OF Extra – Childhood 3

Xu Wu quickly settled in the job she had been given and she did her job perfectly well. No one had anything to complain about and the lady was very pleased with the work done by the young woman. The main house was very satisfied with the work done by Xu Wu, however he was after all still a servant purchased for the sake of doing work and she was never given any special treatment apart from being allowed to bring the little brother with her whenever she went to work.

As Xu Wu worked, the time quickly went by. Seasons changed and summer turned to winter. The nights became cold and Xu Wu had to wake up multiple times during the night to make sure that the fire did not die out.

Xu Min got a bag of rice each month and everything else she needed she had to harvest in the forest or the nearby river. Spending her afternoons which she had free from work was always spent in the outskirts of the forest harvesting fruits and berries and the early noon was spent in the river fishing for fish.

The main reason she did all of this was for the sake of Xu Min. Xu Min was now a year old and he had started to walk around unsteadily, his face was round and he was fed all the food he could eat. Even Xu Wu was willing to go a day without food if it meant that he could eat an extra portion. To Xu Wu, nothing mattered more than Xu Min.

As the young boy turned three years old he no longer followed Xu Wu to work every day, instead he always followed behind the Overseer of the property, Overseer Tian was at first slightly annoyed by the following child, however he soon noticed that this young boy was not ordinary at all.

Overseer Tian’s most valued job was to oversee the training of family guards. The guards were those who would protect the family, uphold order in the family, especially amongst the servants and in every job follow the job given to them by the family leader.

Those who became family guards also had the chance of joining the military, a job most young men sought after as a job in the military not was not only rewarded with glory and fame, but also by giving face to the family who had sent them amongst a reasonable pay.

Xu Min spent his entire day following Overseer Tian around and as he saw the many young men from the family were training hard he soon started copying them. After a few months, Xu Min was now considered a part of the training group. Although he was incapable of fully executing the stances they trained, he still tried hard.

When they were practicing physical exercises he would copy them and try to work them on his own, and after a few extra weeks, Overseer Tian decided to teach the young child stances and exercises which could be trained by someone that young.

Every day when the youngsters started training, Xu Min would be seen by their side, training hard on the exercises he had been given. Although this was only physical training it quickly helped the young child to gain a better control over his body and he soon understood how to copy meditation, learning how to refine Qi from the essence of the heavens and the earth.

As soon as he learned how to refine qi, his personality started a rapid change. His knowledge became far superior to other three year old children, his speech became more fluid and he was able to understand things much easier after having started the meditations.

Everyone within the Zhong family knew about the genius child which had started to walk down the path of cultivation.

Xu Min’s first big dream was to become a family guard. Seeing how the armored guards kept the peace within the city and within the family residence, Xu Min wished to do the same. He wished to look after his sister who had sacrificed so much for him, however even though it was a dream, he was aware that it was very far from being accomplished.

Knowing that he could not accomplish it any time soon, Xu Min kept working hard, and as he turned four years old, his personality had long since reached the same age as those of ten years or above. He started to spend all his sparetime meditating while he practiced his physical training together with the older boys. Training had another effect on him other than mentally, it also changed his physique. He grew faster and his body developed quickly, after a year, although he was only four years of age he still looked like someone around the age of eight.

Reaching this stage, it was as though his physical development paused, but his mentality kept advancing on some points. Xu Min became increasingly smart, however he was still a child and his childish naivety remained, something which caused Xu Wu to be ecstatic.

Xu Min loved training. He loved the feeling of getting stronger, of overcoming his own limits and training till his body felt so sore that he could no longer go on. For a child to be this talented, it really was a rare feat, and Xu Min was working extra hard every day as Overseer Tian kept telling him that talent alone was worth nothing, what truly mattered was the amount of hard work one would put into the training.

Thinking about these words, Xu Min did not waste even a minute of the day. He was either training his physique, meditating to refine internal energies or he was practicing the stance for the Shattering Palm technique that he had seen the older children practice.

