A wise philosopher once said. "This world is cruel to the weak and a wonderland to the strong. For the strong get to devour the weak with abandon."
As a slave Haoyu couldn't agree more. His entire existence could be summarized with the word "Pathetic." He was born with clogged vessels that made it rather difficult to cultivate. His situation was not hopeless though if he practiced diligently he could become a martial artist. Unfortunately he was born into less than favorable circumstances.
Haoyu was the fourth son out of eleven children born under a family of impoverished farmers. All three of his older brothers died at some point along with six of his other siblings, leaving him and one of his sisters as the only ones to survive childhood.
This wasn't a strange occurrence, it was very common for children to just drop dead at any moment which is probably why his parents never shed a tear for any of his deceased siblings. It would also explain why they didn't seem to care whenever Haoyu got sick or injured. They of course helped him whenever this occurred but it just seemed like a formality from them, as if they had to as his parents and not because any familial affection.
His life wasn't bad up to this point, all things considered. He worked diligently on his family farm located in remote part in one of the Western Providences. Having dreams of being a martial master in his sleep every night. However, his simple farming life would take a drastic turn when he was about thirteen.
It started with a bad winter that ruined there villages grain supply and suddenly the small community he lived in was on the brink of collapse. The local magistrate that had ruled over the region demanded we provide our villages the yearly grain quota, despite knowing full well of our troubles.
They couldn't even feed themselves so obviously the villagers couldn't meet this quota but he didn't care. Before any of them knew it the magistrate sent some of his soldiers to ransack the village and sell off anything of value to make up for the loss of revenue. This included many of the village residents such as Haoyu.
The next two years of his life were hell. He was passed around from one slave trader to another and then another until eventually he ended up all the way in the Northern Providences.
Sadly his life didn't get much better once he was finally purchased by the North Star Clan. He did have a proper place to sleep and food but he was also forced to work long grueling hours all while enduring abuse from the young heirs of the clan.
After a few months of doing meanial tasks he was assigned to manage a horse stable that belonged to one of the elders of the clan. His name was elder Wei and the duty he gave Haoyu was to feed his horses, clip there hooves, muck out there stables, and so on.
Haoyu hated horses, he always did, and his hatred of them only grew after having to take care of them like his life depened on it, which it did.
Elder Wei had to suffer from some mental ailment. That old man seemed to love his horses more than his own children. If even one spot in the stables wasn't clean or if his horses weren't groomed exactly how he liked it, he'd have Haoyu flogged with a whip until he was barely conscious.
Still it wasn't the worst treatment he experienced in his time of slavery. "It could always be worse." That's what he told himself every night so he could sleep. It at least worked well enough to get him through each day.
If anything Haoyu was tenacious. He had to be to survive being a slave for so long.
Every day was the same for him. Haoyu woke up and got to work cleaning out the horse stables. He slept in a small ramshackle shack next to the barn where the stables were. He was put there so he'd be able to focus entirely on the elders precious horses.
He had to wake up before dawn everyday and work well after dusk to make sure everything was perfect, just in case that crazy horse obsessed elder showed up out of nowhere to check on his beloved horses. It was a schedule Haoyu had to get used to otherwise he would be beaten for not having it all just right.
The night sky was clear not a cloud in sight every star was visible to the naked eye. He couldn't help but admire it as he mucked out the horse stables. Haoyu always loved looking up at the night sky trying to find all the constellations he knew.
His eyes caught sight of the ever prominent North Star, the very reason the North Star Clan called themselves the North Star Clan.
To clarify, the ancestors of the clan settled down in a fertile valley located in one of the Northern Providences around three hundred years ago. This valley had a perfectly clear view of the stars every single night, the North Star in particular was very visible in the sky.
In recognition of this they named the valley Tianshu and the city they built at it's center was dubbed Tianshu city. As for there clans estate they constructed it just outside the city on a hilltop where they could observe everything from the mansion. They even changed there family name to Xing which is how the became the North Star Clan.
Strangely enough though the techniques the clan practiced had nothing to do with stars. Not like Haoyu was privy to that kind of information.
He only knew as much as someone who ease drops on the conversations of others would know. He would also watched the heirs practice in the main courtyard once or twice. That was until he was sent to work out in the stables where he had very little contact with others.
But the past is in the past, right now Haoyu was still cleaning out the stables occasionally taking a few seconds to look at the stars. He noticed a streak of light stretching across the sky. This brought a smile to his dirt smeared face.
"A shooting star I should make a wish." He closed my eyes and thought about his wish. His mind drifting to his old dreams of being a martial master. When he opened them he still could see the shooting star and it was getting dangerously closer.
His expression twisted into one of abject terror when Haoyu realized the shooting star was going to crash directly into him. He didn't even have time to turn around before it plowed right into his stomach.
"Aaaaahhhh!" He screamed as the force of the impact threw him back into the barn. The horses neighed and thrashed about in there stables in response to his cries of anguish.
A searing hot pain tore through his entire midsection. Haoyu looked down and saw something jagged and crystalline borrowing into his gut. "What the... Argh!" He howled as the foreign object slowly sunk into his flesh.
Time dragged on for hours or possibly minutes the pain made it impossible for him to keep track of time but eventually the burning pain subsided. He thought for a moment the suffering was over and that's when he felt something rush through his veins. Haoyu watched his blood vessels bulge and begin to squirm like countless tiny worms under his skin.
Haoyu coughed and hacked as something bubbled up in the back of his throat. He got to his feet and vomited near a stack of straw. The horses freaked out even more as a horrid odor filled the barn. Whatever he just threw up was viscous and pitch black. A wave of relief immediately followed it was like every cell in his body rejoiced. It felt so satisfying Haoyu had to cover his mouth to stifle a moan.
This moment of bliss was interrupted but the foul smell of the putrid black ooze on the floor. Haoyu recoiled in disgust quickly getting to work on cleaning it up. He then had settle the horses down before anyone showed up. Thankfully today was one of those days no one didn't come by so he was able to get everything in order without anyone noticing the chaos and punishing him.
Haoyu tried to forget the strange event and instead followed his routine working all through the morning and into the night before he could finally retire to his shack to eat his daily portion of rice and get a few hours of sleep before he had to get up again in a little while.
Haoyu fell asleep completely unaware his destiny had been forever changed.