After Xie Chen entered the immortal sect, everyone waited eagerly to watch Yin Xuanlin make a fool of himself.
A fire spiritual root that appeared only once in a hundred years?
Hah. Now a once in a thousand years prodigy had arrived.
“If Yu exists, why must Liang also exist?” they said with glee. Let’s see how that fellow surnamed Yin manages things from now on!
The reason everyone was so openly delighted at the prospect of his misfortune was simple enough: Yin Xuanlin really didn’t have many friends.
Who told him to be so arrogant?
He was always vain and boastful, constantly competing with others, proud to the point of haughtiness and so disdainful that he seemed to look down on everyone around him.
In truth, the immortal sect had a rather high tolerance for arrogance. After all, those who came to cultivate immortality, who among them hadn’t been extraordinarily gifted or immensely wealthy in the mortal world?
Throughout the entire sect, the sons and daughters of powerful families could be found everywhere. Young masters and young ladies sent by great clans were as common as leaves in the wind, each one more imposing and high spirited than the last.
But the problem was that Yin Xuanlin was not one of them.
Before entering the Tangdi Immortal Sect, Yin Xuanlin had not even possessed a proper name.
He had merely been a filthy little beggar wandering at the foot of Yanhuai Mountain, stealing scraps, snatching food, scrambling for whatever he could grab, sometimes even fighting wild dogs over leftovers. It was common for him to be beaten until his face was bruised and swollen.
A wild child who should have been left to live or die on his own.
Yet while he was scraping bark from a roadside tree to fill his stomach, he happened to be seen by Elder Mu Qing of the Tangdi Immortal Sect, who was traveling the world at the time.
It was a stroke of extraordinary luck.
The elder was skilled at reading people’s physiognomy. With a single glance, he noticed a spark of spiritual potential hidden beneath the grime and tattered clothes.
“A fine seedling for cultivation…”
Although the elder lived like drifting clouds and wandering cranes, carefree and unattached, he still carried the boy into the sect, casually gave him a name and then disappeared once again on his travels.
Yet that single act completely changed the destiny of the filthy wild child.
An immortal sect was nothing like the mortal world.
The moment Yin Xuanlin entered, he was stunned.
Towering jade palaces rose into the clouds, their peaks piercing the rosy glow of sunset. Immortal cranes circled the mountains, their clear cries echoing through the valleys. Senior brothers and sisters flew across the skies on swords, their sleeves billowing like celestial beings descending from heaven.
A lowly little beggar had just stepped into this immortal realm, how could he dare act presumptuously?
Naturally, he immediately bowed his head and made himself small, obediently becoming the eager errand boy for his senior brothers and sisters. Every day he was summoned at will, running wherever he was told, smiling ingratiatingly while taking on all the exhausting chores that no one else wanted to do, running errands, sweeping courtyards, cleaning halls, so busy he could barely stop moving.
Sometimes he had to take the blame for others.
Sometimes he served as the convenient punching bag.
Being bullied, scolded or even beaten was not uncommon.
But at the very least, he could finally eat his fill and wear warm clothes and when sweeping the courtyards, he could often look up and see solitary birds against the sunset glow or vast blue skies washed clean by the wind.
To Yin Xuanlin, this life was already unimaginably better than the one he had known beneath the mountain.
Not to mention that when the “masters” he served were in a good mood, they would sometimes let scraps slip through their fingers, leftover food, low grade pills or minor magical artifacts.
To the senior brothers and sisters, these things were worthless trash.
But to Yin Xuanlin, every single one of them was a priceless treasure.
Each time he received something, he would thank them profusely, gratitude overflowing, his eyes shining with astonishing brightness.
Those ant like days passed quickly, two full years gone in the blink of an eye.
Then came the triennial grand examination of spiritual roots within the immortal sect.
This small disciple, who had always been ignored and left to fend for himself, stepped up to the Spirit Testing Stele. The moment his hand touched it, a blazing pillar of crimson light shot straight into the heavens, startling the entire cultivation world.
A supreme fire spiritual root seen only once in a hundred years.
