1 Luo Xiong

A fourteen-year-old youth opened his eyes, his face was bathing with sweat. Intense dizziness pervaded his head, as an accumulated fatigue constantly tortured him at this moment of time.

In the room where the youth is currently in, was full of mess. Wooden humanoid figures with strange and mysterious patterns could be seen, lying on the wooden floor. There could be seen limbs and some parts of the wooden figures' bodies scattered on the floor, it is a terrible mess.

On the youth's hand was a three-inches knife with a traces of brownish wood in it; it is obvious that he just used this knife earlier.

Although there is a window, with the sun providing a light inside the room, it is still very gloomy and dark.

The youth picked up the brush lying on the floor, then soaked it on the ink before he began to draw strange patterns on a wooden figure's body.

This wooden figure was quite strange and gave out a creepy aura. Its face was incomprehensible, such that expression was truly malevolent like a vengeful ghost was sealed within.

At the patterns which the youth were drawing, there are some sort of invisible energy blobs could be seen in it. It is constantly moving at the limited place, then move back to its original position before it move again.

With a motionless face, the youth was finally done drawing a black and crude pattern. He took a deep breath, before he touched the figure's forehead with his fingers as he muttered some sort of incantations.

The invisible energy blobs on the figure began to tremble. Then the wooden figure sucked the invisible energies as the youth ended his incantation before the puppet moved in a seemingly crude manner.

The youth retracted his fingers while the figure trembled as it raised its arms onto forward position. One could see that arms were trembling violently and the youth has a trouble in breathing. His face produced a handful of sweat, while concentrating on the wooden figure.

The figure's upper body stood up before the lower body. It is now standing on the room, with its hand in a straightforward manner. It was constantly shaking, then suddenly, the tremble disappeared while the youth suddenly sat on the floor, panting furiously while his hands were rubbing on his stomach.

He felt vomiting at this moment, with his head aching from what he did earlier. His vision darkened for a moment then it turned into normal.

The youth gritted his teeth, as he endured the pain pervading his head, forcefully standing up before he walked to the door.

He opened the door as a creeking sound could be heard. He stepped outside the room and saw a young lady with a long black hair standing beside the wall, waiting for him.

Her face and charm were average, as her black eyes were like a bottomless abyss as her whole being were giving off an eerie feeling like a female emotionless ghost.

The youth closed the door as he stared at her. Meanwhile, the latter glanced at the youth before her as she smilingly said: "Young Master, looks like you're done with your training."

Her smile were too ugly and grim, which is perfectly compatible to the atmosphere.

The youth, however, nodded emotionlessly as though he was already used for the young lady's ugly smile and said, "Yes, I'm done. You should clean the room now."

"Yes Young Master." the young lady cheerfully said as her ugly smile widened before she bowed before the youth then walked past the youth.

The youth finally walked through the way as he stared at the garden with full of rotten flowers, filled with mosquitoes and bugs. Some of the planted herbs were dark and gloomy, some were poisonous. Such a thing was contrast to the sunny weather; cold and gloomy.

He sighed in his heart, as he glanced at the sky, deep in thought. It has been almost six years when he started to train for creating puppets. By first, learning some fundamentals about mystical inscriptions and knowledge, then training his internal magic power, then practicing how to inscribe mystical patterns, then creating a crude and wooden lowly puppets before trying to manipulate it to control the puppets.

He is quite talented in inscribing mystical patterns which is why he is always practicing on the training room that his father has personally built for him.

"Its getting boring, huh?" the youth murmured in low voice.

He is a young master of a remote and declining clan who was named Luo Xiong. Just like what explained before, he has a quite talent in inscribing mystical patterns. But it was not enough if he wanted to catch up with his peers.

The Luo Clan was once a major faction with a quite history. In this place where full of schemes were being brewed, the Great Wu Empire, it is especially a dangerous place.

A major faction would need to be alert all the time, and needed to consider all sorts of possibilities that would happen upon making a decision.

As a former major faction of the Great Wu Empire, it has a very magnificent history, which is even comparable to the imperials. It is said that the founding emperor and the ancestor of the Luo Clan was a life-and-death friend who had gone through many disasters and calamities.

Having established both the Great Wu Empire and the Luo Clan, they rose to power and became one of the top empires in this region.

The relationship of the two were getting closer as generations passes. However, until one day, his grandfather, the old patriarch of the Luo Clan, had suddenly make a unforgivable mistake causing the relationship between the two major forces to shatter and lead the Luo Clan to downfall causing some other major factions to strike them while down, especially for those who were the clan's enemies. The scheme was brewed, and the clan had fallen; the glory of the old, will never come back again unless an extremely talented person on the Luo Clan dominate the empire and became a top expert.

Luo Xiong's father, the clan's current patriarch, has a strength which is not strong enough to shake the heaven and earth. And so, it lead the clan to downfall.

Thinking about the father of his, Luo Xiong's body trembled as fear emerged on his eyes. He was not afraid of gods nor the heaven, but his father instead.

He was a true monster on his eyes, an ancient primordial monster who could kill him without blinking.

He forcefully calmed himself down, as he continued to walk through the garden, heading towards the direction of the main courtyard where his father was currently residing in.

Few minutes, he had finally arrived at the place. Staring at this courtyard, he couldn't but become nervous and his body involuntarily trembled as he was stuck on his position, unable to move his body.

