On the Qianlong Continent, outside Yanjing City in the Chu Dynasty.
Cloudmist Manor lay shrouded in white mist all year round, like an immortal paradise.
It was the private property of Qin De, the King Who Guards the East, and one of the quietest, most heavily guarded retreats in the entire Chu Dynasty.
Early in the morning, as the first streak of fish-belly white appeared on the horizon, heavy, rhythmic panting already rose from Cloudmist Manor's Martial Arts Field.
"Nine hundred ninety-seven... nine hundred ninety-eight... nine hundred ninety-nine... one thousand!"
A child of about eight or nine was struggling through one-finger push-ups with a block of black iron weighing several dozen jin strapped to his back.
Sweat had long since soaked his coarse training clothes. It ran down his cheeks and dripped onto the flagstones, gathering into a puddle.
The child had delicate features, but his brow held a resolve and stubbornness far beyond those of his peers.
He gritted his teeth. Even though his arms were trembling slightly, even though the rough ground had scraped the skin from his knuckles and drawn trickles of blood, he never stopped.
His name was Qin Yu, the fourth son of Qin De, the King Who Guards the East.
Beneath a century-old pine at the edge of the Martial Arts Field, another child stood quietly.
He wore spotless white robes, and his face bore a near-perfect resemblance to Qin Yu's as the latter trained hard, yet their bearing was entirely different.
If Qin Yu was a piece of stubborn iron being hammered furiously in a raging fire, striving to acquire an edge, then this white-robed child was a piece of fine jade already glowing with a gentle luster, its sharpness held within.
His name was Qin Chen, the third son of Qin De, the King Who Guards the East, and Qin Yu's elder twin brother.
They had been born on the same day, in the same month and year, only an hour apart.
Watching his younger brother grit his teeth and persevere nearby, a flicker of heartache crossed Qin Chen's deep eyes, though calm prevailed.
Eight years... Qin Chen sighed silently.
A transmigrator, Qin Chen had been in this world for eight full years.
When he realized he had become the elder twin brother of Qin Yu, the protagonist of Stellar Transformations, he had known clearly how vast and tumultuous this world was, and what cruel, deadly dangers it concealed.
From the moment they were born, fate seemed to have played an enormous joke on them.
They were twin brothers, yet their talents were as far apart as clouds and mud. Qin Yu had been born with a dantian that could not store internal energy. Judged a cripple incapable of practicing internal arts, he could only take the path of External Cultivation—the harshest path, and the one on which great accomplishments were hardest to attain.
Qin Chen, however, possessed an exceptional constitution seen only once in a century, with broad meridians and a stable dantian. Whatever internal cultivation method he practiced, he could advance a thousand miles in a day.
At just eight years old, Qin Chen had already reached the Late Houtian stage, only one step away from Houtian Paragon.
Such a cultivation speed would have left people tongue-tied and wide-eyed even across the entire history of the Qianlong Continent.
Qin De, the King Who Guards the East, placed high hopes on Qin Chen, even regarding him as a secret trump card for the Qin Family's future uprising against the imperial Xiang Family.
But Qin Chen knew that the one who would truly stir the winds and clouds of the universe and control the Primordial Chaos Golden Ranking in the future was this younger brother before him, who could not even gather internal energy.
"But now that I'm here, Yu, you won't have to walk such a lonely, miserable road in this life." Qin Chen tightened his fists slightly.
Besides his supreme talent, Qin Chen had an even greater trump card known only to himself: the [Tenfold Return System].
This system had officially activated when Qin Chen was three. Its function was simple and direct: whenever Qin Chen gave something he owned to a "bonded person" who shared an extremely close relationship with him and had the system's recognition, the system would immediately trigger its return mechanism.
The minimum return was tenfold, and the maximum could reach ten thousandfold! Returns came in two forms: either a multiplication in quantity or a leap in quality.
Bang!
On the Martial Arts Field, Qin Yu finally exhausted his last shred of strength. The black iron block on his back crashed heavily to the ground, and he collapsed onto the flagstones like a fish out of water, gulping for breath as his chest heaved violently.
Qin Chen gathered his thoughts and stepped forward. His pace seemed slow, yet each step seemed to shrink the ground to inches, bringing him to Qin Yu's side in the blink of an eye.
"Brother..." Hearing footsteps, Qin Yu struggled to open his sweat-blurred eyes and mustered a weak smile. "Today... I finished a thousand weighted one-finger push-ups. That's... a hundred more than yesterday."
Qin Chen crouched without a word, merely extending his fair palm and resting it gently against Qin Yu's back.
Hum-
A stream of exceedingly pure Acquired true qi, gentle as water, flowed from Qin Chen's palm into Qin Yu's body.
Like a spring breeze bringing nourishing rain, the true qi swiftly traveled through Qin Yu's limbs and every part of his body, nourishing the muscle fibers torn by excessive exertion and easing the soreness that reached deep into his bones.
"Ah..." Qin Yu drew in a sharp breath of relief, and a hint of color gradually returned to his pale face.
"External cultivation calls for breaking down before rebuilding. But if you keep squeezing everything out of your body like this without enough medicinal baths and nourishment from internal energy, sooner or later you'll suffer hidden injuries and cut off your future path."
Qin Yu lowered his head, a trace of gloom crossing his eyes. "Brother, I know. But... I have no other choice. My dantian leaks energy. It can't hold even a trace of internal energy. Father... he hasn't come to see me in a long time. I know he needs powerful people who can help him accomplish his great undertaking, like our eldest brother, our second brother, and you. I don't want to be a useless cripple who does nothing but eat and wait to die at Cloudmist Manor. I want to help Father. I want him to look at me the way he looks at all of you, just once!"
By the end, Qin Yu's eyes were slightly red. His fists were clenched so tightly that his nails nearly dug into his flesh.
Seeing his younger brother like this, Qin Chen felt a pang in his heart. He understood Qin Yu all too well. This seemingly frail child held an obsession harder than refined steel.
"Yu, look at me." Qin Chen gripped Qin Yu's shoulders with both hands and looked straight into his eyes. "Who says External Cultivation can't make you powerful? Cultivate External Cultivation to its ultimate height, and you can break the sound barrier with your body, shatter mountains and rivers with your fists, and even step into the Innate realm! Your path isn't wrong. It's simply harder to walk than other people's."
"Really? External arts... can reach the Innate realm too?" A spark of hope suddenly burst into Qin Yu's eyes. According to common knowledge on the Qianlong Continent, external cultivators could reach the peak of the Acquired realm at most. The Innate realm belonged exclusively to internal cultivators.
"Of course." Qin Chen nodded firmly. "And with your big brother here, I certainly won't let you collapse halfway because your body has been depleted."
As he spoke, Qin Chen drew an exquisite red sandalwood box from inside his robes.
The moment the wooden box appeared, an intensely rich medicinal fragrance spread through the air. With just one breath of it, Qin Yu felt the lingering exhaustion in his body swept away, and even his blood and vital energy began to faintly surge.
"Brother, this is..."
Qin Yu froze.
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