Just as he was thinking, the sound of punching suddenly ca from ahead.
Lu Fengmian stopped in his tracks, the corners of his lips lifting slightly.
“He’s there.”
He lightened his steps and followed the sound.
Passing through several old trees, that familiar figure once again entered his sight.
Xiao Jin was still wearing that faded outfit, his forehead drenched in sweat.
He was striking fiercely at an old tree before him, punch after punch, each blow landing on the exact sa spot on the trunk.
The tree had already been beaten into collapse.
Lu Fengmian stood behind a large tree, not in a hurry to reveal himself.
A thought flickered through his mind, and a layer of golden light welled up in the depths of his eyes.
The True Insight Spiritual Eyes Technique.
The scene before him suddenly changed.
In his vision, the ordinary tree trunks and branches were now tinged with faint strands of spiritual energy.
It was the spiritual qi that connected heaven and earth—omnipresent, yet formless and invisible.
He looked toward Xiao Jin.
Spiritual energy indeed flowed around the youth’s body, but compared to an average cultivator, it was pitifully weak.
Logically speaking, for a fifth-stage Qi Refinent cultivator, the spiritual energy within his body should not have been so scarce.
That spiritual qi should have surged through his ridians, mobilized with each punch.
But Xiao Jin’s situation was different.
Lu Fengmian saw that the tiny strands of spiritual qi entering his body from outside were absorbed by sothing the mont they entered.
Lu Fengmian narrowed his eyes.
The Primordial Myriad Manifestations ridians.
It truly lived up to its reputation.
Those ridians had now beco a bottomless abyss, devouring every bit of spiritual qi Xiao Jin obtained through cultivation.
No wonder he trained so desperately, yet his cultivation remained only at the fifth stage of Qi Refinent.
Everything had been swallowed.
In the short ti Lu Fengmian observed, Xiao Jin had already completed a full sequence of punches.
He withdrew his stance and stood still, closing his eyes to sense for a mont.
Then, his shoulders slumped.
Xiao Jin opened his eyes and lowered his head to look at his hands.
They were covered in calluses, the knuckles rubbed raw and red.
He stared at them for a while before lifting his head to gaze at the sky above, where only fragnted patches of light remained through the canopy of branches and leaves.
Lu Fengmian stood behind the tree like that, several zhang away from the youth, watching his profile.
There was no expression on that face.
But so things could be seen even without expression.
Xiao Jin thought of certain matters.
The Xiao family.
It had once been a renowned clan.
When he was young, he had heard elders speak of how, in those days, guests had co and gone endlessly from the Xiao residence, all people of status and reputation.
And then?
There had been no “then.”
More powerful figures had risen. More influential families had erged.
And his Xiao family had been like a leaking ship, sinking bit by bit.
By the ti it reached his generation, no one rembered what the Xiao family had once been.
He clearly rembered what happened on the day the engagent was annulled.
The young lady of the Bai family had stood before him, a group of elders and guards behind her.
The way she looked at him was as if she were looking at a joke.
“Xiao Jin, the engagent between you and ends here.”
There had been no explanation, no apology, not even a polite remark.
She had simply co to inform him.
What had he wanted to say?
He had forgotten.
He only rembered standing there, body stiff, unable to utter a single word.
Later, he had pleaded bitterly with the elders, delivered letters of recomndation, and gone through great trouble before finally entering Lingyun Sect.
He had thought that once he ca here, everything would be different.
But reality was not so.
He was still that Xiao Jin at the fifth stage of Qi Refinent.
He looked around at the senior brothers and senior sisters within the sect—each more dazzling than the last.
They walked past him, their gazes not lingering on him for even a mont.
Who was he?
He was nothing.
Xiao Jin lowered his head and looked at his callused hands again.
After practicing for so long, what was the use?
Still stuck at the fifth stage of Qi Refinent.
Still unable to change anything.
An I truly that useless?
He stood there without moving.
The wind swept through the forest, stirring his robe and knocking down a few withered leaves.
Lu Fengmian watched the silent figure.
According to the usual storyline, after suffering suppression, the youth’s ridians would awaken by accident, and he would begin his road of counterattack.
It was the most common trope in storybooks—a “cool” novel opening countless readers loved to talk about.
But looking back at it now, Lu Fengmian suddenly felt sowhat unsettled.
What storybooks described was satisfaction. But that pain—the despair of striving day after day with no progress, the grit of clenching one’s teeth after public humiliation—was real.
One could not simply pretend it had never happened just because it paved the way for future success.
Every minute and second of tornt during that ti had to be borne by this young man alone.
Lu Fengmian sighed softly.
Since he had entered Lingyun Sect, then as a senior brother, he had the responsibility to help him.
He raised a hand to straighten his robe, then slowly stepped out from behind the tree.
The cloud-patterned fan in his hand swayed gently, his moon-white robe particularly striking beneath the mottled tree shadows.
Xiao Jin heard the movent and abruptly turned around.
Seeing who it was, he froze for a mont, then subconsciously lifted a hand to wipe his face.
The dejection from earlier still lingered on his features; his eyes were even slightly red.
He quickly stood straight and lowered his head in salute.
“Senior Brother.”
His voice was low and hoarse, tinged with raspiness.
After that day, Xiao Jin had gone back and asked around.
There had been no real need to inquire; moon-white brocade robes, gentle as jade, holding a folding fan—no matter which corner of the sect one stood in, soone would eagerly say: that was Lu Fengmian of Luo Xia Peak, the Sect Master’s first disciple, the Perfect Senior Brother.
He had heard a mountain of rumors.
Forming a Golden Core within three years. Contracting with an ancient dragon.
Countless stories of how he cared for his junior brothers and sisters, how he managed sect affairs in perfect order, even personally supervising the dining hall als.
Xiao Jin had listened, and in his mind there had been only one thought:
Graceful and noble, of distinguished origin, gifted beyond asure.
Completely different from himself.
He, Xiao Jin, was rely the fallen descendant of a declining family. A disciple whose engagent had been annulled. A waste who had trained for so long yet still lingered at the fifth stage of Qi Refinent.
He kept his head lowered, not daring to look at the person before him.
At that mont, a hand reached out and supported his arm.
“Junior Brother, there is no need to stand on ceremony.”
The voice was like wind brushing through the forest.
Xiao Jin was gently helped upright and, lifting his head, t Lu Fengmian’s warm gaze.
“This place is quite secluded,” Lu Fengmian withdrew his hand, lightly waving his fan as he looked around. “I didn’t expect to encounter you again.”
Xiao Jin opened his mouth, not knowing what to say for a mont.
All the rumors he had previously heard echoed repeatedly in his mind.
Approachable.
Humble and courteous.
He had not truly believed them before.
In his view, those geniuses were all arrogant; when looking at ordinary disciples like them, their gazes would not linger even briefly.
Words like “approachable” were mostly spread to maintain a good reputation.
But now, this person stood before him—and had even personally supported him just now.
Xiao Jin stood stunned for quite a while before rembering he should respond.
“Last ti, I didn’t recognize you, Senior Brother,” he stamred. “Please forgive , Senior Brother.”
Lu Fengmian smiled and waved his hand. “What is there to forgive? That day I was rely passing by. It was I who disturbed your cultivation.”
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