Martial Wild West - Chapter 1

Chapter 01

[ It’s been over a thousand years since the Central Plains were unified as one.

That means that the Imperial lineage, which rules with an iron fist using their Imperial Forces and their superhuman martial arts, has reigned over this land for over a thousand years. That was more than enough time for the descendants of the hero that stood up for the peasants in their despair to be corrupted by power and authority.

The will of Gaozu that founded a new empire to stop the tyranny of Emperor Qin Shi Huang has been tainted beyond recognition by the blood of the people and the disgusting greed of his descendants.

The Emperor is an absolute authority that does not permit any opposition, and the Imperial Forces obediently enforce his will. And so the Empire has grown by absorbing unfathomable amounts of blood, becoming a horrendous monster.

The powerful imperial authority built new roads, connecting and enriching cities. At night, the cities shine like the stars in the sky have descended to earth. Yet in the gutters of those tall buildings flow the blood, tears, and flesh of starving peasants.

Countless hermits, martial artists, and warriors raised their swords, no longer able to stand such a sight.

Their attempt at revolution was not at all surprising considering how they were raised by being told of Gaozu’s mythical tales.

Yet not a single one of those myriad people succeeded in defeating the Emperor and the Imperial Forces.

In retrospect, that was an unavoidable fate. The Imperial Forces are trained in the strongest martial arts with the full backing of a country, and the Emperor was raised to be stronger than the Imperial Forces.

It’s impossible for such people to lose against a single person or a small group of people that had learned some ancient martial art at some mountain.

Even if millions of weak peasants gathered into an army, the ten thousand men of the Imperial Forces could wipe them all out with just a few sword swings. This meant it was only natural that the martial sects of the central plains started mastering martial arts just to become a part of the Imperial Forces and get in the good graces of the Emperor.

And in the end, countless peasants became exploited by wealthy merchants and power-hungry local officials. Most peasants—from the moment they were born to the moment they were put in the ground—never got to obtain even a tiny plot of land to call their own. They were just fodder that had to dedicate their entire lives to enriching the ones that stood above them.

Days of despair went by, people thinking that it had to be hell on earth, unti, one day… a new land was discovered.

It was a massive land that could be found by sailing east for weeks on a large ship into the endless ocean. It’s a land with expansive plains and forests, tall mountains, deep ravines, a harsh wilderness, and calm rivers. And the plants, animals, monsters, and people are not that different from the great plains to boot.

The Emperor was surprised that the business the previous emperor had backed was successful, but he felt nothing more than slight amusement.

According to the records left by those who were present, the Emperor was emotionless when shown the plants, animals, people, gold, silver, and other goods brought from the new continent by the explorers. But that reaction was also fitting of the Iron Emperor of the empire that had stood for a thousand years yet only continued to grow stronger.

However, the Emperor’s reaction must have been a facade because he later awarded the explorers of the new continent with treasure and new ships along with an order to create a safe sea route between the Empire and the new continent.

With massive support from the Emperor—who funded them to kill boredom—the explorers and the shipbuilding industry quickly went to work, soon completing a sea route and map. And so, on the new, massive ships, many imperials crossed the ocean.

Most of the natives on the new continent lived in tribes no bigger than a hundred people, and they did not operate large farms, so there was an abundance of land with no claim, and the peasants saw it as the only chance they had to escape from the hands of cruel officials and merchants and obtain land of their own

Over decades, millions of peasants crossed the ocean. The Emperor, instead of stopping them, created his own Imperial fleets to compete with merchants in ferrying people over to the new continent—he even made a decree that one would gain ownership of land they managed to cultivate.

The Emperor thought it wasn’t a big deal if a small handful of his hundreds of millions of subjects crossed the ocean. He was, in fact, happy that the people were going to build farms on their own without needing to expend Imperial resources. He figured that, in a few decades, either at the end of his rule or in his son’s generation, when the land became ripe, he would send the cold-blooded Imperial Forces to take it all in his name.

Yet, there was something that the Iron Emperor didn’t see coming.

—It wasn’t just helpless peasants that crossed the ocean.

