The southern border of the Eastern Desolate Continent.
In a dilapidated small courtyard of the Xiao Family in Qingyang City, a five or six-year-old girl held a bowl with two chips, her dirty little face a bit red and swollen, and her clothes were full of patches.
“Wuxie Brother, it’s time for your medicinal paste.”
The little girl pushed open the leaky, broken door with a creak, carefully carrying the medicinal paste in the bowl to the simple bed.
“Yue Yao, did they hit you again?”
Seeing the red finger marks on her face, Jun Wuxie gritted his teeth, propped his hands on the bed board, struggling to sit up, but then fell back down heavily.
“No, Yue Yao fell by accident.” The little girl’s eyes were a bit red, and she spooned a mouthful of medicinal paste to Jun Wuxie’s lips, saying sweetly, “Wuxie Brother, be good, you’ll get better after eating the medicinal paste.”
Jun Wuxie’s nose tingled, and he ate it mouthful by mouthful.
Just then, a somewhat sharp voice rang out in the courtyard.
“Jun Wuxie, Xiao Xu Brother has come to visit you, why aren’t you coming out to greet him?”
Two youths appeared in the courtyard, one standing at the door, the other strolling in, his gaze sweeping around before landing on Jun Wuxie on the bed. He slapped his forehead and said, “Sigh, how could I forget, you’re already paralyzed, a cripple for life, tsk tsk!”
“Xiao Qi, go away!” Little Yue Yao nervously blocked Xiao Qi, saying, “You bad people aren’t allowed to bully him!”
“You little wench, get lost!”
Xiao Qi pushed her away, and Little Yue Yao fell to the ground, hitting her forehead, blood gushing out.
“Yue Yao!” Jun Wuxie’s eyes instantly turned red, staring fixedly at Xiao Qi: “You damn well come at me!”
“Come at you?”
Xiao Qi looked at Jun Wuxie’s beast-like, bloodthirsty gaze, and a chill inexplicably rose in his heart.
After a slight stunned, he came back to his senses, realizing he had actually been scared by a cripple. He couldn’t help but feel annoyed and mocked, “What? Do you think you’re still the Young Lord of the Xiao Family from half a year ago, who made the same generation in Qingyang City unable to raise their heads?”
Xiao Qi sneered, stroking his chin, and said, “Don’t you know that your position as Young Lord has long been in name only? Otherwise, why would the Family cut off your allowance and let us throw you into this dilapidated backyard?”
At this moment, Xiao Xu, who was at the door, came to the bed: “Hmm, you’re really hard to kill.”
“You’re not allowed to touch Wuxie Brother!”
Little Yue Yao rushed forward recklessly, desperately hugging Xiao Xu’s leg, trying to drag him out.
“Get lost!”
Xiao Xu shook his leg, and Little Yue Yao stumbled back several steps, falling to the ground.
“Yue Yao!”
Jun Wuxie wanted to get up, but his body wouldn’t obey.
“Are you very angry?” Xiao Xu laughed heartily: “It’s good to be angry, but what can you do to us?”
“Xiao Xu! Xiao Qi!”
Jun Wuxie gritted his teeth tightly.
“Heh, your expression now is exactly like mine when I killed you half a year ago.” Xiao Xu leaned down, gazing at Jun Wuxie, whose body was trembling with anger, a smirk playing on his lips: “I’m very curious, I clearly pierced your heart at the time, yet you actually managed to survive!”
Jun Wuxie’s eyelids twitched violently, staring fixedly at Xiao Xu.
The scene from half a year ago flashed in his mind.
Outside Qingyang City, in front of the Dragon Ridge Mountain Range, he had his Mysterious Divine Meridians of Chaos dug out and his Dantian shattered by the Young Lord of the Xiao Clan from a big city, Xiao Tianming, who claimed to be a fated person.
His cousin, Xiao Xu, had even taken advantage of his misfortune, piercing his heart with a sword.
He didn’t know how he had survived; when he woke up, he was on this bed.
His father, to heal his injuries, had gone deep into the mountains to search for rare medicinal herbs, but had died under the claws of a Vicious Beast.
“Before, when you were full of vigor, did you think you were superior?” Xiao Xu’s eyes were sinister: “What right do you, someone who follows your mother’s surname, have to be the Young Lord of the Xiao Family? You’re nothing but a bastard!”
“Get lost!”
Jun Wuxie spoke coldly.
