U | Chapter 1

“Survive great calamity, and calamity is what you'll bring.”

When Li Shu was little, someone once told his fortune with those words. Spoken from the mouth of a child, the prophecy became Li Shu’s guiding principle, one he followed to the letter. For more than twenty years, he had never been able to sit still or stay put. Whenever he came across a suitable target, his wicked ideas would bubble out in a steady stream. From something as minor as tripping someone up while cutting their hair to something as serious as murder and arson, Li Shu was thoroughly rotten, inside and out, from head to toe.

He still remembered that the fortune-teller had said more than those eight words. “You are destined to suffer terrible pain in this life.” The child had shaken his head solemnly, his voice still high and childish, staring straight into Li Shu’s equally childish eyes. “You’ll hurt, but you won’t die. To live is to be tormented, and to be tormented is to live……”

Li Shu sighed inwardly: My life may be short……though……though short?! He suddenly opened his eyes and sucked in great gulps of air. A howl of pain lodged in his punctured chest, unable to escape for a long while.

The man had really gotten it right. Li Shu was now in excruciating pain, yet somehow unable to die.

He was lying on a raft made of four bamboo poles, bound tightly with ropes. After the rain, the road was slick. Two people, one large and one small, dragged the raft laboriously across the wet ground. The stones and gullies jolted Li Shu until he felt as if his bones were coming apart. He couldn’t speak, and a bloody hole in his chest seeped fresh blood with every jolt. Several times, he lost consciousness, only to wake again.

This time, when he woke, the pain sent his three souls and seven spirits rushing back into place. He opened his mouth and mumbled, trying to make the two people dragging the raft stop.

Two lengths of hemp rope were tied to the raft, and the pair had been pulling them for who knew how long. If they kept jolting him around, they would probably shake away the last sliver of life he had left.

Li Shu struggled desperately. In his daze, he no longer knew whether he was fighting to live or to die. Then he heard a young girl’s bright voice. “Brother! He’s awake!”

Li Shu couldn’t speak. Tears streamed down his face.

Another young man’s voice said, “Good, he’s not dead. Come on! Faster! We have to get him back to the manor and treat his wounds!”

A stone struck with a sharp thud, and the raft jolted hard. Li Shu lost consciousness again.

Li Shu’s martial arts were not poor. In Dayu, becoming a young hero known throughout the world would have been no difficult task, but he happened to come from the Kulian Sect.

West of Dayu, past Baique Pass and beyond the border, lay the neighboring nation of Jinqiang. After crossing Jinqiang’s endless desert, one had to travel through the sands for three, five, or seven days before a massive vermilion gate could be seen between the rocks. The gate doors had long since vanished. Its frame was made of red stone, and it was hung all over with stones and metal plates. When the fierce wind blew, they clanged so loudly that they gave people headaches.

Beyond Xueyin Gate, after climbing down the six hundred and ninety-nine steps of the Godseeking Stair, one reached a massive rift valley. The Kulian Sect lay hidden deep within it.

Dayu’s martial world regarded the Kulian Sect as a scourge, calling it “the demonic cult of the Western Regions” at every opportunity. But how the Kulian Sect went about its business, nobody knew. Nor did anyone know what made it demonic. It was probably prejudice born of the belief that “those who are not of our kind cannot share our hearts.” Whenever the Kulian Sect was mentioned, everyone had to curse it a few times to prove their righteous character.

The Kulian Sect naturally had no use for Dayu’s martial artists either. They wore a dozen layers of clothing and spoke with much head-shaking and affected mannerisms. They were hardly frank or straightforward. The Kulian Sect and Dayu’s sects had always kept out of each other’s way. Though whenever they met, they inevitably hurled abuse at one another, shouting, “You’re despicable!” and “You’re depraved!”, they could still live peaceful lives as long as they didn’t cross paths.

Li Shu regretted coming all this way to Dayu for revenge. He also felt bitterly indignant. His enemies had been utterly shameless, several of them joining forces against him. Outnumbered, he had ended up stabbed through the chest by his enemies and left with only half a life.

His soul had long since flown back to the Kulian Sect, but his body was still lying on a bed with a bloody hole in its chest.

After lying there like that for three days, Li Shu, Sect Leader of the Kulian Sect, finally opened his eyes.

Qu Miaomiao was keeping watch beside the bed. She was at the age of first blossoms, with a round, likable face. When she saw Li Shu’s trembling eyelids open, she hurried to the bedside. “You’re awake!”

Li Shu immediately recognized her as one of the two kind souls who had nearly jolted him to death. His whole body was weak, and he parted his lips. The girl brought him some water and fed him half a bowl. Li Shu turned his head slightly. His chest hurt, but there was no sign of fever anywhere in his body. He was naked, his wound had been treated and bandaged, and even his face had been washed clean.

