Winter had arrived early, casting an icy gaze over the once-lush lands of the northern continent.
A chilling breeze wove through the air, and an unending assault of rain fell through the skies, engulfing a lonely village nestled deep within the forests of an ancient mountain range.
The village lay in eerie silence, almost lifeless, abandoned to the season's merciless grip.
Its inhabitants, seasoned under the northern reach's unforgiving weather, had long since learned to read the call of birds and heed the warning of early winter storms on the fallen autumn leaves.
Within the largest dwelling of the village, in a lavish and tall wooden mansion, a young man slowly lifted a steaming cup of tea to his lips.
His movements were steady and refined, and his figure reminiscent of a young and dashing noble master.
One silent breath and the hot steam rising from the silver and golden ceramic quickly faded away.
As the steam disappeared, a long sigh seemed to escape his lips while his gaze bore down on the figure lying at his feet.
Xu An carefully studied the glassy, unseeing gaze of the old man whose body lay soaking in its own blood.
In silence, he lowered his hand, and using the old man's tattered robe, he wiped the fresh blood from the small makeshift blade in his grasp.
There was no pity in his gaze and no ripple in his heart. His fingers moved as steady as his mind, swift and precise.
He then eyed the cup in his left hand. The tea was boiling hot, almost jumping out of the cup. "Master, as ordered, the tea is ready." He muttered in a dull tone, the words falling flat in the eerie silence of the chamber. Spoken for no ears but his own.
Trembling shadows flickered behind his figure, products of the lone candle keeping the night's darkness away.
Xu An calmly looked around the room. The only thing catching his attention was the silvery desk whose back was hugged by three desolate-looking bookshelves.
A moment later, his gaze returned to the corpse at his feet.
He slowly poured the steaming liquid over the old man's face, his eyes wide open, overseeing every detail as the tea fell. "May it suit your refined taste..."
A sizzling hiss filled the room, the kind that one would hear when tossing a fat piece of meat onto a stone slab over a roaring pit of fire. Yet, Xu An's expression remained all the same, neither frosty nor warm as if he were but an outsider to the scene.
As the hissing slowly faded and a nauseating stench began to spread across the room, a thunderous flash of light burrowed through the window.
Under that fleeting light, the metallic glint of a key hanging from a leather cord loosely strung around the old man's neck was momentarily reflected across Xu An's gaze.
The dark-haired youth lightly shook his head with feigned pity. "Ah…The greater the care, the greater the fear." He sighed. "A key next to the heart is nothing less than a dagger hanging over the neck"
With a sudden pull, the string forcefully snapped and the key landed in his palm. "Such is the nature of the world we live in... You're so old, yet such a fool. Was the glint in my gaze really that dim?"
No longer bothering with the corpse, Xu An drew near the desk. With a flip of the key, a hidden compartment opened up under the tabletop and he took a small booklet from within.
'Qi and Its Essence, by Daoist Red Dust.' Looking at it, Xu An displayed a genuine smile.
"At long last." If his research was correct then the thing he had desperately sought for years was finally in his grasp.
Long had he dreamed of getting his hands on this book.
Long had he dreamed of learning the so-called spiritual arts of immortal cultivation.
It was almost a decade ago, when he saw first hand the terrifying nature of an immortal cultivator. That day, his life and his vision for the future had taken a sudden and drastic turn.
With a mere palm strike, that being summoned a terrifying gust of wind that blew away a large portion of the forest surrounding the village.
The whole mountain quaked…
Tree trunks were ripped from their roots…
Towering rocks scattered like dust in the wind…
A terrifying scene the likes of which Xu An had never before imagined.
Incidentally, it was also under that same palm strike that both his father and grandfather, his last living family members, had lost their lives.
Their figures had both been reduced into a fading crimson mist.
Up until then, Xu An had never cared too deeply about which path to take in life.
He always believed that cutting trees and fishing in icy lakes would be his life's calling but after that day things had taken a great and sudden turn.
All child-like innocence eventually fades away.
At 21 years old, Xu An no longer held that a youthful gaze, it had vanished shortly after that incident.
Although he hadn't seen the attacker's face. Every time he closed his eyes to sleep, that person's figure would emerge in his dreams.
Every night a pair of cold eyes would peer at him from within a blurry veil of darkness, and a deep voice would constantly resound in his head.
"Burn the heavens, refine the Earth and trample upon the Bridge of Creation."
Each time he closes his eyes, those words eventually find their way into his head, and he is forced through yet another restless night.
"With this, I will finally be able to take my first step…" Xu An slowly murmured deep in his own darkness.
Only he knew how torturous his days and nights were.
Only he knew the amount of hatred that flowed through his veins.
"One day, I will find you." That was merely one of the many promises that he made to that person in his dreams.
Just then, the creaking of aged wood under the soft pattering of steps could be heard approaching from behind the door, causing his breathing to immediately grow stale.
On the other side of the walls, a young girl dressed in a long, snow-white nightgown approached.
The girl trod cautiously for fear of making too much noise, but the house's corridors weren't particularly long and thus she quickly arrived before the large wooden door leading to her grandfather's work room.
From beneath that very same door, Xu An could clearly see her flickering shadow. His eyes slowly narrowed into slits and he silently tightened the grip on the makeshift blade.
If a guard were to suddenly come through and he couldn't properly finish him off right away then it would spell a lot of extra trouble.
He knew that by early morning, everyone in the village would most likely be after his head.
However by then he would be long gone.
