I remember 27th December 2001, the day I came into the world. I had no parents who stayed with me. I cried loudly at birth, louder than most babies were said to have done. The doctors did not like that one bit. For reasons I will never understand, they then sent me away shortly after, and thus found myself in Yulan Wei County.
This world is Xuexing. For as long as memory reaches, two sides have fought: the Wuye and the Liming. By the time I could grasp more than whispers, the Liming were gaining the upper hand. Wei County belonged to them, ruled by Xunsu Wei, the Swift Swordsman. People said his blade moved faster than that of anyone else, beyond even the sects.
The man who raised me was Feng Wei, a servant who served under the patriarch. He wasn't important, and he didn't have much, but he treated me like I was his own son. He fed me, taught me my manners, and kept me from ever being alone.
My foster mother paid little attention to me. When I was older, I learned she'd kept a secret affair with the patriarch, even though she was married to my father. My father knew. He didn't say a word, neither to her nor about her. He simply suffered it, and the value of that kind of patience eluded me until much later.
I had a brother who treated me kindly. He trained as a martial artist with the Hua Sect, and whenever he came home, he brought me books-martial manuals, histories, anything that he thought I might enjoy. Those books were the first things that made the world feel larger than Wei County.
I started learning martial arts from the age of four. Father begged the patriarch to agree to it. For whatever reasons, Xunsu Wei agreed and handed me a manual called the Wu Feng Sword Art. It didn't look impressive at first glance, but it was exacting.
It rested on three simple rules:
Walk on your heels, so that you can move quickly at any time.
Strike softly, yet firmly enough to allow the blade to cut cleanly.
Wear light clothes because speed was more important than anything else.
I trained each day. I followed the rules to the letter. I read the manual until I could recite it without thinking.
Years passed quietly.
When I was fifteen, I was summoned out of Wei County to join the army. On the day I left, my father accompanied me to the gate. Neither he nor I said much. I bowed to him once before I went away.
It was then that my childhood ended, but I didn't know it. That was where it all started, the beginning of everything—where I left Wei County, and where I started meeting those who would change my life.