His heart was pounding so hard, casting a fearful glance at the courtyard in front of him.

Today, was the day when his father would check his progress of his training and cultivation.

Immediately, he heard a sound of soft footsteps behind. Causing Luo Xiong to glance, as he saw a beautiful young lady who was currently hugging a doll. Her neck was white-colored and it was long as crane's neck. Her hands were slender, which is currently hugging a doll on her blossom.

She was very young, roughly thirteen to fourteen-years-old just close to Luo Xiong's age. This was Luo Xiong's little sister, who was just one year young than him, Luo Yan.

"Brother!" Luo Yan glanced at Luo Xiong, cheerfully greeting him as she ran towards with a beaming smile.

Her smile were cute and lovable, that could cause a man to protect her, with her smile.

However, Luo Xiong didn't harbor good feelings nor bad to her, as he emotionlessly stared at her before he began to ignore her, continuing his walk to the courtyard.

"Brother, why are you ignoring again?" Luo Yan pouted, as she tugged her elder brother's sleeves.

"I'm busy don't disturb me." said Luo Xiong nonchalantly, without even glancing at her once after the greetings of Luo Yan.

Meanwhile, Luo Yan naively smiled as she said, "Brother, you're always working hard. Why can't you rest even for a day?"

Luo Xiong formed a slighy sneer on his face before an annoyed expression could be seen. He angrily thought, 'Can't you see that I'm at the horrible situation here? Damned annoying fly!'

He cursed continuously on his mind, but he didn't say any of it for fear of his little sister to cry. If not, he would have angered the devil of a father there.

While cursing in his mind, he and his little sister had finally reached the door unknowingly. He knocked the door for a few times but there is no sound could be heard inside.

He didn't do anything at this moment of time, and waited a few breaths before a sound rang out within the room: "Come in."

A coarse, and old voice could be heard from inside causing Luo Xiong to tremble a little as he opened the door slowly.

The door began to open as he walked towards the room. Inside was also a complete mess. He could see many high-class wines scattered on the room, like a room of a useless wastrel.

At the center of the room, a middle-aged man who was currently half-naked could be seen. He was currently sitting at the crude wooden chair with his back leaning. His beard was long that it lengthen to his neck while his stomach was huge like fatty.

He could see the face of this middle-aged man, a drank face was currently staring at the two emotionlessly as he gulped a mouthful of wine again before putting it at the table nearby his seat.

"Father…" Luo Xiong said weakly as he didn't dare to directly glance at the middle-aged man.

"Did you have any progress?" replied the middle-aged man, with his voice coldly resounded throughout the room.

Luo Xiong trembled violently as he didn't dare to breath loudly. As for the answer of his father's question, the result was actually obvious. He was stuck at the bottleneck, having remained at the initial-stage Puppet Master rank.

"N-no… M-my control over the puppet still has no progress. B-but, in a few weeks… maybe, I could advance to middle-stage." Luo Xiong stuttered as he answer the question, not daring to lie. He knew that this father of his was very terrifying. As long as he find out the he lied at him, undoubtedly, he would experience the punishment of eighteen levels of hell.

"What!? There is only two months before the competition, just what the hell are you doing you son of a bitch!?" Luo Xiong's father angrily shouted, as he smashed the table nearby, causing the bottle of wine to tremble violently.

Luo Xiong was frightened, likewise the little sister behind him. His legs turned soft hearing the angry shout of his father, he didn't dare to retort at him.

Meanwhile, Luo Yan was like a frightened cat, extremely shocked at the sudden outrage. Though if was scary, she continued to clenched at her elder brother's as she lowered her head.

The Luo patriarch stood up from the chair, as he grabbed bottle of wine, before angrily smashing it at Luo Xiong's head.

Bang!

The bottle of wine had smashed towards the youth's head in a horrifying speed causing the latter to step back as he hugged his head dizzily.

Blood flowed through his wound, as his breathing ragged, while his senses also buzzed that he couldn't even feel anything but pain.

"F-father…" seeing what happened, tears could be seen at the corner of Luo Yan's eyes, as she softly said.

Luo Xiong's father walked towards the youth, as he grabbed the latter's head, lifting it up to the air.

Luo Xiong felt that his head was going to separate with his neck, it was too painful but he forcefully endure it, not letting a single groan of it to let out.

"You useless piece of trash! I have given you a long time to cultivate, to think that you would slack off!" Luo Xiong's father angrily said, as he put a strength on the hand where it was grabbing the youth's head.

Feeling that his head was about to get crashed from the extreme strength, he screamed in pain as gritted his teeth.

Meanwhile, Luo Yan crawled towards her father, hugging his leg as she pleadingly said, "Father… father… don't hurt brother. He is not in wrong please…"

The middle-aged man glanced at the young lady with disheveled hair who was pleading, his gaze softened as he kicked Luo Xiong body causing the youth to fly, smashing towards the scattered bottles of wine.

Bang!

Luo Xiong felt that his ribs were utterly smashed into pieces, as he suddenly tasted something sweet on his mouth. He vomited a mouthful of blood, staining the floor before staring at the devil fearfully, while using his hand to rub his smashed ribs.

"Hmph! Very good! If you didn't get an excellent position at the competition in two months, don't blame me for killing you!" the middle-aged man threatened, before he walked out the room leaving behind the injured youth and the crying Luo Yan.

He took a glanced at the departing devil for the last time, before he lost consciousness.