Chapter 2

In the Tianxing Continent, in the Divine Martial Kingdom, Tianyu City.

"Ouch, ouch..."

Jiang Yi groggily opened his eyes, feeling a searing pain all over his body, especially in his head. He struggled to prop himself up, wincing as he looked around, only to realize he was still lying on the ridge of the Jiang family's western mountain medicinal field.

Reaching up to touch the grotesquely swollen lump on his forehead, which was as big as an egg, Jiang Yi was instantly filled with uncontrollable anger. This morning, when he rushed to check the harvest of the family's western mountain medicinal field, he happened to catch Jiang Ruhu and a few other collateral line young masters stealing herbs to exchange for pocket money. Such behavior from these spoiled brats was usually tolerated by the family's stewards as long as it wasn't too severe, and they would turn a blind eye to it.

However, Jiang Yi, who had only taken over this job for a few days, was unaware of the inside story. When he encountered them, he couldn't help but give a word of advice. Unexpectedly, he was brutally beaten by the group and remained unconscious until now.

"Jiang Ruhu, I just gave you a word of advice, and you all resort to such vicious means... Hmph, one day, I will make you pay back every bit of this!"

Muttering angrily, Jiang Yi tried to stand up but stumbled in pain before he could steady himself, almost falling again. His body was covered with large and small wounds, causing his delicate face to contort in pain, and his head still felt dizzy.

Unfortunately, apart from cursing after the fact and silently adding another vow to settle accounts in the fall, what else could he do...

The Jiang family, as one of the five major families in Tianyu City, had numerous descendants and a strict hierarchy.

Among the younger generation of the Jiang family, the most prestigious were the young masters with various blood ties, followed by the ordinary descendants without blood ties. Among them, the direct-line young masters like the eldest son and a few exceptionally talented collateral-line young masters were undoubtedly at the top. Jiang Ruhu and others, as collateral-line young masters with average talent, held the second tier in the hierarchy of the Jiang family.

As for Jiang Yi...

Although he nominally held the title of a collateral-line young master, his actual status was not much higher than that of the lowest-ranking ordinary descendants. In recent years, due to his nominal young master status, he was often bullied by the spoiled brats within the family, suffering injuries of varying degrees each time. For example, this time, he was beaten unconscious for an entire morning.

"Strength!"

"Strength!"

"Without powerful strength! I, Jiang Yi, will be trampled and humiliated by scum like Jiang Ruhu for the rest of my life! This is not the life I want, absolutely not!" Recalling the scenes from the morning, Jiang Yi's face was etched with veins, his fists clenched, and his nails deeply embedded in his palms.

He stubbornly raised his increasingly heavy head, ignoring the strange looks from others, and limped home step by step. The intense pain made his originally delicate and youthful face contort, and his eyes were filled with resentment...

...

Twelve years ago, when Jiang Yi, at the age of three, was brought back to the Jiang family by the Great Elder, he became the adopted grandson of the Great Elder, who was the most powerful outer sect contributor of the Jiang family. His status was noble, and he was a legitimate collateral-line young master.

At the age of five, like the other children in the family, he practiced basic martial arts. At that time, he showed astonishing martial arts insight, mastering various complex and intricate basic techniques at first glance, and performing them with a semblance of form, which made him leap to become a renowned prodigy child in the Jiang family.

However, two years later, everything changed...

At the age of seven, the family, as usual, instructed the seven-year-old descendants to cultivate elemental energy. They even specially granted Jiang Yi a high-quality water-elemental technique, "Jiang Water Decision," which only direct-line descendants could cultivate.

Subsequently, under the expectant gazes of many, Jiang Yi unexpectedly practiced diligently for a whole month, barely managing to extract a few insignificant threads of water elemental energy—while even the least talented ordinary descendants in the family could achieve this effect in just three to five days.

In the Tianxing Continent, everyone could harness the basic elemental energies of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth to extract elemental energy. Only with a robust amount of elemental energy in the body could one perform various powerful martial arts and supernatural abilities, capable of splitting mountains and cleaving rocks, flying through the air, and disappearing into the earth. Without elemental energy, no matter how exquisite the martial arts techniques or how many thousands of techniques one knew, one could not perform them and would remain a waste!

How could Jiang Yi's martial arts insight and physical talent be so vastly different? This left everyone in the Jiang family utterly astonished!

After the confirmation, the Great Elder, in a fit of anger, personally went to the library and took out dozens of cultivation techniques within his authority, covering various fields, and had Jiang Yi try them one by one, one element at a time. Even if Jiang Yi was suitable for the lowest-level technique of a certain element, as long as he could progress at the speed of an ordinary person, with his martial arts insight, he still had the potential to become talented.

Alas...

Even after Jiang Yi tried all the dozens of secret techniques, each of the elemental techniques, over a period of nearly a year, no miracle occurred—his one-month cultivation of elemental energy was even less than what some prodigy descendants could achieve in a single day!

Why did such two extremes coexist in the world?

Troubled, the Great Elder finally thought to check Jiang Yi's body with elemental energy and discovered a shocking secret—around Jiang Yi's dantian, there was a layer of seal, like a delicate film, perfectly enveloping the entire dantian space, filtering the inside and outside, and significantly reducing the speed of elemental energy entering and exiting his dantian!

In other words, this strange seal was the root cause of Jiang Yi's slow elemental energy cultivation!

