As an old Chinese saying goes, "fifteen-minute practice every morning saves ten years of cultivation."

The morning was the best time for cultivation.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

From an open beach of Yinsha River, which was 500 meters away from Chiyun City, there were bursts of flapping sound. The sky was just becoming bright.

The surging Yinsha River looked like a moving python, entrenched on the east of Chiyun City. The rolling river was covered with fog, like the swinging back of the python.

On the beach, a topless boy was using a fist-thick iron bar to slap his shanks, thighs, waist and abdomen, arms, wrists, shoulders, and lastly, the top of his head.

The boy was about 15 years old. With an adult-like figure, he was strong and tall. His body was full of bruises. His skin was dark, dry, and peeled off. He held the bar in his right hand, beating every part of his body hard. His muscle was trembling with every beat.

Body Butt!

How dare he cultivate the famous kungfu of invincible body! If it was found out by somebody, he or she would definitely report to Castellan secretly. By then, the boy would incur a fatal disaster. That was because this kungfu was originated from Xuanwu School, the orthodox school of Immortal Taoism.

This kungfu could only be learned by those young successors selected by Xuanwu School. And they could only cultivate this kungfu in the forbidden place of the school instead of cultivating alone in the open field like the boy.

Crack! Crack! Countless violent beatings could not even make the boy blink.

Unsurprisingly, the boy's body was red and swollen from head to toe. Anyone who had beaten himself like that for thousands of times would get swollen.

However, the boy seemed to be accustomed to that. He suddenly stopped and shook his arms, wiping the sweat away from his face. He picked up the water bag and gulped the water. Staring at his body, he thought: "After so many months of studious cultivation, I could finally use the iron bar as before. It seems that thanks to the childhood hard work, my body is still strong even if my cultivation base has been destroyed. Soon, I can become a Flesh Immortal again!"

"Yun, why can’t you just give it up?"

The sound was from a tall, middle-aged man with fierce eyes who wore a yellow robe. He walked out of the woods where a thunderous sound of flood suddenly burst out.

This man was tall and strong, nearly two meters in height. He seemed to be in his early fifties. On his square face, there were several tufts of hair on the temples, which displayed a domineering power. Especially, his big hands were full of scars and were strangely red, which was rather appalling.

He was the famous Ye Yuan, the leader of the Ye Clan, who was also the father of Ye Yun. He was renowned as the 'Chisha Hand' because his kungfu of palm was powerful. In his twenties, he had slaughtered 'Eighteen Tiangang Eagles' unscathed only by his hands. After that, he was the world-famous No.1 master of Ye Clan.

Ye Yuan coldly stared at Ye Yun. The domineering atmosphere scared Ye Yun off. Looking around, Ye Yuan was softened and said, "I didn't mean to discourage you. Yun, you have learnt a lot since your childhood and know your physical condition for sure. The inner force of your Dantian

the region in the body where a person's Qi is concentrated

has been decentralized by force. If you still don't give up, not only your meridians will be damaged, but also the Qi of your body will scatter. What's more, your dantian has already ripped and could not circulate Qi and even could not cultivate anymore."

Ye Yun nodded and said, "Yes, I know. But I just can't let it go..." His eyes were filled with hope.

It was heartbroken for Ye Yuan to see his son distressed. He said sincerely, "Yun, I know what you are thinking. The cultivation is also my dream for my whole life. But sometimes we still need to face the fact."

Fact... This word sounded too heavy to accept, which made Ye Yun feel stressful and breathless. He suddenly clenched his fists. His eyes were filled with anger, "Qin Ming...Qin Clan...Damn it!"

Ye Yuan looked dignified and said, "Now the Qin Clan is a large family and possesses huge power. Our Ye Clan is no fighting match for them. As for Qin Ming...cultivating level five of Flesh Immortal at the age of sixteen, he is really a prodigy. It was my fault to be so careless at that time. I didn't expect that Qin Clan could keep their own counsel, not to say this Qin Ming."

"Qin Ming!"

Constantly hearing the name that he didn’t want to hear, Ye Yun was filled with anger. He recalled those flashbacks, especially the Xuanwu Gathering six months ago.

