Shadow Ming fell quiet, watching from within. He sensed it—the way Xiao Wei was burning his pain away, bit by bit. Not to grow stronger… but to erase something deeper. A wound carved not in flesh, but in the soul and heart.
The next day, Xiao Wei rose again at dawn.
And once again, he walked into the training hall and said the same words.
"Old Ti, would you fight me without holding back?"Xiao Wei asked.
Old Ti, with a grim nod, obliged.
And just like before, Xiao Wei launched himself into the battle with everything he had. And just like before, he failed to land even a single blow. One punch—just one—was enough to bring him down.
He coughed blood.
He bowed.
He thanked Old Ti.
And he left.
This pattern repeated itself the next day.
And the day after.
And the day after that.
Every time, the clan members watched in silence, their amusement from the early days fading into quiet respect. They began to see it—how Xiao Wei never gave up, never made excuses, and never once asked for mercy.
Every day, Xiao Wei would return to his room, bruised and bloodied. And every day, he would sit by the window and stare at the sky, watching the stars without expression.
Days turned into weeks.
Weeks turned into a month.
And each morning, Xiao Wei stood and faced Old Ti.
Each morning, he lost.
But each time, he rose again.
Shadow Ming, too, grew silent. At first, he tried to stop him. He shouted, warned, even pleaded. But eventually, he understood. This wasn't self-destruction—it was rebirth. Xiao Wei wasn't training his body—he was tempering his will, his spirit, his broken soul.
He was carving out the pain Mira had left in him and replacing it with something else.
A calm resolve.
By the end of the month, his eyes were no longer clouded by anger and pain, nor were his hands trembling with doubt.
Though he still lost to Old Ti each day, the defeats no longer broke him.
He simply stood, bowed, and left.
And when he returned to his window each day, there was a stillness in his soul.
The kind that only comes after a long storm has finally passed.
In the depths of the Dan Clan estate, within the dimly-lit secret room lined with glowing runes and ancient talismans, Dan Mei's soul floated silently, her translucent form flickering with faint light. Her ancient eyes stared into the void, contemplative.
"Has that boy done anything else in this one month?"Dan Mei soul asked, her voice echoing faintly like a breeze.
Lady Li stood respectfully at the side.
"No, Ancestor. For an entire month, he has done nothing but challenge Old Ti each morning. After being defeated, he returns to his room and... simply stares at the sky. He doesn't Cultivate, doesn't speak to anyone. Just fights and then sits there."Lady Li replied.
"Very well. You may leave."Dan Mei's soul said and sighed.
Lady Li bowed deeply and exited the room, the stone door slowly sealing behind her with a gentle hum as the array formation reactivated.
---
In the guest room assigned to Xiao Wei, the atmosphere was still. The scent of medicine and faint blood lingered in the air, despite regular cleaning. His eyes, though open, were lifeless as they gazed beyond the open window into the vast expanse above.
The sky was full of brightness, but his gaze wasn't searching for light—it was trapped in the memory of darkness.
Within his mind, Shadow Ming's voice broke the silence.
'Brat, this is the last time I'm going to say it. Stop tormenting yourself over what's already happened. You can't change the past. But the future? That's still yours to write. You should give others a chance. Not everyone will betray you.'
Xiao Wei didn't respond. His face remained emotionless, but deep within, a storm churned.
An hour passed in silence.
Finally, he stirred.
Slowly, he drew his legs into a lotus position and sat on the floor. His fingers tightened on his knees as he closed his eyes. But instead of tranquility, his thoughts spiraled inward, dragging him into the abyss of memory.
Mira.
Her smile. Her voice. Her betrayal.
Her dagger plunging into his heart, her words cold and twisted.
"Did you really think I would love someone like you"
His body trembled. His breath grew ragged. His soul quivered under the pressure of unhealed wounds.
Above the Dan Clan, the sky abruptly changed.
Dark clouds surged over Kin City without warning. The morning sun vanished behind an unnatural storm. In moments, the entire city was blanketed in shadows. Thunder roared, wild and unrestrained, shaking buildings and rattling windows.
