Clear Wind Kingdom, Tianshui Commandery, Clearwater Town.
In the dense forest outside town, a boy drenched in blood was running for his life.
Behind him, four black-clad assassins pursued him relentlessly.
"Boss, this brat is only in the early Meridian Condensation Realm. How is he running so fast?"
"Hmph, how should I know?"
"Could he have some treasure on him? I heard the Ye Lineage has plenty!"
"I heard that too! He must have a treasure on him!"
"Treasure or not, we'll be rich once we finish this job. That person offered a sky-high price of ten thousand low-grade spirit stones!"
"Stop arguing and get to work! If he gets away, we're all finished!"
Seeing how fast the boy was running, the four began pushing themselves harder.
The boy had lost too much blood, and his face was pale.
As the four drew closer and closer, his face grew paler still.
Am I, Ye Yan, really going to die here today? No, I can't. I have to restore the Ye Lineage to glory. I can't die yet!
The boy's panic vanished, replaced by determination-fierce determination.
With his current injuries, escape was out of the question.
He turned around, preparing to fight the four behind him head-on.
A flicker of surprise crossed the four assassins' eyes.
This boy was Ye Yan, once Clearwater Town's greatest genius. He had broken into the Meridian Condensation Realm at just thirteen and reached the heaven of sixth level of Meridian Condensation at fifteen. But rumor had it that he had contracted a strange illness over the past year, and his cultivation had regressed rather than advanced.
A few days earlier, a mysterious person had offered ten thousand low-grade spirit stones for his head.
Ten thousand low-grade spirit stones was a fortune they could not earn in several years.
They had accepted without a second thought.
After lying in wait outside the Ye Lineage estate for several days, they had finally caught Ye Yan going out alone.
Even with all of them surrounding and attacking him, he had escaped with severe injuries.
Ye Yan truly lived up to his reputation as a genius.
After all, of the four, one was a formidable expert at the first heaven of Qi Sea, and the other three were all experts in the late Meridian Condensation Realm.
But so what if he was a genius? He was still going to die!
"Brat, why aren't you running anymore?"
A small, skinny assassin taunted him.
Ye Yan said nothing, staring fixedly at them as he searched for an opening.
All four were experienced assassins who knew villains died from talking too much, so they wasted no more time and rushed him together, wreathed in spiritual power.
Use an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken.
That was the principle they had learned from their years in the jianghu. Even if an old granny stood before them, they would all rush her together to ensure nothing could go wrong.
Gusts of spiritual wind whipped toward him, stinging his face.
Fists and feet came at him from every direction. Just as they were about to strike his forehead and heart, Ye Yan actually closed his eyes.
Surprise appeared on the four men's faces, followed by savage smiles.
Giving up already?
A genius? Just trash!
At the thought of the ten-thousand-stone fortune about to fall into their hands, their hearts burned even hotter, and their strikes grew thirty percent stronger and faster.
Between life and death lay great terror!
That was exactly the state Ye Yan was in.
He had reached the heaven of sixth level of Meridian Condensation a year ago, but over the past year, his cultivation had regressed rather than advanced. Now he was only at the heaven of third level of Meridian Condensation.
Caught in a life-and-death crisis, he wanted to seize this chance to break through and shatter the curse upon him.
At that critical instant, crack.
Something like a faint crack sounded within Ye Yan's body.
Vast quantities of Spiritual Qi were drawn toward Ye Yan, pouring continuously into his body.
The spiritual power fluctuations within Ye Yan grew stronger and stronger, soon breaking past the limits of the third level of Meridian Condensation.
Fourth level of Meridian Condensation...
Fifth level of Meridian Condensation...
Sixth level of Meridian Condensation...
Finally, Ye Yan's spiritual power fluctuations reached the seventh level of Meridian Condensation, one step beyond where he had been a year ago.
The pressure between life and death really could make someone break through a realm.
Having stepped straight into late Meridian Condensation, Ye Yan felt spiritual power surging within him, an unprecedented sense of strength filling his entire body.
