Before the Grand Hall of the Yun Clan, ten thousand cultivators bowed their heads.
Upon the high dais, two figures stood shoulder to shoulder. One was clad in black, his hair ink-dark, his Double Pupils snuffing out all laws; the other's golden robe streamed in the wind, his blazing radiance commanding the eight wastes.
Below, a small child asked in a piping voice, "Grandfather, who's that man standing beside the Immortal Emperor up there? Why doesn't he have to kneel?"
The white-haired Old Ancestor hastily covered the child's mouth. His eyes brimmed with reverence and remembrance as he lowered his voice and said, quavering:
"There is a kind of man who is born to be a subject, yet in the end stands with his sovereign at the summit of the clouds..."
"That one is — the sovereign's other half, the emperor's reverse scale."
The years turned, and it was as if he saw once more, from long ago, that lone figure who had walked into the game alone: the concubine-born eldest young lord who, facing a younger brother reincarnated from an Immortal Emperor, had had no choice but to tread with painstaking care. How the things remained, yet the people had changed.
***
In the Three Thousand Great Worlds, upon the Tianyuan Continent, in the Eastern Domain, lay the ancestral grounds of the ancient Yun Clan.
Today was the Yun Clan's once-in-a-decade Spirit-Testing Rite. It was both a ceremony to examine the innate gifts of the younger generation and a vital chance for the collateral branches and concubine-born children to leap the dragon gate and win a greater share of the clan's resources.
It should have been a refined and tranquil day, yet the air carried an inexplicable edge of menace.
Within the vast grounds one could have heard a needle drop. Dozens of spirit-mirrors hovered in the air, reflecting every last thread of aura in the field so that nothing could hide. Every gaze, open or veiled, drifted now and then toward the high dais.
Upon that dais, a youth sat alone in the seat of honor — none other than the Yun Clan's Young Clan Head, only sixteen years of age: Yun Huang!
You ask after the current clan head? He had not even the standing to attend. Within the Yun Clan and beyond, all had long understood: every last thread of authority rested in the Young Lord's hands.
Even seated in silence, the radiant pressure that flowed from his "Primordial Radiance Divine Body" was like an invisible sun, setting the space around him faintly trembling. No one dared meet its edge head-on.
Yun Huang's pale-golden eyes swept over the field below, carrying an inborn majesty and remoteness.
And it was not only he — everyone present was waiting for that one name.
The concubine-born eldest son of the Yun Clan: Yun Qing.
Today was the day he returned to the clan.
The name Yun Qing was steeped in mystery and controversy among the Yun Clan's younger generation. It was said that the moment he was born he had tested for a world-shaking gift, and had at once been taken by the Second Elder into the secret realm known as the "Chaos Ancient Cave" for grueling cultivation. In more than ten years, he had never once shown his face.
Yet the clan's resources had flowed to him year after year, and he had been marked out early as the head of this generation's "Twelve Young Masters," so that even ordinary elders had to address him respectfully as "Eldest Young Master."
On what grounds?
A concubine-born son — on what grounds could he stand above every trueborn child of the main line? On the strength of that "gift" the elders guarded with such secrecy? The Yun Clan ranked first among the Four Ancient Clans; how many proud, heaven-blessed talents did it hold?
"Hmph. Playing the mystic for a dozen years — today we'll see whether he's a mule or a horse, once he's led out for a trot." A trueborn young master who bore the "Yanling Legacy" sneered under his breath.
"To hold the seat of 'Eldest Young Master,' he's surely no man of empty reputation. But the Young Lord most despises arrogance from the baseborn. Today, there'll be a fine show to watch."
Indeed — this Young Lord who held the clan's supreme authority had one great affliction:
A bastard-loathing streak.
So severe that he had even laid down a clan law: "A concubine-born son who faces the Lord must kneel to answer."
Those who defied it met wretched ends.
One concubine-born son named Yun Li, proud of his own gifts, had merely bowed instead of kneeling while reporting on a clan mission — and Yun Huang had pressed him to his knees with a single strand of blazing divine power. His dantian was wounded, and worse, he became a laughingstock of the clan.
"Yun Qing, so you're finally showing yourself!" At the back of the crowd, Yun Li unconsciously touched his still-aching dantian, his eyes filled with dread and... anticipation.
Envy, curiosity, doubt — all manner of whispers flowed through the crowd.
