. 

Life was harsh, and he didn't have time to mourn. He was scarcely able to bury him with his frail body.

Time flew by. He was now twelve and getting battered on the ground like tenderized meat.

Three men repeatedly kicked and threw abuses at him in outrage.

"Whimpering dog, how dare a trash like you steal an apple from my stall!" One of them said.

Another one continued, "Thieves like you deserve to die!"

The three were very aggressive, Ye Mo was curled up on the ground enduring the onslaught. His breath was cut short with each hit while he felt his bones rattle and crack.

"Dammit, I'm gonna die at this rate. I am too weak, I can't do anything." Ye Mo thought between distress, rage and hopelessness.

It couldn't be helped, stealing wasn't safe. He was just a starving boy and no matter how skilled he was, he was bound to get caught one day or another. Begging didn't yield much results and depended entirely on the kindness and empathy of people which was as scarce as water in a desert in these lands.

There was a risk of losing one's life when stealing, but there was no doubt he would die of starvation by relying only on begging, he didn't think long to make his choice.

After some time, the three men were done venting their anger and realized Ye Mo wasn't moving anymore.

"He'll drive customers away if he's left here rotting in front of the stall. Take him outside the city, dig a hole, and toss him in." One stout man ordered, he was the most senior of the three.

"Yes brother/uncle!" The other two, a young and a middle-aged man, obeyed.

Later that night, two figures left the city with a body on their shoulders rolled in a yellow-green carpet the color of decayed cheese.

Ye Mo was thin like a stick and light as a leaf so much that the two men felt there was nothing inside the carpet and gave several looks inside the roll to make sure he didn't fall without them noticing.

After some time, the two stopped in a desolate patch of land and quickly dug a shallow hole in the ground with shovels they brought with them then unfurled the carpet and tossed Ye Mo inside before they filled it back with soil.

Without sparing a second thought to their act, the duo picked the carpet and left the scene.