As she fed him thin porridge, Qu Miaomiao told him what had happened. Jiangzhou City had been hit by days of heavy rain, and a mudslide had killed more than a dozen people. A young woman had died unmarried, and her parents were searching everywhere for a newly dead man to marry her in death. They were offering a very tempting price. Someone had spotted Li Shu in a ravine outside Jiangzhou City, dragged him up to the road, and taken a look. He had all his features, was young, and would be perfect to hand over. But Li Shu had not been dead yet. After some discussion, several burly men had raised their knives over the unconscious Li Shu.

Li Shu had never imagined that these people would try to profit at his expense. Furious, he laughed instead. “And then?”

“My brother and I happened to pass by. He spent every last bit of money he had, plus a jade pendant, to buy you back,” Qu Miaomiao said. “If he hadn’t, you probably wouldn’t even be alive now.”

Li Shu nodded. “Thank you. I’m……”

He was just considering what false name to use when Qu Miaomiao cheerfully supplied the answer. “I know. Your name is Li Shu.”

Li Shu’s urge to kill rose at once. In this part of the world, the only people who knew his name were his enemies.

“When my brother was cleaning your wounds, you woke up from the pain and kept shouting, ‘I, Li Shu, absolutely cannot die here.’” Qu Miaomiao asked, “Is there something you absolutely have to do?”

Li Shu’s murderous intent faded. He decided to claim that he was a scholar. In this world, only a helpless man of letters posed no threat. Before he could speak, Qu Miaomiao opened his right hand and felt the calluses on his palm.

“You practice martial arts too, don’t you?” she said with a smile. “Just stay here at Haoyi Manor and recover. We’re all people of the martial world. We ought to help one another.”

Li Shu’s murderous intent rose and fell again. Unfortunately, he was a cripple at present, so all he could do was give a light cough and put on a troubled expression.

He claimed to be a merchant’s bodyguard. Outside Jiangzhou City, bandits had attacked their party, leaving some dead and others scattered. The vicious bandits had thrown him off a cliff, leaving him gravely wounded.

Li Shu spoke very slowly. One reason was the pain. Another was that he was weaving his lies tightly together as he went. The third was that he was quietly taking stock of his surroundings. The room he was staying in did not look like a girl’s bedchamber. Swords and calligraphy hung on the walls. Brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, and all sorts of books were piled on the table, along with two men’s robes. Li Shu was about to ask about them when the door suddenly opened, and a thin young man strode in.

He met Li Shu’s gaze, froze for a moment, and immediately rushed to the bedside just as Qu Miaomiao had. “You’re awake!”

Li Shu wiped the saliva from his face and managed a difficult nod and smile.

His wound was the perfect cover. To conceal his identity, after being wounded and rolling down the mountain, he had gritted his teeth and shoved a branch into the injury, jabbing it around to ruin the traces of the sword wound. Now, no matter how others looked at it, it appeared to be an injury caused by a branch piercing him during his fall from the cliff.

“……Aren’t you cold without any clothes on?” Qu Miaomiao asked, covering her eyes while peeking at Li Shu through the gaps between her fingers.

Thanks to the care of Qu Miaomiao and her elder brother Qu Er, Li Shu stayed at Haoyi Manor for more than half a month and recovered quickly. Whenever he had nothing to do, he took off his shirt and basked comfortably in the sun around the manor.

“The sun is hot enough to drive the poison from my wound,” Li Shu said with a sigh. “Those villains actually laced their weapons with poison. How despicable.”

Qu Miaomiao said, “Weren’t you injured by a tree branch?”

“……” Li Shu gave another light cough. “If I hadn’t first been grievously wounded by a weapon, why would I have fallen off the cliff?”

He had long since seen that the siblings were utterly guileless. They believed everything he said. As the days passed, Li Shu grew lazier. One lie leaked here and was patched there, gradually swelling into an enormous story. As a child, he had been known as the child prodigy of Pinglan City. Then, around the age of ten, he had suffered a sudden calamity and been kidnapped by an enemy. Because he was exceptionally clever, he had become sworn brothers with the enemy’s only son and secretly learned all his skills. Once he had mastered them, the enemy had grown jealous and envious, secretly tried to kill him, caused him to lose more than a decade of memories and his martial arts, and then thrown him into the Liexing River. After falling into the Liexing River, he had unexpectedly encountered a great opportunity. Not only had he recovered his memories, but his martial arts had also improved several times over. When he went to take revenge, he discovered that his enemy had already fallen into ruin and scattered, and that even the little brother he had missed so dearly might not be alive. In order to find his former close friend, he had traveled everywhere taking escort jobs and delivering shipments, searching desperately for him……Qu Miaomiao liked hearing most about what had happened after he fell into the Liexing River. Whenever she had free time, she would tug on his hand and make him tell it all over again.

Lying in a rocking chair and gazing at the green mountains and white clouds, Li Shu lazily yawned. Haoyi Manor was not large. Only the brother and sister lived there, inside and out. Apparently, there was also a second senior brother and a senior sister who had gone out on business, and they would not return for another half a month.

