"Hiss, my head hurts so much..."
When Lin Dong forced open his heavy eyes, a tide of intense pain surged into his mind. He clutched his head and groaned in agony.
Ten minutes later.
"But where is this place?"
The intense pain began to fade. Lin Dong slowly sat up on the couch and stared at the antique-style room, stunned. After a moment, he muttered, "No, it seems I've transmigrated. That can't be right. Can you transmigrate just from licking a growth? Hmm, let me think this through..."
Just as the youth from Earth, who shared our protagonist's name, was about to delve deeper into his memories, someone violently flung open the door with a "bang." A round, chubby creature came rolling into the room.
"Lin Dong, Lin Dong, your father is about to die!!"
A childish yet anxious cry rang beside Lin Dong's ear.
"Nonsense, it's your father who's about to die!"
Lin Dong's thoughts were muddled, so he instinctively raised his head to retort. The newcomer was a boy of about seven or eight, slightly plump and round enough to look like a ball.
For some reason, the boy's name surfaced in Lin Dong's mind: Lin Changqiang, the son of his fifth uncle and a childhood playmate he had known well.
Hmm, wait. My grandfather only had one son, my father. Where would I get a fifth uncle from?
But before Lin Dong could think further, Lin Changqiang grabbed him and pulled him off the couch. He ran outside, muttering:
"It's true. Uncle Lin Xiao has returned from the Clan Grand Competition in Great Yan Commandery. He not only lost the match but was also gravely wounded by a single strike. I heard his life is in danger. Father told me to fetch you. There's no time—come with me!"
Lin Changqiang dragged the bewildered Lin Dong into a spacious, simply furnished room packed with clansmen wearing grave expressions.
They surrounded a couch where a heroic-looking young man lay. His face was pale, his eyes tightly shut, and a trace of Fierce intent showed between his brows. He had clearly suffered a grave injury.
Lin Changqiang had been lively throughout the journey, but he no longer dared to act recklessly. He pulled Lin Dong into a corner, pointed at the gravely wounded man lying unconscious on the couch, and whispered, "Look. Your father is over there."
"My father?"
Confused, Lin Dong focused on the scene. He saw the man on the couch, the delicate woman keeping watch beside it, and an Elder in brocade robes whose appearance conveyed dignified authority.
"Father, what happened to Brother Xiao? Isn't he a Heavenly Yuan expert? And weren't you all heading to the Inner Clan in Great Yan Commandery for the Clan Grand Competition together?"
The delicate woman looked alarmed as she held back her grief and faced the dignified Elder beside her—the Clan Chief of their Lin Family and her husband's father.
"During the first match, Third Brother encountered a genius youth from the Inner Clan named Lin Langtian and lost in a single strike. Lin Langtian didn't merely crush Third Brother; he was also ruthless, using his violent Yuan Power to devastate Third Brother's insides."
"Third Brother has suffered severe internal injuries, and blood has stagnated inside him. His Meridians are blocked and damaged in many places. His Cultivation has fallen from the Heavenly Yuan Realm to the Earthly Yuan Realm, and he will never advance again for the rest of his life."
The dignified Elder's expression darkened. He pressed his cracked lips together and explained in a hoarse voice.
"So... so that means Brother Xiao has become a cripple?"
Upon hearing this, the delicate woman was stunned, muttering as if she'd lost her soul.
How could things have come to this?
Her husband, Lin Xiao, was the cultivation prodigy among the five brothers. He had been the first to Breakthrough from the Ninth Layer of Body Tempering into the Earthly Yuan Realm. In the next four years, he broke through the Earthly Yuan Realm again and entered the Heavenly Yuan Realm, becoming the second Heavenly Yuan expert in the Lin Family after the Family Head, Lin Zhentian.
Even his stern father, who rarely smiled, often wore a deeply satisfied smile at such cultivation speed.
As the once-in-a-decade Clan Grand Competition approached, Lin Xiao told her before he left, full of confidence: "Ah Yan, I will enter the Clan Assembly's top ten and return our Qingyang Town Lin Family to the ranks of the Inner Clan."
Lin Xiao had been so spirited and proud then. Now he had not only lost in a single strike but had also become a cripple whose Cultivation would never advance again.
Liu Yan knew her husband's temperament. She understood the torment that proud man would face when he woke and the depths of self-blame into which he would sink.
"A cripple? Not necessarily. With the Lin Family behind him, Third Brother won't become one. He should wake tomorrow. Take good care of him."
The dignified Elder paused before giving these instructions. Then, unwilling to stay any longer, he turned and left.
His finest son had fallen into this state, and his branch's hope of returning to the Inner Clan had vanished. He could not accept any of it.
"Lin Family, Lin Xiao, Lin Clan, Lin Langtian..."
Huddled in the corner, Lin Dong heard everything and understood where he had ended up. The light in his eyes grew brighter as he muttered excitedly, "I understand now. This is the Tianxuan Continent, Qingyang Town in the Great Yan Dynasty. This is..."
"Boom!"
Before Lin Dong could finish, his vision went dark. Dense memories surged from the depths of his mind like a raging tide, and he fainted.
The memory fusion had begun!
"Lin Dong, Lin Dong, what's wrong, Lin Dong? Father, come look, Lin Dong has fainted from excessive grief..."
Lin Changqiang caught Lin Dong as he collapsed. Panic filled his face as he shouted.
Lin Zhentian had reached the doorway, but he stopped and looked at Lin Dong, who had collapsed in the corner. He let out a long sigh: "Ah, Third Brother has raised a fine son. Take good care of Dong'er."
With that, he shook his head, and Lin Zhentian, his face full of sorrow, strode quickly out of the room. He did not want to stay in this place of grief for even one more minute. As the Family Head, he could never show a moment of weakness in front of his clansmen—never.
"Dong'er..."
Liu Yan had been watching over her husband. When she saw her son collapse too, tears streamed from her beautiful eyes.
What could she do? Her husband lay gravely wounded and unconscious, her son had fainted from grief, and her daughter was too young for her to tell. She, a frail woman, had to bear everything alone. What could she do?
"Liu Yan, it's all right. Dong'er has only fainted. Changqiang, help Dong'er up..."
Several women from the other four branches moved to comfort Liu Yan.
.....
In a place unknown to all, change took root in silence, and the wheel of history began to turn toward an unknown destination.
That year, Lin Dong was eight years old, and Lin Xiao was twenty-six.