Southern Prefecture.
Qilin Sacred Land.
"Yun Xiaoyao, I raised you for over a decade as your master, and this is the ungrateful thief you've turned into? You truly disappoint me!"
Liǔ Yúnyān stared with bitter hatred at the white-clad man in the center of the grand hall, her angry roar echoing through the space.
The man in white blinked his hazy eyes, which suddenly grew bright.
He raised his head, sweeping his gaze across his surroundings to find every single face familiar from his memories.
In an instant, understanding seemed to dawn upon him.
"I... have I been reborn?"
A myriad of thoughts flashed through his mind in a split second.
He, Yun Xiaoyao, had been on the verge of starving to death on the streets at the age of five before being brought back to Qilin Sacred Land by his master, Liǔ Yúnyān, to cultivate.
And he had lived up to expectations, mastering Qi Refining in one year and reaching Foundation Establishment (peak) in two.
By the age of eight, he broke through his Foundation Establishment cultivation to become a Golden Core cultivator.
Shortly after, he earned the recognition of the Qilin Ancestor, receiving the supreme inheritance and becoming the Saint Son of Qilin Sacred Land.
The day he became the Saint Son, the day he revealed his talent, had shocked the entire Southern Prefecture.
From there, his progress was meteoric; in a mere five years, he condensed a Nascent Soul and became a Nascent Soul cultivator.
By eighteen, he achieved Spirit Severing cultivation, seizing countless resources for the Sacred Land.
Yet his legend did not stop there. At twenty-five and thirty-five, he successively broke through to Void Refinement and Body Integration.
By the time he turned fifty, he successfully broke through to the Mahayana Realm, becoming the most powerful person in the entire Southern Prefecture.
In just a few decades, Yun Xiaoyao had transformed from a street beggar into a powerhouse of the Mahayana Realm.
For a time, the prodigies of every major faction in the Southern Prefecture could only gaze up at Yun Xiaoyao's retreating back.
Fifty years after he entered the Mahayana Realm, just as he reached the peak of the Mahayana Realm and was about to break through to the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, the greatest crisis in the history of Qilin Sacred Land arrived.
Because his talent was simply too heaven-defying, it struck deep fear into the hearts of the myriad clans of the Southern Prefecture.
Consequently, they formed an alliance and swarmed forth to lay siege to Qilin Sacred Land.
Although Qilin Sacred Land was a top-tier faction in the Southern Prefecture at the time, the other sacred lands were no less formidable.
On the very day Yun Xiaoyao made his breakthrough, an army of a million cultivators attacked Qilin Sacred Land.
Countless disciples of Qilin Sacred Land perished in an instant, turning the place into a living hell.
Even the Mahayana Sacred Lord, Liǔ Yúnyān, was besieged by multiple Mahayana powerhouses and heavily injured.
At this critical juncture, Yun Xiaoyao halted his breakthrough, dressed in white with a single long sword in hand, facing the million-strong army alone.
Back then, lightning filled the sky over the entire Qilin Sacred Land, and ear-splitting sword hums resonated through the heavens.
Risking the agony of a backlash, Yun Xiaoyao fought a bloody battle for seven days and seven nights, beating the million-strong army so thoroughly they wailed for their parents.
Rivers of blood ran beneath the Qilin Sacred Mountain, littered with severed limbs.
Even while suffering from backlash, his battle prowess remained terrifyingly monstrous.
A full thirty Mahayana cultivators could do nothing against him, and in the end, dragging his heavily wounded body, he counter-killed twenty of them!
That single battle frightened the remaining Mahayana cultivators into retreating.
From then on, the apex combat strength of the entire Southern Prefecture suffered a generational fault line.
As for Yun Xiaoyao, severely wounded in the battle and further burdened by the backlash of his interrupted breakthrough, his cultivation plummeted overnight back to the Foundation Establishment Realm.
At first, Qilin Sacred Land revered Yun Xiaoyao as a hero.
Yet as time passed, over a mere hundred years, Yun Xiaoyao, stripped of his cultivation, was gradually forgotten by the people of Qilin Sacred Land.
Only the outside world still faintly circulated tales of his legend.
During that time, he constantly tried various methods to restore his cultivation, but none succeeded.
