21: To grow a leek, you have to destroy it before you can build it?

On the Long family's public dueling ground, a farce came to an end in the most thorough and cruel way.

Ye Fan, this 'grassroots miracle' who was once enveloped by countless halos, was now being dragged by two expressionless guards, like true garbage, by his limbs towards the dueling ground's main gate. Wherever he passed, he left a long, humiliating trail of blood.

Tens of thousands of Long family disciples watched the fall of this meteor with complex gazes, a mixture of awe, pity, and a hint of schadenfreude.

In the Void Realm, several clan elders who had been secretly observing slowly appeared.

Long Zhanye walked to Lin Tian's side, looked at the young man who was being dragged away, now completely crippled, and a trace of undetectable doubt flashed in his aged eyes. He stroked his beard and asked in a low voice:

"Tian'er, with your Heart-Nature, why didn't you just kill him to eliminate future troubles?"

In his opinion, for an enemy with whom a mortal enmity had been formed, and who possessed a resilient Heart-Nature and no lack of Opportunity, the safest way to deal with him was to make him completely disappear from this world.

Lin Tian heard this, turned his head, and looked at his grandfather. In his deep eyes, a light of wisdom, unbefitting his age and seemingly capable of discerning the laws of all things, flickered.

He smiled slightly and explained in a calm tone, as if stating a truth:

"Grandfather, don't you think such a person is very interesting?"

"Oh?" Long Zhanye raised an eyebrow.

"He is like the darling of this world's rules, or rather, the so-called 'Son of Destiny,'" Lin Tian spoke eloquently, like a chess player strategizing, "Look, he comes from an ordinary background but possesses extraordinary talent; he suffered a broken engagement (though he was the one rejected), yet endured humiliation; he possesses a Golden Finger and can always unleash extraordinary power in desperate situations... These are all standard protagonist templates."

"Such a person has long-lasting Luck. Killing him would certainly solve the immediate problem. But in the unseen, this Luck might very likely transfer to the next Li Fan, Zhang Fan, or Wang Fan, giving rise to new enemies, making it impossible to guard against. It's treating the symptoms, not the root cause."

Long Zhanye nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this.

The smile on Lin Tian's lips took on a hint of cunning, belonging to a hunter.

"So, rather than killing him, it's better to... keep him."

"Treat him as a 'leek,' a 'treasure-hunting rat' that can automatically find its way, specifically for us to search for various Heaven And Earth Treasure and ancient Opportunities."

"Once he relies on those new encounters we don't know about to grow 'fat' again, we will then go and uproot him and his Opportunities, harvesting them all at once."

"Repeating this cycle, wouldn't it be... better?"

This astonishing 'farming leeks' statement made even an old monster like Long Zhanye, who had lived for hundreds of years, twitch his eyes slightly, and his gaze towards his grandson was filled with admiration and a hint of... apprehension.

This Heart-Nature, this scope, this tyrannical Heart-Nature of treating enemies as 'renewable resources'... it was simply... terrifying!

...Cold rain, mixed with dirty mud, beat down on Ye Fan's already bloodless face.

He was mercilessly thrown onto the street outside the manor gate by the Long family's guards.

His Cultivation was completely lost, his Dantian shattered, and his Meridians severed.

He was now just a cripple... weaker than an ordinary person.

Those passers-by who used to fawn over him and nod obsequiously now steered clear of him, pointing and whispering, their eyes filled with disdain and mockery.

"Isn't that Ye Fan from Qingtian Martial Arts Academy? I heard he challenged the Long family's Divine Son and was beaten like a dead dog and thrown out!"

"More than that! I heard his entire Cultivation was crippled! He's a complete waste now!"

"Serves him right! He doesn't even look at what he is, a toad wanting to eat swan meat, and he dares to provoke the Long family?"

What made him even more desperate was that his former rivals, whom he had defeated, now swarmed around him like hyenas smelling blood.

"Yo, isn't this the famous Genius Ye of Jiangnan City? Why are you lying here?"

