[The girl's physical condition is much worse than you imagined.]
[This is not a simple illness, nor is it merely a matter of being unable to cultivate. To describe it, it is more like a chronic poison corroding her body from the inside out.]
[You believe that all things in nature have their mutual restraints, and that no matter how insolvable a curse is, there must be something that counters it.]
[You searched through every scripture in the Scripture Pavilion, but not a single book recorded it.]
[You visited grandmasters of the Dao of Alchemy everywhere, but regrettably, most of them shook their heads in silence upon hearing of the Corrosive Pill Flame Spirit Curse. Even the few precious medicinal pills you managed to obtain through all your earnest pleas yielded little effect.]
[You rushed about everywhere, not letting go of any news related to the disciples of the Tianmo Sect, yet you still gained nothing.]
[You sought help from your Master and had an audience with the Sect Master, but you still failed to find a way to lift the curse.]
[You watched as Ye Youning grew increasingly haggard. Every few days, you could distinctly sense that she had grown a fraction thinner.]
[You were powerless, unable to do a single thing. You could only silently pray, praying for a miracle to happen, praying that the next morning you would see the young maiden standing there in all her graceful poise, softly calling your name.]
[If miracles were as common and easily obtained as everyday meals, could they still be called miracles?]
[Time flew like an arrow; five years passed just like that, and you had accomplished nothing.]
[You had countless times wished you were the protagonist of an isekai novel, where any setback is effortlessly resolved, but reality is not like that.]
[Day after day, the sun followed its unchanging ancient trajectory, rising slowly and then quietly sinking down. You began to fear, for no reason at all, sharing a room with that young maiden. Every single word she spoke sounded like a farewell to you; it seemed that whenever you spent time with her, death silently crept closer.]
[The little bean from before had now grown into a breathtakingly beautiful young maiden. What a pity her body was so weak that daily travel relied entirely on a wheelchair. The once lively girl was now confined to this small wheelchair.]
[In the past, when you read Dream of the Red Chamber, you used to like Lin Daiyu's sickly and pitiable charm; now, in your eyes, it was a pitiful sight.]
[That crazy thought from that day at the Tianxuan Sect gradually took shape, and you began making preparations.]
[You gave yourself a deadline: the Nascent Soul stage.]
[You drove your potential to the absolute limit like a madman, constantly trying to break through that barrier.]
[Your Master had once admonished you about the importance of balancing exertion and relaxation, but you paid it no mind whatsoever.][That demonic appearance filled the young girl with a trace of worry.]
"Ye Feng... Won't you participate in the Seven Peaks Assembly?"
It was still the same small bamboo house. Several years had passed, and very little had changed.
Yet the person inside had changed.
The young girl's face was as pale as paper, entirely devoid of color, save for an unnatural flush on her cheeks caused by illness. She tilted her head back slightly as she rested against the soft pillow.
"Why? That assembly is just a waste of time," Ye Feng replied offhandedly, placing a pill near the girl's lips. "This is the Qiushui Pill Master begged Master He for. It can nourish your body."
Without a moment's hesitation, the young girl parted her lips and swallowed it with practiced ease, stubbornly repeating her suggestion: "You should go! The Seven Peaks Assembly is very prestigious. If you place well, you'll make a name for yourself, and even Hengjian Peak will share in the glory!"
"Make a name for myself? Who knows, it might genuinely help in the end." Ye Feng nodded slightly, a thoughtful look crossing his face before he answered, "Fine, I'll go."
Hearing this, the girl's eyes curved into crescent moons, blooming into a sweet smile. Yet the backdrop to this smile was a room reeking of bitter medicine, the light and shadows on the wall mottled and dim under the yellowish lamplight. This smile formed a stark contrast with her surroundings, inadvertently arousing a deep sense of heartache.
Ye Feng twitched the corners of his mouth, trying to return the smile, but ultimately couldn't manage it. After a moment of silence, he took a piece of candy from his tunic, handed it to the girl, and said softly, "Here, this is for you."
The young girl's eyes lit up. She accepted it eagerly, as though she had been given the most precious treasure in the world. She carefully placed the candy in her mouth, gently letting it dissolve, reluctant to bite down hard. She treasured it so, as if a single bite might cause the sweetness to vanish.
Watching this scene, Ye Feng felt a swirl of conflicting emotions inside. The atmosphere in the room grew increasingly stifling, and he could no longer bear to stay. Dropping the words "I'm going to cultivate," he fled the room in hurried, hushed strides as if escaping.
...
"Just when did this Ye Feng emerge from obscurity? To think he's so formidable!" Within the crowd, a cultivator exclaimed in sheer wonder, unable to contain himself."Who is to say otherwise!" another chimed in. "Not a single top disciple from the major sects could withstand even a single sword stroke from him! Could this be the sheer dominance of a fire spiritual root? Yet I also possess a fire spiritual root, so why have I never felt even a fraction of that power?"