That barrier of Foundation Establishment felt like an unyielding copper wall and iron rampart; no matter how he smashed against it, he could not shake it by the slightest fraction.
As time drifted on, his position as Saint Son grew increasingly unstable.
Even his master, Liǔ Yúnyān, upon discovering he could no longer recover his cultivation, began to gradually abandon him.
They completely forgot who it was that had saved Qilin Sacred Land back then, who it was that made outsiders too terrified to ever trespass against Qilin Sacred Land again.
Until one day, Liǔ Yúnyān brought a six- or seven-year-old boy named Bái Chén back from the foot of the mountain and directly took him in as her final closed-door disciple.
Young Bái Chén was sensible and adorable, winning the affection of Liǔ Yúnyān and his three junior sister apprentices.
From that moment on, everything belonging to Yun Xiaoyao was usurped by this junior brother.
The finest cultivation grotto-heavens, magical treasures, pills, cultivation techniques, and martial arts of Qilin Sacred Land were all taken by Liǔ Yúnyān and given to Bái Chén.
As for Yun Xiaoyao, Liǔ Yúnyān had him directly thrown into a dilapidated stone cave at the foot of Qilin Sacred Mountain.
From then on, neither the junior sisters he had once cherished nor the master he respected ever came to see him again.
In fact, they had forgotten him entirely.
Until five years later, when his junior brother entered the Foundation Establishment Realm, his position as Saint Son was thoroughly stripped away, reducing him to an inner sect disciple.
Over the period that followed, this junior brother acted like a demon in human skin, relentlessly targeting Yun Xiaoyao.
Clearly, many things he had never done were pinned upon him as crimes.
To this day, he still clearly remembered the insults hurled by his master and junior sisters at the time.
"You beast! To think you would spy on your junior sister bathing! I should have let you die on the streets back then!"
"Senior Brother, you've changed. You're no longer the gentle Senior Brother you used to be. What you are now is a demon, and you disgust me!"
"Hmph, a mere Foundation Establishment trash, and you expect me to call you Senior Brother? You'd be better off beaten to death with sticks and thrown out!"
Every time he recalled those he once regarded as family hurling insults at him, Yun Xiaoyao's heart ached intensely.
Fortunately, on a certain night ten years later, he suddenly broke through to the Golden Core Realm.
Just as he thought he was about to return to his peak, that human-skinned demon of a junior brother arrived.
Having just broken through to the Golden Core Realm at the time, he was simply no match for this junior brother who possessed Spirit Severing cultivation.
On that freezing night, Yun Xiaoyao's corpse was thrown into a deep mountain forest to be devoured by wild dogs.
And no one knew of this, nor did anyone care.
Liǔ Yúnyān watched Yun Xiaoyao, who kept his head lowered in silence, and the anger in her eyes flared even brighter.
"Unfilial wretch, I asked you a question! Did you or did you not steal the pill that your junior brother needed to break through to the Golden Core Realm?"
"Master, please don't blame Senior Brother. He only did this out of a desire to restore his cultivation; I can understand."
Junior brother Bái Chén spoke in a soft, gentle voice from the side. Although his words pleaded for Yun Xiaoyao, the tears in his eyes told a different story entirely.
Seeing this, Liǔ Yúnyān grew even more furious.
Before she could speak, the fifth junior sister, Líng Yānrán, cried out.
"Junior Brother, you're still too soft-hearted! How could someone like this ever be worthy of sympathy? He should just be put to death immediately!"
"And to think I even called you Senior Brother! To steal from Junior Brother—pah!"
Yun Xiaoyao remained silent, looking up at Liǔ Yúnyān on the main seat above.
Was this the master he once respected? Was this the master who used to keep him by her side and gently guide him?
Afterward, his gaze shifted to Líng Yānrán and Líng Ruòlán.
Were these the two little girls he had once saved at the risk of his own life?
The very people he had once fought tooth and nail to protect were now cursing and loathing him.
At that moment, a cold smile formed in Yun Xiaoyao's heart.
"I risked my life cultivating to protect the people around me, and what I get in return is abuse and contempt? Then what kind of person am I?!"
"In this lifetime, to hell with this damned Qilin Sacred Land—I don't give a damn anymore!"