The Weight He Could Bear!

The Dao Heart Tower was, as its name suggested, a place to temper the Dao heart.

Ye Qiu felt his own Dao heart wavering.

He needed to steady it.

Besides, Brother Snake had said that at this stage, Ye Qiu had a chance to make his Dao heart clear in one leap.

If he missed this moment, he might have to wait for another opportunity. Who knew how long that would take?

He stepped into the Dao Heart Tower.

A door stood ahead.

The Light Gate!

Beyond the Light Gate lay the trial of the Dao heart.

Ye Qiu walked straight in. Before him stood a Stone Stele.

It drew his gaze. As he stared at the Stone Stele, his mind sank into it without his noticing, and the scene on the Stone Stele changed...

In the Ye Clan, a seven-year-old boy lay in bed. A commotion broke out outside. He woke with a start and ran toward the noise...

The clan was in chaos. He followed the crowd straight to the mountain behind it.

Flames raged there. Amid the fire, they told him his mother had been reduced to ash...

A month later, his towering father led a woman and her son into the Ye Clan and settled them in the main courtyard.

"Ye Jiangshan is my father. He said I'm his son, and everything in the Ye Family will be mine from now on... What are you?" The chubby boy held his head high and looked smugly at Ye Qiu. "My name is Ye Rudí! Ru Di!"

"Ye Qiu, your mother is dead. I'm the Matriarch of this household now. From now on, my word is law!"

"You little bastard, you dare steal my precious treasure..."

"Father, Ye Qiu put deadly poison in my mother's cup. Look, even the Silver Needles have turned black..."

"You beast! You beast!"

Smack—

A slap knocked Ye Qiu unconscious.

Three days later, he was sick with a high fever when someone dragged him from under the covers and carried him outside.

Behind him, Liu Xiu looked triumphant, while Ye Rudí, the same age as him, pulled a face...

Outside South Capital, he stood beneath the cold city gate, tears streaming down his face as he watched the tall figure ahead turn his back on him.

"Daddy, I didn't do it. I didn't steal anything or poison anyone. I really didn't. Please believe me..."

The tall figure strode through the gate without looking back.

"Daddy, Qiu'er is so cold. Qiu'er's head hurts..."

Ye Qiu chased after him, crying and calling out. Feverish and weak, he fell again and again, struggling back to his feet each time, his steps unsteady.

His shoes came off. He kept chasing barefoot, stepped on a sharp stone, and fell again as blood ran from his foot. The pain left him at a loss.

But the figure was growing farther away. Frantic and frightened, he got up once more and ran after him, his small feet leaving a trail of bloody prints...

The man ignored him and strode into the city. Then an old man seized Ye Qiu and, heedless of his cries, carried him toward South Mountain like a helpless little puppy...

Three days later, at his grandfather's home on South Mountain, he hid in a dark room, curled up in a corner, and wept silently.

A month later, he left the room and went to the Square, where a group of Wen Family children his age pointed at him.

"I heard he stole from his family and even poisoned his own father..."

"His mother died, and his father remarried. He doesn't want him anymore."

"Serves him right..."

Three months later, his grandfather brought Ye Qiu to train alongside the other children of the family.

A year later, at eight years old, he practiced his punches without pause in a downpour.

At nine, he was among the Wen Family's finest young talents. No one dared gossip about him anymore; he had beaten everyone who did into submission.

At ten, he went to battle with his grandfather for the first time.

There were people everywhere, and the fighting was chaos. An opponent twisted one of Ye Qiu's arms until it broke and slammed him hard into the ground.

The ground burst apart.

The impact made him cough blood.

He wailed. Tears spilled down his face...

His opponent's fists hammered into him. Bone after bone cracked, the pain piercing to the marrow.

His teeth shattered. Flat on his back, he spat a mouthful of blood into his opponent's face, covering the man's eyes in red.

Ye Qiu roared, rolled to his feet, and drove a knife into the man's throat until the blade disappeared and only the hilt remained.

His first kill!

At thirteen, Ye Qiu marched into battle with the others, leading the charge. During the fight, an opponent cut off three fingers on his right hand.

