"Dou Qi, First Stage!"
The announcement boomed from within the compound, sharp and clear.
"Xiao Yan, Dou Qi Strength: First Stage! Rank: Low!"
A wave of excited chatter immediately followed, a commotion so loud it easily spilled over the high stone walls. Even from the outside, one could feel the electric shock of astonishment that had seized the Xiao Clan. It was easy to imagine the scene within—a mixture of awe, envy, and pride directed at the clan's newest prodigy.
But their elation was a world away from his own. To Chen Guan, huddled against the outer wall, it was just noise.
This was the Xiao Clan's moment of happiness. It had nothing to do with him.
He pulled a stale, dense bun from the folds of his thin robes. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to chew and swallow. The dry, coarse texture scraped his throat, but it was sustenance. It was the only thing standing between him and starvation in this world that felt simultaneously familiar and terrifyingly alien.
Whenever his thoughts drifted back to his old life, a bitter irony settled in his heart. Only now did he truly understand the meaning of proverbs about the unpredictable storms of life and the fickle nature of fortune.
That's right. Chen Guan was not from the Dou Qi Continent.
Two months ago, a simple, accidental fall had plunged him into this world. He had arrived not as himself, but as a scrawny, helpless four-year-old.
Unlike the protagonists in the novels he used to read, his transmigration came with no golden finger, no heaven-sent system to guide him. His only companions were the endless disdain and bullying from others, and the single greatest obstacle: the language barrier.
A four-year-old boy with no strength, no background, and no way to communicate—one could only imagine the torment of his last two months. From a bewildered lunatic in the eyes of others to the silent, grim child he was now, his entire world had shrunk to a single, desperate thought: finding his next meal. This wasn't living. It was surviving.
Two months in such an unforgiving environment was more than enough to change a person.
Amazingly, Chen Guan, who had never managed to pass a foreign language class in his previous life, had forced himself to adapt. By listening intently, observing everything, and piecing together context clues, he could now understand some of the common words and phrases of the Dou Qi Continent. It was a monumental improvement.
It was through this hard-won knowledge that he first learned of his location—a legendary starting point for a story he knew all too well.
The Jia Ma Empire. Wu Tan City.
After that realization, he had made his way to the outskirts of the Xiao Clan estate. Compared to the other major families in the city, the Gale Clan and the Auba Clan, the atmosphere here was marginally better. Instead of being beaten three times a day, it was now only once every three days.
As for joining the Xiao Clan? An impossible dream. They were a powerful clan, not a charity, and had no reason to take in a homeless waif.
Half a month ago, gripped by the dizzying weakness that came after two days without food, he had briefly considered a desperate plan: find Xiao Yan and appeal to him as a fellow transmigrator. But when he saw the boy from a distance, radiating an aura of proud, youthful arrogance, he abandoned the idea. This Xiao Yan had yet to face the trial that would forge his character. For now, he was just a talented, spoiled child.
Leaning against the cool stone of the compound wall, Chen Guan let his thoughts drift to the future.
He could communicate now, slowly integrating into this world. It was time to start striving for something more. Two months of scraping by had ignited a ferocious hunger within him—a desperate craving to grow stronger.
He needed power.
Taking a deep breath to suppress the bitterness in his heart, he cleared his mind and focused. The grand opportunities he knew about were still too far out of reach. His most immediate problem was far more fundamental: he hadn't even begun to cultivate. He needed a Qi Method, a guide to teach him how to sense the Dou Qi in the air and take that first crucial step.
Even a low-grade Yellow Rank method would be enough. As long as he could start, there was hope.
But for an 'orphan' on the Dou Qi Continent with no background, no connections, no strength, and not a single gold coin to his name, obtaining a cultivation method was a near-impossible task.
Should he try to join the Xiao Clan? Or another power? He had already considered and dismissed those ideas. He had nothing to offer, and they had no reason to accept him. He'd spent the entire day turning over countless plans, even contemplating targeting lone, weak mercenaries. But every path seemed fraught with impossibly high risk. He could only suppress his impatience, continue to blend in, and wait for an opportunity.
