Ning Zhiyuan's Madness

At Qingcang Academy, in the eastern district of the Outer Prefecture, the door to a cultivation chamber stood tightly shut.

Inside, the walls were crisscrossed with blade marks of varying depths, leaving the room in shambles.

At the center of the wreckage, a figure sat cross-legged.

Ning Zhiyuan.

His eyes were tightly shut. His face was deathly pale, his lips cracked and bleeding dark red.

"Ah—!"

Suddenly, a hoarse growl burst from deep in his throat.

Ning Zhiyuan's eyes flew open. They were bloodshot, and madness glimmered in their depths. He sprang to his feet, snatched up the saber beside him, and brought it crashing down against the wall!

"Clang!"

The blade struck the stone wall, sparks flying as it carved another deep gash.

"Useless... They actually called me useless..."

Ning Zhiyuan muttered to himself, his voice terrifyingly hoarse.

The scene was branded in his mind, impossible to shake—

Qin Jue's calm face on the Martial Stage.

That sword strike had been too fast for him to react.

That sword strike had crushed all his pride.

"I'm not useless!"

He swung again, the saber keening through the air.

He remembered the looks on everyone's faces as he fell.

Shock, glee, mockery, pity...

Each look had pierced his heart like a sharp blade.

What he found even harder to accept was the way Su Jin had looked at him.

There had been no concern in her eyes, no worry, only... disappointment.

"Su Jin... My Su Jin..."

"Ahhh! Why... did this happen..."

Ning Zhiyuan crumpled to his knees. His saber clattered to the ground as he clutched his head and curled into a ball, like a wounded beast.

He couldn't understand.

He had clearly cultivated a Mortal Tier High-grade Cultivation Method, and he had clearly been a realm above his opponent...

So why had he lost to that useless nobody?

Why had he been defeated so utterly?

"Qin Jue! Qin Jue! Why? Why do you get to trample me underfoot? Why do you get to grind my dignity into the mud?"

He clenched his teeth so hard they nearly cracked. His nails dug into his palms, blood trickling between his fingers, but he didn't even notice.

"I'll grow stronger... I'll kill him... I'll show everyone that I, Ning Zhiyuan, am not useless!"

Just then, the door to the chamber swung open.

"Creak—"

A young man dressed in white walked in. His hair was bound beneath a jeweled crown, and his features were strikingly handsome, though an air of arrogance lingered between his brows. He was Ning Zhiyuan's cousin, a direct descendant of the Ning Family: Ning Wuque.

At the sight of him, Ning Zhiyuan's expression changed. He struggled to stand, but the movement tugged at his wound, drawing a muffled groan from him. "C-Cousin..."

Ning Wuque acted as if he hadn't seen a thing. He merely snorted, his words dripping with mockery. "You've brought shame on the entire Ning Family. A mere good-for-nothing from the collateral branch beat you with a single sword strike in front of everyone. What a disgrace."

"I also heard that Su Jin, the woman you've been pursuing, seems to favor him?" Ning Wuque's lips curled into a sneer. The contempt in his eyes hurt worse than Qin Jue's sword. "What a useless fool. You can't win a woman, and you can't win a fight."

"I didn't!" Ning Zhiyuan finally roared. "That brat just got lucky! If I hadn't underestimated him, he would never have been my match! I..."

"Enough."

"The family sent you to Qingcang Academy and gave you resources and status. They didn't do it so you could chase women. Of course, if you can win, you can fight over whoever you like. In the martial world, the victor has the final say. But you lost, and you lost miserably."

Ning Wuque strolled over to the window and looked out at the torrential rain, his back to Ning Zhiyuan.

"Several elders on the main family's side are displeased. They think too many resources are being poured into the collateral branch without producing anyone worthwhile. Some have even proposed cutting the collateral branch's monthly allowance by thirty percent, and using it to fully support a few promising young members of the direct line."

The words struck Ning Zhiyuan like a bolt from the blue.

Cut the monthly allowance by thirty percent!

For the collateral branch, which already relied on the main family to survive, that would be a catastrophe. If his crushing defeat dragged the entire branch down with him, then he, Ning Zhiyuan, would be a sinner damned for generations. His parents and every member of his clan would curse him for it!

"No... No, that can't happen! Cousin, you can't let them do this!" Ignoring the agony in his body, Ning Zhiyuan dropped to his knees. "It was my fault. I'll take full responsibility! Please put in a good word for me with the elders. Don't punish the collateral branch for my mistake!"

Ning Wuque turned around and looked at Ning Zhiyuan, trembling on the ground. A flicker of disdain crossed his eyes.

That was the sorrow of the collateral branch. In this world of the strong devouring the weak, without strength, even breathing was a mistake.

"Get up," Ning Wuque said coolly. "I came here because I have a way forward for you."

He took a jade vial and a sheathed long saber from inside his robes.

"This saber is called Frost Blade. It's Mortal Tier Upper Grade, one of the finest pieces in the family vault. It can cut through iron like mud, and it carries a chill Baleful Intent."

"This pill is a Blood Boiling Pill."

At the words "Blood Boiling Pill," Ning Zhiyuan's head snapped up, his pupils trembling violently.

He jerked his head up, his voice shaking. "A... Blood Boiling Pill? Cousin, this... this is a vicious drug that burns through your potential! Once taken, it can force you through a bottleneck and send your cultivation surging for a short time, but... but it'll probably ruin my path in the martial arts!"