"Tsk tsk, it's truly heartbreaking to hear, tear-jerking to see! Come, let me, your brother, see if your Dantian is really shattered?"

One opponent said, then mercilessly stomped his foot heavily on Ye Fan's lower abdomen!

"Pfft—!"

Ye Fan spat out a mouthful of blood, the intense pain nearly made him faint, but he didn't even have the strength to resist.

Humiliation, trampling, punches and kicks... He dragged his broken body, like a rat crossing the street, wandering aimlessly in endless darkness and humiliation.

Finally, under a dilapidated, foul-smelling bridge, he curled up and could no longer move.

Rainwater, mixed with tears and blood, slid down his face.

He felt the empty stillness in his Dantian, the needle-like pain in his Meridians, and the undisguised malice of this world towards him... He was completely disheartened.

Perhaps... dying like this would be a release.

He slowly closed his eyes, preparing to end his ridiculous and tragic life.

However, just as his consciousness was about to sink into eternal darkness—

Buzz!

A gentle, brilliant light filled with the breath of life suddenly burst forth from an heirloom ancient jade pendant he wore close to his body, instantly enveloping his cold body!

Under the illumination of this light, his injuries began to heal at a visible speed!

"Alas..."

A sigh filled with vicissitudes, antiquity, and endless majesty slowly resounded deep within his Soul.

Ye Fan abruptly opened his eyes, looking in shock at the incredible scene before him.

He saw the ancient jade floating before his chest, emitting a soft glow. A majestic remnant soul of the human emperor phantom, a hundred times more solid and ten thousand times more powerful than the previous 'Medicine Saint,' seemingly capable of standing as tall as heaven and earth, slowly appeared before him.

"You... who are you?!" Ye Fan asked in shock.

The majestic remnant soul of the human emperor looked at him with a complex gaze filled with relief and pity, and slowly spoke, his voice seeming to transcend eons of time and space.

"I am... the Human Emperor!"

"This jade pendant on your chest is my vital Soul jade. The so-called 'Medicine Saint' before was merely a wisp of my subordinate's separated Soul, left on the outer layer of the Soul jade to screen and test inheritors."

"And you, Ye Fan..." The remnant soul of the human emperor's tone became incredibly solemn, "are precisely the Son of Destiny whom I have awaited for ten thousand years, chosen by the Gaia consciousness of this planet, and bearing great Luck!"

Son of Destiny?!

Ye Fan stood completely dumbfounded after hearing all this, his mind blank, and a surging tide of emotions rising within him!

He finally understood!

It turned out that what the Long family's Divine Son had taken was merely an 'appetizer' of his Opportunity!

His true, greatest Golden Finger had only just... come online!

"Senior!" Ye Fan trembled with excitement, the flame of hope rekindled within him, and he kowtowed heavily to the remnant soul of the human emperor!

The remnant soul of the human emperor accepted his bow calmly, then slowly said in a wise tone:

"Without destruction, there is no construction. The modern martial Dao Foundation you had, in my eyes, was nothing but crude garbage. It's perfect; it allows you to start from scratch and Cultivate the true, ancient genetic martial arts that have long been lost to the world!"

"Now, I shall bestow upon you my fundamental Legacy—"

"The Human Emperor Suppressing World Art!"

As soon as the words fell, a torrent of information, far more vast, profound, and mysterious than any Cultivation Technique before, poured into Ye Fan's mind like a celestial river overflowing!

Ye Fan felt this supreme divine Cultivation Technique that pointed directly to the Origin of martial Dao, felt the terrifying power within it, capable of suppressing heaven and earth and reversing the cosmos. His heart, which had long died, was completely revived at this moment!

He slowly stood up, facing the direction of Yan Jing, his eyes burning with a flame of revenge a hundred times more intense than ever before, and made the deepest, most venomous blood oath.

"Lin Tian!"

"You wait!"

"Everything you have bestowed upon me today, in the future, I will surely... repay you a hundredfold, a thousandfold!!!"