1016 Hu Xiaofan (1/2)

”My parents hadn't been involved with the martial world for a long time back then. Our whole family survived through farming. The days were hard, and we were happy every day. However, once the nightmare came, my entire family but I was killed. The reason I'm alive is that I kowtowed. I told them I was obedient, and that I was willing to cook and wash for them, I told them that I was afraid of dying… That I wanted to stay alive no matter what…”

”Ultimately, they thought that I was good for nothing but having eight innately awakened chakras, they took me back to sell me away seeing that I was moderately gifted… I actually began to cook and wash for them, doing anything they asked me to every day from morning to night for three full months.”

”Then, I finally got them to let down their guards and I killed them with a pot of poisoned soup. I avenged my parents' deaths — the blood debt of my family. On the day I took revenge, I laughed. I laughed so happily… Too bad I was caught by another group of human traffickers not too long after I escaped. That aside, I'd most probably be an average worker in a shop now. Maybe I'd like my life ordinarily but it's comfortable…”

”Faced with another group of human traffickers, I begged them meekly again, worked for them diligently and even helped them bully and train kids who were new. A few months later, I poisoned the five people once more with a pot of soup and saved a bunch of kids too…”

”I took the dozen of them around to beg on the streets. I actually still wanted to go work at a shop but what about the young kids after I leave? I took everything with a smile, thinking that I could still be a shop worker, an average joe, after we go our separate ways when everyone was a few years older!”

”But our begging lifestyle didn't last past a few days as we were targeted by another group of people in less than ten days. We were caught… This group wasn't killed by my soup, they were killed by peers of the same field in a battle. As they were wiped out, I became the goods of another group of men.”

”In less than two years, I've gone through five batches of human traffickers. It's like an endless cycle and I'm nearly numbed. I no longer want to become a shop worker, no longer want to live like an average person. I… I've come to the Residence of Nine Supremes.”

”I'm sincerely grateful to master. I genuinely like this environment too. But the martial world is the martial world. No matter how much I like it here and how thankful I am, this is a reality I can't change. When I encounter danger, when I don't have master around me, when I will be killed, I… will still die.”

”The old saying is that nothing matters after death but I've come so close to death too many times – what's the big deal! Why can't I go hahahaha?”

”This is how I am. The martial world to me is like a laugh. I try to laugh when I'm alive, to face life happily while making myself stronger so I won't die as soon. However, when it's time to die... when I'm killed, I want to keep laughing… Even before I die, I don't want to give the other party a sense of gratification!”

Hu Xiaofan said while laughing, ”Imagine the moment when I'm about to die. Do you think that the person killing me will ask the same question you did? Why is he laughing? Death is looming over him but how could he still laugh so happily?”

”This is my complete realization toward the martial world. The martial world is hahahah…”

Hu Xiaofan recounted his tale with an icy gaze but tears kept falling from the corner of his eyes. Nonetheless, there was a spread of smile on his face all this while.

All the disciples were shocked. Yun Xiuxin's mouth was agape too, speechless for some time.

Hu Xiaofan continued speaking with a tipped chin, ”So this expedition didn't exactly give me too much of a realization… It's still the same old same old, even affirming many of my previous thoughts…”

”Hu Xiaofan!” Yun Yang who had been quiet above them finally uttered.

”Master.” Hu Xiaofan bowed respectfully to listen to him.

”Your feelings are valid but I'd like to tell you that there's an implicit standard to the practitioners of the Residence of Nine Supremes. It's guarding! Guard your senior and junior sisters, your senior and junior brothers, guard your master and senior uncles, guard your sect and in the future, guard your family, your children. Just like your parents, guarding everything that they cherished.”

”I trust that you understand what I mean,” Yun Yang continued to say after a beat of silence.

Hu Xiaofan mulled over his master's words and replied, ”Yes, master. I'll do my best to become stronger and not be like my parents, watching everything I want to guard being destroyed before my eyes… so this disciple dares not slack every day.”