Cultivators across the city looked up in alarm.
Within the Dan Clan, elders burst from their rooms, eyes locked on the skies.
"What's going on?! This storm appeared out of nowhere!"
Lightning arced through the heavens like dragons made of light.
Inside the guest room, Xiao Wei's aura surged uncontrollably. His body was trembling violently as if something inside him had snapped. The emotional storm within had breached the boundary between heart and soul.
His expression contorted—anger, sorrow, grief, and agony all twisted together on his face. His clenched fists drew blood from his palms.
And then—
CRACK!
A deafening bolt of thunder struck down from the heavens, its power terrifying and raw.
It fell directly onto the Dan Clan guest room.
The explosion shook the entire estate. Dan Clan members rushed toward the location, expecting ruin. Smoke and energy billowed from the area.
When they arrived, they found the room destroyed—walls cracked, furniture burned to ash, the roof torn apart. And in the center of the wreckage was Xiao Wei, sitting unconscious.
But he wasn't injured.
There wasn't a single burn or wound on his body.
At the same moment, deep within the heart of the Dan Clan's secret chamber, Dan Mei's soul floated in silent anticipation. Her ethereal form trembled faintly, not out of fear, but from the profound tension gripping her very soul. She gazed upward toward the ceiling as she can see the darkened sky that roared with heavenly might, its ominous clouds now swirling faster than ever.
"Boy... If you survive this tribulation, then no one can stop you from becoming an Immortal."Dan Mei soul whispered softly, her voice like a thin breeze brushing over ancient stone.
Above, lightning continued to crack and boom across the heavens. The sky above Kin City was no longer the same calm azure, but a tempestuous battlefield of celestial will. Thunder growled like an ancient beast, and every Cultivator in the city looked up in awe and dread.
Meanwhile, inside the guest room of the Dan Clan, Xiao Wei's body remained still, sitting in a lotus position at the very center of the room. His robes fluttered from the immense pressure bearing down from the skies, but his body showed no sign of injury despite the heavenly thunder that had struck him directly.
Within his mind, however, a different storm raged.
Xiao Wei's consciousness drifted in a cold, damp dungeon, a place etched into the core of his soul. This was the site of his death, the crucible that burned away the illusions of trust and love. Shadows flickered across the stone walls, whispering old traumas. Before him stood two figures—Mira and Kami.
Mira's expression was filled with scorn. Her eyes, once soft and bright, now held contempt like sharpened blades.
"You are nothing but a loser"Mira spat, stepping closer.
Kami smirked with arrogance.
"Mira is mine. Everything that was once yours is mine now. You're just a pathetic shadow of the past."Kami growled.
Their voices echoed through the dungeon, twisted by the walls until they became a chorus of mockery. They walked toward him, daggers of hate and betrayal forming in their hands. The blades shimmered with cruel light, reflections of his deepest pain.
Xiao Wei looked at them—but there was no rage in his gaze, no flicker of vengeance. He was calm. Too calm.
He simply closed his eyes.
He stood still, utterly unmoved, as if their words were but a breeze against a mountain. The mockery, the betrayal, the venom of their hatred no longer chained him. His pain had been accepted, his sorrow understood. The wounds were no longer fresh, only scars.
Then, as both Mira and Kami lunged at him with their daggers, Xiao Wei's eyes snapped open.
The pupils within them glowed faintly, like twin moons reflecting the stillness of a lake.
His body flowed like water, graceful and ungraspable. He slipped between their attacks using the Water Flow Steps technique, his feet gliding across the dungeon floor like mist. Their blades cut through air alone.
Xiao Wei turned to face them, his expression unreadable.
"You are nothing but frogs in a well. The world is vast, infinite. I will become someone that your petty souls could never even hope to reach."Xiao Wei said, his voice quiet but thunderous in impact.
With a flash of power, Xiao Wei raised his both hands, using the Tiger Claw technique. Both of his arms lashed forward in unison, sharp claws tearing through the illusions of Mira and Kami.