Late into the night, a bitter wind sliced through his thin clothes, waking him with a shiver. He wrapped his arms around himself, preparing to find a corner more sheltered from the elements to get back to sleep.
But as he moved, he froze.
A foreign presence… an idea… bloomed in the recesses of his mind. It wasn't a thought he had created. It was… a letter.
No. To be precise, it was a suicide note.
A suicide note written by his future self, in the moments before his death.
Within it was a brutal, concise summary of a life cut short.
"My name is Chen Guan. I am a mercenary, a six-star Dou Zhe, and I have just turned twenty. I took a mission with my team to find medicinal herbs for an employer in the Magical Beast Mountain Range. We were fools. We ran into a Third-Rank Magical Beast. I am grievously wounded… I don't think I'm going to make it."
"I can feel my life force draining away. As it fades, the past flashes before my eyes."
"I am not from the Dou Qi Continent. This is the greatest secret I have ever kept. I would have taken it to my grave."
"I have so many regrets. I think back to when I was four, desperate to cultivate. It took half a month before I found my chance. I murdered a gravely injured mercenary under the cover of darkness. I had waited for that moment for so long. I even recognized him—he was one of the men who had beaten me before. Yet, when I stood over his bed, I hesitated. My hand trembled. But the burning desire to survive, to become strong… it won. I killed him."
"It was the first time I'd taken a life. I vomited for two days straight. From his body, I found a few gold coins and a low-level Yellow Rank method: the 'Fire Suppression Art.' No valuable herbs, of course. He had used them all."
"Following the insights in the Qi Method, it took me only two days to sense the Dou Qi in the world around me. It was then I realized my talent for cultivation was actually quite good. And as luck would have it, my attribute is fire."
"Half a year later, back in Wu Tan City, I stumbled upon a true powerhouse one night. An old man who could form wings from his Dou Qi. There are only a handful of experts like that in the entire Jia Ma Empire."
"Curiosity got the better of me, and I followed him. He discovered me, of course, and gave me a scolding, but I learned his identity: Jia Xing Tian, of the Jia Ma Empire's imperial family. He had come to Wu Tan City in secret when Gu Xun'er first arrived at the Xiao Clan. He even took a few homeless children with him to train for the royal family. He was passing through again because of Xiao Yan's growing fame and decided to select a few more."
"He told me something I couldn't believe. He said that when he first came, I was one of the children he had considered. But I had foolishly eaten a poisonous herb while trying to escape a beast in the mountains. He believed it had destroyed my potential, so he gave up on me. I remembered that poisonous grass… I found it in a cave, cornered by a beast. I thought it was a fortunate encounter. How laughable."
"If only I had been more patient. I could have been taken in by the royal family. Even as a tool, it would have been a better fate than this."
"Three years passed. My fellow transmigrator, Xiao Yan, lost his Dou Qi. The genius had fallen. When I heard the mercenaries in Wu Tan City talking about it, I wasn't surprised, only wistful. The plot was finally beginning."
"I know about so many opportunities. I tried to use that knowledge once, to trade information for resources. I was cheated and nearly killed. That taught me the ultimate lesson: without strength, knowledge is a liability. You cannot covet things that are beyond your power to protect."
"At fourteen, I became a Dou Zhe. It was the result of my own blood and sweat. Other mercenaries called me a genius. I would just smile, but my heart was filled with bitterness. I knew my talent was good, but it was being wasted. With better resources, a stronger Qi Method, a real guide… I could have achieved so much more."
"A year after that, I went to the Xiao Clan to find work, thinking I could ride Xiao Yan's coattails in the future. But the traces left from that poisonous herb were still obvious. My potential was visibly damaged. The offer they made me was unsatisfactory, so I declined."
"As for the other families, or the Misty Cloud Sect in the capital… I had no interest. I resolved to walk my own path."
"Sixteen years I have lived alone on this continent, never truly belonging. And now, there is no one left to even bury my body. How pathetic."
"If you are reading this, stranger, then meeting like this must be fate. If there is still time, take my sincere advice: go and cling to Xiao Yan's leg. He is the man who will one day become the Flame Emperor. Everything is for the sake of becoming stronger. There is no shame in it. Haha…"
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