While Lin Zhou was still bewildered by the system's sudden "comeback," a name that evoked sighs of pity was circulating in Tianfeng City, countless miles away from his dilapidated Qingyun Sect.
Tianfeng City is a well-known large city in the heart of the Southern Region.
This place is neither the location of a top sect nor the capital of a dynasty, but due to its strategic location, it has attracted countless cultivators and forces, and is bustling with activity year-round, with the cultivation culture flourishing to its fullest extent.
The city is home to numerous powerful families and various sects, some large and some small, who cooperate with each other but also compete, with open and covert struggles never ceasing.
Within this intricate web of power, the Xiao family is undoubtedly a behemoth—
One of the four major families in Tianfeng City, the family boasts numerous experts, profound heritage, and formidable strength that commands respect from most small and medium-sized sects.
Eighteen years ago, the Xiao family produced a prodigious and talented young man named Xiao Chen.
He was a boy as dazzling as the sun.
He condensed his Qi at the age of eight, established his foundation at the age of ten, and touched the threshold of the Golden Core at the age of fifteen. Among his peers, his talent in spear fighting was unparalleled in Tianfeng City, and he wielded his family's iron spear with unparalleled skill.
He is hailed as "the greatest genius in Tianfeng City in a century," the hope for the future of the Xiao family, and an object of admiration for the entire younger generation of Tianfeng City. He has also brought unparalleled benefits and prestige to the Xiao family.
Everyone thought that this rising star would surely rise to prominence, leading the Xiao family to even greater heights, and perhaps even making the Xiao family a household name in the Southern Region.
Until he was seventeen, the "Eternal Gun Tomb" on the edge of the Southern Region began to stir.
That is the legendary place where the ancient spear saint passed away, and it is also the holy land of spear cultivators in the entire Southern Region.
The Gun Tomb only opens briefly once every hundred years, and no one has ever been able to truly step into the core area. At most, one can only sense a trace of gun intent on the edge, which is already an incredible opportunity.
Back then, countless young gun cultivators flocked to the Gun Tomb, and Xiao Chen was naturally among them.
Unlike the others, who were all cautiously observing and sensing the faint but powerful aura emanating from the gun mound, Xiao Chen relied on an indomitable spirit.
He forcefully broke through layers of barriers and entered the deepest part of the Gun Tomb—the core forbidden area that even the older generation of experts dared not set foot in, because he always felt that something in the core was attracting him there.
This action shocked all the monks present.
There have been cultivators who thought themselves very talented and forced their way in, wanting to see what treasures were inside. But before they even reached the core, they were utterly annihilated by the spear intent emanating from the core.
People waited anxiously outside, speculating about what kind of heirloom this chosen one of heaven would receive.
But no one expected that three months later, the strange occurrences at the Gun Tomb subsided, and Xiao Chen walked out of it.
What came out, however, was like a walking corpse.
He was dressed in rags, covered in blood, and his eyes were as empty as an abyss. Even more terrifying was that his once surging cultivation had vanished without a trace, his meridians were broken, and his dantian was shattered—let alone cultivate, he could not even move like a normal person.
That extraordinary talent for marksmanship has vanished completely.
No one knows what he went through deep in the gun graveyard, and he himself has never told anyone about it.
Initially, the Xiao family tried to find doctors and medicine for him, hoping for a miracle. But years passed, and resources were exhausted. Xiao Chen's condition not only did not improve, but he became increasingly despondent. The once-proud son of heaven became a useless person whom everyone could criticize.
In this world where strength reigns supreme, a genius who has lost their value is less than dust.
Gradually, the Xiao family lost patience with him. For the sake of the family's reputation and to avoid affecting the growth of other members, they ultimately chose to give up on him.
First, they took back all his resources and benefits, and drove him from the core clan territory to a dilapidated villa outside the city.
Later, they simply announced that Xiao Chen had acted improperly and had been expelled from the Xiao family, and that he would have no further connection with the Xiao family. They even treated him as a servant, making him clean toilets and do other chores.
Every time they met him afterward, they would treat him coldly, even mocking him. Xiao Chen initially tried to stand up for himself and refute them, but now he had no cultivation left.
He was even beaten and spat on, and his life was on the line several times. The Xiao family never stood up for him, and on many occasions, the younger members of the Xiao family stood with others and watched them beat him.
"Later on, they will even join others in laughing at me and mocking me, hahaha, it's fine if others don't believe me."
You don't believe me either. Think about how many resources and honors I've fought for the Xiao family. Now I'm just temporarily without cultivation, like a dead dog, abandoned aside. I'm dead. My heart is completely dead."
I wasn't like this when my mother passed away.
"I was hoping to prove to everyone with my talent how many resources I could secure for the Xiao family, and I thought the family would reciprocate in kind. But guess what?! I really didn't expect this! Hahahaha!"
"I've always believed I would recover, I definitely would, but why won't you listen to me? Why do you all treat me like a dead dog? Just you wait, you just wait, hahahahahaha!"
The former number one genius of Tianfeng City was completely abandoned by his own family and disappeared from everyone's sight.
Some say he couldn't take the blow and died quietly in some corner, and so on; there are all sorts of rumors.
Some people say that they have occasionally seen a hunched beggar, reeking of alcohol, in the dirtiest slums of Tianfeng City. His back view is somewhat similar to Xiao Chen's back then.
But regardless of the interpretation, both convey a sense of heartbreaking sorrow.
A genius who was once so close to the top has fallen into the mire and is now forgotten.
No one knows that this "useless man" forgotten by the whole world is now dragging his broken body, wandering aimlessly in the wilderness. Whenever he hears those rumors, he is initially heartbroken, but gradually becomes numb.
No one knew that deep within his seemingly empty eyes, a faint yet incredibly stubborn and hopeful light would occasionally flash, and... a gun shadow that only he himself could perceive, slumbering deep within his soul.
And this shadowy spear was guiding him, leading him slowly toward a direction that couldn't even be marked on a map—the deep mountain where the dilapidated Qingyun Sect was located.
Lin Zhou was still sighing and complaining to the system in the yard, thinking about bargaining with it, completely unaware that the first "trouble" in his lazy life was already on its way.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com