The morning mist clung to Cloudmist City like a burial shroud.
Lu Chen sat cross-legged on the cracked stone floor of the Lu Family courtyard, breathing in the thin spiritual qi that barely qualified as cultivation fuel.
His robes were patched at the elbows.
His boots had holes in the soles.
And the entire city knew he was the weakest young master on the eastern frontier.
Still pretending to cultivate?
The voice came from the courtyard gate, sharp and mocking.
Han Yuze leaned against the wooden frame with his arms crossed, his Body Tempering Stage 6 aura pressing down on the courtyard like a warm blanket of contempt.
Two Han Family servants flanked him, smirking.
Lu Chen did not open his eyes.
He counted his breaths instead.
Inhale for four counts.
Hold for two.
Exhale for six.
The Cloudmist Spirit Circulation Art was a garbage-tier technique that even mortal martial artists looked down on, but it was the only thing the Lu Family could afford.
I said, are you still pretending?
Han Yuze stepped forward and kicked over the clay tea pot sitting beside Lu Chen’s knee.
Hot water splashed across Lu Chen’s ankle.
He did not flinch.
That was the thing about Lu Chen that confused people.
He never flinched.
The other young masters of Cloudmist City the Han heir, the Mo merchant’s son, the Bai alchemist girl they all had reactions when provoked.
Anger, fear, embarrassment, defiance.
Lu Chen had none of those.
He just smiled.
A small, quiet, infuriating smile that made Han Yuze’s teeth grind.
Your family’s herb shipment was intercepted this morning, Han Yuze said, leaning down until his face was inches from Lu Chen’s.
Every last crate.
Dragon Ridge belongs to the Han Family now.
The City Lord signed the transfer an hour ago.
Lu Chen finally opened his eyes.
They were dark and calm, like the surface of a deep well.
Is that so?
he said.
His voice was soft, almost gentle, as if Han Yuze had just told him the weather.
Han Yuze’s jaw tightened.
He hated that voice.
He hated that smile.
He hated that a cripple at Body Tempering Stage 3 three whole stages below him looked at him like he was the one who was weak.
Your father can’t even pay the clan’s spirit stone taxes, Han Yuze spat.
Elder Lu Zheng is begging the Mo Family for loans.
Your cousin Lu Qinghe got beaten up by my servants yesterday and didn’t even fight back.
The Lu Family is finished, Lu Chen.
It’s just a matter of time.
Lu Chen stood up slowly, brushing the dust from his patched robes.
He was lean and unremarkable, with none of the muscular bulk that Body Tempering cultivators usually displayed.
His meridians, according to every healer in Cloudmist City, were congenitally narrow and unsuitable for serious cultivation.
That was the public diagnosis.
That was the story everyone believed.
Thank you for the information, Young Master Han, Lu Chen said, bowing slightly.
I’ll pass it along to my father.
Han Yuze stared at him for a long moment, searching for a crack in the mask.
He found nothing.
With a disgusted snort, he turned and stalked out of the courtyard, his servants trailing behind him.
The gate slammed shut.
Silence returned to the Lu Family compound.
Lu Chen’s smile faded.
He looked down at his ankle where the hot water had splashed.
The skin was red but not blistered.
A Body Tempering Stage 3 cultivator should have suffered minor burns from water that hot.
Lu Chen’s skin had barely registered the temperature.
He flexed his fingers and felt the quiet hum of energy circulating through his meridians that were not narrow at all, but compressed, coiled tight like springs waiting to release.
Body Tempering Stage 5.
Two full stages higher than anyone in Cloudmist City believed.
Two full stages higher than Han Yuze.
Lu Chen had hidden his true realm for three years, ever since he realized that the weaker he appeared, the less attention the Lu Family attracted.
Attention was dangerous.
Attention brought scrutiny.
And scrutiny was something his family could not survive.
He didn’t fully understand why.
His father, Lu Yuan, had never explained it.
The man simply watched everything with calm, distant eyes and told Lu Chen to keep his head down.
Patience, Lu Yuan would say.
Strength without wisdom is just a louder way to die.
Lu Chen had followed that advice faithfully.
He endured the mockery.
He absorbed the humiliation.
He let the city believe he was a cripple.
But tonight, something was different.
The air felt heavier than usual.
The spiritual qi in the courtyard was shifting, pooling around him in patterns he had never seen before.
A cold sensation bloomed in the center of his chest, right where his dantian sat dormant and sealed.
Lu Chen pressed his palm against his sternum and frowned.
The sensation sharpened.
It was not pain.
It was recognition.
As if something inside him had been sleeping for a very long time and was finally beginning to stir.
Then the voice came.
It did not come from the courtyard.
It did not come from the street.
It came from inside his own mind, cold and mechanical and utterly alien.
[System 1.0 — Initialization Complete.]
[Host detected: Lu Chen, Age 16, Body Tempering Stage 5 (Suppressed).]
[Constitution scan: Primordial Chaos Body Suppression Level 99.7%.]
[Ninefold Seal Status: All layers active.]
[Initiating survival protocol.]
Lu Chen’s breath caught in his throat.
He staggered backward and hit the courtyard wall, his eyes wide.
The voice was not a cultivation technique.
It was not a divine sense transmission.
It was something else entirely.
Something that had been waiting inside him since the day he was born.
[First task issued.]
[Objective: Absorb moonlight spiritual qi at the eastern cliff before dawn.]
[Reward: Body Tempering Stage 4 breakthrough catalyst.]
[Time remaining: 6 hours.]
The mist swirled around the Lu Family compound, thick and silent and full of secrets.
Lu Chen stared at the empty air in front of him, his heart hammering against his ribs.
He was the cripple of Cloudmist City.
The weakest young master on the frontier.
The boy who smiled when everyone else would have broken.
And something inside him had just woken up.
The 24 Cultivation Realms of YaunXuan World (Names Only)
1,Body Tempering, 2.Qi Gathering, 3.Foundation Establishment,
4.Golden Core, 5.Nascent Soul, 6.Spirit Transformation,7.Divine Sense,
8.Void Refinement, 9.Space Integration,
10.Dao-Seeking,11.Dao Palace,12.Dao Lord, 13.Heaven Ascension
14.Saint Foundation, 15.Saint, 16.
Saint King, 17.Great Saint, 18.Saint Lord,
Half-Step Emperor, 20 .Emperor Seed, 21.
Emperor, 22.Emperor King,
23.Quasi-Emperor ,24.Great Emperor
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