The whispers followed Li Wei like a tide as he walked toward the humble quarters his family had been assigned. Disciples who had ignored him for years now stared, their eyes wide with a mixture of fear, confusion, and newfound caution. The news of Li Jun's public humiliation had spread through the clan faster than a spring wildfire.
He pushed open the door to find a scene of devastation. Two travel-worn packs lay open on the floor, half-filled with meager belongings. His mother, Meiling, was kneeling, carefully rolling a threadbare blanket, but her shoulders were shaking with silent sobs. His father, Li Kang, stood by the window, his back to the room, his posture that of a man broken by the world.
The sight was a sharper blow to Li Wei than any Li Jun could ever deliver.
"Mother. Father," he said, his voice softer now, the steel replaced by warmth.
Meiling started, turning so quickly she almost lost her balance. Her eyes, red-rimmed and puffy, widened at the sight of him—whole, unharmed, and standing with a bearing she had never seen before.
"Wei'er!" she cried, rushing forward to grasp his arms, her hands trembling as she checked him for injuries. "Where have you been? We were so worried! We thought... we thought you had..." She couldn't finish, pulling him into a tight embrace.
Li Kang turned slowly. The despair on his face was a physical weight in the room. "Son," he said, his voice rough with emotion. "When we heard the Elder's decree... and then you vanished... we thought we had lost you to despair."
Li Wei held his mother, his eyes meeting his father's over her shoulder. "You have not lost me," he said, his voice firm and clear. "And you will not be going to the Barren Hills."
A bitter smile touched Li Kang's lips. "The Elder's word is law, Wei'er. There is no choice."
"There is always a choice," Li Wei replied. He gently guided his mother to sit and stood before his father. The aura of quiet authority that had cowed Li Jun now filled the small room. "Father, Mother... believe me when I tell you that everything has changed. The heavens have finally opened a path for me."
He did not speak of bloodlines or divine bones. Such truths were too dangerous. But he let a fraction of his spiritual pressure leak out—not the crushing weight he'd used on Li Jun, but a steady, deep, and unshakable pulse of power. It was the energy of the 3rd Level of Qi Gathering, yet its quality was so profound it felt ancient.
Li Kang's eyes widened. He was a failed cultivator himself, but he could sense power. This was not the weak, flickering flame of his son's past efforts. This was a forge-fire, banked and hot. "Your cultivation... it's... solid," he breathed, disbelief warring with a hope so long suppressed it was painful to witness.
Meiling looked between them, her hands clasped under her chin. "Wei'er? Is it true?"
"It is true, Mother," Li Wei said, taking her hand. " My name will no longer be a joke. I have found my path. It will be difficult, and the clan will not make it easy. But I need you to stay. I need you to have hope. For me."
Tears, this time of relief and fierce pride, streamed down Meiling's face. Li Kang placed a hand on his son's shoulder, the gesture heavy with a renewed sense of purpose. The light was returning to his eyes.
---
Across the compound, in far more luxurious quarters, a different scene was unfolding.
Li Jun paced furiously before his older brother, Li Jin, who was lounging on a silk-covered divan, polishing a spirit sword with a look of utter boredom.
"...he didn't even lift a hand, Brother!" Li Jun raved, his face still flushed with humiliation. "It was some kind of demonic trick! A pressure... I've never felt anything like it! He must have found some forbidden artifact in the woods!"
Li Jin, who had reached the 7th Level of Qi Gathering and was the undisputed top genius of the younger generation, sighed as if the conversation was a tedious chore. "You were bested by the clan waste using a parlor trick, and you come to me whining? You shame our father's name with your weakness. So he reached the 3rd Level. So what? He is still an ant. Do not bother me with this again."
Spurned and furious, Li Jun did the only thing he could. He went to their father, Clan Head Li Tao.
He found the Clan Head in his study, reviewing ledgers. Unlike Li Jin, Li Tao did not dismiss the story. He listened intently, his fingers steepled, his expression growing grimmer with each word.
"A spiritual pressure that could suppress a 4th Level disciple without a technique?" Li Tao mused, his voice low and dangerous. "And an advance of three levels in a single night after sixteen years of stagnation?" He looked at his younger son, his eyes sharp. "You are a fool, but not a liar. This is not a simple matter."
He stood, his presence filling the room. "Forbidden artifact or hidden talent, it does not matter. Stability is the foundation of a clan. An unknown variable is a threat. This... change in Li Wei disrupts the order I have maintained."
He looked toward the door, as if he could see through the walls to where Li Wei stood with his parents.
"His parents will not be exiled. Not yet. We will watch him. We will test him. And we will discover the source of this new 'might.' If it can be controlled, it will be seized for the clan. If it cannot..." Clan Head Li Tao's eyes narrowed to cold slits. "...then it will be eradicated before this spark can become a wildfire."