Xiao Clan

"Dou Qi, Third Stage!"

The handsome young man standing on the platform looked at the bold words on the Testing Stone Tablet. His expression remained calm. He even had to hold back a smile.

Below the platform, Xiao Ning pulled faces at him. The young Xiao Clan disciples behind him wore mischievous grins too. They reminded Xiao Yan of a school assembly in his previous life: he would stride onto the stage with his head held high while his friends below threw their arms around one another, laughing as though they shared in his glory.

"Xiao Yan, Dou Force, Third Stage..." The middle-aged man glanced at the tablet, regret in his eyes. After a moment's hesitation, he left the final word—"low"—unspoken.

It was a small mercy for a once-brilliant genius.

Silence fell over the crowd.

"What a shame. A chance for the Xiao Clan to rise like this comes only once in a century."

"His Dou Qi has regressed, but it isn't because the young clan leader hasn't worked hard. Everyone has seen how diligently he trains, day and night. It's just... fate."

"At least he hasn't tried anything desperate. Don't put too much pressure on him. What if he feels he has to prove himself?"

Their gazes held regret, sorrow, even... pity.

There was resentment too, of course, but so little that it was almost lost in the crowd.

After all, the Xiao Clan rose or fell together.

In a little city like Wutan City, in a world this cruel, those bound by blood had to stick together.

Otherwise, they would end up like the mercenaries risking their lives in the markets outside: rootless, with no one to shelter them from abuse.

"Oooh!"

As Xiao Yan approached the boys standing with their arms around one another, they broke into a chorus of howls. The awkwardness and gloom that had just begun to gather vanished.

A smile appeared on his handsome face.

Fifteen years ago, he had woken up in this world. Once he learned he was Xiao Yan, he had decided to take it easy. His talent before the age of twelve had been terrifying, and his cultivation had advanced rapidly, but despite his youthful pride, he had kept a much lower profile.

He made sure he received the most basic resources and turned down anything else he could. The Xiao Clan was poor anyway; it had little worth taking.

(Early cultivation resources were mostly Dou Techniques and cultivation methods, but the Xiao Clan's methods were all rather poor. Using only the basics therefore did nothing to hinder his progress or his awakening of the person in the ring.)

Having lived two lives and knowing the story, he had naturally shown a maturity and resourcefulness beyond his years even as a child.

He had brought these children firmly into line.

His fall from grace had cost him that authority, but everyone still got along well enough. There was little genuine malice.

At last, he had made it through those three years in peace...

Xiao Yan's smile was especially bright today. Three years were up. Surely it was time for him, the Flame Emperor, to return.

"Brother Xiao Yan, it looks like you don't need Xun'er to comfort you?" Relief flashed across the girl's fair face. Then she pouted playfully, interrupting his thoughts.

"Ahem. I still do..." Xiao Yan forced a sorrowful expression.

"Next, Xiao Xun'er!"

The middle-aged man's voice rang out from the platform.

"It's Xun'er's turn." Her beautiful eyes sparkled. With a face as delicate as fine porcelain, she stepped lightly onto the platform.

"Dou Force... Ninth Stage, high!"

Amid cheers and admiring gazes, she walked gracefully back toward him. Xiao Yan sighed softly. "You're strong, Xun'er. And... you're hiding your true strength, aren't you?"

"Oh? Brother Xiao Yan noticed?"

They walked toward their lodgings together.

Surprise flickered in Xiao Xun'er's eyes, but she quickly recovered her foxlike playfulness. She held up her slender fingers to show him. "I only hid... this little bit."

"You don't have to worry about hurting my pride, Xun'er." Xiao Yan laughed. "Because the boy genius of old is back."

Xiao Xun'er froze for an instant, then smiled sweetly and looked straight at him. "Xun'er has always believed in you."

But after they parted at a small courtyard,

her face turned cold.

"Elder Ling, investigate."

"I want to know everyone Brother Xiao Yan has been in contact with lately... No! Go back through the entire three years!"

"As you wish!"

The shadow beneath her feet rippled. An old voice answered, then everything fell still.

Xiao Xun'er narrowed her eyes.

She clenched her fair-skinned fist. If some wandering evil spirit or charlatan had dared deceive and exploit Brother Xiao Yan, she would make sure they regretted it.

If Brother Xiao Yan's usual cheerfulness came from believing lies someone had spun for him, then once those lies were shattered, the blow to him might be...

On the platform.

"Rotten wood. Rotten wood cannot be... Ah."

The Grand Elder looked at Xiao Yan and the rowdy boys and shook his head. Scowling, he turned a hostile gaze on Clan Leader Xiao Zhan.

"Heh... Ning'er is doing well," Xiao Zhan said with a smile. "Only seventeen, and he's already reached the Eighth Stage Dou Qi. Truly outstanding. He has a bright future ahead of him..."

Hearing his grandson praised, the Grand Elder stroked his snow-white beard, unable to hide his smile. Then he remembered what he had been about to say. He coughed twice and sighed helplessly.

Forget it.

The boy's own father didn't seem concerned. Since that strange "illness" struck three years ago, Xiao Zhan had neither sought a physician nor paid to have powerful experts examine his son. What more could old men like them say?

The Xiao Clan's devotion to its own had never changed. If Little Yanzi had even the slightest chance of recovering his talent, they would gladly put the strength of the entire clan behind him...

Xiao Zhan saw the Grand Elder's expression and kept smiling, though bitterness filled his heart. His son had grown up and had ideas of his own. Xiao Yan thought those measures were a waste of money and refused them outright.

What could Xiao Zhan do? Tie him up and take him there?

Everyone in Wutan City knew Xiao Zhan doted on his youngest son. Now, though, they saw him as a clan leader who put duty before family, too principled to waste even a sliver of clan resources on his son...

It had earned him the trust and respect of many clansmen.

Even the three elders, who had once argued with him constantly, now spoke to him with careful humility.

Xiao Zhan looked down at Xiao Ning, basking in the crowd's attention. A trace of loneliness mingled with his smile.

He had three sons. His eldest and second son were reasonably talented, but he had sent them to the border while they were still young to watch over the family's holdings.

In a sense, he had abandoned them. Resources were scarce in the Empire Borderlands, and the Xiao Clan of Wutan City could offer them almost no help. To establish themselves, they had to be ruthless. Like children with no parents to rely on, they had to scrape out a living for themselves.

Yet his eldest had never complained about his father's favoritism. Every letter he sent home was full of cheer. He had struggled to find his footing at first, then slowly established himself and founded the Desert Iron Mercenary Group. Xiao Zhan knew how hard that must have been, even if his son never said so.

All Xiao Zhan could write back was that Little Yanzi's strange illness had improved a little, then, in the next letter, a little more.

He might have looked like the glorious Clan Leader of the Xiao Clan, but the pain in his heart was another matter...