"My pagoda, my pagoda!"
At the sight, fury and panic surged through Pagoda True Person's heart. His vision nearly went black, and he almost fainted on the spot!
Pagoda True Person's real name was Fei Youzhou. He had been an utterly ordinary, down-and-out rogue cultivator in the Southern Wilds.
He had been born into a small, declining aristocratic clan. Over a thousand years ago, his ancestors had produced a Legendary Expert at the pinnacle of Earth Rank. Unfortunately, that ancestral glory had nothing whatsoever to do with him. At most, he knew that a lineage surnamed Fei had once existed in the Southern Wilds and had been a dominant local power.
The lineage's unworthy descendants had squandered every last ancestral blessing, reducing it to utter ruin. Several more generations passed, and after three hundred years without producing another Earth Rank expert, it was struck from the Aristocratic Clan Alliance's rolls. The last patriarch of the Fei Family tearfully sold off the family estate, divided the spirit jade and treasures in the communal treasury, and sent the clansmen off to seek their own futures.
He was descended from a small household in one of its collateral branches. His parents had guided him into the Spirit Command Dao, setting him on the path of cultivation.
But the resources and instruction a tiny rogue cultivator household could provide were severely limited. To sustain his cultivation and advance, he had been forced to bid his parents farewell and wander the Outlaw Martial World, searching for a sliver of opportunity.
In his youth, he too had brimmed with ambition, determined to restore his lineage's name and accomplish something great. Only after the world had worn down his sharp edges did that dream gradually die away.
But fate toyed with people. Just as he was growing