'What is going on?'
A young man stood on his knees amid burning wreckage.
His robe, his hair, and his eyes, all of them had the same color: black.
He was staring at the blue fire that was devouring everything around him.
'So beautiful...'
He murmured inwardly as the blue fire was reflecting in his eyes.
"Desper!"
A faint cry echoed from a short distance.
'Desper? Who is that?' he thought.
'Oh, yeah... that's me.'
Desper turned to look toward the source of the voice.
A distorted figure was crawling toward him. Blue flames were eating away at its flesh.
'Who is this?'
The figure continued crawling until it reached Desper.
"Desper... remember, you must stay alive." The figure shouted, touching Desper's left hand.
By that time, the blue flame had spread all over its body, leaving nothing behind. Not even ash could escape from that fire.
"You must stay alive..."
Only those words remained, echoing.
...
On a dark, cold night, while people shivered under their blankets trying to sleep, a young man opened his eyes after a long slumber.
He was lying on a small bed in a medium-sized room. Three more beds were placed in the corners of the room.
The young man had black, messy hair, burnt in several spots. His eyes were pitch black. They were so deep, it felt like staring into an endless abysses. A fresh red burn mark was visible on his left cheek.
"Aghhhhhhhh…"
A pained groan escaped his lips.
Pain surged through every part of his body, especially his stomach and left cheek.
"Where... am I?" he asked weakly, glancing around for any clues.
"Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"
He clutched his head tightly as a thundering pain struck inside, as if his skull were about to explode.
"Haa... hoo... haa... hoo..."
After a while, the man gasped for breath as the pain faded.
He looked around again.
He saw a man sitting in a chair beside the bed, smiling at him.
The man was tall with short brown hair. His skin was white and smooth, the kind every girl dreamed of. His blue eyes glowed faintly in the dark.
He was undeniably handsome.
"Are you alright, Desper?" The handsome man asked, still smiling, almost as if he enjoyed Desper's screams.
"I... think... I am."
Desper answered weakly.
"You screamed like someone was torturing you."
"I thought I was dying," Desper said, still gasping. There was fear in his eyes. "By the way, where are we?"
"We're in the Angry Tiger Sect."
"Angry Tiger Sect?" Desper repeated in confusion.
"Hmm? You don't know the Angry Tiger Sect?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Am I supposed to?"
"Yes, you are." The man answered, Then narrowing his eyes, he added," Do you remember where you live?"
"I live in... aghhhh!"
Desper tried to answer, but the pain struck his head again.
"I don't know?!" he said in shock.
The man stood and checked Desper's head for any injuries. He sighed after finding nothing.
"Looks like you've lost your memories," he murmured. "The doctor said your body had no serious injuries. Maybe it's due to the shock."
He sat back down and leaned on the chair.
"I guess I'll tell you what I know about you," he said with a sigh. "First, your name is Desper. If I remember correctly, you're 19 years old. You used to live in Happy Village."
"Desper... Happy Village... aghhh..."
Desper repeated, but the headache returned.
"Do those sound familiar?"
"I think they do," Desper murmured.
"Good. That means your memory loss is temporary. You'll probably recover with time, or through cultivation."
"Cultivation?" Desper asked, his face pale.
"Haha, the nightmare of cultivation doesn't go away, even with memory loss." The man smiled bitterly.
"Yes, you've awakened your Origin, and now you're a disciple of the Angry Tiger Sect." He added with a serious tone, but with a smiley face, "You've joined the curse of fighting monsters until your death."
"Origin? Disciple? Monsters? Can I refuse?" Desper asked hopefully.
"Hahaha..."The man laughed loudly. "Sorry. You must have forgotten how things work."
"Of course, you can refuse. But that means you're not allowed to stay in any city or village under sect protection, not only the Angry Tiger Sect, but also any other sect."
"You'll have to live in the wilderness, risking encounters with monsters alone or even worse, facing Spoiled Cultivators. Joining a sect gives you a chance to survive. Otherwise, you're as good as dead."
"What?! Why? Isn't that cruel?" Desper growled.
"It's a cruel world. Without these rules, humans would have gone extinct."
The man shook his head.
"Anyway, where were we? Right, Desper from Happy Village. Yesterday, while I was on patrol, I saw a blue light rising from your village. But since there was no distress signal, we assumed it was some kind of celebration."
"Later, smoke appeared above the village, so we decided to check it out."
He looked down, remembering.
"But even in my worst nightmares, I never imagined that I would see something like that."
His body shivered. His eyes were still wide with shock.
"The smoke reached the sky. The smell of burnt wood and flesh could be sensed kilometers away."
"Inside the village, or what remained of it, blue fire covered everything. Corpses were scattered across the streets, still burning. Some of them were still alive, but not for too long. The Flame turned them into nothing.
His hands trembled.
"In the end, there was nothing left. The fire didn't spare even the ash."
"The only thing not burning was you. You were lying there, amide all of that, unconscious."
He stared at Desper.
"So... did you remember anything?"
Desper didn't answer. He held his head and.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
"Ahhhh!"
Desper screamed in agony.
"I WILL KILL YOU ALL. I'M GOING TO KILL ALL OF YOU!"
Blood flowed from his eyes.
"I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!"
"I WILL KILL..."
He repeated the words again and again until he fainted.
Later, Desper opened his eyes. He was still in the same room. The handsome man sat beside him silently.
After a while, he asked,
"Did you remember anything?"
"No," Desper replied.
"What about the things you were screaming?"
"I don't know," he said with an empty face.
"Who do you want to kill?"
"I don't know."
"Why do you want to kill them?"
"I don't know."
The man narrowed his eyes, visibly annoyed.
"I guess I'm getting nothing from you."
He stood.
"Here's your badge. And your watch."
He placed two objectives on the table beside the bed: one of them was a metal plate with a name and emblem on each side, and the other was a small wooden circular board with numbers arranged in a circle.
Desper looked at them without emotion. The word badge felt familiar.
"You can stay here for the night. I set the watch to wake you at sunrise. I'll escort you to a place where you'll learn what it means to be a cultivator."
"Goodbye, until tomorrow."
He turned to leave.
"Can I ask you a question...?" Desper didn't know what to call him.
"My name is Darek Vareth. You can call me Darek. Go ahead."
"How do you know my name or where I lived? You seem to know a lot about me. Were you from Happy Village too?"
Darek paused.
"Hmm... I'm not sure if I should tell you that." he replied.
Then he explained.
"No, I'm not from Happy Village. But we met before. It was a year ago. An incident I could never forget."
"Incident?" Desper asked, confused.
"Yes. You impressed me back then. But I don't think it's wise to tell you about it now, with your current mental state. Your head might actually explode this time."
He walked to the door .
"Oh, I almost forgot. If anyone asks where you're from, don't say Happy Village."
Darek warned seriously.
"Say you're from Wood City. We haven't received any disciples from them for the last three months. No one will suspect anything."
"Huh? Why?" Desper was confused.
"Just do as I say. Until you remember. Otherwise, you'll be killed."
With that, Darek left the room.
Desper lay on the bed in silence, dumbfounded.
He didn't understand anything.
His eyes began to close, and he didn't resist.
He fell asleep, unaware that this night was the beginning of his nightmare in the world of cultivation.