"Hmph, that is a top-grade fire spiritual root we are talking about, an absolute genius with peerless talent! How can you even compare your utterly ordinary spiritual root?" another sneered disdainfully.
Today marked the final day of the Seven Peaks Assembly. At this grand gathering brimming with elite cultivators from numerous sects, Ye Feng had relied on his extraordinary strength to battle his way through every challenge, displaying a dazzling edge as he captured first place at the Seven Peaks Assembly without a single suspenseful moment.
At this moment, Ye Feng stood tall and upright before Sect Master Mo Rushi.
Mo Rushi's gaze was filled with approval. Looking at this prized disciple before him, he smiled and said, "Your sword momentum is like a rainbow, and you remained calm and collected even when effortlessly subduing powerful foes. Your performance can truly be called flawless."
"Tell me, what kind of reward do you desire?"
Ye Feng respectfully cupped his fists in a salute, his expression steady as he replied, "Replying to Sect Master, this disciple wishes to ask for a 'Breakthrough Pill'."
Upon hearing this, Mo Rushi could not help but be slightly startled, a trace of pleasant surprise flashing across his eyes. "You have already reached the threshold of the Nascent Soul stage?"
"Yes, Sect Master," Ye Feng answered firmly.
"Good, good, good!" Mo Rushi uttered the word 'good' three times in succession, his face beaming with gratification and joy. "Take this Breakthrough Pill, then. Our Tianjian Sect will soon welcome yet another Nascent Soul cultivator, and you are not even thirty years old yet. Your future prospects are truly boundless!"
Ye Feng cupped his fists once more to express his sincere gratitude, then looked past Mo Rushi to gaze behind him.
He saw his own master beaming with a smile, looking at him with eyes brimming with pride.
Beside him sat a young girl in a wheelchair; although her complexion appeared slightly pale, it could not conceal her lively and playful spirit.
*Spoiling her again!* Ye Feng thought to himself, feigning annoyance as he cast a reproachful look at the old man and the young girl.
Upon seeing this, the girl playfully stuck her tongue out at Ye Feng. Yet this playful face appeared somewhat abrupt against her pale complexion, causing Ye Feng's heart to jolt fiercely as a pang of heartache quietly welled up within him.
***
[At the Seven Peaks Assembly, you dominated the field, seizing first place without the slightest effort like a brilliant star illuminating the sky of the cultivation world, becoming a peerless prodigy whom everyone admired and envied.]
[From then on, the name of Ye Feng spread rapidly to every corner of the cultivation world. People everywhere declared that this youth possessed peerless talent and that his future path would undoubtedly shine with boundless brilliance, limitless in potential.]
[Conversely, your younger sister, Ye Youning, remained deeply trapped in the quagmire of the curse, her path to breaking it as hazy and unreachable as dense fog. Her body grew increasingly frail, like a candle flickering in the wind, her life force draining away bit by bit. The curse devoured her vitality as voraciously as a taotie, while the meager nourishment her body absorbed was like a drop of water on a burning fire, utterly incapable of filling the massive deficit caused by the curse.]
[Consumed by burning anxiety yet entirely helpless in the face of this abyss-like predicament, you could only give it everything you had, sparing no cost to exchange all the stipends issued by the sect for every variety of medicinal pill, hoping only to buy a sliver of vitality for your sister. By now, your storage bag was completely empty, with only that single 'Breakthrough Pill' you had won at the Seven Peaks Assembly lying quietly within it.]
[The fifteenth year of your transmigration. Ye Youning was fifteen years old. Her fragile body could no longer sustain normal life activities and ultimately plunged into an endless coma. Her life was maintained entirely by the pills that you and your master continually provided.]
[You sat alone atop the sheer precipice, enduring the baptism of wind and rain, watching the changing of the four seasons and the falling of petals, comprehending the shifting currents of spiritual energy between heaven and earth until you finally successfully broke through to the early Nascent Soul stage.]
[Your strength ushered in an explosive surge. After inspecting your cultivation, your master once sighed that with your current might, you were no longer inferior to an ordinary Deity Transformation stage cultivator.]
[Finally, the day you had looked forward to for countless days and nights arrived quietly like the dawn's first light.]
[Parting this time, it might be difficult to meet again; you entrusted Senior Sister Liu to hand the farewell letter you had written to your master in three days.]
[For ten years, spanning over three thousand days and nights, you had never dared to pause for even a single fraction of a moment. Yet tonight, acting entirely out of character, you suddenly grew somewhat weary and only wished to keep a quiet vigil by Ye Youning's bedside.]
[Early the next morning, the first rays of dawn cast a golden glow. Draped in a suit of black attire and with a long sword strapped to your back, you resolutely stepped onto the path leading to the Tianmo Sect. This journey ahead was filled with towering mountains, distant roads, and peril on every side.]
[Yet you felt no fear.]
[...]