Su Ming's fingers began to tremble despite himself.
He seized his father's wrist so hard that his father raised an eyebrow in surprise.
That strength was no weaker than a Qi Refining cultivator's, was it?
Hadn't they said Ming couldn't cultivate?
"What's wrong?" his father asked, concern in his voice.
Su Ming opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
What could he say?
Was he supposed to tell his father he had seen the day he would die?
The last time he had tried to change the Heavenly Mandate, the flood had arrived early and struck even harder...
"Nothing."
Su Ming finally let go and forced a smile. "I just... suddenly thought of something."
His father gave him a suspicious look but asked no more.
They stood in silence for a while before his father turned away to handle the clan's affairs.
Su Ming watched his father's retreating figure, his fists tightening without his realizing it.
No. This time was different.
He couldn't stand by and watch his father die.
Even if the Heavenly Mandate could not be defied, he would defy the heavens!
His father was his only family!
No matter how the clanspeople looked at him, his father alone had always stood firmly by him and protected him!
Over the next three days, Su Ming covered nearly every stretch of mountain forest around the tribe.
He studied the grain of every rock, measured the slope of every hillside, and calculated how much water the soil had absorbed since the rainy season began.
At night, he sat alone beneath the ancient tree and gazed at the stars, searching their movements for the slightest chance to change fate.
On the morning of the fourth day, Su Ming went to the old clan chief.
"The path behind the mountain needs