Overthrowing Fate

Chapter 5 - The World on the Other Side

One month passed after another as he made his way through the forest. Seasons came and seasons went and a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Xu Min spent his time practicing his cultivation according to the instructions he had been given by Overseer Tian and his body quickly regained the healthy state it had been in before.

The long time spent atop the tree waiting for mercenaries and guards to give up hunting him caused Xu Min to lose a lot of weight and his cultivation base dropped below the Student Warrior rank once more. Xu Min showed no signs of regret or despair though. Instead, he now had an iron will and determination that shone from his charcoal-black eyes as he viewed his current state as a new beginning.

Xu Min was all alone. His parents sold him at a young age and his sister was murdered right in front of his eyes. Although he had an amazing talent for cultivation, this young boy had not been capable of saving his only family. Thus, guilt and hate were the two emotions that now drove Xu Min.

The only thing within his mind, that was only suppressed by a small voice of reason that kept telling him to wait and endure, was revenge.

After having trained in the forest for three months, Xu Min had regained his Student Warrior rank and with that, the ability to kill young master Zhong. However, killing young master Zhong was not enough for the young boy. He clenched his teeth as he kept training harder and harder. His goal was to defeat Family Leader Zhong, a full-fledged Warrior.

In this world, strength was what mattered. Everyone was divided into ranks by how strong they were.

The lowest tier were those who did not possess any Qi. They did not even deserve a proper rank and were just commoners. As soon as a person had gathered enough essence from the heavens and the earth, he or she could start refining Qi. Those who reached the point of being able to refine Qi were called Student Warriors. Above that, one would become a proper Warrior, a master of the martial arts.

The Warrior rank was split into stars. Warriors of the first, second and third star were considered early stage Warriors. Warriors of the fourth, fifth and sixth star were considered mid stage warriors, and late stage Warriors were the Warriors of the seventh, eighth and ninth star. Family Leader Zhong was a late stage Warrior and his strength was many thousand times stronger than that of a Student Warrior. This fact caused Xu Min to clench his fists and work even harder to be able to defeat the Zhong Family Leader someday. Even if he had to wait for years, this was an enmity that would never be resolved until one of them was dead.

The step between a Student Warrior and a real Warrior was as great as the difference between the heavens and the earth. A difference that could only be covered after many years of hard work and cultivation. Hard work did not scare the young boy; instead, he welcomed it. He welcomed anything which would keep his mind busy; if not, he feared that he would go insane.

As Xu Min made his way through the forest, he trained three things. The first was his breathing exercises, that allowed him to absorb the essence of the heavens and the earth, which he then refined into Qi.

The second thing he improved was his physical strength. Every day he would train his body with various physical exercises that Overseer Tian had taught him. As the old man had said, "The body is a tool that we rely on to use our inner energy. The stronger the energy, the stronger the tool must be. If you release too much energy, your body cannot withstand it and you will end up breaking yourself."

Although Xu Min still felt a tinge of pain in his heart every time he thought about Overseer Tian, he was perfectly well aware of how much information he was given. He had all the tools necessary for him to become a great cultivator, thanks to the amount of time that Overseer Tian had spent on teaching him.