"Watch your tongues. The Clan Head is still on the platform. Besides, Ji Yuan has an older sister—a true prodigy of heaven. If Miss Ji Qingzhu hears you gossiping like this, you’ll be in for a world of hurt!"
Ji Yuan stood there, expressionless. Though his cultivation had regressed to nothing, his senses remained as sharp as those of any warrior who had cleared the Fifth Stage of Body Refining. The whispers around him drifted into his ears like thorns, piercing his heart.
No matter how composed he tried to be, his breathing grew ragged.
He slowly lifted his head, his dark eyes sweeping over his mocking peers. The self-deprecating smile on his lips grew bitter, and a graceful, ethereal figure flashed through his mind.
"If only I had my sister's talent... But if she were here, she would definitely protect me and beat them all to a pulp, right?"
"Father, I have disappointed you once again."
Ji Yuan let out a bitter laugh, turned away in solitude, and quietly retreated behind the crowd.
"Next, Ji Ling!"
Ji Ling was the son of a clan elder and, like Ji Yuan, was sixteen years old. But unlike Ji Yuan, he wore a face full of overweening confidence. Radiating spirit, he glanced at Ji Yuan standing in the back row, a look of mockery curling his lips.
He strode forward, arrived at the thousand-pound stone lock, and lifted it with what seemed like effortless ease.
"Elder, a thousand pounds is nothing to me. I’d like to add another three hundred!" Ji Ling said after setting the lock down.
"Granted."
"Hah!" Ji Ling hoisted the thirteen-hundred-pound lock without strain. Having consumed spirit herbs and on the verge of breaking through the Fourth Stage of the Viscera Pass, he possessed fifteen hundred pounds of force in a single arm. He added the extra three hundred intentionally, simply to humiliate Ji Yuan.
"Your full strength is just a fraction of mine! No matter how much Sister Qingzhu likes you, she will eventually be disappointed in you!" Ji Ling thought to himself, a smug grin spreading across his face.
He should have been the one to be Sister Qingzhu’s best younger brother. That fellow Ji Yuan just happened to be born into a good family. So what if he spent three years refining blood? He had fallen from his pedestal, bringing shame to the clan and to Sister Qingzhu.
Sister Qingzhu had once been so brilliant that all the talents in Yun City dared not hold their heads high in her presence. It was truly infuriating and hateful that her reputation had been tarnished by Ji Yuan!
"Next."
"Next."
The sun set behind the mountains, painting the sky in shades of crimson.
The first day of the stone lock trials had ended, and the clansmen were already buzzing about who would take the top spot in the combat trials the next day.
Everyone was full of excitement, save for one young man who walked away into the solitude of the dusk.
"Yuan'er... *sigh*. Let him be for tonight." On the high platform, the Clan Head, Ji Wenzhuo, watched his son’s retreating figure, his heart aching.
With a soft sigh, he prepared to leave, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a familiar, ethereal white figure. Even after three years of absence, a father’s intuition told him: this was his eldest daughter.
"Qingzhu? How have you returned?!"
"Greetings, Father. I have returned because my cultivation has reached a point of completion, and I am searching for the opportunity to break through into a Divine Ability. I happened to arrive during the clan’s grand competition and watched for a while. The clan has produced quite a few excellent juniors these past three years," Ji Qingzhu said with a graceful bow and a radiant smile.
"Good, as expected of the Phoenix of the Ji Clan! You must have seen Yuan'er's performance. After you left, he quickly reached the Fifth Stage of Body Refining, even faster than you were at the time. But for some reason, his blood refinement failed. His essence and blood simply vanished, and he has failed two more times since then..."
"He has always listened to you most since he was a child. Now that you are back, you should go comfort him. Don't let him stray onto the wrong path. Tell him that as long as I am here, there will always be a place for him in the Ji Clan!" Ji Wenzhuo entrusted his daughter.
He would have time to catch up with her later, but his son's condition weighed heavier on his mind.
"It is merely a minor setback. Young people often struggle with their temperament; a little tempering will only benefit his future. I will go visit Little Yuan. Father, do not worry." Ji Qingzhu assured him with confidence.
Three failed blood coagulations, that’s all—it was nothing. According to the setting of her past life, this unlucky kid would have to go through nine blood refinements before awakening his special constitution.
At the summit of the back mountain, Ji Yuan lay lazily on the grass, a blade of dogtail grass between his teeth. With his hands behind his head, he stared blankly at the clouds on the horizon.
"The sun is setting..."
Thinking of the trials that afternoon, Ji Yuan closed his eyes, his entire being radiating a heavy sense of gloom.
In the end, he was only a sixteen-year-old boy.
"What's wrong, young man? Already starting to doubt whether you're the protagonist?" A faint, clear female voice drifted from behind him.
The woman’s tone held a hint of a smile, devoid of mockery, radiating instead a sense of comforting concern.
Ji Yuan snapped his eyes open, flipped up with a sudden spring, and turned around in a hurry. He saw a woman in plain clothes, her skin like congealed fat, her brows like crescent moons. A gentle smile hung on her face; she held one hand before her and the other behind her back, walking slowly from the dappled shade of the trees.
The young man’s dark eyes froze on her, his gaze widening until his eyes were round. The joy of the moment instantly washed away the melancholy of the past few days.
Ji Qingzhu reached out with her left hand and flicked him on his broad forehead.
"What? You don't even recognize your own sister?"
"Or has some young girl stolen our young master's soul, leaving him indifferent to his own sister's return?" Ji Qingzhu lowered her head, feigning hurt.
"No, no! How could I not recognize you, Sister! I’m just too happy!!"
Ji Yuan panicked at her words, shaking his head and waving his hands, terrified she might misunderstand. But upon hearing the second part, he couldn't help but lower his head and offer a bitter smile.
"As for a young girl... *heh*. I’m so pathetic now, what girl would ever like me?"
He desperately wanted to pour out his bitterness to her. To fall from a genius to a piece of trash—no matter how strong a teenager tries to be, how much can he really take?
Ji Yuan had never known his mother; his eldest sister was a mother figure to him. Her place in his heart was absolute.
"Lift your head. Do not belittle yourself. This look you have now is the only reason no one would like you."
"Remember, you are my brother, Ji Qingzhu’s brother. There is no such thing as you being worse than others!"
Ji Qingzhu firmly straightened Ji Yuan’s head and spoke to him word by word.
"Do I still have hope?" Ji Yuan asked, looking up, a spark of hope flickering in his eyes.
"As heaven keeps its vigor through movement, a gentleman should strive for self-improvement!" Ji Qingzhu patted her little brother on the shoulder and continued:
"Follow me for your training from now on. Believe in yourself, and believe in me. Your potential goes far beyond this. One day, you will soar above the nine heavens."