Luo Jiu had always been a marginal figure by his master's side, holding little presence. Yet he had ultimately chosen to come to Qingshan City, where he enjoyed top-tier treatment and universal respect, gradually growing fond of this backward little town.
Here, money and resources were abundant; to him, it was simply paradise. This was a life he had never even dared to imagine while following his master.
"It seems I should go pay a visit to the Yu Family as well. I'm afraid an extraordinary personage has emerged among them," Luo Jiu praised aloud.
Having spent many years in Qingshan City, he had a very clear grasp of its power dynamics. The city was dominated by three families: the Wang Family, the Yu Family, and the Leaf Family, with the City Lord himself hailing from the Wang Family.
In truth, the Yu Family had always been a middling force in Qingshan City—neither particularly strong nor weak—with virtually no close friends or allied clans, as their relations with both the Leaf Family and the Leaf Family's peers were merely lukewarm.
Given the current situation, any alliance should be forged early. As the saying went, the early bird catches the worm. He was surely not the only one wishing to go and befriend the Yu Family; if he went too late and others beat him to it, the outcome would be vastly different. After all, friends came in all shades—best friends, ordinary friends, and acquaintances. If he was going to make an alliance, he wanted to be among the best, not some second-rate associate who was barely remembered as a face without even knowing the other's name when they crossed paths.
High above the Yu Family estate, deafening peals of thunder crashed down one after another. By now, the townspeople were no longer as panicked as they had been at first; many had grown accustomed to the relentless roaring.
"I reckon with lightning striking like this, that Yu Fan must be dead and gone by now. With thunder this fierce, he might even have been blasted to ashes."
"Indeed, indeed. Yu Fan is merely at the Qi Condensation 3rd Layer. Even I, at the Qi Condensation 5th Layer, wouldn't necessarily survive the first strike, let alone this many. I simply don't believe a good-for-nothing like Yu Fan could survive such a trial."
"Fan'er." Yu Cheng's palms were slick with sweat, and his fingers trembled uncontrollably, laying bare the deep worry and terror in his heart.
***
When Liu Shuying entered Qingshan City and caught sight of the epicenter of the tribulation, she was suddenly taken aback. For that direction pointed precisely toward the Yu Family—a household dismissed by her elders and one she herself had previously looked down upon.
*Could what I suspected actually be true?!* A wave of doubt surged through Liu Shuying's mind.
The image of the man she had met three days ago flashed instantly across her thoughts. That decent-looking man full of subtle schemes—could it really be him? Was everything he said true? Did his actual strength long surpass all of theirs, and was he merely playing the fool to conceal his true power from them? If so, what a terrifying existence he must be!
"Young Mistress, look—the center of that tribulation is the Yu Family. Could it be they've been hiding some powerhouse all along?" Uncle Jiang also looked rather surprised. From his perspective, the Yu Family had accomplished nothing of note in recent years, which was why the Liu Family had wanted to break off the two clans' engagement—fearing the Yus would drag them down and hinder their ascent toward greater heights.
"Let's go, quickly to the Yu Family," Liu Shuying urged, her voice laced with unconcealed impatience.
Though she didn't know whether her unbidden conjectures were true, a faint intuition told her deep down that this phenomenon—resembling her own master's breakthrough—was a tribulation indeed!
And it was even more powerful than when her master had broken through to the Golden Core Realm! Could it be that she had misjudged the humble Yu Family all along, and they were about to produce a Nascent Soul ancestor?! If so, she truly needed to reconsider everything.
Yu Fan gazed at the extremely strange-looking sword emerging from the forging cauldron... In truth, it could hardly be called a sword anymore, for its appearance was dreadfully ugly, with a hilt three feet longer than the blade.
It gave off an utterly bizarre vibe—strikingly bizarre and bound to draw stares.
*Sigh*, its abnormal shape aside, the worst part was that it was pitted and scarred all over, looking just like a toad's skin.
*A failed piece!* That was Yu Fan's immediate thought.
With a disappointed sigh, Yu Fan tossed the "sword" aside, too lazy to even spare it a second glance.
His whole body felt somewhat exhausted, and he had no energy left to attempt a second forging.
"It seems I have no talent for weapon forging," Yu Fan thought, lying on his bed with a helpless expression.
As the blazing gales and flames dissipated, Yu Fan saw that the courtyard all around him had been scorched black. The old willow tree that had accompanied him in the yard for decades had now been transformed into lightning-struck wood.
"What the hell happened here? Were we robbed? Did someone set a fire, or was it struck by lightning? I didn't even do anything weird!" Yu Fan cried out in shock.
"My house got struck by lightning? No way!" Of all the evildoers out there, why strike him instead of them? Was the heavens jealous of his good looks and towering strength? Or was it because he was so painfully narcissistic?
While the entirety of Qingshan City was shaken by the tribulation he had supposedly triggered, Yu Fan himself had remained entirely oblivious, because the tribulation hadn't even managed to breach his blazing gales.
He hadn't paid attention to the slightest commotion outside.
With a swift glance, Yu Fan immediately put away his Purple Qi Dragon-Pattern Cauldron.
Someone was coming.
Bai Ling pushed the door open and rushed straight in, her face streaked with crystalline tears and tear stains. Upon catching sight of Yu Fan, a wave of relief washed over her, and she lunged forward to embrace him tightly.
"Fan'er, are you alright?" Bai Ling asked anxiously.
Looking at his mother's sudden display of warmth, Yu Fan was somewhat puzzled. "Mother, I'm fine. What's wrong?"
"You little rascal, what on earth did you do to make the heavens punish you like this?" Yu Cheng hurried in right behind her, demanding an answer at once.
In Yu Cheng's wake, several elders of the Yu Family crowded into the courtyard, eager to see what in the world Yu Fan had been up to.
Scanning the entire yard, they found nothing aside from an ugly lump of iron. Everything else had been scorched pitch-black by the lightning.
"The heavens punishing me? Father, what are you talking about? Why would the heavens punish me? I didn't do anything!" Yu Fan's eyes were filled with utter bewilderment.
"Your courtyard was struck by lightning dozens of times just now! Where were you?" Yu Cheng hastily demanded.
"I was forging a weapon just now. Look." Yu Fan pointed to the ugly-looking sword beside him with an earnest expression, looking not the least bit like he was joking.
"Weapon forging? You forged this?" Yu Cheng picked up the sword and examined it closely.
Tattered and completely devoid of any weapon-like appearance, it looked neither like a sword nor a hammer—simply a monstrosity. *This* was supposed to be a weapon? Yu Cheng asked with deep skepticism, "This is your first time forging, right? Didn't turn out too well, hehe." Yu Fan scratched his head awkwardly.