Dust Family, main hall.
Candlelight flickered, casting the hall in alternating light and shadow. Chen Li stood alone in the center, while a stern-faced man around thirty sat in the seat of honor before him.
Dressed in fine robes, the man idly tapped the armrest of his rosewood chair with his fingers. There was not a trace of fatherly warmth in his gaze toward Chen Li—only scrutiny and undisguised disappointment.
He was the current head of the Dust Family, Chen Ran, a level fifty-seven Battle Soul King with the Star Dust Sword Martial Soul.
His talent was not particularly outstanding among the Dust Family's past heads. He had attained his position more through cunning methods and cold ruthlessness.
"Dave sent word that you failed to absorb the soul ring?" Chen Ran's voice was flat, giving away neither anger nor pleasure, yet the invisible pressure he exuded seemed to make the air in the hall stagnate.
"Yes, Father. The soul ring shattered on its own during the final stage of fusion and could not be absorbed." Chen Li stood straight, calmly meeting his father's gaze.
After six years in this world, he had long since seen clearly what kind of person his father by blood truly was. Since his mother's early death, he, the legitimate eldest son, had been more of a family symbol and marriage bargaining chip than an object of affection.
Chen Ran had no fewer than three or four illegitimate sons outside the family, at least from what Chen Li vaguely knew. Every one of them was being secretly groomed.
"Trash." Chen Ran slowly spat out the two words, his tone as dismissive as if brushing dust from his sleeve.
"Innate Full Soul Power? A top-tier Lightning Variant Martial Soul? Heh. Yet you cannot even absorb a Hundred Year Soul Ring. That once-glorious awakening has become a colossal joke! You have utterly disgraced the Dust Family today!"
Chen Li remained silent. He neither argued nor showed any grievance or anger.
Arguments were useless, and anger was merely proof of a weak person's incompetence. He simply stood there quietly, as though those harsh words striking him could not stir the slightest ripple.
That almost indifferent calm instead made a deeper displeasure flash through Chen Ran's eyes. He loathed this son.
"The family does not raise useless people, much less trash that brings disgrace upon it." Chen Ran rose to his feet, looking down at Chen Li as he delivered his judgment.
"Three months. If you cannot resolve this soul ring problem within three months and prove that you still have even a shred of value, then pack your things and leave the Dust Family yourself. There are plenty of people who can occupy the position of Dust Family heir."
Having said that, he did not spare Chen Li another glance. With a sweep of his sleeve, he turned and entered the rear hall.
His decision was cold and absolute, leaving no room for negotiation.
Watching his father's disappearing back, Chen Li's lips curved almost imperceptibly. It seemed like mockery, yet also relief.
He raised his head slightly to look at the decorations overhead, then turned and left the suffocating main hall with steady steps.
He had not failed yet.
Chen Li narrowed his eyes. Although he had ultimately failed when attempting to absorb that soul ring today, he had still heard the system prompt.
[Ding!] [Obtained Hundred Year Soul Ring ×1 (Quality: Flawed)]
Chen Li opened the system panel and looked at the lone Yellow Soul Ring within. He simply had yet to find the right path. There was still... plenty of time.
Moonlight shone across Chen Li's profile. His expression was calm, and only the faint flicker of lightning in his eyes revealed his feelings...
The news spread like wildfire. Within three days, all of Star Luo City's upper circles learned that the Dust Family's extraordinarily talented legitimate son was actually trash incapable of absorbing soul rings.
The amazement, envy, and flattery of the past swiftly turned into mockery, pity, and gloating. Whenever Chen Li occasionally went outside, he could feel the pointing gazes behind him and hear the suppressed snickers.
Yet none of it caused much of a stir in Chen Li's heart.
He had expected this day long ago.
The soul of a transmigrator prevented him from fully integrating into this feudal clan. He felt even less attachment to so-called family glory. Over the past six years, relying on his status as heir and a mind far more mature than a child's, he had already made quite a few preparations in secret.
His greatest reliance was money.
His annual allowance, birthday gifts, and especially the substantial New Year's money and greeting gifts from all sides during the holidays had all been carefully saved.
The Dust Family was wealthy. These amounts meant little to the family, but to an individual, they already constituted a staggering fortune.
Furthermore, before his mother died, she had left him an antique bracelet-like Storage Soul Tool. It contained roughly ten cubic meters of space and had become his greatest secret warehouse aside from the system space.
After all, the system space could not store just anything. At present, it could only hold soul rings; everything else was rejected by the system space.
He did not truly place his hopes on solving the soul ring problem within the three-month deadline.
The Rumble-Rumble Fruit's rejection of soul rings stemmed from an incompatibility in the rules themselves or insufficient quality. This was absolutely not something conventional methods on Douluo Continent could resolve at his current stage.
During that time, he did three things. First, he continued trying various methods to train the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. Though there was no substantive progress, he deepened his subtle control over the power of lightning.
Second, he sorted the supplies in the bracelet Soul Tool into categories. Using his remaining Gold Soul Coins, he exchanged them through secret channels for a large number of high-value, easily carried Gold Notes and currency accepted throughout the Heaven Dou Empire. He also purchased high-quality wilderness survival gear, clothing, rations, clean water, and several small items for self-defense.
Of course, during this period, he made many attempts to absorb soul rings, but every one failed. After each failure, the soul ring was absorbed into the system space.
The morning of the final day of the deadline.
Chen Li's courtyard was unusually quiet.
He placed the last few changes of clothes and a notebook he had compiled into the bracelet, then looked around the room he had lived in for six years, his eyes calm and still.
This place had never given him the warmth of a home. He felt no reluctance to leave.
He did not wait for Chen Ran to send someone for him. Instead, fully dressed in a dark-blue fitted outfit suited for movement, with a small pack on his back as a disguise, he took the initiative to go to the side gate of the Dust residence.
The steward was already waiting there, wearing a professional expression as he handed over a light money pouch.
"The family head has instructed that this is the young master's travel money. From this day onward, whatever the young master does will have nothing to do with the Dust Family. I hope the young master... takes care of himself."
Inside the pouch were one hundred Gold Soul Coins. For a former heir being expelled, it was nothing short of humiliation.
Chen Li looked at the pouch and directly reached out to take it.
At the same time, he cast the steward an indifferent glance. The calmness and depth in his eyes made the worldly old steward's heart inexplicably tremble, and the hand holding out the pouch froze in midair.
"Tell my father for me," Chen Li said clearly and steadily, "wish him... forget it, there's nothing more to say."
With that, he turned without hesitation and stepped over the high threshold of the Dust Family. His figure quickly blended into the bustling crowd on the street outside, and he never looked back.
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