Hexi Xuan

The winter wind north of the desert was sharper than a blade, killing without spilling blood.

Every winter, a number of people died in the wind. After all, not everyone was qualified to live in a warm great tent. For two children not yet tall enough to clear a cartwheel, surviving the winter on their own was even more of a hopeless dream.

No one was willing to take in the two children. They were not pure-blooded grasslanders, and the herdsmen all believed that taking in mongrels would bring disaster.

What was more, the tribal chieftain had personally killed the two children's father not long ago.

So the two children could only fend for themselves. The only thing they had been allowed to take was their family heirloom axe. In the chieftain's words, at least it would let the children chop some firewood for themselves. But everyone could see that it was nothing more than an excuse.

Killing small children with his own hands was, in the end, inauspicious. Since the cold wind could do the job for him, the chieftain naturally had no desire to dirty his hands.

After all, the two children could not even lift the axe.

To survive, the two children burrowed into the mountains. When they could find nothing to eat, they gnawed on bark; when they could find no water, they stuffed snow into their mouths. Yet even after exhausting every possible means to stay alive, they remained utterly helpless before the bone-piercing cold wind.

"I'll go think of something."

Seeing his younger brother beginning to lose consciousness in the freezing wind, the slightly larger elder brother dragged the axe out.

When the younger brother woke, he found himself in a warm cave. A bonfire burned nearby, and he was covered in a bearskin still stained with blood.

As for his elder brother, he was crouched beside the fire, wolfing down half-cooked bear meat. Firelight cast his blood-smeared face upon the wall, making him look like a fanged, clawing evil ghost.

The sight alone could have made a child stop crying, yet he felt utterly at peace.

Big Brother was incredible. There was nothing he could not do.

The following spring, the tribal chieftain who had driven the brothers away was beheaded in his sleep. No one knew who had done it, though herdsmen would occasionally say that, at night, the shadow of an evil ghost had appeared upon the great tent.

The two brothers also left their original tribe and began a life of wandering.

The elder brother was named Hexi Qing. Their father had said that in the language of the southerners, Qing was the color of the sky. The younger brother was named Hexi Xuan. Their father had said that in the language of the southerners, Xuan was the color of the earth. They both remembered their father telling them that they had to become men who held up the sky and stood upon the earth.

And they truly did.

Hexi Qing, the elder brother, dared to fight and dared to stake his life. Before long, he had made a name for himself among the surrounding tribes. As the younger brother Hexi Xuan grew older, his body became even more massive than Hexi Qing's. When he swung his great axe, he was like a war god reborn—none could stand against him.

It was precisely because of such martial might that they soon gathered a force of their own and were even recruited by a great tribe like the Azure Sheep Tribe, becoming honored guests.

Of course, becoming generals of the Azure Sheep Tribe did not come without a price.

According to the Azure Sheep Tribe's chieftain, deep within the grasslands lay the hidden royal court, where the godlike Khan had issued an order. So that every grasslander might have the right to survive the winter, the godlike Khan had decided to send troops south and seize those warm southern lands. As the Azure Sheep Tribe was closest to the Chen Kingdom, it naturally became the vanguard of this campaign. And the two brothers, having only recently joined the Azure Sheep Tribe, needed to prove themselves as true warriors through military merit in this war.

This put the two brothers in a difficult position.

"Shamans. We still have too few shamans."

After returning to their own tent, the younger brother, Hexi Xuan, voiced his concerns.

"Marching south isn't difficult. After all, our warriors are good men who survived the cold wind. But if they kill too much and their Blood Qi rushes to their heads..."

Blood Qi rushing to the head was what was known as Sha Qi entering the body. Once someone killed until their eyes turned red, they would become a madman who recognized neither kin nor friend. Only shamans, said to be able to communicate with the heavens, could calm those frenzied warriors again.

The Azure Sheep Tribe could afford its own shamans, but the two brothers could not. Whenever one of their warriors went mad, they could only seek help from the Azure Sheep Tribe's shamans.

But this time, the Azure Sheep Tribe itself was marching south, so naturally it would not lend out its precious shamans to them.

"But for us, this is also a source of strength."

Faced with his younger brother's concerns, Hexi Qing shook his head.

"You said it yourself: our warriors are good men who survived the cold wind. So I believe they can be like us and not be affected by something as trivial as Blood Qi rushing to the head. Only cowards cannot bear even this little slaughter. But we—we have crawled out of heaps of corpses time and time again. We hold up the sky and stand upon the earth. We are true warriors."

After that, Hexi Qing directly began leading his force on raids in every direction, spilling blood in battle.

Though he had once questioned Hexi Qing's thinking, when the fighting truly began, Hexi Xuan was the fiercest one charging ahead. Clad in armor, Hexi Xuan swung his great axe like a gigantic bear in human form. Wherever he passed, only severed limbs and broken arms remained.

More and more Sha Qi clung to the great axe, and more and more Blood Qi flooded into Hexi Xuan's mind, but he did not care in the slightest.

If his elder brother had not risked his life to kill that bear back then, Hexi Xuan would have long since died in the winter wind. So even if his Blood Qi rushed to his head, even if he became an evil ghost that knew only how to kill, as long as it was for Big Brother, he was willing.

Besides, his Big Brother was incredible. There was nothing he could not do.

And the facts proved it. Their training had achieved remarkable results. Some of the warriors under their command did indeed fall into madness, but even more passed the trial. They became fiercer, deadlier; their scarlet eyes made them look like starving wolves upon the grasslands.

The brothers' prestige within the Azure Sheep Tribe also grew ever greater alongside the ferocity of their warriors.

Big Brother was right. There was nothing frightening about this. It was only training troops; their methods were merely a little too harsh.

With this wolfish, tiger-like force in hand, Hexi Qing quickly entered the upper ranks of the Azure Sheep Tribe, while Hexi Xuan, as his brother, took over the heavy responsibility of training the troops. It was grueling work, but Hexi Xuan had no complaints. Xuan was the color of the earth; as his brother, he ought to hold up this sky for his elder brother.

This time, Hexi Xuan's target was Yang Family Fort. According to Big Brother, this was called bleeding the opponent before the war began. Hexi Xuan could not understand such complicated matters, but he knew that everything Big Brother said was right.

Thus, Hexi Xuan swung his great axe and, with inhuman strength, split open the fort's gates.

Just as Big Brother had said, Blood Qi rushing to the head—or Sha Qi entering the body—might be a calamity for the weak, but for the strong of unwavering will, it was a reward from heaven. It was because they possessed hearts of steel that remained unmoved amid the freezing winds north of the desert that they could command this inhuman strength and become braver with every battle.

And now, another batch of new warriors would receive this reward. After slaughtering everyone in Yang Family Fort, the finest among them would cross that threshold and become true warriors.

"It's only troop training."

After cleaving a gap through the spear formation before him, Hexi Xuan planted his great axe and stood where he was, allowing the soldiers under his command to rush in and slaughter.

He did not want to kill too much. That would be robbing those soldiers of their right to undergo the trial. This was their chance to shed their old selves; only after enduring this test would they be qualified to become true eagles, soaring through the sky of his elder brother, Hexi Qing.

Until he saw that blade—and those scarlet eyes, just like his own.

Calling his soldiers to halt, Hexi Xuan hefted his great axe and strode forward. From the first moment he saw those eyes, he realized that this was an inhuman monster on the same level as himself.

Ordinary soldiers could not stop such a monster. They would only have their heads chopped off in an instant.

The only thing Hexi Xuan had not expected was that he could not stop it either.

New author, new book. Please recommend and bookmark it. Thank you, everyone.