"Xiao Yu? Is there someone by that name in our generation? How come I've never heard of him?"
"Neither have I."
"You know, he's pretty handsome."
"Tch, what damn good are looks? He's a nobody. Without strength, he's nothing."
"Heh, I think you're just jealous."
"Me, jealous? I'm at the seventh stage of Dou Qi. Why would I be jealous of him?"
As soon as Xiao Yu stepped onto the platform, chatter erupted below. After his more than ten years of seclusion, naturally none of the younger generation knew him. They all wondered where he had sprung from.
"Xiao Yu?"
The Elder and Second Elder in the spectator seats froze for a moment, then fell into thought.
"Sigh..."
The Elder sighed, then said, "That poor child has suffered. If we'd sent him away back then, how could things have come to this today?"
The Second Elder suddenly turned on Xiao Zhan, his voice furious. "This is all your fault! If you'd agreed to let us send Xiao Yu away back then, how would he have ended up taking part in today's Coming-of-Age Ceremony?"
At that, Xiao Zhan snapped back angrily, "You think I don't know what you were scheming? Whatever else he may be, Xiao Yu is my elder brother's son! How could you face my brother after sending him out of the Xiao Clan? Huh? Have you forgotten what happened back then?!"
"We haven't forgotten Clan Leader Xiao Ping's contributions to the Xiao Clan! I remember them more clearly than anyone!"
"Do you think we truly wanted to drive this child out of the Xiao Clan for the sake of its reputation? This child couldn't cultivate! You knew that!"
"If he couldn't cultivate, do you know what kind of life awaited him in the Xiao Clan? Huh?"
"Weren't these past ten-odd years of loneliness enough? Will you only be satisfied after making him endure this kind of ridicule and humiliation now?!"
The Second Elder practically roared those words.
He remembered that day with painful clarity. Still a Five-Star Dou Master then, he had watched Xiao Ping perish together with that Da Dou Shi.
That mangled body had fallen right before him. He could never forget the smile left on Xiao Ping's face after death!
It had been a smile of relief-relief that he had slain the invading enemy and preserved the Xiao Clan's bloodline!
As he spoke, moisture glimmered in the Second Elder's eyes.
Xiao Zhan fell silent. He knew, too, that if they had sent little Yu away from the Xiao Clan back then, perhaps he could have lived an ordinary life instead of spending more than ten years alone.
But he understood this world all too well. In this world, the weak were meat for the strong. Without strength, there was no guarantee that you could protect your own life. Anyone stronger than you could take your life at will! They needed no reason beyond being stronger than you!
He hadn't dared. He feared that some misfortune might befall Xiao Yu outside. He couldn't let his elder brother's only child die young!
Hadn't that been exactly what happened to his father? He had been attacked without any reason and eventually died of his grievous injuries.
His elder brother had been gentle, refined, and upright. And what had that earned him?
Just because that man was a Da Dou Shi, his elder brother had lost his life! His wife had also been caught in that undeserved calamity and eventually died of illness!
At that moment, the Elder cut them off. "Enough! If you want to argue, at least look at where you are! There are so many juniors here. Do you want to make yourselves a laughingstock?!"
"Hmph!"
The Second Elder snorted coldly and said no more.
While the three were arguing, Xiao Yu had already stepped onto the Testing Platform.
"Do I just put my hand on it?"
Looking at the stone stele before him, Xiao Yu asked the Testing Officer beside him.
The Testing Officer nodded. "Yes. Place your hand on it and circulate the Dou Qi in your body with all your strength."
Xiao Yu nodded and pressed his right hand against it.
How much should I reveal? Dou Shi? No, no, that would draw too much attention. Better stick to Dou Zhe. Three-Star Dou Zhe should be fine. Even if people find out, they'll just think I'm exceptionally gifted.
After considering how much strength to display, Xiao Yu ultimately settled on Three-Star Dou Zhe.
A sixteen-year-old Three-Star Dou Zhe would count as exceptionally gifted in the Jia Ma Empire, but not as a once-in-ten-thousand-years rarity. It wouldn't draw the prying eyes of those powerful experts.
Having decided, Xiao Yu circulated the Dou Qi within his body, releasing the aura of a Dou Zhe.
"Huh?!"
Sensing that Dou Zhe aura, the Testing Officer stared in shock at the youth being tested before the stone stele.
This aura... a Dou Zhe? And he isn't even a newly advanced Dou Zhe. How is this possible? When did the clan gain such a young genius?
Light flared on the stone stele.
That light instantly drew the attention of Xiao Zhan and the others in the spectator seats.
"This..."
The Elder was bewildered. Why? Why had the stele emitted such dazzling light when Xiao Yu touched it for the test?