This was no small matter.
This was truly no small matter!!!
In an instant, countless shocked and envious gazes turned toward the former little beggar.
As the old saying goes: thirty years east of the river, thirty years west, the tides of fortune are forever shifting.
With a single stroke, Yin Xuanlin’s fate overturned. His tail nearly shot straight into the sky.
Once upon a time he had been so humble and obedient. Now he seemed to have forgotten entirely what it meant to bow his head.
His attitude changed overnight.
Fine silk and brocade clothing appeared on his back. He moved into a private courtyard all his own.
Soon he began complaining that the food in the communal dining hall was terrible, demanding that special meals be prepared just for him.
The courtyard where he lived became filled with carved beams, painted rafters and carefully arranged furnishings.
When the sect distributed cultivation resources, he no longer bothered pretending humility. Not only did he insist on choosing first every single time, he often complained afterward that this item had poor quality or that one lacked sufficient spiritual energy.
The face that once overflowed with ingratiating smiles now wore a different expression entirely, three parts cold indifference and seven parts careless arrogance.
And when he opened his mouth, his words seemed almost dipped in poison.
“Oh? Senior Brother Zhou, you crashed your sword again while flying today?”
“Hehe, Senior Sister Bai, the way you wield that sword… well, the enemy can’t hurt you at all but you can’t hurt them either!”
“Really now? Even the three legged black cat I picked up from the mountain can do a backflip. Senior Brother Luo, how is it that your Wind Chasing Hound still hasn’t learned to ride the wind after three whole years?”
“What? What’s this? Surely no one is so foolish that they can’t even learn techniques above their cultivation level?”
“What are you all talking about? How could someone at mid Foundation Establishment fail to understand a technique from early Golden Core? Shouldn’t it be obvious at a glance?”
He was only a beggar whom everyone had once looked down upon yet now that the petty man had tasted success, he dared to mock his senior brothers and sisters with veiled sarcasm, ridiculing their slow cultivation and incompetence.
Naturally, such a change in attitude, from submissive humility to arrogant contempt, greatly angered many people.
However, Yin Xuanlin had now become one of the sect’s rising stars. Although quite a few people formed cliques to isolate him, there were even more who wanted to curry favor with him.
Before long, Yin Xuanlin found himself surrounded by an increasingly large crowd of followers.
Not long afterward, a certain story spread throughout the sect.
It was said that one day Yin Xuanlin had been rinsing his mouth with water from a spirit spring when several senior brothers he had once served confronted him, accusing him of forgetting his roots and becoming arrogant and harsh.
Upon hearing this, Yin Xuanlin spat out the mouthful of water with a sharp sound, then raised an eyebrow and sneered.
“I possess talent that appears only once in a hundred years. If I don’t act arrogantly and live freely, taking revenge where I please…”
“Should I instead imitate those clay Bodhisattva statues in temples, smiling kindly at everyone?”
“If that’s the case, then what’s the point of being a genius at all?”
From that day onward, anyone who had made things difficult for him during those two earlier years received their share of payback.
Those who had offended him only slightly would be mocked mercilessly every time they met, little stabs aimed straight at their sore spots.
“What’s wrong? Your family business suffered quite a loss this time, didn’t it?”
“Your father’s madness hasn’t gotten worse again, has it?”
As for those who had bullied him more seriously, he treated them outright as practice targets.
Whenever he felt like it, the sole of his shoe would end up planted directly against their faces.
For a time, the entire immortal sect lived in constant unease.
Yet there was no one who could truly escape Yin Xuanlin’s provocations and harassment.
Take, for example, Senior Brother Niu, the one who had once delighted in teasing him. The man had a long rectangular face and slightly flared nostrils. Now, every single day, Yin Xuanlin would bring a few of his followers along, clutching bundles of fresh grass, surround the man and imitate the sound of a cow mooing at him.
“Moo~ moo~ Senior Brother Niu, are you hungry? Come eat some grass!”
The mockery would continue endlessly.
Senior Brother Niu would grow so angry that his nostrils flared even wider than before.