His gaze sharpened as he looked at the four charging toward him, and he rushed straight at them.
The four had already been shocked by Ye Yan's breakthrough in battle. Now, instead of avoiding the brunt of their attack, he charged toward them, catching them off guard.
Apart from their boss in the Qi Sea Realm, all of them were sent flying.
After steadying himself, their boss glared bitterly at Ye Yan. "Brat, I admit I underestimated you. But so what if you broke through? You'll never understand the might of the Qi Sea Realm!"
With that, powerful spiritual power fluctuations burst from his body. "Go all out! Finish this quickly!"
The other three understood. If they dragged this out any longer, people from the Ye Lineage would arrive.
They held nothing back and attacked with all their strength.
At once, fierce winds rose and Spiritual Qi churned.
Facing the four men's ferocious advance, Ye Yan's expression grew grave. He dared not be careless.
Even as a genius capable of fighting above his level, facing four opponents whose cultivation realms were all higher than his own-including one expert in the Qi Sea Realm-filled him with a deep sense of danger.
I'll stake it all!
He unleashed his full strength, clashing head-on with the four.
They traded blows, fists and feet colliding, martial techniques flying, flesh battered into bloody ruin.
After a long time, Ye Yan finally succumbed. His spiritual power was exhausted, even his meridians had ruptured inch by inch, and his oil had run dry, his lamp burned out.
He did not even have a shred of strength left to stand.
The four assassins were also severely wounded, and the three with lower cultivation were all on the verge of death.
Only their boss could barely stand, though his entire body was covered in blood.
Looking at his three brothers lying motionless on the ground, he laughed, his laughter utterly ghastly. "Brat, I never imagined it. I never imagined you could fight so well! But you're still going to die in the end! And thanks for helping me kill those three pieces of trash. I'll take all ten thousand spirit stones!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Using his saber as a crutch, he walked toward Ye Yan step by step.
Ye Yan watched helplessly as the saber slashed toward his neck.
He closed his eyes again, awaiting the arrival of death.
But even after a long time, he felt no pain. He had not even felt the wind from the saber.
Puzzled, he opened his eyes and discovered a white-robed young man looking at him with a smile.
The assassins' boss, meanwhile, seemed to have vanished into thin air.
"You're very good!"
After vaguely hearing those words, his will finally gave out, and he lost consciousness.
The white-robed young man was none other than Ye Chen.
He had arrived as early as when the boy first encountered danger.
He had sensed the bloodline presence of the Ye Lineage, the Ye Lineage, in the boy, confirming that he belonged to a branch of the Ye Lineage.
However, he had not immediately stepped in to save him.
For one thing, the boy certainly would not die. For another, he wanted to see what the boy's character was like now.
He casually took a pill from his storage ring.
Looking at the pill in his hand, which spilled radiant light in all directions, Ye Chen frowned.
"No, its grade is too high. He definitely won't be able to withstand it if he takes this!"
Then he rummaged through his storage ring again, finally managing to find a relatively ordinary pill among a pile of pills tucked away in its nooks and crannies.
"This should be a saint-grade pill!"
"Nothing I can do. This is the lowest-grade stuff I have! Bear with it!"
Ye Chen fed the pill into Ye Yan's mouth, then helped him break down its medicinal power.
But to Ye Yan, a saint-grade pill was a super, invincibly potent tonic pill, like swallowing over a hundred million little blue pills in one go.
Just tell me that wasn't potent!
So, left with no alternative, Ye Chen had to seal away 99.9999999999% of its medicinal power, leaving him to absorb it slowly in the future.
After finishing all this, Ye Chen began grumbling inwardly.
The Sixth Ancestor is so stingy. He wouldn't even give me pills of those low grades.
At that moment, far beyond the heavens, an old man was dozing in a rocking chair.
"Achoo!"
Suddenly, he sneezed.
"That shouldn't happen! Is that brat missing me already?"
Unable to figure it out, he rubbed the bald patch atop his head, rolled over, and went back to sleep.