The Great Elder then drew the pattern of the seal through internal vision, which resembled a mysterious and bizarre dragon-shaped rune combination. However, no one could understand what the rune combination was, let alone how to break it...

After confirming that Jiang Yi could not cultivate, the Great Elder, who had adopted him, suddenly aged by more than ten years. From then on, he stayed indoors, reading various ancient texts on runes and seeking rune experts, hoping to one day break the seal.

Time flowed like water. When Jiang Yi was nine years old, the Great Elder left the Jiang family again, leaving a letter. This time, he was gone for six years, with no news, as if he had vanished from the world.

From a world-class prodigy to a waste, and even causing the family's strongest contributor to go missing, greatly weakening the Jiang family's strength.

As the culprit, Jiang Yi was no longer favored by the higher-ups of the Jiang family. Even though he persisted in cultivation and, during the six years of the Great Elder's disappearance, managed to painfully raise his elemental energy to the first level of the Cauldron Realm, his status in the family continued to decline. Two years ago, he was forced to move out of the Jiang family's backyard and into the western courtyard, where the family servants lived. Recently, he was even made to take over the task of checking the family's medicinal field harvest, a job typically assigned to family waste descendants who were confirmed to be unable to reach the third level of the Cauldron Realm by the age of sixteen, six months early.

"Ah... A hero does not dwell on past glories. No matter how many memories, they are useless. I wonder how worried Xiao Nu will be when she sees me in this state."

Thinking of Xiao Nu, Jiang Yi's fierce expression finally softened, and the pain in his body seemed to lessen. Although life was tough, he never gave up. The most important reason he still had the courage to continue fighting was this young servant girl who had grown up with him, treated him like a brother, and always stood by him, encouraging him in every way.

...

"Bang!"

In a dilapidated courtyard in the western part of the Jiang family, the door was suddenly pushed open, and Jiang Yi, who had almost failed to make it home, stumbled and staggered inside. His brows were furrowed, his eyes filled with pain, and there was still a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.

The room was cold and empty, with no familiar dim candlelight or the familiar frail figure. After panting for a while, Jiang Yi shakily lit the candle and saw a note on the table.

"There are steamed buns and meat porridge in the pot. Xiao Nu has gone to visit relatives and will return tomorrow. Don't worry! Master, keep going!" The handwriting was ugly and crooked, and Jiang Yi felt a pang in his heart.

Relatives? This clumsy girl...

Twelve years ago, when his mother, whom he vaguely remembered, passed away, he was brought to this Tianyu City by the Great Elder with his right hand. At that time, the Great Elder was holding another child with his left hand, who was Xiao Nu. Apart from the Jiang family, he and Xiao Nu did not know anyone else in Tianyu City. Where did these relatives come from?

Jiang Yi knew very well that in recent years, he had become increasingly unpopular in the family, and the monthly allowance given to him by the Jiang family had been reduced again and again. If it weren't for Xiao Nu going out to work, not to mention the basic elixirs needed for cultivation, even the meat required for daily physical training would be a problem...

Many times, Jiang Yi also wanted to go out to work and earn some money to support the household, but Xiao Nu firmly stopped him. She said that the family's assigned tasks were one thing, but he was the young master of the Jiang family, and a young master was destined to do great things, so how could he go out to do such lowly jobs?

"Great things... young master? What a load of nonsense! Hahaha..."

Jiang Yi burst into laughter, his voice filled with sorrow. He wobbled back to the bed and lay down, his head throbbing as if it were about to explode. Soon, he fell into a deep sleep again, without even eating the dinner in the pot.

That night, Jiang Yi had a dream...

When he opened his eyes, Xiao Nu was cooking, and her frail figure, washing vegetables with her back to him, looked very weak.

He was about to go help her when he saw a tall, white-haired old man carrying a pile of ancient books walk into the room, placing the books on the table and telling him seriously that one of these secret techniques was definitely suitable for his cultivation.

"Great Grandfather, it's really you, I'm so glad..." Jiang Yi, in his dream, called out with tears streaming down his face.

At that moment, Xiao Nu also handed him a lit candle, saying, "Master, keep going!"

He responded and casually picked up one of the books on the table. As he opened the first page, his vision blurred, and he saw dozens of small black seal script characters fly out of the book, forming a neat line in the air, circling around his head.

"The universe is vast, only the great path is eternal. To achieve the way of heaven, one must first cultivate oneself..."

Jiang Yi read the seal script characters, amazed. These black characters not only rotated as a whole but also flipped and moved up and down, like little tadpoles, full of life.

Just as Jiang Yi was fascinated, the next moment, a strange change occurred!

The dozens of black tadpole-like characters suddenly broke formation and pounced on him, biting his body, and even trying to enter his eyes and ears!

"Ahh, ahh, no—"

Jiang Yi woke up from his dream, pulling at his wounds, his face contorting in pain, and his weak body convulsing.

For a full half an incense stick's time, the searing pain slowly subsided. Jiang Yi was drenched in cold sweat, his hair standing on end, and it took him a long time to sit up with difficulty.

"It was just a dream..."

"No, that's not right!"

Jiang Yi had just sighed in relief when his face suddenly changed, as if he had seen a ghost.

Because at that moment, he suddenly discovered that his mind was filled with dozens of black seal script characters!

These characters were exactly the same as those he had seen in his dream, like little tadpoles, happily rotating, flipping, and moving in his mind...