on a dark cold night, the moon was hanging in the sky like a king gazing upon his people. The winds were whistling as if they were welcoming him, and the cold was like his dominating aura.
While people were shivering under their blankets, trying to sleep, a young man had just opened his eyes after a long sleep.
He was lying on a small bed in a medium-sized room.
It seemed to be a medical room. Three more beds were placed in different corners of the room.
The young man had black messy hair which was burnt at different spots. His eyes were pitch black; it was so deep that you might think you were looking at a deep black pit. A prominent fresh red burn mark was visible on his left cheek.
Aghhhhhhhh….
A pained groan escaped his lips.
He felt throbbing pain striking every part of his body, especially his stomach and left cheek.
"Where am I?" the young man asked in a weak tone, as he was looking around, searching for any clue.
"Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…." he clutched his head tightly; he felt a thundering pain inside as if it was about to explode.
"What is happening here?" a hurried clear voice came out from the door, followed by a man entering.
The man was tall with short brown hair. He had soft white skin every girl dreamed of. His blue eyes were glowing in the dark. He was undeniably handsome.
"Are you alright, Desper?" the handsome man asked with concern in his eyes as he looked around for any hidden danger.
"I.. think.. I am" the young man who was called Desper answered after the pain in his head had faded away.
"Phew, I thought that someone was trying to kill you" the handsome man said as his body relaxed a little bit.
"I thought I was dying" Desper answered, gasping for his breath. There was still fear in his eyes "By the way, where are we right now?"
"We are in the Angry Tiger Sect" the handsome man answered as he took a seat next to the bed.
"The Angry Tiger Sect?" Desper repeated in puzzlement.
"Hmm? you don't know the Angry Tiger Sect?" the handsome man asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Am I supposed to know?" Desper answered in another question.
"Yes, you are supposed to know." The handsome man said with a firm face. Then, he asked narrowing his eyes "Do you remember where you live?"
"I live in-…"
Desper tried to answer, but the thundering pain struck his head again.
"I don't know?!" Desper said with a painful expression, there was also shock on his face.
The handsome man stood up and checked Desper's head for any hidden injuries, he sighed after finding nothing.
"Looks like you have lost your memories." he murmured. "The doctor said your body had no serious injuries. Maybe you have lost it because of the shock"
He sat again leaning on the back of the chair.
"Okay, let me tell you what I know about you" the man sighed.
"First of all, your name is Desper. If I remember correctly, you should be 18 years old by now." The man spoke "You used to live in the Happy Village."
" Desper, Happy village, aghhh- "
Desper repeated, but the headache returned.
"Are these things familiar?" the man asked.
"I think they are" Desper murmured.
"Good, that means it is a temporary loss of memories. You probably will remember everything with time or by reaching a high level of cultivation" the man stated in relief.
"Cultivation?" Desper repeated with a terrified face.
"Hahaha, the nightmare of cultivation can't be erased from someone's mind, even after losing his memories" The man smiled in grief as he spoke.
"Yes, you have awakened your Origin, and now you are a disciple of the Angry Tiger Sect." the man declared.
"Origin? Can I refuse?" Desper tried.
"Hahaha….." the man burst into laughter. "Sorry, you lost your memories, so you must forget about some important rules of this world"
"Yes, of course you can refuse joining the sect, but that means you are not allowed to stay in any city or village under the protection of the Angry Tiger sect, or any place under the protection of any other sect." he scoffed with a smirk.
"You have to live alone in a desert or a forest, risking meeting a monster or a Spoiled Cultivator. Joining the sect has a hope of surviving, otherwise you are most likely dead" he warned.
"What?! Why is that? Isn't that so cruel?" Desper growled in anger.
"Okay, we live in a cruel world. Without these rules, the humans would have been erased from this world" the man said while shaking his head.
"Let's get back to our conversation. Where did we stop? Oh yea, Desper from the Happy village. Yesterday, while I was in my patrol, I saw a blue light in the sky coming from your village, but since your village didn't send the Distress Signal, we thought that you were celebrating or something"
"But, after a while, smoke appeared above the village, so we decided to check on your village." the man explained in a sad face as he remembered.
"But Even in my wildest imagination, I have never thought I'd see something like that" his body shivered in fear, his eyes seemed still shocked.
"The smoke was reaching sky. You could smell the burnt wood mixed with the smell of burnt flesh kilometers away. inside the village or what remained of it, ashes were everywhere, corpses scattered across the streets, still on fire turning them into ashes. blue fire was devouring everything leaving nothing behind." His hands were shaking while he was recalling.
"By the end of everything, there was nothing left, literally nothing. The fire didn't spare anything not even the ashes." He seemed shocked until now when he recalled.
"The only thing that wasn't in fire was you, lying on the ground, unconscious" he ended the story and stared at Desper narrowing his eyes.
"So, did you remember anything?" the man asked again hoping for any answer.
Desper didn't answer, he had a pained look on his face, while clutching his head using both of his hands.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-"
"Aghhhh-"
Desper screamed in agony.
"I WILL KILL YOU ALL. I'M GOING TO KILL ALL OF YOU" Desper screamed, some blood escaped his eyes.
"I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU"
"I WILL KILL ….
He kept repeating these words, his breath ragged and his body was trembling while screaming.
"I will kill you al- "
he repeated it again and again until he fainted.
After a while, Desper opened his eyes again and found himself in the same room, and the handsome man was still sitting on the chair beside his bed.
The man observed Desper for a while without saying anything.
"Did you remember anything?" the man asked after sometime.
"No" Desper replied.
"What about what you were screaming with"
"I don't know" with an empty face, Desper answered
"Who do you want to kill?"
"I don't know"
"Why do you want to kill them"
"I don't know"
The man narrowing his eyes with annoyance stared at Desper for a while.
"I think I will get nothing here." The man stood up "Here is your badge. and here is your watch, you can use it to know the time and other things."
The man said as he put a metal plate with a name and an emblem on each side, and a small wooden circular board with numbers arranged in circle on a table beside the bed.
Desper looked at these things with no expression. He knew what badge mean, but he didn't know anything about the watch.
"You can stay here for the night. I adjusted the watch to wake you up at the sunrise, by that time, I will come and escort you to a place where you will learn many important things as a new cultivator." He added.
"This is goodbye, until tomorrow" the man said and walked toward the door.
"Can I ask you a question, ...?" Desper didn't know what to call him.
"Darek, you can call me Darek. Yes, you can." Darek stopped his steps and replied.
"Okay Darek, how do you know my name or where I lived?" Desper asked with curiosity. "It seems like you know a lot about me. Were you from the Happy Village as well?"
"Hmm, I don't know if I should tell you that or not" the handsome man named Darek seemed conflicted.
"No, I'm not from the Happy village, but we met before. Although it was a year ago, it was a huge incident that I couldn't forget." he said with a smile.
"Incident?" Desper was confused.
"Yes, that time you left me impressed actually. I don't think it is wise to tell you about it until you remember, or your head may explode this time." Darek didn't want to explain.
"Oh, I was about to forget. If anyone asks you where you are from, don't say you are from the Happy village." Darek warned Desper with a serious face.
"Just say that you came from the Wood city. It will be a good cover since we haven't received any disciple from them since the last three months. No one will suspect you if you say that." Darek added.
"Huh? Why is that?" Desper was confused.
"Just do as I said until you remember. Or you will be killed." Darek warned him again and this time he left the room.
Desper was left alone in the room dumbfounded.
He couldn't understand why he had to do that.
After a while, he fell asleep again.
This is the beginning of Desper's nightmare in the world of cultivation.