“Tsk tsk, I just love to see you angry.” Xiao Xu’s sinister look gradually turned into smugness: “I came today to tell you that I am about to completely undergo Fusion with the Fated Spiritual Vein bestowed by Lord Xiao Tianming, and become a Fated Envoy in one fell swoop!”
“Oh, by the way, in a month, the Great River Sword Sect and the Great Zhou Dynasty will hold a talent selection competition in our Qingyang City. The winner will receive a great river selection token, giving them the opportunity to join the Great River Sword Sect! If I get the selection token and then kill you, do you think the Family elders will punish me?”
“Hmm, look, look at your unwilling yet powerless expression, able to do nothing but lie paralyzed in bed in impotent rage, hahahaha!”
After Xiao Xu finished speaking, he laughed loudly and turned to leave.
“Jun Wuxie, your life won’t be long.”
Xiao Qi’s lips curled into a cold sneer, and then he also followed Xiao Xu out.
“Wuxie Brother…”
Little Yue Yao wiped away her tears, looking at Jun Wuxie worriedly.
“Yue Yao, does it hurt?”
Jun Wuxie wiped the blood from her forehead, feeling heartache and sadness.
If he had sufficient strength, he wouldn’t have had his Chaotic Bloodline taken by Xiao Tianming half a year ago, and none of the subsequent events would have happened. His father wouldn’t have died, and Little Yue Yao wouldn’t have been bullied!
“Just a little bit of pain, it’ll be fine in a couple of days. Wuxie Brother, promise Yue Yao you’ll recover well, okay? Yue Yao is going out to gather herbs for Brother.”
Little Yue Yao haphazardly wiped the bloodstains from her forehead, carefully tucked Jun Wuxie into bed, picked up the medicine bowl, and backed out, closing the door behind her.
“If Xiao Xu gets the selection token, neither Yue Yao nor I will live!”
The Great River Sword Sect, the number one Sect within the Great Zhou Kingdom, even just becoming a Named Disciple of the Great River Sword Sect, was an exalted existence in Qingyang City, truly a meteoric rise!
“I’m unwilling! But what can I do in this state?”
He tremblingly took out a Bronze key covered in rust from his embrace, his fingers unconsciously clenching tightly.
The Bronze pierced his palm, and blood soaked the rust on it.
“If it wasn’t for you back then, Xiao Tianming wouldn’t have used his eye technique to examine me, and how would he have discovered that I possessed the Mysterious Divine Meridians of Chaos!”
The bloody memories caused Jun Wuxie great pain.
He had picked it up in an ancient mine cave in the Dragon Ridge Mountain Range half a year ago, but it had brought him utter disaster!
Thinking of this, Jun Wuxie angrily threw the key in his hand towards the corner, but the Bronze key clung tightly to his hand.
The blood-soaked rust flaked off piece by piece, and a dazzling light stung his eyes, making him unable to open them.
Before he could be surprised, he felt the space around him tremble slightly.
When he opened his eyes again, the sight before him left him dumbfounded.
He had actually appeared in front of a massive ancient Bronze hall.
Mist swirled all around, with only an ancient Bronze hall standing majestically and solemnly before him, giving him a suffocating sense of oppression.
“What is this place?”
Jun Wuxie looked ahead in shock, his gaze falling on the plaque of the ancient Bronze hall, where four imposing characters were carved.
Eternal Life Shrine!
He looked closely; these were actually characters used by a prehistoric civilization.
Legends about prehistoric civilizations had circulated in the Eastern Desolate since ancient times. Jun Wuxie was quite interested in this and had studied many unofficial histories, recognizing some of the characters from that civilization.
He had originally thought that prehistoric civilizations were just legends, because only unofficial histories had been passed down, and their authenticity was difficult to verify. Yet, he never expected to see a Shrine left by a prehistoric civilization today!
Slaying the Nine Heavens to forge the Shrine!
Slaying all Dao to gain Eternal Life!
Two lines of characters were engraved on both sides of the ancient Bronze hall’s great door.
The owner of this Shrine was truly too overbearing!
Jun Wuxie took a deep breath and reached out to push the door.
At this moment, he realized that he could actually move!
He was overjoyed!
Bedridden for half a year, his life had been gloomy, worse than death, but now he saw a light, and this beam of light was right before his eyes, illuminating him, igniting hope!
The Bronze Gate remained motionless.
He tried to insert the key into the keyhole of the great door.
Rumble!
The tightly closed Shrine great door slowly opened.