章 4: Thirst For Power
(Hooded Person POV)
My name is Lian Li, one of the only survivors of the Autumn Massacre.
I was born and raised in the village in the fringes of the BeiYang continent where our way of life centered around hunting animals and forestry.
I was raised by my mother to be the perfect wife for my father's friend's son, whom they had arranged a marriage to before I was even born.
I hated him.
Just because Father's friend saved my mother's life, they made this stupid agreement without thinking about their unborn daughter's feelings.
Not like they would since in such a village like ours, having a daughter was more of a burden. Only the men worked while women stayed at home.
A daughter would just be another mouth to feed to a family, so why not send her off to someone else and let her be their problem?
The son was cruel and a useless scum, always bullying the weaker kids and treating others like trash while lazing around all day. Sure he would put on a kind, smiling face in front of the adults but in their absence his cruel nature would be revealed.
Even when I tried to tell them the truth, no one would believe me, thinking I was jealous of all the praises he was receiving.
I was set to marry him on my sixteenth birthday, but for good or bad, monsters came to attack our village the day before the marriage, tearing the buildings down and devouring anyone in their way.
My parents had entrusted me to the scum son to bring me to safety while they sacrificed themselves to buy time for us. Though they hadn't done much for me when I was young, I had wanted to die with them since it was a better fate than being this scum's property.
Probably knowing my decision, he managed to knock me out to take me with him.
When I finally woke up, the scum had bounded my limbs in preparation to rape me. Seeing as how he could not touch me back when my parents were around as they wanted to keep me pure before marriage, he wanted to vent out his sexual frustrations there and then.
I'm not surprised a scum like him could still think of such things right after our village was destroyed.
Despite my struggles, he managed to push his disgusting thing inside me.
My screams must have attracted the monsters because a pack of them had appeared then.
That scum immediately bolted for the trees, thinking the monsters would go for me instead of him. Unfortunately for him, they had chosen to chase after him instead, completely ignoring me.
I admit I felt a little sense of glee when I heard his screams of agony.
With nothing else for me, I had thought to let my life end there as well, but something told me I would regret it if I died there.
Cutting my bindings on a protruding rock, I managed to find my way out of the forest to the next village, passing them the news of the monster attack.
They wanted me to stay there but I had nothing to offer so I refused, making my way towards the capital city of Jin where my mother used to tell me stories about when I was young. Naive as I was, I believed I could begin a new life there with nothing on my back.
I learned later that a monster had gained enough intelligence to gather the surrounding monsters together to form a community, invading our village to establish its domain. With my news of the monster attack, the village managed to request the help of a few Adventurers and nearby Sects to eliminate the monsters, though they were too late to save anyone there.
The event was later known as the Autumn Massacre, where the monsters had invaded just as the leaves began to fall, like how my village fell to them.
As for me, Jin city held no hope for me.
No one was interested in a scarred, dirty and starving girl with piercing yellow eyes and muddy blonde hair. I was forced to scrape by on trash heaps while fighting with the other slum residents for food and space for survival.
The syndicate that controlled the shadows also exploited us slum squatters. I would sometimes be taken in to 'entertain' their people, either corrupt officials or other crime bosses.
At least they fed us sometimes and the food was better than what I would be able to scavenge.
It was the worst four years of my life.
I had contemplated suicide more than once but I felt like surviving as long as I could to spite that scum son who had died so pathetically back in that forest. It might have been a foolish notion but I had nothing else to live for at that time.
Sometime during my fourth year as a slum squatter, I was jumped by four men who wanted the bread I managed to steal from the bakery shop.
In my panic as they assaulted me, I unconsciously channeled Elemental Quark into my Cultivation Point and disintegrated them into ashes. Till this day I still don't know what I did, but I never regretted my actions.
Knowing that I was now a potential Practitioner, I crawled out of the slums to find the Heaven Sect, the strongest Sect in this continent.
I knew that only by having power will one not be trampled on in this world. I will learn from that Sect and obtain power, then stand at the top of this world and watch it burn for all the wrongs it has done to me!
My arrival had been fortunate as it was at the time of their entrance test, everyone from all walks of life had gathered here hoping for admission.
The disciples near the entrance had preached about their Sect values and rules which I cared nothing about. I was only there for power and that's the only thing I will care for.
They gathered us in some giant courtyard, telling us a senior member would come out to greet us soon to initiate the first test.
The crowd immediately separated themselves into four groups. The poor, the average, the rich and me.
Not even the poor would want to associate themselves with a slum squatter like me. And even if anyone wanted to, my glare would be enough to keep them away.
Sensing someone looking at me, I looked up at the giant building ahead to see a man standing within its shadows, staring at me.
I quickly dismissed him as a curious disciple, dropping my gaze back down to my feet.
That was when He stepped into my life, changing everything.
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