Chapter 1

"Xiao Yu, don't cry. Everyone will die eventually. Your mother and I have reached our time, and our old friends are waiting for us in the embrace of the stars!"

"Hehe, compared to those who have already gone ahead, we are very lucky to have watched you grow from a baby to a ten-year-old, day by day!"

The sunset was like blood.

The battle to defend the city had just ended.

In front of the solemn and dignified ancestral house, a thin young boy was weeping uncontrollably, his young face filled with grief, anger, and hatred.

A middle-aged couple sat in a pool of blood on the steps of the house.

They were covered in blood.

The wife had a broken spear embedded in her chest, her body pierced through, and she was barely breathing, on the verge of death. The man had lost both his legs and an arm, and a small sword, about an inch long, was embedded in his forehead.

But he was strangely still alive.

Like a last flicker of light, the man remained conscious.

The man, using his remaining arm, tightly held his wife.

The tearful young boy in front of him was their only son.

The man looked at the child in front of him, his eyes filled with doting love and some indescribable emotion.

He smiled.

"Wipe away your tears, little man. Listen carefully, I have something very important to tell you. Remember, you must remember it well. After your mother and I are gone, you must guard our graves for four years. You must complete the four years, not a single day less, do you understand?"

The young boy nodded repeatedly, tears streaming down his face.

"I know what you're thinking, but you mustn't do that. Anger without strength is meaningless. You've always wanted to go to the White Deer Academy, to learn martial arts, to become a powerful warrior. But, my little man, you can't do that, at least not during the four years of guarding the graves..."

"Don't ask me why. Remember, during these four years, you must be as inconspicuous as a grain of sand in the desert, so that the entire Luming County forgets about your existence... Of course, if you can become a fool or a madman in others' eyes, that would be even better, but I think, my little Yu, you wouldn't do that!"

"After four years, you can do anything you want. If one day you become a powerful warrior of the Bitter Sea Realm, you must go to the Snow Kingdom's imperial palace and retrieve something that belongs to you. At that time, this badge will tell you the whole truth!"

The man said, placing a bronze sword badge in the young boy's hand.

These words and this action seemed to have drained his last bit of life.

Then, all the vitality in the man's face began to fade rapidly.

His face turned deathly pale, and he began to cough up blood.

"Father..." the young boy shouted in grief and despair.

"Also, remember the nameless breathing and meditation technique I taught you? During the four years of guarding the graves, you must persist in practicing it until it becomes second nature. Can you do that?"

The young boy nodded vigorously.

"That's good..." The man's eyes lost their last bit of light, as he was unable to see due to his severe injuries and blood loss.

He leaned down and gently kissed his wife's forehead, saying in a voice only he could hear, "Yingying, I'm sorry..."

Then, the man passed away.

His wife, sensing something, shed a clear, crystalline tear from the corner of her eye and also stopped breathing at the same moment.

The young boy knelt in the blood, holding the bronze sword badge, and wept uncontrollably.

His name was Ye Qingyu.

From that day on, in the poor district on the northern edge of Luming County, in a small, overgrown graveyard less than an acre in size, an unknown young boy stayed for four years.

During those four years, he spent most of his time sitting motionless in front of the graves, like a statue, appearing like a fool.

Thus, countless cold remarks and rumors flooded in.

Most people believed that after the shock of losing both parents, the once brilliant and talented young boy, who had been recognized by the old headmaster of the White Deer Academy as the first genius of Luming County, was now ruined.

Ye Qingyu had completely lost his spirit, becoming a pitiful, foolish, and helpless person.

A fool that anyone could bully.

So, someone who had once been a friend of the Ye family took away a thousand-gold spirit weapon sword from the Ye family's collection at a very low price, half-deceived and half-bought.

Others used their influence to take over the Ye family's property in the northern city.

A minor noble, relying on his power, forcibly took the Ye family's ancestral home.

The young boy was losing everything bit by bit.

He seemed to have no resistance at all.

It seemed that anyone could bully him, spitting on his face without restraint.

But the young boy himself did not care about any of this.

Until one day, his former playmate also left him.

"Brother Qingyu, you have fallen, but I have grown. I'm sorry, let the promise of mutual protection and companionship we once made scatter in the wind. Don't blame me for being too realistic, but... I have been admitted to the White Deer Academy, goodbye—no, it should be never see you again!"

The little girl with pigtails, his childhood friend who had once followed him like a shadow and received countless aids and protections from him, left these words and turned away resolutely.

She left without looking back, surrounded by a group of people in fine clothes.

She had astonishing talent, causing a stir everywhere, destined to rise to great heights.

And he, had to spend four years in this desolate graveyard, enduring the loneliness and solitude.