My name is Iron Sword. My father was a blacksmith's apprentice in a town near the capital, and he could only repair the travelers' horseshoes when they went to or came from the capital on a journey. In the hopes of fulfilling his dream of becoming a blacksmith and smelting iron to make a sword after I grew up, he named me Iron Sword.
As I grew up, I began to dislike my name and changed it to "Sword" by dropping the "Iron" part. I was relieved to find out that I had no talent for blacksmithing but plenty of skill in martial arts. This led me to join gangs to learn martial arts since my father never agreed to enroll me in a dojo, considering the profession too dangerous.
I started practicing the Red Sun Mantra, which involves visualizing the sun in the mind and building the body. Soon, I became the main force of the gang. After a few years, I reached the level of senior martial artist and became the vice president of the gang.
There were three other vice presidents in the gang before I joined, and I became the youngest and fastest vice president in the gang's history.
One day, while I was checking the gang's files, I discovered its history mentioned a connection to a foundation establishment realm cultivator.
I found the story fascinating. While reading the book, I noticed that the cover page was thicker than the rest of the pages. After trying many ways to uncover the secrets, I divided the pages and found a leaflet with some words written on it hidden between the pages. It contained the mantra of cultivation, which can be used up to the peak of the foundation realm.
When I tried to practice the method, the leaflet burned itself, imprinted the sutra in my mind, and turned to ashes.
I attempted several times to practice the sutra, but the low concentration of spirit qi in the surroundings hindered my efforts. As I contemplated quitting the gang and exploring the broader world, the gang leader summoned us all for a meeting.
He began speaking about the opportunity the city lord had given them and excitedly explained how he managed to secure the deal from the other gang with his intelligence.
Everyone rolled their eyes when he mentioned his intelligence, as everyone in the city knew that the Red Fire gang leader had a big body but the brain of a monkey.
The other gang leaders in the town openly called him "Gorilla" to his face, which resulted in many fights in the town.
So, he explained the plan: they would act as bandits for a few days around the town and steal all the tax money in the village chief's possession before the tax office from the capital came to collect it.
They will get a 40 percent share of the stolen money, and the rest will be given to the city lord, who will enjoy the major share.
Everyone's faces turned black upon hearing the deal. A few talked about quitting the gang after hearing the deal, which caused quite a commotion.
The vice leader explained the flaws in the deal to the leader, which made him angry. He then went to the city lord's mansion with the vice leaders, and after a day of extensive talks, they all returned happily.
Since Sword wasn't interested in the deal, he didn't go to the city mansion and was instead given the task of managing the gang for the day.
The next day, the leader took us four vice leaders and other members outside the town. We bought a few horses by spending a large amount of money and started doing banditry.
For the first ten days, we lived by raiding the villages and decided to quit after today's last banditry.
As usual, we found a secret spot, hid our horses, and concealed ourselves, waiting for our informer in the merchant group to give us the details of the village and its layout, which he would note down in a book and pass to us secretly.
Although we didn't know why my boss gave a wicked grin after reading the book, I had a bad feeling about today's raid after seeing his sinister face.
When the village lights went out an hour before schedule, my premonition of danger increased, but I didn't voice my doubts and silently followed my boss. Although my boss is an idiot, he is good to all our gang members. So even if they clamor to quit the gang many times, none quit. When the vice presidents learned he got duped by the officials, they went to fight it out for him.
So, I will help him out even if there is danger in the village, as the other two vice presidents have hidden in the mountains. If we happen to get caught and the official who supported this operation tries to kill us by blaming it on us, they will immediately surrender the evidence at the capital and plead to release us.
Soon we reached the village and found it eerily silent, confirming that the villagers were already asleep. My boss instructed me to take his son with him to warn the child or, if necessary, break his hand to ensure he wouldn't speak about the merchant whom he asked about the bandits to anyone, or they would come back again.
I reconsidered and decided to scare him thoroughly, then leave him alone after taking all the valuables in the house. This way, he would be too afraid to talk about us to anyone and would only report it as a regular robbery.
A minute after leaving the boss group, the boss's son and I arrived at the house. It was a single-story, dilapidated building with visible patches.
We tied the horses beside the house and considered knocking on the door, but the small gorilla (boss's son) with me immediately began demolishing the front door in pieces, went inside, and started breaking things.
Soon, a kid who looked obviously smarter and an old man older than my father came to the hall where the small gorilla was rampaging.
I decided to wait until the gorilla stopped his rampage and started the banditry, but the kid, who was shocked by our arrival, became pale.
I initially thought he was obviously frightened, but later I realized that human faces could become pale when they are extremely angry.
He stood with a pale face, pointing his finger at the gorilla to stop the demolition. However, the gorilla, upon hearing the cries, became even more domineering and started destroying the surrounding walls as well.
The kid, with shaking hands, took out a cotton bag, and I thought he was offering us some of his pocket money to make us leave.
As I pictured the scene of him begging us to take the money and leave, we saw him pull out two shining marbles and flick them onto the small rampaging gorilla.
To my astonishment, the glass bead immediately shattered upon contacting the boss's son, and huge, spiked vines started emerging from thin air, binding him tightly.
The small devil flicked another marble at me, and I tried to intercept it, but it was too fast. By the time I fell down, I was tightly bound by the spiked vines.
I tried using strength to break free from the vines, but every time I exerted myself, the spikes on the green vines dug into my body and amplified the pain.
Then we saw the small devil walking towards us. He took a wooden stick and began beating the hell out of both of us.
As the vines blocked our internal energy by absorbing it when we tried to use it to protect ourselves, we were soon like ordinary people taking a beating from an experienced martial artist, beaten all over the body and left like dead pigs in the house.
As we were being humiliated, the villagers arrived like gods and took us into custody from the small devil. This made me apologize for thinking of robbing them and thank them for protecting us.
(Later when the red fire gang were handed over to the town guards, they were all escaped with help of their accomplish, and Sword decided to quit the gang go on the journey of reaching the cultivation peak)