No one understood Xia Zhen's pain. It was no less than Xia Shang's had once been.
She, too, came from a collateral branch of the Xia family. Gifted from a young age, she soon caught the attention of Divine Martial Heaven. But after the incident with Ancestor Chen, the Xia family became extremely wary of talented members of its collateral branches, and she was kept under suppression. Then, one day, Ancestor Chen appeared and personally brought out her potential, taking her under his wing and training her. At last, everyone noticed her talent.
At that point, the direct line could no longer keep her down. The only alternative was to kill her. That was the dilemma Ancestor Chen had left for the Xia family: kill her, or let her grow into the next Ancestor Chen.
The Xia family didn't dare kill her. She was, in a sense, Ancestor Chen's disciple, and they feared that killing her would invite his revenge. But if they spared her, another member of the collateral branches would rise to prominence and become someone the direct line feared.
In the end, Divine Martial Heaven poured its resources into cultivating her and made her choose between itself and Ancestor Chen. She chose Divine Martial Heaven because she had parents and family. Ancestor Chen, on the other hand, could decisively leave Divine Martial Heaven because his parents and family had all been killed by the direct line. Their circumstances were completely different.
It seemed like a simple choice, but how cruel it had been for that little girl. She carried the lives of her parents and family on her shoulders, gave up the person she respected most, and then had to endure the direct line's relentless indoctrination, day after day and year after year. They threatened her and