Three fingers, severed. Only thin strips of skin still held them in place.

But the boy's eyes were those of a wolf. He drove two fingers of his left hand into his opponent's eyes and gouged out the eyeballs.

Then he kicked the man between the legs and crushed his balls...

At fourteen, he led a force into battle and fought the heir of an opposing family to a standstill. His opponent drove a sword into his chest, but Ye Qiu's hand closed around the man's throat.

Crack—

The sword pierced his chest. Ye Qiu snapped his opponent's neck.

He had been faster. That was why he won!

He wrenched off the man's head and turned toward the entire Wen Family and the countless enemies beyond, holding the bloody head aloft.

A sword still jutted from his chest!

The enemy trembled. The Wen Family cheered!

But he remained unconscious for three months and came close to death many times... In his delirium, he called out: "Father..."

At sixteen, he stood in a forest, surrounded by Killing Intent that shook the heavens.

A band of black-clad men rushed at him.

Ye Qiu drew his blade and charged. The fight was savage. As the black-clad men fell one after another, blood soaked him and wounds covered his body.

Two swords were lodged in his chest.

At last, he brought his blade down one final time. Every black-clad man was dead.

Covered in blood, Ye Qiu pulled the swords from his chest and charged on. Battle cries thundered from the hillside ahead, and he plunged straight into the fight.

The battle lasted a day and a night. Corpses seemed to cover the mountains and fields, and the losses were staggering.

Ye Qiu fell, buried beneath a heap of bodies. He was conscious, but too weak to move.

Pain racked him from head to toe. He could barely breathe, and his mouth was parched. He wanted to rest, just for a moment...

"Qiu'er..." Just as consciousness was about to leave him, an old voice rang out, choked with tears.

Ye Qiu wanted to answer, but he could not make a sound.

Footsteps approached. Then he heard that old voice again, thick with emotion.

"Child..." His grandfather, Wen Zheng, pulled the corpses aside one by one and dragged him free...

That same year, he stood alone with his blade atop a beacon tower and fought dozens of battles without a single defeat. The prodigies of ten cities dared not raise their heads.

One battle crowned him king!

The Young King of South Mountain!

Ye Fengzi of the Ten Cities!

At seventeen... he returned to South Capital...

The Ye Clan's coercion.

Ye Yi's ambush in the forest.

The peril beneath West Mountain...

Ye Qiu stood before the Stone Stele, watching scene after scene unfold like a nightmare... His eyes were blood-red, as though coated in crimson lacquer.

He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. They creaked as though the bones were breaking...

His breathing grew ragged, and sweat beaded on his brow.

"Ah!" he roared, slamming a fist into the Stone Stele. It did not budge.

Blood spilled from Ye Qiu's fist.

"Ah!" He roared again and struck with all his strength, the blow sounding like mountains collapsing and seas surging.

The Stone Stele shook.

"Ah!" With one last roar, Ye Qiu's Qi and Blood surged, his Cultivation Level swelled, and he unleashed One Punch Breaks All Myriad Laws!

Crack... Boom—

A crack appeared in the Stone Stele. Then it exploded!

Whoosh—

The visions vanished. Ye Qiu seemed to come to his senses, struggling free of the nightmare.

"Brother Snake..." After a long while, he wiped the sweat from his brow and called out in his mind.

The Great Serpent said, "Looking back, do you regret the choices you made? Would you still have the courage to go through it all again...

Would you ache for yourself, feel remorse, pity yourself, and end up trapped in some moment you could never make peace with, unable to break free?"

Ye Qiu fell silent.

Were there things he could not make peace with?

There were!

So many!

But he knew one thing clearly... Even if he could go back, at that age, at that time, in those circumstances, he would have had no other choice.

No one had given him a choice!

So he could only grit his teeth and press on down the path before him!

And he had made it through.

He had endured!

"So your heart can bear that weight!" the Great Serpent said with a smile.

Ye Qiu smiled too.

And if he could not bear it?

Then he would tear it all to pieces!