Everything was going just fine until one day another four year old child appeared at the training grounds. This child was the son of Family leader Zhong, and he was known as the young master.

The young master was two months older than Xu Min and he too wished to participate in the training. This young master had been gifted a medicinal pill by his father which had made him mature much faster than he would have done otherwise. His intellect had soared into the sky and his body too had changed rapidly, become much stronger and larger during a very short time.

Being at the training ground, the young master looked at Xu Min, his eyes filled with contempt. He was the young master of the family, the heir to the family leader’s seat. He was supposed to be the most outstanding child amongst all the family and the servants, yet here was a child who had trained on his own and learned a wide variety of stances, cultivating and physical training.

As the young master joined the group of trainees, the family leader Zhong had ordered Overseer Tian to focus on his son, teach him how to refine essence of the heavens and the earth, how to train his physique and how to take certain stances which would teach him martial art skills.

While he did this, Xu Min kept struggling on his own, his every waking moment made him improve more and more, his speed of improval astonishing, so astonishing that Overseer Tian could not help but tell family leader Zhong about this young child who was doing much better than anything the overseer had ever seen before.

This was a conversation which was being spoken about while the young master was present, and as he heard the flattering words Overseer Tian used to describe Xu Min, a flame of hate started to appear within his heart, a burning hate which could not be stopped.

The following day when the youngsters and the two children were to meet up at the training area, the young master did not come alone, he had with him a group of young children of the noble families who suddenly decided that it was time for them to join the training, all of them were grouped around the young master, doing everything they could to gain favor from the young master.

Seeing that all these children were interested in gaining his favor, the young master looked at Xu Min and with a mean smile on his face did he point towards him and with a low voice that only those close by could hear did he call out.

“That brat is getting on my nerves,” he whispered first, “he is pretending to be a real genius but all he is is a brat with no ability compared to mine. The one who finds the best way to humiliate him will be my best friend for a whole week.”

Hearing this the other children became ecstatic. Although they all knew that Xu Min was truly a genius, they did not care as long as they could become friendly with the young master.

When it came to it, although Xu Min was talented and very hard working, he was only a servant boy whom the Zhong family had bought. They on the other hand were all young handsome and dashing members of the Zhong family. Although not all of them were from the main branch they were still members of the family and for them to mistreat a young servant, no one would step in.

Although they knew this, and they all knew that Xu Min would not dare to hit them back, no matter what they did, caused one of the followers of the young master to step forward, moving towards Xu Min where he kicked him as hard as he could.

Xu Min had been training the stance for the Shattering Palm and his full focus had been paid to the stance he was holding, so he did not notice the kick before it was too late and he tumbled backwards, landing on his back.

Frowning he slowly made his way up onto his legs once more, only to see that the young noble was standing in front of him. Another kick landed upon the young boy, but this time nothing happened.

Xu Min had trained his physique alongside his internal energy and his body was quite strong. These youngsters who had no strength were incapable of inflicting any damage on him, and instead the young man just stood there, confused as to why this was happening.

Seeing that the kick had no impact the young man who had kicked him twice retreated back to the young master’s side, and no one else dared stepping forward as they did not know what was happening.

Seeing that they were all eying him the way a hawk was eying it’s prey, Xu Min quickly bowed towards Overseer Tian before he made his way away from the area.

“You guys are useless,” the young master said as he saw how Xu Min was walking away. Looking at the departing young man, the young master narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he started planning on his own, planning how to insult and embarrass this young child who dared to pretend that he was better than him.

Xu Min easily escaped the group of people who intended to be after him, however as soon as he had escaped he could not help but wonder what had happened. Contemplating for some time, Xu Min wondered whether or not he should tell his sister about what had happened but he quickly decided not to do so. Instead he went to the river by their shack where he caught a couple of fish that he brought home with him.

As he opened the door he saw that inside the young master was seated at their table, a sinister smile across his face.

“Look little Min,” the sister said with a happy expression on her face, “your friend came to visit us!”