Sometimes, when he could no longer endure it, he would gather all his strength and charge forward, determined to give Yin Xuanlin a proper beating.
But it was useless.
Even if he possessed the strength to uproot mountains, it was still far from enough when compared to someone with a hundred year fire spiritual root.
The outcome was always the same.
In the end, Yin Xuanlin would tie him upside down to the cow post, leaving the burly man shedding tears of humiliation.
Naturally, Yin Xuanlin’s outrageous behavior led to many complaints being filed against him.
The rules of the Tangdi Immortal Sect were strict.
However…
Yin Xuanlin was, after all, a once in a hundred years fire spiritual root. The elders always had many reservations when dealing with him.
What if they injured his foundation?
What if they damaged his spiritual meridians?
If something like that happened, who would bear the loss? Wouldn’t it become the sect’s great regret?
Should they punish him by copying scriptures? They worried he might grow too tired.
Lock him in solitary confinement? They feared he might grow stifled and restless.
It wasn’t that they pitied him.
The truth was that such a rare spiritual root was extremely difficult to find. The other great sects were watching with hungry eyes.
If the punishment were too severe and hurt the boy’s feelings, what if he became angry and ran away from the Tangdi Immortal Sect to join another sect?
That would be disastrous.
Thus, whenever Yin Xuanlin was punished, the sentence was usually raised high only to fall lightly. A few perfunctory reprimands were given and the matter would be dismissed without real consequence.
Naturally, this outcome made the other disciples grind their teeth in fury.
Even more infuriating was the fact that, although Yin Xuanlin caused trouble every single day, he never slacked off in his cultivation.
He already possessed a supreme fire spiritual root and on top of that he was extremely diligent. His cultivation progressed at a breathtaking speed, advancing thousands of miles in a single day.
During several subsequent sect competitions, he won first place with overwhelming dominance.
When he occasionally went out for external training, he was likewise undefeated among cultivators of his age.
Before long, he firmly occupied the top position among the rising young talents of the cultivation world, his reputation blazing like wildfire.
Those who disliked him were nearly driven mad with frustration.
Yet there was nothing they could do about him.
They couldn’t beat him in combat, so they could only watch helplessly as he grew more and more arrogant.
Looking at the brilliant future unfolding before him, some rumors even claimed that the sect master had already chosen him as the future successor who would inherit the mantle and carry the sect forward.
The mere thought of that vindictive creature becoming their future sect master made everyone feel as though darkness fell before their eyes.
And that wasn’t even the worst of it.
Over the past year or two, there had been frequent appearances of demonic crystals and hidden seeds of calamity. Disasters occurred one after another. Meanwhile, in the cultivation world there had always existed an ancient prophecy:
“When the demonic star illuminates the night, twin flames will shine together. One will burn the heavens to cleanse sin, the other will set the plains ablaze and overturn the earth.”
Put simply in plain language, it meant that the demonic energy within the cultivation world could be sealed but never completely destroyed.
Therefore, every hundred years, a world destroying demonic star would inevitably be born.
At the same time, the righteous path would also produce a savior, one known as the “Illuminator of the Night.”
Throughout history, each Illuminator of the Night had been someone extraordinarily gifted, blessed with exceptional spiritual roots.
If the savior of this generation truly turned out to be Yin Xuanlin…
Wouldn’t the entire cultivation world be doomed?
The more everyone thought about it, the more despair they felt.
Another year passed.
Yin Xuanlin was now about sixteen years old.
For the other disciples, life only grew more miserable.
Because… just a few years ago, this person had still been a sallow, skinny little street urchin from the very bottom of society. Who could have imagined that after several years of comfortable living, he would actually grow into himself?
With each passing day he became taller and more striking, his features gradually sharpening and maturing.
Before long, his bearing was already comparable to that of their sect master’s senior brother, who was widely praised as the most handsome man in the entire cultivation world.
Even when he was being utterly vile and sharp tongued, he still did so with a dazzlingly handsome face.
Yin Xuanlin himself was clearly extremely proud of this fact and his arrogance grew more flamboyant by the day.
