Li Qinglin

"This..."

Little Stone froze as he stared at the gold ingots and pills inside the brocade pouch.

Li Qingwu leaned over for a look. When he saw what was inside, his eyes widened. "Gold! And pills! Brother Qinglin... he..."

Little Stone gripped the pouch tight, unable to put a name to what he felt.

The gold would cover his and his mother's expenses for a long time. As for the half-bottle of Body Tempering Pills, it was exactly the cultivation resource he needed most. With them, he could greatly shorten the time it would take to reach Minor Accomplishment in Body Cultivation.

But why did it have to be him?

Why did it have to be his elder half-brother—the one he had once envied, resented, even hated?

Little Stone stood there in silence for a long time before tucking the pouch inside his robe, close against his body.

He said glumly to Li Qingwu, "Let's go home. We're not going to Fragrant Pavilion."

On the way home, Li Qinglin's cold words kept echoing in Little Stone's mind.

"If you want to make something of yourself, then cultivate hard!"

Little Stone gritted his teeth.

Whatever Li Qinglin's intentions, what he had given Little Stone was charcoal delivered in a snowstorm.

Little Stone would not refuse it out of pride.

He needed it too badly. He needed to grow stronger!

Only by growing stronger could he shine in the Ancestral Land.

Only by shining brightly enough to catch the Ancestral Land's eye could he change his and his mother's fate!

At the Shi County Li Family estate, in the family head's rear courtyard.

Li Nanfeng looked at the noblewoman seated before her dressing mirror and sighed helplessly. "You went to see her again?"

The noblewoman appeared to be in her thirties