Xiao Yan looked at the mountain rising like a sharp sword that pierced the heavens, and at the woman standing in the vast, mist-shrouded square beyond its many Stone Steps.
He let out a slow breath.
He felt the weight pressing down on his soul lift a little with it.
Today, he would reclaim, one by one, the honor that he and his father had lost three years ago.
From Xiao Yan's perspective as someone from the modern world, if two people did not like each other, they could simply part ways. A melon forced from the vine would not taste sweet. He felt nothing for Nalan Yanran, and he did not care if their engagement was dissolved.
But Nalan Yanran should never have trampled his father's dignity and the Xiao Family's honor underfoot.
Xiao Yan stood at the foot of the Stone Steps, ready to look back on bitter days and savor how far he had come. Then he suddenly realized...
Had he really suffered much over these three years?
The pain he had endured while absorbing Heavenly Flames did not count as hardship to him. The rest of the time had passed amid laughter and banter with his teacher.
And rising from third-stage Dou Zhi Qi to Dou Ling in three years? Was that not something anyone with hands could do?
Huh? Where are my hands?
Xiao Yan looked toward the growing crowd in the Mist Cloud Sect's square. They had all come to watch his battle with Nalan Yanran.
He smiled soundlessly. Today, he would wash away the shame his father had suffered!
He would win back the Xiao Family's dignity with his own hands!
Xiao Yan climbed the Stone Steps, moving forward one step at a time, steady and unstoppable.
"Three years ago, an inexperienced boy