On the dais, Grand Elder Yun Che wore a face as still as an ancient well. The other elders all had smiles hovering at the corners of their mouths, the very picture of unruffled ease. They exchanged a glance, waiting for the show to begin.
"These little ones of the clan ought to learn what it means that beyond a man there are men, and beyond a heaven there are heavens."
The elders, of course, knew the truth of this Eldest Young Master.
Yun Huang's fingertip tapped idly against the dark-jade armrest. Deep in his pale-golden eyes hid the faintest trace of scrutiny. Clearly, toward this concubine-born elder brother in whom the clan had placed such hopes — one even tied to the "Soul-Tracing Secret Rite" — he was not wholly indifferent.
"Next, Yun Qing!"
When the steward-elder's summons rang out, unable to hide his excitement, the entire plaza fell silent in an instant.
Every gaze shot as one toward the entrance!
Light and shadow stirred.
Beneath the eyes of the multitude, a figure stepped forth at an unhurried pace.
He looked to be around nineteen, his bearing upright as a green pine on a cliff's edge. His plain black cultivation robe was simplicity itself, yet it could not conceal a presence as still and heavy as a mountain. His ink-dark hair was bound up with a single wooden hairpin; his features were handsome and clear, gentle in manner yet deep and composed. Most striking of all were his eyes — calm and profound, as though they held the sediment of years far beyond his age.
He came on step by step, his stride composed, as if the countless complicated stares around him were no more than a breeze brushing his face.
This was the Yun Clan's concubine-born eldest son, gone from home for more than ten years, only just returned from grueling cultivation in the Chaos Ancient Cave: Yun Qing!
Half a step behind him followed an elder whose hair and beard were lightly touched with frost, unrestrained and free in bearing — the Yun Clan's Second Elder, Yun Yuan, who had personally taught Yun Qing for over a decade.
The Second Elder walked with Yun Qing to the front of the platform, then turned aside of his own accord and settled leisurely into the elders' row upon the high dais. He and Grand Elder Yun Che beside him met each other's eyes for an instant, full of unspoken understanding.
Yun Qing stood quietly in the field. He raised his head, his gaze calm as it met those golden eyes upon the dais — eyes heavy as abyss and peak.
Yun Huang, upon the dais, was likewise studying this elder brother whose name had spread so far.
Today was their first meeting.
Of this Young Lord's severity there was no one present who did not know — even Yun Qing, far away in the Chaos Ancient Cave, had heard something of it.
Under the suppression of his absolute strength, the concubine-born children of the Yun Clan trod ever more as though upon thin ice.
The air in the field congealed.
By the iron law that "a concubine-born son must kneel before the Lord," Yun Qing, at this moment, ought to kneel in salute.
Yun Li's face carried a hint of gloom and cruelty; he could scarcely restrain the cold smile at his lips as he waited to see how Yun Qing would meet this first bit of spite. "Yun Qing... it's time you tasted this flavor too! We're both baseborn — on what grounds were you taken into a secret realm by the Second Elder from the moment you were born, while the rest of us have to suffer this humiliation in the clan, scraping by day to day? If we kneel, then everyone kneels together!"
Yun Huang's iron hand had long since planted fear in every young member of the clan; not a few, like Yun Li, were making the same guess.
Yet Yun Qing's manner caught them all off guard.
He stood upright as a mountain, without the slightest hesitation or cowardice — and only clasped his fist and bowed, in a posture beyond all reproach. The motion was smooth and natural, respectful without seeming servile: not submission, but the courtesy and respect a strong man was owed.
"Yun Qing greets the Young Lord."
His voice was clear and even, like a deep spring striking stone — not a ripple to be heard in it, yet it carried clearly into every ear.
He did not kneel!
"Hsss..."
"He actually dares not to kneel?!"
"The gall of him!"
A wave of stifled gasps and startled cries rose at once from below. Wild, disbelieving joy blazed in Yun Li's eyes, as though he already saw the scene of Yun Qing being called to account beneath the Young Lord's fury!
The fingertip tapping Yun Huang's armrest abruptly stilled. He had imagined that Yun Qing might swallow it and kneel, or else be stubborn and unbowed — but he had not expected the man to be so calm and at ease, neither servile nor proud.
This composure, this bearing, went far beyond his years.
Just as expected...
Yun Huang wished to see, then, just what this concubine-born elder brother — chosen by the painstaking design of the Heavenly Dao — was truly worth.
Pressure descended in an instant!