At eighteen, if someone had told Qiu Yuehai that he would become a heroic swordsman defending his home and cou…
At eighteen, if someone had told Qiu Yuehai that he would become a heroic swordsman defending his home and country, the young man would have casually spat out the wheat straw in his mouth and waved them off. "Go cheat someone else out of their money."
He had imagined many possibilities for his life: maybe the fastest street runner in the world, a petty thief stealing gold in bustling markets, or a lazy fisherman who only caught one fish a day, just enough to eat. Either way, he'd be small, ordinary, unremarkable. After all, he had no extraordinary Martial Art Skills, just quick legs. This wasn't a storybook. Where did ordinary people get legends? Just live your life, he thought.
But years later, he learned that life isn't something you can simply "live well" if you want to. The raiders who stormed into his home, burning and pillaging, didn't listen to his pleas. "Please, I don't want to meddle in anything—just let me be!" Who did he think he was? Warhorses neighed, their iron hooves shattering soldiers' armor and crushing commoners' rooftop tiles alike.
So he buried the uneaten fish alongside the bodies of those who'd closed their eyes forever, gripped the last long spear in the village, nodded to a man named Lie Yan, and walked into the distance together.
There, in Verdant Wilds, people were already waiting: tall and short, old and young, shadow play singers, and white-bearded elders.
"Hey, I'm Qiu Yuehai. From today on, count me in."