18: Chapter 18 Don't underestimate a young person's potential

Thirty years ago, deep within a cold, damp alleyway.

The youth Ye Wushuang was cornered against a wall by a group of thugs with vicious looks in their eyes.

The chilly wind of early autumn swept fallen leaves across the mottled brick walls; the air was thick with the sour, rotten stench of garbage.

His robes were tattered, and he was now curled up in a wretched heap, being pummeled by fists and kicks, grimacing in pain.

He had been extremely lucky earlier, having just picked up a simple, ancient-looking black ring from the muddy ground, its surface smooth and warm to the touch.

The ring glimmered with a faint, subtle luster in the dim light.

Clutching it tightly, Ye Wushuang schemed in his heart to hurry to the pawnshop and exchange it for some silver shards to buy medicine to save his ailing mother on her sickbed.

But before he could even step out of the alley, several ruffian-like hooligans blocked his path with sinister grins.

"Kid, be smart. Hand over anything valuable you've got!" the bald leader spat viciously.

Ye Wushuang's heart sank like a stone. Fear coiled around him like icy vines, but the innate, arrogant pride in his bones instantly overwhelmed that fear.

He considered himself fated for greatness, destined to achieve earth-shattering accomplishments in the future. How could he bow his head to such lowlifes?

A surge of hot blood rushed to his head. He abruptly straightened his back, and though his legs still trembled, he mustered all his strength to roar the words he believed to be filled with heroic spirit:

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—do not bully the youth for his poverty!"

Before the words had even faded, the hooligans burst into piercing, raucous laughter as if they had heard the biggest joke in the world.

"A poor bastard still has the nerve to talk tough!"

With a nasty grin, the bald leader waved his hand. "Beat him to death for me!"

A rainstorm of fists and kicks instantly descended. Ye Wushuang was slammed hard to the ground, mud and bloody foam splattering around him.

He felt as if his internal organs were about to be shattered by the blows. The agony was so intense he nearly lost consciousness. In his fading awareness, it truly felt like he was about to be beaten until he 'shat' himself.

Just as he lay on the brink of death, a sudden, bizarre change occurred!

The pitch-black ring he clutched tightly abruptly erupted with a blinding, profound light.

A majestic and ancient low roar seemed to emanate from the depths of the Nine Netherworlds. An illusory yet supremely majestic dragon-shaped phantom soared out from the ring, its immense pressure materializing and crashing down like a physical force!

Those arrogant hooligans didn't even have time to scream. Like ants crushed by a giant hammer, they instantly exploded into clouds of blood mist, their souls utterly annihilated!

Only the heavy stench of blood and deathly silence remained in the alley.

Lying paralyzed in the mud, Ye Wushuang stared, dumbstruck, seemingly even forgetting his excruciating pain.

The world-destroying power displayed by the dragon soul instantly ignited the greed and longing in his heart.

The dragon soul's enormous, vertical pupils, burning like molten gold, also regarded the boy on the ground with interest—a boy covered in wounds, whose eyes had suddenly become abnormally fanatical and greedy.

The phrase 'Do not bully the youth for his poverty' seemed to stir something in its slumbering memories. It felt that a youth who could shout such words in such a desperate situation might truly possess an extraordinary fierceness in his bones.

The dragon soul silently activated a secret art to peer into the workings of fate. To its astonishment, it actually divined that the youth before it bore the destiny of a 'child of destiny', one 'born of fortune and arriving with calamity'!

This was simply a dream come true!

Overwhelmed by immense delight, it hesitated no longer.

Immediately, the dragon soul decided to take Ye Wushuang as its disciple. It expended its own foundational power to forcibly condense a top-grade spiritual root for him and began imparting cultivation techniques.

However, reality dealt them a heavy blow.

Ye Wushuang's innate talent was far worse than imagined.

Even with a spiritual root, his cultivation speed was excruciatingly slow.

Despite consuming countless heavenly treasures and immense effort from the dragon soul, thirty years flowed by like water. Only then did Ye Wushuang barely approach the threshold of the Qi Refining Realm's completion.

Hidden within the storage ring, the dragon soul watched the youth turn into a middle-aged man, its heart growing increasingly anxious.

But fate always seemed to favor Ye Wushuang.

At that very moment, in a remote and downcast branch manor of the Ye Family, a baby girl was born amidst radiant, multicolored light.

This baby girl was born with crystal-clear, flawless innate talent, truly one in ten thousand. Even more astonishingly, her body nurtured the legendary, peerlessly offensive Supreme Sword Body!