Meanwhile, the outside sects knew nothing of his terrible personality. All they saw was his extraordinary talent and his appearance like that of an immortal descended from the heavens. As a result, his admirers increased more and more and small gifts were delivered to his peak like an endless flowing stream.
Among these offerings, the most eye catching of all was an Eight Treasure Agarwood Flying Sedan.
It was said to be a gift from the eldest daughter of the immensely wealthy Golden Toad Sect. The sedan was extravagantly luxurious beyond description, its spiritual light and jeweled brilliance so dazzling that it almost blinded anyone who looked at it.
From that day forward, while everyone else rode flying swords,
Yin Xuanlin insisted on riding his flying sedan.
Often he would recline lazily inside the carriage, dressed in splendid robes, gazing down upon the world with lofty disdain.
The sight drove many of the other disciples nearly mad with resentment.
“Bah! Pretty boy!”
“That young lady’s taste is terrible. Even Heaven itself must be blind.”
“A person like him receives this kind of admiration? When will his luck finally run out?!”
Perhaps the collective resentment of the masses truly reached the heavens.
Because at last, one more year later, the person destined to deal with him arrived.
The small and peace loving Immortal Sect known as the Crescent Moon Pavilion had been slaughtered by the demon race. Out of the entire sect, only the young heir survived.
The poor young master had no one left to rely on, so the Tangdi Immortal Sect kindly brought him back and took him in. As a matter of routine, they tested his spiritual roots.
Who would have thought that the Spirit Testing Stele would erupt with a brilliance even more intense and pure than the one Yin Xuanlin had produced years ago?
A supreme fire spiritual root that appeared only once in a thousand years.
The entire sect instantly erupted into chaos. Everyone rushed over to witness the spectacle.
The newly arrived junior disciple was named Xie Chen.
He had likely not yet recovered from the tragedy of witnessing the destruction of his sect. As a result, he was extremely quiet and gloomy. His dark eyes were unfathomably deep. Whenever he looked at someone, his gaze remained fixed and steady, carrying a faint chill.
If you asked him ten questions, you might not receive even a single reply.
But none of this mattered to the disciples who disliked Yin Xuanlin.
They were refreshed, delighted and almost celebratory.
Because in every possible way,
Yin Xuanlin had been completely outclassed.
Hahaha. When people are compared, someone is bound to lose; when goods are compared, the inferior must be discarded. There is always a higher mountain beyond the current one.
Wasn’t Yin Xuanlin becoming increasingly elegant and impressive?
Well, at best he was merely a handsome mortal man.
But this Junior Brother Xie possessed a beauty so cold it was almost sharp, a kind of striking perfection that seemed like the divine figure one might see only in paintings.
You were a once in a hundred years fire spiritual root, weren’t you?
Well, this one was once in a thousand years.
The contrast was so dramatic that it made people feel indescribably satisfied.
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Fleurveil
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Next →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Once a chosen one of heavenChapter 2 · Why didn’t you crawl in the shadows?!Chapter 3 · They would rather fight each otherChapter 4 · I’ll do a handstand and run naked three times!Chapter 5 · So what if I’m showing off!Chapter 6 · If you look again, I’ll gouge your eyes out!Chapter 7 · The young couple is fighting again.Chapter 8 · I’m back at the Jinchan SectChapter 9 · Sour, sourChapter 10 · To seize credit for someone’s workChapter 11 · The Golden Toad Sect has come to our aid to annihilate the Demon LordChapter 12 · Sect Leader’s HusbandChapter 13 · The stone, fox, tree, and scarecrow are named XuanlinChapter 14 · My junior and I have had sweet moments in private!Chapter 15 · The truth behind their first falling out back thenChapter 16 · Hate lasts longer than loveChapter 17 · Xie Chen was actually the Demon LordChapter 18 · Slaying the Demon LordChapter 19 · From resistance to enjoymentChapter 20 · Xiao Xie’s perspective begins!Chapter 21 · Only because it was Yin XuanlinChapter 22 · Xie Chen was not a foolChapter 23 · The End