The Ye family, Ning family and the Bai family live on open areas of the wide mountain range.
They are the three of the four families that dominated the wide mountain expanse outside of the city.
The Qin family are also one of the four families, but they are always shrouded in mystery, more reclusive, and hidden deep within the stone veins of their mountain range where they occupied. Unlike the Ye, Ning, or Bai, who built homes and settlements on open land, the Qin carved their dwellings directly into the hills and cliffs of the mountains, as though fusing themselves into the bones of the earth.
Their lifestyle might seem crude looking from that aspect, but they are actually so refined.
They are rarely seen in public, but when the Qin family ventured into the city, they always made it a habit of returning to their mountain side with a troop of caravans.
Apparently, they seem to be better and more successful at resources than the rest of the families.
The Ning family, closest in proximity to the Ye family, shared the same treacherous mountain range. But that mountain was far from hospitable—it was wild and dangerous: it was filled up with strange beasts ranging from normal beasts to ones with cultivation bases and had achieved certain levels of sentinels.
This had resulted from the original shallow forest of the mountain blending into the outer forests, stretching for miles, so vast that even from the city boundaries, one could access it through the eastern gates.
For the Ye family, the mountain was a backyard, they rarely go for herb picking and hunting, but only near its periphery. Venturing deeper into it was considered foolhardy.
The Ning family, in contrast, treated the mountain area as a pass-through. A small safe path carved on the side edge of the mountain. And sometimes they also come to gather herbs and do hunting at the periphery like the Ye family seldom do. Afterall, the mountain belongs to no one in particular.
Slightly further north of Ye and Ning territory lay the Bai family territory. Not long ago, tensions had flared between the Ning and Bai younger generations. In a recent skirmish, the young master of the Ning family had humiliated the younger brother of one of the Bai family's so-called "proud sons of heaven."
Though blood had not been spilled, the Bai family can only seeth with indignation and wait for the Annual Gathering Competition that comes six months from now, then the young generation can settle it out by themselves.
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Meanwhile, behind the Ye family's territory, at an inconspicuous angle where the ruins which is seldom frequented by anyone and just a little further away from the mountain, was a cave.
Inside the cave, Chu Feng stirred.
He gave a muffled cough as his eyes opened to the light of an unknown surrounding.
He found himself lying on a stone bed inside a rock cave, and the first thing he saw was a shaggy ceiling looming above him.
The rays from outside had managed to filter into the cave through the open entrance, making it slightly bright to see the inside.
Chu Feng's eyes darted around curiously.
There was practically emptiness in the cave, except for two stone beds; he was lying atop one, and beside him, was the second stone bed resting only a few meters away. The entire cave was bare, save for a single stone table nestled near the wall, atop which sat several jagged objects like shards of crystal or strange stones, and even a half-burnt stake. He guessed that it must have recently been lit as a touch to light the cave.
"Where am I?" he muttered, attempting to sit up, but he was immediately forced back down due to a sharp, searing pain that tore through his skull.
"Aaaaargh!" he cried, clutching his head pitifully in agony. His body convulsed on the stone bed as he writhed from side to side.
Hopeless,
To think when he awakened, he was instantly stricken with such unbearable pain. And worse, was that it wasn't a fleeting pain, it actually refused to go.
Sweat beaded his forehead. His breathing grew erratic. His body burned like red-hot coal, and his teeth chattered uncontrollably. Through his bulged eyes, he couldn't help but wonder…
Had he crossed to the other side?
That had to be it.
He remembered it all too vividly, just before this moment, he had been attacked right after achieving the greatest breakthrough of his life. And in an instant, that life had been ripped away.
He clearly recalled the moment a bat had cracked him from behind and fractured his skull.
He remembered he had instantly fallen, and during the time his consciousness was slipping into oblivion, he had vaguely seen a light descend from the sky, falling onto his body like glowing fireflies.
Then he knew nothing after.
But now, he thinks all judgment protocols have already been passed. Yama, the ruler of the underworld, must have weighed his deeds. Th-this unfamiliar place, this pain should be his fate and his eternal torment. He didn't doubt it for a second.
After all, he had never been a good person for as long as he remembered.
But then, it changed.
To his shock, his screams quieted. The pain in his head stopped.
He lay there, panting, slowly realizing that what he believed a moment ago might not be true. It wasn't eternal suffering. It wasn't even hell.
It seemed… it was someone else's memory clouding his mind.
He realized he had somewhat entered another body that was not his.
This body belonged to someone named Ye Feng, and this world he had just woken up to is a cultivation world.
However Ye Feng who originally owned this body was trash. Even worse is that he is a leper that was cast out of the family, abandoned. When he had left the family, he had found this remote cave where he had been living since then.
The patriarch of the Ye family, a Qi manipulator stage expert, had the power to heal him—but chose not to.