The news spread. Though it was only a branch family, it even drew attention from the Ye main family, who sent people to investigate.

And Ye Wushuang was, 'coincidentally', assigned by the steward to serve this young lady of the branch family.

The specific duty was to clean the infant girl's feces and filth.

The arrangement was blatantly insulting. Ye Wushuang's face turned ashen with fury, his heart burning with humiliation, yet a trace of imperceptible, sinister ruthlessness flashed deep in his eyes.

The dragon soul silently observed all this. The immense temptation made it unable to hold back any longer.

It decisively acted, using a secret art to silently refine the innocent baby girl's superb foundational talent and forcibly strip her of her Supreme Sword Body, transferring everything to Ye Wushuang!

The baby girl instantly grew dim, her vitality fading, reduced to a cripple.

Meanwhile, Ye Wushuang, amidst agony and wild ecstasy, felt an unprecedented, powerful strength flooding his entire body.

His meridians were forcibly widened; his physique underwent a heaven-and-earth transformation.

From then on, it was as if he had been reborn, officially embarking on his so-called 'peerless' path.

Opportunity soon arrived.

The Ye main family was selecting personal Guards for several important scions.

Ye Wushuang, then a menial servant for the branch family, originally had no qualification to participate.

But he knew in his heart this was his only chance to leap from carp to dragon.

On the day of the selection, the Ye Family's massive training ground was packed with people. The bluestone-paved floor was polished to a mirror-like shine, and the surrounding weapon racks gleamed coldly.

Just as the final candidate was defeated and the presiding elder was about to announce the results...

Ye Wushuang violently shoved through the crowd, striding boldly into the arena. Ignoring the Guards' shouts, he lifted his head and recommended himself:

"Ye Wushuang requests a chance to fight!"

His eyes burned with arrogant fire. The forcibly obtained power made him brim with confidence.

Under the astonished and disdainful gazes of the crowd, he brazenly made his move.

Relying on strength far surpassing the ordinary and a sharp, unstoppable sword intent, he truly crushed all the other candidates like withered weeds!

When crimson spiritual power surged around his body and sharp sword energy flickered at his fingertips, the entire arena erupted in an uproar!

A top-grade fire-attribute spiritual root and what appeared to be some powerful sword body constitution were exposed for all to see!

And precisely because of this, he caught the attention of a woman on the viewing platform.

That woman sat beside the main seat, dressed in a moon-white brocade gown. Her figure was graceful, her face stunningly beautiful, like a fairy from the moon palace descended to the mortal realm.

Her skin was fairer than snow, her features like a painting. Especially striking were her clear, bright eyes, calm as still water, seeming capable of seeing through everything.

She was precisely the Ye Family's cherished pearl of the main line, the highly esteemed Ye Xishui.

She tilted her head slightly, looking at the triumphant Ye Wushuang in the arena. The corner of her lips lifted in a faint, almost imperceptible curve, her gaze carrying appraisal and a hint of interest.

She parted her lips lightly, her voice clear and cool as a spring:

"This young man... is somewhat interesting. Bring him to see me."

Thus, Ye Wushuang gained Ye Xishui's appreciation and initial favor.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last.

Ye Wushuang's inherently arrogant and conceited nature was hard to change. He repeatedly and overestimated his capabilities by provoking Chen Zilong.

Especially when he caused a scene and tried to snatch the bride at Chen Zilong and Ye Xishui's wedding banquet, openly challenging Chen Zilong, he thoroughly offended Ye Xishui to the core.

Though Ye Xishui remained outwardly cool and composed on the surface, the last trace of warmth in her eyes had completely vanished, replaced only by icy detachment.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have had someone drag Ye Wushuang away to be castrated *again*.

She would no longer offer Ye Wushuang any shelter.

Ye Wushuang secretly seethed with hatred, but there was nothing he could do.

Now, his only hope was to stand out in the upcoming Xuantian Sect entrance ceremony, become its official disciple, and preferably be taken in as a disciple by one of the Peak Masters!

As long as he could climb onto the great tree that was the Xuantian Sect and gain access to the sect's resources, there was still hope for his 'rise'!

And the dragon soul within the storage ring, seeing a faint glimmer of hope rekindle for its own return to the Immortal Realm and the reconstruction of its immortal body, could only suppress its exhaustion and once more prop up this 'child of destiny' who seemed so hard to support.