Jia Ma Empire, imperial capital, Nalan Family.
In a luxurious manor, amid towering, imposing buildings, Nalan Yanran nervously made her way along a path paved with blue-gray stones toward Nalan Jie's room.
She pushed open the old wooden door and bowed respectfully. "Grandfather."
Nalan Jie set down the book in his hands and looked at Nalan Yanran in surprise. "Yanran, shouldn't you be cultivating at the Misty Cloud Sect? Why are you back?"
Seeing Nalan Yanran remain silent, Nalan Jie furrowed his brow, sensing something was wrong. "Did something happen? Tell your grandfather. I'll help you sort it out."
Nalan Jie rose to his feet. "Were you bullied at the Misty Cloud Sect?"
Nalan Yanran shook her head. "No, it's..."
Seeing her stammer, Nalan Jie scratched his head in frustration. "Then what is it? Don't worry. Whatever it is, your grandfather will help you."
"I want to break off my engagement with the Xiao Clan!"
Nalan Yanran gritted her teeth. She had to say it sooner or later, so she might as well be decisive.
"Break off your engagement?"
Nalan Jie froze, then flew into a rage. "You little brat! I will never allow you to break off that engagement!"
Nalan Yanran's chest heaved violently, and even her voice grew louder as she spoke to Nalan Jie. "I've already succeeded in becoming the Sect Master's disciple. My master is a Dou Emperor, and my family is a Dou Wang clan. Why should I marry some young master from a backwater place?"
Nalan Jie could no longer hold back. He slapped Nalan Yanran so hard that she fell to the floor. "You little brat! The Xiao Clan fell into decline because its former clan leader, Xiao Lin, gave his life to save me. Do you want the Nalan Family to be branded as faithless and ungrateful?"
"That's your business, not mine!" Cold light flashed in Nalan Yanran's eyes. She couldn't accept the fate her family had forced upon her.
"The family has supported your cultivation all these years. Of course, you have a duty to help ease the family's burdens." Nalan Jie was so furious his hair seemed to stand on end. Not your business? Without the family, who knows what corner you'd be stuck in right now.
Nalan Yanran gritted her teeth, at a loss for words.
"Xiao Yan of the Xiao Clan has decent talent. Marrying him wouldn't be an injustice to you."
"I asked around. He lost his Dou Qi for a year, and his cultivation fell. Even if he recovered, all that lost time would leave him no better than an ordinary person," Nalan Yanran said.
Veins bulged on Nalan Jie's forehead. "Nalan Yanran, I'm telling you: even if you die, you'll be buried in the Xiao Clan!"
Nalan Yanran's expression changed. She stared at her usually doting grandfather in disbelief, then scrambled to her feet and ran out of the room in tears.
Nalan Su was waiting outside the door. He let out a helpless sigh. "Yanran, don't push your grandfather. He was just so angry that he lost his temper."
"Nalan Su, you get the hell out too!"
Nalan Jie roared and smashed everything within reach to pieces.
Nalan Su gave a bitter smile. He didn't dare linger, and left with Nalan Yanran.
Nalan Yanran's room
"Father, I really don't want to marry Xiao Yan."
Nalan Yanran pleaded through tears. "If he hadn't lost his talent, that would be one thing. But for a whole year, his cultivation didn't advance at all—in fact, it regressed. Who knows how much time he wasted going back and forth? Even if he's recovered now, who can guarantee what will happen in the future?"
Nalan Su looked troubled. His own father was a man who valued loyalty, and Nalan Yanran was his beloved daughter. He was caught between them.
"What if we let him study at the Misty Cloud Sect?"
Nalan Yanran sprang to her feet. "Impossible! He's only just recovered. He probably hasn't even become a Dou Zhe yet. If he joins the Misty Cloud Sect and my fellow disciples find out about our relationship, they'll laugh me to death. It'll bring shame on the Nalan Family!"
"Xiao Yan has good talent," Nalan Su said, feeling a headache coming on.
"No matter how good his talent is, he's still from a small clan. His achievements are limited by the resources available to him. He could never become anything impressive. My future husband must be one of the top experts in the Jia Ma Empire!"
"I'm going to break off the engagement!"
Furious, Nalan Yanran ran back to the Misty Cloud Sect, leaving Nalan Jie and his son behind, both so enraged their hearts ached.
The Misty Cloud Sect was the most powerful force in the Jia Ma Empire. Passed down without interruption from one generation to the next, this ancient sect had come to stand atop the empire. If not for its rules forbidding it from seizing imperial power, the Misty Cloud Sect would likely have taken complete control of the Jia Ma Empire during one of the several dynastic upheavals in the past.
For that very reason, every generation of the imperial family had been deeply wary of this colossal power right on its doorstep. Now, under the Jia Ma Imperial Family, with Jia Xingtian as its protector and a sixth-tier magical beast guarding it, the current imperial family had finally gained enough strength to make even the Misty Cloud Sect wary, if only a little.
That was why the battle-hardened elite legion the Jia Ma Imperial Family had stationed at the foot of Misty Cloud Mountain had always remained untroubled.
The imperial family had kept the legion stationed there for many years. Everyone knew its purpose: to guard against the Misty Cloud Sect.
The Misty Cloud Sect had never reacted too strongly to the imperial family's move. Apart from a few young disciples who had occasionally gone to cause trouble at the military camp when the legion first arrived, the sect's senior members had remained silent on the matter.
They knew that no one would tolerate another sleeping beside their bed, and that imperial households were rife with suspicion. They had long since grown used to it. As long as the Misty Cloud Sect remained standing, the legion at the foot of the mountain would never dare make a move.
The Misty Cloud Sect stood atop Misty Cloud Mountain, which lay only a few dozen miles from the imperial capital. The two were so close that they resembled two colossal powers facing off against one another.
Inside the main hall, Yun Yun affectionately stroked her disciple's head. Nalan Yanran had just told her everything. As a woman herself, Yun Yun could understand all too well what it felt like to be forced to marry someone you didn't love.
"Yanran, if you've thought it through, then go ahead. Your master will support you."
Nalan Yanran looked up in delight. "Really, Master?"
Yun Yun nodded. "Of course. I still hope you'll talk things over with your family first, though."
Nalan Yanran nodded eagerly and headed out of the hall, though it was hard to tell whether she had taken Yun Yun's words to heart.
At the ruins of the Blood Sect in the Black-Corner Region, after a period of renovations, a new sect had begun to take shape.
"Thunder Sect!"
Inside the mountain gate, Deacon Li nodded with satisfaction. "What a grand name! I suppose I've finally found something worthwhile to do."
Looking toward the mountainside, where the main hall stood, Deacon Li murmured, "I wonder how the Sect Master is doing. He went into seclusion right after we met. I wonder what he's up to, that he needs two senior Dou Zong experts to protect him."
He looked up at the gloomy sky, where lightning seemed to churn.
"Six months already. He should be out soon."