Rock Chief's Memories

Master Xian sensed that Master Lan's aura had faded away. Recalling how Master Lan had never shown himself since returning to the Sub-Institute, he guessed his senior brother had likely departed for good. There was no excessive grief, no drowning of sorrows in wine. He just silently increased his training intensity, lengthening each session so he had no time to wallow in sadness.

Dragging the giant rock, he idly glanced into the distance at a cliff wall, now reduced to a solitary fragment.

He was frail and sickly from a young age. Born a weak infant, he didn't cry, his breathing was faint, and he weighed less than a third of a normal baby. If not for his mother threatening to die and the fact he was a boy, his family would have discarded him in the wilderness to await death.

However, his family was just a poor rural household. After giving birth, his mother had to rush back to tedious chores. Overworked and poorly nourished, she had little time or energy left for breastfeeding him. His condition grew progressively worse.

It was only after a villager pointed out that the child was fading fast that his mother was allowed some respite. His father reluctantly went to the city to buy medicine and took over all the household chores and heavy labor, while his grandmother focused solely on caring for the child.

Things continued like this. Although Yan's health showed no improvement, it at least didn't deteriorate further, and he finally opened his eyes.

The villagers said the boy was tenacious and blessed, but ever since his birth, the family's circumstances had gone from bad to worse. They once could afford wine and meat during festivals, but now they couldn't even fill a bowl with coarse grains, let alone enjoy wine or meat.

Father Qi Yan was a man who enjoyed life's pleasures and couldn't stand a burden ruining his good days. But since it was his own flesh and blood, he didn't voice much complaint.

Until one day, during some festival, Father Qi Yan took a money pouch he'd acquired from who-knows-where to the city to buy wine. He returned at dusk with a dark scowl, beating Mother Qi Yan without a word of explanation while roaring that she had stolen his money...

Then he shoved Mother Qi Yan aside and stormed toward Yan. Unable to stop him, his mother scooped up the boy and rushed toward the river. Seeing the water draw near while his mother clung to him desperately, Father Qi Yan simply hurled Yan into the river from several meters away, ignoring the child's frantic wails.

By chance, Cisheng, who was out on a training journey, happened upon them and rescued the boy.

Back then, Cisheng hadn't yet met Cui Yuan, but Qi Yan was already following him, and the Sub-Institute stood as a small sect.

Cisheng had no experience raising a child. Though earnest, he was always clumsy. Fortunately, Qi Yan had served in the palace and seen how servants cared for children, so he mimicked their ways to look after Yan. Together with Cisheng, he prepared medicinal concoctions, sought out Cui Yuan and Yan Kui to cook meals for the boy, meticulously tailoring ingredients and seasonings to his nutritional deficiencies.

Though still far behind other children his age, Yan's condition was much better than before. He now had the strength to crawl and babble. The two senior brothers were quite relieved.

He remembered there was also a third senior sister back then, named Qi Yan. She was often away, but whenever she had time, she'd return to care for him. She was also the one who always went to the city to fetch goat's milk for him.

Yan's physical constitution was vastly inferior to a normal person's, and even more so in cultivation. At the peak of his spiritual sensitivity, he still couldn't perceive the world's spiritual energy. Only when placed directly on the sect's spirit-gathering array could he faintly sense a wisp of aura. Thus, Cisheng and the others gave up on having him cultivate. After all, supporting one more person wasn't a problem for them.

Later, while out on a mission, Qi Yan heard of a celestial medicine that could forcibly bestow a spiritual root upon a mortal utterly devoid of spiritual talent. Though the quality was mediocre, it would at least allow them to cultivate. She began searching for it intentionally, finally discovering it existed within a certain secret realm. However, this medicine lacked the divine power described in ancient texts; it seemed to require some kind of price.

Qi Yan never returned. All that was sent back was a single dose of the prepared medicine, with a message that it could help Yan recover his cultivation.

Cisheng and Qi Yan could guess what had happened, but to Yan, they simply said their junior sister was away on a training journey and was busy, which was why she hadn't returned for so long.

Now possessing a spiritual aptitude, Yan could begin his cultivation. His sole purpose for stepping onto the immortal path was to grow stronger and protect the people he cared about.

Even with the medicine, his talent was extremely poor. Normal cultivation would undoubtedly be difficult, so he chose the path of body refinement. He spent days and nights soaking in the Divine Pool, and the moment he got out, he'd go into the mountains for actual combat, always returning covered in wounds.

With guidance from Cisheng and the others, Yan's cultivation never suffered from an unstable foundation. He overcame obstacle after obstacle, and his cultivation level didn't advance too slowly.

Once, when Yan was practicing his punches, no matter how he adjusted his force, there was always one corner of the rock he struck that remained untouched. Seeing this, Cisheng took him to a waterfall. The waterfall was immense, its force enough to blot out the sky, but next to it was a small gap where a thin, barely noticeable trickle flowed.

Cisheng didn't say anything directly. Instead, he cut off the main flow, allowing water to pass only through that small gap. He then pointed out that the overall force hadn't diminished much. Moreover, after flowing from the gap, the water followed the cliff face to the original main channel before cascading down. The entire waterfall became a bit wider, yet its thunderous roar remained unchanged.

Greatly inspired, Yan Kui succeeded after several attempts. Though his punches landed a hairsbreadth shallower than before, the former gap in his technique was gone.

He continued to train relentlessly in the mountains. After gaining some practical experience, he occasionally discussed the Dao with fellow disciples. However, most of his time was still spent on body refinement. When the Divine Pool no longer benefited him, he sought other ways to temper his physique. During this period, he often took unconventional and risky paths, heedless of his own safety. With Cisheng and E Ye keeping an eye on him, though, nothing too serious ever happened.

Eventually, when even these methods proved useless, he took up artifact refining. At first, outsiders didn't understand his goal—until they saw a bolt of heavenly lightning strike him, turning him into a charred corpse. Only then did they realize what he was doing, and they strictly forbade him from ever refining artifacts privately again.

Since this wasn't a sustainable solution, and to prevent him from secretly drawing lightning tribulations and causing accidents, the old Headmaster personally communicated with heaven and earth. He restricted the lightning Yan Kui drew down each time to a controlled range, increasing its intensity with each tribulation. In this way, Yan Kui gradually gained some lightning attributes—or, one could say, he was simply electrocuted through and through. His attacks now carried numbing and shocking effects.

Once, while offering incense for his senior sister Qi Yan, Yan Kui sensed a familiar aura flash by. He reported this to Cisheng and E Ye, who also took it seriously. But after several searches, they found nothing, and the matter was temporarily set aside due to their busy schedules.

Afterwards, Yan and this batch of newcomers arrived. Yan Kui rather liked them; they were polite, eager to learn, quick to understand, and trained diligently.

During the assault on Danfeng, Yan Kui served as a vanguard, striking from the rear. But there, blocking his path, stood his senior sister Qi Yan—or rather, her body, which had been forcibly reanimated by summoning her soul back to the corpse and then forged into a puppet.

He couldn't bring himself to strike her. Beaten down, he was on the verge of death when he sensed the lingering remnant of his senior sister's soul. Through her guidance, he finally resolved the knot in his heart.

After that great battle, Yan Kui also chose to go into seclusion to hone his combat skills. After a thorough warm-up, he swallowed a previously prepared Illusion Pill to spar against himself, constantly searching for his own flaws. He rarely showed his face after that.