This story had to begin with Xu Zhiqiu's birth parents.
During the middle and late years of the Heian Period in the Little Island Country, large numbers of merchants from the Song Dynasty came there to do business.
The Little Island Country greatly admired the Song Dynasty's culture and maintained friendly exchanges with it, calling it the exalted Celestial Empire.
Xu Zhiqiu's mother, Su Wenya, was a cultivator, while her father, Xu Fuyuan, was a merchant.
Xu Fuyuan had a keen head for business. At just twenty, he inherited his father's enterprises and expanded them, then took his business abroad to the Little Island Country.
The Little Island Country had demons too. To ensure his safety, Xu Fuyuan spent a hefty sum before setting out to hire a Fasting Stage cultivator to escort him there.
And so Su Wenya became Xu Fuyuan's bodyguard.
Even cultivators had to scrape together a living these days.
Actually, that was not the reason. Xu Fuyuan's maternal grandfather had once funded the development of Su Wenya's sect, the Lingfeng Sect. If the Xu family ever needed their help with something important, they would provide it. Thus, Su Wenya was sent to protect Xu Fuyuan, and the assignment could also serve as training for her.
The voyage to the Little Island Country, during which Su Wenya escorted Xu Fuyuan's merchant ships, was anything but peaceful. Pirates tried to rob them, only for Su Wenya to beat them until they cried for their fathers and mothers.
Pirates were easy enough to deal with. The real problem came when they were almost at the island: a tsunami struck, with sea monsters stirring up trouble as well. In the end, Su Wenya could save only Xu Fuyuan. All his merchant ships were lost.
When they woke, they had washed