It would be ideal if he could take full advantage of the raging storm outside to make a quick and silent escape.
Behind the door, the young girl stood in silence, rubbing her hands and feet together in a desperate bid for warmth.
The days in the north were frighteningly cold, and the nights even more so.
It was already past midnight and the air seemed to dig deep into the bones, leaving no layer of skin untouched.
After a few more breaths of silence she finally seemed to have made up her mind.
With one hand fixing her golden hair, she lightly knocked on the door.
"Grandpa, it's Mei Ling. May I come in…?" Her voice was soft and delicate, almost like the whisper of a flower. Yet, a hint of both anxiousness and weariness plagued her words.
Her grandfather had a rather fiery temper, and at times even she would get fiercely scolded.
However tonight she couldn't help but make her way here.
For the last couple of nights she had been plagued with a strange and suffocating sense of unease.
Everytime she closed her eyes she would feel like falling down a dark and bottomless abyss. And she was helpless to stop it.
Her heart would begin to race, her lungs would feel empty of air, her blood would run cold and her figure would instantly shoot up drenched in sweat and grasping for breath.
Her grandfather was known to have some small accomplishments in spiritual arts so she had come to ask for a small blessing that might ease her heart and mind.
Normally she would have asked her elder sister who was a spiritual arts prodigy that had been taken in by an Immortal Cultivation Sect, but she was currently away. Thus she could only rely on her grandfather's skills.
Upon hearing her voice, Xu An immediately relaxed.
He had initially thought that it would be one of the guards, but it turned out to be the useless young miss.
He briefly contemplated in silence before his eyes flashed with a cold light.
He parted his lips and his voice rang out old and raspy. "Ling'er… Come in…"
Behind the door, the young girl immediately let out a sigh of relief.
She thanked her lucky stars that her grandfather seemed to be in a good mood and opened the door.
"Im sorry for-"
However, the moment she stepped into the flickering light, a shadow moved past her eyes and a slap to the face struck her down on her knees.
Her eyes barely had time to widen when a kick was ruthlessly delivered to her gut, sending her rolling toward her grandfather's corpse, her chest void of any breath.
She wanted to scream out in horror at the sudden pain but the sight of the bloody corpse immediately robbed her of any thoughts.
The agony of being breathless sent her crawling a few steps forward, thrashing her feet against the pool of blood on the floor.
Xu An had no intention of allowing her a moment of rest. He quickly moved in front of her, grasped her neck and pressed a palm over her mouth.
Their eyes both locked onto each other and Mei Ling shivered.
Xu An!
She immediately tried to wrestle herself away but it was futile, not only was she out of breath but his movements had been too swift and ruthless. His grip was locked tight.
Her mind was half blank as everything happened all at once.
However the thought that her childhood sweetheart had actually killed her grandfather made her want to wail more than the pain burning through her skin.
"Do you want to live?" Xu An calmly muttered while holding a firm grasp over her neck.
The crying Mei Ling looked at him in silence before repeatedly nodding. Although the shock had left her almost rid of any bearing, when he eased his grip over her mouth she finally managed to draw in a chest full of air.
"Then, you're going to tell me exactly which Immortal Cultivation School your elder sister joined." Xu An whispered into her ears while slowly releasing his hand from her mouth.
He calmly wiped her snot and tears on her robes. "And it better be the same one that came out through that old thing's mouth, otherwise…"
Mei Ling blinked as she looked at his cold expression.
That face…that voice and those eyes…
What was this?
What sweetheart?
What noble and aspiring official of the court?
Xu An…
He had actually betrayed and killed her grandfather? Why…?
Ah… A lifetime of illusions had been shattered just like that.
The person she saw as a saint had turned out to be an abhorrent demon.
She parted her lips and mumbled a few silent words. Xu An's grasp over her neck was such that a little more pressure and she would definitely pass out.
"Promise…D-…Do you… promise…to let me go…? She weakly muttered.
The feeling of her grandfather's blood permeating her robes and the warmth of it bathing her skin made her tremble in fear and sorrow.
"Of course." He immediately reassured her with a smile. The same smile he had always shown her since the day he had started studying under the old man and they met.
This only served to further the sadness in her eyes. The feeling was akin to someone digging through her flesh and ripping out her heart.
No longer wishing to see that smile, Mei Ling closed her eyes and muttered in a trembling tone. "She…The…The Five Elements Valley."
"Five Elements Valley? Is that all?" Xu An's gaze was as dull as his tone.
The girl immediately shivered and let out a wail-like whisper. "Deep in the southern mountains south…east of Purple Cloud City!"
"I..I promise this, this is all I…I know!"
Hearing this, Xu An brought her face near his. He gazed deep into her eyes and seeing the trembling within, he lightly nodded.
She opened her mouth. "Why…did you-"
"Good." He whispered before snapping her neck.
Her body tensed before going limp. With a soft thud, her head fell next to her grandfather's feet.
"Promises, promises…" Xu An lightly muttered while eying the dead duo.
"They are powerful words but alas they can be as vacant as the feelings in one's heart."
"Even though you both pointed out the same name, and the same directions, you still can't be fully trusted. Very much like how I promised you both the same thing, and you still ended up dead at my feet."
He took one last glance at the old man. "For such a mean and bitter old fool, to think you would wail and beg twice as that useless girl."
Xu An sighed and used the candle to set the desk and both of the corpses ablaze before jumping through the window.
It wasn't long before the sounds of screaming and shouting echoed through the desolate streets.
However by then, the youth known as Xu An had long-since vanished into the night.