There were three main clans in Chiyun City. They were Yan Clan, the recognized largest clan, who controlled the city, Qin Clan who possessed huge power in the city, and lastly, Ye Clan.

Xuanwu School would recruit 10 disciples every 10 years. It was the best way to enlarge the power of the clan. Xuanwu School was the orthodox school of Immortal Taoism and the disciples there were surely superior.

As the genius recognized by Ye Clan for centuries, Ye Yun was undoubtedly on the list of the recommendation. There is no doubt for everyone that Ye Yun would become one of the disciples in Xuanwu School.

At the age of six, Ye Yun started to cultivate Body Butt. And he reached the level one of Flesh Immortal at eight. When he was ten, he successively pulled through the level two and three. Within five years, he had already reached the level four of Flesh Immortal, officially stepping cross the threshold of becoming the cultivator. The inner force was formed in his dantian. It seemed granted for such a qualified candidate to be accepted by Xuanwu School.

However, all changed in a flash.

There were three tests for the recruitment. Ye Yun passed the first two tests smoothly. The last one was a random draw. He needed to draw for a contest with another candidate. The winner would pass the test, while the loser would be weeded out.

Ye Yun's opponent was Qin Ming who was unknown to the public. Before the contest, Ye Yun thought that it was impossible for Qin to defeat him. It has been 30 years that no one could reach the level four of Flesh Immortal in the history of three clans, except for Ye Yun. He thought he was sure to win.

However, at the moment of the move, Ye Yun could not even see the rival clear and he fell down. At that time, Ye has already lost his power to hit back. What’s more, Qin hit Ye's dantian so hard that all the inner force was damaged. "Crack!" Ye's dantian split. But Qin seemed unwilling to stop. He meant to disable Ye by hitting Ye's dantian and making him not capable of cultivating forever. At that moment, Ye Yun felt overwhelmingly hopeless. Fortunately, Ye Yuan spared no effort to bail him out.

With destroyed cultivation base and disabled dantian, the genius Ye Yun fell from heaven to hell. All he felt was spite. Instead of praise, jealousy and flattery, all he heard was scoff. Even his father Ye Yuan was implicated.

Later, Ye Yun heard that Qin Ming was the real genius. He was nothing compared with Qin.

Qin reached the level four of Flesh Immortal at the age of twelve, and five at sixteen. He was the first talent who broke the level five at sixteen for hundreds of years in the history of three clans.

Qin Clan... Qin Ming...

Sixteen... Level five... What a dazzling achievement!

"Yun, it's not your fault. Well, tomorrow is your coming-of-age ceremony. According to the rule of our clan, we need to clean up our ancestral temple and kowtow for the whole night, worshiping and awing our ancestors. These are important traditions. After that, I will arrange some work for you. From then on, you need to pay attention to the affairs of our clan."

After that, Ye Yuan walked away. His tall figure disappeared in the deep of the woods.

"Everything has changed. Father doesn't care about me as much as he used to... He once placed all his hope on me. But I... I used to be able to reach the level four of Flesh Immortal. I can do it now. I will definitely let the world look at me with new eyes!" Staring at the quiet woods firmly, Ye Yun was absorbed in meditation. He was the kind of stubborn man who would never give up.

After a random wash of his body, he dressed up and left the bank of Yinsha River.

Chiyun City, one of the numerous cities of Baiyu Dynasty, was a borderland city that could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people. It was located on the northern border of the dynasty.

Chengbei Area, the northern part of the city, had the smallest population and worst economy. Ye Clan was the largest clan there, controlling almost all the shops and stud-farms in Chengbei Area.

Shengzu Court, an old courtyard with a history of nearly a thousand years, was the holy place where Ye Clan worshiped their ancestors.

With grey tiles and red bricks, the court was covered with lush trees, surrounded by tall walls. Two mighty stone lions were placed at the gate. The whole court looked simple but majestic. However, the stone lions were full of lichen and even had fissures. It seemed that they were seldom cleaned up.

The pitch-black iron gate was closed but unlocked. Everyone in this area knew that here was the private place of Ye Clan. The person who dared to break in would expect nothing but death.

The bluestone steps were covered with fallen leaves. The cobweb covered the door plank and the gap, which showed that it had been a long time since they were cleaned up.

