The Three-Year Agreement

"Back when your Xiao Clan and my Nalan Family arranged this engagement, your talent was exceptional, and your name resounded throughout Wutan City. The match could be considered fitting."

"But three years have passed in the blink of an eye. Your cultivation has stagnated, leaving you trapped at three-stage Dou Qi day after day. You have long since become a cripple."

Her words were sharp as knives, mercilessly stabbing deep into Xiao Yan's heart. Every member of the Xiao Clan present underwent a sudden change of expression.

The hall fell deathly silent. A falling pin could have been heard.

Nalan Yanran's gaze was haughty, her every word ringing clearly in everyone's ears:

"I, Nalan Yanran, am the junior sect master of the Misty Cloud Sect. With my outstanding talent and brilliant future, I cannot possibly marry a cripple like you and disgrace my sect's name."

"Today, the Misty Cloud Sect hereby breaks off this engagement!"

Those few words exploded like thunder in the Xiao Clan's hall!

Xiao Zhan's face instantly turned livid. His fists clenched tight, barely contained fury surging through his aura as faint blue lion markings appeared on his face.

Yet, cowed by the Misty Cloud Sect's might, he could only force himself to endure it. His chest heaved, humiliation and rage entwining in his heart.

The Xiao Clan elders seated on either side all looked mortified, their dignity utterly stripped away.

An uproar erupted among the surrounding Xiao Clan juniors as they stared at the scene in disbelief. No one had imagined that the eagerly awaited guests from the Misty Cloud Sect had come expressly to humiliate them in public by breaking off the engagement!

Among the crowd, Xiao Yuan stood watching, his brows slightly furrowed and his expression somber.

He did not object to Nalan Yanran coming to break off the engagement. It was perfectly normal to resent a marriage arranged by one's family.

But Nalan Yanran had brought people from the Misty Cloud Sect and proclaimed her rejection so ostentatiously before the Xiao Clan's elders and clansmen.

This was no different from slapping the Xiao Clan in the face, pressing Xiao Yan's and Xiao Zhan's dignity into the dirt and grinding it beneath her heel.

At the center of the hall, Xiao Yan trembled slightly, every trace of color draining from his pale face.

Breaking off the engagement!

On the Dou Qi Continent, having the bride's side renege on an engagement was deeply humiliating, especially for someone like Xiao Yan, whose father was the head of a clan.

Being rejected in public today by the Misty Cloud Sect's junior sect master was not merely a personal humiliation. It trampled the dignity of Xiao Zhan, the clan chief, and the entire Xiao Clan underfoot.

His hands clenched tight, his nails digging deep into his palms as blood slowly seeped between his fingers. Three years of cold stares and mockery, the despair of his stalled cultivation—all of it was set ablaze by Nalan Yanran's words today.

"Nalan Yanran!!"

The youth roared, a nearly crazed ferocity burning in his eyes.

"You've come to break off our engagement simply because you think I, Xiao Yan, am trash, unworthy of a favored daughter of heaven like you."

Xiao Yan raised his eyes. His dark gaze was bloodshot and piercing, without a trace of his former despondency or timidity. Only towering pride and defiance remained.

The entire hall was silent as everyone stared blankly at the youth standing at its center.

Xiao Yan tilted his face toward the heavens and chuckled softly. His laughter was hoarse, yet carried a stubbornness that ran bone-deep.

"Since your Misty Cloud Sect despises my Xiao Clan so much, since you despise me, Xiao Yan!"

He abruptly stepped forward and snatched a brush and paper from an attendant nearby.

Spreading out the paper, the youth gripped the wolf-hair brush with bloodstained fingers. His strokes were fierce, every word resounding with conviction, their force seeming to pierce through the paper.

"Our engagement was settled, yet you scorn me as useless. Today! I, Xiao Yan, will be the one to repudiate you!"

That single declaration overturned everything!

Everyone knew that the Misty Cloud Sect had come to break off the engagement. No one had expected Xiao Yan, after enduring such humiliation, to turn the tables and write a letter of repudiation!

Since ancient times, it had always been the man who repudiated the woman, never the woman who cast aside the man!

Nalan Yanran's public rejection disgraced the Xiao Clan.

