Nalan

In a classical courtyard, a clear stream wound through the grounds, with flowers and trees growing thickly around it—a scene of natural beauty and freshness.

Yet amid this lovely scenery, a small figure stood bent over in a horse stance.

Beads of sweat rolled down the little face, leaving the teenage girl beside him terribly anxious.

She wanted to speak, but remembering what her young master had said earlier, the maid Qing'er had no choice but to hold back.

Looking at the sandalwood incense before her, now less than a quarter of its length, Qing'er wished she could step forward and blow on it, making it burn faster.

At last, after another two quarters of an hour, the flame atop the incense finally burned out and fell away in the breeze.

Qing'er hurried over to her young master and said urgently, "Young Master, the incense has burned for a full stick. You can stop now!"

The small body, already on the verge of giving out, began to sway as soon as he heard the maid Qing'er's words.

Qing'er rushed over and reached out to catch her young master in her arms.

Seeing his tiny body drenched in sweat, Qing'er felt both angry and heartbroken.

"Young Master, you're only five years old! If you keep training like this, you'll ruin your body!"

A five-year-old child holding a horse stance for two whole hours—just hearing it sounded insane!

"Heh, Qing'er. Don't you know what your young master can do? It's only a horse stance. Easy!"

Watching the little fellow lying in her arms still running his mouth, Qing'er couldn't help laughing in exasperation.

"Just keep boasting. Look at the state you're in. If Madam sees you, who knows how worried she'll be? Then Qing'er will get punished again!"

As the eldest grandson of the Nalan Family and the clan's sole heir, the whole Nalan Family cherished their young master dearly.

The clan leader and young clan leader aside, even the Young Mistress—Young Master Chenfeng's mother—could hardly be called anything but doting toward her first child.

The Young Mistress had personally assigned Qing'er to attend to the young master's daily needs. The first time he trained, he had actually worn himself out.

The Young Mistress, who was pregnant and had difficulty getting around, had come over herself and given her young master a thorough scolding. Naturally, his personal maid hadn't escaped punishment either.

If the young master hadn't pleaded for her, she would surely have been whipped!

Li Chenfeng, sprawled against the maid Qing'er, didn't want to move a muscle. His whole body ached terribly.

"Then just don't let Mother find out, right?"

After mumbling lazily, Li Chenfeng shifted a little. Once he felt he had mostly recovered and could move again, he slowly got to his feet.

Qing'er continued supporting him with great care. This wasn't the first time it had happened.

"Qing'er, where's my mother right now?"

"Young Master, it's nearly time for breakfast. Madam should already be waiting in the Side Hall."

"Mm, all right."

Li Chenfeng smacked his lips and said, "Starting morning training so early has really made me hungry. Let's hurry to the Side Hall and pay our respects to Mother!"

Qing'er covered her mouth and giggled. Looking at her young master, he didn't seem at all like someone going to pay his respects to his mother—he looked more like a glutton who'd nearly starved to death.

Walking along the courtyard's flagstone path, Nalan Chenfeng—or rather, Li Chenfeng—was overcome with emotion.

He'd only been reminiscing about a classic and sighing to himself, yet after falling asleep, he'd woken up in another world as someone who had never even existed!

When he relived the moment of his birth, Li Chenfeng—or, back then, when he was still called Li Chenfeng—finally learned what it felt like to be born as a baby.

At first, he'd only thought he'd been reincarnated. His heart had been a tangled mess over his inexplicable death in his previous life and the chance to begin again.

But when he heard an imposing old man name him Nalan Chenfeng, then laugh heartily and say that the Nalan Clan had an heir at last, a terrifying thought came to Li Chenfeng.

Finally, after hearing his barely twenty-year-old father mention the Jia Ma Empire and the three great clans of the Imperial Capital, Li Chenfeng had been completely stunned.

He'd actually become the direct grandson of Nalan Jie, clan leader of the Nalan Clan, one of the Jia Ma Empire's three great clans. His father's name was Nalan Su!

Damn it!

At the time, Li Chenfeng had wanted to raise a finger to the heavens and say, "MMP." But unfortunately, he was still a baby then. All he could do was stretch out his tender little hand and make a few unintelligible sounds.

To everyone else, it just looked like the child wanted someone to pick him up!

Nalan Su, who had been teasing his son, saw the little fellow being so good and asking to be held. Delighted, he picked Li Chenfeng up from the bed and kissed him over and over, nearly making Li Chenfeng want to die!

As time passed, Li Chenfeng's body kept growing.

But as a child with nothing to do all day, Li Chenfeng also spent plenty of time thinking about his life.

He'd been at a loss when he first arrived in this world, but as time went by, he'd come to accept the idea of transmigration—or reincarnation.

It was just that his identity in this world wasn't all that great.

"Since I ended up on the Battle Qi Continent, why couldn't I have been reborn into one of the Ancient Eight Clans?"

Li Chenfeng had complained to himself about it more than once.

Look at those guys who'd become Soul Clan emperors or Ancient Clan young masters, while he'd ended up in the Nalan Family... It was downright tragic!

But what was done was done, and eventually he came around. The Ancient Eight Clans didn't meet happy endings in the world of Battle Through the Heavens. In the end, aside from the Ancient Clan, the Soul Clan wiped them all out.

With his tiny body, he'd probably have been cannon fodder anyway. So an ordinary person's identity wasn't so bad.

It was just that his current family situation was a little awkward.

His father was Nalan Su and his grandfather was Nalan Jie, which meant he would also have a younger sister named Nalan Yanran.

Nalan Yanran's identity was no small matter. She was also a very important and memorable character in the novel Battle Through the Heavens.

She was the heroine who gave Flame Emperor Xiao Yan the immortal line, "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river! Don't bully a poor young man!"—a quote passed down through the ages!

And because of this, the Nalan Clan occupied a very awkward position throughout the story of Battle Through the Heavens.

The higher Xiao Yan rose, the more the Nalan Clan would be mocked—especially Nalan Yanran, the central figure in the whole affair. Her ending really did leave many people sighing.

But during Li Chenfeng's first four years of life, he'd thought that his little butterfly had finally brought change to the world. The Nalan Family had no Nalan Yanran, and that stayed true for four whole years.

For a while, Li Chenfeng had believed the world's course had changed and that the Nalan Family wouldn't end up arranging some immoral childhood engagement.

After all, Nalan Jie had only one grandson—himself—and Xiao Lin, the Xiao Family's clan leader, only had two grandsons. If they could still arrange an engagement under those circumstances, Li Chenfeng would kill himself just to prove a point!

But when Li Chenfeng reached his fifth birthday, his father announced with great joy that his mother was pregnant again. The whole Nalan Family erupted in excitement, while Li Chenfeng was the only little fellow there with a face ashen with despair.