Warriors that were hiding in the shadows to avoid the Imperial Forces, eccentric hermits that had been biding their time in the mountains and valleys, the clans of ancient kings that were thought to have long disappeared—people that had been hiding from the Emperor’s power crossed the ocean as well, dreaming of a new world and new order.

Of course, it wasn’t just those with a good will that crossed the ocean.

Criminals from the underbelly of cities, con artists who wanted to strike it rich in a new place, mad demon cultists that had mastered sinister, demonic martial arts, and other selfish, evil people made the sea voyage.

Scholars were worried that a gathering of all those people would end up causing an explosion like pouring water into oil, predicting a tragedy where countless people would lose their lives.

However, that ended up being an unnecessary concern. There were many factors, but in my personal opinion, the biggest reason was likely due to how massive the new continent was and how few people were present in contrast.

…I also know that there are myriad scholars writing about this subject these days, and I, a lowly writer, would like to throw my two cents into that mix.

I believe that the Emperor’s attempt at taking this land for himself will fail.

More than a thousand years ago, they used to believe in the ideology where those who were inhuman were not worthy of being taught—that’s why warriors of justice were the only ones who could rise to the occasion during the warring states period against the tyranny of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

After Gaozu defeated Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the new empire that was built was not what they expected. Unable to grow stronger under the watch and authority of the new, powerful empire, the warriors of justice had to wander the underground.

But that new continent is a different place that is far from the Empire, the Emperor, and the Imperial Forces.

It is overflowing with warriors of justice, sages, villains, and demon cultists. I could say that it feels like one regressed to the old martial realm from a thousand years past.

All the different creeds, principles, selfishness, and greed clash to dominate each others’ ambitions using all sorts of martial arts. The spark from that chaos will ignite the life of a new martial realm, and that life will have a much more sturdy and resilient body than what the Emperor expects.

Without the oppression of the Empire, the battle for one’s own belief will ignite a fire in the hearts of martial artists, and the embers of the new martial realm that will have surfaced after a thousand years will not be easily extinguished by the power of the Emperor and his Imperial Forces… ]

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Translator – Ripperino

Proofreader – ilafy

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The contents of the book after that page was too waterlogged to decipher.

“When was this written?” said the man who was crouched and shifting through the book. The man flapped the book around before nonchalantly tossing it to the ground.

The book landed on the chest of a corpse lying face-up. The pool of blood on the corpse’s chest started to drench the remaining parts of the book that were intact.

“Stupid writer. The dream is to lay in a comfortable bed, munching on snacks while reading a martial arts novel. Liu Bang’s Han dynasty* was normally only supposed to last 500 years. The only reason why his empire lasted longer than a thousand years is because of that damn martial realm and martial arts, so why are you romanticizing that?” the man ranted to the dead,  squinting as he turned his head, blinded by the sunset.

The sun shone its last rays for the day, dipping below the wide horizon far off in the distance of the wide plains. The long, faint trails of clouds showed a diverse spread of colors with the sun shining through them.

There was also diversity in the corpses laying around the man.

Men, women, and old men. There were about seven or eight bodies limp on the ground, each with at least one massive wound.

There was a tilted wagon with one broken wheel. Judging by how the contents of the wagon were in a mess and how there were no dead horses, it was likely the act of bandits.

The squatting man squinted his eyes at the corpses that were losing body heat before slowly getting up.

He headed towards the pile of clothes near the wagon, rummaging through to see if there was anything useful. Unfortunately, there was nothing for him, but he did spot a few clothes for a small child.

Seeing how the body of a child was nowhere to be found, the child was likely kidnapped by the bandits—either to raise as one of their own or sell off at a bargain.

“…That’s a shame,” the man mumbled. He donned the rice hat he was holding in his left hand, spit on the ground, and whistled a quick, short note.

His horse, Cao Cao, slowly clopped over, hearing his whistle.

The man adjusted the sword hanging on his hips before jumping up on the horse in a fluid motion. Once he was on the saddle, he tapped the side of the horse with his feet.

Understanding its owner’s action, Cao Cao neighed once before dashing and leaving the scene.

A man rode on his horse through the crimson desert. Dry air mixed with sand blew on the man’s clothes and hat. The man’s body wavered along with the movement of the horse. Leaving behind corpses of those that had died not that long ago, he rode into the sunset.

It was a late evening on the new continent.