In Lu Hongdou's limited childhood memories, the most profound scene was an exile.
The sky was filled with yellow sand, the fierce sun blazed like fire, and the road ahead was shrouded in uncertainty during the exile.
Her hometown, a small city on the border of Donghua State, was destroyed in a Remnant Beasts attack when she was five years old.
She didn't have a very deep impression of the disaster itself. She only remembered being woken up by her parents one night and then the three of them embarked on a journey of exile. Unfortunately, she became separated from her parents during the escape and lost her way alone in the Wilderness.
A five-year-old child wandering alone in the Wilderness could be considered as good as dead; it was just a matter of dying sooner or later. Yet Lu Hongdou was lucky in this instance, for she encountered an old man who happened to be traversing the Wilderness.
Later, Lu Hongdou learned that the old man was no ordinary person because he possessed a very unique set of skills, which he called martial arts.
It was because of martial arts that the old man was able to travel alone through the Wilderness; it was the martial arts that enabled him to avoid the dangers lurking within it. And whenever the old man spoke of martial arts, his aged face always shone with a brilliant light.
The old man took Lu Hongdou in and brought her to another city but did not live in the heart of it. Instead, they settled on a mountain on the outskirts of the city.
In the years that followed, Lu Hongdou called the old man "Master" and practiced martial arts with him in the mountains.
Practicing martial arts was very hard, much harder than the usual trials.
But perhaps it was the experience of wandering the Wilderness at a young age that made her strong, or perhaps leaving her parents at an early age made her mature, but Lu Hongdou persevered, diligently practicing martial arts.
In the summer, she stood in horse stance under the scorching sun, and in the bitter cold of winter, she practiced her sword dance in the howling wind. She was focused and persistent in her practice and her efforts were rewarded.
Years later, Lu Hongdou showed outstanding martial arts talent. At only fourteen, she had already mastered all of the skills taught by the old man, becoming a martial artist with exceptional gifts.
And just as she was full of ambition, eager to ask her master about the next steps in her martial journey, what the old man said next doused her with cold water.
——"Your current state is almost at its peak."
"At its peak? What does that mean?" Lu Hongdou couldn't understand what the old man was talking about.
"It means that martial arts have been brought to their limit at your current level. Going forward, you can only learn more techniques, accumulate more combat experience, or build a stronger body... You can continue to grow stronger, but you won't be able to make a qualitative breakthrough, nor can you advance to a new realm," the old man said calmly, "Martial arts have limits, and these limits are the limits of us as mortals. No matter what, we cannot defeat those monsters. Even I would have to conceal my presence and avoid them if I encountered one."
"Why?" Lu Hongdou still did not understand.
"There is no why. It's like the cycle of seasons and the alternation of day and night; it's the law of the world that has been set from the beginning."
The old man's answer was realistic, cold, and powerless.
But Lu Hongdou still didn't believe it.
So, at the age of fourteen, she bid farewell to the old man who had raised her and chose to go down the mountain alone to seek the further path of martial arts in this world.
This was also the first time since she was five that Lu Hongdou had stepped back into a human city.
At first, she was completely unaccustomed to city life, naturally baffled. Although the old man gave her a small sum of money before she set out, he himself had never intentionally saved money, so the money was just enough to fill her stomach.
In pursuit of the way of martial arts, Lu Hongdou was defeated by the need to make a living.
She lived in damp alleys with beggars, barely surviving on begging and street performances, and because she couldn't lower her standards and was unwilling to join the riff-raff in doing petty thievery, she was always an outcast, without even a decent place to sleep, ending up next to rubbish heaps every night.
Life was difficult, but Lu Hongdou did not regret her choice because her master had always taught her that those who practice martial arts must uphold righteousness, and one of the core tenets of righteousness is to protect the weak and not to bully the frail.
However, Lu Hongdou was very adaptable. She soon found her own rhythm in this difficult life. Using her martial skills to occasionally catch thieves, she helped look after some shopkeepers' properties to deter the gangsters and ruffians, gradually started to earn money, and integrated into the city life.
After that, she began her search for the continuation of the martial path. While continuing to practice martial arts herself to see if there really was such a thing as a "limit," she started inquiring everywhere in the streets and alleys, seeking other fellow martial artists.
She did not find her peer, but instead, she encountered some old friends.
——The Remnant Beasts appeared.
This was the first time since she was five that Lu Hongdou encountered Remnant Beasts in reality, so much so that at first, she didn't even realize what those monsters before her were. It wasn't until the civilians around her began to scream and flee, and the ordinarily bustling and lively streets became panicked, that she understood what she was facing were Remnant Beasts, the "monsters" spoken of by her master.