Then, the patriarch had said, "it makes no difference, even if he's cured, he'd still be useless. Let him live like that!"
Even his own parents had not objected. They had supported the patriarch's decision.
In truth, his parents had never cared for him, not even when he wasn't afflicted. Their hearts had always belonged wholly to his younger sister—Ye Xinyi.
She was the pride of the family and a genius.
She started cultivating early and had reached the first stage of Qi Refiner by the age of ten.
At the age of fourteen, Ye Xinyi had already reached the fourth stage of Qi Refiner and was accepted into a sect.
Ye Feng's memory did not tell which sect it was, but it shouldn't be less prestigious.
Not that it mattered to Chu Feng anyway.
He closed his eyes as the memories of Ye Feng settled completely within him, fusing with his own.
Opening his eyes again, he slowly raised his hands, studying them. His lips curled into a bitter smirk.
"Great," he muttered. "Out of the countless bodies in the universe, I had to reincarnate into the body of an abandoned leper with no talent whatsoever."
Why does misfortune always shadow him? Why did fate choose to mock him?
He was an embodiment of misfortune back on earth and it has somehow still mirrored into his life again in another world and another body.
The body he has now looked decayed, with rashes smeared all over the skin.
From the memory of Ye Feng it is known that he had long given up on life. He had accepted his fate and stopped caring for himself.
It had even been a long time since he had washed himself. All these made his illness fester faster.
"What a bummer," Chu Feng grumbled and pushed himself up from the stone bed.
As he stood, he strangely noticed that his state of mind felt different, far calmer than it had ever been back on Earth.
He felt a little detached: as though worldly things are no longer his desires.
Have I been affected by his memories? he wondered.
"Well... that's okay too," Chu Feng said quietly, now standing on his feet completely.
He straightened his back and to his surprise, he felt no weakness of the body. No numbness or leprosy symptoms whatsoever, instead he felt a burst of energy.
If the rashes and decayed skin hadn't been there for him to see, he would have found it difficult to believe he was in a leper's body.
He looked around the empty cave with profoundness and then clenched his fist.
"Since this body is mine now, I swear—I won't be the same useless man I was on earth. I'll work harder than ever. I'll help you crush everyone who looked down on you. And I'll take this body to a height you never dreamed possible."
But the moment he uttered those words, a sinking dread filled his chest. His expression darkened as he staggered slightly.
What's the point of these empty vows, if this body can't even cultivate?
This body has no spirit root to begin with. No channels through which Qi could be absorbed or circulated to the dantian.
In other words—he was a cripple.
"Aaargh!" Chu Feng screamed. Not from pain, but from the crushing weight of hopelessness pressing down on him.
It was the same lingering sorrow and resignation of Ye Feng who once owned the body.
Why should he be the one to always meet misfortunes?
He was a leper and cripple.
Why couldn't the world, just once, bend to his will?
The leprosy was not something that bothered him. It was something he could deal with appropriately, when given time to refine antibiotics in the future.
But the absence of spirit root in the body shattered everything.
Would he also just have to resign on the stone bed like Ye Feng?
He closed his eyes and stood still in the silence of the cave, his thoughts spinning helplessly.
Suddenly, his consciousness drifted on its own inside his body and he caught a glimpse of an orb, no... Unexpectedly, there were nine orbs, suspended in his mind. One was tiny like a speck of dust, seven were big like half the size of his thumb and the last one was bigger than the rest.
What are these?
Chu Feng instinctively turned his focus to the largest orb and moved towards it. But the moment he connected with it, an immense, crushing force exploded his consciousness and an invisible pressure threatened to tear his mind apart.
He trembled and with an effort, he broke the connection just in time. Any longer and his mind would've been wiped clean, like dust scattered in the wind.
Outside, his body trembled violently. Sweat poured down his face. His eyes fluttered open and he gasped for air.
He had barely survived.
That orb… almost destroyed him.
But what was it?
And more importantly—there wasn't just one, but nine.
His breath hitched as fear crept in. But curiosity was stronger.
What about the smallest one? he wondered aloud. It looked harmless... maybe I should start with that.
He closed his eyes once more, forcing himself to focus.
This time, he steered clear from the largest one and carefully approached the tiniest one. Surely, something so small like that shouldn't hurt him. At least he thought.
With cautiousness, he connected his mind to the smallest orb.
At first, nothing happened but just when he thought to give a relief breath, his body suddenly dropped to the ground and spasmed uncontrollably. It felt like every cell in his brain was being torn apart, restructured, and reborn in pain. The pain was doubled what he had felt when he had first woken up.
He couldn't even scream. His mouth opened, but only a choked gasp escaped. His voice was swallowed by the storm inside him.
He had no idea how long it lasted.
Eventually, when his mind could no longer endure the pain and his body could no longer contain the strain, he fainted.