Yue Guan's Past

The subsequent flashback takes place on another Mid-Autumn Festival.

The slightly older man carefully held a more intact mooncake in his hands, a hopeful smile on his face, as he pushed open the door.

"Sister, I'm back!" he said cheerfully.

"It's Mid-Autumn Festival today, let's eat mooncakes! Also, I don't want to go to college anymore, I'm too far behind on my tuition, and I can't pay it back anyway. I'll come back soon to help you sell flowers, we..."

His words abruptly stopped, and his smile froze on his face.

The sight inside the room sent a chill down his spine.

Four or five men with fierce-looking faces were crammed into the small room.

His frail sister was being choked from behind by a bald man with a burly face, her thick arms gripping her throat so tightly that her feet were almost off the ground.

The older sister's face was flushed red from suffocation, her eyes filled with terrified tears, as she struggled in vain.

"Sister--!!"

Yue Guan's eyes widened in horror, and the mooncake slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.

The bald man glared fiercely at Yue Guan, spitting almost in his face, and cursed in a gruff voice, "You little brat, what are you howling about!"

"The two hundred Gold Soul Coin your sister owed two years ago, with compound interest, have now grown to a thousand!"

He pointed with his other finger at his sister, whose face was deathly pale.

"Tell me! When are you going to pay me back?!"

"No money?!"

He slammed his sister to the ground, took a step forward, and kicked Yue Guan, who was standing there dumbfounded!

"You dare to eat mooncakes when you have no money?! Dream on!"

"Beat them!"

"Beat them to death!"

Punches and kicks rained down on Yue Guan's thin body.

The bones emitted a dull, teeth-grinding crack, and excruciating pain swept through the entire body.

He curled up on the ground, desperately protecting his head and face, the heart-wrenching cries of his sister echoing in his ears:

"Please! Don't hit my brother! Please!"

"I'll pay you back! I promise! I'll do anything! Just let my brother go! Please!!"

The cries were shrill and desperate, like knives tearing into Yue Guan's heart.

"Anything is fine?"

The bald man stopped, his lewd gaze sweeping over the woman's delicate face, before he grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"Hehe, if you'd said that earlier, it would have been fine..."

He gestured for the others to stop and reached out to pull his sister away.

"No--!!!"

Yue Guan, with a sudden burst of strength, lunged forward and bit the man's wrist!

"Ah!! You little bastard!!"

The man, in pain and enraged, swung his arm violently!

The frail Yue Guan was violently thrown away, his back slamming heavily against the hard earthen wall.

And it was precisely in this intense pulling and struggling that...

The sister he was protecting behind him was struck in the temple by the man's other wildly swinging arm!

"Bang!"

A muffled thud.

Time seemed to stand still.

The older sister's struggling movements suddenly froze!

She collapsed limply, her forehead quickly swelling and bleeding.

"Ah... Ah sister?"

Yue Guan coughed up blood and struggled to crawl over.

The bald man was also stunned. He looked at his elbow, which was stained with blood, and then at the motionless girl on the ground. A look of panic flashed across his face.

"Damn it... how did someone die?"

He spat, his eyes sweeping over the dying siblings with a mixture of surprise and disbelief.

"Unlucky!"

"Run!"

He let out a low growl, and with several equally panicked accomplices, he hurriedly burst through the door and disappeared into the dark alley in the blink of an eye.

The dilapidated hut has returned to its deathly silence.

Only the faint light of the oil lamp remained, illuminating the mess on the ground and two figures lying in pools of blood.

Yue Guan dragged her almost broken body and crawled over little by little.

He reached out, his hand trembling, and touched his sister's face.

"Sister..." he sobbed, his voice hoarse and incoherent.

The girl's eyelashes trembled very slightly.

She wasn't completely dead yet. With her last bit of strength, she turned her head slightly to look at her younger brother, whose face was covered in blood, tears, and mud.

Those usually gentle eyes were now dim and lifeless, yet they still tried to hold onto the last bit of warmth.

Her lips moved slightly, and she whispered to Yue Guan, "Guan Guan..."

"There are too many wicked people in this world..."

"After this... my older sister is gone..."

"You must... protect... yourself..."

Every word she uttered was draining the last of her life.

The sound was so soft, as if it might vanish into the wind at any moment.

After saying those words, the light in her eyes went out completely, and her arms fell limply to her sides.

"Sister--!!!!"

Yue Guan let out a shrill, inhuman howl.

He held his sister's still-warm but lifeless body tightly, trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.

Tears mingled with blood, falling in large drops.

Despair!

A bone-chilling, icy, all-consuming despair completely overwhelmed him.

At the very moment when this extreme grief and Destruction hatred reached their peak—

"Buzz--!!!"

A dazzling golden light erupted from his body without warning!

An unprecedented power, accompanied by excruciating pain, surged and awakened wildly throughout his limbs and bones!

The light gathered.

Behind him, a gigantic, magnificent chrysanthemum phantom, its entire body gleaming gold, its petals layered upon each other, slowly emerged and bloomed!

Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum!

The Martial Soul awakens completely amidst profound sorrow and pain!

But his older sister would never come back!

Golden light illuminated her sister's pale and peaceful face, and also illuminated Yue Guan's eyes, which were now devoid of any tears, filled only with deathly silence and deep-seated hatred.

He held his sister tightly, his fingertips digging deep into his palms until they bled.

A thought suddenly formed in his mind: kindness, compromise, and pleading are all useless!

Tears cannot bring my sister back to life, and pleading will only embolden the wicked.

From this day forward—only power! Only ruthlessness!

Only by crushing and trampling all obstacles and hostility can we succeed!

Only then can we survive!

Only then... can I prevent my sister's life, which she risked her life for, from becoming a joke!

The tide of Yue Guan's memories receded abruptly.

He remained standing there, his face already streaked with tears.

He stared blankly ahead.

The gentle, orange-haired woman still stood there, gazing tenderly at him.

But somehow, a rough, simple mooncake, yet faintly exuding a sweet fragrance, appeared in her hand.

Upon witnessing this scene, Yue Guan, who had been forcibly maintaining his composure, could no longer hold back.

Her lips trembled uncontrollably.

Knowing it's fake, knowing it's a trap, but...

His gaze still couldn't help but greedily sweep over the woman's eyebrows, nose, and lips, inch by inch.

They look so alike.

Even though he knew it was like drinking poison to quench his thirst, he couldn't help but want to get closer.

I want to reach out, to touch that illusory warmth, even if only for a moment.

At the same time, a streak of cyan-gold light streaked across the night sky at an astonishing speed and silently fell into the hidden cave at the edge of Sunset Forest.