But Xiao Yan taking up his brush to repudiate her severed every bond between them.

The brush flew, and the few short lines of the repudiation letter were completed in one unbroken sweep.

Xiao Yan raised his hand and slammed the finished letter onto the table. Looking straight at the stunned Nalan Yanran, he spoke in a voice that shook the entire hall!

"Today, I, Xiao Yan, repudiate Nalan Yanran! From now on, our engagement is void. You, Nalan Yanran, can climb high into your Misty Cloud Sect, while I, Xiao Yan, remain the young master of my Xiao Clan. Neither of us owes the other anything!"

As his words fell, his gaze suddenly sharpened. The rage and fighting spirit in the youth's chest erupted completely as he publicly declared the Three-Year Agreement that would echo through the ages!

"But!"

"I, Xiao Yan, will engrave today's public humiliation upon my heart!"

"Three years from now! I, Xiao Yan, will go to the Misty Cloud Sect myself!"

"Before every person in the Misty Cloud Sect! I will face you, Nalan Yanran! And we will see who stands above the other!"

"If I lose, I, Xiao Yan, will never set foot in the Misty Cloud Sect again, and willingly remain a cripple forever!"

"If I win!"

His eyes were crimson, every word weeping blood, every word a thunderclap!

"You, Nalan Yanran! Will kowtow publicly to me and to the Xiao Clan! And beg forgiveness!"

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west! Never scorn a youth for being poor!"

Those bold words exploded throughout the hall!

The entire Xiao Clan hall fell as silent as the grave.

Every Xiao clansman's pupils trembled as they stared at Xiao Yan, whose unyielding pride now stood starkly revealed, without the slightest trace of despondency.

Xiao Zhan trembled, his eyes reddening. All his pent-up humiliation and fury turned to relief and surging emotion.

Nalan Yanran's lovely face changed completely. After her astonishment came utter anger and scorn. Watching the youth swear his oath in a frenzy, she took it for nothing more than a useless fool's final, desperate struggle and spoke coldly.

"Fine! I, Nalan Yanran, accept your Three-Year Agreement! I'd like to see just what storms a cripple stuck at three-stage Dou Qi like you can stir up after three years!"

To her, this was merely the meaningless bluster of a beaten dog. Over the next three years, her cultivation would advance by leaps and bounds, and the gap between her and Xiao Yan would only grow wider.

The accompanying Misty Cloud Sect elder, whose hair and beard were gray, took half a step forward. His gray robe shifted slightly as a faint Dou Ling pressure spread almost imperceptibly, as though to intimidate everyone present. Undisguised mockery curled at the corners of his mouth.

"Boy, you have no idea how high the heavens are or how deep the earth runs. The Misty Cloud Sect is no place for you to spout arrogant boasts at will. But since Yanran has already accepted, our Misty Cloud Sect shall bear witness to today's agreement.

"Three years shall be the limit. When the time comes, the Misty Cloud Sect will be waiting. We only hope... you won't lose the courage to come."

An oppressive gloom hung over the Xiao Clan's side. Many juniors even softened their breathing, the Dou Ling's aura weighing heavily on their hearts. Xiao Zhan's clenched fists creaked, yet he could still only force himself to hold back.

Just then, a clear yet steady voice rose unhurriedly from the rear of the crowd. It was not loud, but it cut through that pressure and reached every person's ears.

"Since a wager has been made, there should not be only two parties bearing witness. Our Xiao Clan should have a place as well."

Everyone turned toward the voice.

Xiao Yuan slowly stepped out of the ranks, his silver robe giving off a faint, cold sheen in the hall's dim light. There was no anger on his face, but not the slightest willingness to yield in his dark eyes.

"Xiao Yuan...?"

At the center of the hall, Xiao Yan, his entire body taut and his eyes filled with stubbornness and loneliness, suddenly froze.

Xiao Yuan was Xiao Zhan's adopted son, making him Xiao Yan's brother in name, but the two had never had much contact.

Xiao Yuan was a genius such as the Xiao Clan had not seen in ten thousand years. He had made his name at a young age, his cultivation surpassed all his peers, and he had always been reserved and composed.