Half a month was enough time for Li Shu to recover the strength to kill.

The place was called Haoyi Manor. Li Shu had never heard of such a sect, so he assumed it was a small, obscure school. There were only four people in total, and the place was both poor and run-down. As long as he dealt with Qu Er and Qu Miaomiao before the other two returned, his whereabouts would remain undiscovered.

His enemies were certainly searching everywhere by now. Li Shu understood that if the Qu siblings had not picked him up, he would already have been captured. But the Kulian Sect’s principle was “remember grudges, not kindness.” Haoyi Manor was never where Li Shu ought to remain. He had to find members of the Kulian Sect as soon as possible and leave Dayu.

As he was thinking, Qu Miaomiao sat down beside him. “Brother Li.”

Li Shu put on a pleasant expression. “Little Sister Qu.”

Qu Miaomiao opened a small booklet. “You’ve stayed at our Haoyi Manor for sixteen days in total. Today is the seventeenth. At half a tael of silver per day, plus the medicine for treating your wounds, you now owe us eight taels of silver.”

The wound in Li Shu’s chest suddenly began to throb violently. He couldn’t help sitting up. “What?”

Qu Miaomiao carefully explained everything from the account book: what medicine he had taken, what medicine had been applied; one new robe, two pairs of new trousers; greens, meat, and rice; clear water and sweet syrup…… “You tell stories so well. Brother said we should charge you a little less and make friends with you on behalf of Haoyi Manor.”

Li Shu was so angry he felt dizzy. “You……how despicable! How despicable!!!”

As Sect Leader of the Kulian Sect, he had not visited the Central Plains in ages, and yet people had taken advantage of him repeatedly. Li Shu was so furious that he could not sleep the entire night.

At dawn, he saw Qu Miaomiao sweeping the courtyard. He quietly approached her. The little inner force he had recovered gathered in his palm, and he was just about to strike her in the back when Qu Miaomiao remained completely unaware, humming a little tune. She was not even as tall as Li Shu’s shoulder. Two buns on top of her head were tied with faded lake-blue ribbons. At the ends of the ribbons were two emerald-embroidered butterflies. Qu Er had sewn them on for her a few days earlier, neatly covering the small holes where the ribbons had been scorched by firewood.

When Li Shu had seen Qu Er using a needle, he had mocked him. “Your martial arts are no good, but you’re pretty good at embroidery.”

Unexpectedly, Qu Er had not been offended in the slightest. Instead, his eyes had lit up. “Right? I think I’m good at embroidery too!”

The butterflies fluttered in the girl’s hair. His palm came down and gently stroked Qu Miaomiao’s hair. She turned around. “What is it?”

Li Shu said, “Take me to the people who tried to kill me and marry me to that dead girl. They’re so vicious that they deserve a lesson.”

Qu Miaomiao looked him over worriedly. “Can you fight now? My martial arts aren’t very good.”

Li Shu said, “People of the martial world believe in repaying even the smallest grudge. I can’t swallow this anger.”

Qu Miaomiao frowned and thought it over. “We……don’t seem to believe in that.”

Li Shu changed his wording. “Revenge for grudges, repayment for kindness.”

Qu Miaomiao nodded repeatedly. “That’s right!”

Li Shu smiled, secretly cursing her in his heart: Hypocrite.

Qu Miaomiao led out the only horse left at Haoyi Manor and had Li Shu sit on it. The two of them slowly made their way down the mountain on the one horse. Li Shu looked back. Haoyi Manor sat halfway up Silang Peak. Clouds and mist curled around the heights, while the foot of the mountain bustled with voices.

Silang Peak was a famous mountain on the outskirts of Jiangzhou City. With one main peak and three side peaks, it looked from a distance like four slender figures. At its foot stood Silang Town, where quite a few newly established martial sects had claimed territory and set up camp. Calls recruiting disciples rang out everywhere. Some sects put on acrobatics to show off their impressive martial arts. Some sang and performed to demonstrate their skill with words. Some used pretty male and female disciples as their front, which probably……meant they also did matchmaking on the side.

Li Shu listened and watched with great interest, never forgetting to complain to Qu Miaomiao. “Why didn’t you bring me out to play sooner?”

At the end of the road, the way was completely blocked. He vaguely heard people discussing a sect he currently least wanted to hear about.

He urged Qu Miaomiao to go ask around. She squeezed into the crowd and only emerged after a long while. “Mingye Hall has posted a lot of wanted notices. They’re looking for an enemy.”

Li Shu forced himself to remain calm. “What enemy?”

Qu Miaomiao raised a sheet of paper dripping with black ink. “The Sect Leader of the Kulian Sect.”

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Author’s note:

The story is starting. Thank you, everyone!

As usual, a little side scene:

Li Shu doesn’t want to pay.

Qu Miaomiao: As righteous martial artists, how can we owe money and not pay it back?

Li Shu is so furious his teeth ache, but his heart aches even more when he takes out the money: I’m righteous. I’ll pay.