A Blood Boiling Pill did exactly what its name suggested: anyone who took one burned their vital blood to raise their cultivation.

"Your path in the martial arts?"

Ning Wuque scoffed as though he'd just heard the funniest joke in the world, his eyes full of undisguised contempt. "Zhiyuan, do you still not understand your situation? Your martial heart is already shattered. That good-for-nothing Qin Jue ground it to dust. How dare a useless fool who can't even beat someone at the mere Third Layer of Hundred Refinements speak of the martial path?"

He walked over to Ning Zhiyuan and looked down at him, patting his deathly pale face.

"This is your last chance. Take it, break through to the Fifth Layer of Hundred Refinements, and challenge Qin Jue to a death match before the Outer Court Grand Competition. If you win and prove your worth, the family will naturally reconsider you, and the collateral branch won't lose its resources. Senior Brother Li Changfeng of the Inner Court will still think highly of you."

"And if you lose..."

Ning Wuque rose to his feet and brushed off his sleeves, as though he'd gotten something filthy on them.

"Then take your disgrace back to the family and manage a mine. Don't stay at the academy making a fool of yourself."

With that, Ning Wuque didn't spare him another glance. He turned and walked into the rain, leaving only a cold voice echoing through the room:

"Remember, the Ning Family has no use for good-for-nothings. If you want to rise above others, you have to be ruthless with yourself."

"Bang!"

The chamber door slammed shut.

Ning Zhiyuan stared blankly at the jade vial and saber before him, all the strength drained from his body.

Manage a mine?

No! Never!

A life spent in a sunless pit among lowly miners would be worse than death! He was a young master of the Ning Family. He was meant to be the center of attention, to bask in everyone's cheers. How could he go to a wretched place like that?

"I'm a genius... I just have to win back what I lost... As long as I kill Qin Jue, everything will come back to me!"

Ning Zhiyuan suddenly reached out and grabbed the jade vial, gripping it so tightly that his fingers cramped.

"Qin Jue, you forced me into this... You're the one who drove me down this path!"

His trembling fingers opened the vial. A pungent stench of blood hit him. Inside lay a single red pill, like a tear of congealed blood, gleaming with an eerie light.

Ning Zhiyuan stared at the pill. The fear in his eyes slowly faded, giving way to madness.

He didn't want to be a good-for-nothing.

He didn't want Ning Wuque looking at him like he was a dog.

And more than anything, he didn't want to be unable to hold his head up in front of Su Jin ever again!

"As long as I have the power... As long as I can win..."

Ning Zhiyuan threw his head back with a beastlike growl, shoved the Blood Boiling Pill into his mouth, and swallowed it hard!

"Boom—!"

The pill melted on his tongue, turning into a violent torrent of heat that exploded through his body!

"Ughhh—!"

Pain coursed through him in an instant! Ning Zhiyuan's body doubled over like a shrimp thrown into a wok. Blood-red threads surfaced beneath his skin, and he looked ready to burst apart from the force within him!

His mind grew hazy with pain, but he gritted his teeth and held on, blood running from the corner of his mouth. Only one thought raged in his mind—

I can't lose! I absolutely cannot lose to that good-for-nothing again!

Su Jin is mine! The glory is mine! There will be a place for me in the Ning Family!

"Break... for me!!!"

Amid endless agony and a furious howl of defiance, something inside him seemed to give way beneath the brute force of the pill. An aura far more condensed and penetrating than before burst from his body!

Fifth Layer of Hundred Refinements!

Ning Zhiyuan gasped for breath, drenched as though he'd just been dragged from the water. But he paid it no heed. He could feel it clearly: the force inside him had condensed, no longer scattered as it had been before.

Bone Penetrating Force! The mark of the Fifth Layer of Hundred Refinements!

He slowly reached out and grasped Frost Blade.

"Shing—!"

The long saber slid from its sheath, a flash of cold light illuminating the chamber as a bone-chilling aura swept over him.

"Thousand Waves Saber..."

He growled and swung the long saber with all his might, its light flashing!

[Rising Wave]! [Overlapping Waves]!

One wave of saber force followed another, thunderous booms echoing through the chamber! To his delight, each swing made his joints hum faintly—the sign that his bones had grown far denser. His strength was at least fifty percent greater than it had been just days ago!

"Still not enough! Still not enough!!!"

He could feel a new power surging inside him. It was... the force of boiling blood and qi!

He was only at the Jade Bone Realm and hadn't truly entered the Blood Melting Realm, but the Blood Boiling Pill's power had let him feel what it was like for his blood and qi to boil!

"This is..."

His eyes went wide. He wrung every last bit of potential from the Blood Boiling Pill and poured it all into the blade!

"Third form... [Raging Waves]!!!"

Hum—!

The saber let out a shrill hum, and a flash of dark red light flickered across its edge! The next instant, a violent, unstoppable wave of saber energy burst free and slammed into the black ironwood post in the center of the chamber, the one used for testing strength.

"Pfft—"

Ning Zhiyuan suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. His body swayed, and he nearly collapsed. Forcing himself to wield power beyond his control had only worsened the damage to his already depleted body.

But he didn't care.

He looked at the handiwork on the post and felt the power surging through him. A cruel smile spread across his face.

He slowly lifted a hand and licked the blood from the corner of his mouth. His voice was hoarse, but seething with deep-rooted hatred.

"Qin Jue... This time, I'm staking everything to make sure you... die without a burial place!"