"Xiao Yu... has Dou Qi? And judging by this, it isn't weak, either! How is this possible?!"
The Second Elder also stared at the black stone stele in disbelief.
Back then, he had run himself ragged over Xiao Yu's inability to cultivate. He had even traveled to the Imperial Capital, yet no one had found any way to restore his ability.
"Yu... could it be... could it be..."
After his initial bewilderment, Xiao Zhan thought of a possibility. Excitement surged through him. Clenching both hands, he rose to his feet, his gaze fixed firmly on the white-robed youth.
Three-Star
Dou Zhe!
Once the light faded, four characters appeared on the stone stele.
When the result appeared, Xiao Yu smiled and looked at the Testing Officer beside him.
Feeling that gaze on him, the Testing Officer finally came back to his senses. He hurriedly took his pen and recorded the result in his register, then called out loudly:
"Xiao Yu! Three-Star Dou Zhe!"
"..."
Those four characters seemed to weigh ten thousand pounds, crushing everyone present into speechlessness!
Once everyone recovered, voices began rising one after another.
"How is this possible? There's actually someone in the clan more talented than Miss Xun'er!"
"Who exactly is he? Why have I never heard of him?"
"That pretty boy... why... is he a Three-Star Dou Zhe..."
Some were shocked, some confused, and some so jealous they could scarcely believe it.
"Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! Yu! Yu... so he isn't... trash! Hahahahaha... sob..."
In the spectator seats, Xiao Zhan checked the result on the stone stele several times. Once he was certain he wasn't imagining it, he burst into delighted laughter. At last, his eyes grew wet, and he wept with joy.
The Elder and Second Elder said nothing either. Their gazes kept moving between Xiao Yu and the stele, the shock in their eyes refusing to fade.
No one understood the old Xiao Yu better than they did.
Now, Xiao Yu, who had been unable to cultivate, was a Three-Star Dou Zhe! How could they not be shocked?
Then the Second Elder looked at Xiao Zhan, who was laughing and crying beside him, with a complicated expression.
"It seems the clan leader made the right decision back then..."
"So we were the ones who were wrong all along..."
"My cousin... a Three-Star Dou Zhe!"
Below the platform, Xiao Yan was also startled by the result.
Then he murmured, "Could Father have lied to me? Could my cousin actually cultivate Dou Qi?"
"No, impossible. How could Father lie to me about something like this?"
"Then does that mean my cousin deceived Father, deceived me, and deceived everyone?"
"Holy shit! My cousin looks so harmless, but he really knows how to hide things!"
Beside him, Xiao Xun'er was equally bewildered. What was going on? Wasn't he just a Three-Star Dou Zhe?
It was one thing for the others to get excited, but with Brother Xiao Yan's temperament, he should only have been a little surprised. Why did he look so incredulous?
An aged voice rang out in Xiao Yan's mind:
"Brat, this cousin of yours is no ordinary person. If nothing goes wrong, he'll surely rule a region one day!"
"Huh?"
Xiao Yan froze, looked at his cousin on the platform, then nodded in agreement. "Brother Yu really isn't simple. He managed to hide his ability to cultivate from everyone for so many years, and even lived alone in that little courtyard for more than ten years."
"Ordinary people couldn't match that patience. Even I'd have trouble comparing."
Yao Lao chuckled at that. "Stop gilding your own face, brat. What do you mean, 'have trouble comparing'? There's simply no comparison. That restraint, that temperament of your cousin's-even I in my younger days could hardly have measured up."
"If you think it through, you'll understand what's so frightening about this cousin of yours."
"If your father didn't lie to you, then he was declared unable to cultivate Dou Qi at five years old. He lived alone for over ten years, never receiving instruction from any cultivator, without a single cultivation resource. Yet simply by absorbing Dou Qi on his own, he reached Three-Star Dou Zhe in eleven years. What terrifying talent that is."
"And he never had access to any cultivation technique, either. In other words, he cultivated all the way to Three-Star Dou Zhe without practicing one."
"There are only two possibilities. Either he had some fortuitous encounter and obtained a cultivation technique, or he relied on his own talent to forge a cultivation technique himself."
"Whichever it is, it proves that your cousin is a genius through and through-a genius no less gifted than the favored sons of heaven among those Great Sects, Great Schools, Noble Families, and Clans."
"What's more, from my observations over the past half year or so, your cousin likes to hide his talents. His strength may not stop at Three-Star Dou Zhe."
"Hiss..."
After hearing Yao Lao's words, Xiao Yan sucked in a breath of cold air. Only now did he understand just what a monstrous prodigy his cousin was!
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