Whirr!

Suddenly, a gust of strong wind swept the fallen leaves. Ye Yun trudged to the gate and looked around with no other expressions. He slightly pushed the creaking door and entered.

Shengzu Court was not unfamiliar to Ye Yun. He had been there several times. When he walked into the main yard, he saw a court in a ruin with withered plants, dilapidated houses and fallen leaves all over the ground.

Ye Yun passed through two yards and entered a grand scarlet palace. There was a brown plaque inscribed "Shengzu Hall" on the beam. The door was open. Incense burner tables could easily be seen from outside. On the table, there were full of memorial tablets for ancestors. Behind the tables, there were statues of sculptures which were estimated one ruler in height

a Chinese unit equals to 33.3 cm

, as vivid as life.

After roughly walking around, Ye Yun started to clean up the cobwebs and dust from attics to corridors and eaves. And then he replaced the plants, stone tables and desks. Finally, he swept up leaves in the yards.

After the clean-up work, it had been afternoon. Ye Yun got a bite to eat and swept the front gate again. He also mopped up the stone lions and gate clean. And he also polished the corridors, windows, beams and pillars, and also the stockade. When he finished these, it was already dusk.

When Ye Yun entered the Shengzu Hall, sweating heavily, the first thing he did was to kowtow three times. Next, he put the memorial tablets in order and carefully cleaned every sculpture. After clearing away the main hall, he came to the back hall. All he could see were a mess. Tables and desks were piled up casually and there were even plants filled with fallen leaves. It seemed that someone heaped them up on purpose.

"How could such a holy place turn into such a wasteyard! Worshiping ancestors? Everything is just lip services!"

Ye Yun was really angry that such a holy place was ruined.

He muttered a curse and moved away those heavy things. After clearing up mountainous wastes, he finally emptied the back hall. However, Ye Yun felt depressed about an accumbent sculpture in the corner which had the same size as a real person.

Ye Yun gasped in shock. Usually, he could lift up about 100 kg. But he never tried such a heavy thing.

"Ah!"

Ye Yun squatted and gave a loud shout, lifting the stone sculpture up slowly with both hands. Blue veins stood up on his whole body with an exploding tendency. After taking several deep breaths, the stone sculpture was finally set right. The sculpture was one head higher than Ye Yun, but as tall as Ye Yuan.

"I can hardly breathe just now. My whole meridians, muscles and bones are still feeble now, especially the fissures in my dantian. At this rate, the remaining Qi in my body will become ashes..." With a tired expression, Ye Yun felt his arms and shanks trembling slightly. After a short break, he began wiping the sculpture.

Being abandoned in the sundries, the stone sculpture was covered with dust. It took him three times to wipe it clean. Then, a grey sculpture was unfolded in front of him.

The sculpture looked like a man in his forties with a head of soft long hair. This man was wearing a robe, hands at the back like a scholar. He was staring into space stonily. The eyes seemed to see through the secular world, giving people the impression that he saw something strange.

At that moment, Ye Yun was completely attracted by the sculpture.

But the sculpture was nothing but a normal stone. The material was also common among all kinds of rock instead of precious jade. The sculpture didn't have any weapons, which meant that he was not a cultivator.

Somehow, a sense of strange awe fell on Ye Yun. Although it was unknown, it must be one of the ancestors of Ye Clan as it was placed in the ancestral hall. Staring at the nameless stone sculpture with awe, Ye Yun was fascinated by it.

Suddenly, the sculpture moved with a hum sound. He seemed to feel the deep respect of Ye Yun and his eyes were shining with a green light. The light then transformed into smoke, hovering above Ye Yun. The scene was so strange that it seemed like a master passing on his cultivation methods to his disciple.

However, Ye Yun didn't notice these at all.

Crack!

The eyeballs of the stone sculpture fractured under the green light and fell off. At the same time, a divine white light was shot up from the hollow eyes. Then the eyeballs started to transform in the air. The stone shell dropped layer by layer, leaving the fractions on the ground. Finally, there were only two drops of silver liquid floating in the air, like tears.

"What?"

Ye Yun was suddenly alert. He thought he broke something before he looked up and found the two silver tears.