First Blood
A small group of twelves make their way across the vast, wild steppes of the Northern Plains. This area, known as the Savage War Land, is divided between many tribes. This group in particular belongs to the Hanqi. All of them, except for their leader, are young boys of fifteen. At their head is a middle-aged man with a rough and hardened face, long wild hair and a bushy beard. The leader of this group and also their instructor.
These young boys, because they are not yet recognized as men among their people, are participating in the coming-of-age tradition of their tribe.
At age fifteen, every boy of the tribe would participate in the Awakening Ceremony, where they would know if they were destined to become Gu Master or simple servant.
If their fate was to be Gu Master, their aperture would awaken giving them the ability to refine and harness the power of Gu.
Gu are the essence of Heaven and Earth, containing the profundities of the world and capable of supernatural abilities. Because of this, Gu Master reigns over the masses of mortals incapable of using them.
In the Northern Plains, the Gu Master of each tribe waged war and raided each other for cattle and plunder. The rough weather, the dangerous beast and their nomadic lifestyle regularly bring tribes into conflict. Because of this, the people of the Northern Plains have cultivated a warlike attitude which metastasizes in the tradition of the so-called "Youth Warband".
Instead of joining an academy, like in the Southern Border, for example, newly-minted Gu Masters were divided into warbands put under the direction of an experienced rank 2 gu master. They would then leave their tribe and not return until at least a year had elapsed. The warband would come back home just in time for the Induction Ceremony and they would be welcomed officially as men and Gu Master with all the responsibility and privilege that such status entails.
At the head of this warband is Hanqi Xi Ming, a Gu master at the peak of the second rank. He is forty years old, which means he has plenty of experience in battle and in using Gu. At the front of the group and just behind him are Hanqi Ma Zi and Hanqi Gang Wu.
These people may be protagonists of their own story, but they weren't the protagonist of this story. This so-called honour is reserved for Hanqi Ri Xu.
He is right behind Ma Zi and Gang Wu and earned this place despite his execrable talent. Each Gu Master has an aptitude rank from D to A, and D is the worst and most common. However, this year only one Gu master had an aptitude of D rank and that is Ri Xu.
Everyone was quite disappointed since Ri Xu had always shown signs of genius. Sadly for them, those signs of genius were not so much signs of prodigious intellect as something else.
In this world, the Heavens will sometimes bring a soul from another world and transmigrate or reincarnate it inside the body of a native. These individuals are referred to as "Otherworldly Demons". Despite bringing them here, Otherworldly Demons are suppressed by the Will of the Heavens.
To be at the front of the group —which was an unofficial way that the boys of the warband expressed their prestige and their social standing— Ri Xu had to show much ability to compensate for his lack of aptitude. This meant taking huge risks and not only surviving but being successful.
Ri Xu had shown his initiative and courage recently by not only slaying a young gu master of the Lizheng tribe but also spotting a small family encampment. The people of a tribe usually didn't live in large settlements like the people of other regions. After all, you needed large grazing land for cattle.
Thus, each tribe occupied a large amount of territory and each family would set their own encampment. Some family would set their encampment closer to larger families for protection.
This was not the case for the family that they had been following. The Ren family was very small. Excluding the Gu master that Ri Xu had slain, there were only three male Gu masters. Only males could be warriors, the female gu masters were irrelevant.
The rest were slaves and servants who took care of the encampment for their master, including their cattle herd. The Ren family owned a mid-sized —that is to say between 50 to 60 heads— flock of Cloudy Sheep.
Besides their flock, the Ren family doesn't seem to be excessively wealthy but enough to justify raiding them. Especially for the young warband, which had not been blooded yet and couldn't take on strong opponent because of their inexperience.
Hanqi Xi Ming, their instructor and the most experienced among them, judged the head of the Ren family to be below his cultivation level. The Ren family patriarch is probably at the middle, upper at best, stage of rank 2. The rest of the Ren family, that is to say, his two remaining sons, had probably just returned from their own youth warband only a few years ago and would still be at rank 1. Hanqi Xi Ming is confident that the boys under him could defeat them, after all, they outnumbered their target.
Furthermore, all of the boys in his Warband have powerful offensive Gu; Hanqi Ri Xu's Living Blade Gu, Hanqi Gang Wu's Iron Javelin Gu, and Hanqi Ma Zi's Manure Beetle Gu were only the most outstanding of them.
The youth warband increased their speed and are now caught up with the flock which is watched over by about a dozen slaves.
At the bottom of society in the Northern Plains are the mortal servants and slaves. They are meant to be stepped upon and exploited in the service of their betters.
Because of this, they are of no concern to the Hanqi warriors.
Xi Ming turned around on his saddle and fixed the boys behind him with a firm look. Then, his face softens and he enounces: "You take care of the slave! Don't bother with the sheep, that is for me. Kill the slave, don't bother capturing those vermins.". Done saying his piece, Xi Ming turned around, spurred his horse forward and galloped in the direction of the flock.
The boys on their part charged toward the slave.
Hanqi Ri Xu was riding atop his horse, of a race specifically bred by the Hanqi tribe for a thousand years. The horse is big, but not as big as Ma Zi's own horse, and has a pitch-black coat that seems to extinguish light itself. Unlike other species of horse, its eyes are bright and on the front of its face creating a stark contrast with its hide. Its salivating mouth is full of wicked teeth and a long forked tongue. Instead of hooves, sharps sword-like claws.
This was no herd animal, living in large groups among the tall grass of the steppes. This was an individualist beast bred to hunt, kill and devour. This was the infamous Vampire Sword Horse of the Hanqi tribe and this one was named "Niutou" after one of the guardians of the underworld.
It didn't take long for the slaves to spot Ri Xu and his brothers, and the fear on their faces was transparent. Ri Xu couldn't help the excited and bloodthirsty smile on his face and neither could his companion.
A fearsome scream rips out of Ri Xu's throat —the scream of a feral beast. Niutou follows with his own murderous roar. Taken by his own enthusiasm, Ri Xu is now riding beyond his comrade and he is to be the first to reach his prey. Behind Ri Xu, the other also let out their own battle cries but theirs couldn't hope to compare.
Ri Xu lifts his Living Blade Gu and the thing twists one way and then twists this other way. The Blade had a mind of its own and its mouth slobbered with hunger.
The slaves turn around and flee in each direction. It is too late for the one that Ri Xu had set his sights on his fate has been sealed! Ri Xu is not the first to attack though, the honour is for Niutou. One bite of the man-eating horse's strong jaw is enough to bring the slave and his steed to the ground.
The slave gibber and scream and pleads for mercy while crawling and stumbling away in the hope of saving his life. He has no such luck.
One swing of his Living Blade and Ri Xu chops off the slave's head. Then, the Living Blade takes one bite, and then another until it eats its fill from the corpse of its unfortunate victim.
Looking around for the result of the short skirmish, Ri Xu sees that the others have already finished their victim. Hanqi Yuo Li even killed two with his bow.
The battle is a success and Xi Ming has already secured the flock and was leading it away back to camp. The boys spur their horses to follow.