161: Three-year agreement, the adventures of a useless person

“The Abandoned Land, Eastern Barren Region, Xiao Family.”

Unlike the grand epic of the Main World, with its magnificent waves and co-existence of gods and demons, in this forgotten, ‘cage-like’ lower plane, stories often unfold subtly, in a smaller and more brutal way.

The Xiao Family, one of the three great Families of Wangxian City.

At this moment, inside the Family’s deliberation hall, the atmosphere was as oppressive as frozen ice.

A thin, handsome black-clad youth, with dim eyes, sat quietly kneeling in the center of the hall. He was the Young Lord of the Xiao Family, Xiao Chen.

And once… he was the Xiao Family’s greatest Genius in a century.

Three years ago, at the tender age of fifteen, he had already touched the threshold of the Martial Master Realm, hailed as Wangxian City’s greatest Prodigy in a hundred years, with even the hope of potentially challenging the legendary Martial Ancestor Realm in the future.

However, unforeseen circumstances arise.

Three years ago, during an exploration of an ancient Forbidden Ground with Family Elders, he was accidentally injured by a mysterious “Nine-Colored Demonic Flower” while saving a clansman. From then on, his Meridians were completely severed, and his Dantian Qi Sea was like broken porcelain, unable to gather even a trace of Spiritual Qi.

A Genius, overnight, became Trash.

Over these three years, he had tasted the coldness of human nature. Those clansmen who once fawned over him now looked at him with only disdain and mockery. Those Elders who once saw him as the Family’s hope now avoided him, as if he were an inauspicious object.

If not for his father, the current Clan Chief of the Xiao Family, he would likely have been expelled from the Family and reduced to a street beggar.

And today, the final straw that broke the camel’s back arrived.

Seated at the head of the hall were two powerful “distinguished guests.” One was an Outer Elder of the “Cloud Mist Sect,” a top Sect in the Eastern Barren Region. The other was his fiancée, a female Genius from another major Family in the Eastern Barren Region, the Nalan Family—Nalan Yan.

“Clan Chief Xiao,” the Cloud Mist Sect Elder took a sip of tea and spoke in a condescending, unquestionable tone, “I believe you already know why Yanran and I have come today.”

Xiao Chen’s father, Xiao Zhan, the usually imposing Clan Chief of the Xiao Family, could only force out a smile uglier than a cry, and stammered, “Elder Ge, the marriage between my son and Yanran was personally arranged by me and Brother Nalan back then. How can it…?”

“Times have changed.”

Nalan Yan finally spoke.

She stood up, her beautiful and refined face filled with a coldness and arrogance unbefitting her age. She didn’t even glance at her nominal fiancé kneeling on the ground, but merely stated in a tone as if explaining a predetermined fact, coldly saying:

“Xiao Chen, three years ago, you were indeed Wangxian City’s greatest Genius. I, Nalan Yan, was convinced when the engagement was made.”

“But now, you are merely a cripple with severed Meridians. And I…”

Her voice carried a hint of barely concealed pride and self-satisfaction.

“…not only broke through to the Martial Master Realm half a year ago, but also, the day before yesterday, was fortunate enough to be noticed by an envoy from the Upper Realm, who descends to this world once every hundred years. I am about to join an Immortal Sect in the Upper Realm and venture to a broader world!”

“Between you and me, there is now… a chasm.”

She finally cast her arrogant gaze upon Xiao Chen on the ground, her eyes as if looking at a humble, insignificant ant.

“I hope you will have the self-awareness to proactively dissolve this engagement.”

Breaking off the engagement!

In front of all the Xiao Family members, publicly breaking off the engagement!

These words were like the loudest slap, harshly striking Xiao Chen’s face, and also the face of the entire Xiao Family!

Inside the hall, those Xiao Family members who had been watching the drama now showed expressions of humiliation and anger. But, in front of the “Cloud Mist Sect” and the mysterious “Upper Realm” Immortal Sect, all their anger seemed so… pale and powerless.

“Haha… Hahahahaha!”

Amidst this humiliating silence, the youth who had been kneeling silently on the ground suddenly burst into laughter!

The laughter was filled with unspeakable sorrow, unwillingness, and… towering rage!

He slowly stood up from the ground, his once dim eyes, at this moment, rekindled with two blazing flames named “unyielding”!

He did not beg, nor did he explain.

He merely struggled to walk to a nearby table, bit his fingertip, and with his own fresh blood, wrote two powerful, yet utterly resolute characters on the already prepared marriage contract, a symbol of honor and alliance—

“Divorce Letter!”

Immediately, he fiercely threw that “Divorce Letter” in front of Nalan Yan!

“Nalan Yan! Listen to me clearly!”

His voice was hoarse, yet filled with an unyielding will capable of shaking the heavens!

“Today, it is not you, Nalan Yan, breaking off the engagement with me, Xiao Chen! Rather, it is I, Xiao Chen, divorcing you, this snobbish and shameless woman!”

“Thirty years to the east of the river, thirty years to the west of the river; do not bully a young man in poverty!”

He pointed at her, his eyes burning with furious rage, as if to brand her image deeply onto his Soul!

“—This humiliation today, I, Xiao Chen, have remembered!”

“—Three years from now, I will personally ascend to your Cloud Mist Sect’s mountain gate!”

“—And personally defeat you, Nalan Yan! Repaying you a hundredfold, a thousandfold!!!”

…After leaving behind that classic “Three-Year Pact,” filled with youthful passion and unyielding defiance, Nalan Yan and the others eventually departed with the “Divorce Letter,” disdainfully, under the complex gazes of the Xiao Family members.

And Xiao Chen, after shouting those words, seemed to have exhausted all his strength. He could no longer stand, violently spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with his heart’s essence, and as his vision went dark, he was about to faint.

However, at this moment.

That hot mouthful of blood, filled with unwillingness and obsession, landed precisely on the only memento left to him by his long-deceased mother, which hung on his chest.

It was an ancient, unidentifiable pendant, carved with a lifelike Divine Dragon… a Dragon-shaped pendant.

Buzz—!

The moment it touched Xiao Chen’s heart’s blood, the ancient pendant, as if activated by some mysterious key, instantly erupted with an extremely brilliant golden divine light, as if it did not belong to this Universe!

Crack.

The pendant shattered with a sound.

A single drop… only one drop, yet it seemed to contain the life energy of a Universe, as if possessing its own life and will, presenting the purest and noblest… mysterious golden blood, slowly emerged from the broken pendant!

It seemed to be drawn by some mysterious force, transforming into a golden light, and instantly merged into Xiao Chen’s glabella!

Boom—!!!!!!!

An overwhelmingly powerful, terrifying Life Qi, filled with the aura of creation and rebirth, like a breached cosmic flood, erupted within Xiao Chen’s body!

His Meridians, which had long been severed, withered, and deemed “impossible to repair,” under the washing of this golden blood, actually… began to repair! Reconstruct! And even… evolve! in a way visible to the naked eye and completely defying medical common sense!

The path of counterattack, at this moment, officially… began!